Virulence

Chapter 4 - Lark Sees the Cracks in His Armor

I can't breathe. Why the hell can't I breathe? Wake up you idiot!

    I open my eyes to see Vega sitting on my chest with a vice grip on my throat. My brain was firing all sorts of different scenarios,  none of which were helpful at the moment. I tried to knee him in the back or break his hold on me with my elbows, but nothing was working.

    My lungs are burning and the edges of my vision was starting to go black. I needed to get this guy off me but I had no idea how. Wasn't anyone going to help me? Where are you Zade? Right as I was about to pass out, i heard someone shout Vega's name.

    "That's enough, Vega." Rias appears beside my bed, touching Vega's shoulder. "Don't want to actually kill the boy."

    Vega doesn't respond, but he releases me and moves to stand beside Rias. I sucked air back into my lungs, coughing and wheezing. Once I caught enough of my breath back, I glared daggers into the pair. "What the fuck was that about?"

    "It's to teach you to be alert, even while resting." Rias said matter of factly. "A Shadow never truly lets his guard down, even around allies."

I scrambled to my feet, rage clouding my judgement. "This is fucking bullshit!"

Rias' smile faded away. I knew I was in trouble then. "Remember what I said about that attitude? You are in training, and that includes an element of danger."

I wanted to fight, but the piercing look in Rias' eyes made me bite my tongue. I was agitated that I couldn't muster up enough courage to talk back. It drives me crazy being submissive to authority figures.

Rias told everyone to gather up for breakfast, ignoring me and my angry scowl. My throat was still sore and it was hard to swallow. This was going to make training today that much harder.

Vega cooked a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy. I hadn't seen this much food in my entire life and had to control myself from overeating. After we had cleaned up and were heading to the weight room, Rias said something about important business he had to do and disappeared. I wondered for a moment about where he always went. Did being a leader of a group of assassins just a bunch of paperwork and business meetings?

I didn't send any more time thinking about that. I was still pretty pissed at him for having Vega choke me out. I changed into my workout clothes and goes straight for the dumbells, determined to workout my anger.

Zade was the first one to talk to me, "Hey kid, sorry about the rude awakening. Rias did that with all of us at some point."

I wanted to be mad, but decided it was better to not hold grudges. He wouldn't have undermined the boss just to spare an underling. "Vega is a tough son of a bitch."

Zade laughed, "Yeah, it would take a wench to get his hands off you."

The rest of the time was spent with all of us working out on the equipment. I was still tired from my previous late night training session with Rias, but I didn't want to look weak in front of the others. I pushed as hard as they were pushing, which was about to break my body in half. Zade eventually told me to cool it or they would have to glue me back together. Zade would randomly redress my shoulder wound because it kept bleeding through the bandages.

Next was fighting class, which was held in the Quiet Room. I was the only one there that wasn't formally trained so I was the sole target. They would take turns showing me their own techniques and styles, using me as the demonstration dummy. I tried to pay attention to what they were doing to me but I couldn't keep up. After Vega flipped me over his shoulder and stomped on my head a few times, Zade called it quits for the day.