"Come on! Give me at least fifty!" I yell at Lily. We are camping for the night and she's doing her third sets of pushups.
"Rrrrrrraaaaaaagh!" Lily manages to finish the last set and collapses on the floor panting.
"All right. Now it's time for some squats."
"Are you serious!?" She struggles getting up. "Can't I take a break?"
"Nope. You wanted to become stronger, so I'm making you train your body to strike harder. I wouldn't recommend doing this to a human and it would take weeks. But since you're a monster, I'm sure you can handle it and cut the training in matter of days. Plenty of time before reaching the Manono Realm." I look up at the clear night sky. "After that, we work on your technique. It doesn't matter how fast and strong you are. If I can anticipate your attacks, then all this work would've been in vain. Now let's go! Get to squatting!" She groans and does her exercise. Now it's time for her training.
I approach Crime Dancer, who is eating a bowl of fruit, veggies and grains. All the necessary things to keep her healthy. I whistle to get her attention. She looks at me. Excellent. I tap my foot at the ground. She is confused at first, but gets the message and charges at me. She lowers her head and I jump on the saddle.
"Good girl! You're a fast learner." I pat her head and give an apple.
"Where's my reward?" Lily whines.
"You'll get it when you start showing results like Crime Dancer."
"Crime Dancer?"
"It's her name. Got a problem?"
"Yeah. It's a shit name." That wasn't Lily's voice. I pull out Ol' Reliable and aim at where it came from.
I don't need the encyclopedia to know that it's a Salamander. Her red scales are shining brightly by the fire at the tip of her tail. She is wearing a black armor and has a massive great sword on her back that is impractical for anyone else. Her amber eyes are scanning us as she casually sits at our camp.
"Fergie." Lily says as she takes a battle stance.
"Long time no see, Lilian. I see you've been finding yourself a husband." She takes a good look at me. "You seem familiar. Have we met before?"
"Doubt it. I remember every monster I fight." I answer, keeping my guard up.
"Now I remember! You were with that redhead in our crusade to destroy the books."
"What!? You fought Adonai?"
"Yeah. After I knocked you out, he proposed to duel me in exchange for your life. Such a strong man. Had me actually breaking sweat! I respect that in my enemies. Such a shame he didn't join us. He would've been a valuable man to our cause. But alas, you know what happened." She shrugs. My blood is boiling with how casual she's being for killing my friend!
"Do not treat him as some sort of sport! He had a family waiting and you monsters took him away!"
"And? Everybody has someone important in their lives, including me. But I know what I signed up for, when any moment could be my last in the battlefield. Isn't that why you're here? Or are you truly so driven by personal grudge, that you're willing to throw away your life for someone else who no longer lives?" I grip my bow tightly. "Pathetic. A warrior with no self-motivation is weak."
"Oh I'm self-motivated, all right. I'm going to fucking kill you and the Demon Lord once and for all!" I let my anger get the better of me, but goddammit she's pissing me off! She sighs and looks at Lily.
"You left the Queen for this man? I am truly disappointed." She gets up and unsheathes her sword. "I will make this fair and face both of you."
Jojo DiU - Sudden Battle
I get off Crime Dancer and throw a makeshift smoke bomb. Using it as a cover, I quickly climb the nearest tree and hold my position. Fergie uses the force of the blade to dissipate the smoke.
"Using cowardly tactics. Don't think I don't know where you're hiding!" She dashes towards the tree I'm hiding and slices the trunk like a hot knife on butter! Shit! I have to jump! I do so and while in the air I shoot an arrow at her. The arrow bounces off her scales! I land but twist my ankle in the process.
"Argh!" Fuck! I can barely get up. I look behind to see she's already bringing the sword down at me! In a blink of an eye, Lily catches the blade with her hands. She swiftly disarms her and punches her face with a strong force that anybody else would've sent flying, but Fergie stands her ground. She wipes the blood off her mouth and smirks.
"It seems your training has been paying off, Frostfaith." She removes her armor, revealing the scars on her naked body. "I thought it was going to be boring, but I'm getting fired up!" Her entire tail burst in flames.
Their fist fight ensues at a rapid pace that I can barely follow. However, it's clear that Lily is getting exhausted and barely lands any hit, while Fergie is easily punching and clawing her. I have to do something. She can't win alone. I grab another arrow and aim. Dammit! She's moving too fast for me to hit her exposed body.
Come on! I believe in your archery skills.
Adonai?
Everything has a pattern no matter how fast they move. Just observe its movements and you'll find the mark.
I see. I'm unconsciously remembering the time I was hunting deers with him. He would purposely spook them to supposedly improve my skills on a moving target. This is no different. I will hit my mark.
Taking deep breaths, I analyze Fergie's movements. She is very forceful and direct. Her focus is only on Lily, meaning she's underestimating me and thinks I'm not a threat. I notice a couple openings. I take the shot and hit her abdomen.
"Urgh!" She flinches. This gives Lily the opportunity to pummel her.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" She shouts annoyingly, before punching her abdomen. Sinking the arrow deeper and sending her crashing against a tree. I shoot again to hit her throat, but she catches it!
"HeheHAHAHAHA!" Fergie laughs as she weakly stands. "Very impressive. You both work well together, like me and Duhamel." She picks up her armor and weapon. "I guess you're not as bad as I thought, human. What's your name?"
"It's Raziel."
"Raziel. I'll remember that. Meet Me Halfway." She teleports away.
I can finally catch my breath. Lily falls to the ground, clearly drained from the fight. I limp my way towards her and kneel. Yup. She's all bruised up but thankfully nothing too serious.
"Lucky for you, I have supplies to treat your wounds." I pull out ointment and bandages from my bag and get to work.
"Hey Raz, why aren't you questioning me about how she knows me?"
"Cause I was suspecting that you dated the Demon Lord. You're not the only one who uses the someone else story. The fight only confirmed it."
"Shouldn't you be cautious? What if I'm doing all this to turn you over to Pendragon?" I lock eyes with her.
"Let see. I'm not a Chosen, I don't have a royalty background, I'm not secretly a monster or am anything special to the world. And if you were scouting out anybody with the knowledge of the encyclopedia, you would've killed me on the spot. That's why I'm not worried." She scoffs.
"You got it all figured, huh? But you're wrong about one thing."
"And that is?"
"You are special. You have people that care about your cold ass." She smiles.
"For once, I guess you are right." I smile. "Can you get up?"
"Yeah." I help her stand.
"You know what? I think you deserve a reward for your training."
"Oh~?"
"I will finally share my essence with you." She claps with joy, like a child finally getting a piece of candy. But then she turned serious.
"As much as I want to, I will follow your lessons through the end. We're close to our destination and I need to discipline myself for the upcoming battle."
"Now this is a surprise. Earlier you wanted to jump at my dick at a moment's notice."
"That will be for when we achieve our goal. Right now, I want to focus on my technique. Fighting Fergie got me pumped up to improve!"
"Is that right? We got the whole night, so I hope you have enough energy." I give her pointers on her stance and how to combo her attacks without leaving any openings.
I look up once again at the clear night sky. The stars are shining brightly. Whatever the future holds, we will see it through the end.
