Laylania (Completed)

Chapter 18

After the show, Cleite, Dao, Tanken, and Lina came up to me and hugged me.

"You did great!" Cleite said happily.

"Yeah it was awesome!" Dao cheered.

"Heh thanks guys . . ." I said awkwardly as I scratched my head.

As we were talking, Rida called us all to his tent. Walking with my friends, we left the big red tent to go to Rida's black and white tent. We all crowded inside and found places to sit. I sat with Dao and Cleite on a big chest, Tanken and Lina sat on the ground, Wudao leaned against a closet, Yan stood by the front of the tent, Nathair sat next to Kuma, and Rida and Gadalka sat on the bed.

"As you all know, tomorrow we will investigate the underground lab that some of the locals found. Today I want you all to some training then rest up for tomorrow. Be prepared for anything that may occur," Rida said with a serious expression on his face.

Nervously, I looked at everyone around me. They all wore either anxious or serious expressions. "You are dismissed," Rida said with a wave of his hand.

With the abrupt ending, we all left his tent. Raising my hands above my head in a stretch I asked, "So what do you wanna do to train?"

Thinking, Cleite said, "Well I think that you still need to learn a bit more about fighting hand to hand combat since you tend to rely on your powers".

I sighed.

"Hey this will be good for you! Think of it as exercise!" Dao said cheerfully.

I pouted, "But still it's work!"

"Awww someone's scared of some manual labor?" Lina teased.

Giving up I tossed my hands up in the air, "You too Lina?!"

Cleite just grinned and said, "Well prepare yourself Kasai!"

The next few hours went by with me trying to fight Cleite while Lina, Dao and Tanken watched from the sidelines. I tried to kick Cleite in the stomach but she dodged me and hit me in the side with a quick punch. Before I could do anything, Cleite kicked me in the back and I fell onto the ground. 

"You gotta be faster Kasai!" Dao called out to me.

"Grrrrr . . ." was my only response as I continued to 'spar' with Cleite.

When lunch finally came around I was exhausted. I gingerly sat down at the table with my food and sighed. 

Cleite sat down next to me and said happily, "Well that wasn't so bad now was it Kasai?"

I huffed, "Easy for you to say, you weren't getting your butt kicked!"

"That's why you need to practice more!" Dao said as he laughed.

"I'm glad to see you enjoyed watching me getting my butt kicked . . ." I said with an eye twitch.

"Yes it was very entertaining," he replied with a wink.

I sighed and started to eat my lunch. Around us, you could hear people laughing and eating. Looking at us you wouldn't think that we were nervous as heck but somehow we managed.

After lunch, instead of me training, I got to watch Dao and Tanken fight each other. Dao went forward quickly and tried to punch Tanken in the face but Tanken twisted Dao's arm and forced him to fall face first into the ground. Dao quickly swiped his foot around which caused Tanken to fall and Dao then pinned Tanken to the ground.

Tanken nodded and said, "Good good but not good enough!" Tanken then pushed his feet onto Dao's stomach and kicked him off. As Dao was sprawled on the ground, Tanken got up and dusted himself off.