บท 13: Conflict
(AN: Its a long one this time)
Currently, Thirteen was seated on a flat stone within the sparring grounds, with a concerned Ten next to him. Helper Melia, and another Helper Thirteen didn't know were looking at his leg.
The other woman spoke up soon after "Well, It's not fractured, so you got lucky there, but it's quite a serious injury." Looking up from his leg to make eye contact with Thirteen, she continued "You wont fight in the second round of sparring. I'm told you're a healing meta, but your abilities are still in a state of flux so we have no way of recording how potent they are.
That said, I want you to take one of these now, and another before you sleep."
The woman, apparently a medic, handed two pills to Thirteen. "They will help with the healing process. Whether you can participate in the third spar will depend on you."
After saying this, the woman left without waiting for a response and seemed to go stand by the sparring, ready in case she was needed.
"How is it?" Ten asked quietly.
"It's fine, it was one hell of a hit." Thirteen said, smiling at her. 'If I'm honest, I wish I had the chance to fight. I only have one fundamental refinement pill left and I want to finish my blood refinement as soon as possible. But there's no need to make Ten feel bad' Thirteen thought to himself.
At his complement, Ten smiled brightly, before suddenly a look of realization dawned on her, followed by a display of anger. "You kneed me in the head! In my face!! How could you do that?"
As Thirteen made to defend himself, Fours voice made its way to them first. "Leave him alone Ten, you should have expected as much, as predictable as you were."
"Thank the spirits" Thirteen muttered quietly as Four saved him. "Wait, you saw our match? What happened to yours?"
"Beat him" Four replied nonchalantly. "He kept trying to block so I just kept hitting and before I knew it I was done" Pushing Thirteen and Ten to the right, he made room and sat on their left. "Nine's still going, just over there"
Following Four's gaze, Thirteen found Nine, sparring with wooden swords. He seemed to be completely in control of his battle. While his movements weren't particularly fast, nor his strikes very powerful, the opponent's sword always just missed him, and his own would always make the most of the situation.
Sword sparring was a bit different. They used a point system, with meaningful contact making a point. The first to three points would win, and because of this It was unusual to see sword sparring taking longer than an unarmed spar.
Watching for a while, thirteen came to a conclusion. 'Nine's practical skill is good, and he's reading his opponent well, but… Using Melia's words not mine, he's lacking balls.
He's like me when I first started learning to fight, Melia had to make me angry just to get me to attack properly. Nine's lacking that offensive spirit, and that's why he's not getting points despite his control of the fight.'
The spar continued for a while, until finally Nine did manage to score his third point and end the bout. There were only one or two more fights going on now, and in both of them the contestants were too exhausted to fight properly.
After each spar, the participants would listen to council from their respective helpers. Afterwards, there would be a long break for all parties to catch their breath and digest what they learnt from the previous exchange, before the next round of sparring.
When the second round of sparring was to begin, each of Thirteen's friends stood as their names were called.
"Ten, paired with Thirty-eight"
"Good luck"
"Unneeded." Ten replied, walking toward the other child who stood.
'She might be spending too much time with Four.' Thirteen thought to himself.
"Four, paired with, Twenty-two"
Thirteen made to wish Four luck as well, when he noticed a great deal of murmuring over Four's match up announcement. 'What's all this about? Twenty-two's an okay fighter, but he's a perception meta, why all the excitement?' Thirteen pondered.
As he directed a quizzical gaze at Four, he only received a smug smirk in response, and so Thirteen immediately lost interest.
The announcements continued as each sparing pair waited until the announcements were done before beginning their spars.
"Nine, paired with, Eleven." Instructor Diores called out.
'Eleven? Didn't he win a streak of three last time?' Thirteen thought as he looked for Nine's opponent, only to see that same arrogant kid who beat Twenty-nine on the first sparring day.
'This will be fun' Thirteen thought. "Have at him, Nine, make me proud!"
"Watch closely, I'll show you why Intuition rules."
Nine had become increasingly confident in himself lately. It seemed he no longer felt down about his meta attribute. 'I suppose I'm the same, it's never all bad' Thirteen thought with a smile.
When the announcement ended and the spars were to begin, Thirteen focused his attention on Nine's fight, as Ten's and Four's weren't anything too interesting.
As the pre-spar introductions were all spoken at once, the area became a mess of noise, but Thirteen still managed to hear the voices of Nine and Four introducing themselves, much to his shock.
"Nine, Intuition" "Eleven, Agility"
"Four, Strength and Agility" "Twenty-two… Perception"
'WHAT?!' Thirteen shouted in his mind, as his head spun a bit too quickly to look in the direction of Four, only to see his bragging posture. 'Two attributes? Since when?' Thirteen thought frantically, until he remembered the murmuring that happened in response to Four's announcement. 'Was it.. In his first duel? Did he announce it only then?'.
Thirteen wondered why Four wouldn't have told them, but then it clicked. 'He wanted to show off.' Thirteen concluded with no doubt in his mind.
'But still, first in the eighth generation to awaken a second attribute. If i think about Ten's freakish displays and Nine's control in every fight… Is it possible my friends are all really strong?'
Four's fight interrupted Thirteen's thoughts, as a large fist shot towards Four's opponent, twenty two. The perception meta managed to avoid the blow, but his eyes widened at the power of it, and Thirteen could understand why. If before, Four was a very powerful foe who moved somewhat slowly and could be avoided with a bit of effort, his fists now rocked forth with the power of a battering ram and the speed of an arrow.
'Okay, maybe not quite like that' Thirteen thought.
Four was relentless in his fight. He never stopped attacking, never stopped advancing on his opponent, not giving him a moment to breathe. Spectacular still, was that his opponent, twenty-two was keeping up to an extent. His movements were hasty and he had little chance to go on the offensive, but he managed to spot the Four's preliminary movements, and respond accordingly.
The two continued to clash for 20 seconds or so, until for the first time today, Four released a front kick with incredible speed, hitting Twenty-two in the gut and sending him airborne backwards until he landed heavily on the ground.
The helper's announced Four victorious and Thirteen saw the same Medic that helped him earlier rushing to Twenty-two's side.
'Isn't that a bit much? The Instructors must have known that Four had both Agility and Strength attributes now, so why did they pair him with Twenty-two?' Thirteen thought to himself, as his eyes lingered on the boy receiving medical aid.
"Did you get a good look, my crippled friend?" Four asked as he approached.
"As if. If anyone were to be crippled it would be Twenty-two." Thirteen said somewhat jokingly, before becoming serious. "You may need to learn to hold back from now on. I don't know why the instructors would pair you with a mental meta at this point, but not everyone can take a blow like that in stride."
Seeing his friend legitimately worried, Four became serious too. "Yeah, I've noticed it as well. The differences made by our attributes are getting greater by the day, if we're not careful people may get seriously injured."
Grinning now, Four teased with a chuckle "Not that it has anything to do with a weakling like you".
"Shut up" Thirteen said with a chortle as he looked now at Nine's spar with Eleven.
It was looking pretty heated, as the two engaged in short bursts of sword to sword conflict, before breaking and re engaging. Nine had an expression of utmost concentration, sweat dripping from his forehead, while Eleven seemed frustrated.
'This might be a good chance to see how they make use of swords. I hate to admit it, but I'm somewhat lacking in that department.' And so Thirteen focused intently.
Eleven was becoming increasingly frustrated as he faced the foe before him.
'Dammit! Why can't I connect?!' changing his stance once more, Eleven swung his wooden sword in a downward motion from the right, but as he believed Nine to have taken the bait in defending, he shifted the trajectory slightly to bring his sword lower than his foes, before bringing it back up, aiming for Nine's unprotected sword hand.
Unfortunately, Eleven didn't quite have the control to pull the maneuver off smoothly, and just as Eleven's sword would have made contact with his opponent's fingers, Nine raised his own sword quickly as he stepped back, avoiding the strike and taking a stance with the sword above his head, pointed toward Eleven. Immediately after, Nine brought his own sword downward in a right to left motion.
'Fuck!' Eleven cursed in his mind, adjusting his stance not to parry the sword, but to dodge, as he closed the distance quickly, safely on the outside of Nine's outstretched sword hand.
Eleven brought his own sword up to his right, intending to strike and slice at Nine's side. This time, he executed the technique well, despite being a bit frantic.
In response, Nine threw himself in the opposite direction, without any form or technique, and managed to rein in his tired sword arm just in time to block the blow.
As his body hit the floor, Nine had meant it to be a brief moment as he shot back up and repositioned himself, but his body was truly exhausted from desperately fending off an agility meta, and he failed to get back to his feet in time.
"Stop!" Nine's helper called. "One point to Eleven. Get up Nine."
Eleven's helper then called "Score 2-0 to Eleven. Fight."
'Fucking intuition metas' Eleven thought to himself. Since being saved from that 'shithole' of an orphanage and brought to this place he hadn't been hindered at all. Sure the training was tough and his days long, but look at him now. He took to the sword quicker than any other in his generation and hadn't suffered a loss yet… if he excluded sparring with his helper.
'As if I would want that point. The fool fell to the ground on his own and couldn't stand? How is that my score? I need to end this cleanly, I should make up for that last point' Eleven thought to himself as he paced circles with Nine, changing stances and testing his reactions.
With the thud and scrape of wooden swords making contact, their battle continued, as Elevens attacks became faster and fiercer, while Nine's defense became clumsier and hasty. The battle continued for about half a minute, until Nine's left leg gave out for a moment, his knee bending and catching himself off guard.
Eleven seized the chance and struck. His opponent's defense was weaker than he thought, and Nines sword basically moved out of the way for him as Eleven's preliminary strike made lackluster contact on the wrist.
'What? No! I won't let THAT be my finishing blow!' Eleven yelled in his mind, as he lifted his sword once more, and acting before the helpers had the chance to call the hit, he struck again, directly downward from above. His wooden sword made powerful contact with the top of Nine's head, drawing blood as Nine's body went limp to the ground.
"STOP!" Elevens helper called. "The hell do you think you're doing boy?! It was finished?"
Thirteen's eyes went wide as he too witnessed what had just occurred.
"He already won, he hit the wrist. The hell was he doing?!" Thirteen shouted as he stood up on his numbed leg, only to realize Four was already ahead of him, running to the location of the spar.
"What?" Eleven responded to his helper. "I got caught up in it, he'll be fine." He said, as if not understanding what the big deal was.
As Four closed in on Nine, he found his friend unconscious, blood in his hair.
When Thirteen reached the grounds of the spar, the medic had already begun to examine Nine as Four stood with clenched fists.
Through a clenched jaw, Four hissed "You went to far Eleven. Apologize."
"Huh?" Eleven now seemed genuinely confused. "Why should I? It's not my fault he fell so far behind his peers. He should have left this place when they told him his attribute anyway."
Thirteen felt his eyes widening at this, not in surprise, but in fury, as he felt his muscles contracting. 'He has nothing to apologize for? What the fuck are you on about?!' Thirteen wanted to curse and shout, but found his jaw clenched so tightly that nothing but ragged breath could escape. 'Should have left when he learnt his attribute? What are you trying to say?!' He began to feel the torrents of heat jetting through his body. The qi infused blood that coursed through his body now much faster than ever before.
'Calm down Thirteen, calm down calm down calm down.' He chanted to no effect. 'Focus on your breath Thirteen. Breathe. In, and out.' Gradually, as the surrounding qi made itself known to him, and Thirteen's emotions began to dull along with his senses, Thirteen managed to suppress the volcano he felt ready to blow within. The lava remained, but it grew still, as Thirteen's expression began to loosen.
Turning away from Eleven, Thirteen approached Instructor Diores who had made his way to the scene.
"I want to request that I spar Eleven in the third round."
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