Broken, But Brave

Chapter 6: Fear and Love

The next morning was a hard one for all of the initiates, Dauntless born and transfers alike. Annabelle made a note to never go out partying the night before a final exam ever again, let alone a sparring exam. Annabelle tiredly made her way to the fighting ring and took a spot between Izzy and Damien, both of whom looked even worse than she did. 

"Good morning you two." 

"Anna, please, not so loud. I have a searing headache." 

"Well then you're really going to hate what Max has planned for today." 

"Haha." 

"Alright. Everyone listen up. In order to test all of you fairly, you'll all be facing the same opponent for your final test. Eric." 

The room was immediately filled with hushed whispers and groans at the announcement of today's sparring partner. But Annabelle in particular was filled with absolute dread. Four's words from days earlier rang in her head.

'He's dangerous and vicious and sadistic... You'll understand later this week.'

Annabelle was pulled from her thoughts as Max called out the first initiate, a Dauntless born named Jericho. One by one, all initiates took their turns facing Eric, and one by one they all failed. There were a few who put up good fights, but Eric still managed to take them all down. Still, Annabelle understood what Tobias had meant. Eric was a ruthless fighter. Despite the difference in skill level between himself and the initiates, he still never let up and showed no mercy in the fight. Throwing punches until each opponent was sure to stay down. Surprisingly, for the first time in a month, Annabelle actually felt a semblance of fear. The fact that it was towards Eric only worked to increase that fear. 

"Next up, Damien." 

From Annabelle's side, Damien reached over and took hold of her hand to give it light squeeze which Annabelle gave back as a means of comfort before Damien took a deep breath and made his way into the fighting ring across from Eric. 

"Both fighters ready?" 

Damien gave a curt nod over to Max while Eric remained stoic and motionless, his eyes boring into Damien with more intensity than Annabelle had ever seen. Between Eric's comment about Damien the night before and then seeing him take Anna's hand just before the fight, Annabelle had a feeling that this sparring session would be far worse than any of the others. 

"Begin." 

In all of the previous fights, Eric had waited for the initiate to make the first move and seemingly played around with them for a bit before finally deciding to take each opponent down. Damien was not so lucky. Almost before Max could even get the word out, Eric was already advancing on Damien with a hard right hook which Damien just barely dodged in time, leaning down and to his left to lodge a fist of his own into Eric's side. The punch did little to throw Eric off who was already rounding on Damien again, this time landing a punch just under Damien's chin. Damien stumbled back for only a moment, but it was long enough for Eric to send a hard kick into his chest, sending him flying back onto the mat. Eric advanced again to throw a punch down onto his face only for Damien to roll to the side away from him, rising to his feet again quicker than anyone anticipated. Eric was completely fuming by now and was attacking from every possible direction, landing some hits and missing others. Damien was keeping up surprisingly well despite the harshness with which Eric was attacking him, but still, he had lasted longer than anyone else thus far. The fight continued for a few minutes longer before Eric had finally taken the upper hand again and kicked Damien entirely out of the ring, effectively ending the fight with another win. 

Max wasted no time in declaring the Eric the winner before then announcing the next opponent to fight. 

"Annabelle."