'Should I bring my armor?' Veronica asked to herself, gearing up for some training. She had on some light, form fitting clothing, and her axe by her side.

  "Well, that depends oraining. Though, overall, I would suggest wearing armor so you get used to the weight of that."

  Veroniodded, agreeing to Lilith's idea, and put on her armor, finally leaving her room. Sadly, she was the only perso in the apartment, so she had no oo say goodbye to.

  Cassidy was out practig her own magic with proper trainers. Aviris was going to a Liafi to get her bdes maintained. Eleanora was having lunch with her sister. And Tisha, since she was a teacher, had papers to grade.

  So, Veronica was going to be alone for her training. She sighed, ahe apartment, going outside to test her mettle on some training dummies.

  It was a bright sunny day, perfect for some training. The dummies were close by, in a small little training yard. Even with the amount of students who were training themselves for the same reason, none were here.

  At least Veronica wouldn't look stupid in front of strangers while practig.

  She did some basic stretches and theo attag the dummies. Though, there id one key issue. The dummies don't fight back. So, what could she do? It's not like she had a training partner readily avaible.

  "You training?" A voice came from behind her.

  Veronica turned around to ahe voice but could help but linger on her appearance.

  The girl, or perhaps young woman, was as tall as Cassidy, if not slightly taller. Her fair skin was extuated with the dark clothing and light armor she wore. There happeo be a sword and something else that was hard to make out on her back. The woman had short light brown hair and hazel eyes.

  "Uh, y-yeah. Trying to get whatever practice I for the tour. Hard to do when the... things you're practig on don't uh... fight back." Veronjca chuckled nervously.

  "Haha! I know! If only we had training dummies that gave even fake movements. Want some help?" She asked with a smile.

  "Yeah, sure! My name's Veronica. It's o meet you."

  "I'm Seraph, it's o meet you too!" She respoaking Veronica's hand to shake it. "Now, let's get started." Seraph said, moving back a bit and uhing her sword, readying it.

  Veronica breathed, and quickly woo herself oher or not she should, but since she already accepted Seraph's offer, she may as well.

  So, Veronica charged at Seraph, and before she k, Veronica was on the ground, axe a few feet away from her. She didn't even have the time to process what happened.

  "Fiest step, don't rush towars the enemy. Slowly close in unless you're certain you beat them quickly." Seraph started giving advice while her hand to help Veronica up.

  "Right. That was fast." Veronica respoaking Seraph's hand and standing back up.

  The two stepped away from each other a bato their bat stances, ready for ano.

  This time, Veronica approached slowly, and was thusly immediately grounded once again.

  "What was that about not rushing your oppo?" Veronica questioned.

  "Yuard was sloppy. So I took advantage of it." Seraph tio advise, pig Veronica up off from the ground.

  In their spots once again, Veronica tried to keep her guard up and approached slowly. She finally saening in Seraph's defense a in for the attack! Only for Seraph to use the shape of Veronica's axe, and her own sword, to her advantage, log the sword in the crevice between the hand and bde of the axe, and threw it out of Veronica's hands. And then promptly put Veroni the ground.

  The two tiheir sparring session, Seraph giving advice whenever and wherever she could. But Veronica still couldn't get a single... anything in her! Seraph wasn't just good, she must've been one of the best.

  Veronica kept trying over and over, and even thought that at this point, she should just use Charm on every oppo.

  'Wait... my skills! Let's see if I put her to sleep.'

  Veronica closed in and got into a bind. She quickly tried to use her sleep spell, but she was, surprisingly, too slow to use it, and ended up on the ground again.

  "That was good thinking, Veronica. I have to admit, you almost got me there. But you we're just a bit too slow." Seraph pyed off. Veronica wasn't close at all!

  One more try. The two got bato their positions and readied for another round.

  Veronica went in low, to s her usual. This was a good start, until Seraph kept bag away and sidestepping around the pce.

  Needless to say, Veronica's pn was worthless if she didn't know what to do. And her minimal thinking, once again, put her on the ground.

  "What were you even trying to do there? I thought you were going to go after my legs there, but you never really did anything." She was left standing there, scratg at her head.

  "I don't kher. I just thought I could get to you by getting in from below... we go one more time? Maybe riomorrow ter as well?" Veronica said, trying to think of what she was supposed to do.

  "Sure thing. I've got nothing else to do anyways." She answered with another smile.

  Right, one more try. It was gettier all. So, one more shouldn't hurt.

  The two returo their positions o time. bat positions ready. And they went at each other.

  Veroncia tried to start off with a feint, but, even though Seraph initially fell for it, she was still able to block the real attack.

  Throughout this whole fight, Seraph hasn't attacked a siime. Allowing Veronica to keep swinging. Her unrefined movements being the main thing leading to so mas.

  Veronica went in for atack, but not only did she over extetack, but Seraph early dodged it with a sidestep. Veronica's st line of defense was to block against Seraph's ining attack! However, it came down too quickly for Veronica to react time. Meaning, she was on the ground, again.

  "Hm... alright, so, we'll o work on refining your bat style. If only you used a sword, then I'd be able to teach you better. Perhaps ter, right?"

  "Maybe. Depends on if my skill allows it."

  "That's true. Well, it's starting to get dark. Wanna call it a day and tihis tomorrow? At dawn, perhaps?"

  "Yeah. That'll be good. More training, the better."

  The two ughed a bit befiving each other a firm handshake and going their separate ways.

  Veronica wao get bae quick, otherwise Cassidy might be a little bit upset.

  Finally back, Veronica opehe door and was met with... ess. Everyone was just doing their own things.

  "Wele back, Ver!" Cassidy greeted from the couch.

  "I'm back! I'm going to go take a shower, any oo go first?"

  "Nope, we're all good, I think." Aviris responded, as everyone was doing just fine.

  Veroniodded, put away her gear and took a shower.

  After her shower, she ate Eleanora's cooking, which was fantastic, theo sleep, while a princess and Cassidy snuggled with her.

  She was surprising fortable with all these girls. Maybe she should get a bigger bed...