DxD : Emiya Shirou

I wanted him to do something unexpected, something that I wouldn't see coming-

"I," He intoned, his voice cutting clear across the clearing and dragging me from my thoughts, "am the bone of my sword."

… What the hell?

...

I felt my jaw drop as I gaped in utter incomprehension at him, almost dropping my sword in my shock. Even Shirone nearly slipped off my shoulder, tilting over in surprise before she regained her wits and righted herself. I felt her then lean forward as far as she could as she joined me in staring in disbelief at the boy.

Well…at least I got my wish. I sure as hell didn't see that coming.

For a moment I almost convinced myself that I must have misheard him, that I did not just hear him chant my Aria, but then the little prick had the audacity to carry on.

"With a body of iron," His face was a mask of utter focus as he chanted the words, his eyes never leaving mine, "and a heart of fire."

This time took a deep breath before charging ahead as he continued the chant, "Utterly alone I forge my-"

The rest of the aria was abruptly cut off when he found the bottom of a shoe slamming into his jaw as I front kicked the little brat in the face.

He stumbled backwards, tumbling head over heels on the ground before he skidded to a stop only a few meters away. I stalked up to him, barely waiting for him to raise him head back up before I pointed the tip of my sword at him his nose.

"Ok…" I stared down incredulously at him. "What the hell was that supposed to do? Other than getting me to kick your ass even faster than usual?" While a part of me was bewildered about the entire thing, the rest of me felt alarmingly jealous. As irrational as it maybe, the thought of someone trying to steal my Aria spiked a wave of possessiveness in me.

Shirone had a completely opposite response to mine if her side splitting laughter was anything to go by. I actually had to reach up and grab onto her just as she was about to roll of my shoulder in her fit of laughter.

"Nya-ha-ha-ha-ha, oh Kiba-chi~! That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Ever!" She pushed herself forward and looked down at Kiba. "Not even the pervert Issei has ever done something so stupidly hilarious before."

Kiba, having regain his senses, pushed himself up to a sitting position, gingerly cradling his jaw. "What was so stupid about it? 

Nothing else was working and if it help Shirou in a fight why wouldn't it help me? It was worth a try at least." His voice was muffled by his hand. Ignoring my sword, he pushed himself up to his feet. "And did you have to kick me so hard?"

"Yes." I nodded without hesitation before pausing as it occurred to me that I may have overreacted just a bit and I quickly added. "It was to teach you the consequence of talking too much in battle." While weak, it was the first excuse I could think of.

Going by the doubtful look Kiba shot me I don't think he quite bought it, but other than staring at me dubiously for a few more seconds he decided to let it go before turning to walk over to where he dropped his sword. He turned around after picking it up and assumed his usual stance.

Seeing that he still wanted to continue I decided to do the same. This time however, I didn't mimic and instead projected my own swords. Kanshou and Bakuya fell into my hands and I assumed Archer's favored wide open stance, all but outright inviting him to attack me.

We both inched closer to each other and just as we bent our knees in preparation to charge, we were interrupted by a dull ringing echoing through the clearing. It took me a couple of seconds, engrossed in our match as I was, to peg the sound as the ringing of the school's bell, which signaled both the opening of the school's gates and the end of the day's training.

"Oh thank everything good and merciful it's finally over." Sona managed to breathe out before she finally surrendered to gravity, releasing her grip on the staff and collapsing into heap of strangled limbs. A thump was heard soon after when her staff joined her on the ground.

Unlike Sona, Kiba was far too well trained to allow himself to collapse in exhaustion no matter how fatigued he was. Instead he took a few slow steps backwards, widening the space between us and careful not to let his guard completely down until he was well out of my range, having learned the hard way I was willing to sneak in a few last minute blows in, before stopping and dismissing both his swords.

He groaned as he placed his hands on his back and stretched. "You know," He began as he ran his metallic grey eyes over me and Shirone, "as grateful as I am for the training, I can't help but find it a little bit unfair how untired you two are compared to me. The two of you barely look like you've worked up a sweat."

"That has as much to do with your own magic supply as it does your physical training." Dismissing my own swords in turn. "Even without training, all Devils instinctively use their magic to fortify their bodies and that allows them to push their endurance to far greater levels then they would be able to otherwise.

"As a Reincarnated Devil with no previous skills in magic before your reincarnation, your magic supply is naturally rather low compared to most Devils. Outside of the Pawn, the Knight piece grants the least amount of magic from all of the Evil Pieces.

"Don't worry though, even if you do nothing at all a Devil's magic will increase naturally as you mature and age. It won't ever stop growing no matter how old you get. There is a reason why the strongest Devils tend to be the oldest ones after all. Just give it time and your stamina will naturally increase on its own, and training will do nothing but help.

"I guessed as much," he nodded while he took deep even breaths to help him recover from the strenuous workout, "but that doesn't explain why you're so much less tired than me. I didn't think being a Queen makes that much of a difference. I've trained with Akeno often enough to know she gets tired almost as quickly as I do."

"That's because Akeno is a magic specialist. While her magic supply is probably more than a match for mine, her physical body is simply too weak to take full advantage of it. You probably never noticed it before, seeing as you haven't fought in a Rating Game yet and the only Queens you interacted with are Ultimate Devils such as Grayfia but for the most parts, Queens tend to fall into one of two categories.

"The first kind are the magic specialist. To put it simply you could more or less call them Bishops rather than Queens. Their entire fighting style consists of them trying to bombard their enemy from afar with overwhelming amount of magical firepower. 

While their attacks tend to be incredibly destructive, they also have almost no talent in close-range fighting, only using their speed to avoid enemies and their attacks, only relying on their defense to get them through when they can't.

"The second kind of Queens are the close-combat specialists. As you can guess they are the complete opposite of the first. Forgoing most of their magic, they try and get in close to their enemy and fight either hand-to-hand or with weapons. While not as destructive as the magic-specialist, they tend to be far more resilient and flexible in battle.

"Most Queens tend to fall into one or the other category. It's rather rare for Queens to be skilled in both fields. The only one that are tend to be from the older generation like Grayfia, who had centuries to hone their skills."

To say I disapproved of the practice was putting it lightly. While I understood intellectually at least that it was extremely difficult and time consuming for someone to train both their magic and bodies at once, it was such a waste. Queens had the potential to be great in both areas but so few ever reach that potential.

I gave my head a quick shake and got back to the topic at hand. "Anyway, despite Akeno's large supply of magic her body simply lacks the training to channel it all for long periods of time. You'll probably never have this problem seeing as your situation is the opposite of hers, but channeling Mana can exhaust the body just as easily as physical excursion. This causes her body to exhaust itself long before she even gets close of running out of magic.

"Tsubaki on the other hand," I nodded towards Sona, where her unmoving form still laid flat along the ground, "is a close combat specialist. If you ever end up facing her in combat you'll find, that despite having a lower supply of magic, she can physically outlast Akeno by a wide margin. Isn't that right Sona?"

A drawn out groan was the only reply I received. It came out rather muffled, what with the way her face was buried in the grass, so I wasn't quite sure whether it was one of agreement or of pain.

It may have been rather cruel of me, but I couldn't resist sparing a moment to take in and enjoy the rare sight of Sona in such an undignified state. Her usual dignity and rigid formality was nowhere to be seen as she laid prone on the ground, face-first, breathing into the patch of grass her head was resting on.

The Sin of Pride was such an unusual thing.

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