Ten Parts (Marco Bodt X Reader)

Part 4

        Marco got in his fighting stance, ready to attack me. I did the same, but I left it loose. I didn't want to go hard on him because I honestly didn't want to hurt him. He was too pure to be hurt any more than he had already been, and even then he shouldn't have been hurt at all beforehand.

"Are you ready, Marco? If so you can come at me any time." Marco seemed to slightly freeze up but ended up nodding.

"Y-yeah... I am..." He lowered his stance a bit before charging at me as fast as he could. I swiftly dodged to the right, but as slow as I could so that if he wanted he could redirect his attack to me and hit me. However, he didn't. He stumbled forward slightly, barely able to catch himself in time. His reaction time was very slow if not even at all existent.

Marco's shaggy dark brown hair blew lightly in the wind as he turned back around to face me. He charged again, swiping as soon as he could at my stomach. I took quick steps back, but not quick enough if had continued with full force to attack me. He swiped multiple times, not even thinking about thrusting just into me. I could see the focus in his blue eyes as he continued to swipe at me as he ran forward. I effectively grabbed hold of his wrist after a couple of more swipe, stopping him from hitting me. He was already starting to sweat and was huffing out lightly.

Marco's hand felt slightly clammy and instantly tensed when I had grabbed it. I slipped my fingers away from his warm hand and grabbed at the wooden dagger. If it had been a real blade my hand would have been effectively swiped, but even then I would have continued.

Getting a firm hold on the wooden contraption I pulled on it, slipping it out of Marco's grip as I pointed it back at him and lightly tapped him on the chest with the tip of the non-lethal weapon. "A-ah..." Marco let out a small sound of exclamation, realizing he had just failed. For some reason, I felt like he had already known that he was going to fail and had just not really tried.

He was looking down at the dagger that was grazing him lightly but looked up when I started to speak, "Oi, Marco. Were you coming at me with the intent to kill?"

"H-huh? Wh-why would I come at you with the intent to kill?" His blue eyes showed alarm and I realized that he indeed wasn't performing to his best.

A light sigh escaped my lips as placed the dagger back into his hand which had stayed mostly in the same position, swinging halfway at me. "Marco... It doesn't mean you're actually going to kill me. But... When in training to make sure you're seeing your full potential you have to use all you've got. People normally act their best when in danger, so if you can stimulate your brain to think that you're in danger while training you'll get the best result. Try it again. Pretend that I'm the armored titan, that I just killed your parents..." I was careful to call out the word 'parents', I had no idea if it was a sensitive subject or not for him and like stated before I didn't want to scare him away.

"A-ah... I guess that makes sense." I nodded and smiled gently at Marco, urging him to know what I'm saying.

"Mhm... Go ahead and start whenever." Almost instantly Marco swung the wooden blade at me. It was a fast, precise attack, too which I barely had any time to evade. I chose the best instinctive alternative. It was what I trained to do, but it was beyond the scope of probably what Marco expected and was prepared for.

My body rammed into his, my arms wrapping around his skinny torso once I had pushed myself off of the ground with all of my force. I could feel air take over me before I felt my arms hit the ground harshly. Quickly I swiped my arms out from under Marco's back as I took the second of his surprise to my advantage.