"Again," Kanarin called out in a stern voice, observing us carefully as we followed Vauv's sequence of kicks, punches, and repositioning steps, understanding that each one of them would serve a vital purpose in the coming battles.
Her precise movements and bodily control was a clear display of just how much work she had put in, which could have been hundreds, if not thousands, of years of practice. Even though the four of us had been trained to the upper reaches of our realm's abilities, we knew that in a fight against a full-blooded dragon, we would struggle to hold our own.
Nevertheless, it was clear to us that the dome's increasingly heavy weight bearing down on us had had some effect. It took both Mom and Bernar roughly six months to get used to it, but in their defense, they were thrown into the deep end right from the start.
Granted, that still didn't mean Vauv's movements were easy to match, even after five years beneath the dome, which, to my understanding, had only been little over a week outside of it.
Honestly, it was a wonder we could move at all.
We got lucky that Kalia and Sabura slowly increased the pressure, rather than having it crush us the moment they activated the barrier, I caught myself thinking as I observed their movements as well.
After the fortieth movement in the advanced sequence we'd been practicing for the last six months, I noticed Kanarin's eyebrow raised slightly, even if it were just for a brief second.
Shit, what did I do now? I thought privately, nearly missing the timing of the next attack in the sequence. Suddenly, she raised her hand to bring us to a halt.
"You're thinking too much about it. All of you are," she said with a shake of her head as she moved toward us. "What do you mean? Are we not supposed to consider our next attacks at all?" Bernar asked, but Mom shook her head. "No, it's not that," she began, putting a curled finger to her chin. "Oh? Elaborate," Kanarin said with a slight tug at the corner of her mouth.
"I think what she's talking about is moving on instinct, rather than relying on what our eyes are showing us and our minds are understanding. Although I'm not entirely sure how much further I can push that without my mind taking a shi-... I mean, without making a mistake," Mom corrected herself before yet another long-winded reprimand.
"You're on the right path with that line of thinking," Kanarin began, taking a step toward us. "There are risks in fighting in such a manner, with one of them being that you might not be able to perceive your surroundings as well as you might if you were fighting more cautiously," she continued, spreading her arms widely.
"However, we at Polarion Academy have discovered a way around it. Bernar, would you assist me with a quick demonstration?" she asked, gesturing for him to come forward. "O-Of course, though I don't believe I'm the best cand-..." he halted the moment she raised a hand.
"I saw what you did to those Hashishin in Harut. I'm sure you will be just fine. All of you, watch carefully," she said, catching us all off guard. "Of course," Ysevel replied with a nod.
How did she see that? Is she a member of the Eyes? Ysevel sent me. No, or at least, I don't remember her presence being there when I had to stand up to them. It's probably due to the lack of a barrier around that country, meaning it's more likely she would have gotten that information from them, rather than having seen it first-hand, I surmised, but I didn't know how true that was or how that even worked.
By the time our brief exchange had concluded, Bernar was already in front of her with his guard up. "Now, what I want you to do is use the same technique you used then to try to hit me," Kanarin said, causing a wolfish grin to immediately grow on his face.
"Don't bother holding back, either, since I won't be able to accurately explain what I mean if you do," she said, matching his grin. "As you wish," Bernar said with a slight clenching of his fist. "Begin!" Vauv called out, and within less time than it took for one to blink, Bernar's right fist was already making its way toward Kanarin's jaw.
She easily parried the blow, then another aimed at her liver using the downward momentum of her forearm, with a third from the same side aimed at her face. Raising her right arm to block the blow, she countered with a swift punch aimed at his torso, but he deftly sidestepped and deflected the blow simultaneously.
Bernar sought a different approach, dashing away, then back into the fight from another angle. However, when he was about to land his punch, I could have sworn I felt her presence flicker like a candle in the wind just before he hit nothing but air. "Wha-...?" he began to ask, just before being immediately pinned to the ground. "Damn it," he hissed, causing her to chuckle.
"Not bad. Better than I expected, to say the least. It seems these drills I've had Vauv putting you through have drastically improved your performance, but there was one thing you missed," Kanarin said with a wry smile. "You mean my target?" Bernar asked with a hint of sarcasm.
"Hmm, yes and no," she replied, releasing her hold on him and helping him to his feet. "You did have the right idea to attack from another angle, an attack that might have landed on any other target, but your body language told me exactly what you were going to do even before you threw your punch," she said, prompting him to raise an eyebrow.
"I-It did? But how could you have known that? Even with eyesight as good as yours, there's no way you saw it coming… did you?" he asked, earning him a soft chuckle. "That's just it: I didn't have to. Observe," she said, allowing her mana to permeate the area around us like a thin veil of mist.
"I can sense each and every one of you perfectly. I can also feel your eyes blinking as if they were my own, or your breathing as if it were right in my face," she said, allowing us a moment to digest what she was trying to say.
"So you're willfully pushing your mana outward to sense the world around you?" Mom asked with visible interest. "I am now, yes, but pay attention to your own senses when I do this," Kanarin replied just before retracting all of her projected mana, leaving her with less of a presence than that of the air I was breathing.
It's as if I was just staring at a candle in a dark room, then had someone snuff it out, leaving me with nothing but a dark void while the light still burned into the backs of my eyes, I thought, trying to comprehend what I was feeling.
"I-I can't sense you at all. I mean, I can physically see your body, but that's it. There's no sign of your presence otherwise," Ysevel's eyes widened, mirroring the rest of our reactions perfectly.
"Good observation, but what if I told you that I can still sense all of you just as well as before, if not better? Do any of you have any guesses as to why that is?" she asked as she put her hands behind her back and began to pace.
I still can't feel her presence at all, not even when she's moving around like that. Got any ideas? Bernar sent the others and I. Same here, I can't feel a fucking thing, Mom chimed in. Neither can I, Ysevel and I added at the same time.
"No? None? Huh, well I suppose that was to be expected," she shrugged after allowing us some time to think. "Ysevel, would you be so kind as to demonstrate that movement technique you learned from Kalia for a moment?" Kanarin asked, turning to face her. "O-Of course," she replied, snapping out of her momentary daze.
"When she does it, I want you to pay particular attention to her presence, her body language, and any other details you can pick up on. You may begin," Kanarin said with a gesture. Ysevel did as instructed, but the moment she did so, I thought I'd caught a glimpse of what Kanarin was trying to show us.
There was a slight pulse, one that I might have missed if I hadn't been looking for it, that came from Ysevel just before she leaned into the spaces between her, and then another when she reached her target location.
"Well done! You can come back now. You three, pay close attention," she said over her shoulder. Ysevel nodded her understanding and performed the technique again, only this time, I realized I hadn't sensed her presence during the actual movement at all, much less anything other than her intent to move toward us.
"Thank you, dear. Now, what did you notice about that technique?" Kanarin asked us. The others and I considered everything for a moment, and I could feel Mom and Bernar's search for the right description seeping through our connection. "I thought I sensed a pulse of something, but it was too quick for me to confirm exactly what it was," Mom said, prompting Bernar to turn to her.
"You felt that, too? It was so subtle that I nearly mistook it for displaced air from a miniature Exar blast a kilometer away," he added. "I felt something similar," I shrugged, grateful that they had noticed the same thing I had. "Good. Excellent, in fact," Kanarin said with a look of pleasant surprise.