Baron walked out of his room ggy and tired.

  He yawned as he made his way towards the kitchen down the stairs. Wearing fluffy slippers, an orange T-shirt,, and some blue pants.

  Grabbing a full carton of cold chocote milk from the fridge, he walked out of of the castle and jumped on top of the roof,, then on top of the roof of one of the towers. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and—

  "Oh shit, it's 1pm,"he said in surprise; he usually wakes up at around 11am.

  "Not used to this... but then again... it was a rough night." He continued as he sat down and unsealed the carton of milk. Gulping a third of it down.

  The cold, refreshing dairy was felt all throughout his body. Lowering the carton, a fleeting thought entered his mind.

  "Why was the gate uneven? Knowing Eine, she would focus on the right gate, but the left... Did Ax already...?" His eyes darted over to a section of the forest without any trees; Ax and Eine were standing, facing each other, preparing to spar.

  "Speak of the devils! I have to get a better seat," he excimed as he immediately jumped down, accidentally knocking over the carton of milk.

  As he was standing on the ground, he stared into the puddle of chocote milk before him.

  ***

  "Begin!" Valve screamed.

  For the first few seconds, it seemed as if Ax was eyeing her up and down, her doing the same. They were sizing each other up.

  Eine fell back to a defensive position. Ax took note and dashed towards her with his sword aimed at her torso. Right as the falchion was about to graze her chest, she grabbed the bde with her right hand, pulled him towards her, and grabbed his arm with both her hands.

  "Fu—" Ax said as she smmed him into the ground behind her with a loud thud.

  "AH!" Ax screamed as he felt the impact. 'Equal strength, my ass,' he thought to himself as he opened his eyes to see her rearing her metal foot to stomp on him.

  He rolled out of the way the st second. Pushed the ground with his arms and stood back up. She balled her palms into fists and raised them in an offensive pugilistic stance.

  Ax, seeing her fists raised, pointed his sword towards her, maintaining an arm's length of distance between the two of them.

  Eine kicked his sword aside, breaking his stance, and kicked him in his sor plexus. Ax is getting thrown back a couple of meters and smming into a tree. Spit escaped his lips. Before he could think, she dashed towards him, rearing a punch with her right hand. Ax dodged in the st second, which caused her to punch the tree instead.

  "What? Too chicken?" she mocked him.

  "Need to get on the offensive and end this, fast," he muttered to himself. Ax then put away his dagger, gripped his sword with both hands, and charged at her.

  She parried his sword and pushed it aside, but he expected this. Using the momentum, he turned around to his side and smmed her with his shoulder; before she could fall back, she reached for the token hanging off of her waist. She was caught off guard, but

  "Not quite." Eine grabbed his shoulder and turned him away. Wrapping her arms around his waist and holding him tight.

  "Shit." Ax could only compin as she lifted him up and did a suplex on him. The impact disoriented him, but it was nothing he wasn't used to. With his hair full of dirt, he got back up and made distance between the two of them.

  Ax put away his sword, much to Eine's and Valve's surprise. Ax took a deep breath and dual-wielded his silver and bronze revolvers instead.

  This caught Valve's attention. Eine knew what he was about to do.

  SHATTERCRACK

  Ax shot the revolvers at an angle, colliding with each other midair. The bullets aimed downwards shattered into ice-infused fragments, causing an ice structure to form against Eine. Eine caught off guard, used as much force as she could muster in a weakened state to punch the ice, shattering the top half.

  "ICE?!," Eine screamed out.

  "Hey! No compining! You're the one who can punch a hole through a tree," Ax bantered.

  SHATTERCRACK

  Ax formed another ice structure between the two of them. Eine shattered it with a single punch once more, but-

  Ax had dashed right behind the Ice as the shard of ice grazed his cheek, drawing blood. He raised his fist to punch Eine as hard as he could. With all his might, hitting her right cheek. The impact caused the braids running down her hair to get dismantled. Blood escaped her lips, and she stepped back a few steps.

  Ax's eyes widened.

  "Shit! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" he started apologizing profusely.

  She started grinning as the blood dripped down her chin.

  "Seems like I've been underestimating you... Axton," she said as she reached for the air, sections of her metal arm reforming and bits of her boots moving up into her palm.

  In her hand was a two-handed, straight longsword.

  Ax was amazed at what he saw. "So this is her oddity..." he muttered.

  He then grabbed his sword, holding it in his right hand and the silver gun in his left.

  He smelled blood; drops of blood dripped down his nostril. He smudged it off.

  "Guess I'm not the only one bleeding out," she bantered.

  "Eh, been through worse," he responded.

  "Don't doubt it," she finished.

  "Remember the objective!" Valve screamed out.

  Baron ran as fast as he could the moment he heard Valve scream.

  They both took deep breaths and ran for each other as fast as they could, with as much strength as they could. Ax aimed his gun, ready for his sword to follow suit. Eine swung his sword as hard as she could, with all the strength that she could muster.

  CRACK

  ***

  Within the blink of an eye. Baron grabbed Eine's sword at the hilt and held it upwards. Valve jumped in and aimed Ax's revolver at the sky and grabbed his sword with his other hand.

  "Enough," they most grumbled.

  "You're ready, Ax. However, the both of you lost sight of the objective," Valve expined.

  Baron, however impressed as he was. He was silent.

  "Did I fuck up?" Eine asked him, immediately seeing that he was pissed. This was uncharacteristic of him.

  "No, you almost killed him, but that's besides the point," he expined.

  ***

  "Pink... slippers?" Ax asked Baron.

  "Why? Got an issue with it?" He was not in a good mood.

  "No, no. Just asking," Ax got defensive.

  "Ahem." Valve cleared his throat; he was wearing his helmet again.

  Eine and Ax paid attention.

  "Eine already knows where the orientation of the trials will be held. Ax just followed her; just remember. It starts in the evening," Valve expined.

  "Alright, thanks."

  "That being said, I need to go back. But before I go. Axton," Valve called him.

  "Yes?"

  "Good luck, you'll need it," Valve said as he left.

  "Let's head back; it's getting dark out. Baron already left," Eine said as the both of them walked back home.

  Ax was staring at her while they walked.

  "What?" she asked.

  "Did those snakebites hurt?" he asked.

  "Not really," she answered.

  "Sorry about accidentally unbraiding your hair by the way," he apologized.

  "It's fine really; I can always keep braiding it," she answered.

  "Why did you dye half of your hair bck?" he asked again.

  "Personal reason," she said bluntly; it was clear this particur question bothered her.

  "How about you though? What made you grow out your hair?" she asked.

  "My dad had long hair; I and my best friend back home decided to follow his lead," he answered fondly.

  "Axel... your dad. Was he a good parent?" she asked him.

  "Oh, the best! We miss him a lot, actually," he replied.

  "That's nice," she said as she smiled softly while she looked ahead.

  "I'll go faster; get some apple slices ready," Ax said as he ran towards the castle.

  Something still bothered her; why was Baron so angry? He's usually sarcastic and frankly. Annoying. Did something happen? Did someone—

  Eine stepped in a puddle. "Hmm? I swear it didn't rain," she muttered as she looked down to see a brown puddle and an empty milk carton.

  "...Baron that bitch," Eine cursed as she looked down at the spilt milk.

  "That's why he was moody?"