Betrayal Of A Nation

19

Niki ducked under the wooden swords blade and lunges forward hitting Wilbur in the stomach. The taller man immediately went to grab at his stomach in pain and Niki hit the swords dulled edge against his knee as hard as she could causing him to fall down onto his back. Niki places her foot on his chest and put the blade to his throat. She faked slicing it and then took her foot off of him and helped him up.

"Again?" She asked even though she was covered in sweat and every muscle she had aches from the lessons and the many many spars she had done.

"Niki, it's getting late, let's take a break have lunch and then we'll maybe do one more spar but only after lunch,"

"How will I get better if you won't spare me,"

"I will spar you but not now it's lunch time and I know you only had toast for breakfast because you already vomited it when I hit your stomach too hard, sorry about that again,"

"Fine but we're sparing after,"

"We will spar but not until after lunch," Wilbur said with an air of finality in his voice that only the president and general of L'Manberg could truly have.

Niki sighed as she opened her backpack which held the lunch she made herself earlier in the day. Mushroom stew wasn't terribly filling but it was all she had at the moment besides some stale bread. They were a small nation, they didn't have farms since they were busy fighting and what food they did have was gotten from nearby villages which were technically DreamSMP territory.

They were incredibly lucky that Dream hadn't decided to make it illegal to sell L'Manberg citizens food a small but generous decision as her father, a leader in his own right would've immediately made it illegal to sell them food until they stop trying to rebel.

Scarfing down the food so she'd have more time to train. Wilbur had gone to work in his office. Niki had been lucky to get such lessons since Wilbur did have piles of work to do. She picked up her wooden sword and went through the maneuvers and stances he'd taught her. When Tommy walked through the gates of L'Manberg she didn't immediately notice him. He was actually quite quiet when he wasn't yelling.

When Niki did finally notice him the first thing she noticed was the change of scarves. A red and white scarf sat around his neck bundled up until it almost covered all of the lower half of his face it almost looked like it was peppermint striped.

"I like your new scarf," she said and waited patiently for the answer knowing he would probably open his com but instead he put a hand up to the scarf and looked down looking surprised.

"I didn't realize I wasn't wearing the yellow scarf," his voice was barely above a whisper and raspy from disuse.

"Well I like it anyways, would you like to spar?" She tried to get his mind off the mysterious peppermint scarf.

Instead of verbally answering he nodded before going to grab a wooden sword. Niki counted to three before starting the spar.

She immediately ran forward to catch him off guard. It didn't work and he blocked the hit before twisting his blade and hitting her in the stomach. She made a stab towards his shoulder and he ducked hitting her knees and knocking her down with a swing of his sword. Falling backwards Niki rolled backwards and hopped back onto her feet, she'd seen her father do so multiple times in combat and picked it up eventually to throw Wilbur off. Tommy didn't seem all that surprised but it could just have been the large peppermint scarf covering his surprise.

Niki ran forward again and with a clash of their swords it was over. Niki laid on her back for a few seconds as she tried to process what happened. Tommy had used his free hand to punch her in the stomach and pulled one of his legs behind her knee forcing her to the ground.

"Tubbo taught me how to fight so I learned to play dirty," he said quietly helping her up from the ground.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that to say the least, can you teach me how you did that?" Niki said and Tommy nodded before stepping back and getting back into the position he was in right before he had ended the spar. Niki followed along and placed her sword where it was for her and watched carefully as Tommy showed her what to do.

Tommy slowly released one of his hands from his swords and shifted his weight onto his back leg. He slowly formed a fist while moving one of his legs until his foot was right behind her knee. He lightly punched her and moved his foot forward into the back of her knee hitting lightly against it.

"Fast it looks like this," Tommy whispered and once again got in position. Niki knew he was doing the move at his original speed but now that she knew what he was doing she could see him shift his weight and release one of his hands. She felt herself fall and quickly got back up. "Now you try it, first slow then fast,"

Niki got into position and shifted her weight backwards and released one hand. Punching him lightly and hitting the back of his knee like he did she then nodded to herself and got back in position. She breathed in before attempting to do it faster. Punching him in the stomach and pulling his knee out from under him he fell to the ground.

Tommy nodded before getting back up. Niki jumped up a bit at getting it on her first try.

"Do you want to try that again or try something else?"

"What's something else?"

"Just some dirty tricks I learned when I first started,"

"Dirty tricks please,"

Tommy smiled before getting into a starting spar position. Niki smiled back before running at him. Tommy fell to the ground and swiped her feet out from her causing her to fall onto the ground and he was on her sword to throat soon after.

"I want to learn that, please,"

Tommy laughed slightly in the same raspy tone as his voice. He helped her up before showing her how to get onto the ground quickly and swing her legs so it hurts them more than it hurts you. Niki followed along doing it once slowly before practicing doing it quickly.

Tommy nodded before getting her back into original spar positions so he could show her something else. Niki ran towards him being aware of how he was standing to try and stop him from tripping her. She was about to hit him when he ducked under the sword and elbowed her in the back of the neck making her fall face forwards.

"You're short so you'll have to jump for this one," Tommy commented as he showed her slowly.

"That's a bit rude,"

"It's not rude, it's fact, you're smaller so to successfully do this you'll have to jump," Tommy muttered barley audible with his peppermint scarf.

Tommy nodded when she finally got it. Looking up at him she noticed the familiar smile that used to be common but since Tubbo's betrayal had become as rare as snow in the summer. If she could she'd pause time just to keep the smile on his face.

Eventually Tommy had to leave to do something for Wilbur as his second in command. Niki nodded and gave him a hug before wishing him a good day. She watched him walk to the hot dog van and then got back into position and practiced the motions with the sword. She had to protect their country, their people, their home. She'd respawn over and over again if it meant freedom for L'Manberg.

A/N I know you've been waiting for this and I know it's been a good while but I'm going as fast as I can! I have two other books you can read and one is even a one shot book with requests always open! As always if you see any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes please tell me so I can fix them!