Death Wish

Part 6

Noticeably, all of the fights were more unskilled brawls rather than genuine fist fights. Each adversary only focused on overpowering their opponent and not incapacitating. It was brutish and almost animalistic in nature.

Rency patted me on the back supportively before I stepped up on to the sparring mat. Lily stepped up as well and tightened her blonde ponytail.

"Come on Ferris!" I heard Matius yell in encouragement from the sideline.

"Get her Lily!" Some other voice called out.

"Begin," Eric ordered.

Lily immediately charged straight at me.

I stepped to the side at the last moment, allowing her to fly right by me. She stumbled forward before turning around with a vicious expression. Lily ran back at me, a fist aimed for my face but I deflected it just as Eric had shown us earlier and smashed the broad side of my palm against her face, crushing her nose.

I'd done something similar in the past after a bully named Quntin cornered me and Leroy in Candor. It gave him a bloody nose then, what's to say it wouldn't at least break Lily's?

Lily lurched away, stunned, and I quickly hit her again, going for her cheek but on my third punch she deflected. Lily finally had an opening and hit me square in the stomach, hard.

Correction: We were not equal in strength. She was much stronger than me.

A loud grunt escaped my lips from the impact to my stomach and I tried to deflect an incoming shot to my face but she got me good on my right cheek, forcing me to stumble backwards. She then landed a kick me in the stomach. I had to bite my tongue to not scream.

I groaned and felt the taste of irony blood in my mouth. I was completely hunched over, cradling my stomach that felt like it had been run over. I ended up on one knee and could hear the jeers for Lily to finish me and the other yells for me to get up. I made brief eye contact with Eric who looked at me expectantly.

"What's wrong Candor?" Lily gloated in her high pitch squeal of a voice. "Ready to join the factionless already?"

A nasty sneer spread across her small mouth. "Or maybe you want mommy and daddy?"

My eyes suddenly widened and my fists balled. The pain in my abdomen was suddenly replaced by sheer adrenaline.

Bitch wasn't a strong enough word anymore.

That. Cunt.

Even if she couldn't possibly understand the severity of her words, they cleaved threw my skin like a hot knife on butter. A spark of anger flickered inside me and that soon became a burning fire in a matter of seconds. Red hot rage burned my skin.

I stood up so quickly it made me a little dizzy but I didn't allow that to slow me down. I charged right at her and she hardly had any time to react before I tackled her right off the sparring mat. We tumbled to the ground hard onto the ground that I even knocked some of the wind out of myself from the brute impact. We landed haphazardly off the side of the mat and onto the concrete. I straddled her waist aggressively ans pinned her to the floor before bringing down my fists one after another. I didn't even feel the sharp pain my knuckles as delivered blow after blow.

I couldn't hear voices yelling for me to stop. I couldn't even see Lily's face through the red. I don't know how many punches I landed or have any inclination to stop.

Anger had consumed me.

Someone with strong arms tugged me off of her. I struggled to get out their firm grip, an animalistic sound escaped my mouth in protest. I felt as though I could fight and beat anyone in that moment.

"Initiate! It's over! You won! Stand down!" Eric's loud commanding voice told me and set me down on the floor. I stumbled a few steps after he let me go, the world still half a blur. Adrenline was pumping rampant through my veins, encouraging me to keep moving or to attack something.

I took a deep breath, needing to calm myself down and wiped the blood away from my mouth. There was some blood on my hands that ended up smearing across my jaw.

I took a few steps before steadying myself against a nearby pillar. I watched through wide eyes as Eric attempt to resuscitate a now unconscious Lily. I couldn't tear my eyes away as blood still rushed to my head. Lily'a face was already turning black and blue with a deep cut on her lower lip. Her nose was bleeding and possibly broken.

I had felt something crunch at some point. Whether it was my hand or her face, I wasn't sure.

I retained my composure with several more deep breathes and finally managed to stand up straight. My eyes came into focus and I naturally found myself looking to the small crowd of fellow initiates who surrounded the mat. Different stages of shock and bafflement was etched on to every expression but I didn't meet any of their gazes.

The air was tense and unsure.

"So, Ferris has a temper under all the quiet. Who knew?" Ryan noted, breaking some of the tension and gaining some nervous laughs.

A ghost of a smile skirted across my face but it disappeared just as quickly. Rency appeared by my side and a gentle hand rubbed my shoulder kindly. I silently thanked her for the comfort even though it took whatever self control I still had to not flinch away.

I watched with a blank expression as Four helped a half dead looking Lily to the medical center. A normal person might have felt bad. But I didn't. She had it coming.

Maybe I should have felt bad.

I wiped my mouth again and looked up to see Eric gazing back at me with what I guessed to be mild surprise. It was kind of hard to tell since his face always looked like he wanted to hurt someone. I didn't break the eye contact though, I just stared back until he finally decided to start the next fight.

I watched the following brawl between Rency and Emer, quietly cheering on Rency inside my head. Sadly, it was prudently obvious that Rency wasn't nearly as strong as athletic as Emer.

The crowd of initiates had spread out now. With me again at the edge. The only souls willing to stand near me were Matius, Morsov, and Ryan. Ryan, for whatever reason, tried to comfort me with a friend shoulder hug but I shrugged it off. A dark part of me was still seething.

Emer ended up winning but not without a couple of wounds. She had a purple bruise under her eye and another on her jaw. Rency, on the other hand, had bruises all up the side of her face.

I instinctively helped Rency up off floor and she looked thankful for the support even through all the bruises. I sourly wondered how I looked.

The last fight ended up with Freya winning against Lucille who was a smaller girl whose faction I can't recall.

"Alright, that's it, get out of here. You have the rest of the day to yourself," Eric ordered and we began making our way out. I was thankfully flanked by Rency and Matius as I excited, shielding me from any comments or jeers from fellow initiates or the Dauntless instructors.

"Rankings will be posted tomorrow and don't do anything stupid," Four added looking specifically at Frankfurt who smiled dumbly.