Love is Weak

Chapter 6 - Butterflies

Lillian

While the Paladins spent some time together reminiscing, Kiana and I walked back to the castle.

"What do you want me to do with the unit tonight?" She asked.

"Nothing. They can have the night off. Josh probably took them through training since he's the authority when we're both gone. Anyway. Wanna go again?" I asked as we stepped into the training deck.

"Always, Captain." Kiana grinned.

She sprinted to the other side of the deck, flicked on her mask, and took her blade out of the holster at her hip.

I did the same and charged my second in command. I had fought her a number of times, enough to know that if I moved first, she would be caught slightly off guard and make her first moves a few seconds late.

Our blades clashed, and I grinned under my mask.

Today is not one of her good days. I'll be able to take her down.

I smirked underneath my mask.

As I held our blades in that position, I readied myself to make a move I had been working on. With my blade in my right hand, I began to push Kiana's blade to the right. When it was about six inches away from me, I sidestepped and brought my left leg up to Kiana's back, kicking her forward and pulling my blade away. She fell forward, but jumped up.

Maybe this is a good day for her.

I grunted my frustration.

Kiana turned toward me and caught my blade hand in a grip. With the hilt of her blade, she brought it up under my hand, smacking it into my blade and then again into my closed fist so that I would drop my weapon. It took a third time, when a sharp pain shot through my hand, for me to actually drop my blade. Kiana caught it in mid air, kicked it away from me, and took my right wrist in both her hands, her blade holstered. Now it was hand-to-hand.

Since she had both her hands on my wrist, that gave me two advantages. One, I could grip one of her hands in mine and flip her, and two, I could punch her with my left hand.

Kiana's smart, and she must have noticed this at the same time I did because she started to move into a kick, but she let go of my wrist with one of her hands. As she moved forward, it gave me the momentum I needed to flip her. I leaned back a little, pulling her with me, and then bent to flip her. Kiana landed on her back, unmoving for a second, but I was running to my blade. I picked it up with my right hand and noticed I couldn't close my fist without feeling immense pain. Luckily, I had trained a few times with my left hand, so I switched blade positions.

I turned back to find that Kiana was getting up. She grabbed her blade that had been lying on the floor.

"We've never fought like this," Kiana grunted.

I grinned. "That's what makes it interesting."

I charged her again, this time evading her blade. I twisted her blade arm behind her back and held my weapon to her neck.

Suddenly, I realised we had an audience. The Paladins and Allura were watching our fight from the doorway. Lance and Hunk were spellbound, while Shiro, Keith, Pidge, and Allura stood completely emotionless.

That minor distraction made me forget that I hadn't pinned Kiana's other arm. I felt an elbow in my ribs, and because my right hand was out of commission, I kicked the back of her knee, sending her in a crash to the floor. I took both her arms and pinned them to her back with my knee. With my left hand, I held my blade to her neck.