Fighting in the Arena
At the front door, Nina anxiously waits for Lyra and Madam. Nina couldn't stop cracking her knuckles. Finally, two silhouettes appear just outside the front gate. As they approach the front door, Nina immediately sees Lyra who's unsteady and dripping wet. She quickly offers a towel to Lyra and helps Lyra to her room. When Nina finally helps Lyra to her room and assists her to take a bath, she hastily goes to the kitchen to warm up some soup. Madam on the other hand only went straight back to her office without a back glance at either Nina or Lyra. Nina holding a warm bowl of soup goes to Lyra's room only to find Lyra fast asleep on her bed. Seeing Lyra deeply sleeping, Nina didn't have the heart to disturb Lyra's slumber and so she silently left Lyra's room.
Nina instead heads for Madam's office still holding a bowl of hot soup. Without knocking Nina enters Madam's room. She sees Madam just sitting there looking out the window. Moonlight streams through the window illuminating the fiery vermillion hair of Madam Cherry's hair.
"You should rest now too, Cherry. Here some hot soup to warm your body." Nina puts the bowl down on Cherry's empty side desk.
"Hmm," Cherry replies absentmindedly. "What do you think would Fum do if he was here, Nina?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if Fum was the one to comfort Lyra, what do you think he would do?"
"There's no use thinking about what that foolish Fum would do! *Sigh* Really, in my opinion, there's no use thinking what that foolish man would do since making two beautiful girls cry shows that he's a useless man!" Nina retorts with an exaggerated snort.
"Pfft! Thanks, Nina."
"Your welcome." Nina smiles at Madam. Madam too smiles.
"Now what to do with Lyra. I want her to get stronger so Fum wouldn't have to worry about his beloved niece in the afterlife. Knowing him he's probably full of guilt and worried sick about Lyra. How I wish he would worry about me too in the afterlife." Madam smiles sadly while stating her last line.
"Cherry," Nina couldn't help but pat Cherry's shoulder to comfort her.
"I'm fine Nina. Anyway, let Lyra keep fighting in the arena but let Herold make Lyra compete on without weapon category. I don't want Lyra to sign a life and death contract."
"Don't worry, Cherry that was my plan from the beginning and Herold is well aware of it!"
"I see. Thanks, Nina. I'll leave Lyra's matters to you. My hands are full training those twin brats at the moment."
"Don't you worry, Cherry! I'll do my best since I've taken a liking to that little girl."
"I'm glad to hear that." Cherry smiles sincerely at Nina this time.
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The next day, Lyra wakes up pretty late. Thinking of what happened yesterday Lyra couldn't help but rush to prepare and help Nina in the kitchen. Nina laughs at Lyra's bedhead look when she enters the kitchen. Lyra blushes when Nina points out her bedhead. Nina only pats Lyra's head tells her not to worry about it. The day passes without once again without any disturbances. In the evening Nina brings Lyra to the arena to let Herold know that Lyra's fine to fight.
At the arena, Herold scrutinizes Lyra. Lyra meets Herold's gaze only to waver after a moment. Lyra couldn't help but remember her previous fight and tightly clenched her fist.
"Sorry, Nina I don't think Lyra's fit to fight at the arena yet. She isn't as stable as you like to think she is. Seems that your bias towards her is clouding your judgment right now." Herold states seriously.
"What?" Nina glares are Herold. "Explain yourself."
Herold shrugs, "Don't you see? The little girl isn't over grieving yet the way she wavered when I look at her shows that she's still hiding her grief. She didn't even have the determination to stare at my eyes that long to prove her strength. I advise letting her train first then let her come back when she's ready. I don't want to waste the arena's medic time just to attend to the little girl's injury again, you know? They ain't cheap."
"Fine. I'll take your advice right now." Nina states. Lyra presses her lips and grips the corner of her shirt tightly. She hates the idea that she can't speak for herself whenever Nina and Herold discuss things that 'she' is involved in. From that moment on Lyra gains the motivation to train hard every time she had time in order to assert her own opinions about things that directly involve her.
Every three am in the morning for a month Lyra wakes up and goes through five sets of different martial routines to get stronger. She finds herself slowly ingraining the movements to the point that some moves are done reflexively. The last set of the morning always involves her using her knife.
Finally, the time has come for Lyra to once again compete in the arena. Before Lyra and Nina set out to the arena, Madam Cherry called Lyra to her office.
"Good evening Madam." Lyra greets Madam with deep respect.
"I'll get straight to the point, before you and fight in the arena let me give you one piece of advice. 'Don't ever hesitate.'" Madam looks at Lyra in the eyes and states.
Lyra meeting Madam's gaze replies. "I won't. Thank you, Madam, for your advice."
"Good."
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At the arena, Lyra is guided to the Rank F stage. Once again the overseer gives a brief explanation of how the stage work. After that Lyra receives a notification "000092 v. 000058" in her bracelet letting her know that she's to enter the stage. This time she's prepared as she enters the stage.
As soon as Lyra hears "Ready-set-Fight!" puts her arm up and quickly moves away from her original position. It seems her opponent did the same thing. They both circle the stage. Lyra's opponent, 000058, sees that his opponent is only a young child and a short one at that, he rushes towards Lyra.
Lyra seeing her opponent rushing towards her she waits with a firm fighting stance. 000058 suddenly stops a few steps away from Lyra and kicks aiming for Lyra's head. Lyra docks and does a leg sweep making 000058 unbalance and fall.
000058 quickly breaks his fall and swiftly pushes himself back to his feet. Lyra without a moment to lose moves to go behind 000058. Lyra jumps up and uses her elbow to strike the back of his neck. Sensing the danger behind him, 000058 tries to twist his body to the side. Unfortunately, 000058 moved a moment too late. Lyra's elbow strikes his shoulder critically. *Crack* He falls to his knees.
Lyra didn't hesitate and gets ready to kick aiming for 000058 head. 000058 knowing that Lyra would take the opportunity to hit him in the head quickly drops to the ground. As if expecting 000058's move, Lyra changes her stance enabling her to change her kick into a stomp. Quickly, 000058 rolls away to dodge the savage stomp of Lyra's.
000058 hastily but shakily stands up and moves back away from Lyra when Lyra is shifting her stance to steady herself. "Sh*t, I underestimated this brat." 000058 curses as he eyes Lyra's movements.
Once again Lyra and 000058 circle around the stage while focusing on each other's movements. This time it's Lyra who rushes towards her opponent. 000058 with aching pain from his shoulder, grits his teeth and stands firm while putting up his good arm while the other uselessly dangles. 000058 observes Lyra's movements and notices that the brat seems only to be rushing towards him with her arms on her side. Thinking Lyra would do a sudden leg sweep when she gets close enough,000058 moves back a few paces and readies himself to give Lyra a powerful jab.
When Lyra is closing in, 000058 quickly launches his jab and tries to follow it with a roundhouse kick. Too bad Lyra immediately sidesteps avoiding the jab and making 000058 outbalance again. Lyra takes the opportunity again to go behind him and deliver a power stomp on the back of his knees. She then swiftly lands a downward elbow strike to 000058 head as he slumps down from the stomp.
000058 is knocked unconscious.
This time it's Lyra's win. Her first step towards the countless battles she'll go through.