Smoke and Mirrors {Completed}

Chapter Seventeen: Poisoned Dagger

Sapphire Nightborne 

I sighed as I looked at my reflection in the small dirty mirror that was provided to me. My once full cheeks were now hollowed, and my jawline was more prominent than ever. My eyes that were once so bright now looked so dull and the shadows below them were the darkest they had ever been.

The small room I was given to prepare myself for the fight was almost withheld from me even though it was a basic right given to both fighters, however, Chloe Black adamantly pushed for it to be given to me, much to my surprise.

I let out a contented hum as I ran my fingers across the leathery material that now adorned my torso, a simple jacket of leather with black cotton beneath as well as sturdy pants and boots were good enough for me. This was standard sparring gear and it felt like a second skin on me, comfortable, after all, this was almost all I wore throughout my entire life.

The siren went off, jolting me from my peaceful musing, it was now or never.

I winced as I was greeted by the arena's bright lights, the boos from the spectators filled my ears but I ignored them and walked up to my position, as I stood there I felt droplets of liquid splatter against my face. Did someone actually throw their drink at me? Its sharp smell burnt the insides of my nose, alcohol, they really thought that now was the best time to get drunk.

After the help of some deep breathing I decided to take a closer look at the arena. It was pretty standard, a five metre deep circular pit with a barbed wire dome to keep anything from getting in or out, almost all packs had one to remind of the days where we suffered under the humans and were used like common dogs to fight against our own brethren in places like this. Most arenas were kept as reminders, but this one did not seem like a friendly heritage site, its walls were stained with dark brown splotches telling me that this arena was pulled out of its retirement a long time ago.

The second siren wailed, signalling my opponent's entrance. I could not believe that I was actually going to fight in a Bloodbath, a practice so crude and brutal that it was stopped a hundred years ago but in cases like this one, it was my pleasure to engage in such a disgusting practice.

My opponent entered, and my jaw hit the ground, she was dressed as if she was going to spend the day at a party. Yes, she wore a leather jacket like mine, but I was sure that her exposed midriff and legs weren't going to give her much protection and to add to the impracticality of it all, she was wearing heeled leather boots, of all things. She stopped in front of me with a smile on her face as her entrance gained her a loud round of applause and cheers, the cheers seemed to never end till Damien shouted for his pack to be silent. She was hungrily soaking up the praise she was getting.

"Black Blood, today we are here to witness the Bloodbath between Sapphire Ragna Nightborne."

Cue the jeers.

"And Karmen Grey."

Ah, so that was her name.

"Remember, this is a strictly hand to hand fight, no weapons allowed. May the strongest win."

With that he gestured for the gong to be rung and the fight to begin.

Barely two seconds after the gong rang, Karmen charged at me like a raging bull, with a yell to match. It was so utterly predictable that I just scoffed and stepped to the side causing her to run into the wall behind, the resultant crack heard caused the corners of my lips to curl upwards. This was met with some snickers that were quickly shushed by Damien.

Did she not undergo basic training all? We were told from the first lesson to never just charge into a fight, observe your opponent first, learn how they move so as to deduce how they are going to move. Not learning from her mistakes, Karmen came charging at me again with a fist raised, I calmly raised my leg to my torso area before kicking out with as much force as I could muster, sending her barrelling a few feet back. How could one agree to a Bloodbath with no formal training?