Blake strided across the office, heading to Arianna. [i]Finally...the culmination of my efforts. The [b]other[/b] child is here with one of the scouts.[/i] Blake's dark expression flashed over his face for only a second before being replaced with a visage of determination and curiosity.

[u][i]"Blake, you know you've got to play this right...I'm not going to let you kill her in front of these Golden Mercenaries. Stay in character, play your role, you're supposed to act as a Squad Leader for these hosts. Don't you dare reveal yourself, we have a plan to stick to.[/u][/i]"

Blake internally groaned, but walked out of the office towards Arianna nonetheless, as he overheard her conversation with Raeven and interjected when Raeven walked off. "Hello! I couldn't help but to have heard your conversation with one of the Mercenaries here. Telepathy? That's an interesting power if I may say so myself." Blake sighed internally, but knew he couldn't drop his ground around her with this newfound annoyance. 

[i]"Dama, can you start depicting your memories or start rambling whenever I'm nearby her? I can't afford to let her read me, lest you lose a fine host.[/i] 

The reply he received was merely a hearty chuckle, as Blake felt his mind become flooded with Void nonsense. Relaxation blanketed Blake like a cool wind. "I'm signed up to be a Squad Leader, and it's quite impressive that you've got a grasp over swordsmanship. I'm a swordsman myself." Blake patted his bandaged sword.

"Would you be up for a spar at the training grounds? My name's Blake, by the way. We can get acquainted since we'll be working in tandem during group-Squad operations; it'd be interesting to spar with you, and we could learn one another's fighting styles on the off-chance I end up becoming your Squad Leader." Blake said softly, in a benevolent and caring tone.

Arianna blinked, a little caught off guard by the amount of spar-buddies she was finding in one night. To be honest, she'd been looking forward to her new cot, but at the moment, she wanted to find out what this Squad Leader's interesting sword could do. "I suppose a spar wouldn't hurt," she said, smiling softly at him. "I'm Arianna. What type of sword is that? Is that a core?"

Blake smiled warmly."It's a special type of core. The core itself is incredibly old, one of the oldest. It's undergone modifications from Core Researchers, such as David Chrystein, and then forged by the great blacksmiths of Wintra. It was given to me as a gift here in Sovereign, and it suits my Kage very well. I'll tell you now that it's a Flame Core, but not the type you're expecting." He explained, gesturing towards the fields. "Ladies first." He chuckled. Arianna smiled at the mention of her father's name. "David is actually my father. I'm surprised he never told me about such an interesting core," she said as she began to walk towards the training grounds. "He used to always share his inventions and discoveries with me."

Blake held back his urge to grab Arianna by the hair and bash her skull into the concrete of the wall the two were next to outside the office and began to walk, headed for the training grounds. "This was a discovery made by a Corologist, but your father and a team of geniuses had worked together on the modifications. It was just finished the day....well, you know." Blake looked down solemnly, feigning remorse. "It was given to me then, and I've had a little over a year with it. Kataskai's her name, and I do believe it was your father who christened her. It was his final invention before he headed to Argos and the wall went up, I believe. Quite ironic I will be using it against you." Blake said to Arianna sweetly, despite the weight of his words carrying much more malice, unbeknownst to her.

Arianna's smile softened as she thought of her dad, then chuckled. "I'm interested in what it can do, and I suppose the best way to do that is to fight against it." She found an empty spot to spar by the lake and pulled her rapier from her belt loop. "I haven't really thought of naming my rapier. The only special thing about it is that it has survived this long."

Blake smiled. "You should have a connection with your sword, like you may with your Kage. It tells a beautiful story, dances gracefully, and sings a song unlike any other." Blake grabbed his sword handle from his back, and the bandages fell off the blade. "[b]A song of fire.[/b]" Blake said slightly menacingly, as he charged at Arianna with the blade in one hand, a display of his adeptness with the weapon. Arianna moved into a defensive position and raised her rapier, clashing with Blake as she blocked his attempt. She took a small step back and to the side to handle the impact, then tilted her rapier to the side to let his sword slide off of hers. She moved to a better position before making her move, stepping forwards and bringing her rapier down hard onto his sword.

The rapier collided with a groove in Blake's sword as he positioned his sword to have the impact occur there, allowing Blake to curve Arianna's rapier upward and inward towards her. "I told you, this is no ordinary core. Ancient technology and modern modifications have birthed the most elegant of lovechilds." [i]Unlike you...[/i] Blake thought, as he gripped his sword tighter and the sword was enveloped in a bright blue flame. Blake waved the sword in Arianna's direction nonchalantly but quickly, waiting for her reaction. Arianna took a step backwards as she stopped her blade from coming any further to herself. She watched the sword, trying to figure out its purpose. "What kind of core is that, if not a regular flame core?" She asked before spinning and sending her sword colliding with his, attempting to knock it out of balance.

Blake simply smiled. "An Ancient Core. It was a Blue Flame core even before your father and his team got their hands on it, but they've added some tweaks to it. You won't see those today." He explained, letting the sword's tip touch the floor as he used it as a pole, lifting his whole body with the force and swinging around towards Arianna to attempt to kick her in the stomach. Arianna watched closely as he leaned on his sword and immediately ducked, letting his feet fly over her. She simultaneously swung her rapier at the sword, clashing with it as she tried to dislodge it from the ground.

The sword was kicked up, and Blake used the force to bring it back upwards, letting it go as it went into the air. He kicked off Arianna's rapier, using it to push himself into the air. Blake then grabbed the sword from mid-air, and twirled in Arianna's direction with the sword facing downward to create a Blue Flame spiral headed towards her. Arianna's eyes widened in awe before her instincts kicked into gear. She rolled out of the way, taking her rapier with her, just before the spiral collided with the ground. Quickly, she got to her feet, watching the blue flame interact with the ground. "Amazing."

Blake nodded silently as the flame dissipated from the ground. "I extinguished the fire using my ability to prevent damage to the area as this is a spar, but I haven't used my powers as to keep this fair. Would you like to keep it that way?" Blake asked her 
quietly. Arianna looked at him, "What ability do you have, exactly? Is it some sort of core or fire manipulation?" Either one of them seemed plausible to her.

Blake shrugged. "In a way. I'm a Spirit specialist. I'm actually Blake Ketrius. So I can explain to you that a Kage's power tends to manifest by interacting with a person's spirit, memories, and personality in an odd way alongside the Kage's own reserves to generate powers. I have a vast manipulation over energy itself. That means I have full reign over how my fire moves, but it also means it'd be impossible for you to actually win a sword fight against me, as I'd simply absorb all the kinetic energy," he explained elaborately to Arianna. "I think it's better we continue our fight as is." Arianna nodded slowly, weighing her options. 

"Although your ability intrigues me, I think, to keep the spar fair, we should continue without our abilities. I'd like to test myself without them, unless you're willing for me to use mine while you don't use yours." She chuckled, wondering how that would turn out.

Blake simply nodded again. "I agree. Let us continue our fight, and if you begin to feel overpowered by Kataskai, feel free to use your powers while I contain mine." Blake slashed his sword down, sending a wave of blue flames towards Arianna, as he dashed behind the flames, jumped, and came down with a horizontal slash, sending out more flames and the slash itself. Arianna spun to the side, then stepped out of the way of the flames from above. She brought her rapier above her and let it clash with Blake's, then pushed up with her blade. She turned to face him as he landed and came at him from the left.

Again Blake caught the rapier in a groove on the side of his blade, and twisted his blade so the rapier was sent down, then immediately pushed the hilt of the blade up to elbow Arianna while Blake kicked the rapier outward as it came down to off Arianna's center of gravity. Arianna ducked to dodge the elbow, but lost grip of her rapier as he kicked it away from her. She immediately backed out of range of his sword, wondering if she could get it back without using her abilities.

Blake used this time wisely, slashing precisely as he advanced towards Arianna behind his flames, then spinning to send a flaming circle outward to prevent Arianna's advance. Amidst the heat, Blake took hold of Arianna's rapier from the ground. "Might want to use your ability." Arianna jumped and ducked, dodging the flames. She noticed the circle and dove forwards, slipping right through the center. She rolled to a halt, crouching in front of Blake. She stood and sighed. "I suppose so." Without another word, she linked her mind with her rapier and ripped it from his hand, letting it fly through the air towards her before she gracefully caught it. She whipped it around, warming up her arm a little more. "Continue," she said with a slight smirk.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "I heard Telepathy, not Telekinesis. You're something else, heh." Blake changed his stance, loosening his grip on his blade as it dropped slightly downwards. The blue flames danced along the blade, and Blake dashed towards Arianna, swirling and cutting in a completely new and unpredictable motion at Arianna complimented with flames. "Zōr Waraji!" He called out as he windmilled the blade to send a constant cyclone of blue flame at Arianna, and then sliced into the vicious spout to augment it with more flames protruding from it at random times. 

Arianna rolled out of the way of most of the flames, but used a flat rock laying near the lake to act as a shield from the rest. She then moved the rock aside as she swung her rapier up, clashing with his sword. She then twisted her sword and pushed it towards him, leaving his blade pointing upwards and being bent towards him. Blake was slightly burnt by the flame, and groaned. "Impressive." he kicked into Arianna's knee inwards, and pushed the hilt of the sword into the rapier, flicking it down. In a series of crescent strikes, he sent flame wave after flame wave at Arianna, coupled with actual sword strikes. 

Arianna smirked as he complimented her, then buckled as he kicked her knee, wincing. She backed away, keeping a tight grip on her rapier. She jumped and flipped over him, slashing downwards at him as she did so before landing behind him. Blake spun, sending more flames at Arianna. He then thrusted his sword forward and leaped at Arianna, bringing his sword to clash with her rapier and attempting to grab a hold of it with his free hand. 

Arianna barely dodged the flames before his sword clashed with her own. She felt his hand wrap around hers on the hilt in an attempt to grab it and narrowed her eyes before using his grip to yank forwards, simultaneously pushing outwards with the tip of her rapier. Blake's blade barely caught the rapier as he headbutted Arianna as he fell forward, scratching the rapier's blade across his torso as he forced the rapier upward into Arianna's chin and spun the blade around her to surround her in a tight circle of blue flame.

Arianna winced as his head collided with hers and quickly tilted her head back, the rapier nicking the bottom of her chin a little. She stumbled backward's a little, sucking in a breath of air through her teeth. She stopped as the flames surrounded her and frowned. "You definitely have an interesting way of fighting," she said, touching her chin to feel the nick.

The flames faded away and Blake bowed. "You as well. You're quite the exceptional swordsman, better than the ones you'll find here for sure. But I'm sure once the full training is underway and you've got a strong handle on your telekinesis, we'll have a power-inclusive fight. An even more interesting one, to say the least." Pulling out new bandages from his back pocket, Blake wrapped his sword and holstered it on his back before walking back to the Golden Mercenary main campground. "Good luck in Squad Placement!" Blake called out, hoping he would be her squad captain; a perfect opportunity to deal with her on a mission and preserve his "innocence" among his peers. 

Arianna watched him walk away, thinking over the spar that had just occured. She pulled the back of her hand away from her chin and saw a little blood, frowning lightly. If he could do that when he wasn't using her abilities, she wondered what he could do while using them. He was definitely a good fighter, no doubt cunning as well. His techniques weren't normally seen in a fight, and it brought new excitement to it. She chuckled before heading towards the hosts' dorms, her mind on the training that would take place in the morning. As she found her room, she noticed all of the other hosts asleep and made sure she was quiet as she found her cot and laid down, relaxing finally after a long, hard day. She removed her shoes and stretched, then curled up under the blanket. It wasn't long after her head hit the pillow before she was soundly sleeping. For the first time in a while, she didn't have to worry about anything but getting enough sleep.