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The training grounds felt more like home to Hanna than her own bedroom did at times. Her bedroom had the bonus of a door that she could shut and close out the world, at least for a time. But the training grounds had fresh air, purpose, and always someone to talk to there. Her extra hours on the field had given some definition back into her arms. She by no means looked buff, but when she hoisted Adelphe into the air, ripples of muscles pressed into view through the soft flesh of her skin.

On this particular day, the sun was high in the sky, but rainclouds were heavy around it, casting everything in gray. It wouldn't be her first time fighting in rain, nor her last, but Hanna didn't particularly want to damage another pair of shoes the way she had when she sparred Neomi. As long as Caelius was keeping Death Hunters from going on leave, she was going to need to beg, borrow, and steal until she was actually able to replenish her wardrobe.

Her hair was pulled back from her face by a red bandana folded into a headband. Her hoody was draped over a training dummy a few feet away. She wore a black tank top with the symbol for the Deathly Hallows printed on it in faded white ink, capris-length running pants, and Converses. Now she just needed Finn to get here.

They had met weirdly. He approached her in the cafeteria and initiated a casual conversation. Somehow it turned into talk of sparring, then an offer to spar -- and now she was here? He seemed nice enough, and Hanna was all about getting to know people better. It sucked to look around at a crowd of people and realize everyone was better friends with each other than they were with her. Like going to a wedding where all your friends are bridesmaids and you are left at the weird table in the back with the bride's creepy uncle and the cousin she hates but had to invite to please her family.

While she waited, Hanna casually stretched, lunging forward and gripping her ankles with both hands.

Hanna rubbed tiny circles into her calves as she lunged, working out the strain of the previous day's work out. She didn't stop her stretching as Finn approached. She just switched to the other leg. His weapon was pretty huge, which was saying something since Hanna's weapon was (she thought) large. Touching her toes one last time, she rolled her neck and then fixed Finn with an easy grin.

"So I guess this is the I show you mine, you show me yours bit," she said, pulling each of her wing-shaped, bone earrings from her earlobes. The size warped as she brought them together, growing larger and glowing a faint yellow. A lock snapped into place, and within moments, Hanna was grasping The Lady -- a fiercely hooked twin blade. She twirled it once, felt the familiar weight of it in her hand. It was not a lightweight weapon, though it was certainly lighter than it appeared.

Hanna eased Adelphe to the ground, holding her upright by hanging on to one of the spiked protrusions above the left blade. "I've been doing a lot of hand to hand lately to improve my general reflexes. I'm trying to marry that practice with my weapon skills now -- maneuvering faster with Adelphe, as much as I can. So if you're feeling charitable, feedback there would be nice." The trainee had no delusions about her abilities. She was a work in progress, but she was well aware of it. Someone like Finn had logged more hours and could maybe help her improve. There was no ego involved here for her -- she just wanted to be better.

When Finn complimented Lady, Hanna quirked a smile. "That compliment is going to go straight to her head," she said, indicating the twin blade.

He is merely speaking the truth. Oh, I do like this one. Yes, let's keep him around, Adelphe purred in her mind.

Hanna pushed away her weapon's thoughts and instead focused on what was happening right in front of her. "Sounds good to me," she said, shifting into a slightly more offensive stance. The tricks with the lance might have been show-offy, but Hanna didn't care. She would learn nothing sparring people who were worse than her. If Finn was awesome, then that meant she could become more awesome fighting him.

Finn smirked in response and let his weapon stop with a quick flick of his wrist and his fingers wrapping around it tight, leaving it pointed straight up and down before he grabbed a hold of it with his second hand as well, lifting it up and turning it to a diagonal slant, clearly ready to block any incoming attacks.

"Well, I hope she isn't the type to become overbearingly egotistical when her ego has been inflated." His smirk widened, his eye narrowing as he waited for her to attack.

Maybe because he was expecting her to be weaker considering she was a trainee (and a girl, but he wouldn't say that out loud when he was attempting to get along), but he was not ready for when she did attack him, and how she went about it. He thought she might come at him from above, something he could have blocked and shoved off with is lance. Instead, the attack came with a sweeping slice from below, and while Finn tried to backtrack away from it, turning his body to the side and attempting to block what he could, she hit him with a solid strike, one that tore against his shield and left him with an arc of pain blossoming up the side of his rib cage.

Pivoting so as to guard that side from another attack, he held his lance up at the ready again, this time feeling much more prepared, his lesson learned.

"That was good. Think you can get one past me again?" There was amusement in his voice despite the fact that he was mentally cursing himself out.

HP: 44
Damage: N/A
Defending self for: 7
Charge: 0/3

The blade of her weapon came crashing against Finn again, but this time he had anticipated her power much better then he had before, his weapon up and deflecting the blow with muscles straining in his arms and shoulders before with a little extra strength and power, he was able to push her off, though it seemed that she was already off balance.

Or so she seemed to be indicating by her clipped sentences. Inwardly, Finn was eye rolling and sneering, because excuses, it seemed like all women had them in the face of failure. Outwardly, however, he continued to smile, spinning his lance in front of himself while he waited for her to ready herself once more.

"Well then, darling, why not give it another go?" His lance still spun as he watched her, carefully, waiting to see what move she would make next.

HP: 44
Damage: N/A
Defending self for: 3
Charge: 1/3

With his weapon spinning around instead of held stoic in front of himself, waiting to be used to block, Finn found it sometimes easier to block the blows that were sent his way, though this time in particular it felt as if Hanna had perhaps lost some momentum after her feint.

"Sometimes it's better to just give it your all, instead of trying to get fancy." Finn commented, despite the fact that he himself was most definitely the more showy type. "Go ahead and give it another shot." He could spend another round defending, as he certainly did not feel any reason to prove his strength in any other way. What would really be the point of accepting an invitation to spar a trainee only to beat them into the ground before getting to know them a bit first?

"So, been on the island long, sweetheart?" He asked, an attempt at idle conversation because why the hell not? This was supposed to be friendly as well as educational, after all, and Finn could certainly play the friendly card when needed.

HP: 44
Damage: N/A
Defending self for: 8
Charge: 2/3

Finn wondered if something big might be coming the second he noticed those runes beginning to glow. She had certainly hit him, or his weapon at the very least, enough times to have garnered a charge, but he had wondered if she would bother to use it. They hadn't discussed whether or not they should be allowed, which by default to him meant that this was a no holds barred match up and all the stops could be pulled.

To him, while the mostly but not quite all deflected blow was painful, he was also helplessly intrigued by it. Where the strike landed burned horribly, leaving him him wondering if his shield had somehow failed him and he had ended up cleaved, with flesh that felt like it was being eaten away. When he looked down, he could see that it was not so, and he jerked himself away with a sharp intake of breath that hissed through his teeth.

"Impressive." Finn stated, a free hand going to press against where he had been hit, though his other hand held his lance up in case it was needed to stave off anymore blows. In the back of his mind, Trynt growled, a harsh sound, but one Finn recognized as a signal for him that his charge limit had been reached. At her confession of the years she'd been on the island, he tilted his head to the side. "Also impressive, though not in the same way, I'm afraid."

Three years? Interesting. And re-podded to boot. Finn had often wondered if he might get the same treatment, back when he had first started but had all but refused to participate. Much had changed since then, and he had, perhaps, grown up a little bit in that time, or at least enough to realize that this was where he was going to be for the rest of his life, however stunted that time might now be, and he'd rather be out of the pod doing something with that time that he had left.

Like helping trainees with their weapons, it seemed, though Finn's interest in being a human training dummy was fast beginning to wane.

With a thinly veiled cold smile, he began to spin his weapon in front of him again, it's runes glowing bright magenta, a blur of black, white, and bright hues as he tossed it up in the air above him. Within a second, the air around him began to swirl, before closing in, the area around him taking on an opaque shade of very light pink as a barely visible barrier closed around him.

"Robert. I know him, and Bix...slightly less." He hadn't really spoken to either man at great length, though in an alternate universe, Bix had been dating his adopted sister, Ceres.

"All right, darling, lets see what else you got."



HP: 38
Damage: N/A
Charge: 3/3 -(using)

Finn gave a cold grin in response, "So you've said before." He replied, as Trynt fell and landed back in his hand, the barrier, just that little bit of added protection, quite secure (for now, at least).

"So, what did you do to earn yourself a trip back into the pods?" He asked, leaning back as her weapon sliced through the air, taking a break from teaching her to make some idle conversation instead, however blunt the question may be.

With his shield up, Finn hardly needed to add any extra defense, so he took a moment to consider his opponent, weapon still held at the ready, but his stance shifting as his eye narrowed at her. Pivoting forward while suddenly dropping into a crouched position, Finn swept out at her legs with his lance, hoping to knock her off balance.



HP: 38
Damage: 4
Charge: 1/3