"They're so competitive," Nanoha said, chuckling.

"I don't get it," Vita agreed. "I mean, you and I like to go at it hard, but it's about mastering techniques, pushing ourselves to be our best like we do for our students. Those two...they just want to beat each other."

Nanoha beamed.

"I know! It's so cute!"

The two they were talking about as well as watching spar from the training field observation booth, were Fate T. Harlaown and the Knight of the Sword, Signum. The two were friends who'd trust each other with their life in genuine battle, but they'd been rivals for all those years, always trying to outdo one another in combat.

"Twenty bucks says Signum wins."

"Confident in your leader, Vita-chan?"

"Last time Fate went for Sonic Form, Signum pinned her to the training field wall with Sturmfalken."

"Yeah, Signum-san's Bow Form is pretty powerful. But! Fate-chan said that Bardiche came up with an idea to match her, so you're on."

"Bardiche did?"

"Mmn-hm!"

"Oh, hey, looks like we're going to see it."

They'd gotten through the preliminaries, scythe versus sword, lightning against fire, zanber versus serpent-whip, and Signum had combined her sword Laevatein with its sheath to create the lethal silver bow.

"What's Fate doing?"

"I don't know; I'll zoom in on her, and get some audio."

Nanoha manipulated the controls, and they were greeted with the sight of Fate standing on air, her eyes...closed?

"Overdrive," Fate whispered. "Archery Form."

Fate's body shimmered, and in the next instant her Barrier Jacket shifted form. Her long white cape vanished, suddenly replaced with a bright red longcoat, while her hair turned silver like Reinforce's and her skin became a rich bronze.

"Huh? What's that about?" was Vita's comment, and from the way Fate was looking down at herself, she had even less idea what was going on. Nor did Signum, apparently; the wide-angle view showed her with sagging jaw and dumbfounded expression.

Bardiche, however, at least knew what it was up to.

"Riot Zanber."

It loaded a cartridge, then changed into its dual beam-sword form. The hilt rose and fell as three more cartridges were fired off, making all four humans wonder what was about to use up so much mana. In the next instant, a barrier engulfed the two combatants, shifting them to an alternate space-time and out of the audience's ability to view, leaving only Bardiche's voice echoing in their wake.

"Unlimited Blade Works."

Nanoha sighed.

"Raising Heart, have you and Bardiche been borrowing Hayate-chan's anime collection again?"

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A/N: One of Sunder the Gold's reviews for the Sword-Chucks chapter was responsible for this chapter!