Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 14 - Coming Out Swinging

Once my week had started back up again, my training was rearranged so that I was doing most of it before Christian left the dorm room in the morning or in the afternoon while he was in class. My running was still with Dimitri, mornings before Christian was up, and Dimitri was always in the stands for it. Weight training after my morning running was cut into upper body day and lower body day, sparring and martial arts were each reduced to every other day after my morning lifting, and technique and weapons were alternating each afternoon while Christian was in class. Weight training, sparring, and martial arts were still always with Yuri. Evening running had been cut. Dimitri was intentionally picking weapons that would put me at arms' length.

My first couple of days of being back at field experience, the guardians on campus were all hitting me pretty hard. I noticed that they all seemed to be doubling up on the few of us novices who had been at the caves every time they attacked us, so I guess that I had to consider that a compliment.

Yuri telling me that I was going to be attacked by Dimitri on Wednesday was really against the rules, but it would give me a nice advantage, since I knew to keep an eye out for him. The fact that my additional training would take me away from Christian for portions of each day helped me to narrow it down and be more prepared for the times that I knew I'd be guarding him. Yuri had said it would be a group, so I knew that Dimitri wouldn't be alone, either. I was really taking Yuri's advice to heart and had been planning what to do and how to do it - to take out the others first and go in for Dimitri afterwards, forcing him to fight me. I would be relentless and fight as hard as I could, as if my life - no, make that Lissa's life - depended on it.

By the time lunch came, I was practically bouncing on my toes, waiting for Dimitri's attack. Lunches during the field experience were always a bit strange because the novices still needed to eat, so we get to sit with our charges, but our charges were still supposed to be guarded during that time, which meant that the time we had to eat was greatly reduced and that we couldn't stray too far from our charges and had to eat whatever food they were eating instead of moving to other food stations.

The weather was warm, for a change, so Christian had picked out a spot outdoors to eat his food. Lucky for me, Christian also had a fondness for pepperoni pizza, so I got to eat a slice of it before getting back into my standing position to guard him. Lissa and Adrian had both scurried off to the feeders, but Christian was still picking at his food and talking to Jill Mastrano about the training session that would be starting later that week.

Jill always seemed to find it difficult to stop talking and she was chatting about how excited she was when I saw it out of the corner of my eye - someone wearing all black. I immediately slid my practice stake out of my holster and turned towards the attacker. Guardian Chase. I would take him out fast and find the others. He was about ten feet away on my left, the stake in my right hand.

I quickly turned as I saw him approaching to find the other threats around me. No sign of Dimitri, yet, but I saw Jean hiding in one of the bushes, trying to wait for her opportunity to ambush me. Three against one weren't phenomenal odds, but I had done it before. I swung around, stake extended, and Guardian Chase blocked me with arm. I had pushed my stake in hard enough to stake a real Strigoi, so when I missed, I swiped my practice stake across Guardian Chase's forearm. Since the practice stakes were blunt-ended, it didn't draw blood, but it was sure to leave a pretty good bruise for him later. I kicked my legs out at Guardian Chase's calf and saw him fall to the ground, instantly pouncing into a kneeling position to stake his chest.

One down, two to go.

Jean bounded out of the bush she was hiding behind. It looked like they were going to take turns this time, which was all the better. Jean was one of the few guardians who wasn't much taller than me, so all of my training to fight against taller opponents wouldn't really help me here. She got in a punch to the mid-section of my back, which I'm sure would bruise later, but for now, the adrenaline was taking over. I didn't have time to swing around and face her properly before she would be on Christian, so I caught her with an elbow to the chest, then kicked my feet behind me, trying to take her out at the knees. She didn't go down like Guardian Chase did, but I could tell I knocked the wind out of her with that elbow. While she was momentarily stunned, I spun to face her and positioned myself between her and the Moroi. I aimed a left hook at her face, followed by a right with my stake hand. She blocked the left, but the right connected with her cheek. She went to punch me back, but I was still faster than she was, so I ducked her punch and aimed a sucker punch to the stomach with my left hand. She doubled over for just a second, which was long enough to reach out and stake her with my right hand.