Chaos

Lonely hunter

"Harder..." I huffed.
My head, my arms and legs and back ached- or rather, screamed in pain. Every movement was an excruciating effort. However... I could still stand, I could still fight, and that wasn't good enough.

Elijah stood up straighter, rolling his shoulder back and preparing to hit me again. This time, he swung his foot into my stomach, launching me back about four feet.

I stood my ground upon impact, but stumbled and my legs gave out, causing me to kneel to the ground. I felt blood drain from the open wounds around my head and shoulders. My body felt motivated with pain and hunger- This was exactly the response I was looking for.

"I don't see why you're doin' this to yourself", Elijah jogged in place, retaining the active momentum. He rolled his head and stretched his arms since the beginning of our 'training', but he was yet to put that preparation to work.

"Stop holding back, one more hit."
I stood up and flung my hair back and then grunted as his fist hit my face incredibly hard. It was a nice hit to start, but not nearly hard enough for a fight. I felt the inside of my cheek burst with this bitter iron flowing in my mouth.

I felt I had gotten too soft as of late; too lax with my training. I woke up this morning and spent a good three hours in bed, staring up at the ceiling, not breathing. Not a single breathe was made in those three hours, if that wasn't cause for a wake up call, i don't know what is. My body trembled either in pain, or with latent trauma as I recalled my years of seclusion and suffering.

Now it was my turn to retaliate. I shut out all my pain, pushing through it as I let myself fall backward, flinging myself into a flip that stretched my body. I felt the wounds curdle with blood and pain ricochet throughout my body, that was my motivation. With that, I sprung forward low to the ground and, having misled my opponent, I slid past him on my knees. I stunned him, kicking in his knees and causing him to fall slightly. He attempted to turn around last minute but I already caught his head in my arms over my shoulder. So there I was, back to back, kneeling with Elijah on the ground as I choked him, my arms wrapped behind my back.

My elongated nails we're also stabbed into his shoulders, instigating a shiver pain upon struggle. This was a new move I was attempting, i'd had little time in the labs to refine it, since all my opponents were dead. But here was the finished piece.

If my opponent were anyone else, I could very easily kill them by uncrossing my arms and slicing through their throats with my talons- but this was training, not a fight to the death. I would have to get used to that.

"C-can you... let... go..." Elijah spit out. He grunted and gasped with the effort to breathe. He should have acclimated by this age to deepen his heart rate like most vampires.
"Make me", I said. This was his training, not mine, he was the one going in the ring.

I would've expected him to rise up on his legs, and propel me over his head with a swift motion. The key to this training is to refine your suffering into motivation- as I had; So that whenever you were in a losing situation you ultimately had the upper hand.

Some might call it the cornered wolf, I call it adaptation: My specialty.

Instead, Elijah slumped entirely dropping his shoulders out of the grasp of my fingers and pushed on his legs to fling himself backwards. He was out of my head lock and standing before me. I stood up then as well, licking my razor sharp nails clear of his blood.

"That was an interesting tactic", I told him, picking up my fallen hair tie on the other side of the gym. I flung my hair into a twist and then wrapped it around until it formed a bun atop my head. "Tomorrow is hand-to-hand and speed."

I took a towel and patted my throbbing face. "For now, I need to run more tests on you."
"Chaos please, no more tests-"
"Shut. Up." I growled. It was also mentionable that I had very little tolerance these days- Or, it might've been how puzzled I am with his change. His hair was no longer blonde like i had found him, and his eyes were solid black, and not the light brown i had been acquainted with. His skin hadn't changed much, neither had his dialect, however, this cosmetic transformation is unusual.