Chapter 7: In the Light pt.3

Later today were some classes about the job’s importance, then ethics classes… Honestly being a priest was a surprising lot of studying. Then around the evening after the incense was lit, the best classes started: Mock battles! Part of the equipment we got on the first day was padded armor and mock shields so that we could practice clashing.

My squad got separated to 1 on 1 matches depending on strength ranking. The fight happened in a small area marked by rocks which if a beginner stepped out of would lose automatically, you would also lose if your opponent hit your padded armor three times or knocked you down. I had to fight Cal jr, but who was really interesting was Helen because she had to fight non other than..

“Just so you know, I-I'm not angry about your rude behavior… a-and i’m bad at sparring..” Helen said, trying to keep proper form as she and Dark waited for the teacher’s permission to start sparring. For the duration of the battle i held on to Helen’s Quetzalm

“Good.” He said with a deadpan expression “I suggest next time you don’t utter your weaknesses” It seems he also didn’t have an easy time holding a battle stance, though he was good at pretending to, putting the shield against his shoulder in a way most people won't catch. “And don’t talk about that incident ever again.”

“I-I”

“Okay! 3! 2! 1!” Anya the teacher said after she felt there was enough heat. Both hesitated to launch first but Dark ended up being the first one to raise his macuahuitl and go first. Helen raised her shield and closed her eyes, just as Dark expected and instead of going for the strike he ducked and flung her shield diagnolly with his own shield off the line of rocks. Despite the easy victory Dark did not smile as his macuahuitl went down and-

“Thwack!” the macuahuitls made as Helen parried his swing, gripping the macuahuitl with both her hands while gritting her teeth.

“You are stronger than you look, Helen” Dark said and went for a swing but as she was about to parry this one too he took a step back, used the weight of the macuahuitl to spin around and went for an even greater swing. But as he was expecting to see her body getting flung, Helen's macuahuitl met his face, outsmarting his outsmarting.

“O-Oh” The heat was a bit too effective as Dark was now bleeding from his nose.

“…You” Dark said, his hand on his nose and looking down vulnerably, red spots starting to drip from his nose supposedly, hopefully she didn’t break his pretty nose too.

“Oh hey, I didn’t mean to hit you this bad…” But dark didn’t care to hear any of it.

“Stop pretending you’re weak.” Dark said with malice as he swung his macuahuitl again, Helen reacted quickly but strangely instead of parrying again she just shielded her vulnerable part and got knocked away from the stone lines that signified the edge of the battlefield.

“Dark won” She called and they moved on.

“Why did you let him knock you?” I asked as other people fought, waiting for my turn.

“What do you mean?” She says, her eyes had a glisten of innocence.

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“It looked like at the end you just let him hit you.”

“Ah… I did…” she said, her eyes darting to the side and down as if to rethink about the event. “I guess I felt bad about the whole nose bleeding thing…” She said, though her voice had an unsureness about it that perplexed me.

“Interesting… Anyways, kinda jealous of you, I wanted to fight him.” I admitted. “Though if i fought him i would’ve knocked both his macuahuitl and shield.

“So you can win more easily because he’ll have to pin you down to win?”

“...Yes …to win”

“You’re so strategic, I need to learn more from you.” Helen said happily.

Now my turn was up and I stepped forward, facing Cal jr. He was a pretty thick guy, not the strongest but certainly all of his bull and fat added to his muscle. We stared at each other, both giving each other mean faces.

“Beat her up Cal!” [Person C], his best friend said.

“You can do this! you're better than me!” Helen said in a self demeaning expression.

“Eh, none of these fools are worth watching, it'll just be a test of strength, no flavour.” Dark said as he turned away looking down to watch the more entertaining grass growing.

“Man go fuck yourself” Cal said and dropped his battle stance. Making my stance weaken as well.

“Yeah man, what's the point of just being so mean all the-”

“3! 2! 1!” Anya caught us off-guard and we both immediately scrambled into our position and started clashing. Maybe Dark wasn't too far-off: I went for a powerful downward strike and he sideways, feeling our macuahuitls ripple against each other’s shields, I went to try and shield bash him and found out it was a very bad idea due to his size, easily brushing me off and when he did the same i could feel my training shoes slide almost to the edge of the battlefields dead-zone before i was able to manipulate his force to propel myself forward and ran to the side he started at.

Both of us were good at different things, my lower weight made me move faster while his bigger bulk made him able to hold me off on edges before I manipulated just the right position to throw his stance off. But at the same time he had an advantage, the small battlefield meant that all he needed was one lucky push out of me to end the game, making my mind paranoid from every small fidget the bulked man made.

“This feels unfair, if this stage was bigger I would've outran you a long time ago!” I said as I bashed my shield sideways against his diagonal downward strike with his macuahuitl.

“A true believer of Zond wouldn't run away like that!” He said and kicked at my side, giving him a point.

“It's not running away, it's!...” We were on both sides of the battlefield again, 5 minutes passed, way longer than a 1-1 casual 1 point matches should go, and at this point all the viewers were on the edge of their sits, most of the other battles were a one-and done thwacking test, this felt more like an arms race of stamina. Even Dark was occasionally side-eyeing the battle.

Me and the bulky thick man were both sweating and huffing as we stared each other down. Out of context this sounds weird and that made a smile appear on my face. “Whoaaa… what is she devising?” [Person C] said in curiosity, and that made Cal visibly nervous. Shit, he's now going to try something unexpected.

He charged towards me raising his macuahuitl upwards and as such I prepared for an upward strike, not getting into the perfect stance just yet because I expected him to switch it up. And he did, bringing a high kick straight towards my face. If i had raised the shield just slightly higher it would've been a full knockout but instead it was a full on body bump. As his body tripped on my shield I felt his entire weight crashing in on me like 5 full food baskets. I felt my legs slowly giving up but then as my heels kissed the battlefield’s edge… “Oh you shouldn't have tripped buddy!” My knees bent down to a squat, his weight even more crushing, feeling my knees twitching, putting my shield entirely on my back and using the macuahuitl as a support beam I yanked him out! and just like that he was touching the outside of the battlefield.

“Looks like we have a winner!” Anya clapped her hands “Though I'd feel pretty disappointed giving any of you a losing score for this since you both held on so great.”

“What the fuck are you made off…” [Person C said]

“How the hell did you do that?” Cal asked huffing and breathing heavily as he slowly got up.

“Opportunity and cunning…” Suddenly Dark's voice muttered impulsively to mock them for not knowing how I…

“Wait a minute, are you complimenting me?” I smiled ear-to-ear towards Dark. He paused for a minute, staring directly into my eyes in pure disgust, then on everyone who was staring, then towards the side and turned around to have his back towards us.

“...Don't give yourself any foolish thoughts!” I swear I think his voice sounded different when he said that.

“Awe, why aren't you looking at me Dark son of Grimwood?~ I made sure to remember your name~” He seemed to quickly get up and storm away.

“Does he secretly like you…” Helen said looking towards my face that was too stretched red with evil happiness.

“Yeah I'm definitely fixing him and bringing him to Zond's side” I whispered.