Several more months passed as I improved by leaps and bounds, yet I felt empty inside. I was simply going through the motions. A staff hit the two scimitars in my hands before it was withdrawn, followed by a series of rapid exchanges. 

Each blow was pinpoint accurate yet they all came in from awkward angles with wide arcing sweeps before they were swapped with powerful thrusts when Celeste realized my intent to take advantage of the openings her sweeps left behind.

Instead, she opted to spear me with the blunt end of her weapon while I evaded many of the strikes and blocked the few I couldn’t dodge.

“Good Corvo, keep it up,” Serleena said as she walked parallel to us while watching our intense match. Before I had gotten to Eshan, Celeste without holding back would have killed me before I could do much of anything. If I ambushed her with a trap or something I might be able to win.

But in a head-on fight on even ground, she would beat me. I may have her technically beat in physical strength but that doesn’t count for much since if she utilized most of her muscles in sync then she could come close if not surpass since she could generate enough momentum and power far faster than one would think. The cherry on top is that it was incredibly subtle.

It would be like someone with such fine-tuned control over their body that when they punched someone with no momentum or weight behind it the punch had the power of a Grizzly bear.

Selene showed that when she punched the daughter of house Ignis so fast I couldn’t even see what happened and she was holding back considering she wasn’t dead or crippled. Paying no mind to Serleena as all of my attention was on the fight itself as my blades weaved and moved in such a way that to others it would appear to be an elaborate and elegant yet energetic dance.

Celeste herself was a whirlwind with that staff using all manner of attacks from thrusts to wide yet deceptively fast sweeping blows transitioning from one attack to another seamlessly completely defying any expectation I would have had of someone wielding such a weapon. 

I had always viewed the staff as a weapon that could be decent but was something that would be difficult to transition into strikes like she was right now. It wasn’t helping that she reminded me of some old school kung fu movies where they used the staff in a more exaggerated but similar manner.

Ducking under a horizontal strike that sent a gust of air across the room as I slid under it and lashed out with the dulled training blades aimed for her legs. Instead of retreating like a normal sane person she instead moved closer with her staff planted into the floor behind me before she vaulted over me in an impressive display of acrobatic finesse.

Circling one another Celeste threw out several testing jabs and sweeps grinning like a maniac since we started this spar with weapons. This time she was permitted to not hold back nearly as much and the fact that I am even keeping up with her is a testament to how far I have come. 

However, it is not without struggle. On paper, it sounded easy to use several muscles in sync with one another. It was in reality far more difficult. To compare it to anything Guitar Hero would make a decent example.

You can’t just button-mash or push several buttons at once and hope it all goes well. Instead, you need to know the buttons and how to time each one accordingly leading into the next, and so on creating an amazing song. This was a little similar to that.

Case in point Celeste moving far faster than before utilizing for a brief moment the very thing I was thinking about with her staff blurring forward in an overarching strike that if it wasn’t for the rather absurd speed it would have been an easily telegraphed strike not too far off from a Souls-esque boss fight.

Some muscles you can’t just use all at the same time since it would lead to issues occurring like using your abdominal muscles to send a stronger reaction to your arms but those muscles are also connected to certain leg muscles. 

So if you used it without proper control or understanding it would cause not only your arms to strike with much greater force and speed but also your steps and the movement of your body to move far too fast and potentially causing you to miss your strike or land it but get too close to your enemy in the process and leaving you out of position. If they are still standing after that strike and with you out of position and depending on what weapon they were using you could end up dead because of it. 

Of course, you also had the more obvious one of the bunch being that it disrupts your ability to move leaving you vulnerable. But I was sure I could improve it enough to even remedy that issue.

As the weapon came down like a pillar thrown to the Earth from the heavens several muscles tensed up simultaneously along my back going down to my legs. Bullet time was engaged, slowing the staff just enough before a swift side step followed up with a strike. 

The strike was avoided with only a few chips from the duracrete hitting my back side harmlessly before time went back to normal as I rushed to Celeste with her weapon near the ground cracking and splintering the floor slightly bending the absurdly durable wood for the staff.

Seriously, what the hell kind of wood is so strong that it won’t snap or break after making a small crater in duracrete?! 

She pulled her staff back swinging it behind me at the same time I casually swung a scimitar at it while moving forward. The attack was blocked just like nearly everything else with the clang and force of the blow running up my arm. 

Using the other sword and swinging where her fingers and hands gripped the staff before long the other sword joined in with Celeste refusing to retreat. She slid her hands along the staff at times letting go when the blades got too close making the staff spin in the air.

 She even managed to weaponize it while playing defensively using her hands and feet kicking and knocking it around while adjusting its positioning midair like a vertical helicopter blade. Incapable of getting to her without the staff knocking my blades aside while she occasionally used the gaps made by me to get the occasional attack out, forcing me to block each strike with my legs.

The battle was never on just one level. Some people would focus on their opponents’ weapon and their positioning but in this fight, we were using everything available. I would go so far as to describe it as some extreme anime equivalent to a game of hacky sack.

Each blow or sweep of my swords meant to send her staff flying away out of reach was simply met with her giving me a knowing smile followed by a change in direction of the staff's spin which had enough force in it to redirect the blow that otherwise would have disarmed her.

Grunting in annoyance before finally getting her where I wanted her.

“That’s it Corvo you are doing it!” Serleena says with more emotion entering her voice than I had heard so far.

Sweat covered the two of us despite our exhaustion. We pushed ourselves to keep going. Just as her staff was about to complete another revolution it slowed down just enough when my entire body relaxed and became incredibly loose like I had just entered a hot tub. 

Taking one sword and chucking it up in the air while using my now free hand to grab her staff. With a not so insubstantial amount of effort stop it in its tracks with my other sword going for Celeste’s shoulder making her eyes widen finding it harder to predict my movements between relaxing my body.

It was my way of flipping the script doing something she hadn’t anticipated and couldn’t anticipate.

Raising the other end of the staff fighting me for control she brought it up just enough to stop my sword before she looked up seeing the spinning blade I had tossed earlier coming down for her. She managed to raise a part of the staff angling it so it would knock the sword away with the other blade scraping against the wood.

The blade went sailing off with a clang signaling it hit the wall of the room before her staff stopped except this time my hand was gripping her shoulder and bringing her closer with my knee finding itself embedded in her gut.

Gritting her teeth a wheeze escaped her and despite what should have been a blow that would incapacitate a normal person she fought through it despite her movements being far slower and sluggish courtesy of not having any air in her lungs. 

She tried to bring her staff around to bat my arm off but I simply lifted her off the ground. She dropped her staff trying to remove my grip on her but it was too late when I slammed her back-first into the ground.

Straddling her while keeping her arms pinned Celeste eventually tapped out coughing while I got up holding a hand out for her.

Taking the offered hand we both bowed to one another. Despite the manner I beat her, she gave me a small smile before the sound of clapping drew our attention to Serleena who had a proud smile on her face.

“Good fight,” I told her with a small happy smile that for once I was able to pressure her and beat her. She wasn’t going all out but according to Serleena this was close to it. 

“Same. It was fun.” She said with a happy look on her face. 

“See Corvo. Your time spent learning under our ways has not been in vain.” Serleena said, approaching me with a warm look on her face like a mother seeing her son accomplish everything he set out to do, and looked on with pride.

“Now since the adrenaline has left your systems and you both have managed to calm down, what were the mistakes you two made over the course of the fight?” She goes from warm to all business asking the question she always did after a particularly intense fight.

It made sense with the explanation Selene and Serleena gave for why they did this since it was best in their eyes to reflect on what you did wrong and how to ensure you don’t do it again. It made us over time refine our skills to the point we have removed whatever impurities were left as they like to call them.

“Corvo, we will start with you.”

Standing straighter and at attention not unlike that of a soldier. For me, it might as well be an old hat by this point. “I had to use a risky move when I grabbed Celeste’s weapon to make an opening that I otherwise couldn’t break through her defense. I allowed her far too much control in the pace of the match that if allowed to go on she would have outlasted me and won as a result. So she forced me to use a risky move by relaxing my body for a brief moment once I managed to disrupt her tempo and momentum in the battle to make it so she couldn’t read me even if it was only briefly and took advantage of the brief confusion.”

Serleena nodded, looking pleased at my brief explanation of what I knew I had done wrong but also mentioning my plan to at least make it harder to predict me even if it was only for a fraction of a second. “How would you break through her defense then without such a method?”

“I would have to use my environment and bide my time since her defense was too good for me to break through with conventional methods. Maybe wait her out since I did get impatient and keeping up that much movement would require a lot of stamina to keep it up. Of course, that is also reliant on me being capable of outlasting her.” I said, getting a nod from her.

“All correct. Keep in mind Corvo what you did was at the time the best move you could make since Celeste would have been able to outlast you even with her being forced to do what she did on the defensive. I am more surprised you used that trick that you had tried to do back when your training had first begun.”

Celeste even stopped looking at her instead looking at me out of the corner of her eye with a twinkle of mischief in it.

“Figured it was something I didn’t want to fully give up on. It’s more refined now since I have a better understanding of your people’s martial art and how you read people but still not what I would like it to be. It’s only good for a fraction of a second and leaves me vulnerable when I use it so it is only useful when I have room to breathe and if I can take my opponent down with the opening it may or may not give.” I said keeping my embarrassment to myself.

It is something I never let go of simply because if I could improve it and make it viable beyond what it currently is capable of then I could use it. If I ever found myself staring down enemies on Selene's or other notable matriarchs' levels then I would need something to help close that gap. 

I would prefer to take them down through using proxies like my Death Korp or if I have to fight them myself would do so at range and I am confident I can do so now but I won’t always be at an advantageous position.

Serleena merely hummed before speaking, “Well it would seem it wasn’t a complete waste of time then if it managed to help you defeat Celeste. Continue to improve upon it, and every advantage you should use when the time comes. Now Celeste, what did you do wrong in that clash?”

As Celeste opened her mouth to give an answer the doors to the training room opened as one of the male servants rushed into the room. “Ma’am Matriarch Selene has requested you and Mr. Attano immediately.” He said swiftly and despite how emotionless he appeared to a random person I could see the signs of worry and stress underneath the figurative mask he wore.

Serleena looked surprised but she schooled her emotions and quickly moved to leave the room with me following beside her before turning to Celeste giving her an apologetic look. She gave a small smile and told me through her body that it's alright that there was always next time.

We rushed through the halls with Serleena not attempting to ask verbally what had Selene worried enough to have a servant come for us and not say what it was. I couldn’t even glean what had him worried simply that he was but he hid whatever it was well enough that I couldn’t make out what it was.

So to have a servant with that much skill at hiding what bothered him had me worried. We went through half the manor with several servants and guards moving aside before we finally came across a room deep within Selene's home.

The door opened up to the sight of Selene looking over a terminal. She glanced up at us tearing herself away from the hologram giving us her undivided attention. 

“Thank you Solus, you may return to your duties.” She said with a curt nod. The man bowed deeply in turn before quickly leaving the room with the door sealing shut behind him. The office was far more Spartan than anything I had seen in Selene's home to date.

Dull gray walls, duracrete floor with no engravings, no decorations, or weapons of some kind or another. Just a table with the terminal and a few chairs that looked comfortable but nothing like the comfort of what I had come to expect all over the manor. 

“Selene, what happened?” Serleena stepped forward asking Selene who looked at both of us before pressing a button on the terminal.

She lets out a sigh before speaking, “House Atrix has issued a challenge directed at us.”

I and Serleena both froze on the spot. You have got to be kidding me. I have improved greatly under their training but I’d rather not fight the Matriarch of House Atrix just yet.

Hiding my growing dread at the revelation Selene glanced at me before continuing, “They have stated their terms, they will take a large portion of my company if they win and if we win in turn we get control of the Second Sister back along with our choosing of their family’s legacy and wealth.” 

My mind raced at the demands made, seeing how they could take away resources from Selene's House and effectively render her family less of a threat by taking away one of the bigger advantages they had, and what helped keep them in power even without the Second Sister under their control.

Serleena remained silent for a moment digesting what she just heard, “Do they know what we planned?”

Selene sat back down leaning back as she looked at her like she just asked a stupid question, one that Serleena gave her a look in return that made Selene calm herself.

“Yes. Or at least they seem to believe we have Corvo around. They readily accepted only on the condition that we have Corvo as our representative so that he may pay for his crimes against the Second Sister.” She scoffed at the last part.

“I will scour the House to find the one responsible for spilling secrets,” Serleena said with a curt tone devoid of any emotion but despite that and her hiding her emotions through her body I could tell how utterly furious she was right now due to just how well she hid everything.

“Please do Serleena, but only after you have managed to calm yourself.” She said while she seemed to be struggling to hold back her own anger before turning to look at me, “Corvo, with this happening we will have to accelerate your training.”

Serleena stopped all motion abruptly, her neck moved in such a way that were it possible I could imagine it sounding like metal tearing, “You can’t be serious…”

“Of course I am. Corvo has made great progress-”

“Corvo has grown, yes, but not enough to fight against House Atrix’s Matriarch!” She couldn’t hide the heat behind it like she was scolding a dull child.

“Then what would you prefer me to do? They specifically said they would only accept Corvo as the challenger regardless of the consequences if they back out if he does not represent us. Not you, me, or any of my sons or daughters.”

Serleena fell silent at this not looking pleased at all and I couldn’t blame her. Just what do you say to that? 

Give up at an opportunity to challenge them and embarrass them, taking away what credibility and power they have as the lower families tear into them once they fall from on high and you see before your very eyes the opportunity slip away. 

But not because you lost the opportunity, oh no. They instead do the thing you want them to but do it far earlier when you are not ready.

My thoughts raced a thousand miles a minute as I contemplated my options. Running is not something I can do. Between House Atrix and the Hutts’ reach, I might be able to give them the slip after who knows how long they would pursue me. 

That and I refused to run. My pride wouldn’t have it despite the trepidation to face such an opponent knowing it was going to hurt. 

Despite my dread and fear of facing House Atrix’s Matriarch after every time I had battled her family I always somehow ended up getting hurt by them and they happened to be one of the few that posed a threat to me. I am not against facing them.

Plans formed and fell apart at the idea of simply attacking their home and leveling it with turbolasers and lots of explosives from my Headhunter that had not been found so far. They managed to take out the trade ship I had purchased some time ago, hoping to find me only to find the droid in disguise before dismantling it in a fit of rage.

Guess they got tired of seeing it fly off with me giving them crude gestures so they finally had enough and shot it down in a more secluded part of the planet near a jungle. I could still remember the look of anger Scarface had when she realized it wasn’t me and it was a trick.

Despite all my plans being formed, falling apart at the holes I poked into them one plan became more and more tempting despite it being an older one I had tried to use early on in my training. The same one I used moments ago when I sparred against Celeste. 

Now with my experience in the Echani arts along with newly gained knowledge it is possible it could be used now and potentially refined even further.

Making my decision I cut in before Serleena could speak, getting both of their attention.

“It’s fine Serleena. Selene is not wrong and I cannot let this opportunity go.”

Serleena merely blinked before slowly nodding, accepting my decision far easier than I had expected. Selene on the other hand smiled clapping in approval.

“I applaud both your bravery and determination Corvo. Most run-of-the-mill bounty hunters would have long since given up or tried to brute force their way to get the job done. Serleena, put all of my meetings on hold if you cannot handle them yourself.” 

She stepped forward undoing a small clasp that had been keeping a shoulder cape attached then tossing it aside. Selene gave me a look of intense focus while Serleena nodded, stepping out of the room.

“Any plans you have to beat the Matriarch?” She asked me while stretching.

“Remember when I tried to overcome your people's ability to see what someone is going to do before they have done it?” My question earned me a raised brow while she bent backwards. I could faintly hear a few pops in her body.

“How could I forget you embarrassing yourself when fighting Celeste. It wasn’t a bad idea. I take it you never gave up on the notion?”

“No. Or at least it had been put on my to-do list when I didn’t have more pressing matters to deal with and had more time to myself to work on it when I wanted to. But with the situation having turned into a race against the clock and who I am about to fight it needs to be worked on now.”

She hummed at that before seemingly satisfied working out any kinks in her body before falling into a stance. “If you are so confident in it then we need to test it and figure out a way to make it work. As things stand we do not have enough time to get you where you need to be to fight a Matriarch evenly.”

We quickly left the room entering one of many large rooms across the manor that one could so easily get lost in. The instant the door shut behind us she was upon me.

Even with all the training and improvements made in their martial art, she was still far too fast for my liking. One moment she was there, the next she didn’t necessarily disappear like she did last time but she was a blur of motion.

Almost like the wind took solid form in the shape of a black blur. She raced towards me. Hands up in a classic boxer stance with a bead of sweat trailing down my temple gritting my teeth in dread for what was about to happen. 

A black shape snapped out at my temple only for me to barely block it along with four other attacks that happened in the blink of an eye.

Probably faster than that considering each strike was blocked at the last second sending tremors and vibrations up my limbs. Each one with such power and force that I almost failed to stifle a grunt each time.

She moved in circles around me with any attempt to break out of it thwarted with many strikes hitting me. Her speed after that first exchange had steadily increased making it nigh impossible to stop her attacks from sneaking past my feeble attempts to block. It wasn’t long before numerous bruises and some beads of blood stained my uniform.

Fighting the pain and forcing my body to relax and for a fraction of a fraction of a second the blur slowed down just enough for a blink and you would miss it moment.

Selene sped up again rushing at me headfirst as I strained to observe any movement despite her being too fast to see currently.

Making a calculated guess I leaned forward and lashed out with a kick that came out of nowhere courtesy of both my absurd speed with my growing control over my body and the relaxed state I was in that completely contradicted the aggressive attack.

For the first time, I witnessed Selene stop completely. She leaned to the side, twisting her body like a boa constrictor avoiding the strike in an impressive display of flexibility and skill.

Her smile was one of glee yet the hunger in her eyes showed she wanted to see more. My body was relaxed, to such a level that it would appear I was just vibing and chilling out in a park. 

It gave mixed signals because she couldn’t properly read me. It didn’t help that I was turning it off and on at random with no set pattern to ensure she had as hard a time predicting me as possible.

The only reason I can do this now and not before was because of my current understanding of Echani body reading along with other factors I lacked when I was just beginning.

It’s like when Cultivators in those xinxia novels try to use or do a move that requires them to be at a higher cultivation level. If they do it at a weaker level if it doesn’t harm them then it may as well be an amateur's attempt at copying something vastly superior. The result compared to the real thing was such a pale imitation that they shouldn’t even be considered related.

In my case lacking the physical control I had over my body, albeit it was still not perfect since I knew she had picked up on a few tales in my body that I couldn’t completely stop yet, and because of how physically superior Selene was to me.

She was both faster and stronger than me. However, her strength like the rest of her family came more from her control over her body to enhance her strikes to hit far harder than someone her size should be capable of. Each attack had enough force to outright knock the air out of me or even draw blood with a single finger.

But with the experience and knowledge I had accumulated during my training, it allowed me to further refine it. Far from perfect, evident by the fist slamming into my head like a gong with my retaliatory jab swishing past her head as she casually leaned to the side.

Too late to pull my arm back she wrapped an arm around it, gripping it tight enough that my bones groaned under the pressure. Her grip was strong enough that my arm couldn’t be pulled back. Knowing I was in for a beating I went all in.

Knees strike out like pistons, each one making popping sounds with bursts of air followed in its wake. Each one is either met with one of Selene’s knees or she sidestepped it as she waylaid into me with fierce punches, palm thrusts, and knife hand strikes. 

She did all of this while keeping my arm wrapped up preventing me from attacking with it while leading me around controlling the pace of the fight.

Despite the pain I was in, I pushed on knowing that with the countdown to us facing House Atrix, I couldn’t afford to slack off because of the pain. Even though I don’t want to continue this any further, I didn’t have much of a choice.

After what felt like an eternity of being her punching bag it came to a stop to my eternal gratitude. I stood there huffing and breathing feeling like one giant bruise before falling onto the floor.

Selene stared down at me for a few seconds before a light laugh escaped her. Glancing up with what was supposed to be a questioning look instead made me look like a disfigured bum whose eyes were almost swollen shut.

“Serleena seems to have underestimated how far you've come in your training. But then again she always preferred the slow and steady approach.”

The aches and pains along with the open wounds blood creating small crimson streams down my body faded away, the wounds sealing shut as my body shifted back to what it was before being mauled by Selene.

She watched on, her face an emotionless mask, but I could tell she was impressed with my body healing at a visible rate, fixing damage that would have taken anywhere from days to weeks.

“Her method was the slow and steady route?” I asked in disbelief.

She shook her head before falling into another stance, “Oh you have much to learn about our differences when it comes to teaching.”

Just like that she was upon me again with another beating.