LINKED | Brothers Online Series | BK #1

Chapter 14: Sparring

December 25, 2022 - Misty Forest

Thomas (Thom) Min'

Alright, so to be honest, I'm slightly impressed at Zara's skill. Slightly impressed. It's not at that full impressed yet. It's more like a partial impressiveness that hasn't fully developed. You know, semi-impressed.

Cup half full.

In all seriousness though, Zara stood up well. She did good. Amazing actually. It's really not her fault that Javri was such an idiot. It's not her fault that she was forced to defend herself. He called her a whore for Christ's sake!
He's lucky she didn't dismember his... well... member.

Okay. That may be too much. But seriously, he got off easy.
And that swiftness. I thought she would be too distracted to pull that off, but apparently not. Clean cut, nice slice. Shhiinggg!

Headshot, no scope.

Now hold up. I know what you're thinking you conniving sons of multiple guns.
"You like her! I knew it!"
Wrong! I do not like her in any way. I don't like the fact that she kinda is nice for a stuck up limelight celebrity. I don't like the fact that she's really weird and confusing, giving me strange looks throughout the early hours. Each time I said something, she looked all down about it. I mean, I was just telling the truth at times. It's not like I was lying or purposely leading her on. No, it's the complete opposite. I don't have any interest in her and couldn't be bothered. She'll slow me down and that's a fact. Look, if I didn't tell her about the left foot leading and left hand Linear, she would have an even harder time fighting the guy. Granted the dude has a light rapier in opposition to her giant sword, but he still was pretty fast.
Although I'm surprised, her Slash was fast enough to twist and turn. Not bad.

Still semi-impressed.

So after the little duel, I led the group into the Misty Forest. We trudged along in the morning dew, pant legs getting slightly damp from the moisture. The birds tweeted some unknown melody as they tried to brighten up our day. Zara had taken to skipping along next to me. Her bounces flopped her hair up and down, up and down. Willing myself not to stare at the golden curls and not to notice, I forged ahead resolutely.

"So we off to find that elf?" Cobalt asked, breaking the silence, "Or are we gonna try to find some tracks or something?"

I shook my head. "No. Skill assessment. I want to see how you all fight."

"Okay. Sounds good."

"Didn't you already see us fight?" Zara asked in that bubbly tone.

I still didn't know how I felt about that. Was it nice that she was energetic, or was it just downright annoying at times?

I'll stick with the latter to be safe.

"You chopped off a dude's arm. Good, but still not good enough."

"Oh... okay." Zara's bouncing slowed down a bit. "That's fine then. I'll show you what else I can do."

"Good." My tone came out harsher than I wanted, but that didn't really matter. The message came across. She needed more than just a single stroke of aided luck. No, she needed to show me how she really fought. I needed to know how she coped with pressure, something that me and Karim both know how to deal with in a fight. We do it differently of course, but we know how to deal with it either way.