Bloody Love (An Attack on Titan Fan Fiction)

Chapter 9 ~ The Spar

Year 844

Adelae's P.O.V

I close my dorm door behind me after I get back from breakfast. My roommate is still downstairs in the mess hall so that gives me some time to myself. I just moved into this dorm with one of my fellow graduates, Jade, a few weeks ago. We both finally got out of the female dorm many of us share, and, God am I relieved!
I grab my straps and tighten them around my body, then take my jacket out and throw it over my shoulders. I choose to leave for weekly training early to get more exercise before everyone. I quickly use my fingers to comb my long hair into a high ponytail as I walk through the hallway.
I guess I'm paying more attention to the ground instead of what's in front of me, because it isn't long before I run into something solid. I look up at the tall, blonde man in front of me. Fuck, it's Erwin!
The man is probably well over six feet, and just intimidates the hell out of me when he yells. And I'm not easily intimidated. Hopefully this won't end badly for me.
I quickly salute him and continue to stare at the floor. "Excuse me, sir! I should've been paying attention to where I was going!"
I hear him lightly chuckle and glance up to see him smirking. A look of pure astonishment crosses my face, maybe he didn't notice. "Don't worry about it," he says. "Heading out a bit early, might I add?"
"I was just planning to leave for training before the big rush of soldiers," I answer.
Erwin just nods. "Do you mind if I tag along?" he asks after a few seconds.
"Oh, sure, of course you can,"
We walk in silence until we reach the stables. My black horse I decided to name Ebony is still just as I left her the night before, but resting her head on the stall gate. She must be sleeping, I've noticed that's a habit of hers, a strange one but don't we all have those strange habits?
I pat her nose and she perks up right away. I put the saddle on her back and set up the rest of the riding gear. She jumps a little as I try to climb on her back so I whistle slightly to calm her down.
Ebony starts her trot as soon as I click my tongue twice. Erwin follows close behind me through the cobblestone city streets on our way to the training field. You get used to the people staring and mostly grumbling as you make your way through towns, but I've never gotten over all the children staring, wanting to be like us. It makes me want to go up to them and scream in their faces. I have seen the horrors outside the walls, the children tell people they know it's dangerous... but they really have no idea.
Erwin and I reach the field in silence. I love coming early because there's no commotion and everything is peaceful for once.
"So..." Erwin begins, "what should we start with?"
I think carefully, "we could spar?"
He nods and we back up to take proper hand-to-hand fighting positions. I take a deep breath and focus harder. This guy's huge, but compared to me everyone is. And that's exactly what my fighting technique is specialized for: using your opponent's body mass against them.
I wait for Erwin the make the first move, when he comes running at me I duck under his punch that probably would've hit me in the jaw. I pull his leg out from under him and he stumbles, but trying to regain his balance gives me just enough time to kick him in the back of the knee. Erwin falls to his knees, I put him in a harmless chokehold. "Ready to give up, Soldier Boy?" I whisper in his ear.
"This is one thing you haven't yet learned about me," he says, "I don't give up easily!"
And before I know it, I'm flipped onto the ground and I give out a little shriek of surprise. I roll out of the way before he can hit me and spring to my feet. "You're making this too easy!" I tease, my face still expressionless.
He circles around me but I'm too quick; I grab his arm and roll him over my shoulder to the ground. He grunts, I take my hands off his arm and put them on my hips. I slouch and breathe out loudly through my mouth.
It's amazing I was able to take this guy down. I mean seriously, he's gigantic! But I did it, so I'm not going to dwell on the thought any longer. I hear Erwin cough and I look over to him, "you sure you're okay?" I ask.
"Oh yeah, I'll be fine. I've taken worse," he answers.
"Have you noticed no one's showed up yet?" I ask.
"Now that you mention it, it does cross my mind,"
"I'll go check wether they're coming or not,"
I walk over to a large pine tree and climb onto the lowest branch.
"What're you doing?" Erwin asks loudly.
"I'm just climbing up to see if there's anyone nearby," I call back.
"Don't fall!"
"Don't worry, I won't!" I say as I continue to climb the tree.
I climb fairly quickly through the tree and peer out through the branches. There are people in a large group riding horses towards Erwin and I. Looking closer I see they all have the Survey Corps emblem on their backs, so I climb back down. Once I reach about three quarters of the way down, I let go and just drop to the ground.
When everyone arrives Erwin explains we'll all be sparring. I walk around once everyone starts, searching for a partner; as far a I can see there's only one person here without a partner as well: Levi.
Ugh, he annoys me. He was some criminal from the underground, apparently blackmailed into joining us. He strong, smart, battle ready, and just the perfect soldier altogether. And maybe just a bit handsome, no matter how short he is. He's probably about five more inches taller than me.
I walk up to him, "do you need an opponent?" I ask, my voice normally flat.
"Yeah. You?" he says with his also flat, and expressionless voice.
"This doesn't consider us friends,"
"Oh I'd enjoy beating the utter shit out of you, brat," he says like the asshole he is.
We take proper stance and I wait for him to move, as usual. Levi doesn't move. He seems to somewhat understand my tactic already. Shit. Looks like this is about to get interesting...
I take a quick jab to his side with my fist, but I'm focussing too much on how disorganized I am at trying to come up with a new plan that it's hardly effective. Levi then takes that as his signal to start attacking as well; he throws punches at me but I continue to dodge them. Then there's that one lucky hit, the hit I was unable to get away from, that smacks me square in the nose.
I put my finger up to my, now throbbing, nose and pull it away a few moments later. Blood covers my index finger and is running down my hand. I can only stare at it for a few seconds before Levi punches me in the gut and I lurch over in pain.
Now I'm angry. He was hitting way too hard for a spar, I guess I better retaliate. I get up off the ground and resume my position.
When he throws his next punch, I'm ready. I dodge to the side and grab his arm. I use that as a distraction to punch him in the side of the head a few times. But since he has a free hand I get a hard punch to the eye. I gasp and let him go, since he's taking too long to figure out his next move, I quickly recover, summersault around him and land on my back.
I landed behind him so I kick out my legs to make them collide with the back of his knees; he falls and I get back up. I grab his black, undercut hair and pull his head back.
"You're good..." I pant, "but you're slow. And you should practice on getting your opponent lower, it's easier to get better hits that way."
"I guess I'll take that into consideration," he says sarcastically.
I groan in frustration and let him up. I begin to walk away when he says, "maybe next time I'll take it even easier on you!"
Pure rage engulfs me at that exact moment. No sound enters my ears and no other thought goes through my head. I turn around and punch him straight in the face. I do so again and again until I feel a few pairs of strong hands pulling me off of Levi.
I let out a screech of anger and kick my legs into the air in my struggle to get away, but the people who lifted me are to tall and quick so I hit nothing but air. They finally put my feet on the ground whenever stopped kicking. I stare across the field at Levi with true hatred. His face is bloody and already bruised, as I would expect.
But the funny thing is, he stares back at me, with the exact same expression.