Tired - that's the first word that comes to Eve's mind. Swords clash in Elyon's backyard, but with barely any force to cause any disturbance. Someone could probably sleep next to them.
Agh, I hate it. I can barely keep my breath, and I feel like throwing up. My head spins, and I can't grip my sword properly. Why did that idiot Elyon think this was a good idea? Can't he see that I can barely fight myself? Damn, to hell with this.
Both Eve and her clone, panting and gasping, turn their heads to look for Elyon, but he is nowhere to be seen.
"Great, he left. I can finally catch my breath." Eve and her clone sit on the ground, leaning on their swords. Even though the clone's sword is not the same as the mythical Nightfall, it's just a copy without any powers of its own. Nothing more, nothing less.
"I think I will close my eyes for a bit." Her eyelids grow heavy.
"Wake up, sleepyhead. You are not done training." Elyon's voice rings from inside the house.
She jolts awake and stares at the window, her clone doing the same, and Elyon waves and smiles.
"Tch, slick bastard," she says under her breath.
"Hey, that's mean, I heard that."
She gets up from the ground, leaning heavily on her sword and wincing.
"Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you. Oh, great master," she says while rolling her eyes.
Elyon leaves the house and comes to check on Eve.
"Apologies accepted."
Eve doesn't say anything in return, which makes Elyon cough.
"Now, start fighting yourself again."
"No, I won't do it."
Elyon looks genuinely shocked. "Wait, what? Why?"
"Because I don't want to. Yes, fighting myself is surprisingly a good idea. But adding more fatigue to it is awful. It's like you took a good piece of cake and threw it in shit.''
Now it's Elyon's turn to stare.
"What?" asks Eve, confused.
"No, nothing, fine, I will remove your fatigue. But you have to do two more rounds of sparring. This time, try to actually kill yourself."
"Thanks for telling me to kill myself, real nice of you."
"You know what I mean."
Eve picks up her sword; the clone does the same. They both look at each other, then start stretching their shoulders.
"Mm, this is going to be nice." Anticipation and a fire for battle ignite in her soul.
Elyon takes a seat on the ground and observes the two getting ready.
Eve and her clone get into their battle stance, then dash at each other.
Sparks fly between each collision. Eve readies her sword for a side slash, her clone doing the same. They meet in the middle and parry each other. Then a side kick, they're shins meet in the middle. Eve switches the hand holding Nightfall. She prepares a punch with her left hand. Instead of punching the other one, their knuckles grind against each other. They pull back their fists. Both of them lean back and collide foreheads. Neither of them backing down.
"Tough bastard", both of them say while gritting their teeth.
They both dash back, ready for another duel.
They dash back in, this time gripping the sword with both hands. Thrusts, parried. Slashes, parried. Strikes, parried. Elbows, kicks, punches, all of them not hitting their mark. They are unsurprisingly evenly matched.
Elyon observes the two of them for a while. Just until they both throw their swords on the ground and start having a fist fight. No control-just pure punches and kicks. And elbows from time to time, oh yes, how could we forget the head, shoulders, knees and possibly the toes.
Elyon gets up and goes back inside to take care of some stuff. He enters his room and looks in the corner, then under the bed. His robe still crumpled and unmoving. He picks it up, uncrumples it and puts it on.
He looks back at one of the corners and sees his golden spear, Svarnam. He walks over to it and grabs it.
I keep forgetting to use it, I mean, yeah, I don't really have any use for it since I only use my powers, but still.
He slides his finger along the handle, and flakes of fake gold fall on the floor. They reveal iron under it.
And worst still, I got ripped off. This was supposed to be a full 24k gold spear, but it's just painted in gold. Damn greedy merchant.
He sets the spear back in its place and busies himself with housework. After an hour or so, he goes back outside. He tried to do some chores, yeah, but had no luck. Eve's endless barrage of curses distracted him the whole time.
"How is it going? You managed to hurt yourself yet?"
Both eves turn their heads to him. Blood running down their forehead, knuckles busted and bruised. Same with the elbows and knees. Some other bruises are not so visible. Like the ones on her abdomen and ribs.
"What does it look like? Was I successful enough?" Eve gritted through bloody teeth.
"It seems like you were. Good job. Well, here, take this healing potion. I'm too lazy to heal you up normally."
Elyon hands the healing potion to one of the Eves, but only after checking her wrist for the X symbol.
Eve takes the potion and starts greedily gulping it. She finishes it and throws the empty bottle on the ground. Her bruises start healing slowly.
"Thanks, really needed that. So what do you think? You watched me fight for a while. How am I progressing? Am I getting any better?"
"Hmm, if I were to say, yes, you are getting better at fighting. Even though you fight like an animal. But the only thing that is missing is your speed."
"Speed? Why do you think that? Wasn't it my endurance?"
"At first, yes, it was your endurance. But I have no idea how you managed to overcome it in so little time. Who knows, maybe my fatigue idea was quite successful."
Elyon looks very pleased with himself.
"Yeah, no. It was probably with the help of the sword, somehow." Eve responds, looking annoyed. Her bruises finally healing completely.
"Well, anyway, whatever it was. We will discuss it while we walk back to Scholar Keep. I want to eat something, and I'm sure you also want the same thing."
Elyon undoes his magic, and Eve's clone disappears. While Eve wipes the X symbol from her wrist.
"Sounds good, let's go. I'm starving."