Pirate Assassin

Page 50

He was woken up when Elyss jumping on him, early in, of what he expected to be, the morning. Knowing her ways, however, he had already trained himself to be a light sleeper worthy of the Wolves thanks to his psychic bond with Elyss, though how she even entered his room was a mystery to him. He calmly rolled off his bed as her kness crashed onto the mattress. "Aww, you're no fun," she said as she pouted. Zack yawned and stretched as he walked to the washroom. "It isn't for you," he said, "but it is to me."

"So what's first in my agenda?" he asked her as they walked down the white and brightly lit corridor. Elyss seemed to know everyone, giving many a hooded Spectre a dazzling smile and a wave. "Initiates usually see Dewdrop." Zack raised an eyebrow. "Is that his real name or..."

"He doesn't have a name. So he gave himself the name. Very fitting, you'll see why in a minute," and the two of them turned to a doorway to a large open space with circular patterns on the floor. They grew smaller as it went inwards, ending with a big dot in the middle. Zack examined a middle-aged man standing in the middle surrounded by hooded cadets on the floor. Zack guessed he was Dewdrop. "Elyss Masters!" he bellowed, "Where in the skies of the five planets have you been??" Zack stereotypically thought sword masters were calm and collected. Nothing like the man he saw shouting like a fishmonger. He was of average height and build with not a sign of fat anywhere. His entire body looked muscled like steel cords winding around his body. He was clean shaven except for a hint of stubble on his chin. One thing caught his eye and it raised the respect of this man back up in Zack's eyes; in his right hand, he was holding a katana. "In advanced practice," Elyss thought quietly to him, "where he uses everything he has, he's arrayed in Jap stuff. He dual wields a wakizashi and has two tanto strapped on his back." Dewdrop was walking towards them. "Who's this?" he asked her, pointing at Zack. "He's my brother.." she began but was cut short. "I could tell by the hair," he said impatiently, "but what is he doing here?"

"Can't you tell, Dewdrop? He's here to train." Dewdrop renewed his interest in Zack and examined him with a critical eye. He crossed the 'field' and beckoned hin over. "Let's see what you got." Zack nodded and stood with his legs apart in a ready stance. He let his blood blade form and it exited out from the space on his hand directly below his little finger, owing to his reverse grip fighting style. Dewdrop didn't bat an eyelid. They stood facing each other silently. Dewdrop moved and in a split second, was right in front of him, his katana slicing up. Zack barely blocked the blow but Dewdrop followed with a diagonal cut downwards. Zack quickly retreated, remembering Sgt Troffs' words: ".... reverse grip is used for slicing, slitting. It can't guard, it mostly deflects...." Dewdrop slashed at Zack's throat and he barely evaded it, throwing himself to cartwheel backwards. Dewdrop ran closely after him and kicked his leg, causing him to fall, and stabbed downwards. Zack pushed himself to the left and arced his bloodblade at Dewdrop's lower leg. He launched himself at Dewdrop as he hopped to dodge that blow. Dewdrop rolled and kicked him up and away and Zack landed heavily on the hard floor. Dewdrop's side cut missed him as he stumbled away. Zack looked at him with dismay; he was.good! Then again, he WAS an instructer after all. Dewdrop snorted. "Is this the best that comes in here, Masters??" He turned to Zack, "Look kid, you onviously don't know what you signed up for. Pack your bags because you may be good, but its nowhere near the level that we're trained." Zack felt a familiar anger overtake him and he fumed underneath his expressionless demeanour. I have had enough of hearing that I'm not good enough, Zack thought, come on, think of something! Anything! Zack stood there as still as stone for a while but then, he slowly smiled. Dewdrop sensed a change. A very dangerous change. In all his experiences, he had never sensed this magnitude of cold and ruthless focus.

Zack's blades retracted in with a quick 'shik!" and he took off his armoured boots. Everyone around the field perked their ears, and eyes, up in interest. He breathed deeply - just once - and ran towards Dewdrop. He was surprised but ran to meet Zack with his genuine blade. His katana flashed as he swung it in a side cut but it was blocked... by Zack's right hand bloodblade. There was a difference, however. Zack's clemched fist connected with his shoulder and it sent Dewdrop spinning. He swung around with a blade had now erupting from his top left wrist and it's keen edge shaved a bit of Dewdrop's hair off. His left hand drew back and he shot his right out in a punch. Dewdrop could see the small spikes protruding from his knuckles and he managed to catch the blow on the flat side of his katana but it still made him backstep. Dewdrop tried to counterattack but he didn't have a chance to as Zack swung his left leg in a lightning fast kick. Dewdrop planned to let it hit and using his fall, he would slash at Zack's ribs. It was a well thought plan.....until he saw a familiar triangular blade, just like the one from his wrist, shoot out of the sole of his left foot! Dewdrop spun his katana to parry it but Zack retracted it back and pivoted on that foot which just landed and now used his right leg, spikes as long as his fingers coming out of the front part his lower leg which crashed into his katana. All the people on the field were stunned as their unbeatable instructer fell down on the ground. Zack jumped on top of him with his wrist blade about to pierce his neck when Elyss shouted, "ZACK!" A harsh ring echoed through the field followed by a heavy silence. Dewdrop was eyeing Zack's wrist blade warily, even though he could see the broken edge lying nearby. Zack was panting but he stood up without a word, put his boots back on and left.

He was sitting on his bed with his knees drawn to his face when Elyss strode in and reeled on him, "What the hell were you thinking??? If I hadn't stopped you, you would have killed him!" Zack said nothing. He just sat staring beyond a point on the wall. She cursed. "Zack! Explain yourself!" He slowly turned and faced her. For a moment, she was about to recoil; never had she felt such a scathing gaze. He laughed, but it sounded like an animal in pain. "Explain myself? REALLY?" He made that horrible sound again.

"You think you know me, Elyss? Do you? What makes you think that?"

"We share this bond; what do you think?" He chuckled. Elyss shivered.

"You think you're the only one able to hide things, Elyss? Do you know how I felt when he said those words to me, then? Do you?" Without waiting for a response, he went on, "No, you don't. You don't know what I've gone through. You don't know that those are words I've heard for my entire LIFE!" Elyss almost collapsed at the sheer amount of fury that burst from him. "All my life I've been hearing that, and now when I thought I had escaped from it, here it is again! Do you have any idea how I felt? I felt like a piece of shit! I felt like I was some kind of freakin' accident! Everyday I would wake up and see a failure in the mirror! You may have problems, but you always had someone there to help; I had NO ONE!" Now it was Elyss' turn to get mad.

"You think I enjoy seeing my friends suffer then? Do you think that I want them to follow me and be punished when they're innocent? You think its all so great to have friends to share the pain?" She let her words sink in and she moved closer to say softly but clearly to him, "Then let me break it to you: it's ten times worse than anything you've gone through. Maybe, you should stop pitying yourself all the time and get up to do some damn thing about it!!" She stormed out of the room with tears in her eyes but it was only in the shadowy alcove of her room did she break down in tears.