The lady strode forward, the armor clinking as her movements passed the amassed group.

"Right then. This is my demon friend, she is relatively harmless. Touch her and you face me. She wears her armband to represent the fact that she is *on. Our. Side." The voice was clipped, sharp and a jaunty alto that danced its way to the ears. "She has willingly volunteered for this role with the Church. It hurts her to be here as it is." The Lady walked over to a rack of wooden weapons, pulling out a set of four longswords, and began to strip put of her blessed armour with practiced ease.

The sitting trainees watched on mixed awe and amusement as the demon helped the Lady out of the armour and the skin on her fingers and hands sizzled, a blue-tinged mark imprinted.

With practiced ease, the Lady threw two blades to the demon, and both took up a Ready stance; the demon taking a low stance designed for a pouncing strategy; the Lady crossed the blades to her left side. "Princess Leiann, you will referee this bout. Everyone else, pay attention using your magical senses. The bout will start at the next chime."

The silence that descended over the room generated a thick tension, broken only by the Prince of Ravens calling out, "We need mud!" The Lady glared at the Prince, and his eyes of midnight blue looked away.

As the first chime rang from the Church Bell, the action began immediately - Jaguar's Pounce met Kissing Lovers which turned into Master Kneels; the demon, stymied, fell forwsrds to Lioness' Chase, a highly offensive form based on swipes, sweeps and double-feints. The Lady met with Eye of the Storm, and the students didn't need to wonder whether the Blademaster title had been earned, as the storm of movement and counterclaim was far faster than the students would have been able to keep up visually.

The clacking sound of swords was all that could be heard, and the battle finely balanced until the Lady came out of the storm of movement and blade work into Tapping the Fan as the demon misjudged the attack timing on Phoenix Rises. The thunk of contact with a skull signalled the end of the battle.

No more than 30 seconds had passed, and both participants were breathing heavily and sweating. The two combatants stood to attention, saluted the other participant, and the demon tossed back her blades for the Lady to place back on the weapons rack.

"Now, I need to get you ready for the upcoming attack, so you will need to leave how to read a one-on-one combat and how to defend yourself properly - I refuse to send some idiot who doesn't know their limits into combat to get killed. We have time to train you so that you can reasonably defend yourselves from most harm. But not to get you to close to my level unless you're already talented."

The Lady patted the demon on the shoulder, and picked up her armour. "We need a good long soak after that lesson." The Lady and the demon were stretching their legs as they left the combat hall together.

The students murmured, chatting to one another, as the Prince of Ravens scalled out loudly, "That was fire!"