Luvi had been on the move since before the sun rose. She had rode her horse alongside the caravan at a reasonable pace throughout the forest, letting herself take in the beauty that made up the area surrounding Melrath. The more time she spent out here the more she wanted to visit. As she made her way through the various fields, she kept to the beaten main paths and went into a forest. She had spent some of her time riding and some of it walking. If not for the others around her, she knew that she would have probably gotten lost pretty quickly.
Not having to worry about navigation meant she had plenty of time to be struck by the beauty of nature and keeping an eye out for trouble. It seemed that every time she left town there was someone trying to ruin her day, be it a bandit or something more dangerous. She focused on looking for movement, but every time it was just an animal. Keeping vigilant made her stressful and her horse shared her emotion. It could sense that Luvi was on edge and that also made it nervous. Luvi noticed the signs when her horse suddenly started picking up speed when she spotted a deer prancing by.
After several hours, she saw something that grabbed her attention. As the caravan made its way past it, Luvi wondered if it really was she thought it was. It was! She saw a very old cabin that looked like it was beaten out of shape. Time and the surrounding vegetation had not been very kind to this poor home. The ground around the home was littered with trees that looked to be hundreds of years old and some were even pressing against the weak home. She looked behind the home and saw a manmade pond that was connected to a small stream of water which disappeared into the foliage.
There was a clearing up ahead where the caravan stopped to rest, meaning that people were free to roam a little and stretch their legs. Luvi went back to the cabin and started looking around inside of it. There was no door and judging by how many woodland critters were inside the home, she didn’t think anyone lived here. There was nothing of value as far as she could tell.
“Why would someone build a home here of all places,” Luvi wondered. Melrath was huge and the woman knew that there were plenty of towns scattered about, but they weren’t anywhere near one of those. This was quite a ways away for someone to trek by foot. Luvi thought that this might be a pretty good place to sleep for the night, given that nobody came after her with an axe. Luvi sat outside the house for a while and looked around at the peaceful scenery and eventually saw an axe buried into a tree. The bark had grown over it so it looked like a handle was just sticking out of the tree. What a coincidence this was, now she had something to split some wood with.
Luvi walked over to the axe and pulled to see if she could remove the axe. She peeled away some of the bark and saw that this was really buried in there. She added strength runes to her arms and legs and even her torso to put as much power as she could into pulling the axe out. There was a loud cracking sound when the handle ripped off of the blade and Luvi staggered away from the tree. This hadn’t exactly gone as planned.
She was able to regain her balance when her back touched another tree. She looked down at the axe handle in her hand, not that it would ever do her any good. She had wanted to get the axe and start splitting some wood but that wasn’t going to happen now. She dropped the handle and looked around for something else to do. Her goal of pretending to be a lumberjack went out the window without a tool to chop wood. Her whole body surged with strength that was just itching to be used so she decided to use it. She wasn’t in the city anymore so she could strike without holding back and witness what kind of destruction she was capable of.
Luvi walked over to the tree with the axe head still buried in it, giving herself ample space away from the large plant. She took a deep breath, planted her feet firmly, and started kicking it. Despite her determination, she struggled to do so properly. It was no secret that she had trouble kicking. All those years of wielding swords had honed her blade skills, but she knew that a well-timed kick could be equally effective in combat, offering a versatile option when she was disarmed or needed to create distance.
What she was working on was a front kick. It seemed like the most applicable one to sword fighting as it required little adjustment to her normal swordsman stance. She found her balance on one foot and started extending her opposite leg over and over again, experimenting with the different parts of the foot that she could strike with. It felt most natural to kick with the ball of her foot in this position.
As she kicked, Luvi's mind wandered to the intricacies of kicking. A moving target could easily make her miss, and missing while kicking powerfully could throw her off balance, sending her body twisting unpredictably. This instability was something she hadn’t yet mastered. Stabilizing herself was going to be crucial, especially when delivering powerful kicks. Despite her struggles, she persevered, her long hair swaying with each attempt. The impact of her kicks made noticeable scrapes in the tough tree bark due to her enhanced strength. She focused on her breathing and form, trying to channel her frustration into improving her technique.
Eventually, the tree began to show signs of permanent damage. The bark was chipped and dented from her relentless kicks. Realizing that continuing would only harm the tree further, she decided to take a break. She glanced at the runes on her body, wondering how long their effects would last. However, she wasn't worried about her ether pools depleting from something as simple as kicking practice. She had more than enough energy reserves for that.
Turning her attention to another tree, Luvi shifted her focus to her punches. She unleashed a flurry of sloppily-thrown punches, starting with two quick jabs, followed by a cross, and ending with a left hook. It went a lot better in her head. In reality, she found that she paused between attacks a bit too long as she worked on twisting her body in the correct direction. She worked on the combo, having seen something similar pulled off before and feeling determined that she could succeed if she kept working at it.
Her fists, mutated into near armored tissue, hammered against the tree bark without suffering any damage. Her mutation absorbed the impact, sparing her from the pain of hitting such a rough surface. With each punch, she felt the vibrations travel through her arms, reminding her of the power she could unleash.
“What did those trees ever do to you?” asked a voice from behind the brush.
Luvi turned to see a familiar figure pushing its way towards her. It was the lady who’d given her some riding tips not too long ago. Marcelline was her name, and she was carrying a basket of berries. “It was either kick the trees or find someone to use as a test dummy,” Luvi replied with a laugh.
“Some would say we’re lucky we haven’t run into trouble today,” Marcelline said with a sigh, “but if you want someone to fight against, my son is an aspiring swordsman. I am sure he would love to have a go.”
“Oh? You have a son with us? I had no idea,” Luvi said curiously.
“Yes, he’ll be along shortly.” As if on cue, a man in his late teens stepped through the brush carrying several baskets of berries with him.
“Charlie, Luvi here said she’d be happy to spar with you,” explained the mother.
The boy blushed when he saw Luvi standing there expectantly, with her own sword half drawn. “Right, umm… I’ll set these down then,” he said, putting the baskets off to the side and drawing his gladius.
Luvi knew it was dangerous to practice with sharp weapons, but she didn’t think she had to worry much when she had enhanced strength and was likely skilled enough to keep the both of them safe. She finished drawing a katana and held it with both hands – an odd thing for her to do, but if she was going to be sparring against this man, she wanted to get something out of it.
“Your move,” she said as she held the sword out in front of her in a defensive stance.
Charlie took several cautious steps towards her and went for a swing. He aimed for her sword but he found that his strike did little to move her sword. Luvi pushed against his blade, drew hers back, then went for a quick cut towards his stomach which she stopped right before it hit him.
They both took a step back, ready to start again. Charlie approached from a different angle, this time swiping at her legs. Luvi normally would have used one sword to block it then another sword to counter attack, but only having one sword proved to be an annoyance. She blocked the attack but was surprised by a quick follow up. She had to twist her body to avoid a follow up stab.
Finally taking this fight somewhat seriously, Luvi’s mind filled with apathy for the boy, taking the opportunity to grab his wrist tightly enough to make him drop his sword and yelp out in pain.
“Oy, what’d you do that for?” he asked angrily as Luvi kicked his sword back over to him.
“You almost stabbed me. If you’d failed that in a real fight, you’d be dead,” Luvi said coldly.
“Play nice, you two,” Marcie said from the sidelines.
They went several more rounds before Charlie ultimately gave up, claiming that he was too tired to keep going. Luvi enjoyed their time together, even if she did come off as a little strange due to the mental effects of her mutations.
