PORTAL TO ANOTHER WORLD (BEFORE THE CORRUPTION)

32.Grace & Isabella (8)

Doc: "How you holding up kid?"

Isabella: "M-my head hurts a little, but other than that I'm fine."

Doc: "Great."

Her concerned expression goes away and changes in to a relieved one.

Doc: "I'll leave you two to talk then."

She leaves the room and with her gone you could only hear Grace's sobs.

Isabella: "Grace..."

You place your hand on her head and start to caress her hair. After she calms down she removes your hand and takes it in to her and squeezes it gently.

Grace: "You almost died you know?"

Silence fills the room but Grace speaks up again.

Grace: "I don't know what your previous master did to your body but it is weak and most cuts will affect you more than any of us... You had some poison in your body too, it probably happened when you received that wound on your hand."

You wanted to say that you are fine now but knowing her and how she seems to care about you, it would only make it worse. You can even see it in her, she wants to scream at you but she is holding it in.

Grace: "I've lost so many people already and losing you..."

Tears start to roll down her cheeks again.

Grace: "...That would be the last thing I'd want to happen."

She hugged you again and it lasted for a while.

Isabella: "What about the others?"

Grace: "Their fine, your in the worst shape."

For a minute you close your eyes and that minute was enough for you to fall asleep.

...I'll always stay by your side...

...It doesn't matter where we are...

...I'll protect you, even if it costs me my life...

...I promise....

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*2 days later*

You wake up and look around you. You were in your masters bedroom again with Grace nowhere to be seen. You breathed in and out, preparing for another nightmare.

You sit yourself on the side of the bed and start to check yourself. The bandages that were all over your body were gone now and the wounds have almost disappeared, your hand was still covered in a bandage but whenever you moved it you didn't feel any pain. After checking yourself you were about to leave but then noticed fresh clothes placed on the other side of the bed. You put them on and left the room.

You decided to go downstairs but before you could, you heard voices outside and got curious. You went to the front window and saw all the girls fighting each other with wooden swords and master with doc watching them.

What are they doing? Why are they fighting?

Master: "Now then, it's time for this training to get serious. Everyone, pick someone you would like to fight against and then we will begin our true training. Grace, you will fight against me."

Grace: "What?"

You giggle at her reaction.

Master: "You have way more skill than the others, it would only be unfair if I let you fight someone else. I would love to know what sort of training you went through."

Grace: "I've been trained enough to survive on my own or lead a group."

Master: "I see, then you and I will go first."

Grace walks out in front of everyone and faces master. Your master places one hand behind her back and holds on to her sword with the other hand.

Master: "I will only attack if I see an opening."

They nod at each other and Grace attacks first. Grace strikes her with all the strength and speed she has but your master blocks everything. Since Grace's attacks didn't work, she changed them into stab attacks which should be way harder to defend against but not for your master. She dodged to the side and tried to hit Grace but it didn't work because Grace blocked her and without waiting another second she started attacking again.

When Grace stabbed again your master dodged again but this time she grabbed Grace by the wrist and threw her away. Grace landed on her back and quickly got up. Grace charged at master again and started attacking, this time master started attacking her after every attack but Grace blocked it everytime no matter which side the attack was coming from. You noticed that Grace was getting a bit exhausted from this relentless attacking and blocking but it seems that it was the only thing she could do.

If you keep this up Grace, you will surely lose but I know that you can think of something.

Soon Grace started using kick attacks to throw your master off balance but it didn't work the way she thought it would and your master caught her foot. All your master had to do was to make her trip and Grace would fall on the ground. Your master mover her sword to Grace's face and smiled. Grace quickly pushed her sword out of the way and pushed herself up and almost placed her wooden sword to your masters neck but got pulled back to the ground rather gently.

Master: "That's it, nice try but that won't work on me."

Grace: "You might of placed your blade near my face but you didn't finish me off and that's your biggest mistake."

Master: "Only the tip of the sword touched me and you already think that you're a winner, if it was a real fight you would have died before it even started but...."

Your master removes her blade from Grace's face and helps her to get up, then places her hand on Grace's head and starts petting her.

Master: "Still, good job, I guess I should never let my guard down around you huh?"

You smile and go downstairs to check if anyone stayed behind. There was no one in the first few cells but when you looked at the end of the room, you gasped and froze in place when you saw "her"....
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