(A/N: Hope you guys are ready for an awesome fight! Because I like this chapter. You know what I want after you are done reading *cough*reviews*cough* so I'm not even going to ask ;) Also if anyone has an idea for this story or another one, please let me know!)
Zoe and J walked back into the training room after lunch. She was showing J the tattoo on her left wrist. It was a thin vine that wrapped all the way around and had a small leaf on the back of her hand. The tattoo was a light muted green and the veins of the leaf were shimmering silver.
All of the initiates gathered around the mats and listened as Eric explained what was going on. "You will be having fights starting now. One on one; the winner is decided when one is unconscious or unable to continue."
"Or one of you concedes" Four cut in.
"According to the old rules. New rules, no one concedes," Eric said with a look that practically dared Four to disagree, he didn't.
"The amount of fights you win and lose affects your ranking, so fight hard. First and second jumper, you're up first," Eric stated.
J walked up confidently and sized up her opponent. He was taller than her, and even though they had only been there for a day, he had a lot of muscle. Her opponent was Edward. Oh. Joy. J looked calm, but Four looked at Eric as if he was insane. The skinny Candor transfer didn't stand a chance against the taller heavier bay.
They stood on the mat and looked at each other. "Go," Eric said impatiently. Instantly, J sprung forward, aiming a fist at his face.
Not quite expecting that quick of an attack, Edward didn't even get a chance to dodge. Her fist landed square on his nose with a crack. He stumbled back, blood dripping from his nose, but he quickly launched himself at the girl. He aimed a kick at her side; she ducked under it trying to get behind him. He grabbed her by the pony tail, yanking her into the air.
A strangled noise, like a cat, escaped her lips. He held her with his left hand and started to mercilessly punch her side. He definitely broke a few ribs. J didn't cry out. She grabbed his arm and lifted herself up.
J wrapped her legs around his arm and spun herself; there was a sickening popping noise and a shout of pain. He dropped her to the ground where she landed with a thud, right on the side he had just attacked.
She sprung to her feet and looked at Edward. His left arm hung limply at his side and blood stained the skin from his nose down to his chin. J looked a bit better; she had blood dripping down into her eyes from the split in her skin by her hair line.
Neither looked ready to stop, they were out for more blood. They both lunged forward again; J punched him in the gut, then spun and aimed a kick at his head. He caught her leg and pulled it forward causing her to lose balance.
She was still trying to regain her footing when a heavy blow landed on the side of her head. She fell to the ground again and everyone thought she was out. Eric was about to announce the winner when she swept her legs in a wide arch. Edward, who also thought she was knocked out, felt his feet be ripped from under him.
He fell to the ground, landing on his injured arm, and a pained look clouded his eyes. J sprung up and hauled Edward to his feet by his shirt. She landed a blow on his side and he lashed out, kicking her thigh painfully hard. Her leg buckled and she fell to the ground again.
Edward started kicking her, the side, the stomach, the face. She coughed up blood, but was still conscious. He paused for a second and she sprung up and tackled him back to the ground.
She pinned him to the mat with her knees on his shoulders. With a hard punch to the face he was out like a light. J was oblivious to everything including her unconscious opponent and her shouting instructors, There was too much adrenaline pumping through her to think straight.
She continued to hit him until a strong pair of arms lifted her up, off the unconscious initiate, by her arms. She struggled and fought to get at her opponent, but couldn't. She only stilled when Eric, who was lifting her up, accidentally hit her side. He carried her off the mat and set her roughly on her feet, "Go cool off."
Four and Will carried the unconscious initiate to the infirmary as J calmly strode to the back of the room. She sat against one of the large support columns and whipped her forehead smearing the blood there. From where she sat she could clearly see the sparring mat, but who fought the next match didn't register.
After Zoe's match, which she one without a scratch, she came over and sat next to her friend. Silently she took the wet towel she had in her hand and started to clean the blood from her friends face. Then she took J's hands and started to clean her split knuckles. J just watched her friend, until she was done.
Zoe looked over and saw that the fights were all over by now so she stood and said, "Come on lets go get some dinner, I'm starving!"
J smiled up at her friend, "I'm not hungry, go ahead. I'll see you at the dorms."
Zoe hesitated, but eventually left. J leaned her head back and closed her eyes, her entire body was sore. The initiates had left and Four walked out saying something to Four. After he left, Eric started to write on a small chalk board. When it seemed like he was satisfied with what he had written, he started to write on a larger chalkboard.
Then he went to the side of the room and grabbed his jacket that had been hanging on a nail in the wall. He was putting it on when he caught a glimpse of J still sitting in the back of the room. He walked over to see what she was still doing here and when he got close enough he saw that she was asleep.
Sighing, he kneeled down at her side and shook her shoulder. She didn't wake up so he shook it harder and said in a stern tone, "initiate."
Still no response, 'Jeeze this girl sleeps like a rock' he thought to himself.
"J!" He shouted in her ear.
Her eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly. Pain flickered across her vision, but quickly vanished, but it didn't go unnoticed by Eric.
"What," she asked, slightly annoyed by the rude awakening.
"Time to go, come on," he said standing up.
"I'll leave later; I wanted to get some more practice in after everyone left."
"Yeah I could tell by you sleeping back here," he said sarcastically, "you can practice tomorrow, right now I need to lock up, so let's go."
"Can't you just do that later, I really need to practice more," she whined.
Eric rolled his eyes, "You don't need to train more, your ranking is fine, just get out of here and get some food."
J looked at him, not quite believing what he said. "Here," he said holding out his hand to help her up, "I'll show you the rankings if it will get you to leave, just keep it to yourself."
She looked at his hand skeptically, but eventually took it and let him pull her to her feet. He led her over to the board he had been writing on earlier and she walked slowly behind him, trying her best to not limp. The spot on her thigh where Edward had kicked her still hurt really bad and probably had a nasty bruise. He stopped and faced the board saying, "See, nothing to worry about."
Her name was in the first slot.
Inside her head there was a party, 'YAHOOOOO! First place! Alright!' But on the outside she just had a slight smirk and she said, "Thanks."
"Alright, you good?" he asked.
She nodded and he continued, "ok good now go get some dinner, maybe even go to the infirmary and get that cut cleaned up."
He walked off towards the door leaving her to trail behind. Once they were both out of the door he closed and locked it. Crossing his arms he asked, "You ok?'
"Yeah, fine" she lied. Her ribs hurt, her leg was killing her, and she had a horrible headache.
He could tell she was lying so he pressed, "are you sure?"
She nodded.
"Well, I gotta say that was an impressive fight, I haven't seen a fight that brutal in training before," he said and she shrugged at his words, "a lot of people wouldn't have been able to fight as long as you did, so I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't ok."
"I can take care of myself," she said harshly, "that fight was nothing."
She rolled her eyes and stormed off, leaving Eric to watch her walk off wondering why she had gotten so angry. He then headed off to his apartment before going to dinner.