Mirage might be a shy type, but that doesn’t make her a weak fighter. If anything, she’s really skilled, even more than Leo, although he refuses to agree when Yariel or anyone tells him.

Not like Mirage would agree she was weak either.

She didn’t wait for him to settle into a stance. She charged again, but this time she wasn’t just swinging. She was using her superior reach, keeping Leo at the end of her blade.

She started weaving in circles, forcing him to keep turning, trying to make him dizzy or catch his foot on a root.

Leo felt the pressure mounting and decided to change his style.

Mirage feinted a high strike, then dropped low, her blade sweeping toward Leo’s ankles. Leo jumped, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the follow-up. As he was in the air, Mirage used her off-hand to shove his chest, sending him flying backward toward a steep embankment.

Leo hit the ground hard, rolling down the small slope, thorns tearing at his black tunic. He came to a stop at the bottom, his wooden sword still gripped in his hand, but his breath was ragged.

Mirage stood at the top of the embankment, looking down at him.

"Get up, Leo," she called out, her voice echoing through the trees but sounding a bit forced and stammered. "We’re...just getting started."

’Why the hell is she behaving strangely? Is she trying to summon bravery?’

Leo spat a bit of dirt out of his mouth and climbed back to his feet. His muscles were screaming, his head was starting to throb again, and his easy target was currently winning. He looked up at her, a jagged, determined grin breaking across his face.

He didn’t say a word. He just started climbing back up the slope, his wooden sword raised.

The sounds of their blades clashing resumed, a rhythmic, violent staccato that filled the forest, signaling to everyone within a mile that the peace of the Atlantis family was officially over. The fight continued, neither of them willing to give an inch as the shadows of the forest grew longer.

The wood of their swords groaned as Leo reached the top of the embankment, meeting Mirage’s downward strike with a bracing horizontal block. The impact jarred his teeth, but he didn’t pull back. He shoved upward, using the slope’s momentum to force her back toward a cluster of thick pines.

Mirage stumbled, her boots catching on a stray root, but she recovered with a grace that annoyed Leo. She was breathing heavily, her face flushed, but those strange, forced eyes never left his.

"You’re... you’re overextending, Leo," she stammered, her voice shaking even as she delivered a stinging lunge toward his midsection.

Leo twisted his torso, the wooden tip grazing his ribs. "Since when did you become a coach? Fight me!"

He swung a heavy, diagonal blow aimed at her lead shoulder. Mirage slipped under the arc, her movement fluid like water. She came up inside his guard, her elbow slamming into his chest before he could reset. The air left Leo’s lungs in a sharp wheeze.

He staggered back, his vision swimming for a second. He noticed her hand was trembling as she reset her grip. ’She’s nervous. Why is she nervous? I mean, that’s not a surprise, but why is she winning?’

He didn’t have time to process it. Mirage came at him again, but her style had shifted from calculated stabs to a desperate, frantic flurry. She was swinging with everything she had, the wooden blade humming through the air. Leo was forced into a full retreat, his wooden sword clicking rapidly against hers as he tried to find a rhythm in her chaos.

Leo’s back hit a tree. He was pinned. Mirage raised her sword for a final overhead strike, her eyes wide and almost frantic.

Leo didn’t block. He dropped his sword entirely and dived forward, tackling her around the waist.

The two of them went down hard into the dirt and needles. They rolled twice, a mess of tangled limbs and heavy breathing, before Leo ended up on top, pinning her wrists to the forest floor. Mirage struggled for a moment, her strength as an Advent nearly throwing him off, but Leo dug his knees in, holding her down with sheer, stubborn weight.

"Yield," he panted, sweat dripping from his chin onto her tunic.

Mirage stopped struggling. She looked up at him, her chest heaving, the warrior mask finally cracking. "You... you always have to be so difficult," she whispered, her voice no longer forced.

Leo frowned, staring down at her. "What is wrong with you today? You’re fighting like you’re trying to prove something to someone who isn’t even here."

Mirage didn’t answer. She just looked away, her cheeks red, her grip on her wooden sword loosening until it rolled away into the grass.

A shadow fell over both of them.

"Touching," a cold voice echoed from the trees above.

Leo froze. He didn’t have to look up to know who it was. The air had suddenly grown five degrees colder, and the faint smell of ozone had returned.

Taren stood on a high branch ten feet away, his porcelain arm glowing with a faint, steady blue light. Beside him, Yariel leaned against the trunk, her arms crossed, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"While you two were busy rolling in the dirt," Yariel said, her voice dry, "Taren and I already finished our bout, and surprisingly, it ended in a tie. Which means the winner of this little mess has to face both of us."

Leo looked at Mirage, then back at the two powerhouses looming over them. He felt the heavy throb in his head return with a vengeance.

"That’s not fair. Can I go back to sleep now?" Leo muttered.

Taren didn’t laugh. He simply dropped from the branch, landing silently in a crouch. "Get up, Leo. Fight."

Leo let go of Mirage’s wrists and stood up, reaching down to grab his wooden sword. His black tunic was ruined, his body was covered in scratches, and he was currently staring down one of the two most skilled fighters of Dravenor.

Mirage stood up beside him, picking up her own blade and stepping into a defensive line. They didn’t speak, but the message was clear. It was no longer a free-for-all.

"Fine," Leo growled, his grip tightening on the wood. "Don’t cry if I end up winning. What does the winner get anyway?"

"A whole day spent with Elara." Yariel grinned.

"Sounds fair enough."

The four of them circled each other in the fading light, the forest holding its breath as the final clash of the training week began.