Chapter Nineteen

I flinched a little as Michelle grabbed one of the guys, Logan, I think, by the wrist and spun him around, twisting his arm behind his back before pushing him to the floor with her knee. She held him there as she turned to face us.

"Again," she began, her voice laced with frustration, "He was just as overly aggressive as the rest of you. I seriously don't know what it is with combat instructors at your academies, but they really have a lot to learn."

She released his arm and stood, allowing him to move freely. He stood slowly, rubbing his wrist with his other hand as he walked slowly towards the rest of us. That was the third person to try fighting with Michelle, as she'd said something about "wanting to know what she was working with" and asked us to spar with her. Every other fight went about the same as the one that had just finished.

"None of you would last five minutes on assignment with the Deathwalkers. You're all perfectly capable of fighting a Strigoi on the same skill level as yourselves, but right now it looks like none of you are going anywhere with us. That's not to say you're hopeless, but my first impression is not a good one."

As she continued talking, I decided then and there I really didn't like Michelle. She was rude, arrogant, and seemed to have this attitude of "I'm much better at fighting than you are so you should just shut up and listen to me," and it honestly made me kind of sick.

"First rule of fighting a Strigoi, and I'm laying this out there right now, fighting dirty will save your life. Many Strigoi, even the former Dhampirs with training and experience, are very arrogant and will try to take time in the middle of a fight to taunt you. They usually do this either out of a sense of superiority, or because they want to throw you off balance. And I'll tell you right now, it'd work with ALL of you."

Okay, now this was a little confusing. Was she saying she wanted us to fight dirty with her?

"I'm not going easy on any of you because you have to understand what the real world is like, and me taking you by the hand and showing you how to punch, kick, and block will do you no good. You have to learn to identify your opponent's weaknesses and play to them very quickly. It's this sort of thinking that will keep you alive."

I thought about what she was saying. It all made sense, in theory. She was probably right about Strigoi thinking they can get away with standing still to taunt people in the middle of a fight, even one they aren't winning. But at the same time, I was still finding the idea of doing anything dirty in a fight with her or anybody else here.

"Rose," she said quickly with a small shake of her head, "You may as well come over here and get your turn over with."

I started to slowly walk towards her, carefully eyeing the emotions on her face. She wore one of those faces Guardians do a lot, the one that shows no emotion.

"As I'm sure none of you have been told," she said, a small smile playing on her lips, "I have read all of your records from your previous academies individually, and I'm aware of your histories in all of your classes, as well as your disciplinary histories. And frankly, Rose, I'm surprised someone could get in as much trouble as you at such a young age."

Okay, now I knew she was referring to my stunt with Lissa, and despite the fact I hadn't spoken to her in a while and I wasn't exactly on friendly terms with her, I was not going to stand there and listen to this woman speak ill of me or Lissa.

So as soon as I was in range, with her talking away, I swung and hit her square in the left side of her head.

There was a gasp from the other students and she turned her head very slightly before taking a large swing back at me. I managed to dodge it before making a swing out with my left hand, hitting her in the right arm. She flinched slightly before taking another swing with her left arm, and as soon as I sidestepped to the right to dodge it, I realized she'd moved her left leg forwards into my path, and I tripped straight over it.

She came down on top of me and pinned me down with my back on the floor, her right arm over my throat.

"Rose, would you care to explain why, exactly, you did that?"

I spoke, confused by the question, "What?"

"I said," she repeated, "would you care to explain why, exactly, you did that?"

I replied, still confused, "Did what?"

"Why did you swing at me while I was talking to the class? Why, exactly, did you swing at me while I wasn't looking."

I smirked, "Because that's how you told us to fight!"

She removed her arm and stood straight up, looking down at me with the same emotionless face as before, a small red mark on her cheek where my fist had made contact. After a moment, she began to clap.

"Bravo, Rose."

I stared up at her, even more confused than before, "What?!"

"I said," she began, reaching down to grab my hand and pull me up, "Bravo, Rose."

"Bravo," I asked, "Bravo for what? For giving you a mark on your face?"

"For listening to what I said and learning from it. And, a little more importantly, for clearly using your instincts."

I didn't say anything this time, I just stared at her, bewildered.

"When I said I had no idea what to expect of you, it was because I knew you were a decent fighter, but one with a bit of a temper. So, I wanted to see how you'd handle some provocation. And, as I expected, you didn't react very positively to it. Granted, I didn't expect you to take a swing the way you did, but you did get angry like I expected."

She shifted to look past me to the others, "When a Strigoi tries to make you angry, use it to your advantage. Emotions, especially anger, can give you a great amount of strength. If you use this carefully, without allowing it to cloud your judgement, it can give you just enough speed and physical strength to thrust a stake into the Strigoi's heart, hopefully while they're still taunting you." She made a motion as if she was thrusting a stake into her own heart while she finished the point, just to drive it home.

"I've been at this a long time, and I'll tell you right now that this will be a core principle that you will all have to learn to succeed. Use your emotions. Don't ignore them, don't shut them out, but don't become overwhelmed by them. If you can practice and master that, your fighting skill will follow it. Now, I think that will do for our session today, I can spar with those who didn't get the chance tomorrow. For those of you with another class next, good luck. For the others, enjoy your day. Dismissed."

I started heading towards the door, following the others out and trying to remember what class I had next, when I almost walked straight into someone coming into the room.

"Sorry." I apologized for almost hitting them.

I stood for a moment, waiting for a reply from them, but he didn't say anything. I was sort of looking half straight ahead and half at the floor, entirely away from them, but I could feel them standing just in front of and to the right of me. After a few seconds, I looked up slightly to see it was a guy, who stood about 5'7", with short trimmed hair that almost matched the colour of my own. His eyes were a dark green, and he was just looking at me, as if he was waiting for me to say something.

Before I could say anything, however, he finally spoke.

"It was my fault. I wasn't paying attention," he spoke rapidly, with a low, deep voice that had a strange sort of accent to it, not something I was used to hearing, "Lost in thought," he added before stepping past me and into the room, closing the door behind him.

I thought briefly for a moment about the encounter before writing it off as nothing to worry about before heading off to my next class.

Alright, so I've had this chapter written for a few days now, but it took me a while to be able to come back and read through it to double check for errors, some of which I may have ended up missing anyways, which delayed the post longer than I'd have liked. If anybody knows a good beta reader, or if they are one themselves, let me know. I'd really appreciate it.