The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (20 page)

Sasha had difficulties drawing the bow string back by
hand, and before she was able to get it set, it snapped back on her
fingers, leaving her with a horizontal red mark across her left
hand.

Skylar hadn’t been paying attention when Gumptin
talked about being prepared for the recoil after a shot was taken,
and as a result, she was not prepared and ended up with a good
sized bruise on her shoulder.

Avery, whose aim was still impeccable, hadn’t
expected the trigger on the crossbow to be as delicate as it was,
causing her to accidentally fire before she had lifted the crossbow
up to her shoulder. As a result, it fired while she was holding it
at chest level, giving herself a bruise to match Skylar’s right
above her right breast.

Avery was still rubbing at her bruise when she
witnessed Bunny make the worst mistake of the day. Bunny had just
been handed the crossbow, and while she was jokingly asking Avery
for any tips on how to avoid personal injury, she unintentionally
fired the crossbow; sending one of the sharp crossbow bolts sailing
into a tree trunk centimeters from Gumptin’s head. Even though
Bunny apologized profusely, she wasn’t allowed to use the crossbow
any more that day, and Avery guessed probably ever again.

Jade, however, did more than exceptionally well,
liking the fact that unlike the bow and arrow, she didn’t have to
use both hands if she didn’t want too.

After finishing up their mostly disastrous crossbow
training, the girls were hoping that they were done for the day.
They couldn’t imagine what else Gumptin could possibly have them
do.

“Can we please go home now?” Avery whined, longing to
leave the clearing and all of its tortures behind.

Gumptin sighed, “You five never complained this much
before, not even you, Jade.”

Jade was sitting on a large rock, looking far too
exhausted to give Gumptin any sort of sarcastic reply.

“You may leave after the final training exercise.”
Gumptin told them, “It is time to take what you have learned and
put it into practice. You will spar one on one with each
other.”

“Spar?” Jade asked, “You mean you want us to fight
each other?”

Gumptin nodded, “That is correct. I will give you
each a wooden sword and pair you up against one another. The first
person to make what would be considered a killing blow shall
win.”

“Hell, I’m down with that.” Jade said, jumping off of
her rock with new found enthusiasm.

There was no way Avery could think of that this was
going to go well. They were tired, sore, and grumpy, and now they
were suppose to beat each other up.

Gumptin was wearing his usual oversized belt with at
least seven different small pouches tied and attached to it. He
undid a purple velvet pouch with a gold string and untied it.
Inside the pouch was a bright red powder that he used to create a
giant circle outline, ten feet in diameter.

“You must stay inside the red circle.” He told them,
“You win the match if you inflict your opponent with what would be
a killing blow, or you get them outside of the circle.”

Gumptin handed each of them a wooden sword, “Jade and
Skylar, you two go first.”

Jade stepped into the circle, twirling her sword
around in her hand. Avery could tell she was excited. This was
Jade’s element; she loved competition, and she loved fighting.
Avery was sure Jade would have chosen to go against Bunny or Sasha,
preferring to kick their ass, but she would make do with
Skylar.

Skylar stepped into the circle, across from Jade. She
didn’t seem as enthusiastic about it as Jade was, but didn’t
complain about it either. Skylar dealt with it the same way she
handled most everything, with a light and flighty approach. She
danced around in a small circle, stretching her long legs out one
at time. She stretched her neck and moved her shoulders around,
like a dancer warming up for a performance.

“You’re going down, trailer trash!” Skylar threw out
a little pre-fight trash talk. Skylar was one of the only people
Jade let call her trailer trash. Mainly, because Jade liked Skylar,
and she knew Skylar meant it lovingly. She just had a crazy way of
showing her affection.

Jade just smiled and set her body into its fighting
stance. She let Skylar have her trash talk, confident enough to
know that the outcome of the fight would speak for itself.

Jade went on the attack right from the start. She
lunged at Skylar, striking at her left side with her sword. Skylar
twirled to the right, avoiding Jade’s initial strike. She raised
her sword up quickly to protect her body as Jade swung around,
swiping at Skylar’s mid-section. Skylar brought her left knee up
and kneed Jade hard in the back, right where her ribs were located.
Jade grimaced, arching her back slightly. That was all it took to
piss Jade off past the point of trying to make it a prolonged
fight. Jade bent her knees and then back flipped through the air,
landing directly behind Skylar. Before Skylar had time to
appropriately react, Jade reached around Skylar’s chest with her
right arm. Then, with all her strength, Jade swung her body hard
into Skylar’s. Placing her left hand on Skylar’s back, Jade,
literally, flipped Skylar’s body up over her head. A second before
Skylar’s body hit the ground; Jade whipped her body around and,
fast as a flash of light, gave Skylar a quick kick to the
stomach.

Avery grimaced and looked away, shutting her eyes.
Gumptin had said the Protectors possessed a high tolerance to
injury and an ability to heal quickly. After watching poor Skylar
tossed like a rag doll and kicked in the gut, Avery sure hoped he
was right.

The kick sent Skylar rolling backwards and out of the
parameter of the red circle. Skylar stopped rolling and sat up,
groaning. She winced as she attempted to stand up, obviously in
some kind of pain.

Jade walked over and helped Skylar delicately stand
up, “Are you alright?” She asked, in a tone that intentionally kept
concern out of her voice. It showed that she wanted to make sure
that Skylar was alright, but that she wasn’t sorry for winning the
fight.

“I’ll be fine.” Skylar groaned, stretching out a
little as she stood, “I just have to re-learn how to breathe.”

Gumptin shook his head in approval, which was as
close as he got to clapping, “Good job, very good job. You must go
into every fight with everything you have. Your enemy will never go
easy on you.”

Jade had definitely set the tone. There would be no
going easy on each other just because they were friends.

“Very well done, Jade.” Gumptin told her, “In this
instance, your natural aggression actually comes in handy.”

Avery noticed Jade smile slightly, then quickly turn
away so that no one, especially Gumptin, would notice he had said
something that pleased her.

“Skylar,” Gumptin continued, “you need to react
faster. Your movements are graceful and fluid, but you must find a
way to add speed, especially to defend yourself.”

Skylar, who was now sitting down outside the circle,
resting her wounded self, gave Gumptin an encouraging thumbs
up.

Avery thought Skylar’s black and blue body tomorrow
would be more motivation for Skylar to work on her speed, than
anything Gumptin could say to her.

“Next, Avery and Sasha shall fight.” Gumptin said,
pointing towards the circle.

Avery did as she was instructed and followed
Gumptin’s finger into the circle. Watching Jade and Skylar’s fight
had made one thing blaringly clear to her, she wanted to avoid
getting hit or kicked at all costs.

Looking ahead of her, Avery saw Sasha getting into
position. Sasha didn’t seem nervous or scared at all. In fact, she
seemed cocky, giving Avery a little smile and tilt of the head.
Sasha seemed completely sure she was going to win this fight.
Suddenly, everything became very clear cut to Avery. She was being
given the chance to do something she had wanted to do for over ten
years, to kick Sasha Seraphina’s ass. Avery didn’t care what it
took; there was no way she was going to lose this fight.

The moment Avery got herself into a fighting stance,
Sasha came charging at her. Sasha swung her sword at Avery’s head,
but Avery managed to duck in time. Before Avery righted herself
again, Sasha tried to side kick Avery with her right leg. Avery
took her sword hand and slammed it into Sasha’s leg, forcing her
leg down. Sasha gasped in pain and Avery stood up, cutting her left
hand across her body and punching Sasha square in the jaw.

Avery heard Jade whoop from outside the circle, but
she didn’t let it distract her.

Sasha swung at Avery hard with her right fist,
obviously upset that Avery had been able to hurt her. Avery spun to
the right, avoiding Sasha’s fist. As she spun, Avery switched her
sword from her right hand to her left, this allowed her to reach up
with her right hand and grab a hold of Sasha’s wrist as her arm was
still extended. Once she had Sasha’s wrist firmly in her grasp, she
pulled Sasha forward and towards her, at the same time she brought
her left leg up, kicking Sasha across the chest. Sasha staggered
backwards and fell to the ground. Avery walked over to her, about
to thrust her sword into Sasha’s exposed chest. Sasha, never one to
go down without a fight, came off of the ground in a backwards hand
spring, shoving the heel of her boot into Avery’s chest on her way
up. The pain hit Avery like a bolt of lightning. It was all Avery
could do to flip out of Sasha’s way as she came at her with her
sword raised high. As Avery flipped over Sasha, before she hit the
ground, she pushed both of her legs hard backwards, slamming Sasha
in the middle of the back. Sasha was sent falling forward landing
on her face. Avery landed delicately on her hands and knees,
rolling over and springing onto her feet in less than a second.
While still lying on her stomach Sasha attempted a backwards kick,
once again aimed at Avery’s chest as Avery walked towards her, but
this time Avery was prepared for it. Avery grabbed Sasha’s ankle
and flipped Sasha from her stomach over to her back. The moment
Sasha was on her back, Avery had her wooden sword pointed right in
the center of Sasha’s chest.

The girls clapped from the sidelines, happy to see
Avery defeat Sasha.

“That’s my girl!” Jade shouted, clapping louder than
the others.

Sasha ripped her ankle out of Avery’s grip, stood up,
and pushed Avery away from her, hard. It didn’t faze Avery at all
as she stumbled backwards from Sasha’s shove. She had defeated
Sasha, and that was something that would keep her happy for weeks
to come.

Angry about being beaten, Sasha walked over to the
sidelines and complained to Gumptin, “I’m so done with this crap!
Yesterday I was the girl every boy wanted to date and every girl
wanted to be! I was hot, popular, smart, and wealthy!”

Avery and the other girls exchanged looks, shaking
their heads and rolling their eyes. For as long as they had known
Sasha, no one had ever thought Sasha Seraphina was as perfect as
Sasha herself did.

“Now,” Sasha kept going, “today, I’m getting beaten
up by Avery Kimball! My life has gone to shit!”

“For crying out loud,” Skylar exclaimed, as sick of
Sasha’s tantrum as the rest of them, which was rare for Skylar
since she got along better with Sasha than any of the other did,
“stop being such a sore loser.”

“I don’t think Sasha knows how to be anything else.”
Jade added. You could always count on Jade to make a tense
situation even tenser.

Sasha turned on Jade, “Jade, sometimes you really
need to know when to keep that trashy mouth of yours shut!”

“Oh, is that so?” Jade asked, walking towards Sasha,
still clutching her wooden sword.

Gumptin held his hands up, silencing everyone,
“Enough!” He bellowed, “Sasha, you lost, collect yourself and move
past it. Your life may not be what you want it to be. I am sure you
are not the only one of the Protectors to feel that way, especially
after today.”

Gumptin looked around at all the girls. He knew very
well that none of them, except maybe Jade, would have ever
voluntarily chosen to give up their lives on Earth and travel to
another planet to battle monsters. Gumptin felt for them, but he
also had to make sure that they realized they really didn’t have
any choice in the matter; it was their destiny.

“I know it is hard for all of you,” Gumptin said to
them, “but this is a birthright that you cannot escape. You are
only alive now because the Elementals gave you a second chance at
life. They gave you a second chance so that you could come back and
fulfill your destinies as Protectors. If you forsake it, if you
forsake them, they could take your life away from you as easily as
blowing out a candle.”

Silence crept over the girls as they let Gumptin’s
words sink in. They had to except the duties of a Protector so that
the Elementals would let them keep living, and they had to keep
training so that they had the skills not to be killed by a hideous
enemy. All of a sudden, the girls got the feeling of being very
small and very not in control of their own lives. Avery wasn’t
convinced the Elementals would actually kill them if they chose not
to fight as a Protector, but it wasn’t a theory she would ever be
willing to test. Of course, whether it was true or not didn’t
matter, since it managed to shut Sasha up real quick. Sasha valued
her life far too much to ever put it in even more unnecessary
danger.

“Now, if all the complaining is over, then let us
continue.” Gumptin pointed to Jade, “You and Bunny get in the
circle.”

Bunny stood across from Jade looking ready, if not
just a little bit frightened. Avery didn’t blame Bunny for being
scared about being paired off against Jade. It hardly seemed like a
fair fight. Jade could have wiped the floor with Bunny back on
Earth, and that was before they had all their super human Protector
powers reawakened.