Ok guys, before you kill me I want to apologise for not updating. As soon as I dug myself out of my pile of homework for the week, I found two more pieces I needed to do sooo I didn't have time to write. I was really bored and would much rather have been writing this chapter but hey, life goes on. As always thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, you guys are officially the coolest people ever! Lol. This chapter will be quite short because I've had half of it written for a very long time and I think it's best that I start chapter 7 as I got stuck with inspiration for the end of this chapter. I will make chapter 7 a very long chapter to make up for the loss in this one. Enjoy chapter six people!

Combat

Anna walked to school the next day with a spring in her step. Velkan was dying to ask why; but didn't want to be the one to ruin her very good mood. It wasn't every day Anna was so happy; in fact, today she had a really good reason to be sad. She had double needlework in the afternoon. Even when they had arrived at school and were sitting in their group on the courtyard; she still hadn't said one word. The boys were sitting in silence, trying to work out why on earth she was so cheerful. Velkan drummed his fingers on the cool stone floor; something which normally sparked some sort of reaction from Anna; but not today. Sighing defeated, Velkan finally spoke.

"Ok I've had enough. Why are you in such a good mood? It's not normal!" Anna grinned at him.

"I spoke to Papa last night." She said; hoping they would leave her alone. Registering the blank looks on the gangs' faces, she knew that this wouldn't happen.

"And…" Velkan pushed. Anna gave an exasperated sigh.

"And… he gave me permission to do combat with you guys from now on." Velkan nodded, dismissing the announcement for a minute, before finally realising what Anna had said. He turned to look at her.

"Really?" Anna nodded. "Wow! That's great. At last I can try and beat you in front of an audience!" Anna laughed at this. Every time they sparred in public; she had won. It was only in private, that Velkan had beaten her.

"That won't happen Velkan and you know it! We all know that I'm better with a sword than you." She said with a smirk. They always managed to get into this argument; it was probably a brother and sister thing. But whenever it started; it barely stopped all day. They were still talking about it when combat class came around that afternoon…

"Now we can resolve this once and for all" Velkan said, as they walked towards the training area. Ash and the other two boys were already seated in the courtyard, but Velkan had gone to do an errand for a teacher and Anna had agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to come with him. All Anna wanted to do was run into the courtyard and spar with the nearest person. She was so scared that everything was a dream; that her father hadn't agreed to let her come to combat, so she wanted to get started and prove herself wrong. This was real, and she was going to believe it.

There were only a handful of boys sitting in the combat area; the teacher was ready to begin so Anna thought that this was everybody in the class. She sat down on the rickety bench between Velkan and Ash, hoping that this would be a practical lesson. The teacher—Mr. Cardei – started to talk about the technique they would be learning over the next few lessons, one that Anna and Velkan already knew well. He introduced the concept of honourable sparring, bowing before you begin etc. Anna wished that was how it worked when you battled Vampires. The lesson was going quite well and Anna was practically boiling with excitement when the time came to start sparring. Mr Cardei decided he was going to pair everybody off. Ash was put with Velkan, Dominik with Artur and finally, Anna was put with someone called Petre. He stood up scowling, glaring in her direction.

"What're you looking at?" Anna challenged, rising from the bench.

"A weak opponent by the looks of things." Petre retorted, never averting his gaze. Anna laughed airily; shaking her head.

"Then I suggest you buy glasses." She smirked up at him, drawing her sword. She stood in her starting position; almost daring him to bow first. Knowing it was never going to happen; she decided to go first, as Mr Cardei was now watching her. She bent her body at the waist, enjoying the feel of the adrenaline-filled blood flowing to her head as her hair collapsed around her face. The sound of feet falling quickly on the cobbled floor caught her attention; with her limited vision, she saw Petre's pair of black boots running towards her, getting closer and closer. Thinking fast, Anna brought her self upright, bringing her sword into a swift block. Almost instantly the metal of her sword collided with Petre's sending a weak vibration through her arms. She gasped, as Petre started a swift attack swinging his sword violently in all directions. Frantically; Anna blocked all the swings that she could hoping that he would slip up sometime. Already she was out of breath as she realised that all the other boys had stopped to watch her. She knew already that this was more than a classroom lesson, if she carried on like this, she wouldn't survive very long. Anna remembered something Velkan had taught her one rainy day, always keep a cool head. With this thought in mind, Anna calmed down the fight considerably, waiting for Petre to make his mistake. Fortunately for her, this happened sooner than she had expected. Petre took a particularly vicious swing with his right arm, which Anna dodged. As a result, he was thrown off balance and he stumbled slightly, this gave Anna the much needed room to manoeuvre. She swung violently, aiming all the force of her attack at the end of Petre's sword. The sheer strength of the blow threw the sword from Petre's hand. It spiralled along the floor and landed by Anna's feet. Petre was now on the floor breathing heavily. Anna picked up his sword and walked calmly over to the frightened boy; her small frame seemed quite menacing in the situation. She flipped his sword in the air, catching it by the blade; offering the handle to him. He looked questioningly up at her.

"You're giving me my sword back?" he asked, confused by her gesture. She nodded.

"Yes, I don't believe in unfair fighting, I was taught that from a very young age." Anna smiled over at Velkan, remembering the lesson her father had taught her.

"So why can't you just take both swords and fight like that? Then you'd have the advantage." Eight-year-old Anna asked her father.

"That would not be fair Anna, sparring is about honour not winning any way you can." Boris chuckled at the confused look on his daughter's face. "Look Anna, you do not spar with Velkan because you want to kill him do you?" Anna shook her head. "That's the only time you can use any means to win—if your opponent wanted you dead or the other way round. Do you understand now?" Anna nodded slowly.

"So we have to fight fairly otherwise it isn't honourable?" Boris smiled.

"Yes my dear, that's right."

The harsh peal of the bell woke Anna from the distant memory. Petre was now standing up, looking to the floor as Mr Cardei told him off for not obeying the basic rules of the combat class. Everyone had gone into the common room except for Velkan, who Anna saw, was waiting for her. At that moment, the clouds began to cover the sun and a strong sense of danger filled the air. 3 shadows moved across the sky menacingly and Anna watched as Mr Cardei ushered most of the pupils inside; with a scared expression on his face. Velkan stood next to her and they both wheeled around, coming face-to-face with their worst nightmare.

Surprise! Lol. Ok, the cliffie was just a nice end to the chapter, I'm already working on chapter 7 so there shouldn't be too much of a delay in updating. This chapter sucked but I promise I'll make the next one ten times better, I won't have rounding decimals questions stuck in my head when I write it ;) I was going to use the name Marius for the boy Anna was against in the lesson, but it reminded me of Les Miserables so I decided against it. I love to hear your opinions on this it makes it easier to write chapters. So can you please press that little button at the bottom of the screen, go on, you know you want to…