Madter Arc 1: Flood

1

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I was thrown back from a powerful force, and I hit the training mat hard on my back. The pain was screaming throughout my body as I let out a groan in frustration, but I get up. I probably have more bruises than I ever had in my entire life just by going through all these brutal training sessions. And I mean brutal. These training sessions have been the hardest thing in my life, and somehow I thought parkour would've been more difficult? I was wrong until I came here.

The Fordham Manor. As I set foot through the front door, I was met with a sense of wonder. It seemed like this place hid a lot of secrets underneath this warm, comfy atmosphere. Secrets I have yet to uncover, but I only know so few. The only thing I know about this place is that it's the home to Fighters, but I don't exactly know what it means to be a Fighter...

"I can't seem to get it, Storm. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a Fighter," I say with a frustrated tone as I've been pretty stressed being put through all this training.

"Bullshit, anyone can be a Fighter. You didn't come here with fighting skills," Storm says as she twirls around a bo staff. Her shoulder-width white hair gracefully moves by the air created from the bo staff.

"No, I never had a reason to fight. I can't even throw a proper punch," I say as I let out a heavy sigh.

"Here. Twirl it," Storm says as she throws the bo staff to me. Luckily I caught it despite it being so heavy in my hand. Storm makes it look so light.

"Twirl it?"

"Yes."

I try twirling the staff, but I end up hitting myself in the face with it rather hard. I lost my balance and fell onto the mat, hitting the left side of my face against the dark material. Geez, I've never been in so much pain in my life. I hope that I didn't break my jaw or any other bone in my face, for that matter. I know I would at least be left with a bruise.

"That's sad," I hear Icarus say.

"That hurt," I say as I sit up, rubbing my cheek.

"We're done for today," Storm says with a sigh as she walks off the mat.

I get up and put the staff back with the rest of the staves on the wooden rack nearby. I sigh in frustration as I step off the mat. I have only been here for a week and yet have made no progress at all. It's been getting frustrating, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've never had to fight since somebody else fought off the KrugerSec that was always found around Glass. I hadn't even been out in the field yet and I already have all these bruises just from training with Storm and Icarus.

"What am I going to do? Maybe I should go back to Glass," I say to Icarus as we went into the locker room.

"Storm doesn't want you to. She sees something in you," Icarus says reassuringly, but it didn't seem clear to me. I had wondered what Storm saw in me.

"Yeah, probably because I can do some parkour and know how to hack. She's making me do stuff that I can't do," I say as I put my regular clothes on - faded black jeans and a black shirt with white long sleeves. "Besides, how are you better than me?"

"Because I knew how to fight before coming here. Storm said I was good at hand-to-hand combat. She wants to train me on knives."

"There's no way she's going to let me even touch a weapon at this rate."

"You'll get the hang of it."

"It needs to come faster. I'm really behind compared to these other guys," I say as I glance at him.

"Nomad, these guys been here for years, so of course, we're not going to catch up to them," Icarus says as he comes closer to me. He was already dressed.