Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Five (section)

===Sparring Partners===


Down in the gym, Remilia leaned on the ropes of the simple sparring ring the skjalds used, stretching her back.  Freya was already there, but she was forgoing the ring for a simpler workout.  Remilia glanced over the skjalds in the room, wondering if any would find the stones to challenge her, when Venus walked in, bag slung.

“Hey,” Remilia called.  Her world turned red as Venus looked up and smiled.

“Up for a bout?” Venus called back, ambling over.

Remilia paused.  “Sure, why not?”

“Good.”  Venus dug around in her bag for a towel.  She stopped when her fingers brushed the little containers of bloodpaint.  “Hmm…”  She looked up at her cousin.  “Hey, have you ever seen me in paint?” she asked.

Remilia blinked.  “You mean that blood stuff?”

“Yeah.”  Venus straightened up.  “Just for fun,” she said.

Remilia shrugged.  “Don’t think so…if you want to, sure.”

“Great.”  Venus walked back to the shower.  “Be right back.”

“Uh, Venus, that’s the men’s showers,” Remilia called after her.

Venus looked around.  “Is there a women’s shower?”

“Not that I know of,” Freya said, walking up to her.  “No female skjalds.”

Venus huffed.  “I don’t want to go back to my room to change, either.”  She pondered a moment longer, then just shrugged.  “I’ll just put it on my face and arms only,” she said, walking over to a mirror in the corner of the room.

As Remilia limbered up, Freya noted the boys walking in.  They angled for the free weights, as Alex continued his now-daily instruction of proper technique.  “All right, do you want to try the fifteen kilo plate now?” Alex asked, as he assembled his own dumbbell.

“Sure, but let’s do leg first, it makes sitting lifts easier,” Jake said, putting a few plates on a well-worn leg lifting machine.

“If you want,” Alex said.  “Say…check the ring.”

Jake glanced up to see Remilia tug her tank top off from over her sparring bra, and apply a quick wrap to her ankles and wrists.  “Huh.  She gonna box someone?” Jake asked.

“Looks like it,” Alex said.  He turned back to his own weights and started lifting.

Freya sat down next to them.  “Hey, guys.  I was thinking we could go out to the hot springs I spotted the other day, if you’re up for it.”

“Sounds good,” Jake grunted from his machine.  “You bring a bathing suit?”

Freya blinked.  “…shit.  No, I didn’t think we’d have a chance to go swimming,” she said.

“Dark underwear would work, don’t sweat it, and we all brought towels,” Jake pointed out, feeling his leg muscles sing.  “When do you want to go?”

“Right after lunch, if that’s okay,” Freya said.  “Venus wanted to tour the Fang a bit.”

“Cool, then it sounds great,” Jake said.  He wiped a bead of sweat from his eye.  “Thank the skjalds for letting use their gym, huh?” he asked.

“Sure thing, but look at this place,” Freya said, taking in the massive gym with a sweep of her arms.  “Place is nearly a graveyard with so many skjalds off crewing the Legionary ships while the Great Companies are out and about.”

“Still,” Alex said.  He set the weight back down and tacked another two kilo plate on the end.  “How about you?  You ladies done?”

“Nope, Venus and Remilia are gonna spar,” Freya informed them.

Both boys’ eyes darted over to where Venus was still fiddling around with her appearance in the mirror.  “Really?” Jake asked.  “That’ll be interesting.”

“You guys should fight me four-on-one,” Freya said with a predatory grin.  “Group combat is always interesting.”

Jake looked at her askance.  She deliberately flexed one calf muscle, and Jake had no doubt that a single kick from her could have broken him in half.  “No, thanks.  Maybe if we were on Nocturne, right after a radspike, but shy of that, I’d rather fall down stairs,” Jake said, resuming his leg lifting.  “I’d probably break fewer bones.”

Freya leaned over and nipped his ear before rising.  “I’d be gentle.”

“Uh huh,” Jake said drily.

Over in the corner, Venus finished applying the bloodpaint.  She had stripped down to shorts and sparring bra, with the paint applied only over her face and arms in an abbreviated version of the more intricate design she had chosen when fighting Isaac.  Ignoring the blatantly lustful glances she was catching from most of the skjalds close enough to see her through the forest of support columns and exercise machinery, she tucked her things back in the bag, though she left one small vial of paint free.  She dipped a thumb in the paint and dragged thick, ugly lines across her upper chest and triceps, in a paint that would be invisible once it dried a bit, but was laced with just as much of the tiny plastic bits that relayed the light.  She hoped the effect would be worth it.

Tucking that away too, she walked up to the ringside and leaped clear over the ropes into the ring, landing behind Remilia, who had been looking away.  Remilia turned and started at her cousin’s suddenly daemonic appearance.

“Fuck, that’s…quite a get-up,” Remilia said, staring at the assemblage.

Venus cracked her knuckles and kicked her exercise sandals off, taking a step back and settling into stance without a word.

Remilia rolled her eyes.  Venus was clearly exercising her theatrical side.  Still, Remilia had to admit to herself that the effect was intimidating.
Venus’ eyes brightened as the blood started pumping faster.  She clapped her hands together once and advanced a pace, clearly taking the initiative.

Remilia had none of it, swinging a vicious blow at Venus and following up with a low kick.  Venus parried the punch and side-stepped the kick, turning her momentum into an advance.  She lunged towards her cousin, throwing all her might into a cruel elbow strike.

Remilia caught it square on the sternum with a creak of bone.  She choked, lurching back in surprise and sudden pain.  Venus followed up with a quick forward step, and raised her arms like she was going for a headlock…then stepped back.  “Too far?” she asked under breath.

“A bit,” Remilia coughed, spitting a drop of blood from her lips.  “Just…hang on,” she said, clutching her chest.  Venus lowered her guard, stepping back to the ropes.

“…Fuck,” Alex observed.

“I think it’s the paint,” Jake said weakly.  “She wasn’t like that when she was teaching me.”

“She taught you how to spar?” Alex asked, looking over at his friend.

“Just some basic poses, no real combat,” Jake said.  “Just for fun.”

“Mmm.”  Both boys looked up at where Remilia was straightening up, clearly in pain.  Her superhuman biology was accommodating her injury, though, and even an Astartes couldn’t heal as fast as a Lady Primarch.  A few drops of blood oozed from her lips as she ran a hand over her tender chest and nodded once, putting her hands up.

Venus nodded back, slowly circling her cousin.  Remilia swept her leg low and raised her hand at once.  Venus simply leaped the leg sweep and leaned back from the guard, her eyes following her cousin’s movements.  Remilia stood back and raised her fists to her chin level, guarding, but Venus seemed content with fighting on the defensive for now.

Freya sat down at the ringside, observing closely.  Her senses alerted her to some tissue damage in Remilia’s chest, something that could have hospitalized a human.  Then, if Venus had hit a human with that blow, it would have killed them.

In the ring, Remilia advanced, firing off jabs in rapid succession, trying to beat back Venus’ guard.  Her ebony partner blocked or dodged most, but one snakelike shot caught her on the jaw, and she lurched back from the force of it.  Remilia followed up with a cross to Venus’ guard and a salvo to the ribs, pushing Venus back another step.  Venus was in it now too, striking back as often as defending.  She was deliberately avoiding the spot she had struck before, but that was the extent of her restraint.  The air between them was thick with flying fists.

Jake watched, mesmerized.  Alex set his own weights down to see the battle.  The skjalds in the room weren’t even pretending not to be watching; some were placing bets.

The paint was dried now.  The light from her eyes bled into the red across her face and upper arms, and through the invisible paint on her chest.  The effect was subtler than the one from before, but the invisible paint on her chest was aglow with dimmer light than the red paint higher up, making it look like there were bloody gashes across Venus’ chest.  The artificial blood was joined by a few drops of the real thing now, as minor injuries piled up on the two of them.

Remilia was losing her breath.  The damage to her chest was slowing her down, too.  More and more of Venus’ blows were getting to her, and she was starting to get a bit dizzy.  She stepped back, trying to get her bearings, and raised a middle guard, hoping she could block anything Venus used to follow up.

It didn’t work.  Venus took advantage of the open space to leap forward with a knee thrust that could have bent a car door around it.  Remilia managed to divert it, sending Venus to her hands and knees beside her, but that had been the idea.  Venus continued the motion, sweeping her other leg around her lowered body in an arc that dropped Remilia flat on her back.  Venus finished the roll and levered around on her arms like pivots, and rolled over one planted knee to land squarely on top of Remilia’s waist.  In an instant, Venus’ hands were at Remilia’s throat, clenched just tight enough to send the message.

Remilia tapped out.  The room erupted in applause from the watching skjalds.

Before her hand had even finished the motion, Venus was off her, grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting.  Remilia staggered to her feet.  Her cousin’s daemonic mask of bloodlust cracked and melted away into an expression of regretful concern under her paint.  “I’m sorry, Remilia, I didn’t mean to break the bone,” she said quietly.

Remilia coughed, wiping away the blood oozing from her mouth and nose.  “Yeah, that hurt like a sonofabitch,” she muttered.  “If I had been advancing that could have killed me.”

“I’m so sorry,” Venus said sadly.  “Can you forgive me?”

“Of course,” Remilia said tiredly.  Venus gingerly offered her a hug across the shoulders and stepped back.

“All right.  Let’s get you looked at,” Venus said, vaulting the ropes a moment later.

“No need,” Remilia coughed.  “I can feel it, it’s set.  Right?” she asked, pausing to let Freya get a good look at her.

“…Yeah, you’re good with a bit of rest,” Freya said, peering at her taller cousin’s torso.

“Hell of a fight,” Jake said, walking up.  “I find myself saying that a lot around you three,” he joked.  “You gonna be all right, Remilia?” he asked.

“Sure, sure, right as rain with some milk and cookies,” Remilia said, waving his concerns off.  A ribbon of blood worked its way out of her mouth as she said it.  “I'mma shower now.”

“Unisex showers,” Jake pointed out.  “Remember you told us?”

Remilia paused.  “I’ll be fine,” she said after a moment.  She turned to glance at the crowds of skjalds in the room.  “Just fine,” she said with a smirk.

As she vanished in to the showers with most of the others, Freya grabbed her own towels and headed out to the lifts.  Not that she didn’t trust the showers, but she wanted some time to think before they went off to breakfast.