A new day came, and Calista had no urgent work to handle. She rolled her neck and decided to loosen up a little.
A moment later, Calista appeared at the edge of the training ground.
She had changed into a dark gray training outfit. Her long, pale-gold hair was braided neatly down her back, revealing her smooth forehead and those beautiful gray-blue eyes.
Under the sunlight, the gray in her eyes seemed even lighter, while the blue looked colder and sharper, like the surface of a frozen lake.
Calista's arrival immediately drew attention.
After all, it was not often that the leader personally stepped onto the training ground.
"Hey, look who showed up!" Turner elbowed Carver beside him, his tone full of excitement as if waiting for a good show.
Carver immediately stopped wiping down his throwing knives, his eyes lighting up.
Mike was training the new recruits, but he still crossed his arms and looked over.
Even Jason, who was drawing a map for the recruits, and Merle, who was listening nearby, turned their heads.
In a relatively quiet corner of the training ground, Daryl was focused on maintaining his crossbow.
Hearing the commotion, he looked up as well.
Daryl's gaze first landed on Calista, but soon, as if pulled by a magnet, it shifted on its own toward another figure in the field, Leah, who was speaking to the recruits.
Leah was taller and stronger than Calista, and she looked even colder.
They were both blonde, but Leah's hair was a darker shade, tied casually behind her head. A few loose strands fell beside her cheeks, and she tucked them behind her ear with an impatient motion.
Leah's figure was just as striking, shaped by long years of high-intensity training. Every inch of muscle seemed to hold explosive power.
Daryl watched Leah command the soldiers with crisp efficiency, his fingers unconsciously rubbing along the arm of his crossbow.
He knew he was bad with words. He could not say anything smooth, and he had no idea how to approach her naturally.
During their few limited interactions, aside from necessary mission-related exchanges, they had barely had any personal conversations.
And the only real conversation they had a few days ago seemed to have been ruined by him.
Calista walked straight up to Leah. "Leah, spar with me?"
Leah turned around. Seeing her sister's outfit and serious expression, she waved for that group of soldiers to continue training.
Then she walked over to Calista and carefully checked her complexion. "What did Dr. Jenner say? You've been training a lot lately."
"He said I need to burn off excess energy." Calista kept it concise and assumed a basic fighting stance. "Come on. Don't go easy on me."
Leah's gaze sharpened slightly, and she asked nothing more. "All right."
There was no drawn-out opening. The spar between the sisters broke out instantly.
Leah attacked first, her movements fast and fierce, carrying the clean efficiency and ruthlessness unique to a mercenary.
A sharp knife-hand strike chopped straight toward the side of Calista's neck, so fast it stirred the air.
Calista raised her arm to block, and their arms collided with a dull thud.
She felt a powerful force surge through the point of impact, numbing her arm, but she held firm.
Calista could sense that something deep inside her had been "awakened" by that strike, and a current of strength began to flow quietly through her body.
The sisters moved and shifted across the center of the training ground.
Leah's offense came like a storm. Fists, elbows, knees, legs. Every part of her body became a weapon, backed by rich experience and tricky angles.
Calista spent more time on defense.
Her movements still carried a slight awkwardness, clearly because she had not spent long in systematic combat training, but her ability to learn was extremely strong. By the time Leah used a similar attack a second time, Calista could often respond more effectively.
Daryl stopped what he was doing, his eyes following the two figures crossing through the field.
He noticed Calista's changes. Her reaction speed and movement seemed to be improving.
But more often, Daryl's gaze stayed on Leah.
The others were watching too.
"Calista looks a little faster than last time, doesn't she?" Turner commented, rubbing his chin.
Bossie observed calmly. "Not faster. More fluid. Her anticipation is better too."
He noticed several moments when Calista seemed to dodge Leah's lethal strikes by a hair, but in fact, her timing was just right.
Carver watched with growing impatience, itching to go up and spar with Calista himself. But when he saw the focused look in Leah's eyes, he held himself back.
He knew this was a form of "treatment" between sisters.
Mike kept his arms crossed, watching the recruits train while occasionally turning his head to chat with his teammates. "Calista is adapting. Leah is pressuring her, forcing out her potential."
He saw more deeply than the others.
Leah's attacks were fierce, but she always left room. It was more like guidance and testing.
Once again, Leah caught an opening in Calista's defense and swept a side kick toward her lower body.
Calista's center of gravity wavered, and she was about to fall.
At that exact instant, the feeling of warmth surging through her body appeared again, clearer and stronger than before.
Almost by instinct, Calista planted one hand on the ground at a speed far beyond her usual level, and astonishing power erupted from her waist.
An unbelievable spin.
Not only did she avert the fall, but her other leg swept backward like a scorpion's tail toward Leah's supporting leg.
"Oh?!" The watching veterans let out a low cry.
That change was too fast.
It had completely exceeded Calista's usual level.
Daryl's brows moved slightly, and surprise flashed through his eyes.
Carver let out an excited whistle. "Beautiful! Calista, that sweep just now was damn cool!"
Turner shouted too, "When are you gonna spar with us?"
Their noise made Daryl feel a little irritated.
He was a quiet introvert, so he only pressed his lips together and kept watching in silence.
Surprise flashed through Leah's eyes, but her reaction was even faster. She took half a step back and narrowly avoided it.
"That's it!" she barked. Instead of stopping, her offense became even tighter. "Feel it! Guide it! Don't let it control you!"
Calista was panting.
She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, not from exhaustion, but from a strange excitement.
That power flowed through her body, making her feel lighter and stronger than ever before, just like she had at the Sentinel Station.
Following Leah's guidance, Calista tried hard to merge the power into her movements instead of letting it drive her.
In the sparring that followed, Calista's movements clearly became sharper.
Her speed and strength both improved, and she even carried a faint trace of Leah's battle-hardened killing edge.
But from time to time, because she could not fully control the sudden increase in power, she would suffer slight moments of imbalance.
Leah steadily received every one of her attacks, her eyes growing brighter and brighter.
In Calista, she saw something beginning to awaken.
...
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