About how you expect

Stephanie grabbed two familiar looking swords and handed them to Asune and her challenger. The pain swords that can't cut but feel like they do. When Stephanie gives Asune her you see her mouth something to her student but you couldn't hear it. Asune nodded and Stephanie leaves the two to face off. When they were in position Stephanie called for them to start.

You watched the guards magic flowing to their hands. Opening with blunt usage of **** made sense considering what they'd seen of Asune so far, she couldn't hold a shield, didn't have endurance, and was slow. Sadly for them none of that was true. Asune didn't move, nor did she pool magic for a defence or attack.

When the guard raised their arms to direct their attack the utter bafflement on their face and in their aura at the refusal of their arms to move was ended when Asune dashed fowards and pressed her sword against the woman throat. "Yield?" Asune asked casually. The guard tried to move their arms but there was nothing, just shoulders shifting back and forth.

"Yield." The guard said. Asune backed away and the guards arms suddenly resumed their owners control. You caught a whisper of gold thread pulling away from the guards shoulders. Somewhat unsettling to know that Asune was good enough with those thread to cut off the nervous systems control over limbs. You don't even know if you could counter that, provided she was able to get a thread inside you.

The guard returned to her ranks and knelt down. The next one took their position and the fight ended in a similar fashion but instead of her arms it was her legs that Asune took. Her fights proceed in a similar fashion, each new opponent was defeated in a different way, you assume to prevent the next one from figuring out how her attacks were landing. And trying they were. The third tried to form shields but found them pointless so the ones after didn't bother. Every guard was studying Asune as closely as they could, magic was pooled around eyes to try and catch the attack but the golden thread were so fine and the imbuing so refined that unless you know what to look for you couldn't see it.

When Asune was down to her last guard she encountered her first actual combat. Much like when Ana and Asune fought the guard formed a whirlwind around them, they might not know how it was working but they'd figured out it was a physical attack and a light one. With Asune seemingly on the back foot the guard advanced. Being experienced she should have had the advantage however that experience was what Asune used against them. In a real fight you aren't going to put yourself in the swords path unless you have a trump card. The guard saw Asune move into her swords swing and pulled back, expecting an attack. But that hesitation gave Asune a chance you hadn't thought about. She threw her sword at the guard.

There was a confused gasp from around the arena. Her sword clattered to the ground having been battered away without issue. The guard kept up the whirlwind as she attacked once more. This time far more openly. Unlike everyone else you weren't shocked by the sword throw and you'd figured out what Stephanie had told her. She was only allow to use her threads to win, the threads that she'd wrapped around the sword that had passed through the whirlwind and touched the guard.

The guard froze mid swing, unable to move. Asune calmly walked around her picked up her sword and put it on the guards shoulder. "Yield?" She asked, sounding more bored than invested or proud.

"Yield." The guard collapsed to the ground and picked herself up. Turning to face Asune she bowed. "Thank you for the match my Lady." She returned to her fellows and knelt. Asune returned to your side and you gave her a nudge of pride. She studied you for a moment then smiled back.

"Nika." Stephanie said pulling her up and giving her a sword. No words were whispered to her however.

Her first challenger stood and the fight proved both purely sword to sword. No magic was thrown around but it was clear who was going to win. Nika had no chance, the guard was at least in her thirties so had at the least a decade of experience more.

When Nika yielded she had a few red spots on her hands where she had been disarmed. The next one was the saw but with magic. Nika was beaten soundly without swords touching. As each opponent took her on you noticed something. Each guard was using the same attacks, the same forms, the same magical direction. Nika had noticed it first and that is how you'd noticed it. Each opponent she was getting better against. When the seventh stepped forward they discovered Nika capacity to learn. The opening was magic, which Nika countered, then a physical attack which Nika overcame. Watching them was a lot more like a dance than a fight.

At the end of the fight it was Nika victorious, she was panting, bruised, and exhausted but the guard was on her back with a sword against her chest yielding. The cheer that went up around the arena was by far greater than any that Asune received. When she returned to her spot she was looking deservedly proud and very glad to have somewhere to sit.

Ana's turn had a lot of people leaning in, including her sister. The guard she faced off against bowed deeply. Ana bowed back and they began. A part of you had been expecting this to be a gentle fight, an understanding that royalty can't actually be hurt by a guard. But the fight began with a fireball to Ana's face followed by a sword aimed at her stomach. Neither connected but it was clear that royalty didn't matter her.

Much like Nika, it was, sadly obvious that Ana couldn't win. The guard was just better at combat. When she won the audience was sounding very conflicted. You'd heard them enjoying them fight but cheer the defeat of a Princess wasn't going to happen.

Ana bowed first thanking the guard for the fight and congratulating them on the victory. The next guard took position. Ana had a much better time but she still lost. She lost the next one as well but on the third, like Nika, she'd gotten the rhythm. The guards had one weakness compared to her, they either couldn't or wouldn't throw around magic in the volume she was capable of using. The fourth guard that faced her got knocked out of the arena with a single blast. The second made it to sword range but that just gave Ana's magic more potent. The sixth managed to cross swords for a moment before being flattened. Ana returned to her spot without much basking in applause and you could see how pale she was. Good thing it's the weekend tomorrow because she isn't getting out of bed.

Vatarie was next and she jumped into the arena beaming at the fifteen guards who challenged her. She turned down Stephanie's offer of the sword and as her first opponent took to the arena she reinforced her fists and feet. At go she launched herself at the guard, opening with a right hook that was caught. A left hook was made without missing a beat, so fast that the guard had to use their forearm to block the punch. What might have diverted a lesser fist only presented another bone to break. The sound of a forearm snapping followed by a nose breaking made you a bit queezy. The guard staggered and dropped their sword to yield. Good thing she did because it stopped Vatarie's fist a hairs breath from her stomach.

The guard grabbed their nose and yanked it back into place, which made your queeziness worse. "You've gotten better little one." The guard said reaching over and patting Vatarie's head.

"Thanks." Vatarie said back grinning ear to ear. The others who shared her heritage all clapped and cheered for Vatarie as the next one took position. "Can't I fight more than one at a time?" The question was directed to Stephanie but it was Mary who gave a nod of accent.

Three olive skinned personal guards took to the field against Vatarie who was looking even more excited.

The fight against the three was remarkably one sided. Opening with another punch that was once again caught, Vatarie opened her fist and grabbed the arm holding her. She then jumped doing a perfect horizontal spin that dislocated the guards shoulder and used to momentum to kick one of the other guards in the head who had only just had the time to get in range. The guard that had been kick went down in a very **** way but the one with the dislocated arm and the uninjured one were still fighting.

Vatarie had to dodge out of the way of a few sword swings before she had a chance to counter. The dislocated arm bore the brunt of that and after a short exchange had her knee kicked into the wrong direction. You might want to stop watching Vatarie fight this is going to make you throw up.

The last guard still fighting saw how this was going to end at close range and tried to create distance, all that did was move their centre of gravity and give Vatarie the chance to use some long range magic. A fireball about the same size of the guard herself rolled out. Not aimed at the guard but upwards. The instinctive lean to avoid fire put the guards centre of gravity even further off. That was the end of the fight, not having feet firmly planted against Vatarie was the same as yielding. Pouncing on the guard Vatarie brought her onto the ground sitting on her chest grinning.

The three guards beaten and with eleven left you look at her challenges. All of those with olive skin were grinning and cheering. Their aura's filled with pride. The two that didn't share Vatarie's olive skin were looking nervous. You commiserated with them.