Calm and Calamity

Chapter 47

Day: 641

Days Left: 4839

Lives Saved: 3

After eating breakfast and changing, Clarence made his way over to the Land of the Lost, where his training session was held. He was one of the first to arrive as Calixte and Lili, who were always punctual, were waiting. Pearl and Daina soon appeared and were received with scornful looks from Lili as they barely made it on time; Kai, as usual, was late. He made a new excuse each week, this time about how he needed a few more minutes of sleep as he still heard Klei's loud snoring through his bedroom walls; this was punished by fifty push-ups and already put Lili into a foul temperament before the lesson had even begun.

They paired up to do stretches and the warm-up; Clarence partnering with Calixte, Daina with Pearl, which left Kai working with Lili as the others did not wish to endure the royal bodyguard's wrath.

Once they had completed the warm-up, Kai already exhausted due to Lili's cruel intensity, they moved onto sparring matches. Clarence looked at the rankings board, which showed the number of points they had earned for the month. Pearl was currently first on the leaderboard, mostly due to everyone underestimating the old seamstress, followed by Daina, then closely by Clarence, Kai, and finally at the bottom was Calixte; the amphibian, though after many months of lessons, was still hesitant to hurt anyone and pulled his punches.

The other students were also on the rankings boards, separated into their classes; Dex was at the top of the mid-set class, with rumours that he was on his way to joining the top-set where Harmony was dominating the rankings.

Clarence paused when he saw two names on the board that he had not seen on there before. "When did Riley and Jackson join?"

"Only last week," answered Lili.

"They never told me," Clarence mumbled, his stomach twisting as he noticed that Riley and Jackson were both in the top-set class. He wasn't surprised, but he had been learning for so many months now, yet he was still in the weakest class.

After Kai won against Calixte, the amphibian apologised profusely whenever he succeeded to strike the man; it was then Clarence's turn. He stepped over to the arena drawn-out in the sand and stood opposite Daina.

"Your stance is sloppy, Daina," Lili hissed. "Fix it."

Daina gave a sideways glance of bitterness at Lili before adjusting her feet.

Lili gave a short countdown, then shouted out, "begin!"

Neither Clarence nor Daina moved at first, remaining at their starting positions. They had learned from watching Kai that rushing in straight away without any strategy was often a recipe for failure.

Clarence watched Daina's body language and recalled back to her previous fights. The only thing that she seemed to take from Lili's lessons was how to conserve energy and remained on the defensive side. If their sparring match were going to go anywhere, though, Clarence would have to be the one to make the first move.

Rushing forward, Clarence pulled back his fist, ready to swing at his opponent. Daina prepared to block the attack, but Clarence fainted to the left and shoved her with all the force he could muster. Daina stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, her body landing over the drawn line in the sand.

There was a long moment of silence, then Calixte and Kai broke out into loud cheers and whooping.

Clarence stared down at the fallen Daina, his breath heavy and sputtering as he realised his quick victory. Though this was the lower-set class, no one had ever won a match that fast.