Chapter 6-162: Playing with Fire (2/2)

He chuckled wryly. “Are you going to humiliate me?” he asked with a grin.

“No, I’ll make you look pretty good, actually.”

“Uh, you didn’t bring a real Weapon,” he noted, leaning back to not stare at her butt, and the dagger above it.

“Morphing Weapon. That’s a full arming Sword.”

“Oh. Oh!” He blinked in shock. “Wow, a swordswoman! Don’t see too many of you around. I feel I should know who you are...” His face scrunched as he stared at her thoughtfully.

“You probably don’t catch the Green Bay arena fights, being between Detroit and Chicago, as it were.”

“Uh, no.” And his face said he felt sorry he’d missed it. “Nom de guerre?”

“The Golden Hag.”

He actually stopped walking for a second. “Oh shit!” he squeaked.

“Caught that Chicago tourney, did you?” She smiled slightly. “You’re not to tell anyone I’m up here. I don’t want people stopping in to ogle me while I’m working.”

“Of course n-” he started to respond automatically.

“On your Swords.”

He met her very serious green eyes, and swallowed. He lifted up both Swords, crossed them, and solemnly swore that he would never tell anyone that the Golden Hag was working up here in Wakefield.

She nodded when he was done. Violating the Oath would basically destroy his dantian and years of hard work, and he knew it. He’d keep his mouth shut.

“So, here’s what I would like to do...”

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“Phoenix Kick!”

Edward shot up into the air too quickly, snapping a kick off at her head, the foot trailing the same flame that was around his hands. Sama blocked it easily, stepping aside as he came down, and slapped away the two handstrikes that followed the kick, ignoring the flames coming off of them as they caressed her skin, but everyone knew that she should have been burned.

The students had already learned the fire was very real, as it had eaten Minerva’s first hour homework right in front of them, giving her an awesome excuse for the watching teacher. “The Fire Dancer burned my homework!” was just too good to not use.

“Phoenix Peck, Raise the Tail!”

He dashed in for a head butt, slamming his head forward, and she retreated to avoid it, while he went right into a handstand, his feet coming over with frankly startling agility for his build, and the one-two under-kicks just slid by her chin before he rotated, spun to sweep her feet in a bright showy circle of flames, and she hopped over them with minimal effort.

Fire Dancing was an aggressive form, and didn’t have too much use for defense, being of the mind that an opponent burned and bleeding on the ground was the best defense there was. It hurt them when going up against competent people, but the Way of Fire was really good at dealing with opponents who thought they were fast or agile, and Edward was pushing his skill at it to the maximum, trying to land a solid hit on her.

He hadn’t managed to yet, which was mortifying to him. The couple of punches he’d landed had just bounced, like she was made of iron or something, and she didn’t get burned in the slightest.

She went through all his basic moves, acting as both attacker and defender for them, while the students watched in rapture at how quick everything was being executed. Sama then broke the move down in slow motion, how to identify it, how to defend it by block or evasion, and how to immediately counter it in response.

Edward was getting instructed, too, and everyone could see it when he went stumbling back every now and then in the face of their Senpai’s absolute poise. He started calling out “Again!” to repeat the same moves, just to see what she had done, and when she broke it down in slow motion, he was watching as raptly as anyone.

“Defend! Phoenix Kick!” Her jump explicitly wasn’t as fast as his, as if subservient to physics that his was not, nor did she fall back to the ground so quickly. Her kick, however, was long and elegant, and if she hadn’t been aiming for his ear instead of his nose, he wouldn’t have knocked it away in time. Likewise, when she came down and whirled in to deliver the left and right follow-up wingblows, the force of the first smashed his block aside, and the second one ripped across his shirt, leaving three gashes in it.

“Whoa!” was the general consensus, and Edward looked down in astonishment. If she’d been aiming for meat, he’d be leaking blood right now...

“As you can see, the technique works fine without the flames obfuscating where the attack is truly coming from and going to. You just have to be really fast and strong,” Sama announced crisply. Stepping back, she pointed to the first row of young spectators. “I’m going to borrow you five for a demonstration. Master Edward, you’ll be showing off your Hotfoot.”

He smiled despite himself. He wasn’t good at the Fire Dragon, but he had practiced the lightfoot a lot, and could keep up with anyone his Level at it.

“Milty, you stand here. Harris, here. Kasper, here. Niorn, here. Jason, here. Thomas! Let’s see your lightfoot, you’re racing Master Edward.” She pointed at the other end of the gym.

Thomas Costivogn fairly ran down the stairs, eager to participate. He lined up at the far end next to the Flame Dancer, who was standing in front of the five students lined up in a row facing him.

“Master Edward will be zigzagging between each of the students, you just sprint for the end. The first one to hit my hand wins!” Sama called out from the opposite end of the court, mainly used for volleyball and dodgeball games.” Thomas blinked, wondering how he could possibly lose. “On your marks... get set... go!”