With a clash of their forearms, the final fight began. Everyone watching zeroed in, including the young Squire that still remained behind the armor stands, her crystal blue eyes sparkling in awe as she watched her own friend, Amybeth, stand face-to-face against her idol, Emora Ryon, elite Warden and war hero of the Azure Legion. This was overwhelming on a whole other level, and at this point, she could barely contain herself. She was about to cry out in support of Amybeth, but she managed to catch herself as she watched the fight begin to unfold.
Amybeth had her teeth gritted together as she pressed her forearm against Emora's, already feeling it ache from that alone. Her brows furrowed as she began to push harder, glaring at her blonde opponent with burning eyes of determination. Emora, meanwhile, had an enthusiastic grin on her face, her own arm trembling ever so slightly from the pressure her redheaded opponent was pushing forward with. Emora's left fist began to reel back to plunge itself into Amy's liver, but the young trainee acted quickly, managing to fire out her right fist out before Emora could deploy her own punch.
The Warden moved her own arm up, cancelling her punch in order to get into a guard, but—
"Oh—"
She let out a small cry as she watched Amy's fist rise up, darting past her face and missing purposefully, her blonde bangs waving about in the wind cause by the feinted attack. With slightly widened eyes, Emora reeled her left arm back a bit, tucking it at the elbow to block a roundhouse kick that came after Amy's faked right hook. As Emora blocked this blow, her eyes shot to Amy, making eye contact. In that brief moment that they stared at each other; the Warden smiled.
"Oh, she's good." Emora's thoughts rang out.
The Knight now lifted her left arm up, the same one she had used to block the roundhouse kick. Her hand twisted about and grasped onto Amy's shin, lifting her leg up further. To this, the Squire began to lose her balance a bit, panicking, since her kicking leg was going up further than she intended it to go. Not being flexible enough to keep herself calm, Amybeth pranced about on her one remaining foot briefly—before she saw her vision black out for a moment.
The next thing she knew, she was on the ground laying on her back. Emora had merely grasped onto Amy's leg, pulled and lifted it, before sending a sturdy right cross out into Amy's face while simultaneously launching her backward by essentially shoving her into the ground by the underside of her thigh. She watched with a small grin as Amybeth's body slammed into the dirt, dust flying everywhere and leaving behind a path as the redheaded trainee's body slowly slid to a stop.
"AMY—" The young Squire cried out, out of pure instinct. She suddenly realized what she had just done, her blue eyes widening as she slapped her hands over her mouth, her heart seemingly stopping. With that yell, everyone in the court turned their heads over in the general direction from where the yell had come from, unsure of where the exact source was. The Squire just curled up on the ground, on her side, her eyes frantically darting through the cracks of the armor and weapon racks she was lying behind.
The other Alphas had also looked over, the instructors and teachers all looking about themselves. Though- someone brought up the possibility that it could've just been one of Amybeth's friends, a fellow trainee. The teachers and instructors began to ask around at the injured trainees to see if it was any of them, the noise level in the arena rising a bit as people began to speak amongst themselves. Meanwhile, the Squire was still frozen up, mentally destroying herself for being so stupid as to call out Amy's name like that. With her eyes squeezed shut, she remained motionless, practically waiting to be found out at this point.
But in the arena, Amybeth was recovering, still able to continue fighting. She slowly sat up, panting lightly, dirt covering her entire backside. Her white and purple robes and surcoat were dirtied up now, but in her pain and stunned state, she hadn't heard what had happened to capture everyone's attention. She looked up and around briefly, before her eyes shot to Emora, who was also looking quite distracted. Her green eyes glared, seeing that the Warden wasn't facing her, and was instead looking over to… a weapon and armor rack? What for? Amybeth slowly stood up, eyeing the rack, wondering why Emora was staring at it the way she was—
Wait. She's distracted! Emora did say that she wanted the trainees to do anything possible to try and beat her, right? To not hold back, and take every opportunity possible! So that's exactly what Amybeth planned to do. As she rose to her full height, her eyes narrowed steadily, her fists curling, before she ran forward.
"You're off-guard, Lady Ryon!" She suddenly thundered, sliding forward with her left fist prepared to start a chain of attacks by deploying a jab. This yell regained the attention of everyone around the sparring arena, their heads shooting back to look at Emora and Amybeth together. The Squire's cover was barely saved. As she heard Amy yell, she let out a small gasp, her eyes darting up to look back at the arena, her heart still beating.
"T-They didn't find me! Holy crap!" She thought to herself, internally screaming.
Emora's head shot over to face Amy again as she yelled. But she didn't look panicked at all. It's almost as if… her guard never truly fell. With a swift motion and tilt of her body, she shot her right leg out in a side kick to stop Amybeth right in her tracks.
"WAH—" Amy cried out, sliding to a stop and cancelling her left jab in exchange for a guard, her arm rising up to block the incoming kick. Her entire upper body leaned away from the kick, her arm feeling a sharp pain as Emora's boot smashed into her elbow. She gasped, surprised that she herself was able to block this kick, despite not expecting it at all. But she couldn't slow down, she had the momentum! She watched as Emora eagerly pulled her leg back and planted it on the ground further in front of her.
Amy's eyes widened briefly. She knew what a cheat step was. Emora was attacking! Her green eyes shot up to Emora as an overhead right came right towards her face. Amy grunted as she used her same left arm to block this overhead, her forearm wedging itself perpendicularly beneath Emora's, allowing her to lift it up over herself, leaving Emora's left flank CLEAN open for her own right hand. So, she shot her right hand up in a punch to hit the Warden's spleen.
Emora's eyes widened as her overhead was cleanly blocked and parried, the left side of her body ringing out with an intense pain that made her release a loud cry of pain, her pupils dilating in her golden eyes as she staggered back, struggling to move her core, her breathing knocked completely off course as she retreated from the fight. Everyone watching, including the young Squire, let out a gasp as Emora's pain was made audible in her cry.
Amybeth didn't let up, despite having hurt someone she dearly looked up to. Emora was still standing. She was a hardened Hero, a single blow to a critical spot wasn't going to be enough, and Amybeth knew that. So, she took the chance to take a cheat step of her own with her left foot, before pivoting rapidly on it, her right leg firing out in a roundhouse aimed at Emora's face.
The Warden let out another pained grunt as she raised her left forearm up to block this blow, her eyes narrowing with concentration as she focused back in on the fight. The pain from that blow to the spleen had really woken her up. It was as if that one hit was enough to jolt Emora's body up into its true combative state, adrenaline rushing through her body, her muscles tensing and gaining more strength, her movements felt faster, sharper, more accurate, sturdier. The blonde, after shoving Amybeth's kick away, shot her right fist out in a cross which she stepped into, intending to drive her fist right into the trainee's face.
However, Amy backstepped, reacting to this punch and knocking Emora's fist upwards with her forearm. But she felt that something was different. Emora was holding back less. She wasn't pulling her punches as much! That cross- it hurt her guard, her forearm was stinging now, aching! With fear striking her heart, Amybeth felt herself panic as Emora launched her left elbow out to strike her right in the eye. Amy moved quickly, gritting her teeth as she moved her right hand up in front of her face, stopping the elbow in its tracks, her arms nearly collapsing from the recoil.
"ANGH—WOAH!" Amybeth cried out, thinking that Emora's onslaught was over. She watched as Emora made up for her missed elbow with yet another terrifying right cross, which Amy ducked underneath, her left arm above herself to keep Emora's arm up, preventing her from doing any sort of downwards elbow, sledgehammer, or hammer-fist punch. With her safety reassured, Amy knew she had to counter before Emora's other fist came flying at her. So, she fired a right cross of her own that was aimed at the chest, before watching as her fist connected with Emora's left breast on accident.
"AUH—" Emora cried out, now just rushing backwards, stumbling over her feet and tripping as she collapsed onto her side, her right hand grasping across her chest to cup her breast, wincing in pain. Everyone watching let out a loud gasp as the Warden fell into the dirt, their eyes glaring up to Amybeth, who just stood there in shock with her right fist out.
"Hey, that's not cool! You hit her in the boob!" One trainee yelled.
"Amy, what the hell?!" Another shouted.
"What's your problem, you can't just pull something that dirty!" A third argued, anger in their voice.
"You should get disqualified from the program for that!" Suggested a fourth, pumping a fist into the air.
Amybeth's fist slowly uncurled, her arms just falling limp to her sides as she felt herself choke up. She didn't mean to hit her in that spot- she just went for it, aiming for the general chest area! The redhead was about to start crying, her eyes welling up with tears of embarrassment, shame, regret, and most of all? Anxiety of being removed from the program and losing her chance to become a Hero. She had just punched Emora Ryon in her breast and won the fight in such a scummy, terrible way. Her fellow trainees were all yelling at her, her teachers and instructors staring in disapproval, the Alphas all—
Smiling?
Amybeth's watery vision couldn't believe what she was seeing. The Alphas all looked… proud, amused! Well- except Airi, who was at Emora's side to help her feel better. The yelling continued, Amy's attention turning away from the Alphas to look at everyone else, before she slowly began to take steps back out of shame. She let out a sob, about to turn and just run out of the barracks to never leave her home again, before a voice suddenly yelled out with:
"STOP! EVERYBODY STOP, CALM DOWN!"
It was Emora. The Warden was helped to her feet by Airi, who held onto her hand tightly, looking at Amybeth with a very smug smirk. One that was a combination of: "nice hit, Amy" and "don't ever punch my wife in the tit ever again," which was a difficult expression to pull off. But Airi made it look easy. Regardless, Amy got both messages, her teary eyes widening a bit as she changed her gaze to look at Emora, who had her hands out to everybody else, all of the trainees, the teachers, instructors, in order to keep them still. The yell itself was enough to quiet everyone down.
Emora slowly turned her head back to face Amybeth, a smile slowly developing onto her face as she gazed at her. She put out a hand, her head tilted a bit. "Well? How do you feel? You won! You beat me!" She laughed cheerfully, with the Alphas audible in the background with their own chuckles. Everyone else though just… seemed so confused. This included the young Squire behind the armor stands, who thought for sure that Amybeth was gonna get kicked off the program for hurting an Alpha like that. When the blow had landed, the diamond-eyed girl couldn't bear to look on, feeling far too much second-hand embarrassment in order to carry on watching. But she had heard Emora's yell to quiet everyone, and that caught her attention again, her head looking up to watch the scene, her lips ajar as she did so.
Amybeth just stood there in shock, staring at Emora in disbelief. Her teeth gritted together as she stared, her eyes still watery as they began to widen more and more. Did she just hear Emora correctly? She won? She beat her?!
The Squire just stared, her jaw hanging open, her body shaking, tingling as she looked on. The same went for the other trainees, all of them just at a complete loss of what Emora was saying.
The blonde Warden repeated herself, taking a few steps forward and placing her hands on her hips. "Congratulations, trainee! With your victory in this here exhibition, in front of all of your fellow peers, teachers, instructors, and the Alphas themselves, including myself, you've shown that you're a step above the rest. And that means something, and should be rewarded."
Amybeth's heart stopped. The trainees all let out a gasp. The teachers and instructors looked quite calm, smug smirks on their faces. As if they already knew this was part of the new process set in at the Hero Barracks by the Alphas. Meanwhile, the Alphas themselves were looking quite thrilled amongst themselves.
The Squire couldn't believe what she was hearing. With her heartbeat audible in her own ears, she listened on.
"May I know your name, trainee?" Emora asked, tilting her head to the side.
Amybeth's mouth opened, but nothing came out for a second. She let out a whimper, clearing her throat and swallowing as she fixed her posture and stood stiffly in front of Emora, looking up to her with eyes still filled with shock.
"A-Amybeth Lorina, Lady Ryon!" She cried out.
Emora grinned. "Well, Amybeth. As part of a new system of breaking all of the trainees in on their first day, getting the experience to fight an Alpha, and allowing the staff here to see what the future Heroes are made of, you've come out on top as the sole winner. We… originally planned to award this to more than a single trainee—but look at you! You managed to beat me all on your own, fair and square. And that in and of itself further proves that you're worthy."
Amybeth just stared. She was shaking as she stood, her quivering lips slowly opening to speak. "I-If I may ask—what am I worthy of, exactly?"
Emora put her arms out, the Alphas behind her all waving to Amybeth.
"Worthy, of the special privilege of getting to train with all of us, personally, of course!" Emora shouted gleefully, with the teachers and instructors all beginning to cheer and clap for Amy in celebration. The trainees, while some were envious, showed sportsmanship to their lucky peer regardless, joining in with the cheering and applause. The Squire herself let out a squeal of glee as she heard this announcement, unable to contain herself anymore behind the weapon racks and armor stands. But—she heard something behind her, which… would soon mark the end of her little spy mission.
But standing in the middle of the arena, Amybeth was on the brink of bursting out into tears of joy. She couldn't believe it! With her voice full of joy and exhilaration, she squeezed her fists and let out a cry.
"T-Thank you, Lady Ryon!"
I figured that updating this story little by little with smaller chapters was better than just not updating it at all. So here we are, I'm back! Hopefully somewhat consistently, now. If not, then... I'm sorry. Again.
