Afterlife

11

The second the grenade went off, Fiara rolled out from her hiding spot under the bench and immediately ran back towards the weapons rack, returning her own, much more lethal weapon back into its scabbard as she began searching for something useful on the racks that she could use. Unfortunately most of them had been picked over by Santino and hidden through out the gym, so the only ones left that she knew how to use even slightly were a couple shields, some practice throwing knives and what looked like a flail? There were other weapons there as well, but she didn't even know what they were, let alone how to use them. Not sure what she would do with the flail or any of the others, she grabbed a shield to protect herself from Santino's attacks, along with a whole hand full of the fake knives. At most she could use them to toss at him if she felt threatened, or to get him to show himself. Then, going on the offensive, and hiding the majority of her body in a slouched position behind the shield for better effect, she made her way out into the gym, searching for Santino.

There was a long anxiety raising silence before he finally spoke up again, revealing his location to her, "Next question... what do you do if your enemy appears to have the upper hand?" 'Is this just another attempt to get inside my head? Did he already recover from the grenade? No, it's got to be a trick to make me lose confidence. Just ignore him,' she told herself as she made her way over to the lockers.

Suddenly she heard a rustle from above her as she passed near the lockers. She had barely a second to look up, before Santino jumped down and pinned her to the floor, using her slightly hunched forward positioning to send her down onto her stomach with a yelp as she landed, and he quickly restrained her, stepping on both of her hands, as he swung around to tie her feet quickly with some rope that must have been in someone's locker. He then spun about and quickly grabbed hold of her hands, holding both of them tightly behind her back before grabbing one of the daggers she'd dropped, pressing it against the back of her neck as he brought his face down beside her ear and whispered, "You make them think they've won... then, in one quick attack, you bring that tower of self confidence crashing down."

Fiara groaned in a mixture of pain a frustration as she tried to wriggle free from Santino's grip, but it was too strong and too well planned. She could barely move at all. She couldn't even attempt the backwards leg trick that Diego had used on her during their spar, because he had prepared for that as well. With one hand on her left wrist, and his knee on the other so he had one hand free for the knife, and his other leg holding down her feet at the area where he'd bound them, to prevent her from attempting an attack from behind, there was no way she could possibly get out of this hold. She could have head butted him when he whispered to her, but that thought didn't occur to her until he sat up again, taking himself out of range for that attack. He'd won, and they both knew it.

Santino, realizing that Fiara had given up, then slowly released her hands and stood up, freeing her from his weight as he walked over to the light switch and flicked it on, both of them wincing and blinking as their eyes adjusted to the light once more. Fiara banged the ground with her fist in frustration before rolling over and beginning to untie her feet, as Santino stood near the light switch, pinching the bridge of his nose in thought, eyes closed as he seemed to be considering the results of the test.

Once Fiara had successfully removed the rope from her feet, she then rose and began walking over to Santino, looking around at the messy gym as she did so. There were wooden weapons strewn everywhere, and multiple others propped up in various different sections of the room. Meaning Santino had known that she would try to hide near the weapons rack all along, and had hidden weapons in different areas so that he'd never run out, and would be able to get to them at a moment's notice. She then pursed her lips slightly when she realized that she'd lost this fight before she'd even stepped into the room. He'd thought of everything. He knew who was training her, so he knew what sort of tricks and moves to expect from her. She then turned to him asking, "Well... how did I do?" but a sinking feeling in her gut told her she wasn't going to like the answer.