Beatrix

"This is a good hand. I’m sure you’ll grow stronger."

- Beatrix to Cid

Beatrix (ベアトリクス) is the first champion of the Bushin Festival, hailed as the War Goddess for her unrivaled mastery of swordsmanship. She is also heavily implied to be the long-lost aunt of Alpha, whom the former is currently searching for.

Appearance
Beatrix is a beautiful Elf with well-refined features and a voluptuous figure. She is always seen carrying her sword by her side. She has long platinum hair, blue eyes, and pale-colored skin. Cid notes that she greatly resembles Alpha, so much so that one would't be blamed for assuming they are related.

Her attire comprises of a gray robe with tattered edges, a white bikini top, and black short skirts with gold accessories. She wears a leg stocking on her right leg with length starting just above the ankle and ending at middle of her thigh, while her left leg is mostly bare aside from two straps. For accessories, she wears black gloves, a jewel-adorned hairband and a necklace with what appears to be a sapphire.

In the novel and manga, she has a double-edged longsword with a gold hilt decorated with black and blue accents, with the scabbard designed in white with gold and black accents. While in the anime version, the weapon is a single-edged straight sword, like a katana without the curved warping.

Personality
"Do you know of any elves who look like me?"

- Beatrix to Cid Kagenou

Beatrix is ​​shown to be a mature person, but is typically passed of as stoic individual that is socially awkward and with an aloof attitude. This confuses others and makes them question whether her title is a true testament or exaggeration. Her tactless nature may be seen by others as someone who speaks her thoughts out loud without filter, but she is still polite to those that engages with her.

Beatrix has a degree of self-confident and seems to have a determined attitude as seen by her unyielding desire to achieve her goals by finding her niece. Beatrix, like Shadow, also feels a strong attraction to face off against powerful opponents when she is able to find them. She is not above teaming up with others to defeat larger threats as shown by her alliance with Iris Midgar.

Beatrix maintains her friendly, kind and loving presence with people she likes, and is intuitive enough to avoid the possibility of death in combat when faced with very strong enemies. This is in contrast to Iris Midgar, who is carried away by her rage and revenge to the point of willingly sacrificing everything to kill Shadow.

Powers & Abilities
Beatrix is hailed as one of if not the strongest swordswomen in the world, with Iris Midgar, the strongest swordswoman in the Midgar Kingdom, openly admitting that Beatrix is stronger than her. The Cult of Diablos believes that she had inherited the power of her ancestor; the "Elf Hero" Olivier. She even managed to hold her own against Shadow, at least until the latter got a "little serious".

Physical Prowess
Strength & Agility: Beatrix's strength and speed are on par with Shadow while the latter is holding back, with Cid himself notes that her movements are so fast that a normal person would not be able to perceive them. She also adapts quickly, initially being overwhelmed by Shadow's but gradually increasing the strength of her own sword strikes to match his, though Shadow was holding back throughout their fight.

Movement Reading: As a result of her training, along with a century of experience, Beatrix has the ability to read her opponents' movements. This allows her to study, analyze, and counteract their attacks before they reach her. During her fight with Shadow, another user of this ability, the two were able to counteract each other's attacks at super fast speeds, making it look as if they were teleporting throughout the stadium. Still, Beatrix's movement reading pales in comparison to Shadow's, preferring to rely on her agility, and she was unable to continue keeping up with him once he got a "little serious".

Master Swordswoman: Being the first champion of the Bushin Tournament, Beatrix's swordsmanship was described as being the apex of the art, with only Shadow being able to match and even succeed her. She is also an adaptive combatant, whether alone or in a team, being able to match with allies even if they never fought before. As a testament to her abilities, she was able slice through raindrops and even fight on-par with Shadow for a short while, albeit while he was holding back. In the Anime, Beatrix's fighting style seemed to be based off Iaijutsu, the art of drawing one's sword from its scabberd in combat, and Shadow noted her skills to be almost equal to his subordinates. In addition, over time, she started being able to counter Shadow's strikes even while he was being a "little serious", implying that she improves quickly.

Superior Senses: Beatrix possesses superhuman senses, seeing right through the intimidation tactics Shadow used against Iris and sensing something was wrong with Raphael Oriana despite Perv Asshat's attempt to hide the king's drugging using perfume. She has a particularly strong sense of smell, possibly on-par with Therianthropes, and eyes were able to keep up with Shadow's movements.

Warrior Perception: Beatrix has sharp instincts honed through her experiences as a swordswoman, being able to determine the strength of others just by that alone. She could even discern Cid's true abilities despite his facade and defend against Shadow's 'invisible' blade for a short duration. However, this ability does not seem to be fully perfected. Although able to tell how strong a person can become with just a touch, she cannot discern how much of that potential has already been realized, as shown when Cid was able to still fool her when she initially saw through him.

Magic
According to Shadow words in the anime, he admitted that although Beatrix's swordsmanship is almost the same in development as that of the Shadow Garden members, her magic, on the contrary, leaves much to be desired. Beatrix is able to use it to perform powerful attacks and resist heavy damage, but it can't heal serious injuries to herself or others or further enhance her abilities.

Equipment

 * Long Sword: So far the only main weapon she uses is a magical semi-adorned longsword, which allows her to fight and channel her magic in a very extreme way. Although the weapon is made of a kind of metal that is good as a conductor, more than normal metal, it is still inferior to the magic conductivity of Shadow Garden's slime weapons and suits. It is speculated that being a special metal (possibly stainless steel), its conductivity of magic must be 20-30% at most, compared to normal metal which is 10%.

Techniques

 * Deadly Quick Cut: Beatrix's strongest attack where she sheaths her sword, channels her magic into the blade, and finally draw it from the scabbard to release a powerful, rapid-flash slash capable of slashing the middle of her enemy's body into shreds. It only takes a few seconds and is done by momentarily tracing lines running across a person’s body. Unfortunately, the technique's full effectiveness was never shown since Shadow sinply dodged it when she attempted to use it against him.


 * Speed Flash Special: Beatrix uses her magic to move across large distances in less than a second, a technique typically learned by Dark Knight when they reach elite level. Beatrix has honed this skill to a such degree that she was able to keep up with Shadow, until he got a "little serious". In the Anime, Beatrix was eventually able to catch back up with Shadow even whilst he was being a "little serious" and they were both able to more at such speeds that the shockwaves that they caused were able to destroy entire buildings.

Walking on Water: Through the use of her magic, Beatrix can walk and run on water. She can use this regardless of whether the water is moving or not, like with rivers or lagoons.

Trivia

 * The name Beatrix means "voyager, traveler" in Late Latin and it is later influenced in spelling by association with the Latin word beatus or "blessed."
 * It also means "she who brings happiness; blessed" in Latin, and Dutch.
 * Both the name of Beatrix, and in part her nickname, refers to the supposed Goddess Beatrix, mentioned by Nelson, during the "Goddess's Trial", from the magical world that many churches and sanctuaries worship. It is speculated that the supposed goddess is just another deception of the Cult to gain more support from the people, from the early days of the time of the Demon Diabolos.
 * Beatrix so far, is one of the only few descendants of the Hero Olivier, not to contract Demonic possession from the demon Diabolos, apart from his deceased sister, from his early childhood, to his maturity as an adult.
 * Despite her appearance, her way of dressing and behaviour, Beatrix is a very strong warrior and is older than she appears to be, since she is an elf. But due to her appearance and mannerisms, she is often mistaken as a vagrant without any poneticial and without value as such. Iris Midgar, Cid Kagenou, Annerose, are among a few who know how powerful she is without needing to fully recognize her by reputation as a warrior, unlike the general audiences, and without get carried away by appearances as such.
 * In the game "The Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden", Beatrix's real age is stated to be over 100 years, (It is not yet clear if the information that the game provides about the characters can be considered canonical).
 * Similar to the Beastkin, Beatrix apparently has a strong taste for the powerful and talented people that she foresees. In the anime, Beatrix apparently has a love interest in Cid Kagenou, when she first meets him, In the game, she feels an interest to such an extent, that she wanted to marry Cid Kagenou when she first met him.
 * According to the game, Beatrix, like the other girls in Shadow Garden, has become romantically interested in Cid Kageno. An irony because without knowing it, her presumed niece "Alpha" is also romantically interested with Cid Kagenou, to the point that if he becomes someone strong like Beatrix would say, she would hallucinate what their possible child would be like if he married her, implying that she is single.
 * Beatrix, like Shadow, shows a strong interest and desire to face powerful people she meets for the first time. Through this way, she can know how strong she has become and how powerful they are. When Beatrix noticed that Cid Kagenou was someone strong, he also showed some interest in fighting her. Also, when she witnessed Iris Midgar defeat against Jimina Sehnen, Beatrix desire to face him grew stronger.
 * By her own words, when she first fought against Shadow and he decided to get a little serious against her, and take out his real "sword", he discovered that the way his enemy wielded his sword, and the sword itself, was as if it were fused with nature itself, akin to some kind of natural phenomenon like raindrops and lightning. This makes it very dangerous for her and for anyone who comes up against him, given that, like any natural phenomenon, it is not known where or when it will attack until it is too late to protect oneself.
 * Shortly before losing to Shadow, he confesses to Iris Midgar and Beatrix that only his name and his way of acting are all that he is, that everything else that has happened is just a pure fictitious invention of his mind (without know that everything is real), but they only take it as a strong insult that motivates them even more to fight.
 * By his admission, Beatrix is one of the few powerful individual that Shadow himself declared to be deserving of being remembered and live in his memory. She was able endure a prolonged battle with Shadow longer than anyone else including his shadow gardens.
 * The color of Beatrix's magic is a bright white which is juxtaposed to Shadow’s dark blue.