Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance Chapter 115 Sparring

Chapter 115 Sparring

The next day at dawn, Mira woke up from cultivating and prepared for her sparring sessions. She had a few plans that would be beneficial for her and the disciples she'll be sparring with and one of those is to use the Training Grounds. What Mira wanted to do is have the disciples spar with her in a slow-paced battle so they understand the flaws with their swings or thoughts. A lot of times you won't notice these small things when you are moving at full speed and not paying 100% attention to every movement, but doing this will force them to pay attention and correct themselves. It can also help train their bodies as well, effectively killing two birds with one stone.
This is what Mira is all about, efficiency! Even if she will just get reincarnated if she dies, why waste time? She'd rather get the most out of every second!
Mira and Maria walked over to the training grounds and saw several familiar faces. Nisha, Audra, Sia, Anna, Hazel, Celaine were all here which Mira expected. But Ellie and Diana were also here, the two girls that she met in the forest before joining the Sect were also here. The only other person that she recognized was Jade, the disciple she just fought a few days ago. The rest were a mix of Inner and Core disciples, both new and old. There were only 15 people here and 10 of those were people that Mira already knew. But she didn't complain as she could tell that these 15 all had the potential to be skilled fighters.
"Hello, Mira. We decided that we should only bring these disciples over for sparring. Part of the reason is that some of the Elders didn't want to hand their precious disciples over to you. But another part of it is those other disciples are out doing missions to gather experience and cultivating for the rest of the time. Even though we wanted to add sparring with you onto their schedule, it's already full as is. We might send them over in the future to spar with you, but it'll only be a few at a time. Oh! One more thing! We haven't started working or teaching these girls yet, but they are just the ones that have caught our eye! Maybe in a few months or so, they'll be able to find a master to teach them but for now, it's just you. Good luck!" Elder Bridget showed up to talk to her then left after she was done talking.
Mira just sighed as this makes things more annoying, but at least she gets to spar with some of the people that caught her eye as well. More specifically Celaine and Nisha. Celaine is extremely talented and Nisha has a unique fighting style.
"Alright, everyone! Listen up! The reason that I brought you all to the Training Grounds is not only so we can spar! I will have you all put on waits that halve your movement and we will all enter Training Ground 7, which is meant for Early Foundation Realm Cultivators. Those of you not in the Foundation Realm might not need to put on any weights as the pressure should be enough. I'm not going to explain why I'm doing this as you should be able to figure it out when we start! Alright, now go gather the necessary weights from the proper Training Ground!" Mira said and walked into Training Ground 9 and grabbed 2 pairs of everything. The pressure in this Training Ground is already enough to almost halve her movement and with the added weights, she can hardly move.
Needless to say, when she entered Training Ground 7, the pressure didn't affect her much which is why she grabbed 2 pairs of weights. After putting them all on, she waited for everyone else. Celaine was the weakest one here at Stage 5 Qi Condensation while most of the others were either close to the Peak of Qi Condensation or in the Foundation Realm. The reason she picked Training Ground 7 instead of 9 is because of Celaine, she wouldn't be able to handle the pressure. But even in Training Ground 7 she still felt suffocated and her movements were slightly under half of what they used to be.
Once everybody gathered in Training Ground 7 and put on their weights is when Mira began sparring.
"I don't want to see any use of your elemental affinity or any weapon arts during our spar! You are here to improve your weapon skills! You wouldn't be any different than a beast if you only relied on power and your elemental affinity might be up against a bad match! What you need is a steady foundation with your weapon skills that your elemental affinity and weapon arts revolve around! This is what will make you great fighters!" Mira announced and the only person here who was used to this is Maria. They almost never sparred with their ice or light, but the other disciples weren't the same. They might not use weapon arts during a spar, but they almost always used their element.
"Also, you will not just sit around and do nothing while waiting to spar with me! Find a partner and spar with them and we will rotate every so often! I'll start with Maria, you lot find someone to spar with and we will switch!" Mira commanded while everyone nodded. They were just wondering what they should do while they wait for Mira.
Everyone soon began sparring with each other. The other disciples were a bit surprised that Mira and Maria's spar was silent. When Mira trained, she'd often be very loud and demanding, but it seems Maria was different. The reason for this is because there is no need for Mira to yell at Maria anymore unless she does something very disappointing. Maria can tell what Mira wants based on her facial expressions. Neutral means she's okay with it, a slight frown means that you just fucked up, and a deep frown means that you should be ashamed for showing such a pathetic show in her presence. And if she ever shows a slight smile, it means she found whatever you did interesting or was happy with the result, but this is extremely rare.
After they sparred for a bit, Mira switched and started to spar with Celaine. Mira already knew how she'd spar with Celaine. Even though she's a lot stronger than her, that doesn't mean she can't use that strength to better 'exploit' her flaws. A little mental abuse never hurt either.
"What the fuck was that?! Are you blind?!
"Your arms are too stretched out! It left you wide open! How useless can you be?!"
"Get a grip, child! I initially had high hopes for you, but what the fuck are you doing?!"
"You do realize I can move right?! I'm not just going to stand here and let you hit me! Plan ahead!"
Mira continued to berate Celaine, and whenever she left herself open she'd slam her scythe into that part of Celaine's body, causing her to tumble. But Mira never let up. She could see the raw talent in this girl, but it wasn't used to its fullest potential. Mira planned on using force to get Celaine to use her full potential. She may not be able to do it today, but eventually, it should happen.
After Celaine got beat so bad that she could hardly move, they rotated and Mira started to spar against Nisha. Mira didn't need to be as rough with Nisha as she was with other people, but she'd still take advantage of any blind spots or openings and 'correct' her.
Everyone kept sparring with each other until Mira got to the last person, which happened to be Jade. She really wanted to see how skilled Jade was without using her element. And she didn't disappoint. Even though she wasn't quite as skilled as Mira and kept getting slammed by a scythe due to the openings that she left. Mira was quite happy with the results as Jade was almost able to keep up with her. Not only that, Jade was slightly stronger than Mira, so she didn't have to worry about holding back. She enjoyed sparring with Jade and Maria the most as both of them could keep up with her.
Mira wondered if Maria could beat Jade and she figured that Maria should be able to. Maria's instincts were rather incredible which is probably because of always being near-death whenever she's with Mira. Dealing with this is incredibly annoying and something Mira even has a hard time sparring with Maria because of how sensitive she is. It's just that Maria's battle sense isn't that good and she only relies on instinct to fight.
Eventually, Mira called off the sparring session since she still had a schedule to keep. Also, cultivators at their level could spar like this for a very long time.
"I had a lot of fun sparring with everyone! I was able to learn a lot from you and I hope that we can all get along!" Maria said to everyone.
"Me too! I can't wait for tomorrow! This has been a big help!"
"Yeah! I also had a good time and could feel myself improving even just on the first day! Amazing!"
"Me too!"
Quite a few of the disciples responded to Maria, while the rest just nodded. They could all feel that they improved slightly after just one practice session. This is mainly because with Mira letting them know where they fucked up along with their movements being slowed, they were easily able to figure out what they did wrong and how to correct it. Just this one day alone might've been worth several days or even weeks of training for some people. Of course, it wouldn't always be this efficient, and Mira knew that they'd have to incorporate what they learn here at full speed. But she was just building the foundation or fixing their foundation first. Even if she knew nothing about other weapons if there was one thing she is good at it's fighting. And no matter the weapon, these are just the basics for learning how to fight. They can learn weapon techniques or better ways to utilize their weapons from someone that actually uses their weapon. The Elders had no idea how Mira was going to train and just thought that it'd be some simple sparring, but Mira's clearly planned out how she wants these girls to get more skilled.
This is also something that the Elders aren't quite used to. Whatever Mira decides to do, she does the best possible job she can and strives for perfection. This is what makes Mira so terrifying, she's always at 100%.