60 - Bia

60 - Bia
“I take it you’re Master Alre’s familiar.” Xavier said, breaking the silence that had fallen between the two.
Bia turned her attention to Xavier. “I am. You sparred hand-to-hand with his majesty?”
“Yeah…” Xavier nodded, watching as Bia rolled her shoulders in response.
Xavier wonder what she was doing when her wings suddenly disappeared. It made her look almost human. If it weren’t for her sharp eyes, anyone would have assumed she was a regular person.
“Alright, I’ll fight in full human form too.” Bia murmured as she stepped closer to Xavier. “You won’t use claws or anything like that?”
“I won’t.” Xavier responded, pausing for a moment. “By the way, are you a crow?”
“Raven.” Bia corrected. “Any more questions or are we fighting?”
“One more.” Xavier answered. “Could you explain that box thing you brought here.”
“It’s a message box.” Bia explained as she stepped into the sparring circle Alre had created earlier. “You state your message inside and put a spell on it that only the person you want to hear the message will hear it.”
“And the fire?” Xavier questioned, a little impressed by the whole idea.
“His majesty destroying the box.” Bia shrugged. “Now let’s fight.”
Xavier nodded in agreement, raising his guard up. Bia smiled before doing the same, suddenly rushing close to Xavier for an opening attack.
He quickly blocked off the punch, a little shocked at the force of Bia’s punches. Xavier tried to counter attack but as well as being powerful with her punches, Bia also seemed light on her feet.
Xavier had a feeling it was because she was a bird. Her power probably came from Alre’s magic. Still, Xavier wondered was her true strength was if this was her holding back.
“Focus!” Bia snapped, coming in for another hit.
Xavier blocked it only to realize it was a fake as Bia went in for a kick, nearly sweeping him off his feet. Thankfully, Xavier’s wolf gave him a warning, his reflexes making him jump back and away from the attack.
Bia’s grin widened and she went a little harder with her attack, Xavier blocking most of them with a few painful hits getting past him.
The two continued to swap attacks when Bia suddenly stepped out the sparring circle ending their sparring match. Xavier watched Bia a little confused, sweat beading on his forehead.
“Why stop the match?” Xavier huffed out as he straightened up and stretched his aching muscles. “Tired of fighting?”
Despite his last comment, Bia seemed far from tired. In fact, she looked the same as when she had first transformed from her raven form to human form.
“I’m not tired.” Bia rolled her eyes at Xavier. “Rather, this fight of ours is boring. Your attacks are good but a little weak. You also lack creativity with them and create patterns for yourself. It’s pointless fighting with you if I don’t get those bad habits out of you.”
Xavier was a little surprised at her words. He didn’t think Bia would get so much from just one spar with him. Still, there was something pricking the back of his mind.
“If I have so many issues, why has Master Alre not said anything after we spar?” Xavier asked.
“Because he believes one should find their faults themselves.” Bia shrugged. “Whatever the case is, the way you fight annoys me which is why I said something. By the way, are you able to transform parts of your body?”
Xavier was a little confused at her words before realizing what she meant. Quickly, he held out a hand and turned it into a wolf claw.
“Like this?” Xavier asked.
“Yes.” Bia nodded. “That’s exactly what I was thinking about. How fast can you transform your hand like that during a fight?”
“It’s pretty instant but in a fight may take a few seconds longer because I need to focus on maintaining it without fully becoming a wolf.” Xavier mused. “Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking about maybe having you attack using your wolf claws at random during a fight.” Bia explained to Xavier. “Your fighting skills in your human form are fine for the most part but some of your attacks are weak like I said earlier. Using wolf claws could strengthen your attacks while also adding a surprise element could be helpful too…”
Xavier was silence for a moment taking in Bia’s words. He’d never really thought about fighting using parts of his wolf form. Then again, he mostly used his wolf form to fight.
It was rare that he really got into fights that needed him to be in his human form. He had only learnt how to properly fight with his human form because his father had him and his siblings all train in both their human and wolf forms.
“I guess it’s not a bad idea.” Xavier finally said. “However, I’m not sure how it’s going to work. It takes a lot of energy to maintain a hand like this so I’ll need to practice.”
“Of course. I don’t expect you to master it right away. All it was, was an idea to help you in combat.” Bia smirked. “Besides, we have lots of time to practice this… You only have training sessions in the morning, right?”
“I do.” Xavier responded. “However, I also have Fae lessons in the afternoon.”
“Hmmm….” Bia went silent for a moment. “Can you spare two hours in the evening? I’d like to watch over your wolf claw training since I did give you the idea.”
Xavier didn’t really like the idea of having to lose two hours with Clare in the evening, especially when they really got any alone time with their busy schedule.
But at the same time Xavier knew this was something he couldn’t easily turn down. He was getting an offer from someone powerful to help him improve his fighting skills and learn a skill that could one day be helpful to him in battle.
It meant only one answer could be said.
“Alright, I’ll do an extra two hours training with you.”