Star evaded another hit from the obsidian standing in front of her. The massive sword hit the ground of the arena, which gave her an opportunity to strike. Her blade plunged through the soldier gem in front of her, who unable to sustain her physical form and poofed. Star snatched the obsidian gem, before it hit the ground.
Another obsidian walked towards her, and Star gave the gem to her and then inserted her sword into its sheath. The pearl walked towards the center of the arena and surveyed her surroundings.
The arena was built using the crater of a used up volcano as its base. You could still see the black walls coated with remains of obsidian extraction process. There were several lines of seats aligned in a shape of a hexagon, protected by a short barrier in front of them, to protect them from anything happening in arena proper. Above the seats were several balconies where higher standing gems would watch the duels. These balconies were colored differently, to show what category of gems it was made for.
Currently there were also several stands, put inside of the circular arena, filled with different types of weapons for training purposes.
All in all, the arena could accumulate over fifty thousand spectators. And while it did follow the plan of a standard homeworld arena, it was tiny in comparison to the standard. Typical homeworld arenas, meant to entertain the masses could easily accumulate millions of gems. This arena was more akin to the ones located in exotic places for the aristocracy to enjoy.
But as population of Vulkan-5 was quite scattered around the globe, due to the planets quite unstable surface, several dozen arenas were installed over a single massive one.
Currently, Arena – 51 was assigned fully to the Shattered and their supporting personnel for training purposes. And that's why Star was here.
Originally she came here to improve her versions of several dueling styles she had learned from various sources about dueling; mostly gem centered, but with some ideas adapted from terka ritual combat. And while her master found it to a waste of time, it didn't object to her learning every style she could come across.
But now she had a task at hand. Some time ago Morganite had asked her to perform a quite unorthodox action. To teach a lapis lazuli gem to duel. Star accepted the task, mostly as a challenge, but also to test how well she could control herself.
After some time, the door to the arena opened, and a couple Sharded escorted the terrified terraformer in. They then left the arena, and were followed by other personnel.
The lapis lazuli was now standing in front of Star. The defective pearls eyes moved scanning the blue gem in front of her from head to toe. Her hair was dark blue and short. Eyes were of a similar, but slightly darker shade. Her skin light blue. She wore the usual two piece dress. And of course her gem was on her back.
In other words, a typical lapis lazuli gem, even though she was one of the highest authorities in the obsidian controlled space. But still, she looked high ranking enough…
"So you want to learn how to fight?" Star asked in a perfect monotone.
"Something like that…" The blue gem said, clearly unsure, of why she was here.
"Well then, are you ready?" The defective pearl asked, hopping for the response she anticipated.
"Right now?" Lapis moved one step back, with terror in her eyes.
Star chuckled at the sight. She enjoyed seeing the look of terror on the faces of those she despised. And while she didn't have any reasons to hate the lapis lazuli in front of her, the blue gem just looked so similar to the homeworld aristocracy the defective pearl didn't want to miss such an opportunity. And the pay off was magnificent.
"Of course not, maybe you misunderstood me. I don't want to duel you right now, at first you have to choose a suitable weapon." The pearl pointed towards the stands with weapons, and then moved towards it followed by the terraformer.
After only several minutes two thirds of the weaponry was dismissed, as the armaments were clearly too large and brutal to be wielded by a Lapis lazuli. Most of the leftover weapons were either used for boarding operations, which required smaller forms to be able to move inside terka ships, or were trophy weapons, used by Star herself for either training, or when required combat.
But even then the lapis lazuli didn't know which weapon to choose, as she had no idea how to wield one. While she was choosing Star projected several duels she herself had with terka officers, trying to find a certain style which would fit the blue gem.
After watching several special duels in particular the defective pearl got an idea. She returned the projections into her germ and asked the confused terraformer.
"What movements do you usually do when fulfilling your purpose?"
"I don't really use movements, only when forcing the water to resist gravity." The lapis lazuli shrugged.
"Another angle. What do you enjoy doing?"
"I love flying, but how will that help?"
"I think I know what weapons will fit you."
Now at least Star knew from where to begin. She spotted an interesting trend while watching the holographic projections of the duels. Terka commanders fought differently depending on what soldiers they were leading, and this gave Star an idea. She compared their dueling style to movements of their soldiers and found an interesting occurrence. It seemed that terka build up their fighting style, depending on what purpose they and their soldiers were fulfilling. Their fighting styles were based on the movements they were used to doing. The defective pearl decided to adapt this idea.
She took a couple of sabers from the weapon stand. Both were simple weapons with no decorations, only metal. Their blades were slightly curved and quite long, longer than the blade Star herself used, but were slightly thinner and lighter. Their handles had a single metal line as a safeguard for protection. The defective pearl put the blades into their sheaths and put them under her arm.
Star turned towards the blue gem.
"Change to your uniform."
The Lapis changed her dress to a military uniform which mirrored those that were worn by the quartz soldiers. Then she was handed both sheaths and with little help fixed them onto her uniform, a little higher than her hips.
"Why do I need two swords?"
"You'll see, now draw them both out."
The terraformer followed the command and drew out both weapons.
"Now what?"
"Do you remember what movements do you use when you fly?"
"Of course." The blue gem stated, still confused.
"Now try to move similarly, but instead of using your wings, use these swords. And try to hit me." The pearl exclaimed drawing her weapon from its sheath. "I will only defend."
The terraformer in front of her moved her hands several times, getting adjusted to the weapons, and then reluctantly attacked.
End notes
I changed when the duel between Star and Lapis will happen; I thought it would just look weird that a terraformer who just picked up her sabers for the first time could go toe to toe with a veteran, who trained for longer than a year. But don't worry, next chapter will have it. And let's hope I am not a complete failure for when it comes to writing combat.
Have a nice day!