The Hunt

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I walked up the stage steps in my armour and two useless sticks. Zack was already there, with his annoying teeth flashing at the audience. I hated him. As much as one can hate a human being. He just couldn't get enough of mocking me and putting me down.

I moved to the edge of my corner and looked him in the eyes. I wouldn't back down.

"Alright," said the trainer. "Fight!"

I took two sticks from my sheet in each hand. But I didn't make the first move. Zack threw his first stick immediately and swang it at me. It was so quick I could barely move out of the way as it flew to my chest. But it still hit my shoulder, hard. I hissed. It was more painfull than I thought.

I chose one of the sticks in my hands and aimed at his chest. In the last second I decided to throw it at his stomach, and it worked. He was thrown off guard and the stick hit his belly. I smiled. Well, it wasn't hard to fool him.

But he wasn't smiling now. He looked down at me with a hard expression. I grinned at him like he used to. He surely didn't expect me to hit him so early. Maybe at all.

I threw stick again. It ended in his thigh. He didn't even try to get out of the way. Two - one. Pretty good so far.

I saw him get hold of his stick again but I was quicker. I grabbed my stick and threw it aiming at his chest. He caught it. In his clear hand. I started. He put the stick into his other hand and swang it at me. Well, specifically at my head. I managed to get out of the way in time, but this wasn't allowed.

I looked at the trainer who was frowning. "That's forbidden, Layden," he said. "Only from the neck down. One more time and you'll be disqualified."

"Sorry, that was just a slip-up," Zack apologized.

But I didn't think it was a mistake.

I looked at him right as he was swinging his stick. Unprepared, it hit me in the stomach. I coughed; that was pretty harsh.

Now it was equalled. I tightened my hold on te stick again and tried to hit him in the chest but he moved to the side to avoid it.

"Come on, Caia," shouted Nate. "You got this."

Zack grinned and started circling around the stage. To keep him in my line of sight, I was forced to do the same. He was looking at me with animal hunger. Hunger for blood.

He feinted forward with his hand and I flinched, but then he threw the stick for real and I jumped back as it landed near my feet.

I had my hands up with a stick in one of them and waited for my opportunity. He was still circling me. It was like he was provoking me to make my move.

I aimed my stick as I noticed his pattern of steps. He was slightly limping on his right foot. I smirked and bashed it in his shin where it met home. He hissed through his teeth and stopped. He shook out his leg and grinned.

"Clever," he said. "But not fast enough."

He aimed his stick at my stomach and I prepared myself but at the last second he reached up and his stick hit my face. Literally, just in the place where my helmet ended. Which was my nose. I felt it break and start bleeding as my head was thrown back.
I fell down and I instantly felt the pain. I'd been training since I was 12 and I had a few bad accidents through the years but I never broke a bone. It was like nothing I've ever felt. At first, it was numbness, then nothing. And then the most sharpest pain ever, starting from the bridge of my nose down to my cheekbones.

Blood was pooling down my throat so I turned on my side and spit it out. I saw that Zack was being hauled of the stage and Nate was rushing toward me.