Young Writers Society

Word Count: 1609

Once we settled, I remembered why I came in the first place. “So, do you two know when we’ll be deployed?”

Grey responded with a noncommittal, “You’ll hear about it when it’s time. Can’t say much more than that.”

“Oh, come on, Grey,” I whined, exaggerating my words. “Can’t you just tell me?”

She seemed a little uncomfortable at the comment, and Blaine even flashed another quick look at her. She didn’t budge, however, saying, “Look, Hunter, you’ll get the order the same way you always do, which is when it’s time to strike. The rest of details are up to us.” She motioned to Blaine and towards the tiny hall in the back of the room, where Cobalt supposedly was. I couldn’t help but feel a little irritated at the subtle reminder of the power dynamic, considering we’d been working together for so long.

Her tone shifted just as rapidly back when she added, “You could always take me on after I’m finished with Blaine! I’m on a winning streak.” Something told me I shouldn’t press the matter, as I didn’t want to spoil her mood even further as she clearly didn’t want to talk about official matters right now. I just sat silently between them.

Blaine picked up a pawn and pushed aside one of Grey’s knight before tentatively picking it up. At that, Grey moved a rook to the edge of the board and cried out, “Checkmate!”

There was a pause. “That wasn’t there.”

She laughed in response, “What do you mean? You were watching it the whole time.”

“That definitely wasn’t there,” he insisted as a mix of shock and confusion fell over his face.

“I’m not a cheater,” she said and began moving the pieces back to their correct places. “How many times do I have to tell you?”

As the validity of their game once again fell into discussion, I decided to take my chance to slip out of the room. Grey noticed, seeming a bit disappointed to see me go, but she didn’t say anything as Blaine continued to recount their match.

I pulled the hood over my head and put my mask back in its place. After a second or two of darkness, I was welcomed back into the familiar feeling of the world around me, letting my senses drown out any useless emotions I may have been feeling. A sense of numbness settled over me as I decided to spend the next bit waiting for orders by training on my own. That’s what would be expected of me as a Captain.

It only took me a few minutes for me to reach the enormous training area where the Officers and Grunts usually spent their time. There were hundreds of open spaces enclosed in small arena looking structures, but every single one of them was empty right now. This told me that the Grunts were dormant in their quarters then, maybe easing up on their training in the days before we’d need them. Fortunately, I didn’t have to know. I hadn’t been supervising the lower ranks for a long time, since that was usually left to the younger, inexperienced Captains.

That just left me completely alone in this dark chasm of a training ground, waiting for orders of my own. An intense feeling of anger built up in my chest as I pulled my knife from its sheath in my belt. I stalked over to one of the closest training mats, and then used my influence to image a training dummy in front of me.

A rush of adrenaline pulsed through me as I struck my knife into the fabric as hard as I could muster and slashed. Beads rushed out of it with a roar when I pulled my blade out, but the stitches mended back together, leaving it unscathed. Leaning into the aggression surging through me, I stabbed and slashed and tore at the dummy as fast as I could, challenging myself to make two consecutive slashes show up on it before the first could heal.

“You’re really showing it to that dummy.” I readjusted my grip on my knife and spun around, my automatic response to fight. Once I caught myself, I stood straight up and noted that the person who had approached me was none other than Raine. The dummy vanished from behind me.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked her, flashing her a smile underneath my mask.

“Same as you, probably,” she said, lifting her hands above her head to stretch her shoulders. “The raid can’t seem to come fast enough, so I’m bored and itching for a fight.” She had a relatively simple Captain’s mask with brown eyes that gleamed in the low lights, accompanied by a small splash of green that started on her forehead and dripped down her nose.

“Is that a challenge?” I took a few steps back to invite her onto my mat.

She walked on without hesitation and replied, “I guess so! Two weapons? Same rules as always?”

I nodded and said, “First to land a normally fatal blow is the winner, and excessive influence isn’t allowed before that.” I traded my knife to my left hand and summoned an 8-inch curved dagger to my dominant hand. She followed suit by taking out a short sword and a wide defensive dagger.

“Ready!” she called out, hunkering down in a mock defensive pose. There was an excited and confident air around her as she watched me walk the last few paces to the edge of the mat.

“Just don’t be upset when I beat you again,” I said and took a deep breath.

She crossed the ten feet separating us in a flash and thrust the short sword towards me. I caught it with the curve of the dagger and redirected the blow away from me before stepping to the side. I followed by slashing my knife at her side, but she used her previous momentum to move away, turn, and then face me again.

The next blow was a wide side slash towards my left side, which I again parried. The clash of metal on metal screeched through the room in a satisfying symphony, and I took a step forward to guide her sword into the ground. She stabbed with the dagger towards my stomach, which I caught with my arm. That drew first blood as it sliced through my shirt and into my forearm.

I didn’t really notice any pain as I pulled out of the parry and quickly stabbed back. By the time she reacted to my attack, the skin that had been cut open was already mending itself. Then, I took to the offensive and threw blow after blow, making her take a couple of steps back to properly catch my blade so it wouldn’t slide into her.

We exchanged a few more blows before I managed to get a good slice on her right upper shoulder. She let out a loud grunt and relaxed her grip on her short sword. I took the opportunity to follow up with a heavy hit on her right side, which she blocked with the sword. As anticipated, her grip couldn’t hold on to it as more blood dripped down her arm and the weapon tumbled from her grip.

She knelt down to grab it, while shielding her head with the dagger. Before her hand could find it, I kicked the weapon off the mat and out of her reach. Her thoughts scrambled as she tried to recover so she pushed off the ground and tried to tackle me. The move was easily telegraphed, so I decided to end it by pushing my knife into her stomach as she barreled towards me.

Pain surged through her and overran her thoughts as she fell to her knees. I then pulled the weapon out of her and grabbed her shoulder to steady her. Then, I used my influence to stop more blood from pouring from the wound, as well as slipping into her mind to dull the panic setting in. After a second or two, she managed to close the wound on her own and then fell onto her back in relief. Her chest heaved as she took in large breaths of air.

She looked up at me with a mix of hurt, anguish and anger before she said, “I guess you won. Again.”

“You started off really well,” I offered as I sat down beside her. “And you even healed your own wounds this time.”

She let out a loud groan. “I still don’t get how you can fight me off so easily, even when I do land a blow.”

I chuckled as I put my hand on her shoulder, noticing she had mended that wound too. “I’ve just had a lot more practice with influence than you. That’s something that Grey used to pull on me all the time before I learned how to do it. You’ll get there.” Compared to the other times we fought, not only had she managed to out speed me a few times, she even cut me fairly deep.

For a second, the only sound in the entire place was the sound of both of our heaving breaths. Eventually, I offered Raine a hand to help her up, which she accepted. In the wake of her defeat, she didn’t seem discouraged, in fact most of her thoughts were even more determined to work hard to earn that eventual victory over me. She walked away to go collect her weapon, and I pulled away from her thoughts.

“We’ve still got plenty of time to kill,” I said. “Ready for another?”