concoursec | Training.

Training.

Character(s): Squall and Maria.
Location: Training Center.
Rating: PG
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: Maria's first training session with Squall.

Maria had a private message waiting for her on BBS:

Meet me in front of the Training Center at 1900 hours. No GFs. Be ready for combat.

-- SL

Squall was waiting in the hallway that led to the Training Center, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. He didn't have the Lion Heart with him, instead opting for a simple Revolver, but he had some decent magic equipped, along with Shiva and the Brothers: Aura, Curaga, Double, Thundaga, and Haste were among his arsenal for the day. The Commander also had a few Remedies and Potions, for the rare chance that something should go wrong. He didn't want Maria or himself to end up as T-Rexaur food -- that would be a terrible first tutoring session.

Locked in his own thoughts, his brow furrowed heavily. Truth be told, he was a little nervous. He had no idea what had possessed him to offer to teach Maria, but now that he had, he didn't want to do a bad job at it. Squall sighed and leaned his head back until it bumped softly against the wall. He hoped he wouldn't screw up.

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She showed up precisely on time, her gunblade case gripped firmly in one trembling hand, and her steps military-precise in a way that didn't at all cover the fact that she was shaky and pale.

Still, she was intent on meeting standards. Straight up to Squall she marched, then snapped out a razor-sharp salute. She hadn't had Junctioned paramagic for so long that her body felt at all strange without it, though she already privately regretted the loss of strength and endurance from forgoing it.

He straightened up as she approached and returned the salute. While he had gained enough awareness to notice that she looked a bit off, he still hadn't attained enough sensitivity to ask what was wrong. Besides, even if she did tell him, it'd be good training to work in less than perfect circumstances.

"For our first session, I want to see how strong you are without anything junctioned. I'll heal you if necessary."

Squall started walking into the Training Center, expecting Maria to follow him. "I want you to take out a couple of grats. We'll try to avoid T-Rexaurs, but if we can't, don't engage. I'll take care of them since I'm the only one with GFs."

She set down the case, then drew the gunblades' holster out of it -- a simple shoulder-crossing strap with odd slots in an X shape on the back of it. She picked up her gunblades, then swung them both in an arc so that their backs slid into the slots -- and were caught by its magnetic grip.

"Yes, sir," she said as she fell into step, resisting with great effort an urge to add a number of other things that he hadn't asked about or indicated he wanted to hear about.

Squall fell silent as they entered the Training Center. The hot, humid air that welcomed them no longer made him cringe; after training here for so many years, it was simply something he had grown to tolerate, like many things about Garden. He took the right path that led to the small man-made island and as he approached the sturdy walkway, he noticed a lone grat on the other side of the area, closer to the secret area than the island.

"There's your target," he said to Maria, his voice low. "See if you can take it by surprise."

Stealth? Well. She couldn't exactly do that, but she could try. Maria took a step away from the Commander (to make sure he was out of the draw arc of her weapons), then reached over her shoulders to grab the grips of her blades. The magnetic sheathing held them tightly, but between her own raw strength and the leverage their angle gave her, she pulled them free.

She stalked at a measured pace towards the grat, careful to step only where the turf was thickest and springiest. That got her close enough so that when stealth was no longer an option, she still could take it by surprise. In this case, by roaring at the top of her lungs as she flung herself into an all-out charge.

The poor grat had no idea what hit it. She turned as she reached it, putting the full force of her muscles from finger down to calf behind the blow, then pulled the trigger. The sharp reversal in momentum launched the gunblade backwards, which she channeled smoothly by twisting to hammer her other weapon into the creature. She pulled both triggers at once as she leaped off the ground, turning into a whirling arc of steel that spun over the grat with blades slicing into it and explosions thundering through it, then landed lightly on the other side.

As the grat collapsed, she spun her weapons back into their holsters, then turned to salute. Maria had been fighting grats near-daily for almost half a year now; they really weren't much of a challenge any more.

(Show-off.)

He was impressed, though. Not so much at her woefully lacking stealth but at how well she handled both gunblades. They didn't hit as hard as his, but he noticed that she could attack a lot faster and do a nasty bit of damage in a short amount of time.

So one grat was clearly not a challenge. That was fine, he'd just have to find some in a group for her. He walked across the island and approached the secret area, offering her a curt nod of approval as he passed.

"Next time, ease up on the yelling. You might catch a T-Rexaur's attention."

She was a warrior, not a sneaker, and she knew it. The important thing was that she'd taken it totally by surprise, right?

She nodded acknowledgement of his statement, still walking with stiff discipline as she followed him. She hadn't done enough to impress him, yet, that much was clear. She had to do more, better!

Squall stayed silent as he walked past the secret area. He wasn't worried about the enemies being too powerful, but being careless was when people got hurt.

A rustling in the bushes to his left got his attention, and as he turned to face the noise, a long, green appendage shot out, forcing him to dodge. From the foilage a grat emerged, its fly-trap mouth open in anticipation.

(Just one, huh?)

Annoyed, Squall drew his gunblade and was moments away from striking when something heavy hit him in the back, making him stumble. Two more grats were behind him; it had to be a coincidence, as far as Squall was concerned, because grats weren't smart enough to coordinate attacks. He maneuvered himself out of their range and gestured for Maria to take over.

She drew her gunblades smoothly. Half a year ago, three grats and her without GFs or Junctions would have (and had) left her on the verge of shock and unconsciousness from pure blood loss. Now, she had no intention of letting them do that, but they still weren't a threat she could dismiss easily.

One of them lashed out with its long tentacle, but she'd seen this coming; with her left-hand blade, she blocked with the flat, while dancing smoothly in to uppercut it with the right0hand blade. She chained a pair of attacks together with two smooth trigger-pulls, then dodged backwards just in time to keep a tentacle from lashing across her head. It caught her forearm instead, leaving a slice on the skin which blood trickled down from, over her thick muscle.

A light suddenly illuminated Maria, mending the skin. Once the Cure completed, Squall then prepared to cast Haste on her as well. He didn't want her to be overwhelmed, especially since she was at a double disadvantage; three against one and no GFs could easily turn disastrous, even for more experienced fighters. The grats, for the most part, were ignoring Squall, choosing instead to focus on what they perceived to be weaker prey.

Finally getting another chance to act, Squall let loose the Haste magic, and returned to staying at the ready. He didn't need to heal her every scrape, and he knew that she would need to learn how to fight with injuries, but that could be a lesson for another time. For this session, he would do his best to keep her in top shape.

Edited 2012-06-17 03:35 (UTC)

Squall... ought to have a talk with Cid about the condition he found her in once, much closer to when she'd first come to Garden. Let's just say she was no stranger to fighting while injured. Reaaaally injured.

Hasted, she blurred into an accelerated, graceful dance of spinning blades and explosive strikes. She vaulted lithely over the first grat, hitting it twice, then thrusting her gunblades backwards without looking to impale it. As it collapsed, the other two grats thrust at her almost simultaneously, but she blocked left and right with the flats of her blades, then darted between the two of them with a spinning strike to hit each.

Squall stayed to the side of the fray and watched as Maria downed the first grat. Distracted by the flurry of steel, Squall didn't notice that something was approaching them until a sudden crash forced him to turn around where he saw...

A T-Rexaur.

Well, that was just great. He looked over his shoulder at Maria, who was handling herself well with the remaining two grats, then looked back at the new enemy that was getting closer. He needed to get the T-Rexaur away where he could fight it without worrying about Maria. Squall concentrated on his para-magic, able to call it forth with ease after becoming so familiar with it through a myriad of battles. He waited for the giant beast to get closer before letting the magic fly.

A bright flash of light illuminated the air and the hair on the back of Squall's neck stood up as the Thundaga spell raced down, zapping the enemy with enough force to stun it for a few seconds. That was all the time he needed. Unsheathing his gunblade, Squall charged forward, ready to strike and keep it from getting any closer to Maria's battle.

Honestly? He didn't really need to worry about Maria. Hasted and with upgraded gunblades, which as everyone knows are overpowered weapons, she didn't need GFs and Junctions to cut through the grats. She had plenty of her own muscle that she'd earned the hard way.

Not that she was unscathed, mind; the grats had laid open several stripes on her forearms, which she seemed inclined to block with if she couldn't parry with her blades in time. She hadn't taken any wounds to the chest or head, so call it a victory as far as it went.

Trusting the Commander to do his thing with the T-Rexaur, she flipped lightly over one grat, nailed it to the ground with both gunblades, then chain-pulled the triggers like she was being offered a prize for most twitches of an index finger in ten seconds. Needless to say, when she yanked her weapons free of the ground, the grat didn't move much any more.

After taking on and defeating a near all-powerful sorceress, fighting against a T-Rexaur was more like child's play. He exploded with pent-up energy, blade slicing through the air and landing deep in dinosaur muscle. The T-Rexaur roared, wrenching itself free to turn and swing its heavy tail, which landed hard against Squall's side. The GFs and junctioned magic enabled him to withstand the worst of the blow, and he brought down his gunblade again, cleaving through most of the tail until it only hung by a few tendons.

Squall remained on the offensive, quickly retrieving his weapon and dancing away from rows of razor sharp teeth that gnashed at him in desperation. His feet were light and steady, bringing him back into range so he could take his gunblade and leap up, embedding the steel into the T-Rexaur's neck. It gave one final roar and began to fall, its weight actually causing the gunblade to be wrenched from Squall's hands. It landed with a booming thud, struggling to breathe as its life seeped away. He climbed on top of the creature and grabbed hold of the Revolver; not wanting the beast to lie there suffering, he drove the blade down deep into the monster's chest, piercing its heart. It gave a shuddering gasp and then finally died.

He slid back down to the ground, his gunblade dripping with blood and gore. His side was throbbing, and he was pretty sure he'd be sore in the morning, but it wouldn't even rank on his list of memorable injuries. Squall realized that Maria had finished off the grats while he was busy, and he arched a brow.

"Are you okay?"

"Not unharmed, but not unreasonably harmed, sir," she said quite truthfully. Pain from this sort of wound was nothing to her, a minor annoyance at best. "It may seem arrogant to say this after only a few months of training, but I kind of feel like grats are old hat."

She spun her weapons back into place, then dug out a roll of linen bandages from a small pouch on the strap for the holster to start wrapping her forearms.

Furrowing his brow, he watched Maria tend to her wounds. "Make sure you wash those cuts," he said, deadpan. "Grats are infested with bacteria."

So grats were too easy for her. He could sympathize. The Training Center really needed some variety, but it was too difficult to maintain sufficient population levels whenever different monsters were introduced to the habitat.

He took out a cloth from the back pocket of his pants and started wiping off his blade. He'd clean it properly once he got back to his dorm. "How much fighting experience do you have outside of the Center?"

No need to worry. She will drop by the Infirmary once she's been dismissed, to get proper care. They're... very used to her there.

"Sir, I have fought many of the creatures near Balamb. Though it was more for the purpose of stocking my paramagic than actual fighting experience. Prior to Garden I trained extensively in Dollet, but no actual combat was involved."

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Training.

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