***NEED WORK

Mivian's POV

There was clashing, bangs, and some annoyingly frequent gasps and 'ooohhs' from the large audience we had. I sat there, fiddling my dagger.

"Hey...isn't that Zavius, the Slayer Prince?" a feminine voice squeaked from somewhere behind me.
There was another gasp.
"Yeah...I think it is!!! And he's fighting Darvien, that guy from all the rumors!!" another girl hissed back.
"Oh my god, look at him!! He's so gorgeous!!" some other girl gushed.
"Which one? I think they're both hot. Look at Zavius, in his Slayer uniform!! He looks like a god!!"

I groaned.
I wanted to move from where I was so badly, but I didn't want to distract Zavius and Darvien from their sparring; plus, that move may just get me killed.
A shower of sparks blew out in all directions as the two daggers clashed in the air. Another wave of 'ooohhs' and gasps came from the crowd. I twitched, ready to explode.

Just then, Zavius flashed into view before me, earning some excited giggles from the girls behind me. I rolled my eyes.
Zavius swiftly undid his trench coat, revealing a black high-neck shirt that fitted tightly against his torso. It was sleeveless, revealing his toned arms.
I stiffened, inwardly cursing at his outfit. Sure, it looked fine on him, but this was going to earn him some more comments from his adoring fans.

Without turning, he tossed the trench coat my way. I caught it and folded it in my lap.
"Hold that for me, would ya?" he said.
"You're doing this on purpose," I accused, practically growling.
He just grinned impishly before turning back.
"Thanks, Miv." he called out over his shoulder before disappearing again.

I huffed and returned to playing with my dagger.
And oh hear, hear; another load of comments flowed to my hearing range.
I wasn't surprised that some of them were envious.
"Who is that girl? Miv? What kind of name is that?"
"Do you think she's his girlfriend? Like, did you see the way he looked at her?"
"If she is, she's so lucky!! I'd love to be her; holding his jacket right now. I think it's so dreamy how he threw it at her for her to hold..."

The hair on the back of my neck stood on its ends and it took all my might just to stop myself from jolting.
Did any of these dumb chicks have a brain?
How were they taken in to be trained as Slayers?!

Block it out, Mivian. I told myself.

I breathed in deeply, calming myself. Well, it was successful until I heard another voice, piercing my mind.
"Oh, that girl? Don't worry about her; she's probably just one of his desperate fans. Poor girl, he probably doesn't give a damn about her."

Look who the hell’s talking!!

I twisted around and took one good look at the girl's face.
"Oh, you again." I said darkly.

I recognized the girl from earlier today, the cocky blonde that was sizing up Sarvwen when we came to find Darvien. I stood up and sauntered over to her.
"You want to know something about this girl?" I said loudly, pointing to myself.
"This girl was assigned to this mission. This girl would very much prefer not to be here right now. And this girl isn't someone you want to piss off. So I suggest you keep that loud mouth of yours shut before this girl does it for you." I growled.
I turned back to go sit where I was before. But apparently, the dumb one didn't get the message.
"Oh give me a break. All talk... like she can do anything."

The dagger in my hand flew back, I mean slipped before I could catch myself. It stabbed into the ground, just a few inches away from the girl's toe. She gasped and blanched.
"You almost hit me, you bitch," she breathed.
I shrugged.
"I can't do anything, remember?" I sneered.

I walked over and I bent down to pull my dagger out of the ground.
I straightened and leaned in closer to her face.
"Here's another thing I can't do; I can't miss." I said, and returned to my seat.

I sat there; a bit satisfied. The girls' comments died down by a lot after my sudden out bursts, improving my mood drastically.
Just when I was starting to get into the fight, a different comment reached my ear, this time from a different group.
"Hey...I think I know that blond girl. The one that's just sitting there," a guy said.
"That one in the Slayers' uniform? That 'Miv' girl?" another one asked.
"Yeah. I think her name was Mivian. She's in groups with some of the famous Slayers we hear about." the first one said.
"She herself has her name out there heard pretty loudly too."
"Wait, she's that Mivian? The Rebel of the Union?" the second one asked.
"Yup, that's the one. She's a hell of a fighter, I hear."
"Hmm...The Rebel, huh? That's hot..."

Ugh. This torture is endless. Somebody... Shoot. Me. Now.

There was another clash that brought my attention back to the fight. Darvien and Zavius were in a deadlock, fighting to overpower each other. The daggers shook against the opposing forces. Then, I saw Zavius’s black dagger give an ominous glow.
"C'mon, Darvien. Is this the best you can do?" Zavius provoked.
Darvien didn't answer as he fought to overpower Zavius. Zavius grinned.
"You are going to have to try harder than this" he growled, his last word doubling layers in his tone.

A blast of light burst from the Shadow Viper, swallowing both Zavius and Darvien. There was a loud explosion, sounding out all the surprised gasps from their audience. Darvien was thrown back and landed heavily on the floor, sliding back a couple of feet. This time I winced, 'ooohh'ing along with the audience. Zavius was standing right where he was, not a single scratch on him. His Viper was hissing and smoking, the smoke floating up towards the ceiling.
"Don't you remember anything out of what I told you?" Zavius demanded. "You are not fighting with your Viper. Use it!!"
Darvien got up, gasping.
"How?" he gasped out, hunched forward.
Zavius scoffed.
"Are you not the user of the Silver Viper? It's your job to figure out how to use it." he said. "If you can't figure that much out, that dagger out powers you. You have no right to call yourself its user."

Zavius altered his grip on his dagger. That same light erupted from the dagger, dark and eerie. Slowly, it twisted up his arm and swirled like smoke. My skin tingled as I felt anger and hatred pour from that light.
"Raise your dagger and hold your stance," commanded Zavius, his voice slipping into his hypnotic Voice. "You're turning out to be a real disappointment."

There was another clash of metal as Darvien flashed out of nowhere and attacked Zavius, who just reflected his blow with a similar attack. Darvien jumped back and landed on his feet. He brought the Silver Viper up in front of him. With his free hand he traced the curved edge of the blade.
"We'll see who's the disappointment," he growled.
A bright light exploded from his dagger as he flashed forward.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zavius's POV

I swung my dagger up in a defensive hold and released more Energy, reflecting off Darvien's Energy burst. I slid back from the force a couple feet back across the floor. I felt a smirk itching to come across my face as I tried to contain any form of expression.
Well, that's more like it.

I was genuinely satisfied with my subject's progress in taming his Viper. He was getting better at a steady pace. He knew how to stance himself, and his intuition and reflexes were at top-speed. His movement was smooth and very agile, even pushing me to act out of defense.
I have to admit; he's above and beyond average.

I remembered the contents of the mission card I received from Thya back at her Unit. It was left by Ava, right before she went to answer her second Summon.

Zavius,

Our mission subject, Darvien is a user of a Viper blade. The Silver Viper. Status is still dormant, never synced to the Slayer himself. I want you to observe his skills by initiating a practice combat. Watch out for his strategies and movement. But most importantly, I want you to push Darvien to wake his Viper and sync with it. Provoke him only if necessary.

***Zavius, behave.

~A.

I had to laugh when I read the last part.
Me behaving, right.
So here I was, provoking Darvien to wake his Viper up. I don't know if it was exactly necessary, but it did work, didn't it? I was still kneeling on the floor, watching Darvien. He, too, was not moving. It was obvious he was waiting for me to make my move. I was amused; having fun. I took a moment to see how things were going from a different point of view.
I closed my eyes and focused, loosening my muscles to ease into my trance. I felt myself slip away from my physical body and I stretched out into Darvien's mind, careful not to touch and temper any of his focus.

Whoa, he said. I think this is what he was talking about...

I smirked, expecting this much.
He was feeling a wave of mixed; excitement, surprise, confusion.
Then just out of curiosity, I leveled my focus to Mivian. Here, I was more amused.
She was pissed.
Though I must credit her for her patience with all that she dealt with; the annoying crowd behind her was rubbing off on her last nerve.
Hold on, I'm almost done, I said, leaving her a message.
Mivian's head snapped up in sudden alert, her eyes snapping into a deadly glare my way.
Get out of my mind, you fucking bastard, she sent back with a nasty snarl.

I chuckled to myself. Just the reaction I was expecting.

Then something came up in Darvien's mind that took me by surprise.
An image flashed into focus, filling his whole view. The image was me, kneeling the way I was. Then I saw a close-up of my eyes.
The blue-green irises swirled, and my pupils dilated. Then, my head nodded down and I sunk deep into my trance... The vision evaporated as fast as it came.
There was confusion, then disbelief. And then came alarm.

No! Darvien thought.

A realization dawned on me, giving me a slight shock.
My opponent is psychic.

I broke the trance, snapping to full consciousness. Without giving a second thought, I launched myself into the air. And just as I thought would happen, an explosion erupted from where I was just kneeling.

I looked down to see the shadow of a hunched over body through the dust. Darvien stood up and looked up at me.
Vardavit.
He was better than I thought. To think I have to go this far; it amused me.
This was almost an equal battle.
Almost.

Never would I have thought of myself being pushed back as far as I found myself now. I flowed down to the ground and landed softly on my feet.
"Sheesh, target that temper somewhere else." I complained mockingly.
I brushed some light dust off of my shirt before turning back to Darvien.
"Hey, Darvien." I called. Darvien gazed at me with steady, unwavering eyes.
"Yeah?" he said.
"When do you want to end this fight?" I asked. Darvien looked surprised, but then recovered himself.
"Whoever disarms the other wins. Is that good enough for you?" he returned.
I smirked.
"You're too generous, Newbie," I said, remembering the nickname Thya called him. "Congrats; were getting into those 'further topics' you wanted to know about. I told you; there's hell of a lot more to learn than just cutting and slicing."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ava looked down at the training grounds from the thin-railed catwalk where she was perched meticulously. She wasn't surprised to see the many trainees so interested in Zavius and Darvien's test match. This was like a gladiator match at the Coliseum.

So it seems as if Zavius was able to push Darvien to sync with his Viper...

Her mind wandered to the great crowd that was condensed around that one training surface.
Ava sighed in exasperation.
She would have very much preferred to have watched the fight between Zavius and Darvien much closer up. But not today, not when---

Something moved across the training grounds from the corner of Ava's eye. Her focus strayed for a moment as she turned to look at what the separate commotion was. She strained her eyes to really see what was going on. Someone was pushing through the big mass, shoving people out of the way to get to the front of the crowd. He, or she, was moving toward their goal at a fairly fast pace, angrily even. Something about it bugged her, telling her to go down closer.
"Hmm..." she mused. Her new focus broke through the first line of the surrounding crowd. But they didn't stop, marching straight towards Darvien.
"Oh, just lovely." she muttered out loud.

Reluctantly, Ava got up from her isolated area, swung her legs over the railing and jumped.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Woah, this is awesome!!" awed Zeik, completely caught up with the action below him.

He was sitting on one of the raised platforms of the above ground obstacle field setup, so he had a great view of everything.
No, this was beyond awesome; it was great! It wasn't everyday that you got to see such heated combat practice; especially with your best friend going against an Aequitas ranked participant.

And that one participant was Zavius, the famous Slayer Prince!!

Zeik sighed inwardly, his head heavy with mixed thoughts. It was strange; he both respected and envied Zavius. Zavius had everything---from the elite level skills, to the impressive mission records. He was kind and gentle to his comrades and associates; he didn't need that dark mysterious looks of his for all the female body of the Union to adore him. All in all, he was the kind of character everyone likes.
Well, almost everyone.

Everyone was well aware of the tense rivalry between Zavius and Varsalo. In a way, that wasn't surprising; Varsalo was Zavius's complete opposite in personality. He was arrogant, cold and acted superior over all others around him. But it wasn't to say he had no followers of his own.
All because... With the exception of the personality bit, Varsalo was an equal competition to his rival.

Zeik whistled as he watched Zavius parry off Darvien's attack. He was as good as they say, if not better. He continued to watch the intense battle; studying his best friend's attack pattern and sequence.
Hmm... he marveled.
I never seen these attacks before. I should ask him about it...

"Move out of my way before I cut you out of the way." he heard an all-too-familiar cold voice shoot into his hearing.

He frowned. The day seemed to be going so good until that point.
Zeik reluctantly pulled his attention from the battle and down towards the crowd. He saw a group shoving through the crowd, cutting towards Darvien and Zavius. He wasn't at all surprised to see a streak of ridiculous blond-on-blue haired figure leading that group.
"Well, well, well. There's the Lord Pain-in-the-Ass himself." he muttered.
"So you know that queer individual?" came a smooth, cool voice, a feminine one he didn't recognize.

He wheeled around in alarm. He saw nothing.
"Up here." the voice said, her tone serene and calm.

He jumped, startled. Then he saw something black flicker from the corner of his eyes. Zeik looked up to see a girl flow down to his platform with airy grace. She landed silently in a kneel, her black uniform trench coat flaring up, only adding to her fluid-like grace. Tied to her waist was a katana, sheathed in its glossy-black saya.
"So, you know him?" she asked, looking down as the group stood out in front of the crowd.
She stood up, her face angled so Zeik couldn't see her face.
"I don't like him."
Zeik chuckled to himself.
"A normal person wouldn't like that bastard. That's Kaine and his entourage. The wannabe royalties." he said, looking down to the group of Slayer trainees he despised the most.
The girl mused.
"Kind of like Varsalo," she murmured, more to herself.

But he had heard.
"You know Varsalo? Wow, is he that bad?" Zeik asked, forgetting about Kaine.
The girl sighed.
"Do I know him?" she let out an irritated huff. "It was only this morning that I had to stop him and Zavius from wrecking Elder's Hall. And Mivian almost got hurt when she tried to break it up." she muttered.

She stopped, and then let out a short, soft laugh. She seemed to have noticed the silence from Zeik and turned to look at him.
"I apologize." she said, sighing. "I'm not cross with you or anything. It's been a stressful day so far."

But Zeik still couldn't respond. His mouth just fell open.
The girl was...wow.
No words to describe her.
Angelic?
Edgy?

She had a whole different, unique look to her. Okay, all Immortals, Light and Dark, looked better than they did in their human life, but how pretty was she when she was a human?! The girl turned back to the disturbance, seemingly oblivious to Zeik's soundless flapping. She fingered the tsuka of her katana absentmindedly.
"Hey," she called.

Zeik managed to stop gaping before giving a decent answer.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"What's your name?" the girl asked.

He was startled; he wasn't expecting that one.
He was waiting for a 'Hey, stop flapping your mouth and drooling, stupid,' or something like that.
"It's Zeik."
The girl nodded.
"Alright Zeik. I'm going to have to ask you to do me a favor." she said, her tone serious.
Zeik gulped. That was another surprise.
"Uh... sure."

The girl shifted her weight over to her right.
"I'll take this Kaine fellow, and you take care of your friend, Darvien." she said.
Zeik was caught off-guard yet again.
"Take? Darvien?" he echoed, bewildered.
She turned and blinked, her face reflecting confusion.
"What? He is your friend, right? It seemed like you were cheering for him," she said. "Either way, we'll have to stop Kaine; it's obvious he's up to nothing good. We can't have him interrupting a mission; that's high offense against the Laws."

She turned back to the commotion below, brushing her long jet-black hair off of her cheek.
"Is he any good? His arrogant vibe is irritating." she said, referring to Kaine with a slightly disgusted tone.
Zeik shoved his hands in his training gear pockets.
"Yeah, he's good; almost as good as Darvien. Almost. But he could never win against Darvien. Lost every match had challenged him to. He crushed him every dozen times." he chortled gleefully.
The girl mused.
"Well, this one is planning on some very drastic measures. He must truly hate him."

Zeik turned back to the Kaine and his posse. He didn't like the feeling that was coming over him.
"You can't imagine." he muttered in agreement.

Darvien and Zavius were still fighting, completely unaware of the cluster of intruders. Zavius lifted his dagger up, getting ready to attack Darvien. Kaine stepped forward out of the crowd with a sick triumphant smirk on his face. His hands slipped to his left hip, grasping the hilt of his sheathed broadsword. Then, he was gone, not leaving any trace of his presence.
"Darvien!!" Zeik yelled, leaping off the platform.

"Zeik!!" the mysterious girl yelled out after him in protest. He ignored her, his mind blinded with anger.

That lowly bastard!! he thought. I'll kill him!!
Air pushed against him as Zeik fell many yards toward the ground. He was falling too slowly. He saw Darvien look up at him, his eyes wide with surprise.

Everything seemed to have slowed down, playing every second at a painful pace. Everything that occurred in that minute seemed like hours of hell. And Zeik saw every moment, every segment of it in vivid detail. Zavius took notice to the tense change of atmosphere, losing the focus of his Energy exertion. Zeik watched him fight to regain his focus, the hold he had on his attack snapped. The blast of dark Energy flew across the air---straight towards Darvien. At the same time, Kaine flashed into the view right behind him, his sword coming down swinging. Zeik couldn't shout out a warning. He could only watch in horror as his best friend took the two blows aimed straight at him. He saw two more Slayers in their black uniforms flash forward across the floor---one was blonde, and another was so fast that their body was a blur...

The roar of the explosion filled the air, smoke and dust billowing out in gusts. Zeik landed on the ground solidly on his feet, dazed and shocked. He didn't know what exactly happened right before the explosion---it happened all too fast. There was shouting and yelling as the crowd broke forward to aid. Zeik was running ahead of it before he knew it.