MATURE FANTASY** He is a predator who thought he captured an ordinary girl... but her mind is sharper than any of his claws.
Ariana lives in the shadow of her monstrous father in a world barely held together by a treaty. Until her lands are invad...
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My lungs felt as though they had collapsed from the force of being thrown to the ground. It took several seconds for me to get my breath back or move. With a groan, I slumped to my side before finding the strength to stand.
"You need to not focus so hard on one thing," Kole commented while watching me struggle to get back onto my feet.
"Make up your mind, Lysian. One day you're telling me to focus more, and the next, that I am focusing too much." I replied, sounding winded.
"That's because before you were like a little butterfly, just wandering about, dazed. And now you are so hyper-focused on one thing that you miss the complete picture," he countered.
"If I were a butterfly, then I would have been crushed by now," I grumbled. It was not like me to become easily aggravated, yet I found myself incredibly frustrated. Things did not always come easily to me, but they rarely stagnated for so long. I was no better now than when I first began training with Kole a few days ago. Granted, a few days was not much time, but if it could have gotten worse, I feared I had.
"If I used my full force, then you very much would have been a crushed butterfly," Kole stated, folding his arms across his chest. "You were so focused on my teeth and hands that you missed the rest of my body, leaving you open for attack."
"Show me an attack to try on you," I demanded, growing tired of chronically being on the defensive.
"You need to learn basic defense first," he answered with a frown.
I learned basic defense when I was a child. I was good at it when fighting Bavadrins. Lysians were impossible, their moves and skills incomparable. A sliver of me felt defeated.
Despite everything, I tried to charge him.
He moved with ease, even sighing, leaving only a leg in front of me while shoving me with one of his arms. I went flying to the ground, eating dirt.
"Ashes and bones," Kole muttered for the first time, sounding a trace concerned for throwing me to the ground, but his gaze flickering to the side. His words were meant for someone else.
