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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]As always, Isaac was clearly thinking far more than he was saying aloud, though his few cryptic words and questions were as thought-provoking as ever. Sometimes, Aurelie wondered just what Isaac was contemplating when he fell silent and got that distant, pensive, faintly brooding look on his face, and what far-ranging realms of memory, insight, and foresight his mind was exploring. But she knew better than to ask.

She knew well enough that there were some things too secret, too sacred, to share right away. Or at all.

So, Aurelie only shrugged and smirked when Isaac mused about how they'd been "all over the place," shaking her head in demurral. "You've been all over the place, Isaac, for sure," she agreed readily.

"But me? Nah, not really," the red-haired smith declared, flourishing her practice sword through the air with a soft whoosh of air. "I'm still boring! I can bore anyone to death. And I'm sure I always will be able to."

Though she said it all with a smirk, Aurelie couldn't help feeling like she'd pledged something there with that last sentence. Like she'd promised she would somehow manage to stay the same no matter what, despite everything that Hoenn could throw at them. The red-haired smith swallowed. She wasn't sure it was a promise she could keep, but she couldn't help wanting to. And not just for Isaac's sake.

In a world that was always a little too interesting, and crammed full of people full of interesting traumas and struggles and sorrows, being boring felt increasingly like a luxury and a rarity these days.

She cleared her throat awkwardly after that odd assertion. Thankfully, before the oddness dragged on too long, Isaac's next comment almost made her double over with laughter. She threw back her head and chortled with unabashed amusement.

"Isaac! You are the worst!" she chuckled, brushing a stray tear from the corner of her eye. "Thank Arceus I haven't been trying to get my hands on you! I'd have to fight past a whole legion of hopeful girls with low-cut bodices who've probably been trying to do the same thing for years!"

A snicker escaped her as she added, "I mean, I definitely remember that reopening party at the casino, after all," with a mischievous grin. The red-haired smith shook her head, thinking back to the tipsy, voluptuous girl who'd fallen chest-first right onto Isaac's face.

"But..." Aurelie went on, her uncovered eye dancing gleefully, "for the grave and unforgivable offense of daring to compare me to the army of girls probably panting to get their paws all over you..." She pointed the tip of her sword at him.

"En garde!" she exclaimed. And with that, Aurelie lunged forward at him with an aggressive attack, her practice sword feeling like a natural extension of her arm as she drove the blade at him in a serpent-swift jab directed at the middle of his chest.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Hearing Isaac's claim that the only reason that girl fell on top of him at the casino was just because he was short, Aurelie snorted and shook her head. "Yeah, somehow I don't think she thought your low center of gravity was the sexiest part about you," she exclaimed with a knowing little smirk.

"I'm pretty sure some part of her tipsy brain wanted to get her chest up into your face! But with a chest like she had, who could blame her for wanting to show it off to a nice, dashing young man?"

She winked teasingly at Isaac with this comment, always an odd gesture when one only had one eye to wink with but one she couldn't help at this moment. If Aurelie had realized that Isaac was comparing her in his mind to the legion of eligible bachelorettes pursuing them, it would've probably confused her to no end, especially when his inner comparison was actually in her favor. After all, she'd certainly never pursued Isaac in that sense.

Now, though, all her focus was centered on the attack she was carrying out with her practice sword. Even Aurelie was surprised by the speed with which she charged forward toward him in a forceful lunge. Maybe her regular swordsmanship lessons with Gwyar Wledig really were paying off!

Or maybe it was some vestige of the Galarian warrior woman still lingering, unconsciously guiding her limbs to move more gracefully and efficiently, with no wasted motion.

There was a sharp crack as Isaac nimbly stepped back and parried her strike. Aurelie took a moment to admire the economy and precision of his reactions, doing exactly enough to deflect her blade while not giving her any openings to exploit. As fast as she'd been, he'd been just as quick in both movements and wits.

Her eye widened as Isaac transitioned smoothly from defense to attack with hardly a pause in between, and her smile was openly admiring. "Whoever your teacher is, he's doing a great job!" Aurelie interjected impulsively, snapping her own sword into place to meet his strike.

With the speed of his strike and their close quarters, she didn't think she could sidestep his attack quite as cleanly as he'd done with hers. Instead, Aurelie raised her practice blade high enough to intercept his sword, while making sure her stance was wide and stable after her attack. Though one foot was in front of the other instead of both being spread on either side, she'd kept her balance and footwork neatly.

Then, using her superior height and strength, Aurelie locked her sword firmly against Isaac's and pushed forward, hoping to force him back. The muscles in her arms and shoulders rippled and clenched with the convulsive effort. It wasn't pretty, but hopefully it was enough to buy her a little breathing room.

"Seems like we're pretty evenly matched, huh? Your speed against my...biceps, I guess?" She chuckled lightly, pushing a little harder. A thought—or perhaps a memory—made her brow furrow momentarily. "Is it me, or is this...oddly nostalgic? Did we spar in Galar together, you and I?"

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[attr="class","textbox"]With a wink, a compliment, and a lot of waxing lyrical about the biggest chest in Hoenn, it was clear that the casino had been a night to remember for Aurelie. "Aw, jealous?" Isaac teased, shooting her a wink of his own. "Hey, don't sweat it. I bet you could have all the nice chests and dashing young men you could ever want. Hell, I'm pretty sure you had half of Motostoke pining for you."[break][break]

Maybe it was the mix of flirting and wingmanning going on that left Isaac noticing the way Aurelie's muscles rippled. Nothing pretty about that, Isaac's ass. What Aurelie lacked in finesse, she made up for in being as cool and tough as they come. Peasant harem or not, anyone in Aurelie's life really would be lucky to have her.[break][break]

For now, unless he wanted those rippling muscles to hand his ass to him, Isaac needed to keep on the defensive. Force met with force, their stances widening in unison as they let this little test of strength unfold. Isaac may have been on high-intensity missions for two years, but Aurelie had been a blacksmith for ages. It was no surprise that, even with him giving it his all, she was gaining ground moment by moment.[break][break]

Luckily, Zev Harcourt knew Isaac wasn't winning many tests of strength. Instead of working harder, he'd trained Isaac to work smarter. In the grappling arts, momentum was a combatant's greatest strength and greatest weakness. What were he and Aurelie doing now but grappling, albeit with blades? The more he resisted, the more she pushed. The more she pushed, the more momentum she built.[break][break]

Isaac pulled his blade away and stepped to the side in a single, clean motion. If Aurelie didn't see it coming, she'd end up committing to a strike that nobody was home for. Were he to retain control of his blade, he'd aim for a quick tap to the abs with its flat. It'd be faster than trying to twist it into a flat-out gut slice.[break][break]

"You're as good at using these as you are at making 'em, that's for sure," Isaac said, a proud grin on his face. "Wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't our first tangle. After all, you were my right hand. I'm sure you had to put your fool of a king in his place every now and then!"

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]At first, Aurelie was genuinely puzzled by Isaac's reference to the half of Motostoke pining for her. His statement gave her a moment of pause. "Wait, who? None of the people who came over from here ever...

"Oh, you meant the peasants!" she exclaimed, as clarity dawned on her. Aurelie couldn't help preening for a moment at the memory, dim and faint though it was. "Well, it was probably more like a quarter, not half. And I'm sure a lot of them would've been happy to join your harem of royal concubines, if you'd had one!"

Not that she could really picture Isaac ever having such a thing. That pure, transcendental love that he and Cygne had shared back then, the way they'd gaze into each other's eyes as if nothing else in the world existed but them... It was still hard for Aurelie to believe they were no longer together.

When Isaac suddenly pulled back from the lock that she'd had on his sword and stepped deftly to one side, Aurelie ended up hurtling forward and nearly losing her balance. She must have made a comical sight as she whooshed past him, windmilling her arms frantically. At that moment, the red-haired smith definitely did not feel like someone that half of medieval-Motostoke might've pined for.

Just as she managed to catch herself, the flat of Isaac's blade thudded quickly but solidly against her stomach while her defenses were down. Even as she grunted a little from the impact, Aurelie couldn't help being impressed. Had he been using the edge of a real sword in a genuine fight, she suspected his blow would've opened a deep slash across her belly.

"Whew!" she laughed a little breathlessly. "Trying to—what is the phrase?—'butter me up' with sweet flattery to make up for nearly knocking me flat on my face? Well, if that's how it's going to be..."

Aurelie spun around on her heel and flashed a lively grin at Isaac, raising her practice sword back into a ready stance. "I'll take it! I'm sure I could use the ego boost, especially if our past tangles went anything like this one's going."

Even as she spoke, she scanned Isaac's pose for weaknesses. He'd fluidly and smoothly raised his guard again and taken up a defensive posture, and Aurelie couldn't see too many weak points that she could attack. It impressed and delighted her to see how natural and comfortable Isaac looked holding a sword, treating the weapon with the proper respect it deserved rather than with fear or zealous fervor. Or as if the sword was a mere fashion accessory, she thought with a mental grumble.

Legs, though... The knees, calves, ankles, and feet were weaknesses for pretty much everyone. No more thought did Aurelie give than that before dropping to one knee. Switching to a two-handed grip, she leveled a sweeping blow at Isaac's shins.

It was a risky gambit, one that could pay off handsomely if Isaac lost his balance or at least had to step back to avoid the attack. If he didn't and managed to stay upright, though, Aurelie's entire upper body was wide open to counterattack. In real battle, she'd be wearing armor and a helm, of course, but even a sharp rap to the temple could end up dizzying or even concussing someone in her position.

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[attr="class","textbox"]Ouch. Poor guys and girls vied for Aurelie's heart for 20 years, just to get dismissed as the rabble. Isaac made a mental note to pour one out for the memories of a heartbroken peasant harem.[break][break]

At the mention of an army of royal concubines, a blush shot across Isaac's face. "Hey, c'mon. I was lucky one person could put up with me," he joked. "Like hell would I ever have a whole group fawning over me, even if I was a king."[break][break]

For a moment, his expression took a turn for the serious. "I think you're right, though. It might do me some good to keep away from love for a bit."[break][break]

It still hurt. It had been his choice, arguably his fault, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Rushing into something to fill that void would be the biggest mistake of his life. If he was going to end up entangled again, something casual may have been the way to go.[break][break]

Right now, though, the only action going on was Aurelie's blade and his shins. She put a lot of herself into that strike, and Isaac wasn't exactly Mr. Wingspan. He was forced to take a quick, shuffling step away, leaving him out of range to pursue any counterattack against Aurelie's now wide open head. As if to test that theory, he held his blade up towards her shoulder, letting out a quick curse as he saw the amount of space that had opened between the two.[break][break]

"Clever play," Isaac admitted, taking advantage of Aurelie's kneeling position to start stepping around her instead. In her current stance, turning would be far more difficult. If she wasn't quick to rise to her feet, she may end up taking another flat of the blade strike, this time to her back. "But you're not keeping me away that easily!"

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]When Isaac's expression turned from smiling to serious and slightly sad as he talked about avoiding love for a while, Aurelie's face fell. Her instinct was to immediately burst out, "Wait, I never said that! You shouldn't avoid love! That's going too far! You deserve to be happy, whether it's with Cygne or someone else."

Thankfully, some newfound self-control or presence of mind held her back long enough to see the brief flicker of pain across Isaac's face. With a wisdom Aurelie didn't know she had, she held her tongue and nodded understandingly. After the shock of coming back from Galar and the sorrow of the breakup, it made sense for Isaac to emotionally step back and take a deep breath.

"Sometimes taking a break and making some time for yourself is the best thing you can do," was all she ended up saying. "Just don't go too far in the other direction and become a monk!"

Then Aurelie chuckled a little as she couldn't help adding teasingly, "Well, unless you become the kind of monk that makes champagne. That would be kind of interesting!"

She decided to leave the matter at that, for now, and focused instead on the spar. Isaac had managed to avoid the blow to his legs by sort of taking a hopping step backward, which took Aurelie off guard and spoke well of his excellent reflexes. It left her in an awkward spot too: still on one knee, with her arms still extended from the attempted sweep.

As she considered her options, guidance and promptings rose unbidden to the forefront of Aurelie's mind from her other self—her doppelganger, perhaps—that had lived and fought in memory-Galar. Memories of clashes with mindless poison Pokemon that kept fighting even when they were gravely wounded and near death. I—she—we—learned to go for the legs early on, Aurelie thought, because that was the only way to slow them down or get them to stop moving.

She rapidly searched those memories. What did you do when you ended up like this? she asked the other woman, the Galarian warrior and counselor to kings. As if in answer, Aurelie thought she heard a distant voice in her mind whisper, "Let me show you."

When Isaac moved to get behind her, Aurelie responded by lashing out with a quick jabbing feint aimed at the opponent's wrists. At the same time, she shifted from a kneeling stance into a crouch. Ducking her head and pulling in her arms, she dropped and rolled to her right, away from Isaac. His strike to her back whistled through empty air.

In Aurelie's head, her evasive roll was a smooth, fluid maneuver with no wasted motion or wrong turns. In real life, she landed on her right shoulder with a hard jolt as she tried to tuck herself into a ball, and her elbows and knees poked sharply against the wooden floor, turning her intended straight-line path into a wide, slow, lurching arc. Aurelie bumped to a stop only a few feet away and rolled clumsily back to her feet, instinctively bringing her sword up to guard.

"I think that works better in video games than in real life," she remarked wryly, spitting out a bit of grit that had stuck to her mouth off the floor. "Or maybe it worked better back in medieval Galar."

Still, she thought at her other self, her past memory-self, thank you.

Then Aurelie broke into an unexpected grin as she gazed steadily at Isaac. "Still, that was a nice dodge you did just now! I was so sure my trick would work. Considering how fast you picked up on it and reacted... Well, I'm glad we're fighting on the same side, Isaac."

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[attr="class","textbox"]"No chance. I like treating myself way too much to throw on a brown robe and chant about Arceus all day long." 'sides, what did he do to deserve all that praise, hm? Create their world? With how he tried to destroy it as well, Isaac wasn't feeling very charitable. "Nah, nah. I mean follow your lead. Focus more on keeping stuff fun and casual instead of rushing into someone's arms too soon."[break][break]

A part of him knew, until he sorted his own mess of a life out, he'd never be the partner he should be.[break][break]

It was one of two big lessons he'd learned today. The other was that guard rolls were a lot harder than they looked. Poor Aurelie's Dark Souls impression left her turning away with all the finesse and grace of a cruise ship. Had it not been for her expertly-performed feint buying her some space, he would've been in a prime spot to capitalize. Instead, he got to enjoy the show.[break][break]

"I mean, you pulled it off without stabbing yourself," Isaac pointed out. "That's pretty damn great for someone who's never done it before." Isaac could only imagine doing his best impression of a yakitori skewer after trying her stunt for himself.[break][break]

He wished he could respond to her praise as warmly as she did his. He would always be on Aurelie's side. He refused to imagine a world where he wasn't. However, he knew they could no longer serve the same master. Arceus, he was glad he had such a strong poker face. He couldn't handle the idea of her finding out like this.[break][break]

"What can I say? I'm a quick learner," he said, hiding the pain behind that winning smirk. "Might not be a master at anything. But give me a good teacher and some motivation, and I can pull off the basics pretty quick. And if I've got a great one? Well, you saw that for yourself."[break][break]

Maybe if he went from a jack of all trades to a master of many, he could fight for that golden ending.

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie chuckled aloud at the image of Isaac shaved bald, draped in a cassock, and conducting holy rites in Arceus' honor. She smiled knowingly at his statement about enjoying the finer things in life, though. Not to mention keeping relationships easy and casual.

"You may not be suited for the monk life, but you're definitely preaching to the choir, my friend," she told him, nodding her head sagely.

After her comical attempt at crouching and rolling away to evade his attack, Aurelie had the distinct sense that Isaac was doing his best not to burst out laughing at her. To be fair, she figured she probably did look pretty damn ridiculous trying to pull off that move. She had to give Isaac credit for his excellent poker face for managing to look mostly serious afterward.

"Hey, I'm pretty sure I did successfully pull off that maneuver at least a few times back in Galar," Aurelie protested mildly, pressing her lips together as she thought back to the many fights she'd participated in. "Even with my achy, creaky forty-five-year-old's knees and back. Man, those were the days, huh?"

Galar had offered worse nutrition, sanitation, healthcare, education, transportation, and public facilities in general. How was it possible that so many people had seemed happier living there than they were in modern-day Hoenn? And yet, so many of them were—and Isaac seemed like one of them, at least most of the time.

Her grin deepened in response to his playful smirk, into which Aurelie didn't read any deeper meaning than simple amusement and appreciation for her compliments. "True, you did pick up swordsmithing pretty fast. You're the quickest learner I know of!" she admitted candidly. "Your swordsmanship teacher's lucky to have a student like you."

Catching her breath, she decided to go on the offensive again. Aurelie raised her sword and launched into a flurry of attacks, closing in on Isaac with short, quick slashes, stabs, and feints. They pressed him hard and gave him little room to do much beyond defending, let alone counterattacking.

The blade of her practice sword blurred and flashed in the overhead light, throwing bright reflections across the walls as she continued her swift assault. However, a careful eye might have noted that, while Aurelie's attacks were forceful and unrelenting, her footwork definitely showed some missteps and carelessness.

At times, she trusted her balance to a single foot or even jumped into the air, leaving no stable footing to ground herself and relying too much on her athletic ability to hold steady. If a well-timed feint or countermove was aimed at her at a time when she was off-balance, Aurelie could very well be left wobbling and flailing in place, leaving a wide, gaping opening for a decisive strike.

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