•Night Angel•

CHAPTER XII - EARNING RESPECT

As soon as she walked through the door, she positioned herself in front of the table that had all the head members of Daylight and beside Louise.

Pierre was sitting in the middle of them. Francois to his right, Madame Adelaide to his left, Denis beside Francois and a couple more members that Sophia recognized but never spoke to.

They welcomed them and the girls, with their hands behind their backs, stood with parade stance, until giving indication on what to do.

-Dumont, Dillon. You already know what to do. Use everything we've ever taught you. As you may know, right now you are only fighting hand in hand combat. No guns, no knives, no other artifacts that could harm. Just your hands, arms, legs, and everything you've learned so far. Everything is allowed. You may hurt, but not badly injure or kill your opponent. Is that clear?.- Pierre said while looking between the two girls. When they just nodded he proceeded.

-Once one of you is defeated, the winner will move on to the next test. The loser will remain to fight again against someone else on another level.- He said one more time, with a serious expression.

Even though Pierre was a 49-year-old man, he was a good looking man. Dirty blond hair, with a few grey hairs making an appearance, green eyes and a nice bone structure, he for sure looked a little younger, but that's just a fact about him, let's keep going.

-As you may know, we give our agents ranks once the tests are done and they succeed in everything we asked for. They go from: Level 2 agents, being the lowest, where you will need to push yourself harder and harder and training will be more difficult in order to be better. Level 3, being in the middle. Not so bad, but not excellent. You'll still need to work hard. And finally level 4. It is the highest ranking for agents your age. Which means you've succeeded in every test and situation we have given you. You'll be able to remain in that rank, until it changes in the next phase in three years.- Francois said with his hands together in front of him, resting at the table.

Louise and Sophia just nodded their heads in his direction. Giving them just a single slight nod, Francois let Madame Adelaide continue the speech.

-Remember why you are here. No sentimentalism, no weakness, no "I don't want to hurt my friend" stuff.- Sophia almost snorted at that part. Thankfully, we are not friends, she thought while she heard the last words by Madame A.

-Do whatever you need to do. Let the best agent win.- As Madame Adelaide said the last words, the girls just nodded and positioned themselves on each side of the big room.

Louise's strategy was always the same. Make the first move, thinking that would give her advantage. Sometimes it did work to be the first one. Sometimes it didn't. It really depended on anything. Sophia's strategy also worked or not, just like the others. What she did was analyze everything, she would predict the move of the other, even if she started the combat.

This time and three years after their first encounter, Sophia knew that maybe Louise thought what she was gonna do next.

Looking into each other's eyes, Sophia looked at Louise's, that moment she knew she was going to wait for her to make the first move. Or at least so it seemed. She fell into her own trap.

Louise's plan was to make Sophia think she was going to wait and not make the first move like she always did. Thinking this would fool Sophia, she waited patiently in a fighting stance for 10 seconds, counting in her head. Once the 10 seconds were done, Louise smirked a little and made the first move, thinking Sophia had bought the strategy. Yeah. Wrong.

From her far end in the large room, Louise launched at Sophia, running as fast as she could, thinking she gave Sophia no time to react, because she didn't move when she saw her coming. But she did know what she was going to do. Once Louise was close enough, approaching Sophia, with a safe distance to avoid colliding with each other, Sophia moved, sprinting a little and sliding on the floor in her knees, avoiding Louise. With the impulse and now on Louise's back, Sophia stood up and in the couple of seconds it took for Louise to react, Sophia had already thrown her leg to Louise's left side. Turning to her side, Louise quickly composed and kept going.