Poison Pellets (Original story by Villa)

CHAPTER FOUR

It's been an entire week since the fight club. I start to wonder wether all of it was a dream, but to be fair, I do still have a tiny dragon. Plus, Jason talked to me every lunch period of the week. It was the next Saturday when he came up to me, grinning, with a big bag on his back.
"Training?" She asks slyly. Kids give us weird looks as I smirk, and nod. We leave to my house, firstly so that no one will see us teleport, (it's a wonder no one noticed the first time,) and secondly so I could grab Crystal. If she was a cat or a dog, I'd probably leave her at home with some food, but that never works because Crystal doesn't need to eat.

We appear in the sky once again, and this time, I'm prepared to unfurl my wings. I let go of a squirming crystal to let her fly loops around me, and I follow Jason to the ground. Today, we walk further, there's a path through the forest that we used to get to the club. This time, we go past it, walking past a bustling market clearing and finally coming out in a huge field, full of training pairs or groups. I grin widely as I take it all in.  There are all kinds of people- some who look almost-human. I look at one closer, and see his pointed ears, determining he's an elf. Others whom I can barely recognize as anything I've seen before- short, buff men and woman with grayish skin and black eyes. It takes me a moment to realize they're dwarves. There are more of the pastel-skinned people, but I don't see Jeeya, Ev
aline, or Quent here today. Some of the people practicing hand to hand combat have huge, wispy snake tails instead of legs, and they move like smoke through the grass clashing sword-on-sword. I spot one bird-woman in combat with someone that looks like an elf, but reminds me of a tree.
"The training ground," Jason says to me, seeing my grin. "It's always open. And it's always busy, unless it's raining. Actually, even then, it's pretty busy." He rambles. I laugh.
"There's so many people!" I say.
"Yeah," he replies. "The fight club is really popular. And it makes a lot of money. It basically owns the whole forest. A,l the surrounding towns come here. Sometimes they have 'unity gatherings' at the club." I laugh.
"Cool. So, what are we fighting with?" I ask. He throws me some leather armor, and a sword like evaline's, that floats off the handle.
"That's a hurling blade." He said. "Shortsword." I nod, swinging it experimentally and chopping the head off of a dummy.
"I'll use my own, so it's more fair." He continues. "You get paid if you win at the club, so the better you get, the more you'll have access to."
"Cool! So it's like, leveling up?"
"Kinda?" He laughs at my analogy. "We can start with basic moves."
I pick up the "swing and block" routine pretty fast, so we move on to simple sparring. He beats me most of the time, but towards my eight try, I start beating him more frequently, and tying occasionally.
He's definitely surprised by my quick progress. I can tell through his movements how he's not prepared for my attacks, barely blocking them. And his face shows his confusion.
I beat him for the third time. He pauses.
"How are you so good at this?" He asks, panting.
"I pick most things up quickly," I reply. "Plus, I do have a tiny, probably thousands-of-years-old dragon that I take care of."
"Still," he replies. "This is... kind of ridiculous."
Suddenly, we both realize the silence surrounding us. We turn to see everyone who had been fighting surrounding us.
"Play again!" Someone shouts. I smile, waving at them. Jason frowns.
"What the heck?" He murmurs.
"Lets play!" I shout. "They all want to watch!" And I bring my hurling blade in a swipe towards his upper body, he jumps out of the way, grinning again.
"You're on, V!"
His blade hurls towards me, passing over my head and clicking back into it's floating space in front of his hand. I laugh, and watch as he quickly spins, barely blocking my blade as I flick my hand left, aiming for his leg.
The crowd roars.

After a while, I beat him again.
"Pretty good for my first day fighting!" I cheer to him. He smiles.
"Yeah," he replies. "You're awesome." I hear the people surrounding us murmur in surprise.
First day fighting?
That girl? She looks so used to this!
What's she doing to be so good at this?
I beam, waving to them again. The cheer back before dispersing back into their pairs and groups. Some stick around, looking like they're waiting for us to fight again. One of the snake-people slides up, her tail moving through tall grass like liquid silver and a hurling blade's handle clutched in her hand. Her blade, unlike ours, is like the end of a scythe blade, curling with jagged interior edges. I wave to her.
"Hello!"
"Hi," she said. "Can I challenge you?"
I turn to Jason.  "What do I do?" I ask him. "I have no clue what to do." He laughs.
"She's challenging you to a fight. It shares the same rules as the club's battles, but it's not regulated. Self-referred. People have a normal system for it." I nod, turning back to her.
"What's your name?" I ask, smiling.
"River," she responds. "You're Villa? I saw you at the club."
"Yeah, I am." I respond, smiling. "And sure, I accept." She smiles, bowing slightly.
"Thank you. Shall we begin?"
"Sure." I respond. As soon as the word finishes, she lunges for me.