[Training] nature offers a violence

Aurelia

these nightmares all bend
silver linings are all i need

When her blade jabbed at thin air, she felt the breath she'd been holding billow out of her lungs in a disappointed huff. She supposed, then, she'd have to be extremely lucky to land a 'successful' hit against him. Just looking at him, she knew his defenses may as well have been an impenetrable wall of stone. Yet still he praised the thought behind her moves, well, praised-ish. She followed his gesture to look down at her feet, which had apparently pointed at her true target. 

Her lips curled in dissatisfaction, her frown deepening as she realized that he'd taken advantage of that small moment of inattention to direct his sword at her. For a few seconds, she felt her breath shorten. "You're stronger than me," she pointed out the obvious, but the thing about it was that it left her feeling optionless, "I can't possibly beat you if we clash our swords. You'll win that battle on brute force alone."

Still, she didn't want to give up, so she tried what made the most sense to her without taking too long to think on it. She leaped a step backward, pulling her shoulder away from the edge of the blade, and struck his sword hard from a sideward angle in the hopes that it would be enough to counterattack.

so please just hold onto me
these demons, they're old to me