91 CHAPTER 91(Instinct VS Training)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

---Moments after Yang left the courtyard with Finn...

As Welf, Tione, and Thalie began moving items around to redistribute the supplies in the crates, Thalie kept glancing at the training adventurers.

Moving the ore and other materials was a boring task in itself, nothing of interest was in the boxes, and more importantly nothing dangerous to her team, but the people practicing across the yard had her envy.

She hadn't gotten to test out her spear yet, fighting monsters wasn't her exact skill set, but she was still good at it, good at all kinds of fighting. She was itching to get a good fight in and considering how good the spear was and how well they handled the dungeon last time, she doubted she'd get any real challenge for at least the first day of traveling through the floors. She was conditioned to enjoy combat, and conditioned well.

"Hey there!" the ever-peppy Tiona greets from beside her. The assassin assumed that the amazon was walking toward Tione, but now she was chest to face with Tiona.

"Uh, hi... can I help you?" Thalie wasn't sure what the amazon wanted, best to be cautious.

"That's the billion Valis spear right?" the younger girl asks, pointing at the spear diagonally across Thalie's back.

"Yeah, Supreme Gold Dragon Spear; Liberty, why do you ask?"

"Huh, weird, Gold?"

"Yes Gold..."

"Doesn't look like much, can it cast magic?" Tiona asks, leaning in a bit as Thalie draws the weapon and holds it between them.

"It's not a magic sword like that, it's meant for my combat style, up close and precise combat. No wasted movements and no flashy tricks..." Thalie explains.

"Can I try it?" The amazon asks with some apprehension, Thalie was admittedly a bit scary looking with her black armor atop the already 6ft 2 inches she stood at.

"I don't see why not," The woman said, surprisingly to Tiona she easily handed the weapon over, of course, Tiona didn't know it wouldn't be able to do much in her hands.

"Hmm, this is a billion Valis, you sure?" she closely inspects the weapon, her eyes narrowing as she passing a finger along the seemingly dull blade.

"The one and only, well, aside from Welf's sword, why?"

"Seems kinda boring doesn't it, just a black spear, it's so dull too that it might as well be a black stick... was kinda expecting, I dunno, more?" she says with a bit of disappointment.

"It's just not meant for you, and simple only works for me, what do you use?"

"Ooh, THAT!" she points excitedly as a massive dual-bladed weapon with ornate gold accents, "my Urga," she puffs out her chest proudly, flat as it might be.

"Uh-huh... that seems like a bit much, no offense." Thalie shrugs.

"Whaddya mean?"

"It's just, that design is more flashy than useful, right, you probably make it work but just, why not use two greatswords if you're strong enough to spin that thing?"

"Hey! My Urga is perfect for me, dunno why everyone seems to think it's dumb. I like it and that's what matters," she pouts.

"Agreed, can't say I'd ever use something like that myself, might be good against monsters but up here it seems pretty useless, you've gotta be strong to use it, stronger than most at least..." Thalie says as she analyzes the weapon.

"Well, yeah, but it works fine against people too," she pouts at Thalie.

"Uh-huh, well maybe I'll get to see you deal with people some time," she responds as Welf and Tione walk over to the pair.

"Why not now, you can show me what the spear does and I can show off Urga!" A dazzling smile is plastered across Tiona's face as she almost bounces in place with excitement.

"Dunno, someone, meaning ME, might get hurt. You are level 5 remember..."

"C'mon, we can just have Riveria heal us up if anything happens!" Tiona pleads.

"Tiona! You know Riveria will be mad if you do that," Tione reminds her sister.

"I'm kinda curious to see Urga in action honestly," Welf shrugs.

"Shouldn't you be against your friend fighting a level 5?!" Tione yells at him.

"I made our gear so we could keep up with our resident prodigy, if it can't help against one level five then I failed," his tone was serious, eyes locked onto Liberty in Thalie's grasp.

"Alright, give me everything you've got amazon!" Thalie challenges Tiona, the younger girl throws her arms in the air while running over to get her Urga.

"This is a bad idea, I don't wanna get chewed out for this," Tione moans.

"If anything happens we'll tell our superiors this was all Tiona and myself, and that you so adamantly tried to stop us, you have my word," Thalie nods while walking to the middle of the training field.

"This is a bad idea..." Tione mutters as she watches both women take their fighting stances in the middle of the training field, all the other adventures putting aside their own training to watch the fight.

"Honestly, been kinda wanting to see this myself, this is what Thalie is all about," Welf admits.

"Huh?"

"Yang is all about fighting monsters, I'm the smith that makes and maintains our stuff, but on the surface, she's more or less the boss when we have to deal with people, she has finesse where Yang would just push everyone aside, and she's had all the training for fighting people that we can't compete with.." he explains, giving her a little more insight than her familia had into their team.

"So that's her role, we thought she had some kind of special magic or something, but all she does is deal with human conflicts for you guys..."

"Magic really isn't her thing, that's why the spear works so well for her..."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it," he says with a knowing grin.

As everyone gathered around to watch the fight, at this point Finn, Riveria, Gareth, and Yang quietly walked up to Welf and Tione to get a rundown of what's going on.

Loki sat on her balcony watching the best entertainment she's had all day.

The surrounding crowd was a mix of intrigued and confused faces. Nothing surprising for Thalie.

Challenging someone a level higher than herself to an all-out fight essentially was insane. But she likes to test herself, and she felt confident that this girl wouldn't be anything new to her.

Adventurers had bad habits ingrained in them that she easily exploits without fail. Adventurers aren't soldiers like Welf or warriors like herself. No, they were monster hunters like Yang. Spend that much time in a hell hole where creatures keep taking swipes at you and your body becomes lax against humans, your reflexes and training will be there but little bad habits always form, bad habits Thalie always stamps out at the first sign of them, this is what separates a warrior who enters the dungeon from an adventurer.

At a glance, she looked at Urga when Tiona first pointed at it. A flashy, but crude and idiotic weapon, at least when fighting people. Blades that could easily be a broadsword each acting as ends of a staff. The downward force on one end becomes an upward force on the other.

In the hands of an amazon and with adamantite taking the blows that weapon could probably cleave through her in one go. But monsters didn't think. Monsters would only try to go blow for blow with such a weapon, they'd never have a proper plan with any semblance of training.

Tiona stood with her right foot forward, Urga held out toward Thalie as if it were a regular sword, the back end of the weapon almost touching the ground because of how far the reach was. The rising force of that end of the weapon was what her plan depended on.

"HERE I COME! HYAAAAA!" The amazon yells out her battle cry as she twirls the blade above her head.

Thalie lifts her spear in front of her, raised upward slightly.

The angle of her spear incites a challenge to the amazon, most adventurers with greatswords would strike down with one horizontal slash to end the fight, the shorter woman has to jump to get the most force possible she'd wager. An exploitable habit. She sees the raised spear and accepts the challenge, predictable.

Urga vs Liberty, that's what everyone expected, Tiona leaps into the air, and Thalie didn't move. Her not evading the attack was complete suicide to anyone that knew what Tiona could do, to anyone that knew their levels.

'Is she trying to overpower her, can her spear really do that, is she that physically strong?'

Everyone had the same thought process, even her teammates didn't know what she was thinking.

As Urga came down onto the point of liberty, Tiona in mid-air having no leverage to properly readjust herself, Thalie twists her spear, the flat of her blade causes Urga to go wide.

Tiona swung down with all the might she could muster, her right hand holding Urga high like a greatsword. Thalie did the toughest parry of her life at this moment, sliding Urga just beyond her left shoulder, taking her other arm, and using both just to alter the angle of the weapon in the level 5 grip.

With the parry and change of angle, Urga's blade decided the battle. But not the striking blade, the rear blade.

When the angle changed the rear blade moved from outside Tiona's body inward, moving upward between her arm and torso.

"AHHH!" Tiona yells out as the surprising pain hits her, the pain of her own attack.

She instinctively stops the motion with her absurd strength.

The dirt training field shatters and a cloud of dust is raised.

When the dust clears, Thalie is standing few feet to the left of Tiona, her spear held to her side as she calmly waits for her next chance to counter.

To everyone's surprise, however, Tiona was the one bleeding. The rear blade of Urga had severed the tendons and almost removed her right arm. The weapon held tight in her level five grip as her right arm hangs limply at her side, had it not been for her Crush skill, she wouldn't have been able to stop her own attack with such minimal damage.

"You done?" Thalie asks, breaking the silence of the battlefield. The wide eyes of the crowd shift from Tiona's wound to the spearwoman now. But the taunt had the desired effect, she knows amazons fight with their emotions on their sleeve after all.

"NO WAY!" Tiona yells out, using her high strength and tossing Urga a foot to her left.

Her left-hand catches the weapon easily as she does a horizontal slash directly toward Thalie.

'Too emotional kid' Thalie mentally cheers as she leaps above the slash.

Her body completely above Urga and horizontal, she spins in the air before driving the now black and gold spear into Tiona's forearm, anchoring her arm and the spear into the ground as she swings on the new foothold she made in the form of a pole.

*CRACK*

She kicks Tiona in the face with all the might of her swing.

"MMMMM!"

The amazon grumbles as she raises her foot, landing a hard kick into Thalie's side, ragdolling her woman across the training field with her level five strength.

"Ouch..." Thalie groans as she rises to her feet, shaking her head a bit before she looks toward Tiona.

The girl in question rises to her feet, jumping a few feet into the air she pulls her hand up and over the spear as it's still stuck in the ground, a visible hole in her forearm now bleeding profusely.

"Damn, you're pretty scary," Thalie smiles at Tiona, a little impressed by the determination.

In a mad dash, both women rush toward each other. Tiona wielding Urga in her newly injured left hand as Thalie runs bare-handed.

Thalie knows she can't actually get any outright advantage in this fight. When faced with a stronger or skilled enemy you have to be reactive and counter appropriately. Luckily for her, Tiona wasn't one for many strategies, she was a charging bull with a massive horn named Urga. That's why Thalie focuses more on keeping her steps light, sacrificing speed for dexterity.

As Tiona performs a diagonal swing, moving her blade upward toward Thalie's left shoulder. To everyone's surprise, not because they didn't understand, but because it seemed like such an odd move to make.

Thalie dodged toward Tiona instead of away. She moved toward Urga, but not to the blade, she set herself right where Tiona's hand was on the handle between both the blades, a safe zone that nobody had the balls to exploit when faced with the powerful young woman.

The look of shock on everyone's face didn't have a chance to stop as Thalie reached for the injured forearm of Tiona, sinking her fingers within the injury as she wraps her body around Tiona's arm in an armbar.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

Tiona slams the woman clinging onto her arm into the dirt over and over, small splatters of blood are left in the wake of every slam, some from Thalie, some from the adamantite dagger she was sinking into Tiona's hand as it fights to hold onto Urga.

"ARGH!" Thalie cries out as Tiona kicks her in the side, her injuries were starting to stack up. Fighting a level five is a serious challenge.

As her dagger finally sinks deep enough into Tiona's hand, her grip on Urga slips. Seizing the chance Thalie pries the weapon out of her hands and kicks her in the face, springboarding with the kick away from the amazon.

"Shit..." Thalie groans as she rolls to a stop and rises to her feet, the amazon already barreling toward her with a manic smile.

"YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD!" Tiona yells out as she rushes the woman.

Holding Urga, Thalie doesn't hesitate to throw the oversized weapon directly at Tiona, confident the woman will catch it.

Stopping in her tracks, Tiona sidesteps the weapon and wraps her fingers around the handle mid-spin, gritting her teeth at the searing pain in her left arm as she stops the blade from pulling her.

By the time she looked back at Thalie, the woman had already received her bloody spear, gold lines shone all over the weapon as the entire spearhead shone in the same color.

"Gold..." Tiona mutters.

"Now you get it, told ya, it's just not meant for you," Thalie shrugs as she raises her spear.

Taking the offensive this time, Thalie raises her spear to throw it.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Tiona raises Urga to bat the projectile away.

As Thalie eyes the girl, she pours more and more of her mana into the spear and her magic. Strengthening the weapon and the limb throwing it as best she can while keeping her eyes locked on Tiona.

"I should warn you, this is a big hit..." Thalie beings speaking, trying to stall to build more magic.

"HA! I can take it, I'm an executive of Orario's strongest familia, of the strongest team, you can't scare me." Tiona takes the bait.

"Did you at least see what's wrong with Urga?"

"Yeah, but it's still my baby!"

"To each their own... maybe you'll figure it out someday..." Thalie says.

With one tremendous amount of force; comparable to a level five considering Thalie's strength was almost maxed out for a level four and she was boosting this throw. The spear destroyed the sound barrier as it's hurled towards Tiona's left shoulder, trying to disable her one good arm.

Not a slouch in the stats department, Tiona reacts accordingly to the attack. Her eyes tracking the spear as a gold blur, Urga's blade swinging to block it with the flat of her weapon.

This entire exchange happened in an instant, there was a BOOM, then a CRACK, then everyone heard an "AHHH!" as Tiona got ragdolled across the courtyard and through the far wall.

With a BOOM, Liberty pierced the sound barrier.

With a CRACK, in the same instance, one of Urga's blades was destroyed, along with Thalie's entire left shoulder and arm.

As the dust settled, the blood pours down Thalie's armored arm. Tiona rises up, neither arm in any condition to be used as Liberty is still stuck in her left shoulder, both hands hang limply at her side as she shuffles through the broken wall and back into the fight.

Seeing this, Thalie immediately draws one of her adamantite daggers, ready to continue the fight.

As Tiona walks forward, she barely makes it 40ft to Thalie before her pace slows, her eyes become sleepy, taking blunt attacks was one thing, she could go for much much longer if Thalie was hammering away at her.

But Thalie was a professional, she always strived for efficiency. All her attacks cut major veins, she intentionally made Tiona bleed more and more with every hit.

As Tiona's pace slowed, Thalie put her dagger away as the amazon slowly dropped to her knees, Liberty still in her shoulder, her spirit was willing but her body was bled out.

Tiona drops facedown in the dirt, her first real defeat in a long time, to a level four no less.

An instinctual fighter VS someone who was bred and trained since birth, the outcome would have been obvious if not for the level difference.

END CHAPTER---

If you depend on Falna to just outstat people instead of using your brain then a small lead won't guarantee you win, so Tiona fanboys don't start bitching. Thalie is at the peak of level 4 currently while Tiona is a relatively new level 5.

I tend to be a bit more in-depth with Thalie's fights because she thinks through every move as I hopefully showed off in this chapter.