Dark Queen - Short Story

Sun shone over the green fields, a stoney circular pavement covered a patch of it, surrounded by a low wall of bricks.
In the middle of the circle two men by the name of James and Collector prepared to fight.
Collector: You sure you don't want to use your divine powers?

James: I can't really use them

On the surrounding low wall James' wife, Catherine sat, to her side leaning on the wall there was a sword case.
Behind her, in the grass, Astra and Nicolas, James' son, were fighting with sticks.

Catherine: So you're my husband's friend’s daughter?

Data: Yeah, well kind of

Catherine: Do you think my husband can keep up with him? He always said he was very strong…

In the meantime James, with a normal sword, and Collector, with his usual giant ahh sword, started fighting.

Data: Well, Collector has a quite big and heavy sword, but he's able to swing it as if it were smaller, your husband on the other hand has a small sword but he's able to swing it with the same power as Collector does!
So they're even, I guess.

Catherine: Oh.

The fight went for a long minute, the victor was Collector, leaving James on the ground with Collector pointing his sword at him, then giving his hand to James to help him up.

Catherine got up
Catherine: Could I try?

James: I, uh-

Oracle, that suddenly appeared: Come on, let her try~

James looked at Oracle weirdly.
Collector: You sure?

Catherine: Absolutely^^
*She grabbed the sword case and took out a black rapier*

James: Wha-
Oracle: Don't worry~

Catherine and Collector both got on opposite sides of the circle, ready.
They both ran at each other, Collector preparing a swift slash, Catherine dodged and thrusted into Collector, dealing nothing… cause armor.
Then Collector counterattacked trying to hit her with the handle of the sword, she once again dodged and backed away.

Collector: You're not bad! Really swift!
Catherine: *taking a deep breath* Thanks! I trained a bit.

This time Collector went full aggressive, charging at her with a powerful attack.
Her sword morphed into a greatsword, she gripped it with two hands and parried.

James: Woah *looks at Oracle, suspicious*

Catherine then, with a circular motion, deflected his sword and thrusted. She stopped right before his chest.
Then backed away.

Collector: Woah, what was that?

Catherine: A little something the miss over there taught me

James: Actually Oracle prefers to be called they-

Oracle: It's fine, we're great friends~
James: Never talk like that when mentioning my wife.

Catherine's sword changed back to a rapier while she went to sit down and put the sword back in the case.

James: Care to explain?

Catherine: Well, since we married, Miss Oracle started teaching me some special things… I did have a past of being an Olympic fencer, let me explain.

Flashback time :3

Inside the Oracle's cave…
Catherine: So why did you tell me to come here?
Oracle: I wanted to show you something special…~
Your sword please~

Catherine: oh, sure! *She quickly opened her sword case and gave Oracle her rapier*

Oracle grabbed it, observed it. Questioned it.
Oracle: Why is it black?
Catherine: *scratching the back of her head* Well… it's because of a title they gave me at the Olympics…

Oracle: Hmm… The Dark Queen?

Catherine: *a bit embarrassed* Y-yeah… *chuckling* Kind of silly…

Oracle: Hmm… *the rapier in their hand transformed into a longsword*

Catherine: W-Woah! What did you-
Oracle: Don't worry honey~ This is why I called you here~
I want to teach you this neat power~
*She sat on a stone, throwing the sword to Catherine*
*She caught it*

Oracle: It's an ancient practice, which many have named Oracle Combat, which is pretty silly as a name because its original name was Oraculorum Pugna Genus.

Catherine: So I'll be able to change my sword into another?

Oracle: Not only another~ every~

*She flicked her hand and the sword transformed into a katana*
Oracle: Swift, great for slicing and close combat, also good for parrying~

*She flicked her hand again, the sword turned into a greatsword*
Oracle: Heavy, big, perfect to destroy defenses~ or to fight big swords~

*And again, the sword turned into a spear*
Oracle: Not exactly a sword, but useful for long ranges~

*And again, the sword turned into knife*
Oracle: Small, short range, but perfect to end a fight quickly~

There are many more, but I'm not here to show what you can do, but teach you how to do it~

End of Flashback

James: So Oracle taught you a special Oracle fighting style?
Oracle: Well only part of it, the complete package consists of summoning every weapon, including ranged, but that would have been too much for her~

Collector: But your sword of preferred choice is a rapier?

Catherine: Didn't you hear me? I was an Olympic Fencer! And also my dad taught me how to use it since I was nine

James: But why did you teach her this?

Oracle: So much hidden potential~ why keep it hidden? I had to help someone named The Dark Queen

Catherine: *embarrassed* Oh come on, stop calling me that…

In the meantime Astra and Nicolas were having a full on anime battle scene with sticks, Nicolas even growing his hair to keep up with Astra.

James: Welp, I gotta go to work, it's 7:00 AM back in Poland, I don't want my students to miss me.

*He flicked his fingers and his clothes were substituted by formal clothes, with a neat tie*

Collector: Didn't know you could wear something that wasn't ragged robes
*Oracle and Catherine holding their laughter*

James: Yeah yeah, I'll catch up to you later
*He disappeared*

.o.

James is also know as the Traveler.
His main gimmick is being able to teleport, himself, anyone and anything anywhere whenever he wants

Oooh makes sense on beginning and ending.
Any other lore about characters I should know ?

Idk, this is my character, other users have theirs.
Lore may be complicated/long so see an expert (on of the owners)

Alr ✨️

"Hold on how tf they just switch weapon like UT souls weapon-"
*continues to read*
"Oh."

Lol

This is a short story?! Still good 👍👍

Thanks!