Seven Sins- Divergent/Eric fanfic Book1-2 (complete)

3~ Fighting Stance

After we had finished eating one of the Dauntless leaders gave a speech, his name was Max and the words he spoke seemed to instil a sense of hope in me. I could do this. I could.

And then we went for our first session of training the next morning.

I had never ached in so many different places in all of my life. The stretches alone had me gasping. Four had no trouble with any of it when he was demonstrating, he did everything with such ease that I was certain he'd been doing it for at least half of his life. It was Adam- who had taken it upon himself to learn everything he could about Four- who told me that Four and Eric had only trained last year.

I looked at both trainers as I sparred with Adam, thinking how they were only one year older than me, it seemed almost laughable, impossible even, there was no way that brick-shit-house-Eric was only 17, and a leader? Absolutely no way. I didn't have much longer to ponder this thought though as Adam had me flat on my back "stop ogling my man, pay attention"

"Who? Eric?"

"Eric? Ew, no, Four" he helped me up off the floor with one hand and started speaking again as we got back into stance "why were you ogling Eric?"

I snorted and circled him, arms raised "I wasn't ogling him, I was just thinking about how he's only seventeen, a vascular wall of steel, and a leader" Adam nodded as he went for my shoulder, which I just barely dodged "it's impossible to imagine he was in our place just last year"

"I bet he's some adrenaline junkie who runs off of the fear of others" I laughed too loud as I went for his side, apparently the instructors could hear me.

Eric approached with his large arms crossed over his chest, observing Adam and I "having fun?"

What was the correct answer? "No, sir" Adam answered sheepishly. He got out of stance and looked straight at Eric, fear evident on his features. I saw my chance here, and went for Adams shoulder. I caught it and knocked him sideways a few inches.

"Good" Eric said placidly before walking away.

"What did you do that for?"

"You let your guard down" I smirked and went for him again but he was ready for me.

*

After sparring we had guns and knife throwing, I was hopeless with the gun, Four oversaw this part of our training, and I think he got sick of shouting at Adam and I. We tried to help each other as much as possible, but it's difficult with Four breathing down your neck every few seconds. The Erudite couple, Darlene and Thackeray were not doing so well, at least one of them wasn't, Darlene hadn't excelled during sparring or shooting, her shots were so bad that she hit my target at one point, and I was two spaces away, she had also shot one of the punching bags.

It seemed logical that only Thackeray would make it to the next stage of training, and at first I felt pity for them, but then I thought better her than me. By the end of shooting I had at least managed to hit my target once, which is more than I can say for Darlene.

Knife throwing was next and it was probably my favourite part of training so far, I just imagined Eric's face and I hit the target nearly every time. I was only imagining him because he had shouted at me several times since the day before, he had criticised me for talking to Adam, trying to help him, my poor shooting skills even though he hadn't been there. He had even criticised my long hair, telling me that my opponent could easily grab it, which was just about the only thing I half agreed with.

The only problem with knife throwing was that I couldn't hit the centre of the target, I'd always end up just an inch away. I also couldn't throw with my left hand to save my life, those knives always ended up on the floor, I hit the edge of the target once but that was pure luck "argh I can't get the centre!"

"At least you can hit the target" Adam whispered down to me, he was taller by about a head "look at Darlene" I looked at Darlene's target which didn't even have one knife in it, hers were all on the floor and she herself was starting to go very red. I watched a little longer and noticed that every time she missed, a vein would pop in Eric's neck, Four too looked like he was about to hurl himself off of the compound.

I looked at the other targets and noticed that Z and Thackeray had done the best, Alyssa was struggling, Tarrant wasn't much better, Edgar was almost as bad as Darlene except he had managed to hit the target at least twice, and Adam was doing just as well as I was, only he had hit the centre.

I couldn't figure why I kept missing it, I called for Four to come and help me, he was the most approachable out of the two instructors, he was still intimidating of course, but not nearly as much as his huge counterpart "Four, can I have some help?"

"Yeah, just a sec" he went to Darlene instead who looked just about ready to jam her knife through her skull.

So Eric came over instead.

"What?"

"Erm... well I, I can't hit the centre. I keep missing it"

Eric took a step back "throw again" the pressure was on now, it would have been nice to throw, hit centre, and turn to him and say 'oh, looks like I didn't need help after all' and continue throwing, but as with all things in life, it didn't end up going my way. I missed again.

"Your posture is wrong" he said, though I was sure I was in the stance they wanted us in "put your arm up to throw" I did as I was told and lifted my arm, he was quick to grab my elbow and correct me "this, here" he said "and this" he poked my thigh and then pointed to where my leg needed to be instead "there" he crossed his arms and stepped back again "go"

I stayed in the position he had put me in and threw the knife, it was just off centre, and although it was an improvement, I was still disappointed "no, look" I hadn't expected Eric to try again with me, he placed a knife in my hand and grabbed my wrist, which almost made me jump, his large hand wrapped around my wrist entirely and it was only then that I realised how thin I was. His other hand put my elbow back where he had put it before, and then, we threw together.

His suggested movement was definitely superior, and worked better for me than Fours did, I had hit the centre. I didn't want to keep him around for any longer, his presence next to me had started to make me feel uncomfortable, once he had backed off to watch me throw again I felt more comfortable, but I also needed help with my other problem "and my left hand, I can't throw well with that one either, if at all"

It was important that we learn to throw with both hands, as our stronger hand could be injured in combat. Eric switched to my other side and lifted my elbow with one finger, he inspected my skinny arm and sighed "it's not strong enough" was all he said before he walked off.

"Helpful" I muttered once he was far enough away.

I threw again a few more times and was pleased with my dead centre result, Four hadn't noticed that Eric had come over and came to me asking what I needed, I had to explain that it was fine and that I had gotten the hang of it, but while he was there I asked for tips on how to strengthen my left arm, he was much more informative than Eric had been on the subject.