Page 205 of Alchemised
She had also practised them, but it had been a very long time.
Kaine seemed to think she was the most incompetent combatant he’d ever seen. After only brief observation, he started her all the way back with first-year forms, drilling them on and on until they were perfect.
After he was relatively civil about the animancy, she wasn’t prepared for how merciless he’d be about combat. He was completely vicious. It was only marginally preferable to being chased around the room having furniture thrown at her.
“I doubt this is going to save me from anyone,” she said after a week, growing uncomfortably sweaty. Her arm trembled as she raised the knife over her head for the hundredth time and channelled her resonance, altering the length and curve of the blade.
“If you can’t master the basics, you’re not going to survive anything.” A boot collided with the small of her back.
She gave a startled scream and barely managed to keep herself from ramming face-first into the wall by getting one foot out to catch her momentum, her knife curving instinctively as she spun around to face him.
Her spine was throbbing. A little harder and he might have broken it.
“What the fuck, Ferron?”
“Ah, back to surnames, I see,” he said coolly.
“That. Hurt,” she said through gritted teeth, touching her back gingerly, her resonance preventing the swelling before it could start.
“Then keep your guard up.” His eyes flashed. “I’m not training you to take a test. Do you think combat is for standing around seeing who transmutes best? You’ll never know what’s coming. You use your resonance to predict attacks. If you let me close enough to hit you, I will. Now keep going.”
She shook her head, refusing to move.
His expression darkened. “I said, keep going.”
“I’m not like you,” she said venomously. “If you hurt me to teach me a lesson, I need time to recover. And when I’m exhausted, I just make more mistakes. I’m not staying here to see how much you have to hurt me before you manage to remember that a trivial injury for you can paralyse me. You’re lucky you didn’t just now.”
His lips turned white. She turned away, sheathing the knife and shoving it into her satchel.
“This isn’t combat training,” he said when she was at the door. “You’re going to get killed if you don’t learn how to defend yourself. That’s the only way to survive.”
“Well, whatever it is, you’re a terrible teacher,” she said as she opened the door and slammed it behind her.
CHAPTER 41
Octobris 1786
THE WAR HAD ALWAYS MOVED SLOWLY, BUT as autumn set in, it slowed to a crawl. The two sides held almost equal territory. The ports had made a significant difference in the Eternal Flame’s strength, but they lacked any clear path to victory. The West Island was even more vertical than the East. The way the towers and buildings interlocked and intersected made it almost impossible to retake without risking mass casualties.
The current balance was thanks to Kaine, but it was a tenuous stalemate because they had no idea when he might someday stop or, worse, betray them.
At his reappearance, the pressure from Ilva and Crowther resumed tenfold, but Helena had no idea how to make progress. Kaine was angry and perpetually on his guard around her, and his methods of training offered few openings, although he was noticeably careful not to hurt her again.
Under his exacting eyes, she learned to key up her resonance until it filled the air around her, sensing attacks coming before they hit.
“Finally,” he said after she at last managed to block a light-speed blow without breaking form at all and immediately followed it with an attack.
It was the closest thing to praise she’d earned.
She slumped against the wall, breathing hard. The muscles in her forearms and biceps felt raw and coppery from all the metal transmutations she’d done over and over. Her resonance ached inside her nerves, brain buzzing, a hum that made her teeth itch.
It was no wonder Lila was always jittery when she came back.
Helena flexed her hands.
“You need a better knife; that alloy’s wrong. It’s slowing you.”
She looked away. It was raining outside, water streaming across the windows. She was so hot that she wanted to walk out and douse herself in the fresh autumn rainfall.
