Kill Academy

Chapter 1-Our Motto

Attack, parry, thrust. Attack, parry, thrust. Attack, parry, thrust.

The seemingly never-ending cycle. This was my 7th spar today and I had been sparring against Farrah for two minutes. I was getting tired. She definitely looked tired. We both had the same outfits on, a black training stealth suit. The stealth suits were designed to allow lots of movement, so they are light in weight, and there's a side button so the suit can heat up if we're out in the cold. One of us had to end this sparring match, and soon. One minute was fine, but I wasn't going to go past two.

I quickly parry another blow that would have knocked me out hard had we not been wearing heavily padded tech armor which goes on over our suits. As she parried my strike, an opening appeared. I quickly thrust my staff into her stomach and push in as hard as I can. She falls and lands hard on the floor. It would have been a knockout for a regular person but she'll still have a bruise for at least a week. A twinge of guilt almost makes me say sorry, but movement out of the corner of my eye stops me.

"Well done Wren," my training partner, Liam says, giving me a full-toothed smile. "One minute, and 48 seconds"

"Two minutes," a person behind Liam says. "Nearly two minutes. By then, bodyguards could have reached your room from the commotion, a police car could have reached the area before you had time to extract yourself, a little pesky maid could have quickly alerted the rest of the house before you had time to finish the job." Ms. Ledger finishes, stepping out from the shadows, her attire looking very vampirey with all black.

"Next time, under one minute," she says, looking directly at me.

At that, she swiftly turns on her heel and storms out.

"Don't listen to her Wren," Liam says, after making sure Ms. Ledger is out of earshot. "She's just cranky because Rauler's making her stay behind on an important black level mission tonight" Sam continues. I glance around the sparring room. The sparring room was designed to fit many kids at once, so it's giant. There are at least twenty 36" x 36" sparring mats stretched along the area, all padded and cleaned regularly to get the sweat and blood off. My eyes catch on the sign almost always hanging in every room at KILL, the huge red and black sign that shows our motto.

The sign gives me chills down my back. Our teacher at Strike told us we'd understand it when we got older. I'm 15 now and I still don't get it.

I hear a shuffle from behind me and remember Farrah. She's slowly getting up so I extend my hand her way.

"I don't need your help," She says, getting up faster and pushing my hand away. That's the usual way K-borns were. They were kids born within a Legacy here, so their parents were hard on them to be good. I was brought here when I was 8 and I was apparently just sitting in an alleyway.

"You wanna meet up at the Quarter," Liam says behind me, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah sure, just let me grab Heather" I reply, turning back to look at him.