The Rekku Army's training arena had always contained this odd, musty smell to it, despite the grunts inside only ever being Reploid. The lighting had always been obnoxiously dim too, with some dark green ambiance light seeping through the tiny windows. It almost seemed to be an odd nest, placed inside a tree trunk, leaving Sage Harpuia to personally hate the setup with a passion. He could never bother to place a petition against the arrangements, however, unless nothing of value was happening to Neo Arcadia. Today, something of value was planned, so whining about his training arena was the least of concerns on his mind.

"Today I have asked Fairy Leviathan to join us in our training." Harpuia announced to his understudies. At the mention of her name, Leviathan had stepped out onto the training room floor. "She will be facing me in one-on-one combat; your duty is to take note of any tactical advantages any one of us could display toward our opponent. Remember these advantages when we spar as a group later, and look for openings in your opponent while avoiding their attacks."

Harpuia then gave his attention to Leviathan, who had already taken her stance on the training ground. He got into his ready stance before taking a casual look to his men.

"Aztec Falcon," the griffin then ordered, "Referee this match. We'll begin on your mark."

"It would be an honor, sir." Aztec Falcon agreed with a small bow. The Reploid gave the Guardians a bit more time to adjust and plan their strategies before declaring, "Fight!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Leviathan and Harpuia began a fight to the finish. Usually, when the Four Guardians fought one-on-one, there would have been playful banter and traditional sibling bickering; but there was an audience today, and Harpuia did not intend on looking bad in front of his men. Despite them both being rather formidable combatants in this state, Leviathan was the first to yield. Not that he was going to brag about it anytime soon, but he knew that she would have given up first due to her need to be in the water. He also wasn't going to admit that, if he hadn't had this tactical advantage over her, she likely would have won that match.

"Are you alright?" Harpuia offered as he helped her back up.

"I just need some water." the siren told him, holding back a rasp. "But already knew that; didn't you?"

The griffin didn't affirm this directly, instead he summoned an Aqua Man unit to rehydrate the siren. As water reentered her systems, Leviathan forgot who was in the room and let out a contented sigh- she used Harpuia as a method of stabilizing herself while the sweet refreshment nearly made her lose her balance.

"Of course we would see a girl get wet when a real warrior wins a challenge!" one of Harpuia's understudies spoke up with an amused snort.

Immediately, Leviathan's head snapped up to give a rather horrifying glare at the understudies. "Who said that?!" she demanded. "Who?!"

"Siren..." Harpuia quickly tried to reason in her ear, "You're still recovering from..."

"Shut it!" Leviathan immediately snapped at him. "One of your men talked out of term, Sage Harpuia, and I want to know who it was!"

There was a small shuffled among Harpuia's men. It didn't take long before one of them spoke up, making himself known to the room;

"It was I, my sweet."

In seeing who it was, Harpuia let out a small groan. "Herculious Anchus..." he then said- either as an introduction or as part of his dismay. Leviathan greeted Herculious with a dark glare, calling away the Aqua Man unit with an absent wave of her hand.

"Herculious Anchus." Leviathan carefully repeated, letting the name roll of her tongue as if she were trying to remember it. "You've been with Harpuia's men for… three years now? Is that correct?"

"Of course." Herculious agreed with a boastful pump of his chest. "I was one of the best among the original candidates Sage Harpuia set aside from Sector 7. One of the most powerful, strongest, honorable, most experienced warrior in the sector- if I do say so myself."

"That's not how I remember it going..." Herculious's brother, Kuwagust Anchus, grumbled under his breath just loud enough for the two Guardians to hear. Harpuia had to agree to this, distinctly remembering three female candidates from Sector 7; one of which almost took the spot Herculious laid claim to now. He didn't need to tell Leviathan this, as she had already knew Herculious wasn't telling the whole truth.

"Are you saying that women can be good fighters because they are… dishonorable? Weak? Inexperienced?" questioned the siren with a tilt of her head.

"Well, Fairy Leviathan," Herculious started, saying the siren's name is such a way that it send an unnerved crawl down her back, "Although I am sure that you are a… capable fighter, due to be created from Master X himself, you must also understand that trying to be seductive in battle is highly distracting. It is an unfair advantage that you ladies have, and you employ it no matter who you are seeing."

Leviathan recoiled at the implied suggestion, finding it highly disgusting. "You think I was trying to seduce my own brother?" she questioned in displeasure.

"Not directly, I'm sure, my lady. But it is so hard to do as the commander requests us when you make it quite apparent that you don't care about fighting, and instead make due with your female charms to win the battle. The commander had you in a tight spot, it's no wonder you yielded first- women like yourself can't beat the endurance we warriors have. Nor do we rely on dirty tactics, such as flaunting our shapely forms in front of learning apprentices..."

"Oh…?" Leviathan entertained. The tone in her voice gave Harpuia the feeling that she knew that she would have won that fight, had it not been for her hydration module. Meanwhile, some of the understudies could agree that Leviathan might have been trying to 'flaunt' her female body, but they wouldn't have said it made her any less of a fighter. Being the only female of the Four Guardians, it was part of who she was and how she learned to fight: a weapon is a weapon, no matter what it is or how you use it. A good handful of the understudies would have agreed that, whatever her tactics had been, Harpuia was the one that had been caught in a tight spot during the spar.

"Go back to clean up your little ocean, my darling mermaid." Herculious then went on (making Harpuia seriously wish that the dumb Reploid would just shut up already.), "Us men can spar just well without your dainty water dances distracting us from a perfect training session!"

At this, Herculious let out a rather hearty chuckle as if he had told the best joke in the world. No one but him laughed at his statement. Instead, Leviathan simply looked at him; judging, slowly measuring him up and deciding on what direction to take. If no one had thought the situation was going to be dealt with seriously, one look at Harpuia's face would have made them understand that something ugly was about to go down. He knew his sister was getting ready to strike. He knew that whatever punishment she gave him was going to be well deserved too. As much as the griffin was fearing for his sister's better judgment, he wasn't about to stop her from delivering a rather powerful lesson on assuming outdated gender roles on your superiors either.

With Herculious still chuckling at himself, Leviathan started to move toward him- purposely sashaying her hips as she walked over. Coming to understand his sister's attack method, Harpuia instinctively took a step back- the understudies that had been studying his movements since the ordeal started did the same. They had no idea what to expect from Leviathan, but they all agreed that Herculious's punishment was going to be ugly in one form or another.

Leviathan moved quite close to Herculious- he nearly jumped when she realized she was barely a hair away from him. Behind her, Leviathan summoned her javelin and calmly withdrew it with a rather innocent bat of her eyelashes.

"Ara ara..." Leviathan sweetly crooned to Herculious, just barely grazing her javelin against his blades, "You think you're so smart because you're made of hot air?"

Herculious gave a smug affirmation, to which Leviathan then smiled at. But her smile then hardened into a darker look. Her grip tightened on her javelin before making a hard swing at his legs- a wave of ice forming from the javelin's tip, creating a powerful whip that all but crippled Herculious on the spot by being in point-blank range. Herculious went down in indescribable pain as Leviathan looked over him without any emotion.

"Never underestimate your opponent." Harpuia then informed the other understudies, knowing full well that Leviathan had offered a fair learning moment. "Leviathan could have killed you, Herculious. Consider yourself lucky that you're still functioning."

"Functioning?!" Herculious squeaked from the floor. Leviathan looked down at the Reploid with disgust.

"If you are one of Neo Arcadia's best," the siren then declared, "Then we are all doomed."

She then gave him a rather sharp kick in the ribs (an act that made everyone in the room flinch), demanding at Herculious in doing so, "Get up."

Whimpering now, just slightly, the Reploid did as he was told. With him standing up, Leviathan was able to cast a rather ugly glare at him. Herculious refused to look at her.

"For every strong man, there's an even stronger woman that let him win." Leviathan told him, but held a tone loud enough for the entire training room to hear. "Male egos; they're just so... fragile, you know? Just look at you; you had the opportunity to strike and yet you not only let a girl nearly cripple you, but also humiliate you in front of your pathetic little friends. Now I'm sure you feel ashamed, embarrassed, you might even think that this whole ordeal isn't fair. But will you learn from this? Will you understand that an enemy is an enemy, no matter their gender or background? Only time will tell I'm afraid, and you better find out pretty fucking fast."

Making her statement known, Leviathan started to walk out of the training room knowing that her time with them was over. Before leaving proper, she walked over to Harpuia and gave him a rather heated scowl.

"Teach your army some manners, Harpuia." Leviathan hissed at her brother darkly. "You should consider yourself lucky that we were blessed with Master X's patience."

Immediately, Harpuia's expression softened and he gave a bow.

"Yes ma'am." he promised. "I assure you that this will never happen again."

"For the sake of Master X, I sure hope not." she spat before flashing Herculious and Harpuia's other understudies a dark look before making her leave. They all flinched at her gaze (Herculious in particular nearly ready to run off), an act that satisfied the siren tremendously.

Harpuia let out a disheartened sigh as he watched his sister fume off. He'd have to make this up to her somehow in the future, but for now he still had grunts to train.

"Everyone, get your sparring partner- we'll begin our one-on-ones now." the griffin then commanded. "Except for you, Herculious. I'd like to take you on personally."