Sinner System

"Alright, whenever you're ready, come at me!" I called out, as I cracked my knuckles, before drawing out my blade.

"Okay...here goes!" She declared, before sprinting towards me as she drew out her sword.

Hm, I should try to evade instead of block her attacks, and if I do block, I should use the flat of my blade instead of the edges...don't want to end up breaking her weapon during a simple sparring bout, after all.

Custom-made weapons don't come cheap, so I should try to avoid breaking it in a simple sparring bout.

As she closed in on me, I turned across to the right as she swung her blade down, whizzing past the side of my right arm.

Her technique is pretty polished, she's worked hard to refine it to this level.

I then swiftly sprang back as she whipped the blade across at my chest with a flick of her wrist, evading the attack.

Her blade is probably pretty light, so she's able to transition her attacks quickly and abruptly...that isn't easy though, to halt your momentum and then shift it in a completely different direction with minimal delay like that, she must have put in quite a bit of effort.

She then shot towards me again, unfurling a barrage of swift thrusts with her blade, a hint of frustration in her eyes as I evaded all of them, but her movements didn't waver or lose any accuracy.

Suddenly, she unleashed a rapid, downward diagonal slash at my chest, which whizzed past the front of my chest as I took a swift step back and-...huh?

As I avoided her slash, my eyes widened slightly in surprise as she let go of the blade mid-swing, flicking her wrist right before taking her hand off to cancel our the downward momentum flowing through the blade.

She rapidly lunged forward as her blade stayed suspended in position for an instant, catching the handle with her left hand right as the blade began to plummet and driving it straight towards my throat, wind swirling around the blade as her thrust suddenly sped up sharply as she chanted...

"[High Accel Wind Strike]!"

I swiftly shuffled across to the right, her blade whizzing through the air with a sharp burst of wind as I got out of the way, before she zipped towards me, getting low and drawing back her sword as she closed in...

"[Double Wind Slash]!"

I turned across to my left to evade the first slash and sprang back to dodge the second one, her blade whizzing across the air as I dodged her attacks.

She backed away with a grimace, getting some distance and taking a moment to catch her breath.

Hm, let's test out her willpower...

"<Command: Don't Move>."

Her eyes began to widen before her body stiffened as she froze in place, trembling slightly. I formed a small, swirling Negative Energy sphere, taking aim and firing it towards her.

As the projectile began to close in, she stumbled back as she strained and broke free of the effect of Command, quickly regaining her balance as she locked her gaze onto my projectile.

She whipped her blade across as it closed in on her, slicing through the ball of Negative Energy and dissipating it as she killed its momentum.

She then let out a slow exhale and raced forward at full speed, wind swirling around her blade as she chanted under her breath.

She sprang forward and unfurled a rapid barrage of thrusts and slashes as she closed in on me, bursts of wind erupting out of the blade, as I weaved back across the space and watched her blade closely, evading each of her attacks.

She drew back her blade and began to drive it towards my chest as she took a swift step forward, before freezing as I lunged at her, grabbing her wrist and lightly pressing the edge of my own blade against the side of her neck, drawing out a thin trickle of blood as I nicked her skin.

"Don't freeze up. Either try to dodge, and if you can't, try to take your opponent down with you," I smiled, as I let go of her and raised my left index finger as I took a step back, a charging up concentrated mass of Negative Energy.

Her eyes widened before she began to scramble out of the way while simultaneously raising her blade up defensively, but she was too slow to react, as I fired out the charged up energy in a rapid, piercing beam.

The barrier activated and teleported her out before my beam could pierce straight through the middle of her forehead, the girl vanishing from sight.

She collapsed onto her knees with a thud as she reappeared outside the barrier, her face a bit pale.

Well, even in my normal state, I'm almost five times stronger and faster than she is, not to mention I'm a lot more experienced, so yeah, this went more or less exactly how I thought it would.

Still, though, she's pretty promising.

Her sword technique is excellent, she was pulling off some pretty high-level and complex moves, and made them look easy.

She isn't even at half her full Potential yet, she'll be a force to be reckoned with once she gets closer to her Potential and gets some real experience under her belt.

It's too bad she wasn't assigned to the Sinners Guild...but I suppose that would be getting a bit too greedy on my part, we already got two out of the four Ace Potential graduates, it'd be unreasonable to hope for another one.

"As far as your skills and technique go, I'd say you're pretty top-notch already. Keep training and get stronger, you've still got a large chunk of your Potential unrealized, and the stronger and faster you get, the more you'll be able to make the best use out of your skills," I remarked, approaching her as the barrier faded.

"Honestly, I kinda feel like my confidence has taken a blow. I gave it all I had, but you evaded everything I threw at you while barely even trying.

While I can't see Auras, the pressure I felt beating down on me every time I got close was intense, I've never felt a pressure like that before.

Even if I was at my full Potential, I don't think I could've beaten you, and you weren't even using your power boosts," She replied with a wry smile, as she sheathed her blade.

"Well, yeah...but I can assure you, there's a lot more to it than just Power Level. If your skills, technique and combat sense are at a high enough level, you'll be able to punch above your weight and take down enemies that are more powerful than you. Believe me, I'm speaking from experience."