Code of Shadows

Unexpected Turbulence (Part 33)

One Manuain came at me before the rest of the group joined the attack. There were five Manuains on the cloud with me. I was bound to get shoved off of the cloud at some point, 5:1 was not a good ratio for success.

These trainees were much more experienced than the Bromley trainees, the odds of me surviving were becoming smaller as time passed. I was being forced towards one of the edges as I continuously blocked strikes and attacks.

I was at the edge now, fighting for the last part of the cloud's surface. The only thing they had to do is shove me off of the cloud, and I would be done for. I saw the strike that would push me over before it came. I twisted out of the way just in time for the sword to miss me by inches. The trainee stumbled forward and I jumped out of the way, but I wasn't quick enough. The Manuae trainee grabbed my leg and went over the edge. I jerked suddenly backwards as the trainees weight finally caught up to me. Both of my feet slipped over the edge at once, and I was falling. I watched as the cloud disappeared from under my feet, and as the shocked expressions of the trainees in front of me. This is what they had wanted, me to go over the edge, but not with one of their teammates.

Then out of no where, my instincts kicked in. I flung my hands upward, and caught the edge of the cloud with both hands. There was a huge jerk as gravity caught up and my fingers slipped, but I kept my hold. The battles around me stopped, and everyone turned to watch. I was barely holding the girl's and my own weight. I was starting to panic. How long could I hold this? I looked down at the girl. Her face was pale and she was trying to climb up my leg to get back onto the cloud. This was not going to work out well. I turn to look down at her.

"Hold on tight, I am going to try to get you onto another cloud," I said. The girl looked up at me and regained her composure for a few seconds.

"Why wouldn't you just drop me, I am not on your team!" She screeched at me.

"I don't know. Idiotic instincts?" I laughed.

She was still frowning. "But it will just hurt your team standings if you help me get back onto another cloud." She squealed as I started to get the momentum to swing her onto another cloud.

"Does it look like I care? There are more important things in life than stupid scores. The scores they mean nothing to me, lives and people are what matter to me."

By this time I had gotten enough momentum to swing the girl onto another cloud. The cloud started to float in, it was going to slowly, and I was loosing even more of my grip.

With a huge burst of energy, I swung the girl towards the cloud, just as I had expected, she let go, and started to scream as she fell. To hit the cloud with half of her body above and half of it below. She hit the cloud with a huff, then caught herself and pulled herself onto the cloud.

There was a moment of confusion, then the girl slowly pulled a guilty looking Dove out of the coverage of the cloud. Dove was struggling to get away, but it was too late, everyone had seen that she was holding the flag in her hand.

The girl looked back at me. "Really, I almost thought that you were telling the truth, but apparently not. You had a plan to sneak behind our defenses the whole time. Taking me over the edge was a part of your plan wasn't it?" I grimaced.

"You think I pulled my arms out of my sockets on purpose?" I asked. "Falling over the edge was not a part of the plan. If I could do this again, I would have done all I could to prevent that." The girl scowled at me. I finally decided to stop hanging down over the edge. With difficulty, I scrambled over the edge and sat there rubbing my arms.

"Oh, really, you would think that I would believe your lies? You cannot trick me twice."

We stared each other down for a few minutes as our clouds slowly neared.