Antiope had left much earlier than them and was now practicing alone with her spear. When she saw Thea following Diana, she showed no surprise—Diana must have mentioned her beforehand.
"Miss Thea, come train with us!" Antiope was extremely straightforward, speaking with decisive force and tremendous impact.
I'm just here to watch... Thea looked bewildered as Antiope tossed her a short sword. She wanted to refuse, but the woman didn't give her a chance to speak.
Actually, Thea didn't dislike Antiope at all. This direct, no-nonsense attitude reminded her of Lady Shiva. Both were pure, straightforward people—far more to her taste than Diana's mother and those scheming priestesses.
"Alright then! How do we start?" Thea swung the sword experimentally. Their swords were shorter than typical one-handed swords from the outside world, but heavier. Only because Thea was now walking the path of the superhuman could she handle it—a normal person would definitely find it awkward.
The straightforward Antiope proposed something both unexpected and entirely predictable: "Three-way free-for-all. Let's go!"
Diana already showed hints of her future self. She took weapons from the rack—not divine artifacts, of course—shield in her left hand, sword in her right, and slowly approached the combat circle.
Antiope continued wielding her spear, her eagle-sharp eyes fixed on Thea and Diana's footwork, constantly monitoring their steps and body movements.
Seeing that both were following proper etiquette with no intention of striking first, Thea could only flourish her short sword. "I'll start then!" She slashed toward Antiope's neck.
"Very fast!" Antiope blocked the strike with her spear and casually praised her, while simultaneously sidestepping to avoid Diana's charging attack.
Since it was a three-way battle, she couldn't focus solely on one opponent. After her short sword was deflected, Thea immediately thrust toward the onrushing Diana. The latter blocked with her shield, so Thea kicked toward her abdomen and twisted to dodge Antiope's spear.
Each of the three had their strengths. Antiope, the eldest, had honed her martial skills to near perfection. Diana relied entirely on innate combat instinct to compensate for her lack of experience. Thea stood on the shoulders of humanity's thousand years of accumulated combat knowledge.
Antiope represented martial depth. Diana embodied martial purity. Thea demonstrated martial breadth.
After ten minutes of fighting, all three understood each other's level. Mainly, Diana and her aunt deepened their impression of Thea—no matter what moves they threw at her, she easily dismantled them and counterattacked. If not for the three-way format, either of them fighting her one-on-one would likely have already lost.
Humanity's thousand-year accumulation was no joke. Defeating an entire society's knowledge accumulation through individual prowess—people who could be called grandmasters like that did exist, but they certainly weren't these two.
The situation gradually shifted to Diana and Antiope fighting two-on-one. Now Thea was struggling a bit. The unfamiliar weapon was one issue, but her strength was also heavily countered by Diana's, making the fight frustrating.
Antiope noticed her disadvantage and quickly withdrew her offense, standing aside alone to leave the battlefield to them.
With one person gone, Thea's strength immediately showed itself. Many of her techniques were wild and unconventional, but devastatingly lethal. Slashing left and right, she drove the still-immature Wonder Woman back step by step. Diana occasionally counterattacked but spent most of her time blocking with her shield.
Thea broke a sweat. This girl has real tank potential! She plays that shield incredibly well—her parry, block, and dodge stats must be nearly maxed out!
In short order, she cycled through seven different sword techniques—from Kashima Shin-ryū to Iranian assassination arts, employing the finest moves from ancient and modern, East and West. Yet she still couldn't break through Diana's iron defense.
"Alright, I'm done." Thea panted heavily and tossed aside her now-notched short sword. Continuing would just become a war of attrition—completely pointless. Besides, she hadn't eaten breakfast! Though not hungry, the empty feeling in her stomach was extremely uncomfortable.
Diana's face lit up with excitement as she examined her shield, now covered with countless crisscrossing scratches. The best way to repair this shield would be to remelt it entirely! "Your techniques are amazing! Did you come up with them yourself?"
"How could I possibly have invented them? They're all accumulated by humanity over thousands of years." No matter how thick-skinned Thea was, she couldn't claim she'd figured them out herself.
"Why aren't they written in books?"
Thea almost facepalmed. How could books contain these things? It would be so disruptive to social stability! But this was hard to explain—once she said that, Diana would definitely ask even more questions.
Next, the three entered routine teaching mode, mainly Antiope instructing Diana while Thea watched from the side.
But after watching for a while, she noticed something off. The two had fundamentally different philosophies—Antiope advocated offense, while Diana excelled at defense. Perhaps the protective ideals in Diana's heart were too deeply rooted, always giving an impression of insufficient aggression. Their teaching session proceeded in fits and starts.
After enduring the entire morning, they finally bid farewell to the exasperated Antiope. Diana pulled Thea along to mooch a meal.
"Ugh!..." Thea looked at the gruel-like substance served to them, her appetite completely gone. "You guys eat this?"
"Yeah, we've eaten this for years. It's filling, nutritious, and tastes pretty good."
Thea stirred it twice with a spoon. This stuff looked unappetizing no matter how she looked at it. Calling it pig slop might be excessive, but compared to this, even mystery meat would count as gourmet cuisine. She whispered to Diana, "When you leave the island, I'll treat you to something good!"
Diana looked shocked, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention before whispering back, "My mother won't let me leave."
"What's there to be afraid of!... Never mind, you're right." Thea almost wanted to just abduct her outright—fire up the hoverboard and fly out in one minute!
But thinking it over, Diana currently only had her silver bracelets. It would indeed be dangerous. All her epic-tier equipment had been confiscated by her mother, who wouldn't hand it over except in dire circumstances. Better to wait for Steve Trevor to arrive with German troops in tow.
Swallowing her original plan, Thea lowered her head and took two sips of the gruel. Ugh! Disgusting! No wonder Steve left after two days—he was purely driven away by this terrible food!
Furious, Thea instantly activated the Eye of Horus and scanned the entire cafeteria, discovering everyone ate this same stuff. No one was singling her out, so she let it go. A short time she could endure, but there were still nearly six months left! Whatever, just force it down!
"The divine eye?... You really are a child of the gods!" This time Diana was close enough—not like in the chaotic plaza. She immediately recognized it: this was definitely the sign of divine power scanning! She looked at Thea indignantly. Why won't you tell the truth! Is it because you're discriminated against too, so you don't dare speak up?