Don't Forget

21. Boom

Mirielle was my bodyguard for the day. Over the past couple days, my friends had rotated though who would watch over me: Maion and Cassiel the day it happened, Rian Wednesday, and now Mirielle today. Because Friday was the Coliseum Battle, no one could skip it to be at my side, but I promised to stick by the professors.

            My training had to stop. At least, I couldn't train with Jarek anymore. He had to focus on his own training for the Coliseum Battle. So I practiced on my own. I spent my copious amount of free time sparring dummies and aiming for moving targets.

            Since Professor Arek Norsta spent this week before the battle with the vampires to prepare them, my class with her was canceled until the next week. The homework load lightened, without so much busywork and more long-term projects. Which meant I trained on my own every day, with one of my friends watching me over their shoulder.

            When they learned that I was practicing offensive tactics, my friends just nodded. They said they understood my desire to learn. After all, my life was now in danger, and being able to protect it to some extent made sense to the war-centric beings.

            While Mirielle trained with the vampires, I sat at a distance just watching. I tried to work on a book report that was due the following week, but I was mesmerized by the next-level training the third-year vampires were going through.

            The gym had been transformed into a desert landscape. There were no places to hide, no shadows to blend into—the vampires had to go against their nature to stalk and sneak, forced into the open. It was fascinating to watch.

            They used their speed and agility to outmaneuver their opponents. Mirielle Lefevre, whose specialty was tracking, was especially talented at the lesson. She would lure her opponent close to her and then disappear from sight, only to reappear behind her adversary. I could have sworn she teleported. Once behind them, she would either sweep their feet, pin their arm, or kick the side of their knee. Somehow, she would knock them to the dirt and then race off to another opponent.

            I picked up on her patterns. Thanks to Shar's lessons—that every class of creature had their habit, and every individual creature had their pattern—I noticed it: she targeted the distracted vampires. If they were trailing someone else, or trying to find someone to attack, she went for them. She relied on her speed and her ability to trick her adversary.

            I tried to find her weakness too. It felt almost like a betrayal, to find the chinks in my friend's armor. But Shar had told me that monitoring oneself was important: if you knew your weaknesses, you could improve yourself.

            Mirielle favored moving to the left. I wondered if it was perhaps because most people were right-handed and defaulted to right movements. She also preferred attacking from behind. If her enemy could predict that—turn around to the left—she could be easily defeated.

            My eyes widened. Was this how Shar ranked first in the Coliseum Battles? Could he figure out these weakness that fast and exploit them effortlessly? After sparring with the fallen angel, I wouldn't put it past him.

            A sigh escaped my lips. I rested my elbow on my thigh and my chin in my palm. My lips jutted out in a pout.

            Since the threat against my life and the school, I hadn't thought much about his subtle rejection. I kept telling myself that I knew the answer even before I had asked, but that didn't stop the hurt. Shar was every human girl's dream: tall, dark, and handsome, not to mention a literal angel with wings. Of course, he was dangerous and mysterious, which only added to his allure.