Chapter 9 – Change of plan

As the Atlas games got closer the intensity of Lucina's training grew exponentially, she had Emily and Eric to thank for that. She couldn't remember the last time she hadn't woken up sore. However, she couldn't be too ungrateful due to the training with everyone, her magical abilities had soared, and her body had vastly improved in both physicality and appearance, which she thought was a nice bonus.

Lucina slumped onto one of the black benches beside the wall, almost sliding off it due to the sweat that clung to her skin. The rhythm of her heavy breathing filled her head, and she mindlessly watched her sweat drip onto the gymnasium floor.

The gymnasium was property of the military and was an enormous box. The ceiling was a solid white surface that radiated light that bounced off the smooth grey walls and black matted floor.

The bench lightly shuddered as someone took a seat next to her. She turned to see Emily Jager leaning back against the wall, similarly to Lucina, sweat drenching her body however, her breathing was a lot lighter.

"Three-minute rest and we go a few more rounds?" Emily suggested.

"Yeah sounds good" Lucina panted, but if she was being honest that was the last thing she wanted.

"Do you want to up it to five?" Emily grinned.

"Nah three is good" she lied through a wheeze. In truth she wanted at least thirty. Emily got up from the bench she went and stood next to Arhtur who was observing Eric spar with Ike, the sparks of their blades flying through the air as gold and black metal clashed. They both had really cool swords that Lucina was extremely jealous of, her sword was by no means boring but theirs both seemed strangely unique. Eric spent a lot of his time in the gymnasium with Ike as he was one of the only people here that could match him, as if it came to pure swordsman ship not even Emily stood a chance never mind Lucina. However, if the princess came to train, when she wasn't in any private sessions at the palace, she'd always spar with Ike, and it'd would also make for some fun battles to watch. Lucina could efficiently use a sword however, her brother had trained her in a way to optimize her magic and long-chained whip.

Eric and Ike's clash wasn't the only battle in the gymnasium across the room where a group of people, that she only really knew as Emily's friends, were sparring against each other. Normally Emily would be with them however, ever since the group battle team got decided she started trying to train a lot more with them to help improve their team synergy and understanding of each other's abilities.

Turning her attention back to the sword fight she examined as Ike quickly stepped into Eric and attempted to disarm him however, using his superior size, Eric was able overpower his attempt swatting away his sword and flipping Ike of his leg, at a such a speed that Lucina almost missed it. Ike crashed in the matted floor and looked up to meet a black blade hovering by his neck. Ike raised his hands in surrender he was defeated but, not without a smile. Eric sheathed his sword on his back and pulled Ike to his feet, who instantly hunched over trying to recover the air that Eric knocked out of him. Guessing her rest time was about to be up, Lucina left the safety of the bench and made her way over to the others.

"Your swordsmanship is getting even better. You were even overwhelming me then near the end however, you start to crumble when you get into close quarters against someone who knows their way around marital arts" Eric informed him "Understandably you've put hand to hand type combat on the back burner while you've been improving your specialty but it's starting to hold you back now. I'd recommend getting help from Emily and Arthur and try reinforcing your weak areas before the Atlas games". Ike responded with a nod as he straightened his posture, she assumed he was too exhausted to muster a response. Fighting Eric was never fun, well unless you are someone like Lewis.

"Take a breather first though" Eric advised "Arthur you good to start?".

"Yeah I'm ready" Arthur confirmed. They wandered further down the gymnasium to space themselves from everyone.

Emily turned to Lucina "Ready and remember no magic today?".

"Yeah" Lucina replied as confidently as she could. They both slipped into their stances, Emily's very reminiscent of a boxers stance while Lucina's was more universal. From observing Emily's stance you'd think she was wide open to takedowns and lower body attacks, but Lucina knew how wrong that was, any visible weakness on her stance was an illusion. Lucina crept towards her opponent and assessing what Emily was about to do but she just remained in her stance. 'I'm exhausted … what's she doing? What should I do? Am I overthinking this? … Probably ... Fuck it'.

With a burst a speed Lucina dashed forward and threw a straight right, her waist carrying her momentum forward. However, Emily remained annoyingly calm like always and slipped under the strike closing the distance between them in an instant. Emily's fist cut through the air as she threw a left hook towards Lucina's liver but, Lucina had learned from her past mistakes and quickly twisted her body to absorb the blow. However, she wasn't prepared for what came next, her head was pulled forward and a swift knee struck her abdomen. Her head dropped forward straight into an elbow. Disorientated and winded, Lucina collapsed to the floor.

"Ow" she muttered as she let her head rest on the floor. After a few moments, the room stopped spinning and she picked herself up off the floor.

"Good block on my hook" Emily stated, a strange look in her eyes almost as if she was proud.

"Thanks. I just wasn't ready for what came after".

"Not many people are" Emily informed her with a friendly smile "You ready or do you want a little break?".

"Nah I'm ready". They got back into their stances and sparred once again. Lucina lost, then she lost again and again and again and eventually lost count. Each time she tried different tactics, different techniques. She tried to learn from her mistakes and improve in the next fight but like always Emily seemed to know how to counter everything she threw at her. She preferred when they fought with magic like in previous sessions, at least then she felt as if she had a chance when they clashed, without magic she didn't stand a chance she was younger, smaller, weaker and no were near as skilled. Lucina sat up from the floor she'd just been kicked to, a huge sweat patch where her back had just been. She looked up at Emily who looked as ready to fight as she had when they started today. She was in a different league, like Eric and her brother. 'I wonder who'd win if they fought'.

Suddenly their attention was brought to across the gym. It felt as if the air was trembling as Arthur and Eric traded blows at such rapid speeds their strikes just looked like blurs. Even though they were only sparring, Eric had to flood his body with mana in order to keep up with Arthur. There would be no point in not utilising magic around Arthur as his raw strength was leaps and bounds above what most mages can accomplish with augmentation. Lucina infused her senses, just in time to see their fight come to an end. She watched as Arthurs fist struck Eric's guard. The sheer force of the blow sending Eric sliding back. Arthur instantly pounced after him and, once he was closed the distance, he spun on the ball of foot and his opposite leg flew through the air. Eric quickly bounced back outside the kicks range and instantly dashed back in. Arthur launched a rapid right straight in attempt to block his opponents advance however, Eric dodged the strike and grabbed his arm by the elbow. It was fast and minuscule, but Lucina could've sworn she saw light blue sparks emit from where Eric was touching Arthur. Suddenly Arthur's arm seemingly went limp and couldn't prevent Eric from throwing him over his shoulder and slamming him into the black floor. Arthur slowly sat up holding the arm Eric touched, wiggling his fingers, and contracting the arm, whatever Eric had done seemed to have worn off as soon as it came.

"You asshole" Arthur grumbled as he got to his feet.

Eric grinned "What? Are you telling me I can't do anything? I blocked your punch and still got pushed back around three metres. I'm just evening the odds".

"Didn't have to go for the joint".

"You left it open" Eric countered. Arthur let out another grumble as they began walking back over to Lucina and Emily.

"You lot wanting to take a break and go eat?" Eric asked.

"I will" Lucina agreed happily.

"You all go ahead. I'm going to go see how they're getting on" Emily stated gesturing to her friends across the room. They walked over Ike who was standing by the gymnasium's double door entrance, when they suddenly burst open and a blonde girl in a long white coat appeared.

"Kate?" Lucina asked confused.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with General Zeit?" Eric questioned, looking as baffled as everyone else.

"I need a word" Kate told him, she then scanned over them all "In private".

Eric looked back at Lucina, Ike, and Arthur. His expression suddenly had turned serious "Go wait outside the building and get some fresh air we won't be long". The three of them did as they were told and left through the doors however, after they closed Lucina came to a stop. She grabbed the other two and pulled them around a corner.

"Arthur listen to them and tell me what they're saying" she told him.

"Why?" he questioned, still seemingly confused on why he'd been wrenched around the corner.

"I want to know what they're saying. This morning Lewis had that expression on his face when he's a little annoyed with them. You know the one?"

"I do" Arthur admitted.

"They're definitely talking about the reason he's like that".

She could see the intrigue leak into his expression "Fine" he agreed. Like his abnormal strength Arthur had extremely powerful senses which included what you could class as 'super hearing' along with others like 'super smell and super sight'.

"This is stupid" Ike interjected leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Then just go wait outside" Lucina suggested.

"I said it was stupid, didn't say I didn't want to know. I'm just saying Eric will be pissed if he finds out we're listening" said Ike as he loomed over her to get a look around the corner "Also I don't want to stand on my own".

"He won't find out" she said confidently.

"We need to go" Arthur interrupted them.

"hmm, why what?"

"They're coming"

"Oh".

They quickly rushed off through grey corridors until they passed through the main reception and made it outside of the facility and into the cold air of Elysi. Without wasting a second they made a final sprint down the pathway and hid behind the white brick wall that surrounded the building.

"So what did they say?" Lucina asked Arthur.

"Erm something about 'he's moving earlier than expected that he's making an appearance tonight' and then something about having to speed up their plan" Arthur informed them.

"Who's he?" Ike asked.

"They never said, or I didn't catch it if they did" Arthur shrugged and then suddenly his head snapped toward the entrance of the building "They're coming".

Eric and Kate emerged from two glass doors that slid apart and made their way down the pathway towards them.

Suddenly Ike grabbed Lucina's arm "You know something" he paused "What are you planning?" he questioned while staring into her soul before letting go of her.

"What do you mean?" Lucina tried her best to act confused, it clearly wasn't very believable from their expressions.

"You're doing that thing you always do when you're scheming" Ike stated, "you've been doing it since we were kids".

"What thing?"

"You go deathly silent and have this weird look in your eyes" Arthur explained gesturing to her eyes.

"Shut up".

"Well whatever it is you're planning. Don't" Ike said bluntly.

"Why?".

"Because it'll be stupid, dangerous, and will one-hundred percent end up becoming a huge pain in our ass's" Ike stated before walking out from behind the wall to meet Eric and Kate. Arthur stared at her for a moment then a smile appeared on his face "You know he's right". He then followed off in Erics direction. With a frustrated grumble Lucina trailed behind them.

"Alright I'll leave you to it" Kate told them.

"Are you not coming to get some food?" Eric asked.

"Nah I've got to get back to HQ and finish some work … and also get before General Zeit realises I'm gone" she explained before darting off towards the Crown's Intelligence HQ.

"Alright then" Eric said while turning back towards them "What do we want to eat?".