OVERLOOKED ㅤkotlc

051

Rosaleen and I switch places.

I can tell she's nervous, but neither of us can do anything about it.

Koray looks her over; "You're not the strongest either," he says.

"I'm sorry?"

"It doesn't matter. I've heard you're smart, so maybe you'll do better than him."

"Dex is smart too," she mumbles, as he Conjures the sword for her.

He only laughs. "I'm sure he is," Koray says, "but his performance was a little dull, in my humbled opinion. I've heard tons about him, and that was disappointing."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes, but Rosaleen doesn't. "Yeah, okay," she says, picking up the sword and adjusting her grip on it.

He smiles his crooked smile, puts his hands behind his back, and easily dodges her first swing.

The next one takes a hot minute; she watches him, carefully, and he meets her gaze with an amused look. Koray attacks first, but she jumps back.

Still, his boot brushes against her leg. "One," he says, tilting his head.

Rosaleen moves quick, aiming for his leg, but he sidesteps it with a smile. "Oh, that one was close," Koray says, but I can't tell if he's making fun of her or not.

"If this were a real fight, though, I could do this—"

He kicks her in the stomach and she falls, landing on her back with a gasp. Two.

"—and point a fancy sword at you. You think too much, Rosaleen."

Koray holds out a hand. She stares at it, then before I can register what happened, grabs the sword and cuts his hand with it. Blood drips from a gash in his palm, crimson staining her shirt.

He tilts his head then smiles. "Fair enough," he says, and steps back. "That's one for you."

Rosaleen gets up. "Sorry," she says, after a hesitation.

Koray shrugs. "It's not against the rules, so I don't see why you're apologizing."

She doesn't argue with that, holding her sword out and watching him warily.

"You know," he says, "if you want more power, you can hold it with both hands. Or I can give you dual broadswords."

"Oh. Um, sure?"

Koray snaps his fingers and her sword disappears, replaced with a pair of swords on the floor. She picks them up, studying the blades.

Rosaleen slashes with one, and when he tries to dodge, she uses the other to block his path, and he brushes against it.

"That's two," Koray says, "but you used the flat end of your sword, and you didn't put enough force into either sword. That's pointless."

He uses his foot to push one of her swords down, causing her to drop it before she twists her arm, and sweeps his leg from underneath her—"Three."

She falls, landing hard on the ground.

"Rosaleen's bad, too," he says to Gisela. "She overthinks the fight and doesn't put enough force into her actual few swings. She was worse than Dex with swords, but she'd do better with a bow or throwing knives—something precise. Based on how she fought, I don't think she's had experience before; her fighting style was based on what she saw from Dex's fight, and she obviously payed attention to what he needed to improve, neglecting more important areas."

I tune out the rest of their conversation, holding out a hand to help Rosaleen up, which she takes. "You're super good at fighting," I tease.

She laughs. "Shut up, I got one more point than you."

"I wasn't being sarcastic," I say, with a cheeky grin that says otherwise.

I glance over at Gisela and Koray; she checks something (a Spyball?), then says something sharply to Koray, who sighs.

He turns towards us. "We train again tomorrow afternoon," Koray says. "I have someone to take care of."

"Are you beating someone up?" I ask, half-joking.

Koray smirks. "Something like that," he says; I honestly can't tell if he's joking or not. And with that, he exits the room, and Gisela mutters something, clearly annoyed.

"You guys are dismissed," she says, waving a hand at us like she can't wait for us to leave.

The feeling's mutual, I think. Rosaleen and I are silent as we exit the room; we meet eyes once the door's closed, and for some odd unexplainable reason, we start laughing.

"She's such an a-hole," Rosaleen says, and I agree, and we laugh at her behind closed doors.

˚ ༘ 🌷 ── author's note!

texting is so weird bc like sometimes i can totally be loud and help carry a conversation, but other times im just like 🧍‍♀️hey uh,,,, hi🧍‍♀️