The Blade in the City

The Elite

Alex woke up at five the next morning, she checked in on Ben who had slept in the bed, she had moved onto the couch again after Ben fell asleep. She then made pancakes for them both while Ben got ready.

"Good morning" he said as he walked into the kitchen.

She smiled at him and ate breakfast, they headed to training with Bradly.

"Morning Bradly" Alex said.

"Morning guys, start with stretches then swords" they stretched every muscle and then sparred for a good hour with swords, Alex and Ben had excelled in sword fighting and now were better than their instructor, giving him a good challenge when they fought. They moved onto the guns and were shooting at the targets. Ben still had trouble hitting dead centre but Alex could shoot one handed and still get it in the dead centre.

"Good job Alex" Bradly was saying as he watched her shoot three consecutive bullets all hitting dead centre. Alex smiled and continued to shoot the target, she had made a small hole in the centre that was slowly getting deeper.

Once finished with the guns they moved on to fitness, more pushups, running, sit-ups, squats anything and everything.

They then moved onto hand to hand combat. They sparred together before moving onto some peculiar training. Bradly had them tied to different chairs and told them to free themselves whilst making it look like they weren't doing anything. Alex tried not to move anything but her hands as she worked herself free.

"Ben I can tell you're undoing those knots, stop moving so much" Alex took advantage of his distraction and finished untying her knots. She flung the rope at Bradly who caught it and looked amazed.

"Well done Alex."

Show off, she heard Ben saying into her head. She smiled and looked at him.

Thanks for distracting him, She replied. He smiled back at her.

No problem.

They then moved onto knife throwing. Alex really enjoyed throwing knives. She liked the feel of the blade in her hand. Today she practiced using her own knife, you never know when she might need to throw it at something. Yet again Alex hit dead centre whenever she threw the knife. This knife was a little heavier than a normal throwing knife but that didn't stop her from hitting dead centre. They then had a short break and moved onto practicing catching knives. It was strange to have knives being thrown at you. Alex caught most of them but she ended up with cuts and scratches all up her arms. They healed within the hour which amazed her. Bradly then had them climb ropes for an hour.

"Alex, go up, don't just sit there" Bradly was calling up to her. She was just hanging from the rope bored with climbing up and down. Bradly made her do it a couple more times while Ben sat on the ground. After the final climb Alex jumped down and rolled like she had been taught.

"Good landing" Bradly said, "that concludes today's lesson, I have been instructed to take you guys to the auditorium" Bradly led them through the corridors until they came out in a wide space with benches sloping around a stage. A line of young men ran from one side of the stage to the other. The countess wearing her green dress was standing in front of them walking back and forth. When she spotted them walking towards her she stopped moving.

"Alex, Ben these are the men you will be choosing from" she said. Alex scanned the men and one boy caught her eye, he was tall with brown eyes and longish dirty blond hair, he looked familiar but she couldn't place where she had seen him from, maybe they had passed each other in the hallways.

There was a boy standing next to him who also caught her eye, she knew she didn't know him though. He had brown eyes and brown hair, he was a tanned boy, maybe a shade darker than she was.