9. Training montages

After bidding farewell with Makima, Veilhem took Maki inside the Training Compound and threw her in before he followed her.

It seemed like not many people were using this facility anyway or he just came at a bad time. Anyways, he picked up a wooden sword on the stall and threw it at Maki before drawing a line with his foot.

"Alright, because this is just a friendly spar so the rule is you either give up or be unconscious. Any attacks are allowed and both sides won't use Curse Energy. If any of the two uses first is considered a loss and the sparring ends. Are you fine with this?" Veilhem explained the rules to Maki and despite still being a toddler, she understood that she was the one with advantages with these set rules.

Maki had little to no Curse Energy so the rule was heavily weight on her side. But of course, she didn't know that Veilhem hadn't learnt how to use the Curse Energy yet. The explanations Makima had gathered were too vague and provided no clear path for him to immediately use it so he set these rules to avoid the unexpected variables. 

"Come, let's us begin." Veilhem motioned his hand to taunt the girl.

He stood still with no sign of putting his stance up. That was a bit unusual by the knight but Maki decided to let it slide.

It meant that he was looking down on her. 

Maki ran up at him but as soon as she came closer, she abruptly stopped. A bead of sweat ran down her face as she retreated by leaping away a few steps. An ominous aura was leaking out just from him standing still.

All the while, the black knight stood still in his place as he waited for her. A smirk could be seen on his face if not for the helmet that covered his face completely.

"Good instinct." 

Veilhem then rested the wooden sword on his neck as he deliberately waited for Maki.

"What is that?" Maki voiced her doubt.

"Killing intent or something I don't really remember." Veilhem shrugged his shoulders in reply in which Maki looked at him with a speechless expression like 'Seriously dude?'

"Why are you agreeing to the spar?" Veilhem asked.

"Because I want to get stronger and… I also want to punch that face of yours." Maki replied shortly. 

She circled around the black knight to gauge his range. The moment she stepped in his range, a danger sense tinged as she quickly jumped backward. It created an odd scene where Veilhem was standing still while Maki kept approaching him and jumping back.

After a while, she charged into his attack range. What greeted her was a swing of his wooden sword. 

She raised her hand to block but the moment the sword swing landed on her hand, a powerful force struck at her abdomen, sending her out. The air in her lungs were forcibly pushed out making her feel pain and groggily.

If he pursued the attack then she would be in danger. But that was not the case here. 

"Then why do you have to try so hard like that? You seem like you are desperate to get stronger." Veilhem said, standing still in his place.

"Why are you so sure of me being desperate?" Asked Maki.

"Let's say it takes one to recognizing the other." He chuckled at the thought.

"Because being weak is a sin in this shitty clan." Maki answered, a seething rage was bubbling inside her heart.

She remembered the time when she found out that she could not use Curse Energy. Everyone turned their cold gaze at her and cursed at her, shunning her from this clan as if she was a damn trash that shouldn't exist, including her father, Ogi Zenin. 

But even if she wasn't some kind of prodigy with abundant Curse Energy, she must get stronger to protect her twin, Mai. That was her only wish in this hellish time here.

Maki struggled to get on her feet and gasped for air. She noticed that he hadn't gotten out of the ring he drew earlier as he stared at her, waiting patiently.

For any child, the impact behind that kick could knock one down but not for Maki. 

"Then after getting strong, what will you do?" Veilhem's ever calm voice sounded.

"I will leave this clan of course!" Replied Maki, frowning at the ideal that she had to stay any more second in this clan.

Maki didn't have much Curse Energy, even lower than a normal person. However, she was blessed with a higher overall physical aspect. If not for that then she would have lost the spar at the first class of them already.

Maki calmed down and started to make a plan in her mind.

Her focus was astounding and her sense was that of a beast. She had a talent for hand to hand combat in Veilhem's opinion.

It even made Veilhem feel a tiny bit of pressure and that was only from the 6 years old girl who hadn't fully developed yet. That comment came from the knight who had lived through the Age of Ancient at that.

Quickly enough, she threw a pebble at him, intending to make him deflect that.

Using the timing, she ran her fastest speed while lowering her stance, intending to use her small figure to an advantage.

Unfortunately, Veilhem didn't deflect the pebble at all, letting it hit his armor and struck her down with his weapon. 

Thwack-

An audible sound of her flesh colliding with the wooden sword echoed. However, she didn't even bulge upon taking up his strike and grabbed the wooden sword, yanking his sword hard. Her eyes focused on the hand that was holding the sword.

Maki's eyes widened as she didn't meet with any resistance from Veilhem. She realized he had abandoned his sword and changed his stance to hand to hand combat. His left palm placed on her face in a swift action.

"I got two hands you know?" He teased her before slamming her head down to the floor, creating a small crater. 

Veilhem startled a bit, he didn't even use that much force and the ground was already broken. 

"This shouldn't be count as child abuse right?" His low voice was tinged with panic. Looking at the scene, this shouldn't be possible unless it was because of the corrupted constructors who worked when building this place. 

Yes, it was because of those guys, not him. He didn't do anything wrong!

While he was seriously contemplating this dilemma, Maki sprung her body up and wrapped his hand between her legs, using her best to tackle him down. 

Unfortunately, the strength of the adult and a child couldn't be overcome by a little boost in physical strength.

He decided this was enough and gave this little rascal a win. 

But then he felt something. It felt as if his neck was being cut and followed by black blood trickled down, soaking the cape wet. He couldn't speak up.

Veilhem stumbled a little and Maki didn't give him the chance as she tackled him down and locked his neck up, strangling him.

Veilhem could feel his consciousness fade away as his life was taken away. The familiar sensation as if the Dark opened its arms, welcoming him to its embrace. It was dark and gentle to him, toxicating with the peace of mind.

His mind ran with countless thoughts as he died once again.

Maki on the outside noticed something was wrong and checked him but she felt a wet feeling with her arms. It was sticky and had a foul scent of rotten and decay. She panicked as she found him stopped breathing and looked around for any possible Curses that caused this phenomenon. 

However, there was none. Not even a slight fluctuation or remnant of Curse Energy was found.

But how did he die?

She gave Veilhem a perplexed look and ran outside to get help. 

Suddenly, Maki heard a metallic sound of armor colliding together, although subtle. She turned her head back to realize Veilhem had already stood up but something wasn't right.

His eyes were glowing with a golden hue as he looked at her. Veilhem took out his sword that had been strapped in his back the entire time. 

It was a dull and rugged blade that somehow spelled how old it was. From it, Maki saw a cinder? No, not just his sword, his entire body was burned with that amber and made him look like a raid boss. His authority aura was profound and tangible.

Maki felt the huge pressure being put on her and her knees bent. She tried to resist it but to no avail, the pressure intensified and the ground beneath her was cracking and became a cavity with her in the middle.

"Hey, that's too much!! Get your mind up, the spar is over!!" She shouted in desperation.

Clang– Clang– Clang–

Veilhem slowly approached her with his old sword in his hand, looking like an executor ready to cut anything in their path. He mumbled in an unrecognized tone and language but somehow… make sense?

Maki couldn't believe what just happened in front of her eyes as she was sure that when he was sparring with her, he was normal. The moment he spitted out that black blood, he changed.

Maki did her best to struggle but to no avail. The moment she saw he raised his blade, a dread sense of death seeped into the little girl's mind. Too scared, she closed her eyes as she thought about Mai, her twin sister. Her eyes started watering as she began to cry. 

'Because I am too weak.' She thought, waiting for the inevitable. 

But even after a minute, nothing happened. 

Maki opened her eyes and saw a gorgeous lady with light red hair standing in front of her. It was the same lady that accompanied him earlier.

However, her attire was soaked in blood red as she blocked Veilhem's blade with her bare hand. 

"It's time to wake up, Veilhem."

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(A/N: pretty standard chapter, let me cook the battle with mad Veilhem. Btw the story reach 15k words yay.)