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Spring had come again to the world, and with it came James' excitement to finish his training, awaiting the final day. The final day to which Glenn never said when it would be, but assuring him that it was soon, wanting to take all the extra time he could get in tweaking out the last pieces of his pupil's training. Much like in the same way an artist gazes across his newest work, and scans across every single inch of it for even the slightest off-center of lines. The raptor kept his patience, doing all that he could to not push Glenn into making it come quicker. He kept his arms strong, his reflexes sharp, and his blade unwavering, the scissors still tightly restrained by the ring that kept them together, forced to assume the position of a claymore. The outer edges were less sharp than the insides but nevertheless just as potent as any sword could be with the right force. He never tried to pull off anything flashy, only going by what Glenn taught him, only what he had to know, with his intuition leading the rest of it. Eventually, with something of a resignation, Glenn faced his pupil one day before their usual training, upon a cheerful breezy morning. A part of him had been reluctant to bring this day forward. He wanted to keep James around longer to train him moreso. But he had agreed three years was the limit and he would abide by that. It wasn't because the raptor had been slacking in his regimen, indeed he had been a good pupil for the most part, excluding his arrogance. But he worried that whatever dangers James would face in future would be too great for him with what little training he had received. This was all he could give the raptor without further delaying him for too long. All he could do was hope that James not only proved himself upon this very day, but also that he would never forget any of this in the years ahead.

"James. Thy day hath come." "Wh-...what?" "This is thy final day of thy training. I hath seen all of thy assets in battle, and I now believe that thou hath improved as far as I can with thee." "Really!?!? AWESOME!" "HOWEVER!" His celebration was quickly cut short with a stern look from his teacher. "That is no cause for celebration. Just because it is thy last day, does not mean that there will be no test." "What do you mean, sir?" "A part of me remains unconvinced. I do not know whether it is the eye of a teacher seeing a student still too rough around the edges, or the eye of an elder with concern for his younger, and the fate that awaits him." "B-but...but I've been training for three years, like you said we would!" "Indeed! But now there is only one way for me to truly see thy skill." To demonstrate that only way, the master swordsman unsheathed his Masamune, gripping firmly with both hands. James was surprised, even if he should have expected such after the end of his short sword training. "You...you gonna fight me!?" "There is no other way. I must see thy skill. In all honesty, I knew that this day would come, when I would test thee in such a manner yet again. This is far different from that of thy short sword training however. A different style against a true master, one wielding a weapon that he hath been destined to wield. I am no longer thy instructor to thee. Now, I am thy opponent." He braced his stance steadily with the fullest intent to fight. "Even if our intentions are not to kill but to defeat each other, I shall expose any and all of thy weaknesses. Pray that I do not find them." "W-woah...y-you're serious, aren't you?" Glenn merely nodded, and the raptor slowly brought out his scissors. Four feet long and glinting a dull sheen, wielding them in both hands. He was shaking slightly. Glenn knew his student was nervous. He had every right to be. He could not lose this. James needed to show he had every bit of potential possible left to continue his journey. He didn't even know what would happen if he lost, but he had to focus with every ounce of skill he had obtained. "Thy blade wavers, boy." "I'm ready." James slowly began to focus, strengthening himself for what would be his greatest battle. He remembered his past true duel with Glenn, and before that his great failure at the hands of Meta-Knight that had so deeply wounded his spirit. All the battles that he'd had up to this point seemed minute in comparison. This was a classic duel, swordsman versus swordsman, master versus student. James had no idea if he could even beat such a hero, but all that mattered to him now, was to try his hardest. "Dost thou truly believe that thy blade shall match mine?" "I...I believe that..." He was scared certainly. He knew this was serious business, he knew thatGlenn would not hold back in giving his student the most difficult battle he had yet faced in his life. The raptor breathed heavily and gripped harder, eyes piercing strongly, his voice turning stronger. "I believe...that I can! Even if I can't defeat you, I'll make sure I give you a fight you'll never forget!" "Then face me James!" said Glenn with a proud bellowing. "Show me what thou hast learned, face me as a true warrior!"

James charged with all the bravery he could muster, swinging his blade across from one side to the other. It was deflected as he expected, clashing the first strike of their final battle before he was shoved away by Glenn, who rushed forwards to strike, only to be deflected by James who recovered easily from being shoved. He swung Glenn's sword forcefully to one side in another clash, and beat him with the scissor handle across his cheek, only to be countered by a solid punch to the head and thrown off balance. He pushed his scissors behind him into the ground, to support himself without falling as he pushed himself back onto his feet, straight into Glenn's blade which slashed across his left arm. He roared but did not falter, his arm not weakened enough as he slashed back and forth, as if reflex training. Forcing the frog swordsman to block him again and again, he waited for the chance of Glenn trying to counter, blow after blow being deflected with a melody of steel chiming from each other. Their eyes fiercely upon each other, his every strike blocked willingly before the frog made his move, an extra hard strike against the scissors to try and push James away. This time however, the raptor anticipated this. The moment he was struck to one side, he spun away on one leg, allowing Glenn's swing to miss easily before slashing at the right side of his armour, wounding him much to Glenn's surprise which he did not show. The raptor immediately dashed past his opponent to put space between them. Blood dripped from both of them gently, but neither faltered as Glenn charged this time, raising his blade to slam down brutally from above. The raptor tried to deflect it, but the force was too much for him and caused him to stumble backwards.

In such a vulnerable position, he did his best to roll madly to one side and spin back up, mightily swinging his scissors like a martial artist's roundhouse kick, but hitting nothing. The frog had anticipated such a move in seeing it helped James regain his balance back onto his feet, and waiting for the perfect time when he was just a little off-balance to push him down once again with a shoulder charge, bashing him away in a semi-spin. James felt the force of the charge, and it did his armoured shoulder no use when it began to sting strongly, spinning back with his balance forcefully regained to face Glenn once again. Glenn readily charged once more. James did his best to resist, his former master fierce with powerful golden eyes upon him, mirroring his own fierce emerald eyes as their blades pushed hard against each other. With Glenn desperately trying to push James down once again, the raptor would not fall, forcing one leg back as a support, waiting for the moment when Glenn shoved a little harder. When he did, he allowed him to overbalance himself by hard-strafing to the right, and striked across the amphibious cheek. In his pride at having struck a blow, he forgot about Glenn's powerful backhand swing that caught him on his back, slashing across his back, deflected by his shoulder guard but still making him bleed down his back a little as he roared with fury. Seeing Glenn's bleeding cheek, he tried not to smile as he rushed hard towards the swordsman, a diagonal feinting swing with sidestep combined to strike upwards and slash across the shoulder. But Glenn had seen it coming and spun towards James to put his shoulder away and counter with his own diagonal swing across James' exposed shoulder, cutting him between shoulder and elbow. It took James all of his energy to not turn furious from his pain, his eyes tightening with desperation, breathing hard towards the unflinching master swordsman, who merely stood ready to attack once again.

They stared each other down, waiting to see who would make the first move, circling around a little. James was still raring to go, letting himself recover slightly, seeing Glenn not even breathe despite the various wounds he inflicted upon him, sweat shining off of each other's bodies. The raptor circled with a rush forwards, trying to strike the frog once again, and yet again he was deflected. This time however, he allowed his guard to be weak to Glenn's block, making it go upwards in deflection before shoulder-charging him hard into his exposed but armoured belly. Forcing him back, the raptor charged forwards to make a wilder swing across the chest, cutting a little of it but only making Glenn grunt. In retaliation the frog hopped to the side and slashed James across his left side, making him cry out and grit his teeth, resisting the urge to clutch his wound. Instead, he rushed forwards with sword down low, only to swing it up high at the last moment and bring it down upon Glenn's head, making him react sharply to block from above, horizontal blade versus vertical scissors. James roared into Glenn's face to try and defeat him, trying to force all of his might into this one attack. Glenn slowly made one step to the side while resisting, before spinning to the side and forcing James to fall through with his swing, stumbling forwards with his back exposed and to be struck across the lower back. Not as harsh as when it had happened to him before against Lord Enca, but enough to make him a little weaker. James struggled to get up, but only by his stumbling rather than by a weakening body, turning around and charging violently towards Glenn. He watched him dodge to one side and try to strike him, but instead Glenn would hit nothing when the raptor ducked in anticipation, and spun around to slash straight along Glenn's right arm. His mentor gasped in pain but he did not falter, merely swinging back before the pain sank in to slash across James' left elbow, making him fall to the side. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment in surprised reciprocated pain.

Soon James decided that enough was enough, and it was time to show off his own natural skills. He dodged away from Glenn and began to strafe back and forth with small half-hearted slashes, knowing that the one single thing he had better than his teacher was speed alone. Glenn at first was confused but on his guard, blocking whenever he could, seeing a feint here and a feint there to strike him from another side, protecting himself well by how he positioned his blade to easily counter from either side. Yet he was not able to strike his former pupil in return, his reflexes truly being tried until he thrust out straight towards the middle of one dodge, making James try and spin away from it. And by that fault, the raptor would face the charging elbow strike of the swordsman straight into the scaled snout, hard enough to break it, the raptor's eyes stinging with the centric flash of pain. "AAAAAGH!" "Thy speed alone will not save thee." "I, will NOT, LOSE!" "Thy conviction is admirable boy, but dost thou wield the experience beyond such trickery!?" "DO YOU!?!" He charged once more in a flash of anger, losing himself to the blood lust as he struck with sheer power in his arms, slashing back and forth across Glenn's sword who did all he could to block every single strike. The power was surprising from the young raptor, as he was unstoppable for but a few moments of wild-eyed fury, his heart strengthened with dedication to win. But Glenn had a trick up his sleeve, blocking James with one brief slanting deflection to throw his sword away to one side wildly, striking him across the chest before hopping far back.

Glenn then made a surprising move in leaping towards James with powerful legs, a mighty hop before jumping into the air with a powerful swing downwards, as if he were cleaving the sky itself. The wind whistled around the swordsman as his Masamune seemed to shine with the sun itself in its holy might, the swordsman roaring as he slammed his blade into the ground. James had barely dodged to one side in surprise at seeing this, terrified by the unexpectant move. "Holy SHIT!" "Dost thou doubt my experience now, BOY!?!!" His spirit wilted from such a display, but he stood strong and put his blades up once more, seeing it was Glenn's turn to shine now. The frog charged forwards with multiple slashing strikes, with James trying to deflect them but only escaping from the crossing of blades with but a few more wounds along his legs and belly. Struggling with all of his might to stand, James resorted to another tactic. He moved around to where the trees were nearest, occasionally striking against Glenn to keep him focused on such. Clash then step back, clash then step back, and if he tried to strike forwards, move to the side but never hit. Moving closer to the trees, he forced Glenn to swing to one side and in that moment of distraction, the raptor jump-kicked off of a tree to spin once in the air, and slash straight down upon his former instructor. Glenn was surprised by this dexterous move, but had been fast enough to keep his blade in a good enough position to deflect and as a result, have his blade pinned down onto the ground beside him by the scissors. It left him exposed but only for as long as James kept his blade against the grass. Realising this, he waited for the raptor to raise his blade and make his move, before spinning low and away from the scissors, slashing straight upwards above James' eye, cutting his forehead. Now he had given him the advantage of obscuring the student's vision, with the blood that would gently ooze over it.

James knew he was screwed now with this impairment, and he had to do all he could to not blink too much in barely being able to see his opponent, moving away from him but never backwards in a defensive strategy. Glenn knew that not only was the raptor unable to see well, he would also be even more dangerous if he did hit him, and as such began testing him with good strikes in front of him. Keeping James on guard, blinking horribly through his cut. Soon he decided to halt the master with a pretend feint swing aided by being deflected, only to make a low roundhouse kick to kick out Glenn's legs from under him, putting him down as the raptor backed away to give himself time to recover. He slashed a piece of cloth from his green slacks and rubbed his head wound with it to try and staunch the flow a little bit, wiping his eyes clean in the process. Glenn got up not too quickly from being knocked down, more by surprise than anything else, and saw that his opponent had taken this opportunity only to deal with his headwound, managing to deal with it enough to get some of his sight back. "Nice try old frog," said James with a panting flash of confidence, "maybe you should have aimed lower." "Thy raggedness is a testament to thy desperation, urchin." "Whatever, I'm still fuckin' standing!" And with that arrogant boast, he ran towards Glenn once again, readily striking out to hit him in the thigh. But the frog had seen the lower swing and deflected it easily yet again, forcing James' hand upwards to strike in return upon James' right thigh, wounding his ability to move as fast and almost making him buckle. It took James all of his will to leap to the side with a lame leg, blood upon the grass from both of them as they ignored their own wounds. Even Glenn was starting to pant slightly in his stamina being worn down, but nowhere near as much as the far less experienced James, who was nearing the end of his endurance. A terrible fact that the master swordsman clearly saw. He tried to strike at James' other leg to cripple his stamina even more, but the raptor began to block with pure desperation, roaring in anxiety at the fact he was starting to lose. His strength was leaving him, his blocks turning weaker.

Soon he surprised Glenn with one forceful swing of a deflected swordblock that almost cut above Glenn's forehead, but he had leapt back and roared with a brutally fast cross-slash, straight across James' left leg as he cleaved straight past him, easily knocking out his last spurts of endurance. The raptor cried out as he felt his legs give way, and he finally succumbed to the end of his strength, panting heavily, shaking with all the will he could muster. He struggled to push himself up. Glenn merely stood from behind him a few feet away, watching to see what his student could do with so many wounds. None of them were fatal but enough to make him too weak to resist. James felt he had truly lost. That he had failed in his mission to become a better warrior for his quest, for his home, for Sarah. He squeezed his eyes tightly and screamed not with defeat, but with a furious energy in forcing himself to stand. Glenn did nothing, curious to see how strong the boy's heart was. The scissors' handles were squeezed tightly together in James' right hand, claws through both circles, his left hand stabbing the ground and forcing to push his body upwards as a means of support. His legs would refuse to cooperate, bleeding slowly onto the grass to stain it darker, panting with fast gritted breaths. Sweat dripped from his snout, occasionally reddened by the cut above his eyes. He breathed in deeply, pointed the scissors downwards into the ground, and forced himself upwards upon them as a crutch, slowly but surely getting up.

It burned his legs for sure, reaching the end of their tether, surely sapped of all their will. But Glenn silently hoped within himself that he would get up. He already knew the outcome of this battle, but he wanted to see his student's true limits, of what measure of a warrior he could be. It took every single ounce of strength within James to stand onto both feet, shakily, with one leg jittering madly without any assurance of its standing for long. He turned towards his former master, before raising the scissors shakily towards him. "I...won't...lose." He could say no more in standing before his legs finally gave out, and he collapsed onto his knees with a whimper, stopping himself from falling fully by his scissors in the ground. Glenn walked up slowly towards his younger opponent, and put the blade to his head, tenderly so. The raptor was breathing hard, his eyes barely able to look up and gaze directly along the blade of the Masamune, so pure and straight, up to the gloved hand of a hero. "P-please..." "Hmm?" "I...c-c-can't lose...n-no..." He was trying not to submit, so hard was he trying to strengthen his will. But without any other way to continue after his most arduous battle yet, he saw no other way to do so. Glenn was barely panting, so controlled in his breathing he was, but James could hear him still. Nostrils flaring, sweat dripping from his bulbous cheeks that slightly pulsed with each breath. "Thou...hath learnt well." "I...I did?" "Indeed. My years...were not wasted." "So...huuuh...you think...I'm ready now?" "I believe so...if thou can fight better than this in time." "I'll...do my best...sir." "Then it is finally time to release thee. Kneel before me, please." James sluggishly walked forwards to kneel on one leg, head down, limbs throbbing with exertion, scissors impaling the ground as he held them by the handle. "James Robert Campbell. I hath taught thee for three years, a most interesting three years of my older life. All I ask of thee is to honour me, thy mentor, by upholding my teachings." "I will, sir." "Dost thou swear to protect the innocent and the weak? To weigh justice fairly unto the wicked? And to defend thyself when true danger is before thee, with what I hath taught thee?" "I swear...on my...no...on my lover's grave."

Never had he said such a thing before with such severity, but he realised this was not just some formality to complete what he had been training for. Walking out of this world would be a different James Campbell. A more skilled James Campbell who believed could protect himself and others. And he knew that in order to keep himself dedicated to such dilligence, he would have to respect this promise in such a way, that he would hopefully never dishonour it. "Then I pronounce thee to have completed thy training, as a Free Swordsman. While it is not the full training I would have implored upon thee, it will do, considering thy quest. Arise, James." And so the raptor stood, or tried to, having regained his strength somewhat. Exhausted, but doing his best. Glenn, genuinely proud of seeing such, smiled up at him. The raptor was nearly a head taller than his master, but nevertheless gazed down upon him with deep devotion, weak still at the legs, but his wind recovered. "I almost...hehe...thought I'd be called Sir James there." "Hahaha, I possess not the power to hand out titles." "Awww...I wanted to be called Sir, that's the only reason I took this damn training! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME THIS THREE YEARS AGO!" The frog smirked broadly at the raptor's clearly mock anger before laughing at his student's comically exaggerated frown and fist shaking, merely patting him on the shoulder. "Thou shalt do well. I can sense the passion within thy heart, and the spirit that was shown at the end of thy battle, even when knowing thou hath lost, was remarkable. All I ask of thee, is that thou protect thy heart against whatever darkness dares to consume it." "You can count on it, sir." "Thou may rest thy wounds in my home until thou art ready to leave." "Mmhmm...oh god, I'm gonna fall over at any moment." "Indeed, allow me." Glenn took the ring from James' scissors to no longer restrain them, and healed the raptor with some of his magic as he had done so before, allowing James' energy to return to him quicker. It was enough for him to be able to climb down the ladder, dress his wounds and rest upon the guest bed for all of that morning, allowing his multiple scars to heal up quicker with the help of the nanos working through the sleep.

He would soon awaken from his sleep around the beginning of the twilight hour. The sunset of the kingdom of Guardia was soon ebbing away ever fainter into the horizon, to soon be covered by the blanket of night, a pinkish hue separating the domains of the sun and the moon. Climbing out into full view of the final dream-like rays of the sun, James turned towards Glenn with a humble smile, their wounds now nothing but imperfect perforations upon their forms, Glenn having more recovered himself with his own healing power. "Yanno...now that I can...leave and all....I'm..." "Aye?" "Well...a li'l scared. Kinda been used to this whole world for three years after all." "I know that thou hath become comfortable within this world. But do not be dissuaded. Thou hath thy friends to aid, and that is more important than anything else." "You're right. Now I just need to think where to go." "Dost thou not know which way yonder destination lies?" "Not...exactly. I need a word, something that'll perk me into action." "Hmmmm...a word? Perhaps a word to remind thee of home." "I tried that a lot...doesn't seem to work. The worst part of it is...everytime it doesn't work, everytime I'm in another world, I feel...I feel one half of my heart surging with excitement of a whole new place to explore, and the other half is just upset by seeing I'm not any closer to home. Everytime it happens it...it's kind of a balance." Glenn could not help but nod and chuckle slightly. "Huh? Wh-what?" "It is most strange I must say, that in all my years I hath rarely seen a reptile such as thee to be so...ambivalent. That is, within mine own time, when I hath regarded them as but creatures of instinct, for better or worse." "...reptiles, eh?" And with that, his eyes lit up as the telltale flash of a keyword came to his mind and he grinned eagerly, the information already starting to scramble at his beckoning. "AHA! There we go!" "Hmm!?" "I know where to go now! Somewhere...it's coming to me! I'm ready to go now! But first." With that thought in mind of his next destination, a different place with a potential wider land to explore, James hugged Glenn into a sudden embrace, and much to both their surprise, kissed him deeply upon the cheek. He knew that since he was leaving he had to do this at least once. Glenn was bemused more than anything else despite hugging reluctantly back out of politeness. "Thy enthusiasm is...suspect." "Hehehe, sorry sir, but...well, when you're leaving and all, people tend to get...emotional.." "I suppose under the circumstances I will allow such. Farewell James." "Goodbye...sir Glenn." And with that farewell, James began to make his next destination, teleporting before his master, who would witness for the first time what had brought one of his pupils to his own land. A crackling of black and blue surrounded the raptor, his eyes closing eagerly as he began to see glimpses of his next world, of reptiles, of water, of islands and ships even. Glenn witnessed the abyss of a portal different somehow to the time portals he himself had known, which soon consumed James easily as if he had slipped into a crack between walls. All he could do was pray for the lad's safety. "Be safe upon thy journey, James. Please, let this not be all for naught."