Left, right, right, left, spin, lunge.  Josephine repeated the combination attack once more, swinging her blade in smooth succession, tearing the canvas of the dummy before finally sinking both of her blades into the target on his chest, then lifting it until it came off of its peg and dropping it to the floor.  Fluidly, she rolled to the side and locked her dagger back into her sabre's hilt, rising with a twirl and opening a second target's side as she danced around behind it and drove the dagger through its head.  With a pivot, she fired her pistol at a more distant target's chest.  The bullet sailed harmlessly past its shoulder. She grit her teeth, muttering angrily, "Sloppy... Sloppy, sloppy...  Could've shaved a few seconds off of it, I'm sure of it...  Still not natural, still not aiming right...  What am I doing wrong?" The girl chastised, running the attacks back through her mind.

She never felt like she was putting enough into this, even when she bested every other apprentice beside Kael here.  Josephine sheathed her Rakuyo once more at her hip for a break, pulling out a waterskin and drinking it.  She could feel the cool liquid as it drained to her abdomen and filled her with a refreshing cool momentarily.  By this point, the young woman knew that Edmund preferred to watch Kael in order to keep him in line.  She knew what she was doing wrong, how to correct it, and she was critical enough as it was.  Unfortunately, Kael knew how good he was, so Edmund had to watch him to keep him down from his own pedestal.

She removed her cavelier's cap and wiped sweat from her brow, exhausted .  Her gaze fell upon the sky, awash with velvet purples and deep blues, spotted with twinkling stars.  The macabre, unending night was one of the few consistencies of this world.  Josephine smirked and shook her head, the sun would rise again.  She'd see to it with Edmund and Kael.  It felt like the three of them could overcome anything once they earned the name Hunter, even if Kael's pride could be his undoing.  It took her a moment to realize before her master was speaking.

"Sir?"  She asked curiously, glancing to Kael, "Are you on one of your incessant tirades again, brother?"  She asked.  Of course they shared no blood, but Josephine knew not if she even had a family, so Kael was as close to a brother as she would find.  "While Kael may think himself ready to fight any beast on his own already," She began, turning back to Edmund.  "I do believe it's time we start training in the field, Master Hunter Edmund.  Truth be told, I was just thinking about it myself, I just didn't want to speak out of turn," She admitted, glaring daggers at her comrade momentarily.  "I think it would do us well to at least see how they act.  It's been a long time since I've come face to face with anything even remotely close to dangerous, and I'm far stronger than I was then."  The girl looked down and placed a hand over her heart with a sigh; she could still smell the rancid, hot breath of the Scourge Beast in front of her face.  She couldn't be that powerless again, she had to prove to herself that they were nothing worth losing sleep over anymore.

"When would we go?"