Chapter 6

So, what do we do now sis?" Senro asked in despondence after a short while of unnerving silence.

More silence. There was no reply or response of any sort from Sasha.

"Sasha, the plan is not working, what do we do?" Senro asked again.

There was still no reply from Sasha. Impatience and irritation was beginning up in Senro now.

"Sasha, wh-"

"I'm thinking, shut up!!!" Sasha cut him short with what sounded as something close to a yell.

Senro tilted his head to the side to glance at his sister's facial expression. His sister who always had on a calm and composed demeanor even in difficult situations, now had a tint of flustration and frustration etched on her face. Her thick brows were tightly furrowed, her left thumbnail was deeply ingrained in-between her teeth and her eyes were fixated intensely to the floor as if she wanted to bore a hole right through it. She was completely and utterly lost in deep thought about what their next course of action should be.

'Well, who could blame her?' Senro thought to himself, as he scratched his head before briefly running his hand through his dreadlocks and sighing deeply.

They had both thrown every single attack and onslaught they could come up with at the opponent, not giving her single moment of respite. They had been completely in sync and following up on each other's attacks without a second of delay. They had followed the plan to a tee, with not even an ounce of deviation. There was nothing wrong with the plan. Truly, the strategy wasn't bad in no way whatsoever. It's just that the opponent was too good and on a completely different level compared to adversaries they had faced so far. The good thing was that they had limited the opponent's attack options to a bare minimum, with her only managing one counter attack so far, completely placing her on the defensive with their fast paced combos, which had protected and ensured them from suffering any significant damage yet. But, Senro knew deep down in his mind that things were definitely not working out well for both of them.

The stamina and endurance level of both him and Sasha combined was non-existent and miles behind compared with their opponent's. Senro knew this all too well and he was definite that Sasha was aware of this fact as well. If they continued dishing out attacks upon attacks with no significant and positive result coming their way, it would only be a matter of time before they run out of breath and get sloppy, thereby presenting to the opponent the perfect, gift wrapped advantage needed in order to offer to both of them a glorious ass whopping.

"Wait, hold on a second. That might actually be her strategy all along." Senro whispered to himself in muttered breaths, as he covered his lips with his right hand. He was sixty percent positive right about now that he had just figured out the opponent's strategy.

He had always thought that due to his attempted slash from before, which slightly nicked the opponent's neck and he and Sasha fast paced attacks, the opponent had no choice but to focus mainly on defense and wait for any slight opening available, but now that he thought about it critically, what if she placed herself on the defensive on purpose in order to conserve her energy and follow the pragmatic approach of playing the waiting game? Wait for both of them to tire out from their repetitive attacks and strike like a viper, taking them both out easily and conveniently.

A cold shiver broke out all over his body like as if the temperature in the hall suddenly dipped. The more he thought this, the more he believed it to be true and he began to feel more and more despondent by the second.

...........................................

The opponent slowly and in no hurry whatsoever, rose to her feet from the cold, hard floor. She brushed her dainty hand gently through her dark, curly, short hair, as she observed the sibling pair ahead of her. The look of despondence was so evident on both of their faces, that even a person with visual impairment would notice it as clear as daylight. Their faces were so crumpled, like a face of one who had mistakenly chewed animal dung.

"Mmmhh!!"

Before the opponent lips could form a smirk due her discovery however, she silently winced in pain, as a sharp jolt of pain shot through her right arm, which bore the full brunt of Sasha's kick, morphing into a painful sensation which flooded her right arm. Though she did manage to block the kick, it was a last second save and it was done haphazardly. There was no time to put adequate strength to the block, which was now resulting to the sharp pain she was feeling.

"My, oh, my, this brats sure are a handful." The opponent silently whispered to herself.

A loving, sweet smile then suddenly and out of nowhere emerged on her face, as she stared at Senro's and Sasha's despondent faces. The smile was so beautiful and pure, like a flower blooming in summer and producing the sweet scent of freshness that's intoxicating to the soul. The smile didn't last for long though, for after up to three seconds the smile vanished from her face. The opponent then snorted and silently said to herself "Grace sure did a fantastic job training this kids, for both of them at their age to be able to slightly pressure me like this. I guess I can't stay on the defensive for much longer."

Senro's hunch was correct. The opponent's strategy all along was to conserve her energy and be on the defensive for as long as possible until the sibling pair tire out, before she responds by unleashing her own barrage of attacks on them. It was the easiest way to take them out, for she knew she had a far better stamina and endurance capability than both of them and her nimble movements could sharply evade their assaults. But now, the opponent changed her mind. She was no longer going to bide her time and stay on the defensive. Senro and Sasha's attacks were too coordinated and getting quicker and hard to predict by the second, which was giving her a tough time to evade and block. It was really nerve-wracking for her to be on the defensive with those two raining down attacks upon attacks on her. Besides that wasn't even her best suit anyways, as she was more built for offence. And how did that saying go again? The greatest mode of defense is offense, right?

The opponent tilted her neck from side to side, giving off a slight 'crack, crack' sound, noticed the sibling pair lost in thought about whatever and launched herself at their location, this time around taking the initiative to attack first.

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Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap

Before Senro could sink deeper into his thoughts, he was suddenly alerted by the sound of rapid footsteps of someone running really fast to his and his sister's location, the sound inching ever closer. He jerked his head forward, only to discover the opponent dashing towards them breakneckingly, at a speed that would even put a cheetah to shame. She had already covered a full distance of a hundred and twenty meters in just a few seconds and just eighty meters away from their location.

Senro immediately tightened his grip on his dagger, as if to spur some needed confidence back into him. He then glanced at Sasha, who also glanced back at him in the same fashion. Immediately their eyes met, they nodded in unison, as if reaching to an unspoken agreement, vigorously directed their sights back to the opponent and charged towards her, accelerating at full speed from the get go without any hesitation.

Since, there was no time to think up a new strategy, they just had to go with what they were using before and hope that things would work out well for both of them.