Sett felt deflated and rather disappointed in himself. Why would he be disappointed in losing against an ascendant two tiers above himself? It was simple, she had not used a single gram of essence in their fight. Only her physical might and skill with the sword had brought him low. He had hoped that he could at least have stood a little chance at fighting back when she did not use her ascendant powers, but the truth had revealed just how much he had yet to learn.

He could only shake his head and smile in self-depreciation.

Stella, who had been sitting on the sidelines watching their fight with a huge grin on her face, found the situation much more fun than he did. Looking at Sett’s saddened state, she held her sides trying not to keel over from laughing.

“Oh gods, this is so funny.” Stella could barely force the words out due to sheer laughter. “You looked so confident at first, but then sis absolutely destroyed you. You should have seen your own face when she charged at you! Oh, my sides.”

Sett was at a loss for words seeing Stella laughing till she had a coughing fit. Had he really done so badly that it had looked like a comedy act?

“Pilot Stella, the way you are acting is not proper.” Adina reprimanded Stella with a stern tone, although Sett found that she did not sound as angry as he thought she would have been. “As punishment, you will have to spar with squire Sett as his next opponent.”

That did not seem like a proper punishment. Such thoughts could not help but enter Sett’s mind as he saw the two sisters’ obviously premeditated ploy. What could they gain from pitting him against Stella after he had fought Adina?

While she was an ascendant, Stella was a pilot first and foremost. Her fighting prowess and physical abilities would obviously be side-tracked in favour of learning to pilot the warships. Something that was surely many times more time consuming than it actually sounded.

While Sett was deep in thought, Stella had gotten up from her prone position. Unbeknownst to Sett, she, too, had gotten weapons from the quartermaster. The difference was that the weapons that she had chosen were not the standard weaponry of the crusaders, the longsword, but rather two much smaller swords. Unlike the longsword, these blades were slick and only sharp on one side.

Stella walked to the same spot that Adina had stood on only a few minutes ago and courtised towards Sett.

“Squire Sett, I hope that you will go easy on me. I look forward to your guidance.”

Her words towards him sounded earnest enough, but Sett could not bring himself to trust them because of the chuckling that escaped mid-sentence.

“Likewise.”

This time Sett was prepared, and he would surely not be as pitiable as he had been earlier. He had never expected Adina to actually fight him with such ferocity as the first thing when they arrived here and because of that, he had not readied himself properly. This time it was different. He knew that his opponent was coming and that alone allowed him a much greater chance at victory.

“Alright, you two. During this spar, neither of you will be allowed to make use of essence in any capacity.” Adina bellowed, acting the part of a referee. “Remember this is only a spar and you are not to harm each other.”

Adina’s words were directed at both of them, yet Sett could not help but feel that the last part was especially spoken because of Stella.

“Begin!”

As Adina brought down her own sword to signal the start of the spar, Stella sprang into action. With a lithe sword in each hand, she traversed the distance with the grace of a tiger. Surprisingly, she was not any slower than her sister, arriving before Sett in only a few seconds. As she approached, she raised one of her swords above her head, preparing to strike at him.

Sett was naturally prepared for this. With much time to spare, Sett raised his sword horizontally with both his hands supporting its weight to parry the incoming attack. He did not have much knowledge in the way of fighting with swords, but logic dictated that she would never be able to gather enough force to break through his defense. As things were, he could vaguely imagine his sword as an impenetrable wall before himself.

He was so sure of his defense that a small smile surfaced on his face. That smile, however, would quickly wither. The strike that he had expected from Stella never came. Instead, with nimble movements, she dodged beneath the supposedly impenetrable wall that was his sword and arrived behind him rendering his defense useless.

With a quick spin and fluid motions, Stella made contact with each sword just above each of his calves. Perhaps she had been looking down on him or maybe she was simply merciful because she did not bring the sharp side of the blades down on him but only hit him with the blunt side. It still hurt terribly, but it would not have been fatal in a real combat scenario. The fight was not over yet.

Adina, as well, did not seem to want to declare Stella as the victor of the spar just yet.

After Stella finished her flourishing and fancy spin attack, she continued to spin for a couple of rotations before she settled into position a couple of meters from Sett. A teasing expression present on her face. Sett, too, retreated a little bit as he readied his stance once again.

“Wow. Adina really was right.” Stella teased Sett from across the battlefield. “You really have a lot to learn, Squire Sett.”

Sett shook his head. Knowing that the girl before him was merely teasing him, Sett did not take her words to heart. Furthermore, the words she spoke were true, he really did have a lot to learn if he wished to stand at their level.

“Please, pilot Stella.” Sett felt his smile return to his face. A certain competitive nature had resurfaced in his mind. “I don’t believe I have thrown in the towel just yet. Take my Strike!”

This time, Sett took the lead and charged at the pilot. He knew that he did not stand much of a chance at fighting her if he stood still and let her pick him apart. Thus, he decided that it was his best opportunity to force her to be on the defensive.

With heavy steps and his sword raised above his head, Sett soon reached Stella. He was not quite as fast as the girls, but fast compared to any normal human.

When Sett arrived before Stella, he was surprised that find that she had not retreated, nor did she try to dodge. Instead, she wanted to meet his strike head-on with her two feeble swords. He had thought that she would be fearful of his strike and would shirk out of the way, considering how much power it contained, but if she chose to meet his strike, he would gladly accompany her.

Also, it was not as if he could cancel out his momentum anymore. If he went to retreat at this time, Stella would easily be able to attack his unstable figure, claiming the victory.

With all the force that he could muster into his two arms above his head, Sett brought down his weapon to meet her two waiting swords. It was a clumsy strike by all standards, even Sett knew that, but with enhanced physique it still contained enough strength to shatter bricks.

With so many things going right, Sett could not help but feel certain of his victory.

Once again, he would be disappointed. The three swords met each other in mid-air with a great wave of wind, but Stella did not buckle under the might of his weapon as he had hoped and expected. She did seem somewhat strained but that was it.

His weapon had been caught exactly at the cross-section of her two swords and its momentum had been completely zeroed out.

“Heh.”

A single small laugh and a sadistic smirk from his opponent were enough to make his entire mental fortitude crumble. What in the world was he supposed to do in this situation? The way that the three weapons were interlocked meant that it would be incredibly hard for him to backtrack.

His consideration was cut short. Making use of his internal strife, Stella made her move. She removed one of her swords from the interlocking point and moved the other to the side. Sett’s longsword followed the latter and harmlessly fell to the ground. She had moved too quickly for him to make any sense of what was happening.

Before he could even lift his sword from the ground, Stella had already invaded his space in the same nimble manner as earlier and made two slicing motions across his stomach with her swords. Then, she jumped into the air and kicked at Sett’s chest, sending him stumbling backward for many steps. With a grand flourish, she completed her jump with a fancy backflip and landed acrobatically on the ground.

Before this, Sett had never understood why some stories would depict people puking blood from being humiliated, but now he could vaguely understood them. Was there really a need to make everything so theatrical?

“Pilot Stella of the 69th Crusader Company is the victor.”

Adina declared the victor without much emotion. Sett could not complain. Once again, he had been beaten without having much chance to fight back.

There were much difference between the two sisters' way of fighting. Adina had been steadfast in her attacks, carrying much strength and technique, while Stella had been like a weasel, quick and nimble in her attacks. Their styles were different, but each was strong in their own sense. Stella did not lose out much in front of her sister’s strength, at least not if you did not include their strength of essence.

This was what Sett thought that they wanted him to realise. Although the two of them were excellent ascendants by their own right, they were also strong combatants because they had trained their physical body.

“What was that style?”

Sett could not help but question Stella about her fighting style. He had seen the other crusaders fight before and none of them were unique in their fighting style like her.

“Oh? Interested, are we?”

Stella lightly teased Sett again.

“The fighting technique that is the foundation of my style is called blade dancing. As you might have noticed, it makes use of fluid movements and quick attacks to catch the enemy off guard.”

Blade dancing? Sett pondered for a moment. Then it struck him. He had heard about this style before, but not in relation to fighting. No, blade dancing was oftentimes connected to dancing instead of being considered an actual fighting style.

“It was amazing. I could hardly keep up with your movements.”

Sett complimented Stella greatly, at which her eyes lit up with gratitude.

“I know right.” Her smile beamed. “It was originally a technique that the order received many years ago back on earth from one of our Indian ascendant allies. Since then, the order has allowed its members to build on the technique. It is such a shame that mortals do not consider it to be an effective technique since they cannot use it to perfection with their feeble bodies. You should see it when I am allowed to use essence, now that is where the fun begins.”

Before the Intergalactic Human Federation had assimilated the entirety of humankind into the empire and even now, the Indian people had been a people with many unique cultural norms. This likely extended to their ascendants as well. With such a rich history, there were bound to many pieces of interesting titbits in their ascendant’s society.

“Sorry, Vice-captain.” Sett became aware of the other less talkative sister who stood to the side. “I am also quite interested in your technique; do you mind telling me about it so I can make a good choice in the future?”

With Sett’s words, Stella looked to be slightly worried. She almost looked like she wanted to say something.

“It’s fine, Stella.” Adina brushed of Stella before she could even say anything. “It is a rather standard two-handed swordsman’s technique that has been refined over many years. The technique is often credited with being exceptionally good at transferring energy to the sword and is supposed to allow for great growth.”

Sett’s eyes sparkled. Adina did not make it sound as interesting as Stella did, but her words were precise and brought out the good points of the method.

“Is it possible for me to learn this technique or is it only for the officers?”

It was not that Sett had already decided to train in this technique, but he wanted to know the specifics beforehand.

“This…” Adina seemed perturbed. “It is not possible at all. The technique is not one that the order is privy to give out. Furthermore, it requires a specific ascendants technique to function. One that is the property of Stella’s and mine’s family. Should I carelessly give it away to you, it would bring you into great danger even if you never left the Seventh Garden.”

Adina denied any future hope for the technique, but that was not what Sett had noticed from her words. Rather, it was about their family. A family that was powerful enough that they could hurt him in the home base of the crusader order. Did that not mean that they came from a very powerful family? In that case, why were they even here to begin with?

‘Sett, you must hide!’

Before he could truly ponder the potentially troublesome matter of the two girls' family, the Grandmaster’s voice sounded in his head.