Survivors

Chapter 13: Xain

Chapter 13: Xain

            She smiled before charging. The question as to why circulates my mind as her blade meets Vice’s with a heavy clang. Vice turns around and attempts another attack, this one stronger than the previous. Vice, either stunned or amused, swings back around and looks at Izzy. She strafes around Izzy, twirling her sword, for at least 10 seconds before launching forward with a downward slice—maybe intended for Izzy’s head.

            Izzy ducks and spins out of the way, swinging her blade and cutting Vice’s arm. It’s a teaser cut—nothing really fatal past bandaging—but Vice swings and thrusts her sword at Izzy angrily. This happens for the next minute, until Izzy dodges out of range of the attacks and runs towards clear ground. Vice, with a furious look in her eyes, runs after her.

            I begin to wonder why Izzy is running. She never runs this much—this early—in a match, especially a one-on-one fight. Izzy wouldn’t run away, she would stick it out. She would strafe, she would dodge, she would stay in the fight as much as possible. She’s even been known to fight off multiple opponents with nothing more than a hunting knife. She would never run. Why now? Unless...

            “What’s the longest Vice has ever trained?” I ask. I look around for anyone who might know. There’s just silence coming from everyone in the room. I look at Katya, who has pretty much been my semi-expert on Vice. Surely she would know something.

            “She usually is allowed two hours to train,” Katya finally utters out, “but she only uses about an hour of it altogether with weapons and dummies. Her training stops with either lack of dummies, when time is out, or if she goes berserk.”

            “No sparring partner?” I poke around. Kat’s face is filled with confusion. I look around and see everyones eyes shifting confusedly between me and Katya.

            “Everyone’s afraid of her,” Katya answers after about five seconds.

            “And her matches usually last for how long?” I press on.

            “Five, maybe ten minutes,” Kat almost seems angry. “What are you getting at, Xain?”

            I look back at the screen, where Izzy is still for the most part running and dodging Vice’s attacks. She occasionally bounces off of the walls, somersaults, or takes a swipe at her with a knife or dagger. I turn to everyone else, who is staring at me.

            “Vice has never fought against an actual trained warrior,” I say. “Her style is savage, her experience is limited only to dummies and other limited fighters, she’s never moved around in a match for more than ten minutes at a time, everyone is deeply terrified of her—everyone but Izzy. She must have realized all of this before the match.”

            “Which is why she smiled before she came off of the platform,” I look down at Jada, who is half smiling nervously—I forgot she was right there between me and Abi. I place an arm around her and smile.

            “Perhaps,” I say, staring into Jada’s big, light-brown eyes. “She knows that compared to other fighters in their class, she’s more advanced.”

            Abi stares at the screen for a while, and then her eyes widen. “She’s tiring out Vice.”

            We all stare at the screen, where Izzy is still dodging Vice’s moves and swings. Vice’s attacks are getting less focused and precise as time goes on. Her movements also begin to become slower and you can see that she’s breathing harder and is no longer standing with the same straightness as she was at the beginning. She looks more and more disoriented, and her attacks show the loss of stamina. Izzy, however, is still fighting strong with her attacks—tiny cuts on parts of Vice’s body.