CHAPTER EIGHT

"Defeat your opponents and then move on, defeat can be counted by knock out or by surrender. We will be watching each and every single one of you so give it your all and prove that you deserve to be soldaten".

Those words from the headmaster of Sutera Academy kept playing over and over in Saya's head as she ran past a talisman which immediately turned red the moment she passed.

"Shit". She cursed seeing the talisman from the corner of her eye.

Drawing her sword, she barely blocked a dagger shaped shuriken then stopped to take her stance.

"Okay Saya, you can do this". She closed her eyes.

More shurikens flew out of different locations slicing through the air each headed for Saya.

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"Why?, why won't it work? Aaargh!". Saya cried for umpteenth time. She had been training with Nero for the past nine days familiarizing herself with her newfound strengthened body, however she ran into a wall pretty early. She couldn't sense mana hence she couldn't use it.

Nero had tried everything including transferring mana into Saya so she could get a feel for it but nothing came of it.

Saya could already be considered strong enough but without mana she would eventually fall short.

"Maybe we're looking at things from a different perspective". Saya said with a look of realization.

"Hmmn? How so?" Nero asked.

"Well do you think there's a chance i wasn't born with the knack for it?" Saya said.

"That's impossible, everyone is born with a certain amount of mana within them. It's basically like our life force, our source of power." Nero said again more adamant in her tone.

"But that's only true 'here', i wasn't born here." Saya said not backing down. 'I'm from earth after all and i don't think earthlings are supposed to have mana at all, just think of all the wars that could go wrong.' she shuddered.

"You might have a point there, we don't much about the plains yet". Nero finally agreed with her.

' phew',"yeah the plains, that's what i meant". Saya sighed in relief.

"Alright go ahead." Nero said.

" Huh? Go ahead and do what" Saya said, a hint of confusion in her voice.

"Well, since you don't have mana you have to have something, some kind of energy."

"Yeah but i don't know how to use said energy."

"You know what, forget everything we've been going over concerning mana. Just do what comes naturally, find a feeling, a connection if you will". Nero continued.

"You think that'll work ". Alice asked.

"Dunno but I'm getting bored of teaching a single thing over and over again so I'm ready for anything to work,so we're just gonna hope we get lucky". Nero whined.

"You lazy bum". Alice deadpanned.

Saya took a deep breath as she once again stared at her sword, trying to find anything different.

"What comes naturally." Saya took another deep breath,her eyes gleaming green.

She stared ahead at the target (a massive boulder) as she took her stance [her feet wide apart with her left knee bent sideways,her left hand behind holding the sheath of her sword and her right hand on the handle of the sword.]

"MOONSLAYER LIGHTLESS SABER" Saya said slowly as she drew her sword out.

°Aaaaaaaaaargh ° Saya yelled.

And the world turned green.

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"Hmmm, guess I'm lucky after all".Saya smirked while closing her eyes.

With slight movements she began dodging the shurikens.

She drew her sword and slowly inched backwards. Instantly she turned and sliced through another dagger shaped shuriken.

"You should come out already, this is getting annoying." She said turning around slowly completely alert to her surroundings,there was no answer,no movement.

"Fine then, lightless saber." Saya whispered.

"Lightless stream!!!" She yelled as she fired multiple slashes at a wall just ahead of her as she turned.

BOOOOOOOOMMMM

A long explosion went off as the area was immediately covered in smoke.

Saya narrowed her eyes as the smoke cleared.

"You're not bad". A voice called as a figure stepped out of the smoke.

"Wish i could say the same for you". Saya took her stance.

"My name is Lin, what's yours?" The figure asked now clear for Saya to see.

She wore a gray fitted long sleeved top with a black sleeveless leather jacket and black leather pants.

."It's Saya, what's it to you?" Saya asked.

"Oh come on, just because we're in a competition doesn't mean we can't be friends." Lin said.

"Funny enough, Alice said the exact opposite." Saya said clutching her sword tightly.

"And you look like you're just my type too". Lin groaned. "Well if that's how you see it." She reached behind her back and brought out a kyoketsu-shoge knife [A long chain with a handle on end and an extremely sharp knife on the other end].

"I can play along." She grinned."