With the second phase of the exam more than halfway over, this was Jake and Zack's final chance to retrieve the remaining armbands they needed to get 100 points. But for them, this way a very tall mountain to climb. Not only were neither of them 100% at their best, but they were facing an applicant that wasn't any average person. This muscular warrior of a woman could probably take them on no problem, even if they were at their best. She was a bad match for both of them.
The two knew they couldn't beat her, but beating her isn't the goal here, Zack thought, clearing his mind of doubt. As he stood getting to his feet, he took a step-in front of Jake, holding the borrowed sheathed katana that Jake gave him. He held the sword hilt tightly in his hand as he took a quick glance at it. *I've never held one before*, he thought, but he had no time to marvel at the mini accomplishment. He had to focus on the task at hand.
The warrior woman, eyes red with irritation and anger, bent her knees, ready to pounce. Seeing this, Zack said, "Jake, you ready?"
The boy behind him focused himself to get to his knees as he responded, "Yea, let's do this."
"Alright then, let's start."
After saying these words, Zack took off toward the woman, beating her to the punch. Mirroring his own actions, the warrior woman charged straight at him. As the two were about to collide, Jake was making his way to all the downed applicants that the muscular woman had defeated earlier. Every step he took, he felt like he was going to throw up, but he swallowed the feeling. He fought through all the pain his body was feeling. He had a job to do, and he was going to complete it. He couldn't let Zack down.
Speaking of Zack, he and the woman were in each other's range. The first to attack was her. She swung her weapon with both hands, slashing it horizontally. Zack slid on the ground, completely dodging the attack. He decided to counter-attack. As he slid, he kicked his right leg, hitting the woman's left calf. He wanted to make her stumble, lose a bit of her balance, but the moment his leg met hers, nothing happened. Well, it'd be better to say nothing happened to her. She didn't move a single inch. She stood firm, like a great oak tree during a heavy wind. But the one who did feel that attack was the one who delivered it. The moment Zack landed that attack, he felt a sharp pain run up his whole leg. It's as if he kicked a boulder or a brick wall. His face scrunched up in pain, letting out a "shit" as he did.
The woman didn't hesitate. She grabbed her sword with both hands, then thrust it downwards. Even though in pain, Zack was still in this fight. He used his free hand to push himself out of the way. The warrior woman's sword missed him but plunged deep into the ground. Taking advantage of the situation, Zack decided once again to counter-attack, but he made the wise choice to use the weapon he had. He swung the sheathed blade as hard as he could, smacking the woman right in the face. This actually stunned her; her head went back as she took the unexpected blow. Zack smiled, tightened his grip, then swung again, hitting her in the face once more.
At this, the woman roared with anger. She grabbed her sword, pulling it upward, but it was so deep into the ground that a chunk of it was still surrounding the sword as she lifted. Seeing this, Zack laughed nervously. "You have got to be kidding me, what the fuck are you made of?" he said, as the woman screamed, bringing her sword down. Zack managed to dodge; the chunks of ground stuck on the sword shattered when it hit the surface.
As this was going down, Jake had just grabbed his third armband, the third white one in a row. As he was making his way to the next downed applicant, he shot a look towards the fight between Zack and the muscular woman. "She's a monster", he thought. "She can't be human." He took his eyes off them, doing his best to pick up the pace. "I've got to hurry, who knows how long Zack can last against someone like her."
Back to the battle, the woman swung her weapon down fast. Zack had no time to dodge, so he blocked with the sheathed katana. When the attack was happening, he nearly hesitated, but he remembered Jake said that even she couldn't break it, so he used it. And Jake was right. Zack blocked the blow. For a moment, Zack stood there, holding the attack back, but he wouldn't be able to last for long as he could feel the wound on his back hurt drastically. It was bleeding, and the spiky-haired boy was sweating bullets. Right now, he was trying to hold back the strength of a freak, he thought, and he couldn't take much more with all his strength, which compared to her Wasn't much, he pushed to the side, doing his best to redirect the sword. The blade went crashing to the ground. Zack was exhausted. He did his best he gave everything he had to deal with one attack, he was just about tapped out. This was not including his current injury. That was burning him, with furious pain, but even with all that Zack knew he had a job to do.
The moment the woman's sword hit the ground after the redirect, Zack lunged for to attack, but he wasn't fast enough. As the spiky-haired boy lunged forward to attack, he was immediately stopped as the warrior woman placed her massive foot on Zack's chest. It took him a half a second to realize what was happening. When he did, his eyes went wide. He caught a glimpse of the woman's face as she gave him a sinister grin.
She pushed Zack with her large foot, and this sent the boy flying. "Zack!" Jake screamed, seeing what had just happened. Zack was flung back hard and fast. He flew in the air for a few seconds, then came down hard on his back. The impact of landing on his back forced every bit of air in his lungs to rush out. A second later, the boy gasped, trying to suck all of it back in. His back felt as if it was on fire, it was burning with white-hot pain. His vision was blurry, his ears ringing. He wanted to rest, he needed to, but he wouldn't get the chance.
While in his position, looking straight up at the auditorium's ceiling, he saw her, the warrior woman. She had jumped high up in the air. She had a wicked smile on her face as he gripped her weapon with both hands. She was shooting down like a rocket. There was no way Zack would survive an attack like this. His body twitched; it didn't want to respond. "Come on, move body," he said, screaming in his own head. "Move body, move!"
Using both his legs and his arms, Zack pushed himself off the ground, evading the lethal attack. The woman crashed into the spot that Zack was just at, but she wouldn't be there for long. As the woman rushed forward, swinging her weapon as if she was trying to swat a fly, but as flies usually are, Zack was quick and nimble. Even though he felt as if he was seconds from passing out, he dodged attack after attack, rushing in himself every now and then to deal his own blow.
But now, with her blood running hotter than an inferno, Zack's attacks now seemed to do no damage. "Hurry up, Jake," he thought as he ducked under a wild slash the woman released. Zack slid under the massive woman, completely escaping her view. He then jumped, dealing five strikes, hitting her back. The woman spun, swinging her blade as she did. Zack managed to do a backflip while still in mid-jump, escaping another brutal attack. As he landed, he stared at his opponent, her not having snapped back from her own attack yet. Zack smiled, even though he was in bad shape, probably the worst shape he's been in quite a while. Still, he was starting to enter a groove; he was having fun.
Not letting the opportunity slip him by, the spiky-haired boy crouched, gripping the sheathed katana with both hands, one hand on the sword hilt, the other on the scabbard. "Who knows when I'll get another chance to do this," he thought. Zack smiled as he prepared himself.
As Zack did this, the woman had snapped back from her previously missed attack, and when she did, her eyes landed on Zack in a crouched possession, holding the sword as if he was about to unsheathe it and all of its power. Her eyes went large, looking at the boy's stance and the way he held the sword. She knew; she knew somehow, he was serious and that sword, she thought, it was a magic sword.
Zack, in seconds, thrusted forward, now pulling on the sword. Maybe off instinct or even fear, the warrior woman, for the first in many years of her life, flinched. She threw her arms up, protecting her face. She sat like that for a brief moment, expecting the devastating attack, but… It never came. As she looked back at Zack, he was still in the pulling motion, but the sword didn't budge an inch. Zack smiled, then laughed hysterically. "Damn, guess this means I'm not worthy of unsheathing you, huh?"
The woman looked at Zack for quite a while, then a rage greater than she had felt before had bubbled to the surface. She fell for it; she felt she had fallen for a cheap trick, a fake-out. He made her, a great warrior from Eden, flinch like a common coward. She grabbed her weapon; she held it so tight that she cracked the rental weapon hilt. She was going to split the punk in two; that was her plan. She was finished playing around, but she would freeze as she heard a loud scream.
"ZACK!" was screamed loudly, so much so that it sent a chill down her spine. When the woman looked over, she saw Jake, screaming in her direction. Then she realized it wasn't just in her direction, it was theirs. She put two and two together and realized that Jake was yelling at the boy she was fighting. Now, when she turned her head, looking at the spiky-haired boy, all she saw was him, with a small grin on his face.