Zteel

SCHING!! SCHING!!

Tatius and Idalia's katanas clashed as Enki watched until it was his turn to return back onto the court.

The two leaped away from each other. Tatius propelled focused gusts of wind at Idalia sharp enough to cut through skin.

She shielded herself by putting up small walls of crystal that shattered on impact, continuing to do this in defense until she was able to safely roll to the opposite side of the court.

"Could you two hurry up already?" Enki shouted. "I should be up there right now."

"And yet, you aren't." Idalia responded, still focused on combat.

"And there's a reason for that," added Tatius. "I beat you, and it wasn't the only time either."

Annoyed, Enki stood after being knelt down on the ground, his sword carried over his shoulder. He scratched his head.

"How much longer are we gonna be out here? I want to get back to my place and relax."

"Crystallization MO: Rushing Ramparts!"

Idalia continued to battle, kneeling to slam both open palms onto the concrete ground, prompting two towering crystal bulwarks to erupt from it and advance toward Tatius on both sides of the court.

"Hollow Airfoil!"

Tatius countered, extending both arms outward with open palms as well, sending a wide gust of wind with a circumference the size of the stage.

Once again, the wind shattered and atomized Idalia's crystals on impact as she braced for impact against the large gust.

After the brief moment, Tatius finally responded to Enki.

"Now's the time to grind. The tournament is just around the corner, so we don't have much time to spare.

Plus, I bet Idalia's looking forward to it," he and Enki cackled.

"For the last time, all I did was ask Sage if he wanted to hang out, that's it. This running joke's been long blown out of proportion."

"And did he ever accept your offer?" Enki continued.

Idalia didn't respond, prompting Enki and Tatius to laugh again.

"Okay! He just seemed like a nice prospect, is all."

"Yeah," Tatius teased. "We know you've got a thing for the assertive type."

In one last effort, Idalia created two crystal daggers and rushed him to attack closer, but he easily countered, grabbing her arms, twisting them and forcing her to kneel to subdue her.

"Next up," Tatius called to Enki as he let her go.

Idalia picked up her katana and massaged her shoulder as she walked off of the court, swapping places with Enki. Immediately, he darted at Tatius.

She continued the conversation as she sat on a courtside bench. "In all seriousness, do we know all that we should about the three of them, Sage, Nyota and Kilo?"

"We know their names, their MO, their personalities, more or less," Tatius prepared to counter Enki with his sword before the two clashed, Enki reinforcing his forearms with hardened earthy materials to block it.

"What more do we need?"

"I don't know, who they are as people, I guess?"

Enki pulled away from Tatius briefly before clashing with him again. "You see, that's something you wanna do, Idalia. And if you wanna do it, then do it. As for us, we have no interest."

"Well speak for yourself," Tatius responded. "They're cool people, I wouldn't mind, but it isn't exactly on my list of priorities."

Enki and Tatius continued to trade blows as they conversed. "My point exactly, and I think we all know why you'd wanna do all that," Enki snickered.

"Maybe it is," Idalia mumbled underneath her breath, rolling her eyes.

After a bit of thinking, she posed a question.

"Hey, you know, we've been cadets for some time now, working our way up to rank highest among our hundreds of peers." She trailed a bit, partially reluctant to ask.

"But why do all this?"

Enki and Tatius paused their fighting to turn their attention to Idalia for a moment.

"We need a reason?" Tatius shrugged her question off. "I didn't know."

Enki added. "What other reason do I need other than to be the strongest?"

"Sure," Idalia started. "But let's think about the way everything is set up. We could've chosen to showcase our greatness, strength, or competence as students in school, or in some other profession.

And yet, here we are, cadets for law enforcement, training for a profession where we're encouraged to dedicate our lives to not the nation in which we live, but the people running it.

Is that not, I don't know… odd? I don't know, I just haven't given it much thought until now."

"Sure," Tatius assured. "But it's just the way our world works. If there isn't much we can do about it, and it's not hurting anybody, why care?

At least that's the way I've chosen to think about it."

Idalia continued to contemplate, she couldn't help but reflect once again on why she was training and why she was in the business she was in.

After all, she, Tatius and Enki had all been friends for a while, first becoming cadets some four years prior. But for some reason, it wasn't until this moment that she heavily thought about why she was in this line of work.

She nodded solemnly. "I see."

Enki continued to attack Tatius, encasing one of his fists in hardened sediment and holding his sword in the other. "I just heard this business pays well, especially the RSAA.

Once we graduate, I'm choosing that agency and the military, no doubt about it, especially since the pay is better there in comparison to EPSA.

I mean yeah, sure, the work is gonna be harder, but that's never been a problem for me. I don't see why it would be then."

Enki continued to clash center stage with Tatius. "Let's finish this off, shall we? It's been going on much longer than it should have."

Enki dropped his sword and encased his other hand in hardened sediment just like his other. This time, however, he enshrouded them both in so much that they mimicked abnormally large arms and fists.

Rushing toward Tatius, he rapidly spun around at a high velocity. "Don't worry Tatius, I'll bring out the big guns just for you! Earth MO: Earth Gauntlets!"

"Yeah, you're right," Tatius sheathed his katana before completing a series of hand signs.

"Let's see how you fare! Wind Generation MO: Hollow Airfoil!"

"Too late!" Enki shouted as he closed in on Tatius. "None of that long distance stuff's gonna work on me!"

Within a split second, Tatius disappeared and reappeared above and behind Enki.

Idalia sneered. "Idiot," she laughed.

Enki looked up to see Tatius suspended in the air with an outstretched palm. "Come on, how could you forget?"

Enki rolled his eyes. "Damn it!"

Immediately, Tatius blasted a heavy gust of wind directly at Enki's face, causing a large explosion to be heard anywhere from a two-mile radius.