"Adjust your stance! Parry!"

Grime lunged, blade swinging. The human raised her sword at the nick of time. A satisfying clang rang as steel crashed against steel. She pushed, Grime pulled. The two separated. Feet scrambled to find a footing; Grime easily, the human clumsily.

Grime glowered. "That wasn't a parry."

"Parry schmarry," she spat. Her attempt to appear tough was undermined by the heavy breaths escaping her lips. "It didn't cut me. That's what matters."

"Pragmatism has its place," Grime admitted. Decades of experience guided his body to assume the correct stance. "So does proper form and technique."

The human took her sweet time returning to a laughable stance. It took everything in him to not wince from secondhand embarrassment. At the very least, the human seemed willing to listen to him this time.

"Now. Parry."

Grime lunged once more. The human greeted him with steel. Her feet deftly stepped aside, his blade sliding off of hers. A parry.

"Happy?!" she barked.

Grime grinned. "No."

Grime launched into a flurry of three strikes. All three glanced off of Sasha's blade. Grime didn't relent; five strikes this time. One broke through, and sent her spiraling to her knees.

Grime stared down at her with something close to pity. He barely put in any strength behind that blow.

"Hold on," she gasped between breaths. "Five minutes."

Grime lowered his sword. For now. "Your stamina needs improvement."

"We've been at this-" Sasha turned with a glare, but a series of coughs betrayed her intent, "-for two hours."

"Your point?" Grime sneered.

Sasha was not amused as she struggled, panting, to rise to her full height. "Not all of us are born in hell."

Grime chuckled. If that was meant to be an insult, she had failed miserably.

"Sure. Laugh it up." Sasha wiped the sweat from her brow, fixing up bits of her hair that's stuck to her forehead. "When it's time to wrangle this circus sideshow you call an army, you're still my bitch."

Grime frowned. His eyes sharp as daggers and filled with venom. And he leapt, sword drawn. When the human caught him from the corner of her eye, and hastily raised her sword to block his strike, he was almost disappointed.

"He- hey! Time out!"

Grime pushed. Sasha was no match for his brute strength. She stumbled back, but caught herself before she could fall. The look of panic on her face was a delightful sight.

"Your opponent will not give you five minutes."

Grime advanced. He swung down from above hard. Sasha swerved, barely surviving by inches.

"Your opponent will not give you a time out."

A reversal. A sweeping slice from below. Sasha made the mistake of meeting it with her sword. It was a miracle the sword didn't fly out of her hand.

"Your opponent will show you no mercy!"

A thrusting strike. She stepped back, not far enough. The tip nicked the padding on her stomach.

"So you must!"

A wide swing. A ringing clang.

"Not!"

A rapid backhand. A lock of blonde hair scattering to the wind.

"Show!"

An advancing strike. A pathetic excuse of a block.

"Yours!"

A two-handed downward strike sent the human staggering backwards. A fall was inevitable, so Grime expedited the process. He lashed his tongue out and caught one of her legs. Her feet pulled out from under him, she fell on her back hard. And remained still for a good few seconds.

Grime exhaled. He got… overzealous. More than he thought he'd be. But it was necessary. She needed the lesson. Respect isn't a static measure. It is hard to gain, and easy to lose. Better for her to learn now rather than later.

Sasha stabbed her sword to the dirt and used it to help pull herself up to a sitting position. And stayed there. Unmoving. Simply panting, heaving, her head hanging low. Grime's patience quickly ran dry.

"Up," he growled.

Without even looking up, Sasha hissed, "Time out."

Still disrespecting him. Grime would have shaken his head. Instead, he lifted his blade. If her head had to roll, so be it.

Grime swung down. Sasha suddenly jerked back, teeth bared and brows set in a deep scowl, her eyes locked with his, and-

Her eyes flashed purple.

"I said, time out!"

Grime froze.

His hand, holding the sword aloft, fell to his side. He stepped back, and stopped himself from taking another. The image, the flash, was burned forever onto his mind, even when her eyes had long returned to their natural color.

"Ten minutes. Not a second more."

For a moment, Sasha's eyes widened in surprise, before a glint of satisfaction replaced it. With spiteful effort, she pulled herself up to her feet, using the sword as partial support. She scoffed in his face, turned on her heels and walked away, leaving her sword still embedded in the dirt.

Grime stared at her retreating form for longer than he'd like to admit. He cursed, quietly, once he snapped himself out of the trance. To be shocked to the point of freezing over something so simple. What a shameful display. So a human could change their eye color. One more thing to remember about the strange species.

Grime surreptitiously casted a glance around the courtyard. A few heads had turned, but they were smart enough to quickly look away. Weapons were swung, supplies carted into storage; the flow of activities returned to its regular state. He sheathed his sword, stepped forward to Sasha's discarded sword, and wrapped his hand around its hilt.

Pain. Sudden, intense, overwhelming; enveloping his right hand. He pulled away, biting his tongue to keep himself from screaming. His eyes fell, tunnel vision settling, upon the sword's hilt.

It was cold. Freezing cold. Enough to burn his hand. To turn it into a hideous shade of blackened blue.

Grime shifted his attention ahead. Sasha was nowhere in sight. She had already disappeared into the tower. He clutched his injured hand closer to his chest, and gritted his teeth. The silver tongue, the athletic prowess, and now this. Even after all this time, the human still had secrets hidden in her sleeves.

Humans are dangerous.

Because Anne is burning. Get it?

So happy to get back into writing this series now that college is out of the way. Can't wait to show you guys all the fun stuff I've got in store. Fair warning though, this story will be quite a bit darker than Blue. In fact, this story is more representative of what the series is going to be like going forward.

See y'all soon.

If y'all want to follow my writing and any other random shit that I get into, check out my tumblr. There's a link to it on my profile.