Eçłípsė

8

During the training that prepared him for his mission, Gavriel hurt. After the training Gavriel had done these last few days under teacher Faheys supervision, he wanted to die. Every single inch of his body throbbed with pain. 
Gavriel and the smiling honey-guy Sasha were the only ones that Fahey had taken under his wing, and Sasha was the only one who seemed to deserve it. Even though both of them looked so alike, Sashe always ended up winning when they fought. Not because Sasha was stronger, he was actually a lot weaker, but he was smarter, and faster.

This day was just like the days before. Gavriel woke up by the horrible sound of Sasha singing some song about morning beauty at 5 am, their female roommate left before any of them woke up cause she had some strict teacher who loved dragging people out of bed way too early.. They went to the big hall to eat a sturdy and weird breakfast, Gavriel only talked to Sasha. Then they both went to the training hall, greeted teacher Fahey and proceeded to the part where Gavriel got his ass kicked. 
After ending up on the floor multiple times and only managing to throw a few punches, Fahey told them to take a lunch break after they stretched. Then, he said something out of the ordinary.

“After you guys are done stuffing your petite faces, go to the big training hall instead of this one. Big boss Capricorn wants to see ya.”

The big dining hall was in an uproar. Everywhere the new recruits were talking about how the afternoon would go. Would Capricorn hold a speech or something? Or would she do something crazy and dangerous like making them fight each other, making the meeting a life or death event?

The group sitting by the table next to Gavriel and Sasha were convinced she would kill all the weakest members by herself, to set an example.

“Why does everyone speak of our Capricorn as if she was crazy?” 

Sasha looked up from his food with his usual smile, making a shiver go down Gavriels spine. If anyone around here was crazy, it would be Aleksander. His whole appearance screamed  “psychopath”.

“Apparently she has red eyes, like a demon. She moves faster than the blink of an eye and kills everyone who gets in her way, children and elderly too. There are rumors she enjoys watching blood so much, she has her private torture chambers where she slowly kills her enemies instead of giving them a quick ending.”

All of this he said, without flinching, without changing his smiling eyes or mouth in the slightest. Gavriel didn’t know who he should be most afraid of, the woman who apparently was going to slaughter him and enjoy it, or the gentle-looking guy sitting there, eating stewed fish-bread with him.

After sitting at the table way too long, everyone started to move in the direction of the big training hall. The chatter slowly died out the closer they came too what everyone seemed to expect pain and possibly death from. Everyone looked dead serious, sweating and nervous. Everyone except Sasha of course, he was still smiling, his eyes sparkling with warmth and what seemed to be joy.

The door to the big training hall opened and everyone walked in reluctantly, carefully peeking around them. In the middle of the room, in the fighting ring, stood a woman. She wasn’t very tall or anything, barely 165 cm, but the aura around her alone could make anyone pee their pants. Her hair was long and jet black with a few white strokes and her eyes were red, glowing like a cats. She didn’t wear much clothes and on her exposed skin you could see white scars colluding with black ink. Every single inch of her looked deadly and as she looked at the small crowd with her uninterested, glowing ruby eyes, the mood intensified. Gavriel could feel the whole room sweating. 

“So, you lot are my new trainees?”

Her voice was dark, her tone the one of the drunk guy in the back of the bar, screaming for more liquor. Gavriel couldn’t help but smile a little, it was so obvious she was dead drunk.

Her gaze fixated on him the moment his expression changed, and she tilted her head, as if she’d found something interesting.

“I don’t really have time for all of you, so I hope your numbers will decrease after this day.”

The whole room held its breath, the slaughter they’d all been fearing seemed like it was getting closer by the second. 
Capricorn unhooked a gigantic knife from her belt, not looking bothered in the slightest.

She threw it in the blink of an eye and with a satisfying sound it stuck in the roof, wiggling a little.

“Why’re y’all lookin so stupified for? You thought I was gonna kill you or somethin’?”

She smiled mockingly.

“Now, what are you just standing there for? The people who manage to get the knife down within the given time may stay. After you get it, hand it to Kiara and she’ll put it right back up.”

She waved her hand in the direction of a tall, black woman with orange braided hair.

“Right! Imma head off. Kiki will supervise you, won’t you honey.”

She said her last words to the tall woman, who looked slightly disgusted and very exhausted. Then she headed out, her walk a little wobbly.