Chapter 7: The Battles Begin

The following day Dilandau paced back and forth in the training room waiting for her. What the fuck is taking her so long? He wondered, eyes full of rage. There was a knock at the door and in walked his second in command, Gatti. "What do you want?" Dilandau growled and ceased his pacing.

"Lord Folken gave me a message to deliver to you." He calmly opened the rolled up letter and began to read it aloud. "You will no longer have to train the new recruit. I have given her a new trainer." Dilandau said nothing and dismissed Gatti, who bowed his head slightly before leaving.

In a way, he felt relieved but also angered. Relieved that he didn't have to train her but angered that he wasted his time on nothing. Then it hit him, who's training her? I'm the only one allowed to train new recruits. Dilandau stormed out of the room and into the gym. His blood red eyes scanned the room carefully. They narrowed as they caught sight of her and her new trainer, which was one of his own Dragonslayers.

He got a lower class soldier to train her! He stormed out of the gym and headed to see Folken in his study. He bust into the study and yelled out Folken's name.

"What do you want Dilandau?" Folken asked calmly.

"Why the fuck is one of my Dragonslayers training her!" Dilandau barked at him.

"Miguel is a talented soldier and I felt that by having you train Setsuna was causing you to fall behind with your own training." Folken replied still calm. "Are you upset about the arrangement?" He asked with a slight smile. Dilandau glared at Folken. "I do recall you weren't fond of the idea of training a woman when the assignment was first handed to you."

"No, I am not! I'm actually happy with it." He replied, trying to regain his composure. He walked out of the room with is head held high, looking so full of pride. I am happy right? If I'm happy about it why do I feel angry still? Dilandau wondered as he headed back to his room.

When he entered his bedroom, he walked over to the small table in the centre of the room and kicked it over full of rage. He then grabbed a bottle of wine off his desk and hurled it at the wall. The bottle smashed upon impact, red wine dripped down the wall to the floor and mixed in with the shards of glass. He let out a sigh of relief and slumped down into black leather chair.

As the weeks went by, Setsuna finally began training in a guymelef. It didn't take her long to get use to the feel of using one. All of the training became second nature to her. She hadn't spoken to Dilandau since he hit her and she didn't plan on ever speaking to him again.

After her second month of training, she was taken into her first battle. Setsuna was hesitant on fighting but as soon as she was attacked, something overcame her. A lust for battle and war controlled her mind. She had become a war-fighting machine. She got a trill out of killing, which after the battles seemed odd to her.

Ever since her mother passed away she had become quiet and shy. She hated seeing others hurt and even when her own father would beat her, she would never fight back and here she was killing almost an entire army on her own. She tired not to think about it for it only confused her more.

At dinner in the mess hall that night, all of the other Dragonslayers paid much attention to her. They were amazed at her fighting capabilities. Some envied her of course. They had been training to fight since they were only young boys. But here was this girl, from another world no less, who showed elegance and great control as she fought in battle.

As Dilandau walked past the mess hall, he saw how his Dragonslayers were admiring her, fucking bitch, was all he could think of her as now. He saw how she flirted with all of the other slayers. It disgusted him. Dilandau found himself feeling jealous of them, which stuck him as odd. What was there to be jealous of? He removed his glare from them and continued of his way.

Less than a week later, they were back on the battlefield. Setsuna got the same feeling and thrill as she did before. She would first feel fearful then she would have a lust for killing. She smiled and grinned from ear to ear as she sliced the enemy guymelefs with such ease. Nothing could stand in her way.

By the end of the battle, she would completely forget what she had done. She would forget all the men she mercilessly killed on the field. She would remember going into battle and fighting, but she wouldn't remember annihilating her enemy.

As time went on she fought in more and more battles and wars against, from what she was told, invading countries. She had now been on Gaea for about three months and she was adjusting well to the life of a soldier from what Folken had noticed. He kept a close eye on her, whether she knew or not. The emperor had given strict instructions for him to report on her progress daily.

Setsuna practiced alone in the training gym late one night. Everyone else had retired to their rooms for the night. For some reason Setsuna couldn't sleep. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she would be going into battle or not the next day. She tried to shrug off the uneasy feeling.

The next morning Setsuna woke bright and early. She first had a quick shower then got dressed and headed down to the mess hall for breakfast. As soon as she was finished, she headed to the guymelef docking bay and did a personal inspection of her guymelef. It wasn't that she didn't trust the Vione's mechanics; she just found that if she did her own inspection, she'd have nothing to worry about while in battle.

She waited patiently for the rest of the Dragonslayers to show up and be given orders. Today they would be fighting against an Asturian army.

When the battle had begun, Setsuna sliced her way trough numerous guymelefs. One by one, they opposing guymelefs fell at her hands. As she fought effortlessly, she came across a strange looking guymelef. It didn't look like the other Asturian guymelefs she had beaten before. It was all white and had two large green jewels on its shoulders.

Intrigued, she flew towards it and began to battle. Hmmmm…. he's good, she thought as their battle raged on. From a distance, they both looked equally skilled. He was able to block her every move. This was actually becoming a bit of a challenge.

Setsuna quickly noticed it was getting crowed around her and her opponent. She prepared to go into flight mode and gestured for him to follow. The pilot accepted the invitation and changed his guymelef into a dragon.

The transformation shocked her. She had never seen a guymelef change into a dragon but this transformation reminded her of a story Miguel had told her about once. He had said that the King of Fanelia was the pilot of a guymelef that could change into a dragon. He had also said that the king was Zaibach's greatest enemy.

They landed not too far away from the others and instantly began to fight. Their fight got more and more intense the longer they battled. Setsuna was never really fond of guymelef battles; she preferred mortal sword combat. It allowed for greater freedom of movement and didn't tire the body as quickly. She quickly sensed that the pilot of the other guymelef didn't enjoy battling. She could feel him holding back slightly.

Setsuna stepped back and spoke to him over the radio. "How about we settle this the old fashioned way. A traditional sword fight not using a guymelef."

The other pilot was taken back a little. The other pilot was a woman. Hesitantly he agreed and both stepped out of their guymelefs.