The Dragonkin Twins

Ch 4: explanations

Lloyd POV

The whip lashed fiercely next to me as I dodged it.  Ash pulls it back towards her and she bolts towards me.  I dodge her punch and I take her arm in my left hand, the back of her collar in my right, and I flip her onto her back.

She lands with a grunt and I put my sword to her throat. She sighs and puts her hands up in surrender. I draw back my sword. She sits up and I offer her a hand, only for her to grab it and twist my arm. As she twists my arm, she sweeps her leg under mine and I fall to the ground. She attempts to seize my weapon but I kick her in the stomach and I backwards summersault into a standing position. She wants to play dirty? Well, two can play at that game.

She sends her whip towards me again but this time I dodge and grab it in a tight hold. I jerk her forward and she flips over onto the other side of me, landing hard on the sand. She quickly gets up only to realize she let go of her whip and it is now in my possession. I wave it in front of her tauntingly. She's out. "Looks like you're out, Ash." I smugly say to her, handing back her whip.

"Yeah," she says. "For now." She winks at me and retreats to the rocks where Splenda stands, watching our fights commence. I follow not too far behind Ash and I reach the rocks to find Splenda watching me approach.

"Well done Lloyd." She praises.

"Thank you Splenda." I take my seat next to Ash and watch my sister fight against Haru. Katelyn is quickly pulling out her arrows and sending them towards Haru, who is dodging them. Katelyn occasionally pulls out her knife that is strapped to the side of her pants and goes in close range for him. He swings his kwando at her and she back hand springs out of the way. She begins using her arrows again and Haru stays at a far distance from her.

"Why doesn't he just go for her bow? Or pop up behind her to steal her arrows or something?" Ash asks as she watches Haru dodge another arrow.

"He's trying to have her run out of arrows so he can get in close range. It's actually a pretty smart battle strategy." I say back to her.

"It is. It's a good tactic to have your enemy run out of supplies so you have the upper hand." Splenda says, still standing tall with her hands behind her back. Katelyn reaches over her shoulder to find that she's run out of arrows. Seeing her quiver empty, Haru lunges for her and sweeps under her leg. She drops to the sand with a grunt. Haru bends over in a crouched position so he's right over her, giving her a teasing look. Katelyn takes out her knife and attempts to redeem herself but Haru kicks it out of her hand and stabs his kwando in the sand next to her head. She kicks him off of her and she takes his kwando in her hands, pointing it at the defeated redhead.

"Hold on, you don't have your weapon! So that means I won!" Haru says to her.

"Are you sure about that?" She says in return as she pulls out her folded up bow that she hid when she hit the ground.

He laughs as she comes over to lend him a hand. He grabs her hand and she pulls him up. "Well played Katie, well played." He helps to gather up her arrows and they join us at the rocks.

Splenda congratulates Katie and I on our victories. After an few more hours of combat training we move on to our next training session, stealth and tracking. She takes us deep into the forest where we are put into two teams.  One team will hide somewhere in the forest and try as hard as they can to sneak around the other team while the other team searches for them and attempts to track them down.  If someone from the other team finds you, you must fight each other.  The goal is to make it back to where you began without being followed or found. Some would say it's a game, and in a way I guess it could be, but it isn't in this case.