Fearless (A Mulan Retelling)

Chapter Twelve

The other scouts didn't last but a few minute, some not even landing an attack, before the general was able to hit them and then give them tips to improve. Iris was determined to last longer than them. She began focusing harder on Zayn, as he attacked left... and then right.

She noticed a small tell in his position, giving away his strikes. He also didn't have the best reflexes from what she could tell in his suit of metal. Even though she knew he was taking it easy on the recruits... she could tell he wouldn't be a fluid rogue at his current capacity.

She wanted her hardest to best him. The man wasn't a rogue, after all. He simply made do in his heavy armor. He wasn't fast in it. Not at all. His lack of proper dodging made it easily apparent that he was used to using the armor. He often left his chest and arms exposed, which were both entirely covered by his heavy breastplate. This made her a tad more confident. Perhaps she stood a chance.

He stood before her after a small while.

She hunched before he did, staring so deep into his eyes that her intent seemed to shock him a little bit. She did not even notice the other rogues watching them. She focused hard on where his eyes were.

He swung to her right, she tumbled away quickly. When she recovered from that swing, he tried for another at her chest. It didn't hurt as bad when she flung her body backwards. In fact, she felt satisfied watching as his daggers sailed over her, seemingly in slow motion compared to how fast Kayde had been.

She did not hesitate to sling herself back forward, slamming the butt of both of her daggers solidly into Zayn's plate armor. He was surprised at the impact, stumbling backwards a little bit, but was able to block her flurry.

Zayn watched Iris's eyes, noticing her determination. They did not even flicker away. He quickly tried to land an attack on her right side again, which she deftly rolled away from.

She stood up quickly and he felt a slam into his side where she had hurled her foot. She followed it up with a spin attack, but he dodged that as well as he had the flurry. As she continued her pursuit, the vessels in her head pounded. Her focus was so pointed at him, that she could almost pretend that she was fighting for her life.

He threw his daggers at both of her sides, hoping to catch her unawares. He almost caught her in the left, but all he sliced through was the air between them as she deftly moved away from the blow.

She noticed him approaching and danced on one foot, slinging three quick attacks his way. One of them hit. He was surprised at this, but he followed along, still testing her. Next, he tried hitting her with one of his blades. She took both of her daggers and slammed them into the approaching blade and used all of her strength to send it flying a few feet to the left. He balled up his fist at the loss of the weapon.

She felt a little bit content at this, but it did not make her overconfident.

If I concentrate, she told herself, I can do this.

She then jumped forward, giving a quick pop to the face with her elbow and a dagger slice to his chest guard. He held his strong front, even with the blow to his face. As she swung many more times, she, to her dismay, did not hit. However, he still could not bring himself to hit her either. That was good.

She knew that if he hit her one good time, it was automatic failure. So let's not do that, Iris thought bitterly to herself.

She then tried her best to remember her lessons. Kelgar had told her that the key to being a rogue was attacks and damage dealt to the back.

Here goes nothing. She then leapt out of the way, throwing herself around him.

The first thing she did was knock his other weapon from his hand. He only had enough time to turn around.

She channeled a mite of her adrenaline to power a kick that went straight into his chest. She felt a little pain in her thigh at the impact of the kick, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that he stumbled backwards. She took the opportunity to leap forward, and jump onto him with the entirety of her body weight.

When he was down, she swiftly knocked him in the armor five times before crisscrossing both of her weapons at his neck.

She could hardly believe she had done it for a moment, which caused her to take a moment before calming down enough to leap off of the general. He stood up, watching her with an impressed gaze. Iris then took the time to look at the rest in her group. They seemed to find it harder to believe than she. Her head ached from so much concentration.

"Ingred Gwenneth is your name?" he asked, clearly curious.

"Yes, sir," she awkwardly answered, wondering if the ferocity of her attacks had gotten her in trouble. All he did was stare her down.

"Well done." He commended her, and went on to say. "See me tonight. In my office."

He walked away.

---

Kayde watched from nearby as Iris fought the General. He was not surprised by her success, as she had been doing so very well when she trained with him. As he watched her, Kayde indeed felt sincerely proud of her for working so hard.

With time, he believed that she could certainly become a threat to their enemies. When they had first begun, he saw her standing at the back lines of the rogues, doing her best to try and stay safe and fight only as necessary. But now? Kayde found that she might indeed be capable of more.

He knew that the general would have won handily against her had he used the weapon of his calling, but the guardian would vouch that with her practice and focus, she could perhaps one day close the gap between them.

Once training was over, Kayde got Iris's attention. He signaled for her to follow him to their usual spot. Once she was there, she watched as he crossed his arms, but noticed nothing unkind in his gaze.

"I can't stay here long," she spoke first, "the General wanted to see me tonight in his office. Oh gods, what if I'm in trouble?"

Her worry surprised him so much that he almost laughed.

"I saw the spar... and I heavily doubt you're in trouble. He seemed to be impressed," he pointed out. When she still looked worried, he dared to squeeze her shoulder. "Hey, none of that now. He's not going to be so petty to yell at you for being good at what you do." Kayde chuckled. "You're fighting a war... you're supposed to be good. He'll be proud of you, I promise. I know that I surely am, dear girl."

Iris looked up at Kayde, shocked by the words.

"You are?" she asked him.

"Yes, it would appear so," he nodded, almost giving her a smile, "So keep practicing, and maybe I can be proud of you again. Either way, I will see you at our usual time tonight. Do not think that your training ends here --many trained soldiers will still have the upper hand on you. So stay grounded, girl. No matter what."

Iris just stared at him with wide eyes. "Understood," she said after a minute.

"Good girl," he said. "Now go and get ready for your meeting. You'll surely have to tell me how it goes."

And that, as it happened, was that.