Chapter Sixteen[XVI]: Training, That's the Plan (VII)

Xenos Waters winces as Felix slams into the ground harshly courtesy of Mr. Balanius' fist for the twentieth time. He can almost see Felix's soul leave his body as he groans in pain, leaning heavily on his forearms as he attempts to get up, only to fall right back down with a grunt. Mr. Balanius flips Felix onto his back with his foot, the only sign of the "sparring" that occurred are the strands of hair slightly out of place.

"Can you get up?" Mr. Balanius asks plainly, looking amused.

"No," Felix wheezes, "not in a million years."

Mr. Balanius clicks his tongue. "Yet you still have enough life in you to exaggerate." Felix noticeably pales. "However, I think I'll take pity on you just this once. Go sit on the bench, I'll get something to ease your pain."

Felix grins tiredly, clearly excited to stop getting beat down every second. Mr. Balanius rolls his eyes and walks into the cabin, the sound of quiet rummaging coming from inside. Xenos stands up. "'Watch and learn,' you said?"

"I get it, I get it, I embarrassed the shit out of myself. Please, help me." Felix looks at Xenos pleadingly.

Xenos laughs quietly but goes over to help Felix anyway. He places his feet firmly on the ground beside Felix's thighs and offers his hands out, Felix grabs them and they clasp each other's wrists, allowing for Xenos to pull Felix into a sitting position rather easily. Xenos can't help but think it slightly funny that their positions are now reversed from this morning.

He moves to Felix's right side, crouching down to let Felix drape his arm over Xenos' shoulders. Xenos grabs onto Felix's waist and together, they stand up. Felix trying not to put too much weight onto Xenos despite his obvious exhaustion. They walk over to the bench and sit down, Felix letting out a sigh of relief as he leans against the wall of the cabin.

Igneel, who, at some point, had curled up in Xenos' hair, slithers to Felix, wrapping himself around Felix's neck like a scarf, while Faeryn hops onto the bench and places her head onto Felix's lap, her mane of leaves rustling. Felix smiles, the smile so gentle and soft that Xenos can practically feel the adoration radiating from it. "Thanks, guys," he says quietly, before turning to look at Xenos, "and thank you too, Xenos."

Xenos can feel his face heat up at the thanks. No one has ever thanked him with such sincerity before, it catches him completely off-guard so it takes him a cool minute to respond. Just as he's about to do just that, he stops, noticing that Felix has fallen asleep. Xenos can only smile at the sight, standing up silently before making his way into the ring, glances at all the scuff marks in the ground.

It's. . . odd. Perhaps he can only notice it because his eyesight is better, but there are very slight indentations on the ground beside the deeper ones from Felix. He moves so he stands right where Felix did, turning around in a full circle to see the full extent of the indentations. They make a very particular pattern, definitely caused by the curved sweeping movements of feet.

"A flower?" Xenos mutters, looking at the "petals" surrounding the centre which he stood on.

"So you noticed." Xenos' attention is drawn away from the flower-like indentation on the ground and towards the person who caused it, Mr. Balanius. He stands with a small glass vial of shimmering pale green liquid in his left hand and a pleased smile on his face.

Xenos looks back to the "flower". "What is it?"

Mr. Balanius places the vial onto the empty bench and walks over. "This," he points at the "petals", "is the first form of my primary fighting style, Black Rose." Interestingly enough, the pattern of the "petals" do slightly resemble a rose from above. "You can probably guess why it's called that."

Xenos nods. While most of the "petal" is hardly visible due to the lightness of the indentation, there are spots where "petals" meet other "petals" that have a deep indent. That's probably where Mr. Balanius stopped to put his foot down when fighting Felix. Xenos can mostly grasp what this style is about: circling around your opponent quickly and keeping them in the same spot, the centre of the "flower".

Despite knowing how Mr. Balanius' fighting style works, Xenos has a hunch that he won't fare any better than Felix. In fact, he might even be worse, considering his lack of actual fighting experience that did not include trying to copy the movements of ninjas from movies when he was younger. Xenos glances at his left arm, the gently shimmering armour covering the black scales underneath. Well, he might just have a chance if he used the cutting power of his scales.

. . . Nah, he has no shot of even landing a single hit.

Resigning himself to his fate, Xenos asks Mr. Balanius, "Should I keep the armour on or remove it?"

Mr. Balanius shrugs. "Well, either way, I'll do more damage to myself than you, so you can decide."

Xenos flexes his left hand, thinking. Just as Mr. Balanius says, he has a high defence on his left side no matter what he does, however, if he removes the armour, he'll also have a high offence. At that point, Mr. Balanius will have to avoid attacking his left side completely unless he wants his hand ripped to shreds.

He undoes the straps of his armour as he walks over to the empty bench, placing the pieces onto the bench before taking off his mask and putting it neatly on the top of the pile. Xenos will need all the advantages he can get if he doesn't want to get beat into the ground within a few seconds, there's no reason for him to even think about what he'll do.

To be honest, Xenos is very anxious, he can feel the scales on body lift slightly in response to it. He has never been good at fighting, if anything, Xenos actively avoids any type of confrontation, be it verbal or physical. He doesn't like hurting others, and he most certainly doesn't enjoy being hurt.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Xenos takes a moment to collect himself, taking deep breaths as he attempts to relax his muscles. It works to some extent, but what really helps him calm himself is the gentle encouragement Inari sends him through the bond. After a minute or so, Xenos opens his eyes, steeling his resolve. It won't do him any good here to be his usual soft self.

Finally, he moves into the ring.