The Crimson King

Chapter 15 | Strength

Chapter 15 | Strength 

*

'Isn't it funny how
day by day
nothing changes,
but when you look back
everything is
d i f f e r e n t.'

- C. S. Lewis

*

"I concede."

Iris gasped in relief and released her hold. Rolling a little ungracefully off the Commander beneath her, she lay flat on her back with a huff.

Mizuki climbed to her feet, extending a hand towards Iris – who accepted gratefully – to help pull her to her feet.

"Your progress is great, my Lady."

Iris winced a little as she massaged her shoulders. Her left one in particular had taken a beating in their last fight. "I don't know about that," she grumbled, "it's still too hard to win against you."

Mizuki let out a curt bark of laughter, and the female lycan's face softened slightly, as it had been doing more often over the last few weeks. "I would hope, Princess, that it would remain difficult – otherwise my reputation as a Commander would be ruined."

Iris grinned at the other woman a little sheepishly, "I suppose you're right."

"Indeed," Mizuki replied, amusement curving her slanted eyes into soft crescent moons. "Is there a reason the Princess is so eager to advance? Your progress is already quite spectacular. Even for one with lineage such as yours – learning to fight is a skill that is honed over years of hard work. As much as I hate to admit it, soon I fear I will not pose much of a challenge to you at all."

Iris hummed non-committedly as she watched Mizuki re-tie her long black hair into its high ponytail that had become loose during their sparring session. "I just promised someone is all."

The female lycan flicked her ponytail back over her shoulder and gave Iris a calculating look. Mercifully, she chose not to inquire any further. "Shall we go again?" She suggested instead.

Iris nodded. "Yes, if you have time."

Mizuki snorted. "Princess, considering how worthless the rest of them are, the only one I have time for currently, is you." She pointed over across the training grounds and Iris looked over to see that the rest of the training group were currently still doing plank crawls around the outside of the area, with another lycan seated on their back to weigh them down.

Apparently that morning's training session had been, in Mizuki's words, 'utterly disgraceful' and so she had assigned them to drills while she sparred against Iris. Iris looked up at the sun that was now high in the sky and tried not to laugh at the look of sheer despondency on the faces of the lycans around her.

Iris had found out quickly that if anyone felt inclined to complain about Mizuki's methods of training, then they had better be prepared to triple the quantity of whatever task she had assigned them. And if it was not up to standard, then they would do it again. And again. And again.

Although ruthless, there was no doubting that Mizuki's approach was nonetheless effective – another reason why every lycan who trained under her chose to hold their tongue.