22 The Spar

Arc : One (1.16)

I did promise to serve the country, but I vowed to love you.

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The moment the supervisor started the fight, Yvonne's face was nowhere near the jolly attitude she kept in front of her brothers. Since this is a bare handed spar and Yvonne's specialty was using her hands, she immediately swung her arms to send an attack toward Xael's head.

She was supposed to be starting the fight with light attacks but who would have thought that Xael's eyes would send uncontrollably goosebumps to her skin.

It was blood lust; it was so dense that Yvonne's knees almost give away. As a reflex, Yvonne was left with 'the faster this finish, the better' looked on the things.

Charles was shocked, in his heart; a tint of worry appeared so strongly and then faded away in a heartbeat. It was overthrown with the shocked of Yvonne's ruthlessness and the feeling he encountered earlier.

Most likely, he was sure that he has cleared his feelings but being confused in the last second left a bitter taste in his tongue.

Not only Charles, even the person beside him were experiencing a continuous bad time the moment Xael walked out bare face. The only eye that was left for the outside world to see could only twitch and glare to the men who were obviously drooling over Xael but stabbed her with their poisonous tongue.

He wanted to grab her and nestle her on his embrace to hide her from the world. That woman, she should only let him know her capability, her brilliance but he knew that Xael wouldn't like that especially that right now, he has no rights in doing so.

On the other side, Xael was actually enjoying the spar to the fullest. It has been so long since she has moved her body and it would become rusty if she kept on doing so.

The moment that Yvonne launched her attack, Xael countered it with her feet swatting it with the intent of breaking the bones Yvonne has but she hold back the last minute. If Yvonne earned a broken bone not only will Charles might kill her directly. She might even be accused of hiding a weapon on her body. That would only leave her to either getting naked or bearing a bad name.

In the end, she could only attacked that would bring Yvonne's hand numb. After the first attack, Yvonne quickly jumped backwards as she grabbed her arm. She was surprised that Xael would defend that way.

But before she could take a breather, Xael instantly appeared before her. Her stance was again preparing to swing her legs, this time stronger.

Yvonne put her arms together and put up a defense on her upper body. It was an instinctive move that she developed over the years of her serving her country.

Xael hit Yvonne's wrist inflicting another round of pain to her nerves. Her attacks were deadly but failed to imply a permanent damage to Yvonne. On an amateur's eyes, this must be because of insufficient practice and power, but on a veteran's point of view this was merely a woman playing with another woman.

When he saw that smile on Xael's face while fighting, he finally knew why all this time, something felt missing. That smile, why does it seemed so different this time?

Like his question has been answered, his heart suddenly thumped. Charles gazed at his chest, not believing what's happening, he gripped at it.

Looking back at the scene, Xael was now charging at Yvonne as she releases more kicks. She was just dragging the time and continued to offend in order to corner Yvonne. Not a heartbeat later, Yvonne charged recklessly towards Xael.

She kicked and punched in an uncoordinated way making Xael dodge. Even the soldiers who were cheering earlier were now growing silent as they sensed the strangeness of the fight. They were set on seeing Yvonne win one after another but look like this is the end of that winning strike.

Gaining the right distance, the time Yvonne gathered her remaining strength into a single jab, Xael swiftly slipped her feet and executed a low wheel kick sweeping Yvonne of her feet and into the ground.

As Yvonne landed on her back, Xael ruthlessly pressed on her stomach as she aimed to punch her neck. A punch on the jaw or cheeks might just leave some broken bone but that would hurt me.

Xael smiled and released her attacks only to stop when her fist was almost touching her neck's skin.

"I won," Xael said. She retracted her fist and smiled angelically as if everything that has happened were nothing but a child's play. She stood up patting the dust that was plastered to her clothes when she's moving around.

Silence.

The people around didn't have any time to shout stop as everything just fall into where it was. Those who were able to do so were tongue tied by the blood lust Xael kept on emitting the whole fight.

Naturally, Marshell was happy with the result. In his head, during the time of the spar, Xael has turned into someone not on his grasp to his woman to be. He wanted to embrace her but then remembered her words the last time they met face to face. She didn't say that I can't look at her right? Then...

He mischievously laughed to his self. Why haven't I thought about that before? Ah I'm getting stupid.

Unknown to Marshell, a gaze continuously bore a hole on his face. It was Yvonne; she was looking at him aggrieved and angry that he seemed happy that Xael won instead of her. That slut! Slut! Slut! A dirty woman like her is not worthy for Lieutenant General! She's not! Slut! Slut!

Even when she's still laying flat on the ground, her face was black as coal. That of course, would not be missed out by Xael, as if putting more salt on Yvonne's wounds; she extended her arms saying, "Isn't that fun? I hope we could do this again,"

Xael was totally ignorant on the true hatred from Yvonne's eyes. Eating vinegar caused by the wrong person. The world plot has gone awry again.