Elite || Marhinki

•Chapter Fourteen: Future•

*Three weeks later*

The soft sand of the fighting pit cushioned me as I fell, my staff flying out of my hands as I did. Never before had I been so grateful for sand.

"Get up!" I heard Mari bellow from behind me. Shakily, I do as she says, dusting myself off before turning back to face her. She throws me my staff, which I barely manage to catch. The rough wood it's made of slides against my fingers, including the one with a splinter, and makes me grimace. 

When will the darn whistle blow? I feel like I've been doing this for hours.

"Give the poor boy a break, Mars," David yells from outside the pit, his hands wrapped around a water bottle. Joven stands next to him, still panting from the fight he'd had with Mari more than twenty minutes ago. When it came to Bo fights, Joven was helpless.

"Why don't you take his place then, Lasercorn?" Mari grinned at him, twirling her staff around her body so quickly I could barely see its movement. Unlike Joven, Mari was a natural. I had a sneaking suspicion that she'd already had practice outside of the facility.

David returned her grin and grabbed his staff off the ground. "Gladly."

Those words felt like music to my ears. I shot him a grateful smile as I climbed out of the arena and practically collapsed on the bench next to Joven, who gave me a knowing look. I grabbed my water bottle and practically drowned myself with it.

When Lord Raub had some experts come in and teach us the basics of Bo fighting (how to hold the staff and how to strike and defend), no one originally cared. Sure, it was more fun than our usual workouts, and made you feel way cooler when you imagined mowing enemies down with the wooden staffs they gave us, but still; it was just a workout. I had figured that most of us would forget it in a few days and go back to lifting weights and all that jazz.

Then Lord Raub had announced that there was going to be a tournament, and that the winner would get two deserts each night instead of one for a month. Combine that with the fact that almost all of us were at each other's throats, and boom. Suddenly, everyone was practicing every chance they got.

I had to admit, the thought of winning was appealing. Smacking Shayne or one of his goonies with a staff was something that felt like it had come straight out of my dreams. Hopefully, I'd be able to beat the crap out of one of them before I was eventually knocked out, which was inevitable. While I wasn't weak by any means, I was when you compared me to some of the other people here. When it came to fitness, agility was my forte; not strength.

But Mari had a fair shot. She was definitely skilled, and had the passion. Seeing her give Shayne what he had coming for him would be endlessly satisfying. 

David was far from shabby too. He and Mari twirled around the arena, staffs meeting staffs as they both grinned. The two of them were the most violent out of our friend group, after all. It made sense that they would be our best fighters.

Eventually, David ended up hitting the sand. As Mari helped him to his feet, he laughed. David was cool like that. He saw defeats as lessons, not failures. Well, unless he hated you, that was. Then he'd see it as a slight against his honour, or something of that nature. He was weird like that.

"Impressive, Moss!" I turned and saw Ian, who was helping Keith at the weights station. 

"You know it, Hecox," David blew a kiss at him, which made Ian laugh. His relationship with Ian was... strange, in a way. They seemed really close. But David never brought him up in conversations, and would blush when any of us did. It made me wonder what happened in their room once we all said goodnight.