The Huntress

Chapter 26

"Durin," Ian called out. The son of one of the founders. It had been no secret that he had scored a perfect in his assessment. He was a couple years older than me, and as I watched him step through the group of people around him I couldn't help but stare. He was the guy you saw in movies, the tough guy. He was the bounty hunter, the paranormal hunter. Basically he was just any badass, strong guy that went after anything.

I watched him step into the sparring circle as he waited. His long shorts hanging loosely at his hips, and the ugly, plain white shirt somehow looking perfect on him, contrasting with his dark skin. I cursed him and his friends for somehow making even the crappy gym uniforms look good.

"And Jaeger." With those two words, all eyes had shifted toward me. I looked up shocked, my eyes meeting Ian's, which were dancing with the laughter he was holding back.

I wanted to go right up there and lay the smack down on him. He was pissed that I wasn't giving him the time of day, so he went and put me with not just a founder, but a founder with a perfect score.

"Jaeger, up here now. Unless you're forfeiting."

I quickly stepped forward with that. There was no way I was going to forfeit anything and he knew it. I stepped into the circle and grabbed a padded vest like the one Durin had already pulled on, although where he filled it out, it looked like I was swimming in it. I then picked up the dull wooden stake that we each got, apparently we were supposed to play 'hunt the vampire.'

"There will be three rounds in the set. The first two, you will just practice, try to neutralize the other. The final round is where you will use 'lethal force' to kill the vampire. Ready in three, two, one."

With the end of the countdown came another ear-splitting whistle. I looked into Durin's face, seeing the slight smirk there in his dark brown eyes. I instantly regretted not forfeiting this. Ian had done this just to spite me, and now I was likely to get my butt kicked in front of everyone here.

No you won't. You can easily take this guy, just treat him like every other creature you go against, and you'll be fine. He may get some moves in, but that doesn't mean you won't come out on top, I said to myself.

I returned Durin's smirk and moved in closer, putting only a couple feet between us. We had been circling each other, and I could tell he was waiting for me to make the first move.

I didn't disappoint. I went in, keeping myself low and aiming for his core. My punch stopped just short of his abdominal area and I felt the jolt go all the way up my arm. He had brought both his hands in, one directly in front, right where my fist had hit, his other large hand wrapped around my wrist in a vice like grip.

With one jerking movement, he pulled me into him, my arm wrapped around my body pinning myself to him. I felt the whisper of a laugh in my hair as he made one more swift movement and everything blurred until I felt the hard contact.

All the air rushed from my lungs as my back slammed into the ground. I was instantly thankful for the padded vest as well as the padded mat that they had laid down. I gasped, sucking in as much air as I could to fill my lungs again and I quickly stood up from the ground. Pain shot up my back and I knew that was going to hurt for a while.

"That was round one," Ian said from the side. I could hear the laughter in his voice and I once again wanted to go over and smack him silly.

I prepared for round two thinking about what I had learned from the first one.

He's freaking good, I thought. Other than that I hadn't learned much. He hadn't had a weakness that I could see, at least not a physical one, and that was the only thing that was going to help me right here and right now. I had circled him and I hadn't found a single flaw in what he had done. He scored a perfect after all. Even someone who scored a perfect has to have some flaw; he's only human after all.