The training ground was further than the lake we stopped at this morning, but I could still see it and the water fall clearly. The space was wide open with clearly defined sparring circles marked in the dirt and the grass. The dirt patches were dry and full of rocks and pebbles which would suck to get taken down on, but I guess in a real fight there won’t be padding and pillows to catch our falls.
Beyond the sparring circles were more of the ropes and climbing courses like what we have at the compound, although the ropes seem to be placed closer together here probably making the training easier here. There are a few more cargo nets and platforms built into trees. I like the idea that they are using the surrounding area for naturally occurring things to train with. It makes the training more realistic for sure.
Mina wastes no time finding a sparring circle in the grass. “Alright, you said you wanted to work on your ground work, let’s see what you’ve got.” “We aren’t going to warm up first?” I ask stalling a little at her abrupt stance.
“Nah. We aren’t really going to go that hard and let’s be honest if we ever do fight our enemies won’t wait for us to be properly warmed up to kick their asses, they will just attack.” Okay, she’s not wrong.
I move to the circle and watch her closely. She moves like a cat, lithe and deliberate. She’s studying me as much as I am studying her. When she finally realizes I will not make the first move she lunges right at my torso. This is the obvious choice since I mentioned ground work, she wants to take me down right away since I identified it as a weakness. I hold my ground for as long as I can. She is taller than me, like most people, but I think I have more weight than she does. She’s built lean like a runner, long graceful muscles that you don’t really see on a warrior very often.
We continue to move together, no punches are being thrown, this is strictly grappling to gain dominance and ground the opponent. Arms are flying, hands grabbing, but neither of us can keep hold long enough to get the other to submit. She finally gets her leg around to sweep mine, but I counter as we both go down and she doesn’t expect me to roll the way that I do and I end up straddling her stomach while she tries to buck me off and I am desperately holding onto her wrists, but we are both so sweaty at this point that it’s hard to maintain my grip.
Just when I think she is going to give a feral growl rips through the clearing and the next thing I know, I’m being thrown out of the circle we are sparring in and all hell breaks loose.
I hit my head and for a second can only see stars, but I can hear the growling and snapping of jaws, claws ripping up the ground. I shake my head and look around again. There are five wolves, bigger than I have seen before outside of the Alphas and Betas I know. They look rough and mangy like they live in their wolf form and they reek something awful, old blood and death wafting out of their open jaws.
I quickly get up and run for the wolf who has managed to pin Oscar by the back of the neck. I don’t even think about the consequences, he can’t die, that would destroy Xander and I can’t allow that. I jump and throw my full body weight at him. It’s not much but enough to knock him over since he didn’t see me coming and Oscar jumps up bleeding from the neck, but he doesn’t even check it before tearing through his clothes to shift and comes after this large dark gray wolf that now has me in his sights.
Once he’s distracted I look for Mina, who has already shifted into her russet colored wolf and is fending off two wolves right now. The other two rogues seem to be standing guard or waiting to engage for some reason. I keep them in my line of sight as I run towards Mina shifting in midair. I land on the lighter of the two wolves, they all seem to be different shades of gray. We go rolling and I maintain my dominance by grabbing the scruff of his neck and biting hard, tasting the metallic flavor of blood. It’s disgusting and yet invigorating at the same time. I feel more powerful knowing I injured him right away and so forcefully. He rolls over and tries to pin me with his bulk forcing me to let go and roll away. This was the exact reason I wanted to train with Mina. Now it seems like a great oversight in my training and that blame lies solely on me for not pursuing it before.
