The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Vera-

I opted for a simple outfit for the battle; leggings, a sports bra, and a fitted t-shirt. I also go barefoot i

of my trainings, and really, this is pretty much that to me.

When I get to the courtyard, accompanied by Eli and Caleb, Noah is already there and he meets us at the door.

He stands in front of me, taking my face in his hands and giving me a quick kiss. This is the first time we display any form of affection in front of everyone, but I guess he's done caring about politics. "Are you ready?" He asks.

"Always," I smile up to him.

Soon, the courtyard becomes crowded as we are all waiting for Violet and Cecil to make their grand appearance.

The lights in the room dim after a few minutes and the doors from their side swing open dramatically

"Oh goddess," I moan, experiencing second hand embarrassment for such theatrics.

"For fuck's sake," I hear Eli grunt.

I've noticed Eli is a purist when it comes to fighting, all of this nonsense is not only unnecessary, but also distracting; and not in a good way.

I turn to Noah who is wrinkling his nose at their entrance.

"V, if you don't win, I'm taking them out myself," he says, frowning at their attempt at intimidation.

I huff.

"You wish,*" I say.

I take his hands from my face and lower them, then I make my way to the center of the courtyard, where an outline has been drawn to simulate a fighting ring.

I begin stretching, cracking my neck, arms, and back.

I don't need theatrics; I just need this thing to be over soon.

When Violet finally emerges from the crowd, who have taken their time to cheer for her, pat her in the back, and encourage her, she comes to meet me at the center; my ears once again ringing lightly. I c**k my head to a side, analyzing her and trying to figure out what about her is magical; it's *on* her, but not really coming *from* her, if that makes sense.

Then, she takes off her robe and tosses it to the side, revealing her outfit.

Oh goddess.

She can't be serious.

I raise an eyebrow and behind me I hear someone laugh explosively, only to cover up the laughter with coughing. Of course, it was Eli.

She is wearing full body armor; heavy metal, chunky boots and all.

"You really should have worn a little more protection, mutt," she says, her voice aggressive.

I raise an eyebrow.

"You do realize all that shit does is slow you down, right? I mean, no offense, but it's not like you have the muscle tone to carry all that," I say, not at all impressed with her trash talk. She growls, her lycan swirling in her eyes.

I know now that this battle will be really easy. A good fighter never loses its temper, especially not at the beginning of the battle. You might as well expose your neck to me and be done with it.

"Thank you all for joining us as witnesses of this fight, where Vera, His Highnesses' mate has challenged Violet, of the House Cerulean, for the right to the throne and the King's hand in marriage," William begins talking, "each fighter has the right to use one weapon and one weapon only, there will be no swaps and there will be no replacement if the weapon were to be damaged. There will be no outside interference and there will be no time limit to this fight. The first person to submit the other, will be declared the winner. Are we all in agreement?" He asks, looking at Cecil and Noah, who simply nod. "Both parties are in agreement," he raises his arm. Begin!"

The crowd goes wild, chanting Violet's name.

"Doc!" Eli says, tossing me my spear.

Oh, how I missed it.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

I grab it while Violet unsheathes a golden sword with her family crest on it.

She laughs,

"You think you can defeat me with that? Please."

She launches her first attack.

Even with her bravado, her technique and choices make it painfully obvious that she's inexperienced in actual combat.

I roll my eyes and easily dodge her every attack.

"Go for the neck!" Someone chants in the crowd.

"Kill her!" Someone else says.

Even if the comments are meant to throw me off, all they're doing is distracting Violet.

After a few minutes, Violet is getting noticeably tired from trying to attack me as she's carrying such heavy armor. Rookie.

"Come on, mutt! Stop running away!" She yells, almost panting.

Something is off with her, I had never seen her this worked up, not even when I called her out during the dinner. That day, she simply excused herself nervously; this Violet seems like a completely different person. "And ruin the fun? No way," I say, dodging her again and again.

After about twenty minutes have passed, she's panting heavily; the crowd getting exasperated.

"Finish her!" They chant, as if they're not witnessing the same fight I am. This girl will sooner drop dead from exhaustion than land a punch on me.

"Stop." She swings her sword, "running," her sword hits the ground, "away," she swings her sword again, "from me!" she roars, as her sword, unsurprisingly, misses me again.

As she's panting with her sword on the ground, I smirk.

Fine. If she's so desperate to end this.

I run closer to her and her eyes go wide as they lose me for a moment. I have run behind her and before she understands what happened, my spear is cutting her cheek. It's a superficial wound, but enough to draw quite a bit blood.

I did promise Lucas I wouldn't hurt her, but she'll heal before he sees her again anyway.

I quickly step away from her, having that first cut only be a warning. She can end this any time before she gets seriously injured.

The crowd goes silent.

She straightens her posture, letting her sword fall to the ground. Her eyes are wide, like a rabid animal's, as her hand slowly goes to her cheek where she feels the warm blood.

She's looking straight at me.

"I WILL KILL YOU!" She yells, taking off her armor in one swift movement, and turning into her lycan.

Well, I poked the bear, what did I expect?

Female lycans, unlike males, are slightly smaller and thinner, built for speed rather than brute force. I know from my experience, that they pack a weaker punch, but are much faster than their counterparts.

She roars furiously as she charges at me, full speed and full force. I am still able to dodge her, but such intensive workout will tire me out quickly; I need to put an end to this.

As she's attacking, she's once again not using the proper technique since she leaves too may openings for me to attack her.

When she launches her fists forward, trying to grab me, I kick her feet. As she tries to kick me, I jump and kick her in the face. Of course, this only angers her more, and if I really want to submit her, I might have to go back on the promise I made to Lucas. This time, when she attempts to kick me, I jump up on her leg, using her kick as leverage to jump over her and land on her shoulders. I begin punching her in the head with all my might, as she desperately thrashes and claws at me, managing to injure my legs with her claws so I retreat, bleeding.

Screw it.

I'm sorry, Lucas.

I grab my spear from the ground where I had placed it and charge at her full force. She tries to stop me with her paws but she can't and I come into her stomach with the back of my spear, knocking the wind out of her. She falls to her knees, trying to gasp for air. I run at her again and kick her two times, right on her face.

She spits out blood and I kick her again on the other side of her face.

I keep coming at her, retreating every other kick to assess my position and where to attack next. The next two to three minutes, I attack her mercilessly, kicking her head, chest, shoulders, arms, until she's no longer even trying to protect herself.

On the final kick, I get her straight in her face, feeling a crunch on the ball of my foot of her bones breaking.

She falls forward to the floor face down, turning back to her human form, clearly unconscious.

I'm panting.

Maybe this was a little more intense than training, after all.

The crowd is once again deadly silent.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I notice a figure moving towards me, but it's too late. It lands a heavy punch right to the side of my face, sending me flying out of the fighting ring.