by Billy Wong
"Darn it."
They also weren't allowed to spar in class, although Kath got in her share of fight practice with Leroy during their spare time. Since Zack had missed his second chance at the fitness test, he took it now and happily passed. Kath worked harder than ever once their disciplinary period was over and she got to spar again in earnest, often asking two and eventually even three of the advanced students to take her on at once. The greater challenges helped her improve rapidly, yet satisfaction eluded her. She wanted to catch up to Deidre, but didn't feel even close. Granted, the woman had the advantage of quite a few years of experience on her. Leroy continued to challenge her too. She couldn't be sure if he also improved by leaps and bounds, or if he really had been holding back before. But he struggled sometimes to keep up on her good days, and she wondered who would be favored now if they fought all out.
Lieutenant Harris soon called her into his office just as Major Jax had. "You're proving to be quite the talent," he said after they exchanged standard greetings. "Have you decided yet whether or not you intend to continue in the military?"
She hadn't even come close to finishing her schooling yet, and was nowhere near ready to answer. "I don't know. After our adventure, I feel more confident about my ability to stand fast in the face of peril, but I still don't know how I'd feel about holding in my hands the fates of others." Her friends telling her they shared equal responsibility for what happened had helped her get through one of the rougher times, after all.
"But if not in the military, where else could your skills not go to waste?"
Kath shifted on her feet. "Maybe I could become a professional fencer or something."
He rested his heavy gaze on her, a technique these officers seemed to have down pat. "You are progressing well in your non-personal combat studies as well. Those would hardly be relevant to a fencer."
"A lot of people go to school and learn things they don't use." She was getting uncomfortable, in part because she still had the conversation Zack heard between Lieutenant Harris and the mysterious stranger in the back of her mind. Sure there was no way to know if that had actually been someone associated with the kidnappers, and likely wasn't, but she couldn't shake the ghost of suspicion. "Besides, I bet there's something else I could do where I would use more of what I'm learning. What if I became an adventurer?"
"An adventurer? That sounds like the kind of frivolous aspiration I thought you'd have outgrown."
The term on its own did feel a tad immature. But she said, "It wouldn't have to be seeking adventure without purpose. I could do it for a specific cause, like being a monster hunter protecting people from them, and maybe gather together others interested in the same goal."
"That sounds more practical than I expected," he acknowledged. "But wouldn't that involve being a leader which you claim to be wary of doing?"
"In the military I assume I'd have more authority over the people under me. My idea, comrades would only join me voluntarily and I would let them have more of an equal say in what they do."
"It is not so bad a proposal. If this is what you decide, I wouldn't fault you much."
She relaxed a little and smiled. "Well, I haven't decided yet. I still have a long time to go before needing to make a decision. But thanks for being understanding."
In the following days, however, the instructors tried to plant a more favorable impression of military service into her head. It was fairly subtle, but the way they singled her out for questions that emphasized the capability of officers to save lives and minimize suffering as well as earn enviable rewards didn't escape her notice. It made her feel more negative towards being in the military, actually. If they tried to manipulate her mind now, how much more might they do so when she actually served?
As much as she strove to better herself, she also spent a lot of time helping Zack out. She didn't want him to fall behind and not do as well as he possibly could, so she pushed him to refine his fighting skills and continue strengthening his body. Sometimes he got frustrated by her nudging, and once ran away in tears when she tossed him in wrestling practice a few too many times in a row. She wondered if she was wrong to push so hard, and should ease off. She asked her other friends for their thoughts.
"Nothing wrong with it," Leroy said, "those throws were no big deal. We wouldn't be strong if we didn't push hard, so if he wants to improve..."
Marty agreed, "I don't think you're wrong—although, you don't act very differently from a military officer towards him. Maybe it is your calling after all."
"Ha ha. I just want him to succeed. I'm sure he'll see the merits of hard work when it shows in the results."
"Or he might blow a joint training too hard," Quinn said.
"Way to be positive." She supposed being a naysayer went well with imagining ulterior motives in everyone, though.
Over the next weeks, reports came of increasing monster activity in the area. Quinn theorized they were made up to put the students on edge, but the staff seemed to take them seriously as they pushed back the first student field patrols from their announced times. Finally, however, it was decided to go ahead with them. The instructors determined the members of each group, teaming more impressive students with less impressive ones to create some semblance of balance. Kath's team included Zack, Quinn, and three other boys of middling standing. Major Larson assigned them a specific path to follow, and gave them flags to place along the way so they could be checked later.
"This is so boring!" a pale, easily sunburnt boy named Bret complained as they trudged through tall yellow brush in the afternoon a few miles from school. "What's the point of wandering around sticking flags in the dirt?"
"If you were on alert looking out like you're supposed to be," Kath replied, "you'd probably feel less bored. There are more monsters about than usual, so we should stay focused."
Quinn said, "But that's probably fake news meant to make us pay more attention."
"Let's just pretend it's real for now."
A while later, they were about to put another flag down when Zack asked, "Hey, do you hear that?"
Kath's ears only picked up the wind blowing through the brush. "Hear what?"
"That rustling... there it is again! Don't you hear it?"
"It's just the wind. Don't w-" At the last moment, she realized the latest gust of wind had stopped, and yet the rustling still sounded from behind Zack. "Duck!" He threw himself down in the nick of time, just before a spinning blade flew over his head towards Kath. She deflected it with her sword, and it scythed through many stalks of brush before landing on the ground. "Who is it?" She expected whoever had thrown it to emerge, and prepared to fight. But instead the blade flew off the ground back towards where it'd come from, disappeared into the weeds. Was that a chain attached to it?
"Was it monsters?" tall, straw-haired Will asked, fists nervously clenched.
Kath stared in the direction where the blade had gone. She wanted to chase after it, but couldn't leave the others undefended. "If it was a monster, it would probably continue attacking. But it's gone."
"Maybe it's just the instructors trying to scare us," Quinn said.
"If I hadn't told Zack to duck, he'd be missing his head. It wasn't them."
Zack blanched. "Do you think this was related to the attempts to kidnap me? But they wanted me dead and Parr certainly didn't, at least not right away..."
"I don't know. I suppose it could be someone who knows Parr and is trying to get revenge for him... they could also not have purposely been targeting you and just picked one of us to try and kill at random."
"Why would they do that?" Bret asked.
"I have no idea. Anyway, since they seem to be gone now, let's keep going and finish the mission."
They continued tensely onward and planted the rest of the flags. After returning to school, they reported the attack, but the instructors said they couldn't really do anything other than stay alert and remind everyone to do the same. When the group of friends got back together at dinner, they
discussed the issue. "Zack almost got his head taken off during the patrol by a thrown blade, whose owner fled as soon as the attempt failed," Kath said for Leroy and Marty's benefit. "Think it has to do with Lord Parr trying to kidnap him, or could it be an unrelated threat just trying to kill students?"
Marty looked with sympathy at the still shaken Zack, who picked disinterestedly at his food. "I don't want to make anyone worry unnecessarily if I'm wrong... but the fact they picked Zack specifically out of six people makes it seem unlikely to be a coincidence."
Kath would have proposed that Zack could have been chosen based on looking like an easy target, but a blade to the unsuspecting neck would kill anybody and Zack hadn't even been the smallest person in the group. The fifth boy, a ginger named Tomas, was as short and thinner. "I'm afraid you're probably right."
"So what now?" Zack asked. "I doubt running home will prove to be the solution again."
"We should keep a closer eye on you from now on—at least one out of me and Leroy probably needs to stay near you at all times."
"But they might want to separate us for some of the exercises," Leroy said. "What then? Even the strongest warrior can't save someone if they aren't there."
"I'll talk to Lieutenant Harris about it. Since he seems pretty favorable towards me, if I give him a hint that I might be more willing to consider military service, he may put in a word for us."
"That, and you could emphasize how bad it would look if another student died here this year," Marty added.
Zack held his face in his hands. "Why is this happening? Why me again? Kath was the one most responsible for bringing Lord Parr down, why am I the target?" He paused. "I mean, I don't want anything bad to happen to you Kath. But you'd be much more equipped to handle someone trying to kill you. You guys can't watch me every single second of every minute no matter how good you are, and if the assassin happens to be there the one moment you slip up..."
Kath squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, don't have so little regard for yourself. Me and Leroy aren't the only warriors here. Didn't you just recently say you feel stronger? You've been training for a while with us now, and have improved a lot. So instead of putting your life completely in our hands, why don't you believe a bit in yourself and resolve not to go quietly without a fight?"
"But I would already be dead if you hadn't saved me..."
"You told me about the rustling first and I just followed your lead, so you did your part. Besides, that was just one time. Who knows you won't save me next time?"
"Seems unlikely based on history and me being the one targeted."
She smiled. "You saved me a lot of time jump-starting my reputation by dragging me on your adventure. I'm thankful for that."
After a second, he realized she was joking, and they shared a laugh which lightened the mood. Kath talked to Lieutenant Harris and convinced him to let either her or Leroy accompany Zack all the time, though that arrangement got awkward at times such as when they had to follow him to the bathroom. No further attacks occurred at school, and they dared to hope it'd been an isolated incident. But if they did want to kill any random student, why didn't they attack anyone else? Unless they just targeted people outside, rather than students in particular. That was another possibility.
They were assigned to do outdoor drills again, which put the friends on edge. "Can I go with Zack this time, or do you insist?" Leroy asked.
Even though she was tempted to choose the latter, she knew she should give her friends some credit and not act like she was their mother. "You can go. I trust you, hero."
"Heh. If the assassin throws that blade at Zack again, I'll try to yank them forward by the chain and then beat the piss out of them."
Kath grinned. "That's exactly what I've thought about doing. You might be more suited to it actually, being heavier."
Nonetheless, as she patrolled with her own group, she couldn't stop worrying about Zack. She wanted to be there too, even though she regarded Leroy as a peer. If they could both take on the assassin, that should be a glorious beating. At least, unless the assassin was formidable beyond her expectations, but then why would they avoid engaging her before?
She rushed her team to complete the patrol quickly, wishing to get back to the school to await Leroy and Zack. They already stood in the courtyard, and she breathed a sigh of relief that they were safe. But then she saw the looks of aggravation on their patrolmates' faces, the slightly flustered one on Leroy's, and the mix of fear and shame on Zack's. "What happened?" she asked.
"Assassin attacked as expected," Leroy said. "I couldn't catch the chain because the blade came in lower, so I couldn't tell Zack to duck and had to jump in to deflect it with my sword. But after it pulled away, a voice cackled from the brush and told Zack, 'Your friends can't shield you forever, your last day is nigh.' Then Zack refused to keep patrolling and ran back here. Thus we failed the task, were made to do a hundred push-ups as punishment, and everybody is annoyed."
Kath kind of expected Zack to whine that he didn't want to be here anymore or something, and for her and the others to have to convince him otherwise. She feared he was regressing towards his old weak self. But instead he looked up at his comrades and said, "Sorry for putting you all through that. It's completely my fault, I can't blame anyone else for it, and I don't know if there's much I can do to make it up to you. But I promise I'll try harder next time to keep my cool, and not get carried away by my emotions." Even though he hadn't handled the situation well, Kath felt a little proud of him that he at least owned up to it.
Leroy slapped his back. "You're forgiven this time. I could've grabbed you and carried you for the rest of the patrol, anyway."
The other boys didn't seem as quick to forgive, however, and stomped away with harsh glances back at Zack. "You do need to try and actually follow through with that promise, though," Kath said. "Not only because others are going to look down upon you if you don't, but if you keep failing assignments..."
"I know. Just that I wasn't expecting him to talk, and his words got to me. I really wish we could catch him soon."
"We'll find a way. Actually... I think I may have an idea now."
The next time they did patrols, Kath made sure she was teamed with Zack. Sure, she could have told Leroy the idea, but it might not come across as clearly as she pictured it in her mind. She listened carefully while they walked and waited. At last, as they passed between stands of small trees, she heard a scraping sound from the right. She threw Zack out of the way while sidestepping the flying blade herself, grabbed the chain attached to its hilt. She tugged. A cloaked man stumbled forward a few steps from behind a tree, then rolled towards her and threw a pair of daggers. Kath dodged, but let go of the chain so the assassin was able to pull the weapon back to his hand. He dashed at her with a thrust. She parried, spun behind him and tried to slash his back, but he was moving forward too fast and out of range before she could connect. She got a better look at him. He seemed no taller than her, probably not heavier either, but moved his feet with rare quickness as he began to circle her. He had small, sharp eyes, rough leathery skin around them, and the rest of his face was concealed by a lower face mask with pointy curved teeth which stuck forward. A braided ponytail hung down his back.
"You all go on," Kath said, "finish the patrol. I'll be right behind you."
The other four boys with her started away, but Zack stood fast. "Shouldn't I stay? I want to help."
"Nah. I got this." Reluctantly, he followed the others. Kath appreciated his desire to contribute, but she planned to use whatever methods were needed to make the assassin reveal who sent him. Though Zack might be growing more mature, she still had doubts whether he was ready to see that. Heck, she might not be ready to do it. But at least, that was the plan. She rushed the man. He jumped back from a cut and threw his curved sword—unexpected that he did it again so soon, but she deflected it without trouble. "Signature attack, huh? Not wise to be too predictable with it. Who are you?"
"I am Ja
gor." An exotic name. "Your friend's existence no longer coincides with my employer's goals, so the time has come to end him."
"Your employer? Do you mean Lord Parr?" And if so wasn't he supposed to be in prison, if not executed by now?
"Sorry, that's all you're going to get." Jagor attacked. He fought in a style she'd never seen before, constantly switching his weapon from hand to hand and between single and double handed grips, and was quick as a cat. A stab got past her defenses and grazed her breast as she barely twisted away, then a low slice laid open her thigh. But then she plowed forward and after putting him on his heels with a heavy flurry, punched him in the throat. He backpedaled and purposely fell away just in time to avoid being disemboweled, though her sword point still drew a red line across his belly. He rolled up with narrowed eyes.
"Why did you tell me everything you did in the first place?" she asked. "Your name and your employer 'no longer' needing Zack alive might be strong clues."
"Nobody knows my name. Besides, you won't live long enough to use any information from me."
"Oh? I think you'd be surprised." They exchanged more blows. She ripped his shoulder badly with an upward stroke in exchange for a poke to her hip, driving him back. He threw his sword again and ran in after it, hitting her with a dropkick to the chest after she dodged the blade. She caught him by the ankles following his boots to her bosom and swung him spine-first into a tree.
He rolled away from her downward chop and to his feet, but bent momentarily with pain. "How are you a woman?"
Not this again! She pressed him relentlessly, chasing him around trees under a rain of cuts. He grabbed onto a thin trunk and spun around it in an attempt to attack her back, but she caught him and slammed him against it so hard it cracked. "How are you a man, getting manhandled by a teenage girl? Am I not allowed to lift ponies and bend horseshoes? A real man would just call me healthy."
She turned him away from the tree and threw him down, but he landed a knee to her chin along the way that snapped her head back and she went dazedly to one knee. He darted in to take advantage, but she used the tip of her sword to flick dirt from the ground at his eyes and he slowed. He managed to block when she lunged up with a slash at his midriff; she stuck a foot behind one of his and half tripped, half shoved him down. Her blade swept down. Jagor moved his head out of the way, kicked her in the face and stood up. "So brutish. Do you always fight like this?"