Lucy decided on her way to practice that she wanted to work on her mobility and her wraps, because she doesn't think she's been thinking about her footwork enough. On the one hand, she could actually do that work against Iomedae because practice is for improving and not for winning. On the other hand, she could just try to win the fight because her ego can't take another battering from the absolute newbie. It's tricky.

She settles on a feint straight forwards, her sword chopping down Iomedae's centre line, then a sidestep to try and move around her and catch her with a wrap. 

Holding a sword is painful because it makes it suddenly apparent how terrible she feels all the time when she is not holding a sword. When she is holding a sword everything is so simple; not because she is automatically going to resort to force but because she can. It doesn't even matter very much that the sword is pretend; the practice is real.

Sometimes swordfighting is indeed very simple! For example, if Lucy is focused on complicated things like figuring out how to turn a feint into a chop into a sidestep-and-wrap without wrecking her power generation or her elbow tendons, and isn't focused on simple things like keeping her shield up, then Iomedae can just flat snap her in the face.

"Good," Lucy says.

Lucy contemplates explaining the concept of "working on things" at practice, instead of playing tournament-mode all the time, through the language barrier. She decides that perhaps she will work on her wraps later. Having the occasional ego match is good for working on her tournament mindset and integrating the other skills she's been working on, which is... probably enough justification.

They reset. Lucy wants to try getting up close in Iomedae's face and seeing if she can smother all her shots. This time she'll be behind her shield as she moves in. 

It feels like a battering ram blasts her shield, but Lucy makes it into Iomedae's personal space and now she can get a little more active with the shield corner, trying to follow Iomedae's sword basket and frustrate her into giving some kind of opening. It's a tense and oddly slow way to fight, toe to toe, never quite making eye contact because they're watching each other's swords. Lucy twists her hip and drops a little to feint, and Iomedae doesn't take the bait, and Iomedae twitches her hand and Lucy doesn't take the bait, and Lucy steps in even closer and tries to brandish her sword threateningly up high and then suddenly switch to the low shot but Iomedae's already seen it and dropped her shield down to protect her leg so Lucy just does a return, and they square back up. 

Iomedae twitches like she's going for the scorpion shot and Lucy moves her sword back over her head to cover it - no that was a feint at a scorpion shot, she puts her sword back in normal guard - dammit, that second scorpion shot was real though. "Good!" 

Okay that scorpion shot is scary because Iomedae absolutely has the height advantage!

Thinking thinking thinking.

Lucy tries letting Iomedae come to her. She rotates to hide more of her body behind her shield and cocks her sword right up behind her ear, a coiled spring waiting for a trigger.

Iomedae gives her the trigger as soon as she attacks; the slot shot looks open so Lucy takes the hit on her shield and goes for it. The attack bounces off Iomedae's shield, but while Iomedae's still doing her drop return Lucy can just use the bounce as momentum, turn her hand over and hit an offside.

It is so satisfying to hear Iomedae say 'good'! 

They reset and Lucy charges forwards and - "Oh. Good."

Why did she teach Iomedae that face thrust WHY did she teach her to face thrust WHY WHY WHY 

Patience worked better for her. A lot better. Lucy wants to chill behind her shield and let Iomedae make an error. She's very very talented but she makes errors.

Lucy can sidestep away from one attack, so that it just grazes her and she calls, "Light!"

The next attack is a little overcommitted, so that Lucy thinks she can get Iomedae's sword arm if she chases it, but she's too slow and only the tip catches and she hears a "light" back.

But with two rapid steps left and a wriggle she's managed to find a path, and she can rotate back hard the other way and slam her sword into Iomedae's hip. "Good leg!" she hears. 

It's chivalrous to step back and let Iomedae actually get her bearings while going to her knees, rather than just immediately smack her in the face while she's trying to simulate her catastrophic leg wound. So Lucy gives her a little space for a second. "Comfy? Sun's not in your eyes there or anything?" 

Iomedae grins at her. "Sometimes sun in eyes when fight!"

"- yes but, if you're on your knees you can't easily move to get it out of your eyes, so I would want to let you move first if it was an issue!"

It seems like it's not an issue so Lucy will shrug and attack Iomedae's sword arm to smother any attacks as she moves in, and then put her shield right in Iomedae's shoulder to try to prevent any more attacks, and batter her over the head over and over and over until eventually there's an attack Iomedae doesn't block.

She offers her a hand in getting back up, and then they reset and fight again!

Lucy discovers that Iomedae's height and reach advantage is enough that if she holds her shield too tight to her body then Iomedae can wrap all the way around it and hit her in the back of the head. "Good," Lucy says, and she fixes the shield placement for next fight. 

They fight a solid twenty more fights before Lucy decides she wants to fight other people. "One more," she says, and gets her helmet clanged again. Her ears ring a little. Okay, that's enough.

"You improved already!" Lucy enthuses as she reaches out for the traditional post-fight basket-bump that substitutes for a fist bump when everyone's hands are covered by layers of plastic and foam. Lucy only won about a third of the fights this time, and she wasn't going easy on Iomedae any more. "You keep improving that fast, you'll be queen in a few years!"

"Have to get strong fast," Iomedae agrees, though she is still not at all clear on what a Queen is. "People in Hell wait for us go save them."

"I do not think they do," Lucy objects immediately.

She wishes she could just uncomplicatedly like Iomedae and not have to constantly tell her things like 'hell isn't real'. "...can we go get water?" 

"Yes." Iomedae will walk over with her to the water. "You think the people in Hell are - too deviled to save?"

"I do not think hell is real. I - thought I told you I'm an atheist? I don't believe in God or Jesus or hell or heaven or any of that stuff." 

Cináed is hanging out by the water as he straps his pauldrons on, so he's pretty well placed to overhear this.

Okay, so... Iomedae is still talking about destroying hell? Not ideal but maybe she's at least eased off on the rest of it?

"Lucy," he interjects mildly. "You're not bullying the newbie, are you?" 

Lucy wants to just say no, because she did not intend to bully anyone and Iomedae asked. But it is very important to be nice to newbies, so she considers the question very carefully, and then she indignantly says, "No! I'm not!" 

"....you think everybody go to Limbo?" asks Iomedae, who does not feel bullied and mostly feels like this extremely important conversation should not be interrupted.

"People don't go anywhere when they die - wait - what's Limbo? Like the game where you bend backwards under a stick?" 

"Limbo for babies, too little Heaven or Hell. Lucy - Hell real. People go there. If anyone say Hell no is real, I think they do work of devils, because - devils want people no fight them. Devils want people do evil, think no bad come of it. Devils want people think no hope of Heaven. God want people know truth, so he sayed it, writed it, lots of ways, and he choose people who know what he say. And he choosed me."

"Hell is not real! Hell is a lie that has been used for so many centuries to keep people like you down, to scare you into obeying people who don't want you to be allowed to fight, or have a job, or love whoever you love, or vote. And Heaven is a lie to make people think they don't have to help anyone or build anything in this life because they'll just go to Paradise just for believing the right things and giving money to the church. It... sounds like you were raised in a really horrible cult honestly and I am sorry about that but once you experience more of the world you'll get to think for yourself and - well -" Lucy trails off because she doesn't know what she wants to happen next in that story, because she expects it would involve Iomedae needing to go to a lot of therapy, and she doesn't want to wish a bad experience on anyone.

"I don't want anyone to have to go through believing such horrible things - I'm sorry." 

Well, that plan clearly went off with several hitches. 

"Lucy," he says, warningly, because that was in fact outside the bounds of things she should say right there at the water cooler even if Iomedae herself is fine with an... intense... theology discussion. 

Cináed gives her a look and then goes off to pull Nicole aside and tell her to come up with a plan B. 

" - no, if there was no Hell that good, no a thing to be sorry for. But - if Heaven is a lie to make people think they don't have to help anyone, it a very very bad lie, because the lie is....that they have to help people? That is a bad lie to tell if you trying make people not help anyone! And - people no tell me about Hell to make me scared. They tell me about Hell because - when they tell me about Hell, I angry they not telled me sooner so I could fight it sooner. And then they did tell me so I said okay, I be a holy warrior, and now I a holy warrior. If they wanted me obey, they should have sayed there is no Hell, there is no God. Only for God can a girl no listen her father."

Lucy, reluctantly, moves a bit away from the water so that fewer people will interrupt her and Iomedae having a clearly mutually consensual fight. She gestures for Iomedae to walk with her. 

"You can help people just because helping people is good and you want to do it. You don't need more reasons than that! If someone's telling you heaven exists, they usually want you to give them money and kiss their ass and believe everything they tell you without questioning it. If your father told you you'd go to hell if you didn't obey him, that's abusive - it's evil, to control you that way." 

It feels like Lucy has unlike most people correctly realized how much this matters and then just inexplicably decided that it mattering means it isn't true. " - yes, it is evil, that people go to Hell for not obeying. So we have to sword the devils."