A Court Of Blood And Rays

Training- 7

The morning rays hit Niravi as she freshened up for a walk to the edge of town, Akhil will be waiting for her arrival; though he would not admit it he cares for the raven-haired girl deeply.

The morning dew wet the ends of her cloak as she treads through the grassy patch. She did not have anything to eat in the morning; most probably Akhil would have made a little something for her to fill her stomach, she thought.

The dagger lay heavily on her belt as she flew back to the first time she learnt to use it-

The fourteen-year-old stood without purpose in front of Akhil as he surveyed her from top to bottom, the dagger he gave her a few days ago, lying on his hand. Then- without any warning, he threw the dagger at her.

Niravi's eyes widened in panic; she moved away just in time as the dagger flew just where the shoulder was a second ago.

"I wasn't ready!" Niravi whisper-shouted.

Akhil raised an eyebrow, "rule one; always keep your guard up. Now pick the dagger up." He said.

Niravi slowly walked towards the knife, her eyes made sure to follow Akhil, as she took the dagger in her hands.

"Try to kill me," Akhil said with a smirk and amusement dancing in his eyes.

Niravi knew not to question his outrageous demands and played out the way she would attack him.

She ran towards him, her dagger above her shoulder; Just as she was a meter away from him- Akhil yelled, "Look over there!" He pointed somewhere behind her.

Niravi immediately stopped and turned around. Before she knew it, a hand slapped the dagger away and a leg swept her off the ground. She fell on her behind not a second later.

"Dead. All it takes is one second for your opponent to take you down. Rule number two- trust no one." He said sternly. "Again."

Niravi scowled at him as she got back up dagger in her hand.

"Which is your stronger hand?"

"My left" Niravi replied.

"Then why use your right?"

"Because my mother said only the devil's children used their left" she replied rolling her eyes.

"Well now your mother is dead; no need to listen to her little fairytale" Akhil said.

He placed the dagger in her hand. He wrapped her four fingers around the handle and the thumb above the four fingers, just below the division of the blade and the hilt.

"This is how you will hold the knife if you want to slice someone's neck from their ear below; when they are standing right in front of you."

He then wrapped the thumb around the dagger's spine.

"Hood it like this when you want to give a clean, simple, shallow stab to your opponent. One of the best positions, makes the knife feel like an expression of your hand."

Next, he tilted the dagger downwards, wrapping her fingers around the hilt and placed her thumb above the end of the hilt.

"This will help you stab someone when you are over or on top of them. The thumb on the end of the hilt gives you better direction and control rather than just giving cuts."

Lastly, he brought the thumb at the end of the hilt and wrapped it around the four fingers.

"This is one of the most powerful holds, but is not precise, use this only when your opponent is too heavy for you and when you need to slow them down."

Then he again brought the dagger upwards and placed her forefinger on the knife's spine as her thumb laid on the knife for support.

"This you would have seen your sister using for skinning the animals and for cutting upwards. This hold is used only when you learn to throw knives. You need not worry about it now." He said smirking.

Niravi tried desperately to memorize all of the positions he taught her.

"Show me all of the holds I taught you now."

She scoffed, " You went on from one hold to next in seconds, how do you expect me to remember all of that without showing me a second time?."

Akhil raised his eyebrow at her attitude.

"Fine then forget the knives."

He tackled her to the ground, legs around her torso and locked her hands on her neck.

"Each time you forget the holds I will tackle you again and again until you overthrow me," Akhil said, far too amused.

Niravi tried to pry off his hands from her neck. She tried to break his hold by weakening the point near his elbows, but he didn't budge. After a lot of squirming and panting she remembered something.

She stopped struggling; as soon as he loosened his hold a little bit, she brought both her thumbs and pressed hard on the pressure point on both his biceps; while simultaneously bucking her hips up.

He hissed at the unexpected move. Soon it was him on the floor with Niravi glaring at him as she stood up.

She turned around to admire the sunset behind her when she was pushed to the ground again.

"Rule three. Never turn your back on your opponents."

Niravi growls as she lunged at Akhil in frustration.

"Well little girl, perhaps you are just as useless as I thought you to be; pathetic enough to trust a man that could tell her deepest, darkest secret. A girl who thinks she can help her family when she herself is worth nothing, after all, girls are only meant to be locked behind doors. How disappointed your sister will be when you come back empty-handed again.

Niravi yelled out in anger as she shoved him as hard as he could.
Before she could punch him in the face, he grabbed her and shoved her against a Neem tree; holding her forearm against her own throat.

"An angry killer is a killer who gets themselves killed. Rule four- Never lose control, despite what your enemy says."

Niravi brought her head back and slammed it against his while twisting out of his hold. As she bent down she grabbed her dagger and slashed it towards Akhil, but when she locked eyes with him she hesitated.

"Rule 5- never hesitate to kill the one you have to," Akhil replied, slightly out of breath as he brought her dagger-held hand towards his throat.

Niravi just stared at him with anger in her eyes. Just because he taught her things that could save her life one day, did not mean that he could antagonize her like that. So before her adrenaline faded away she brought her knees up high and kicked him right where the sun doesn't shine.

Akhil swore as he went down, his face scrunched up in pain as he rolled on the ground.

Niravi just smirked. He deserves it she thought while laughing inside.

After Akhil somewhat recovered himself from his not-so-ignorant problem; he looked up to Niravi from below and smiled. Not smirked, but smiled, and Niravi like to think that there was a little pride in that rare smile as she too grinned back.

Niravi laughed a little thinking about their first training together which led to the start of a beautiful friendship.