Eagle-Eyes

Still a Whelp

The next few weeks passed a little more pleasantly... Katie was no longer afraid to mouth off at Vilkas when he made her angry, and as a result their training sessions began to involve much more witty banter and she started to see a little less of his angry scowl... but he was still hardest on her in training, and sometimes he could be a downright ass.

Then, one afternoon, as Katie was recollecting her arrows from target practice, Vilkas finished his personal training and put his sword away. She looked over at him curiously... this was normally when he'd call her and Ria for training... so why was he putting down his sword?
"Alright, whelps," Vilkas looked up at them with a grin, "it's unarmed combat today..."
"Oh, great..." Katie grumbled under her breath. The smirk that Vilkas gave her in response to that told her this would not be an easy afternoon.

When he trained with Ria it was basically a fist fight... they exchanged several punches and Vilkas gave her advice on how to make sure she punched correctly and didn't break her hand if she missed and hit his armor. He made her practice that until she was clearly worn out...
Then it was Katie's turn...
"Alright, Eagle-eyes," Vilkas smirked, "let's see what you've got..."
Katie sighed and made her way to the yard to face him as Ria slumped into a chair on the porch. Vilkas hardly looked like he'd broken a sweat, a fact he looked way too smug about. Katie got into a fighting stance, trying not to feel nervous... this would be her first fist fight since sparing with her brother in selfdefense class, and Vilkas was a little bigger than David...
Vilkas raised an eyebrow at her, "what? No witty remarks or challenges today?" He asked.
"Don't think your ego needs anymore inflating at the moment," Katie replied flatly.
Vilkas chuckled. A cocky grin spread slowly across his face as he looked over her fighting stance, and then, unlike his fight with Ria, he threw the first punch. Katie narrowly dodged and countered with a quick jab that landed across his cheekbone, right under his eye. Vilkas blinked in surprise, but then his grin came back and he lunged at her again. Katie blocked with her arm and therefore avoided a hit to the face, but the force of his punch still knocked her back... not to mention hurt. Katie tried to dart around him and get an opening, but he was as quick as she was. She punched, he blocked... he punched, she dodged, and so the match went. Katie was only really able to land quick jabs, which were good, but didn't have the force of a good punch.
Then Katie threw yet another punch toward Vilkas's face, but instead of blocking like he had been, he caught her wrist and pulled her forward. Trying to block his next punch and catch her balance, Katie grabbed his other arm, and soon instead of a fist fight, they were in a grapple.
Katie hoped she still had the muscle memory for this... several of the techniques from selfdefense class were geared toward escaping situations like a grapple... or worse...
They struggled against each other for several moments, and Katie could feel that Vilkas definitely had the upper hand. She was no match whatsoever for his strength. Katie shoved against him as hard as she could, and then as soon as he pushed back she suddenly switched to pull him forward. Vilkas pitched off balance and Katie stepped quickly to one side, got her leg behind his, stuck out her hip and flipped him over onto his back on the ground. It worked almost perfectly... almost...
Instead of hitting the ground in shock and awe as Katie had hoped, Vilkas hadn't let go, and took her down with him. She did manage to drop with her knee into his stomach, which caused Vilkas to grunt loudly in discomfort, but not to let go.
Katie fumbled to regain control of the situation, but Vilkas managed it quicker. The next thing Katie knew, the arm she'd been supporting herself with was pulled out from under her, and Vilkas flipped her onto her back, pinning her beneath him.
The air was knocked out of her and for a few moments all she could do was stare up at Vilkas's smug grin while she tried to catch her breath. He was breathing heavily too, looming over her, looking way too pleased with himself.
Katie relaxed her muscles just long enough to make him start to think she was yielding... the women's selfdefense class had definitely made sure they knew several ways to get out of this position... Vilkas let out a smug chuckle just before Katie bucked up with her hips, forcing him to pitch forward with a startled and pained groan as she caught hold of one of his arms for leverage, rolled to her side, and kicked out from under him. She threw one final punch to his face, catching him on the same cheekbone, before jumping to her feet and getting back to a fighting stance, several yards away from him. Vilkas just groaned as he slowly rolled over and didn't get up.
Ria, Torvar, and Athis were just staring in shock from the porch, but Aela and Skjor burst out laughing.
For several moments Vilkas didn't even move... then,
"By Ysmir..." he swore, slowly sitting up with a grimace on his face.
Katie's adrenaline rush slowly died down as she realized he wasn't going to continue the fight.
"That was impressive," he admitted, wheezing slightly. He started to get up but just paused in a crouched position, wincing in pain and panting for breath.
Seeing Vilkas failing to get up made Skjor and Aela laugh harder, and soon Torvar and Athis joined in.
Katie suddenly realized, partly amused, partly mortified, why he was in so much pain...
"I... I'm sorry..." she said quickly... "I thought... I mean... shouldn't armor protect you from that?"
"Oh it does," Skjor laughed, "when everything's in place!"
"Shut up!" Vilkas growled, still on the ground, glaring at the older warrior.
"It doesn't protect so well when things get hard!" Skjor continued, laughing so hard he was holding his sides, ignoring Vilkas's angry glares completely.
Katie suddenly caught on in mild shock... but then, it probably did make sense...
"Sorry," she said again, trying not to giggle, "I guess I should have figured you'd be the type to get off on defeating someone..."
Vilkas wouldn't look at her. "Shut up. You're still a whelp," he growled as he finally managed to get to his feet and he stalked inside without another word.
Once he was gone the whole yard burst into laughter again. Katie just smirked as she realized she had some of his warpaint smudged on her knuckles... that felt like a badge of honor...