The Azra-El Series Ch. 17

"I was planning on doing the same..." she responded.

"Ely?" he said, suddenly wrapping an arm around her shoulder and drawing her closer. "Wanna mess with the Xian?"

"You will not cause a diplomatic incident!" she told him categorically, pushing him away.

Hehe. I need to find time to go to the library.

***

The next morning, the duo flew to the town to meet up with Jie Er and Rebecca. The Herald was a middle-class diner cum hotel located a few blocks away from the town center.

Rebecca opened the door of their room, dressed in a tiny thong and a tank top, while Jie Er was already dressed to go out. She sat at the tea table, sipping on tea whilst reading a newspaper, wearing a simple yellow gown that reached her knees.

The hotel lady excused herself, and Rebecca pulled Blaze into her bosom as the two younger angels stepped in. He grabbed her butt cheeks and squeezed, making sure that Ely couldn't see.

"Good morning, Elyssa. What do you kids want to do today?" Jie Er greeted them, setting her paper aside.

The Xian visit made up the front page of the Aranyan Weekly, and displayed several pictures of Ying Yue Shangdi and her daughter. The older princess was staying at Saket on a diplomatic mission while her daughter was visiting Tir.

"Anything, Aunty Jie Er. We could just spend time at a restaurant or walk around town and the otine groves."

"Okay, we shall discuss it over breakfast. But before that, I have something for Blaze," she said, bringing out a large black case from her space ring. "And this is for you. It is a water chestnut cake -- one of my specialties. It was meant for you and Siofra, but I did not not realize that she was leaving," she said, handing a box to Ely.

"Thank you, aunty," Elyssa took the box, as Blaze literally skipped over to the case, his eyes shining with excitement.

He flipped over the metal lock and opened the case to reveal a pair of metallic gauntlets snuggled within red velvet. They were beautiful, practical, and totally badass.

Blaze heaved out the right gauntlet and turned it around in his hands as he felt its weight. Made entirely out of overlapping scales of a silver colored metal, it was heavy. However, he would get used to the weight.

Five veins of emerald green ran along the inside of the hand and fingers, while golden stannium plates covered the knuckles and the joints of the fingers.

"Pure Viridian, unlike your bat," Jie Er said, as he ran his fingers over the smooth green metal. "Conducts energy, so manifesting energy weapons won't feel too different while wearing them."

Each gauntlet possessed a knob over the inch-long wrist guards, most likely to attach the stannium buckler that came along with the gauntlets. The sides of the gauntlets were lined with golden studs.

"Try them out," Jie Er said, smiling at the wonder in the two younger angels' eyes. Elyssa had picked up the other gauntlet and was examining it with the same amount of fascination as Blaze.

"Thrya proved herself to be a worthy successor to Valinna," Jie Er continued. "She wrote to me that it's a prototype, and that she had to remove several of its attachable features to make it useable in the tournament -- even the buckler will count as a third tool."

Blaze and Elyssa sneaked their respective hands into their gauntlet. Elyssa's proved to be a little loose for her narrow hand, but it was a snug fit for Blaze. After all, they were made over a cast of his hands. Blaze wriggled his fingers and was amazed by how smooth the movements felt, despite the metal covering them. He would've never guessed a metal gauntlet could be so flexible.

The two angels grinned at each other and threw a fist at the other. A loud metallic ring reverberated from a solid crash of fists. Their grins widened.

"Holy Pegasi Whiskers! These are so cool!" Elyssa cried. She had begun using the word after hearing it enough times from Blaze. "I need to order a pair for myself."

"Oi! Use your darned spear. Don't copy my style. Besides, I don't think you're as good as me in a fist fight," he told her smugly.

"Oh yeah? Why don't we have a go at it before the Xian come? I don't want to embarrass you in front of them," Elyssa grinned back.

"Meh, I don't punch my friends."

They took turns at trying out both the gauntlets, before reluctantly putting them back in the case and into Blaze's space ring.

"Your assignment for this break is to test out the gauntlets as much as you can," Jie Er told him, as they walked out for breakfast.

"Okay," Blaze readily agreed. "Why can't you stay and watch over my training?" he asked after a moment. Jie Er and Rebecca were leaving the following day.

"I would only get in the way of all the teachers, Blaze Er," Jie Er told him softly. "Besides, the Headmistress promised me that she would make sure to send me a detailed analysis of your training and progress. I will use it to make an appropriate training regimen for our next session."

After breakfast, they visited Sky at the aviary, and the bird went nuts at the sight of his whole family. He cooed and cawed and cackled as he ran around their ankles, rough-played with Splash, and took her flying in his claws. However, they could only spend an hour with him, but they left Splash to accompany him over the day.

The couple of days went by quickly as Blaze spent a frivolous time in the company of his favorite angels. Elyssa went back to the campus for the night, but she returned the next morning to find three completely exhausted and sleepless angels. She asked them why, but only received a vague response.

Jie Er and Rebecca visited Sky again that evening, before they were ready to head back to Varan.

"I have applied for a leave over your next break, Blaze Er," Rebecca told him, while hugging him in front of their carriage. Elyssa had left them early to prepare to receive Xian delegation. They were supposed to arrive a half-hour after his aunts' carriage to Varan. Blaze, however, wasn't expected to show up until their training started the next day.

"So, you will be coming with us?"

"Yes!"

Blaze was jubilant. Siofra was most likely to join them, and the only person he would miss would be Elyssa. However, he couldn't ask her to come, as her training with her deity mothers was more important.

"Don't think I will go easy on you, either. I am from the army, remember?" she smiled at him impishly.

"Sure, but at least I will be able to hit you back. Auntie Jie Er is too stronk!"

"You will get there, Blaze Er," Jie Er patted his back. "You are already as good as I was at forty, if not better," she said, before realizing that she may have slipped up.

Blaze and Rebecca looked at her with wide eyes, but Jie Er didn't change her words. If Jie Er was as strong as he was when she was forty, was it possible that she had been in Elyssa's league? If so, why wasn't she as famous?

However, the two of them did not push her for more information. They knew she did not like to talk about her past. Blaze kissed them on the cheek before he let them get on the carriage and take their leave.

He waited for their carriage to disappear before heading to Tir's library. A good hoax was always well-researched.

***

Elyssa rapped on his window the next morning, an hour or so after sunrise. Blaze was already awake and waiting for her. He opened the window and jumped into her arms. She held him until he manifested his wings, before they flew towards the Agrasen palace.

"How are the Xian?" he asked her, as they flew over the training fields.

"Alright, I guess. They are a bit stiff, but at least they are not arrogant pines like the Caledonian nobility."

"Hehe. That's perfect!" Blaze sniggered. There was nothing more hilarious than pranking stiff people.

"Do not do anything excessive, and you better tell me what you are planning, before you do it," she told him.

"Hey! I always tell you about my pranks before I do them."

"You rarely do that."

"Well, usually the prank's on you. I've got better marks to choose now."

"I have my eye on you," she warned him. "Aunty Jie Er has given me permission to spank you if necessary."

"No, she hasn't," Blaze shook his head. "Wait, she hasn't, has she?"

Elyssa chose not to respond as she picked up speed and flew ahead of him.

***

As they neared the refurbished palatial building, Blaze noticed that it was perfect for the tale he had spun. It was a wide, two-storied, Y-shaped building with four evenly spaced domes of etched concrete, one in the middle and three at the three ends.

The paint was new, but there was something ancient about its massive arched windows of lime green, glazed glass. The first floor did not have any rooms or closed spaces, and was completely open through the tall archways and the wide, etched, stone pillars that held them.

Around forty students and six teachers, including Yulia, stood waiting to the left of the massive fountain in front of the building. It was a circular pool, with a stone statue of the goddess Rhea standing in the middle. A tall jet of pristine water projected from the top of her head and fell into the pool in a perfectly symmetrical cascade.

The Xian were housed the previous night, but the other students would move in that day. Two large makeshift arenas, lined by some white powder, had been created on either side of the central fountain.

"I thought there'd be more," Blaze said to Elyssa, as they landed a little away from the gathering and started walking towards it. It was considered rude to land right in front or in the midst of other people.

"I am sure there were a lot more last quarter, but the number has been narrowed. Tir can only send three candidates to each tournament, and you've already taken one of the spots. Your friend Priscilla will likely take another spot. Thankfully for the others, Siofra is representing the pixies and will leave the last remaining spot for someone else," she answered. "Some of the students you see here are not even from Tir. The other academies of Aranya have sent their students as well."

Around two-thirds of the students seemed to belong to the younger category of the tournament. The ones to participate in Elyssa's bracket had been narrowed down long before. Blaze looked for Brija, but was disappointed to not find her among the group. He assumed she was probably training on her own somewhere.

The two friends introduced themselves to the students and teachers while Blaze felt Priscilla's eyes following him. Without her gang, she seemed a little lonely, despite a couple of other Malakim standing together with her.

A few more angels arrived before the Xian stepped out of the building. Princess Chenguang Shangdi led a group of eighteen angels, young and old. When they arrived, an older angel dressed in traditional Xian clothing— a long cherry blossom cheongsam— stepped up to introduce the Xians. Blaze guessed her to be the princess' handmaiden.

Princess Chenguang gazed straight at him and Elyssa while the introductions proceeded. However, she did not carry the hungry, combative smile she had given him at Saket. Instead, her lips held a half-smile whose meaning he could not decipher.

She wore a stylish silvery grey corset-skirt that reached halfway to her thighs, and a pair of thigh-high socks over silver boots. A simple golden tiara and golden armbands were the only jewelry she wore.

From her energy makeup, Blaze guessed her age to be around fifty. She seemed to be several inches taller than him and her angular features made her a handsome angel. However, it wasn't just her features that made her handsome; there was something masculine about the way she carried herself.

She had short black hair that was parted in the middle and left to hang by her cheeks and back. A pair of dazzling hazel eyes and proud, thick, slanting brows complimented the confidence she portrayed.

As her handmaiden finished the introductions, Chenguang marched straight towards them.

"Hello, Elyssa," she greeted Elyssa, before turning to Blaze. They simultaneously gave each other a slight bow, and the smile on the princess' face widened. "It's my pleasure to finally meet you again, Fenghuang. We've happened upon each other before, but I did not think I'd speak with you until the tournament," she said to him, pleasantly yet imperiously.

"Fenghuang?" he asked.

"Oh yes, I apologize. Fenghuang is the Xian name the Empress has bestowed upon you. We of the Xian are used to referring you by that name."

"Ah! What does it mean?" he asked.

"A phoenix."

Blaze was pleased. "I hope you give my hearty thanks to the Empress. And, I hope our fight in the tournament shall be good," he told her sincerely. Despite his initial impression of them, the Xian royalty had been kind to him.

"I'd hoped so too, but unfortunately, that will not happen. My mother insists I take part in the YAMAT even though I am eligible for the USMAT. She says I belong with the older ivkas, but I think it is mostly because she doesn't want me to be involved in your fight against the Malakim," she told him.

"Oh?" Her words surprised him out of his own. He had to think for a moment before speaking. "Then, at the least, I hope to have a good spar with you over your stay."

"I have no interest in that either," she said, looking at Elyssa. "Rather, I am here to have a private exchange of pointers with you, Ms. Elyssa," she said politely. "I am not arrogant enough to think I would win against you, but I hope to bring out your best."

Blaze would have been annoyed by her words, but it didn't seem like she said them out of spite or arrogance. Maybe it's something political.

"Yes, we've been made aware of your wish, and the headmistress has arranged for us to spar, away from prying eyes. We can do it anytime you wish," Elyssa told her confidently. She wasn't wary about fighting anyone under hundred, let alone someone a decade younger than her.

They exchanged a few more casual words before the angels split into two groups. Elyssa and CG, as Blaze began to refer to the princess in his head, joined the older group, while Blaze and Priscilla joined the younger.

The training began with a couple of lectures from Tir's teachers before they began conducting spars between the students. Priscilla fought the first spar of the day against a short haired, fifty-year-old angel from Xian. The Xian wielded a spear and shield, which made a good match for Priscilla's sword and shield.

Though the match was tilted in Priscilla's favor from the start, it was a close one. They fought for almost twenty minutes before the Malakim managed to get into the Xian angel's range. She thrust her sword at her opponent's face, and when the girl used her shield to block it, Priscilla kicked her in the gut. Rattled by the blow, the Xian could not parry her following attacks, forcing her to concede defeat.

Blaze immediately stood up after their match. He was itching to test out his new gauntlets, so he pulled them out of their case and began to don them.

A sinewy and muscular Xian with opulent black hair held in a high ponytail stood up from the Xian side and walked into the arena. When she reached the middle, she undid her skirt and pulled it off to reveal that her navy-blue top was, in fact, a leotard. It was a scanty piece of clothing, as the lower part only consisted of a narrow strip of cloth that barely covered her slit before running up into her butt cheeks.

However, Blaze could tell from the look on the angel's face that the only reason she dressed that way was for convenience. She pulled out an identical pair of long kopis, a type of forward curving blade, and manifested her pale blue wings with light purple tips, before looking at him in challenge.

Blaze pulled the hem of his gauntlets down his arms before hopping into the ring, simultaneously manifesting his own red and white wings. Everyone expected him to pull out a weapon, but when he flew up and beckoned the Xian towards him, they could only stare at him in confusion. They couldn't tell if he was belittling the Xian, or had some trick up his sleeve. None of them had heard of the Blazing Fury being a fist fighter.

CG walked over from the other arena with Elyssa in tow. Blaze's opponent flew up to him and threw him a questioning glance.

"I haven't used these before, but I plan on using them at the tournament. Please give me your best," Blaze asked her sincerely, with a slight bow.

"My name is Huizhong Liu. Please advise," said the girl, with a bow of her own.

Blaze understood that 'advise' was her way of asking for a proper spar.

"Start!" cried one of the teachers from below, and Blaze immediately rushed towards HL.

The last thing the Xian girl expected was for Blaze to rush at a dual wielder with only a pair of gauntlets. She hastily crossed her weapons in defense as he flew at her like Superman and threw a straight right at her weapons.

His gauntlets rang in a resounding clash against the kopis and pushed the angel back through the air. Blaze did not stop as he dived glided to her before throwing an uppercut with his left hand, from ten feet below her. His fist met the intersection of the two blades and threw them apart, leaving her defenses wide open.

Blaze followed up with the most obvious finisher — a powerful cross punch straight to her face.

However, the Xian angel was no ordinary fighter. Even in the split second that Blaze had taken to wind up his arm, the girl had began flapping her wings backwards. She drifted up and away from him as Blaze's fist connected, right on the softness of her left breast instead of her face.

Her two kopis immediately came down towards his shoulders. But, she was too slow when compared to Jie Er. He put up his arms and took the blades against the knobs on the wrists of the gauntlets. They were meant to attach a buckler, but they could also be used to block the blade of a weapon.

As the blades clashed against his gauntlets, Blaze kicked into the ina's exposed gut, knocking the air out of her lungs and sending her flying away from him. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he charged after her. A brawl was what he was best at, and it excited him.

With a gleeful smile on his face he maintained his distance inside her guard and kept up his incessant punching, leaving her no room to maneuver her kopis.

The Xian took five punches and three more kicks, before the teachers below decided to call off the match.

"Thank you for the fight," Blaze heaved at the girl, stopping his spinning back fist before it landed on her cheek. He had been unconsciously holding his breath while chaining his punches at the angel.

The girl appeared winded as she gave him a nod and floated down to her peers, disappointment evident on her face. Blaze dropped down towards CG and Elyssa.

"That was a thrilling display of martial skill, Fenguang," CG told him cheerily, as he walked up to them. "I did not believe that you had a chance against Nikolett Lovag, but this fight has convinced me otherwise."

"Thank you, Princess Chenguang. I will defeat her!"

"I did expect you to be a bit more elegant, though," she continued.

"Whatever made you think that?" Blaze snickered.

"Yes. Blaze and elegance do not even belong in the same dictionary," Elyssa snorted.

"Hey! I can be elegant if I want to."

CG laughed at them. "You two seem like excellent friends," she commented.

"Best buddies," Blaze said, wrapping as arm around Elyssa and pulling her towards him.

"Sadly," Ely agreed.

The three conversed for a little while before heading back to their own training groups. The rest of the day was spent in more spars and advice from the teachers, with intermittent exercises in between. It was a rigorous workout, but Blaze couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. He sparred against another Xian and won the match as easily as his first, even if the bout lasted longer than the first.