"You'll find out soon enough won't you," Charlie said.
"What do you mean?"
"The competition. You'll surely be participating," he replied, to which I only smirked.
Our focus shifted back to the fight as we did not want to miss a single detail. Every strike was thrown with precision and great timing, anyone with a pair of functioning eyes could see that they had been diligently training ever since they were born. What we were witnessing was merely the fruit of their labour.
As Charlie had predicted, as the battle prolonged, Adriana had a slight advantage; more of her attacks were landing and she was evading Martin's strike better. She also had marginally superior stamina which aided her longevity.
The male orc threw a lazy front kick which was quickly intercepted by his opponent. She grabbed his front foot and kicked his rear leg to sweep him. A loud thud echoed throughout the arena as Martin fell on the stone floor, his eyes staring at the sky.
He had seemingly lost his will to fight and surrendered.
"AND THE WINNER IS ADRIANA," the referee yelled.
Deafening cheers erupted in the stands as Adriana walked over to Martin. She extended her hand towards her friend to help him up. Their lip corners were raised as they exited the battle arena side by side.
"It was truly a marvellous fight," I exclaimed.
"You can tell them that yourself later," Charlie said.
"Pardon?"
"They'll be dining with us," he replied.
"I forgot to ask. Do you want to come eat dinner with us?" Charlie asked Lucas.
"That's a great idea!" I said.
"I'm sorry guys but I'm not free tonight," Lucas said.
"That's a bummer. Next time then."
"Goodbye then friends and see you later Jett," Charlie said before blending in with the crowd.
Subsequent to the fight, the crowd dispersed and everyone returned to class where the boring lectures reigned supreme; my head was leaning against my fists while I was slumbering. Lucas kept laughing at me throughout the remainder of the lesson and when the bell finally rang, my eyes slowly opened to see the teacher staring at me with his arms crossed.
"Am I in trouble?" I asked.
"Oh no, I want you to sleep through my classes," the teacher sarcastically replied.
Following the earful I received from the instructor, I headed back home. The walk was peaceful and calming; the empty streets allowed me to reorganise my thoughts and the sounds of birds chirping was music to my ears.
I knocked on the rotten wooden door until it swung open and Jasper's tired face greeted me.
"You look energetic," I jokingly said.
"Yeah yeah thanks for the sarcasm."
I made my way inside and sat down.
"What do you want to eat? Snake meat or Boar meat?"
"Neither. In fact, I'm not eating here."
"Are you on a diet?" he asked.
"No, but I've been invited to dine at a restaurant."
"What restaurant? With who? At what time?"
"Can you ask one question at a time? I feel like my head's about to explode," I said.
"I'm going to 'the monarchy' with a new friend. His name is Charlie," I added.
"The genius?"
"Yes, him," I replied.
"That's awesome. I'll drop you off at the restaurant; don't want you getting lost."
"I feel like a little princess."
"You do look like a girl if we're being honest," he said.
"Oh shut it and let's go train. I'll already be missing a training session next week."
"Why?" Jasper asked.
"Ah yeah, I haven't told you yet. I'm going on a school trip next week to the highest mountain."
After explaining everything in great detail, we headed out. The crunch of the leaves under our feet reached our ears as the wind whistled through the tree branches. Following the short walk, we arrived at the clearing which was now littered with footprints and mud.
"What are we doing today?"
"Take a guess," Jasper said.
"Well I've moved forwards and backwards, so, I'm guessing that I'll be learning how to move to the sides?" I jokingly said.
"Even though you were merely having a laugh, you're correct."
"You'll learn how to sidestep, how to cut angles and how to pivot. We'll try to cram as much as possible before you need to leave for dinner."
"To sidestep, you need to move the leg closest to the direction you're going towards. So let's say that you're stepping to the left, your left leg moves first followed by your right leg. When you get more advanced, you can move both limbs at the same time for a faster manoeuvre. In most cases, you never want to cross your feet in a fight; you'll be off-balanced and your opponent can easily trip you," he added.
Without wasting a second, I got to work and began moving from one side of the clearing to the other. Once again, Jasper tood on the sideline with his metal rod waiting for me to set my heels down. To his dismay, I had learnt my lesson and he did not have the pleasure of bashing my legs.
"Can you just put your heels down."
After he noticed that I got the hang of the sidestep, due to a lack of time, we proceeded to the next part of training.
"We'll learn how to cut angles now," Jasper said.
"Can you speak in words I can understand please," I jokingly replied.
"Until now, no matter how you move, you'll be in front of your enemy. By cutting angles, you move out of your opponent's vision and put you in an advantageous position to attack from."
"There are multiple ways to cut angles. The diagonal step is one of them," he added.
Employing the metal pipe, he etched lines into the dirt ground.
"Are you planning on becoming an artist?"
"Oh shut up, you'll need to follow those line while you move around; this will help you understand the concept of angles."