Azriel paused, his violet eyes glinting with a flash of dark, shameless amusement as he added,
"Plus... using a chain and sickle looks badass as hell."
Vesperia blinked, momentarily stunned by his sheer bluntness, before letting out a rich, throaty laugh that echoed against the silver barrier.
"A simple and honest answer," Vesperia purred, her eyes dancing with delight.
"Practicality paired with style, I love it."
Her expression instantly shifted back to absolute, uncompromising focus.
"Since you have the ambition, let’s see if you have the hands for it," Vesperia commanded, tossing the obsidian kusarigama straight toward him.
"Catch."
Azriel looked at the weapon in the air.
The weapon was forged from a pitch-black, light-absorbing metal whose name he didn’t know, its curved sickle blade, Kama, gleaming with a cold, terrifying sharpness.
Fine brown leather was wrapped tightly around the grip, providing a firm, slip-resistant hold against the perspiration of battle.
The weapon was dense, weighing at least two hundred kilograms.
The moment his fingers locked around the handle, he felt a subtle tug of gravity, but with his newly elevated stats, the heavy weight felt just right in his palm.
As he caught the handle, the heavy iron chain, Kusari, clattered onto the dirt floor with a sharp metallic echo.
At the far end of the long dark links sat the fundo, a dense, egg-sized metal ball that carried nearly a third of the weapon’s entire mass.
"Your choice to combine hand-to-hand combat with the kusarigama is ambitious, but..."
Vesperia began, her voice dropping into the authoritative, measured tone of a true master as she raised her own weapon.
"...what you don’t realize is that the kusarigama in itself is already a complete system for both long range and close distance combat."
She reached down, cradling the polished metallic ball of her weapon in her palm.
"Amateurs often assume you throw the sickle blade at the target. That is completely wrong,"
Vesperia explained, her golden eyes locking onto his.
"This heavy metal weight is called the fundo. It is the true projectile. You throw the fundo to shatter shields, crack bones, or wrap the chain around an enemy’s limbs and weapon to bind them."
She gave her chain a light tug, demonstrating the motion. "Once the opponent is trapped or pulled off-balance by the fundo, you reel them in and finish them with the kama, the sickle blade."
Vesperia paused, her lips curving into a subtle smile.
"Throwing the bladed sickle directly can be done, but it’s an erratic, high-risk style. The moment the blade leaves your hand, you leave yourself completely unguarded. And that is precisely where the fist fighting you unknowingly chose comes into play. If an enemy slips past your chain while your blade is extended, your bare fists become your secondary shield and lethal counter."
She let the fundo drop back toward the dirt with a heavy thud.
"So, now... to actually using it."
Vesperia’s stance shifted, her posture becoming impossibly sharp.
"The biggest mistake amateurs make is treating the blade and the weighted chain as two separate weapons. They are not. The chain is your momentum, the kama or the fundo is merely your execution."
Holding the sickle handle in her right hand, she grabbed the middle of the heavy chain with her left and stood facing a wooden dummy in the distance.
"Don’t copy me yet. Just watch."
Vesperia lowered her center of gravity, her broad hips sinking with hypnotic, feline fluidity as her long legs planted firmly into the soil.
Her left hand flicked in small, lightning-fast motions, sending the iron fundo whirring into a high-speed blur around her head.
She wasn’t swinging her entire arm to build speed, the rotation was driven almost entirely by the precise, explosive micro-adjustments of her wrist.
Wuuush— Wuuush— Wuuush—
The air hummed violently beneath the dense momentum of the spinning iron ball.
"Grip and footwork are everything," Vesperia explained over the slicing wind.
"You never grip the chain tightly when whirling it, you let it glide over your knuckles like silk. Your waist and hips act as the fulcrum. If your wrists freeze up, the chain bites back and cuts your own throat."
Without warning, her stance shifted. Her footwork pivoted sharply as her hips snapped, channeling a surge of kinetic force straight up through her torso and out into her forearm.
SNAP—!
With a subtle flick of her wrist, the whirling fundo shot forward like a cannonball, piercing straight through the thick chest of a wooden training dummy twenty paces away.
Before the dummy could even tilt toward the dirt, Vesperia gave a subtle, practiced tug with her right wrist.
The trailing chain snapped like a living serpent, coiling tightly around the dummy’s torso.
With a brutal snap of her elbow, she yanked the chain backward, launching the heavy wooden target flying straight toward her through the air.
Having already melted into her follow-up stance, Vesperia stepped into its path.
The dark sickle blade flashed in a clean, blinding arc, slicing effortlessly through the dummy’s neck.
THUD.
’Fuck...’ Azriel thought, his heart hammering against his ribs as a dark, intoxicating thrill surged through his gut.
’She is so fucking cool. Dangerous, smokes, can flirt, and fights like an absolute war goddess... Fuck it, I’m definitely liking her.’
[LIVE CHAT]
[Sadistic69] (Red): LOOK AT HIS FACE!! BRO IS AITTEN!!
[Nine_Tailed_Vixen] (Cyan): Can you blame him?! Overlord Vesperia just executed a textbook execution in under two seconds flat!!
[Lusty_Sera] (Golden): That subtle spark in his eyes... he’s totally mesmerized.
[Boundless_Slacker] (Red): Azriel went from cool, collected chad to starry-eyed student real, real quick
[Moon_Priestess_99] (Cyan): THE WAY HE’S LOOKING AT HER IS SO HOT OMG!! Rosalind’s mother is stealing the show!
Vesperia caught his breath-taken expression, her golden eyes glinting with satisfaction as a slow, proud smirk spread across her lips.
"Now, now... stop gawking at me, boy," Vesperia purred, tapping the butt of her weapon against the dirt with a sharp thud.
Snapping out of his brief stupor, Azriel narrowed his eyes slightly.
Curious about the true depth of the monster standing before him, he quietly triggered Insight.
A translucent system panel flashed in his field of vision:
[HOST’S CURRENT LEVEL IS TOO LOW TO EXTRACT INSIGHT DATA]
Azriel let out a silent sigh, dismissing the glowing screen with a thought.
He wasn’t particularly surprised, he had tried using the skill on Rosalind back at the estate, only to be met with the exact same system wall.
Looking back up at Vesperia, a dry, confident smirk returned to his face as he locked his gaze onto hers.
"We’re starting with the basics."
"First, you learn how to hold the weapon correctly. Second, you learn to swing the chain without cutting your own limbs off. Third, you learn to hit your target with the exact force required. And Fourth, you master the recoil so you can wrap that chain around an object at will, just like I did."
Her golden eyes narrowed with a sharp, commanding edge as she gestured toward a row of wooden targets lining the edge of the barrier.
"Get in position, boy."
-x-
A/N:
Weekly PS: 85 / 120
Monthly GT: 30 / 60
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