Home is where the heart is.
And his heart, had no room left for the man he once called father.
Entering the hidden compartment built into the side of a space shuttle once more, he was greeted by a very judgemental lady.
Having endured an entire hours worth of scolding from Eva for escaping again when she had resolutely stated he should just stay back, he rubbed his sore head that had received not one, not two, but three hits onto the head.
And she was really good at hammering in the fact that he should listen to her.
It was surprising how well she could apply a technique meant to transfer force through a hard shell was now being used to hurt his head underneath the helmet.
Not that he'll listen, it was more likely he would disappear in hopes of scavenging some more rare goods
Thinking to himself in a rare moment of self reflection, Ester felt the box hidden in his pockets.
Having had his earnings disappear thanks to her confiscating it, Ester doubted that Eva would be using them for her own selfish reasons and returned to his little abode.
Or that was at least what he had hoped to do.
[You'll probably disappear again so I'll make this quick, follow me to the spar room.]
"What?"
[You heard me buster, I feel like working up a sweat.]
Rolling up her sleeves, Ester stared at her with a stunned gaze before following soon after.
"Are you sure? Isn't your throat still..." He gestured to his throat and mimicked crushing it. "This?"
[Don't you remember that I learnt under the same man? You just didn't see much of me since I was under her.]
[Besides, if I couldn't fight when it came down to it, wouldn't I have died long ago] Drawing a line across her neck, Ester nodded.
"Ah... That makes sense."
The Image of a lithe snake like man flanked by a woman in a thick robe came to mind, their faces shrouded in shadow.
"But still-"
[Shut it and fight me, I'm still pissed you left without informing me... again.]
"Okay..."
Following Eva to an empty cavern, Ester's eyebrows raised slightly once he noticed the numerous signs of expansion on the walls.
"You've been busy..."
[Yeah, now shut up and come at me.]
Tossing a pair of metal rods, without even glancing at her general direction, he caught the pair of Tonfas with one hand.
Feeling them up, he noted that they were of a similar size to his own pair albeit a bit lighter.
Tossing them between his hands back and forth, Ester continued to follow Eva until they were both standing in the center of the hall
At some point in time, Eva had picked up a long metal staff, unadorned of any trinkets.
"So... Spar rules?"
[The ones our mentors used.]
"Yep"
[Done.]
Bending her legs, Eva held the Staff low to the ground, low enough that just a slight movement could get it to tap against it.
Eyes pointing straight ahead like lamps in a fog, they focused onto Ester's own pair of grey eyes as he bent his knees and dropped low.
Back leg planting itself firmly on the tips of his toes, Ester dropped into a posture reminiscent of someone aiming to sprint.
Holding his pair of tonfa's upwards facing his face, the large metal rods rested against his arms as they both stared at each other.
"..."
[...]
Now in their combat ready stances, as if by some unseen signal, Ester was the first to make a move.
Dashing forwards, his hands tightly gripped his tonfas
Eyes glancing at Eva's face half hidden by the mask, he saw the place where her eyes were targeting.
'Bottom left'
Stabbing at his outstretched left foot, without missing a beat, he planted his right foot against the ground and slid his other foot away.
Spinning around, he continued to run forwards while Eva was still retrieving her staff.
But upon seeing that Ester was coming towards her at rocket speeds, instead of retrieving the spear to perform a second stab, she swung it upwards at his exposed side.
Anticipating such a movement, instead of pressing his advantage and jabbing his weapons into her throat before she could even react, he backed off with swift steps.
To begin with, this wasn't even a life or death situation where their lives were on the line and they could endure soft wounds for the sake of taking the others life.
"One."
Silently nodding her head, the following exchanges were swift, brutally honest, and possibly fatal if not for them escaping before the possible fatality.
Sweat now dropping from their foreheads in the bucketfuls, they continued to circle each other, the once pristine weapons now covered in slight dents.
Even their clothes weren't unspared, the dust and sweat clinging to their exposed skin.
They both didn't use Aether, an unspoken agreement to not use the already scarce pure aether they had extracted from the already dense atmosphere of fouled Aether
Continuing to circle each other, Eva spoke while Ester stayed silent. [Six to five, in my favor.]
Tightening his grip around the handle of the Tonfa in response, Ester silently noted that Eva's back was now facing one of the many pillars holding up this cavernous hall.
*Tap tap tap
Rushing towards her, his legs tensed like a bow before releasing the arrow that was Ester.
Both hands guarding his face, the tonfa's ends glinted underneath the dim lamp light as Eva instantly unleashed a volley of sharp thrusts meant to cut off all points of retreat.
But just because it cut off all points of retreat didn't mean that the path to advance was cut off in the slightest.
Blocking the first stab and turning it into a swing before the rebound could come back to attack his side, he moved forwards.
*Clang!
Metal colliding against metal, Eva used her hands as an anchor point and turned the other end of the staff once used to balance her thrusts into a tool to block Ester's advance.
Twisting around the tonfa so now that it's long end was now pointing outwards, Ester blocked the swung staff end.
Rebounding, the staff swung at the top of his head forcing Ester to retreat.
Now back to square one, Ester evaluated all of the possibilities he could exhaust before kil-beating his sparring partner.
Catching himself mid way, he compared the length of their weapons.
'Since my tonfa's are limited to as far as my arms can reach and then some while Eva's staff can reach roughly a meter away, I have to get up close and personal to unleash a fatal strike.'
'Thankfully she's pretty weak at close quarters combat, but if she blocks my initial rush, the initiative lies with her.'
Replaying the exact events that had led to six of his loses, Ester clenched the tonfa's tightly, there would be no seventh.
'Aha.'
Mind thinking up an idea, Ester subtly wiped the sweat from his forehead with his forearm
And that was all the opening that Eva needed.
Running forwards, she stabbed forth at his exposed chest.
And that was all the encouragement he needed, smiling subtly he ran forwards to meet her thrust.
Grabbing the length of the staff, with smooth movements he spun around while using the staff as an anchor point.
Twisting towards her, he was set on jabbing the tonfas into her stomach only to be stopped by her abrupt shoving motion.
'Desperate now.'
Having performed a move that would only weaken her stance due to the forceback that it could induce, although she had succeeded in getting Ester off of her, she paid the price in balance.
Something she hurriedly tried to remedy by backtracking her steps.
Also something that she couldn't do due to the fact that there was a pillar in her path.
Slamming into the wall, she instantly panicked and accidentally struck the edge of her staff against the pillar.
Still following closely while watching her staff movements, Ester's eyes widened as he noticed cracks running up the point of contact where her staff collided.
And following said line of cracks, they formed a circle and broke off into a large chunk of falling stone.
Instantly moving the aether in his body in response to the falling rock, the previously unspoken rules were broken.
Noticing the action, Eva instantly raised up her own Aether in response with a confused look on her face., but it wasn't enough as he grabbed her and dodged the falling pillar.
Flying to the side, the weapons lost during the grab were crushed by the falling stone
Landing on his back, Eva lay dazedly in his arms with a confused red look on her face.
"...Are you okay?"
[Wuh what]
A monotone yet mechanical voice that conveyed every strand of her confusion.
"Are you okay?"
[Uh.... Yes]
Grey eyes blinking as if lost in a fog of her own, Ester and Eva both flinched when the sound of something large crumbling reached their ears.
Instinctively tightening his grip around Eva's waist, her head was unwillingly buried into his chest as he kicked at the ground and dragged his body to the opposite end of the hall where things were safer.
It was only when after some time had passed and the sound of stone crumbling stopped did he peak over Eva's shoulder to look at the devastation.
Now nothing more than a large pile of rocks, Ester blinked in confusion upon seeing a large chunk of metal standing proud amongst the pile of stone.
"...Huh?"
Jaw dropping in confusion, his eyes shot up to the top of his skull as he instinctively loosened his grip around Eva's waist.
"Hey Eva, I think you should look at this-?"
And with the release of her waist, he was now able to hear the mechanical voice dulled by it being shoved into his chest
[Uuuuuuuuuuuuuu-]
"Did it break again?"
Blankly speaking, the long drone of uh's instantly ceased as Eva stared at Ester with pools of wet greys.
[...Idiot.]
"What?"
Instantly bolting upright, Eva jumped up from the ground and spun around to stare at the broken pillar, a mechanical voice interrupting his confusion.
[So what is that?]
"Huh? Oh that..."
Pushing himself up off of the ground, Ester rubbed the back of his neck with his left arm. "I don't know."
Still staring at the pile of rubble, her hands balled into tiny fists behind her back as she skipped towards the pile of stone.
[Why don't you help me find out]
"Sure."
Moving to help Eva, he grabbed a large stone and began to help her excavate the metal rod once hidden within the pillar.
It was strange how she was refusing to look at him no matter what he did though.
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