Real Combat

In building D, Alice stood and looked at the time on her watch that she had kept on a table, "Kira should arrive."

As if to prove her right, Kira walked into the hall.

Alice turned to Noah, "So why did you want to wait for Kira?"

They had done their regular training then, moved on to sparing with a training dagger. Normally, when Kira arrived, Kira would teach Alice. Then Kira would practice against Noah. However, Noah had said that he had something new today for which he needed to wait for Kira to arrive.

"I'll show you," Noah went to get his bag placed at the side and pulled out a thin black case. He then brought it to the table, opening it. Two military daggers were placed inside. Their metallic blade was sharp at one edge and jagged at the other. Both were identical and had a black body with a silver outlining the blade.

Alice seeing them could already tell that she didn't want to hear what Noah was about to say next.

"We're done using practice daggers, it's time to move onto the real thing." Noah pulled out both daggers spinning them in his hands and stabbed them into the table on both sides of the case.

"Kira will supervise our fight and act if things get dangerous."

Alice pulled out the dagger Noah had stabbed into the table on the right side near her and looked at the blade. Its edge was thinner than anything she had seen, it would easily be able to cut through human skin. "Are we really doing this?"

Both her and Noah weren't wearing any type of protective equipment at the moment. So to fight with real daggers was too much.

Noah picked the other one and walked back onto the mat. "We are, you need to start gaining real combat experience."

Alice walked onto the mat and stood on the other side holding the dagger, as she got into position she suddenly felt the weight of the blade. She was used to holding it against monsters, not against humans. Especially not against someone she loved like Noah. Her body froze, it felt like a mountain of pressure had fallen onto her.

She knew how lethal this blade could be, if she messed up a little she could severely injure or even kill Noah. Her body shivered at the thought. Making her only more anxious than she was.

"Is this necessary? I'm just going to be fighting monsters." Alice said breaking her stance.

Noah responded coldly, "Don't let your feelings control how you fight. Who you are fighting shouldn't affect you, in a fight if they try to kill you, you have to make sure to kill them to survive. Stop overthinking and come at me"

Kira sat back on the table to not get in their way. She watched the two stand against each other as she took a sip from her water bottle. She wondered what Noah was doing bringing weapons to school and now doing such dangerous training. Things could get really bad really quickly. She still trusted Noah so she didn't say anything and watched.

Alice and Noah faced off. The two stood holding the dagger in their right hands with their other hands out. Their knees bent ready to attack.

Her body refused to move, this situation was too much for her. She stood watching Noah.

Noah seeing that Alice wasn't moving he said, "If you won't move then I will." He stepped forward and his right hand swished past her at an incredible speed, then he pulled it back.

Alice felt a line on her cheek burning as if it was bleeding. She touched the spot and didn't see any blood on her hand. It was like Noah had scratched off a layer of skin off of her face. He was serious about this.

She got ready again.

Noah stabbed again this time lower and to the right. Alice blocked it with her knife but before she could do anything else Noah grabbed her knife-wielding hand and twisted it back, bringing his knife to her neck almost pressing it in. He then released her and moved to position. "You're too stiff, relax and let the dagger do its work."

In position, he mocked, "Don't be afraid to stab at me because there's no way you will actually be able to hit me."

Alice coughed as she glared at Noah, 'was he actually trying to kill me, f###.' Her neck hurt like hell as she felt the dagger dig into her skin. If Noah had pushed a bit more she would be bleeding right now.

She held the dagger tightly as she got a little serious. She would try attacking.

"Now I'll get serious, if you hesitate like before I might end up killing you by mistake."

'You weren't serious before?' Alice thought.

Noah activated Cold Mind. He was going to get really close this time so couldn't make any mistakes. All the training he had done allowed him to now use it for 3 to 4 minutes on earth. It was a momentous change from the 5 seconds he could use it before the Eternal Battlefield. He then revealed his killing intent.

Alice noticed the change in Noah, if before he was kind of scary now he was terrifying. The look in his eyes was colder than arctic winds in a tundra. The killing intent he released overflowed from his body chilling her. His entire being was unfeeling as if he didn't recognise her as his lover. He was just going to kill an enemy.

Even Kira at the side was surprised, this type of aura is wasn't any different than an experienced murderer, his frigid eyes were even too much for her, this wasn't an act he was truly trying to kill Alice. 'No way will he actually kill her... right?' She took out her phone and got ready to stop the fight in case things got serious.

Noah moved, his dagger stabbed. Alice blocked the first attack. But the second was too fast and she could only deflect it. It went past her dagger then slid across her neck. She felt another burning sensation on her neck. The only reason she was sure she wasn't bleeding was the fact she was still able to think.

Noah followed with another stab immediately, she had used the dagger for so long in the Eternal Battlefield and with the training she had done here, she could manage to take these hits. She got into a rhythm and blocked all his attacks. She then switched to attacking her onslaught easily getting blocked.

She switched to a reverse grip then slashed up at Noah's dagger to disarm him. Noah seeing this changed his grip as well and countered in kind.

His strength was a lot higher than Alice, easily taking the dagger out, even pushing Alice back onto the ground. His killing intent spiked as he spun the dagger in his hand and threw it at Alice.

"You'll kill her!" Kira shouted, his dagger would cut her neck, but she couldn't react in time.

Alice on the ground turned pale as Noah's aura turned ferocious, it took only a moment for him to throw it at her, but as if death was approaching she felt her life flash before her eyes. She was going to die by Noah's hands. She wanted to move her arms up to protect herself but she was too slow.

The dagger swished past her and landed touching the side of her neck.

Alice laid on the ground with her arms raised to protect herself frozen in fear. Even Dungeon Lords weren't as scary as Noah was at this moment. It was like facing death itself.

The aura Noah released was pulled in as he deactivated Cold Mind. He then bent down and gave his hand to Alice to help her up, picking up his dagger as well.

Alice took his hand and sat up. Still afraid, she then saw the wry smile on his face and felt her eyes wet as tears started to come out.

Seeing that Alice started crying Noah panicked, he didn't think it would scare her so much. Now he felt awful for doing this. He sat on the ground and pulled her into his arms, putting the dagger away, he rubbed her back.

"Did I scare you?"

Alice nodded.

"No, don't cry, there's no way I would ever hurt you! It was all an act to get you a feel for a situation. Although your dagger is real mine is fake, look." Noah brought his dagger for Alice to see. He slashed at his hand multiple times then showed it to Alice, other than a red mark it was perfectly fine.

"Look it's blunt I couldn't cut you even if I wanted to. My dagger is coated with a chemical that stimulates pain on the skin and makes it feel like a cut. That's the only reason it hurt."

Alice shook her head still crying and hugging him. The fear of dying was something she had never wanted to experience. She had already gone through it once on the bridge she didn't want to go through it again. Yet Noah had made her go through this.

"Kira pass that cloth and that bottle over there," Noah said trying to calm Alice down.

Kira snorted and gave him the objects. A moment ago she really thought Alice was going to die. Now seeing that everything was fake she understood how he became an award-winning actor.

Noah put the liquid onto the cloth and used it to wipe the places he had touched with the knife. With a light rub, the chemical came off. The red marks also disappeared. He had specially prepared this chemical to make sure it was as harmless as possible.

"It doesn't hurt anymore, right?" Noah said looking at Alice.

Alice nodded and wiped her tears away. A little embarrassed she had cried like a baby. She then looked at his dagger and saw that it was blunt. She touched it and felt a stinging sensation. Noah wiped off the chemical from her finger using the cloth.

"How did it feel to have been in a life or death fight?"

"I think it was worst because it was you," Alice said.

"It's better if it's me. If you can stay calm and fight me with the best of your abilities, don't you think you can easily fight anyone else?" Noah tried to bring it to a positive mood.

"A little," It was weird facing Noah with a dagger but she started to understand what he was saying. He wanted to remove the hesitation she might show when fighting someone. She needed to be clear with her will to kill and do what must be done or she will be the one dead.

"So are we going to do this again? I don't want to." One fight was enough for her to understand.

"That's fine, it was a one-time thing. Next time we'll continue with practice daggers." Noah helped Alice stand up.

They ended training for the day. As they walked back Alice called out to Kira, "Do you want to go to the mall this weekend? Noah and I are going to go watch a movie, do you want to come with us?"

Kira thought about it, "Sure, I'll come." She was free this weekend so it would be nice to hang out with Alice and Noah.