Chapter Text
“1.4 inches deep, 7 blood vessels ruptured, and counting.”
“Well fuck you, you ain’t helpin.”
I watched as copper parried the swing while Vincent said out loud the injuries sustained, copper occasionally leaving remarks while battling me, axe deflecting my wah chaik.
It was nice to spar with a few of my friends once in a while, I caught sight of miji coming into the arena from the other end, my attention briefly flickering towards her.
Copper took advantage of the brief distraction, charging forwards and swinging down, i darted away at the last second, using the time it took for her to readjust the axe to throw in a quick jab at her side, ripping through the fabric and nicking her skin.
Vincent was just about to announce the new injury, before miji settled in and engaged him in conversation, allowing us to spar in peace.
With a twirl, i darted underneath her attack once again, this time jabbing a her leg, causing a quick gush of blood to burst out from under her.
Copper didn’t stop, however. After all, the regen pods were over in the hallway for anyone to use, and both of us had too much pride to yield before both of us were incapacitated.
I suppose I could just order her to stop, and I would assume she would, after all, a student was suppose to listen to a teacher. However, copper wouldn’t listen to my countless tips on keeping her fighting form pristine, so I doubt I would give her the advantage of being a student of mine.
The business was shut down by Leafhaven once we left anyhow, and the dendron had its own set of ranks either way. Any obligation to consider me as a superior would be out of tradition, even though I was technically higher ranked than her.
The dendron had policies on who could order people around after all, just because you were higher ranked than someone didn’t mean you could command them, at least in the branch.
The bark had more definite command systems, as they were a combat driven department, but this was not the bark.
The jab at the leg had left my right flank open, with copper quickly taking advantage of my miscalculation and striking a blow at it, I managed to dodge away but it left a gash on my side. It ripped through my clothes, and resulted in a searing wound on my side.
Copper giggled tauntingly, darting backwards as i ran forwards to charge at her, trying to ignore the searing pain in my side.
Vincent called out, “moderate gash at side, will bleed out within 23 hours. Losing blood at a steady rate of-“
He was interrupted by miji, who grabbed him and gestured at something in the distance with her tentacles, whether it was me and copper, or something else, I wouldn’t know. I was too busy deflecting attacks, copper had molded her weapon into a lighter one, and was now attacking my weapon in a flurry of fast paced attacks.
After several minutes of constant, quick attacks and blocks, it was clear that we couldn’t keep this up. The question was, who would break first? It sure as hell wouldn’t be me.
I noticed that she was slower whenever she attacked from her left side, i grinned and sped up my attacks. She faltered for a moment, that split second of weakness all that I needed.
I aimed a stab towards her stomach, piercing it, the crescent shaped blades on the sides of my wah chaik ripping through her, intestines getting ripped out in a mess of red as I pulled it out.
Her face contorted with pain, clutching at the gaping hole in her stomach, seeing her in distress, i quickly aimed a slash at her neck, attempting to slice three it to quicken the death.
Unfortunately, the angle at which I tried to sclice it at was a poor choice, as the blade only managed to make a flesh wound, not sever the bone as intended.
Shit
I raised my weapon once again, as copper’s legs failed her and she toppled to the ground. Slicing down at a much more manageable angle, her head came clean off, raining shiny red droplets all over the ground in controlled spurts.
Vincent looked over at the mess, as miji waved over at me. Vincent got up and bounded towards me, no doubt to tease me about the poor job of a beheading I had done.
Copper should reappear in the regeneration pods in an hour, maybe less if we could get the arena to reboot faster. Miji handed me a piece of paper that she took out of her suitcase that she Carried around whenever she was in “business mode”, so to speak.
As Vincent, copper and me were off work, anyone on work would be in charge of me and the others as long as we were off work. After all, the ones on duty are always more important than the ones off duty after all, and miji wasn’t a half bad leader, in fact, she was an amazing leader. Always giving out instructions clear and concisely, albeit a bit strict about her directions.
Quickly filling out the form was no issue, deciphering the corporate wordings was no problem after a while, I wonder if we could all go out to go mill around Lp-01 again… that was fun last time.
I threw the paper back at miji, who caught it with a flourish and placed it back into the suitcase.
Closing the suitcase, she turned around to leave, not before Vincent waved after her office-bound body, who responded with a light slap across his arm with one of her flouting tentacles, the ribbon like structure disappearing after her short build into the door and out into the hallway.
“Man, not even sparing a glance, huh?”
“Well, she is on work, after All.”
Vincent eyed me, amused.
“Oh cmon! Back when I was your boss I made sure to wave goodbye to you”
“That’s… different. And either way, you were usually too busy to actually respond in person, remember?”
Vince chuckled, grabbing onto a cup of coffee balanced onto the bench and taking a swig.
“I got a shift comin up soon, reports say it’s in Pk-13, or around that area at least.”
He shot me a grin and said,
“We all know just how accurate the trackers are over at the management office is, yeah?”
“Mhm… I got a target coming up as well, it’s in that place that’s known for heavy poverty and wealth disparity, think it was a class H…?”
He put on an inquisitive face as we began walking out of the room, coffee secured in hand.
“Eh, pretty sure. Juuust saying ‘wealth disparity’ ain’t gonna narrow it down much, k’now.”
“Ugh, well, either way the target’s a rich bastard. That’s all I know for now.”
I grinned, the elation of the impending knowledge that I would be able to feel the flash underneath my metal squirm made me feel excited, even more so at the thought of giving those upper class men some troubles in their smooth lives, not like they would get it anyway else, the way most worlds would honor the rich and bereave the poor.
“Heh, well, that’s good to know.”
I nodded, sighing with relief the moment we got out of the ability proofed arena, immediately detaching a band from my wrist and levitated it throughout the air, carving patterns into it once more.
“Sooo, about your… rather poor execution you performed earlier…”
I sighed, and a strand of metal erupted from one of my other bracelets, it directed itself towards Vince, and it’s sharp tip shot towards him, the black metal threading through the air.
Vince effortlessly blocked it, the skin on his arm turning to steel the moment it Locked onto it.
“Well! Someone doesn’t want to talk!”
“Yes, well I would find it annoying to have to listen to your nagging.”
Vince swiped his arm at the metal, the force making it clang to the side. I reformed it back into a band onto my arm once more, as Vince grinned and made a beeline for the recovery room, his light grey coat fluttering after him.
I shot after him, chasing him into the room, both laughing like school kids on a Friday.
Rather an unsuitable thing for someone of their position and occupation… wouldn’t you think?