In the Classroom

Chapter Eighteen: Blood and Taunts

No hard feelings, Fang, I thought to myself. As if reading it on my face. Fang nodded solemnly.

"Forgive me, Piper," he told me quietly. I shielded my emotions from my face. Without so much as a second thought, I rushed at Fang. Considering his condition, I believed his reflexes would be off. That was not the case. Fang met my fist with his palm, blocking my punch. He shifted his power down and aimed at my knees with his foot. Sweeping out my legs underneath me, I rolled with the blow and moved away from the fist that impacted the ground next to me. Fang was quicker than I expected however. His next blow nicked my ear, and the one after that made hard contact with my right cheek. I spat out blood as Fang punched and kicked my sides next. The pain was incredible. A few months of inaction and I had completely forgotten how painful a fight usually was. However, the blows to my face seemed to have knocked my senses back into me. I regained my fighting instinct, as if it was only an old friend I had forgotten about momentarily. I pushed myself upwards with my legs, regaining my footing in time for me to dodge Fang's next kick towards my stomach. I caught his wrist as he swung his right arm at my face. I pushed him away from me, using his own force against him. Fang was pushed off of his feet, landing on his back less gracefully than I had. He pushed himself to his feet, panting with a stitch in his side.

"You'll have to try harder than that to get that pay raise, Piper," he told me tauntingly. I took a deep breath, rushing at him again. This time, Halie had apparently grown tired of our hand-to-hand combat and had tossed swords to both of us. I caught mine neatly in the air, rushing at Fang.

No more hesitations, I need to aim to kill, I thought to myself blankly. Bringing the sword over my shoulder, I sliced at Fang's neck. Fang jumped away, grabbing his sword off of the ground as it clattered next to me. This time he rushed at me, bringing his sword down in a clean arch, aimed towards my shoulder. Dodging under his blow, I caught the hilt of his sword with my blade. I smirked at him.

"What's the matter, Fang? Has age caught up with you already?" I asked him. He smirked at me. "You wish."

A searing pain in my shoulder caught my attention. His blade had caught on my shoulder and Fang dug it into my skin, slicing a good cut into my shoulder. I bit my lip against the cry that threatened to burst from my lips.

"You wish age had caught up with you, because then you wouldn't be so slow on your feet, little boy," he told me snarkishly.

He's taunting you, Josh. Keep your head, I thought to myself. Still, that didn't stop me from flinging my sword at his head. Bad move—he simply deflected the blade off of his own and it clanged on the ground tiles. He smirked at me, advancing towards me slowly, leaving my sword behind him as I was left weaponless and helpless. All looked lost. I gritted my teeth, preparing myself for the agony to come. I saw a sudden flash of metal in the crowd as I backed towards it. I saw a knife handle be offered to me from the crowd. I tried not to make it too obvious that I was backing away from Fang and towards the knife. I concealed the handle so Fang couldn't see what I saw.

"Don't worry, Piper," he assured me, raising his blade. "I'm a merciful man—I'll cut off your head so you won't feel anything after that," he promised me. He ran a finger along the flat of his blade. "It will be as painless as a knife through the heart can be," he told me, swinging his blade at me.

"A knife, huh?" I asked him, gripping the knife handle suddenly thrust into my grip. I pulled at the blade not caring if it cut the fingers of the man handing me the weapon. At that moment, my survival was all that mattered to me. I brought the knife up to catch Fang's sword. The clash of metal on metal echoed within the room as a sharp pain spread up my arm. Still, I would not concern myself with wounds until Fang was dead at my feet. I had misjudged the arch of the sword however, and its blade caught me on the neck, nicking the skin there. I swallowed hard against the pain and blood that flowed out of the wound.

"Feeling woozy yet?" asked Fang, cackling maniacally at me. "That shoulder wound isn't going to get better any time sooner," he told me. He smiled at me. I'm sure it was meant to be comforting, but to me, it looked condescending.

"Just die peacefully, Piper. I don't want to hurt you any more than I have to," he whispered to me. I could see the pleading in his eyes. I narrowed my own at him. I hated pity.

"You mean like killing me? Oh yes, that's no pain at all," I said sarcastically. A voice behind me chuckled, and I got the feeling it was the same man who had given me the knife. I glared at Fang, focusing all of my rage towards him.

"I won't die here, Fang. Not now. I've got too much going for me," I said grimly, smirking at him. Fang scowled at me.

"Impertinent as always, eh? The Piper manipulates others to fight in his place and then gets all of the credit. You've truly earned the name," said Fang in disgust. I shrugged, temporarily forgetting my injury and sending a new course of pain up my shoulder.

"I'm tired of having others doing my dirty work. I've stepped into the spotlight this time," I told him. He sneered at me.

"How honorable, but a leopard doesn't change its spots," he told me. He pressed harder against my blade, but I held firm.

"One of us has to break the stalemate," he told me. "Why don't you go first," he told me. Thinking hard, the only way to break free of his hold was to escape, but I wasn't sure I could do that without losing an arm. I swallowed hard.

God, protect this decrepit sinner, I thought desperately. My eyes flashing, I pushed Fang's blade from mine. I didn't use enough strength however and my arm suddenly felt the sting of metal delve deep into its flesh, reaching all the way to the bones. I pulled away from the metal and the smell of blood flowed to my nostrils.

"Damn..." hissed from my lips before I could contain it. Fang smiled at me, his blade glittering with my blood.

"Sorry, I was aiming for your neck like I promised," he told my sympathetically. I glared at him.

"Too bad you missed," I told him. The area around my eyes grew fuzzy.

I can't drag this out much longer...I have to end this, I thought to myself. My vision swam and I barely had raised my heavy arms to catch the blade of Fang's with my own. I hadn't even noticed him attacking until he was only inches from my stomach with his blade. I swatted away the sword. The blood on Fang's blade splattered over my fingers. Sick rose to my throat but I swallowed my disgust. Still, the blood on my hands made it slick to hold a knife.

"You look as bad as I do right now," said Fang. I spat in his direction.

"That's a horrible thing to say, considering how ugly you are even without the blood streaming down your face," I snapped at him. He gave a laugh under his breath.

"No use in fighting your elders, boy. Give up," he told me. I felt my temper rise at being called a child and I rushed at him again. Bringing up my knife, I pushed it towards his gut. Too slow—he blocked the blade effortlessly. That's what I wanted though. Luckily, he blocked my one-handed thrust with two hands, leaving my left arm free to strike. I slammed my fist into his stomach, knocking the wind out of Fang. As he doubled over in pain. I used my elbow of the left arm to smash into his head. As he stumbled backwards in pain I lifted my left leg and kneed him in the groin. Fang gave a howl of pain that was as inhumanly as possible for him to make. He glared at me with hateful eyes. I gave him a painful grimace. That last trick with my arm was killing my shoulder. It was all I could do to keep myself standing upright.

"Getting cocky, aren't you, brat?" he asked me, running at me again. I gripped my bloody knife tightly.

"Guess so," I told him as he brought his sword down upon me. I managed to block his sword with my knife, but Fang had already read all of my moves and thought of a way to counter that. He grabbed the hilt of my knife and ripped it out of my grip, kicking me backwards. However, I had landed at kick at his groin once more and he collapsed to his knees, groaning in pain. His sword skidded out of his grip as it fell to the floor in his moment of pain. Fang glared at me through watery eyes.

"You fight dirty you son-of-a—" Fang rushed to his feet, pulling my knife with him. Suddenly, my head was very clear. I should have done this in the first place.