Preparing for War

Miriam lead Proteus up to the human part of the spire, the memories of what had happened on the other side clear in her mind. She had to calm herself down and force a straight face once she saw the stained blood pools over there, blood was everywhere.
There was also blood on the human side, soaked into the wood and then stained, but this was not her own. The pool of blood simply made her smirk with the knowledge of having hurt a demon that badly. Yet another proof of yet another battle she had won against Rin.
"You still have your knife don't you?" she asked, knowing he probably would unless he was stupid enough to give it away.

He followed Miriam on the spire, his glance captured by the blood's spots here and there. he could only imagined what had happened there, but he decided to avoid thet thought that the same thing was probably going to happen to him. At her question he turned toward her and nodded "I do. What do we do now?"

She eyed the hole. It had seemed far bigger from the other side, but it was still too far to jump across. She would not take the chance in falling down, she was far from an athlete, and she had no idea how long she would be able to jump.
"You show me how to use it," she said simply as she turned to face him, but sat down against the wall, eyeing him.
She winced slightly as her back hit the wall. It had still not recovered completely, but it was getting far better, and it had never been something she was willing to complain about in any case, so she simply kept quiet about it, hoping he wasn't noticing her occasional wincing.

He looked at her just for one moment, surprised for her request, but the surprise didn't last for long. He nodded to her and, handing her the knife, he said "Imagine i'm a demon, show me how you would use the knife." then he felt like to point out "just... don't cut me for real" he said it in a lightly joking tone, but he felt like with her it would have been better point it out.

She was surprised when he handed her the knife, having expected him to show her how it was done at first.
Wincing she got to her feet once again, not wasting time by complaining as she stood before him, spreading her feet to give her enough balance to attack before she lunged, slicing the air only an inch or two beside him.
"Or maybe you should learn how to dodge," she smiled slyly, but it was only a joke, she would not purposely cut him.

He smiled slightly to her, at her joke, before to focus again on his 'lesson':
"First thing: usually when people attack they go for the neck, so everybody tend to protect it. When you attack, go for the inner tigh: everyone forget how important it is." in a light sly smile he continued "it's not an honorable thing to do, but i guess we are behind honor, now."

She laughed, taking a couple of steps towards him, letting the blade of the iron knife rest on his chest.
"Those parts are far too important to slice at," she said seductively, though it was all just a joke to her and she quickly stepped away from him again, positioning herself to attack once again, keeping her eyes on his face, to make sure he was ready before she made any sudden movements. When they were playing with knives, she preferred him to be as ready as she was.

He laughed a bit at her jokes "It's not like you would need them" he replied jokingly, without knowing how fare he was from the truth, in her case and with a particoulare demon. But when, she positioned herself again to attack, he assumed again a aserious expression, ready for her attack.

"You never know," she answered him, still meaning it as a joke, but her face went serious as she thought back to Rin. It was bad to miss him like she was, but she could not help it. Any room they had met, any words reminding her of him, stung in her chest like an annoying mosquito bite. Luckily she knew she was still not above killing him, though she would regret it deeply. At least she was still in control.
Lunging she slaced between his legs, but careful not to hit anything. She had been dangerously close to his private parts, and couldn't help but smirk knowing she had probably scared him more than necessary.

He smiled slightly to her, but he was still too focused on her coming attack to actually laugh. When she actually attacked, heading toward his inner legs, he managed to don't move, but his heart beated a bit faster, hoping to can actually trust the girl and her ability to stop in time. Once she stopped he breathed again. "Good, but when you attack they won't just wait for you to do it like i'm doing. You have to be ready to defend yourself, try it again."

"I've fought worse things that you," she told him as she lunged again, this time towards his shoulder on the opposite side of where she had already attacked to throw him off. She doubted he had expecting her to change sides, and a self-confident smirk was visible as she attacked.

He followed carefully her movements and when she changed direction, attacking his shoulder, he waited the right moment to grab her arm and, in a fluent movement, slip behind her and imobilize her, pointing the knife, still in her hand, to her own throat. "And i've studied a lot this stuffs." he replied to her, without being arrogant but pointing that he knew what he was doing "Good attempt, but you have to protect yourself better or it would be useless." he continued letting her go.

Her heart skipped a beat as he pointed the knife towards her, but more so about him winning, and his body so uncomfortably close to hers than because of the knife. Not even Rin had gotten this close to her, and the sudden deprivement of personal space made her uneasy.
Annoyed that she had lost the battle she pushed him away from her with a frown, but quickly smiled instead, knowing this was a good thing.
"I see I picked a good ally," she laughed instead, not wanting to focus on her loss.

A slight smile appeared on his lips when she pushed him away, and he tried to avoid it, but then when she laughed he laughed a bit with her. "Glad that you think so" he replied in an amused smile.
"Now, try again" he said to her taking again his position, focusing again and waiting for his move "Remember, less offensive and more defensive"

"If I'm supposed to be defencive, wouldn't it be logical for you to come at me?" she joked, but quickly lunged at him again, accidentally slicing his shoulder. It wasn't deep, and it barely even bled more than a paper cut, but it still threw her off, worried he might be upset about it. He wasn't nearly as used to pain as she was, and she quickly lost focus. "Shit, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed.

When she attacked he was ready for her attack, but didn't expect her to actually hurt him: when she did he just exclaimed a little 'ah!', more for the surprise than for the pain. He was actually used enough to pain and had a high threshold of pain thanks to the sport: he never needed to fight for real, but it wasn't even the first time that something like that happened. He smiled to Miriam, reassuring her "No matter, things like that happens." He looked for a second at the light cut, it was nothing serious, and wasn't even bleeding too much, it didn't even hurt, but he didn't want to soil the shirt so he prefered take it off and put it on a clean part of the floor. "It's not like i have a lot of replacements for that shirt" he joked to her, before to posion himself again "Try it again... but this time you can avoid the cut part" he said in a joke before to turn serious again and wait her to attack again

She laughed a little at his words, knowing what he meant, but she felt it was inevitable to loose some clothing.
She looked down on her own ripped and bloody top, knowing this wasn't even her first top. She had been lucky enough to get one from Cinderella's closet, but she doubted after their last quarrel she would be kind enough to give her a second one.
"Yeah, I ought to know," she told him and rolled her eyes with a smile playing at the corner of her lips.
She got in position to charge again, but worried she might cut him again she hesitated before doing anything. Finally she launched forward, slicing by his side, missing it by far too much. It was better to get too far away than too close after all, and yet she doublechecked to see he wasn't bleeding. She was a paranoid person, but she knew the feeling would pass in a couple more tries, so she didn't let it bug her.

When she missed him by so far he couldn't keep a light smile, but he made it immediatly disappear: he had no intention to tease her, neither by chance.
"Don't be afraid, try again" he said to her, remaining in his place
"You're really good, the technique is not the best but is really effective, and in a similar fight there's nothing more important." it was simply true, and he felt like it was a good moment to reassure her about her ability
"I can just teach you some more tricks, and a little more control if you want. Behind it, you're perfectly fine"

She rolled her eyes and quickly attacked again, closer to him this time.
She repeated it a couple of times, quickly after each other, in different places, but did her best to stay focused and not stab him. She didn't, and once she stepped away from him she smiled satisfied with herself. She had expected it to be far more difficult than this.
"Not that I need it," she smiled bitterly as she handed the knife back to him. "I don't have a knife," she admitted finally.
It was an embarrasing loss, and she knew she had needed it badly. She already regretting giving it to Rin, she had regretted it the second she had dropped the knife to the floor and kicked it over, but she could not undo the past, and her little comfort was knowing Rin was probably safe now by the result of handing in the knife. However, that was still a small comfort if it meant she might die as a result.

He nodded to her, hiding his surprise, then, taking the knife back, he waited a few seconds before to reply "But demons have weapons, and good ones." he remembered the knife she had showed him: he asked himself how she had lost it, but he prefered avoid the question, after all it was evident she had fought, she had had to lost it in the fight. "We can search a way to obtain more weapons, taking them from them..." he looked at her serious, he didn't even know if it was possible, but it could maybe worth an attempt...

She nodded, but was afraid it would cause problems if Alistair's weapons were stolen once again. In either case, she didn't think it would directly harm Rin, as this time he would have nothing to do about the disappearance of the weapons. She was more concerned about his foolish plan to destroy Alastair's base. However, if he succeeded it would be far easier to gain a weapon or two.
"Maybe," was all she said, not daring to raise her hopes. It was still a great risk after all, and she was well aware it was hidden in the demon's base. Infiltrating the crypt was not impossible, but escaping it alive just might be. Not a risk she was willing to take.
Her stomach growled with the force of a motor, not having eaten in several days. As she had gotten to the rectory her first instinct had been her shirt and her wound, but now food seemed to be an urgent need if she was not to pass out.
"I never did take you up on your breakfast offer," she smiled weakly as she slumped against the wall, hinting to the fact that now would be a good time to do so.

Her weak reply didn't let his idea slip away, on the contrary he kept thinking of it "If you know where the weapons are, and if we prepare ourselves enough, we could be able to take a few more weapons and to come back alive... it's surely risky but maybe not impossible... we could even need more help... do you think that that boy... Thomas, right? Could help us?" he asked looking at her, then, when her stomach grownled and at her words, he looked at her, realizing that maybe it wasn't a good moment for it. "Well... that could be a good moment" he replied with a smile, recovering his shirt and turning to wait for her to come back in the kitchen.

She smiled gently at him, a rare gesture, before she got to her feet and followed him to the stairs.
She counted the days in her mind, knowing they had been there longer than a week, possibly two, but she was satisfied with that. It meant most of the food still hadn't expired, and they would not be forced to go over to the crap canned food Frollo had stored. She dreaded the moment they would have to, but there was a lot she dreaded, and the food was not one of her biggest concerns at all.
She simply followed him quietly, wondering hungrily what food awaited her.