Hidden Before Their Eyes

Chapter 10: Level S

Once my bone has melded itself back together I am released from my bindings to the bed I am strapped to. They had moved me to a cushioned bed after I passed out from the pain of the serum but kept me bound the entire time.

Testing out my legs I find they they are asleep, I cannot feel them at all. I do feel the cold of the floor though. I take a tentative step and then once I am sure I can walk without rolling an ankle I storm out of the room. I want Erphi. Ronan said he was taking care of him but all I wanted was for Erphi to be with me. But no mister I am a fancy doctor refused me to the point of knocking me out with some drugs. Okay maybe I was being a little out of hand but he did not need to drug me.

I am lead out of the hospital wing and taken back to the green space. Once there my guide leaves me to myself. I storm down to my room and nearly lunge for Erphi. I ever so gently lift him up and he lazily curls around my arm. I feel an unnatural warm ness from him and look to see that most all his scales are red, orange, and yellow. He flicks his tongue a few times and I take it as him scolding me.

My snake just scolded me. What has my sanity been doing lately? Clearly it is not around to be helpful. Then again I just laid in bed, bound down, for three days with nothing but my thoughts.

I sleep straight through the morning lecture and cannot bring myself to regret it, even slightly. I am silent at the meal as others converse. It is noticeable that many others are still locked up in the hospital from the amount of open space at all if the tables. I lazily head to training, prepared to argue with Yara that I really do not feel like fighting right now.

When I get there she comes up to me quite quickly. "You did well in the Code Yellow, Carino. I'm proud. However bad news is your battle is rescheduled for tonight," Yara says.

I groan and mumble, "I swear they are trying to kill me."

"Rest, you will need your strength to fight just after recovering," she says, shooing me to the sidelines.

When the time for my battle comes round I am buzzing in anticipation. I either am headed to Level S or I am staying here, but free from battling every single day either way. I look nervously down at my sword. I had been hoping I would get by with a non-armed battle but my opponent did not agree with this idea apparently. I wish I had the ability to refuse but such is life.

When I approach the girl I am someone excited to see that she is dual wielding. This will be unlike anything I have ever done before so I can take this as a learning opportunity.

As soon as the fight starts she lunges. I block both swords and she manages to push me back an inch just from the force of her blow. She leans back slightly and then resumes her assault. I fend her off but am unable to find an opening to counterattack. I get a nasty gash on my forearm and have to grit my teeth to hold in a less than intimidating shriek from making its way out.

Once I get my chance I swing at her and manage to land a solid blow. The slash goes from her shoulder over her chest and down to her stomach. It gushes blood and after she desperately tries to stay standing, collapses from the blood loss.

I am proclaimed victor and the crowd roars, acknowledging that I will be headed to the next level now that I have secured another consecutive victory.

At the evening meal I am congratulated by more people than I even know, but pretend to know them all anyways. When Maris comes up and pulls me into a crushing hug, swinging me around in joy. Hak rolls his eyes at us so I stick my tongue out at him. We talk for a long time, until my eyelids begin to droop, informing me that I am quite exhausted.

As we walk out of the meal hall Maris suddenly asks, "Why did you ask to fight him if you knew you couldn't take him?"

"I in some ways needed that. Then again I submitted before I was rendered unable to fight so I did not exactly make the progress I had hoped to," I murmur, staring off at the small grouping of trees.