“I surrender!” I sputtered.
“No way! You can keep going!”
We were now learning how to use weapons as part of our combat training. Unfortunately, I was paired up with Tiger, and he wasn’t in the best mood. He kicked me right in the stomach, and my surrender only served to put a smile on his face as he continued his assault. Just like his race’s namesake, he possessed mind-boggling agility. What was even more terrifying was that he had the beast-like reflexes to match. He was earning himself the coin of honor more and more often in these sessions.
As I first thought, the carnivore beastborn children tended to excel physically. Surprisingly, the same held true for snakeborns. The other one in our cohort displayed lightning-quick reflexes, and her muscle strength was nothing to be scoffed at either. If only I could say the same about myself. Unfortunately, my physical prowess was decidedly average when compared to the other children. However, it seemed that the other snakeborn lacked a pit organ.
I’d thought that all snakeborns had one, but when I observed her during tracking, I took note of her behavior. The way she moved her eyes didn’t align with one who could sense heat. It taught me that even members of the same race could have different abilities. Tiger was probably exceptionally powerful even among other tigerborn.
He flashed his sharp canines at me in an aggressive grin and stabbed his wooden knife into my shoulder, making me grunt. Obviously, it didn’t pierce through anything, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. It was perfectly capable of injuring, regardless. Also, everyone was now using their essence to its full extent during these sessions, upping the risk in turn.
Tiger was eager to keep sparring. I looked deep into his eyes, reading his movements and habits.
Got it...
The moment he swung his knife, I swiftly leaned over to the right. I knew that his eyes had lost me in that split second, and he was now full of openings. I brought the edge of my blade toward his neck.
“Too slow!” His left hand grabbed my right and dug into it, pulling me to the ground. I could do nothing to resist. He turned his threatening glare on me. “What did you just do, Hardhead?!”
“What did I do when?” I wasn’t about to reveal my hand.
We glared at each other for a few more seconds, then Tiger clicked his tongue.
“Again.”
“Again,” I agreed.
Just as we were about to start over, the snakeborn girl crash-landed beside us with as much force as if she had been hit by a car.
“Twelve,” came the merciless count as a silver tail twisted in the air. The dragon girl’s eyes were unfeeling as she looked down at the snakeborn like a mere insect.
The snakeborn cowered on the ground and started howling, unable to stand her opponent’s arrogant stare.
“Get up,” the dragon girl commanded, a quiet irritation woven into her tone.
“You’re still no...match for our...instructor!”
The dragon girl fell silent. The wooden knife in her hand answered instead, giving out a loud crack.
“Ha! That hurt, did it? You just pick on everyone weaker than you!”
The wooden knife splintered. She tossed it to one side, then approached the snakeborn with solemn steps. It didn’t discourage the latter from taunting her.
“You’re a coward! A loser! Dumb lizard!”
The dragon girl grabbed the snakeborn’s collar and filled her own lungs with air.
“Hey!” she protested. “Let go!”
The dragon girl roared at point-blank range. Blood trickling from her ears, the snakeborn passed out. The dragon girl threw her limp body onto the ground, like she had lost all worth.
“Thirteen.”
Up went the revenge count. The snakeborn had taken part in almost twenty bouts of punishment. Hopefully her final moments were peaceful. Meanwhile, the tigerborn in front of me had turned pale. Hopefully he would weather the upcoming storm okay.
By my count, Tiger had punished the dragon girl about two hundred times.
✦ ✦ ✦
“We will now begin with our escape training,” Konji announced, as if the huge club he held in one hand was of no consequence.
I wondered why we were in a different forest than our usual one—it was a new type of training. Konji lifted the club like it weighed nothing and pointed it beyond the trees.
“Run to the top of that mountain.” A straightforward command, easy to understand. Given where we were, though, it would be less easy to follow. “There are traps on the way, but I’m sure you can deal with them.”
He added that like it was no big deal. In any case, it looked like we would be running through a forest laden with traps. I still had questions. My most pressing one concerned the club.
“I’ll give a thrashing with this to anyone who is too slow.”
None of the children seemed surprised. They were used to unreasonable instructors and their lives being constantly at risk. Even then, I couldn’t quite believe the cruelty the adults were capable of. For starters, it was pouring down, a great rush of torrential rain, like buckets were being upturned from above. The “mountain” Konji had pointed to was completely obscured by this rainy weather.
From the group of children, I felt a pair of eyes on me. I turned and locked gazes with the snakeborn girl. She wasn’t trying to disguise her hostility. I guessed she’d been irritated by the dragon girl’s point-blank roar. Even before she’d stopped rebelling and joined us in training, the snakeborn girl had hated her. She probably feared that her spot as the center of our cohort was at risk of being usurped. Also—and this was the same for me—because snakeborns and dragonborns had so many similarities, people tended to compare us. In reality, there was a world of difference between our abilities, and the result was that we were reminded of our inferiority. Maybe the snakeborn’s hostility was also part envy.
She started whispering into the ear of the boy next to her. I didn’t like the looks of that, so I tried to eavesdrop. The rain drowned out everything except the odd syllable. However, I did know what they were probably thinking. I quietly stepped away from them.
“Begin!” Konji commanded in a low voice, accompanied by a downward swing of his club.
A booming vibration spread out under our feet as it hit the ground. Spurred onward by our instructor’s direction, we began to run.