“This is ridiculous!” I hear Nathalie say in frustration. “This is not how you punch, idiots.”
“Calm down, Nath. They’re still beginners. Don’t be hard on them.” Brahm says calmly.
“Oh, no. We’re on the hard level. There’s no time for being a beginner,” she replies. Then she turns back to the trainees. “This is a three-day course, and the zombies won’t take easy on you.”
Everyone looks at her. She grabs a pair of boxing gloves and throws them to Brahm.
Brahm looks puzzled as he takes a glance at what he’s currently holding. “What… What are we gonna do? You know I can’t fight.”
“That is the whole point of this, Abraham,” Nathalie replies tying her hair into a ponytail. “Everybody gather around. Watch and learn.”
She nods at Brahm who’s on a stance, ready to launch himself onto her. Yet, he seems reluctant.
“Gimme your best shot, Brahm.”
He throws the gloves away and replies, “alright, here goes nothing.” He runs toward her, screaming.
He hops to throw a punch, and Nathalie immediately evades to the side, waiting for Brahm to land. He throws another punch but then Nathalie catches it by his arm and twists it to his back. Brahm groans in pain and then falls on the floor with his face when Nathalie pulls his strong leg with hers.
Nathalie gets down on her knees, now above Brahm, pressing his twisted arm on his back harder. The poor guy had to thump on the marbled floor for Nathalie to release him. Everyone falls in awe mixed with fear as they watch the fight scene. Nathalie finally stands back up, and not even a single sweat is wasted, while Brahm has to rise up grasping his injured arm.
“I hate you for that.” He mumbles in a monotone voice and leaves.
Nathalie ignores him, and continues to speak to the crowd, “How about this? What about you try taking me down? You can team up if you want.”
The people look confident when she said they can make a team. And to be honest, I’m a little interested in this idea. If they can take a black belter down, that means, they’re qualified to become one of the protectors.
Dan came up with the idea of dividing the group into smaller groups. And each group has its own roles to fulfill. One of them is called the Protectors. They live up to the name. The Protectors are the ones who will take the risk of clearing the way out for the whole group. They will tend to have a weapon in their hands and use them to defend the weaker ones.
Nathalie is one of the Protectors. And so am I. Somehow.
I mean, to be honest, I’m not even a fighter myself. I’ve never even fought someone before. I just knew a few moves of self-defense and I don’t think that’s enough to even fight off tens of bloodies. I haven’t even practiced them before which made me wonder how on earth I survived that fight against the bloodies when they broke into our class building.
I was a bit surprised when I overpowered them despite being stronger than me. Maybe the movies helped.
The people prepare themselves with a newly-formed team. Some are a pair, and some team up in three. And most of them are by fives.
Nathalie removes her t-shirt, now exposing her sports bra. She looks muscly for a little person like her. She smirks as she says, “Trainers can try their luck, too.”
“Heh. You only look tough, shorty.” Finn yells.
“You can go first if you want.”
“Nah, I’ll take my chances.” He clears his throat.
A pair of students come up to the spotlight and that seems to impress Nathalie. “The confidence that I want.”
They sprint toward her, throwing a punch all at once. Nathalie catches the fist of the first one while dodging the other. She takes the fist with her as she splits through behind them. Then, she kicks the back of the second person, and pulls the first toward her, sliding her arm over his shoulder which she folds and sends her elbow into his face. She sends him to meet the floor. The second one charges himself back to her again, which I think is a really bad idea.
He’s seen how injured his friend is now
He gestures in a recreated kung-fu stance, probably mimicking the martial arts imperfectly. Nathalie breaks off as she locks him on the neck with her arm and flips him into the floor on his face.
Then one of them waves their hand as a sign of surrender. Nathalie practically bows her head. This keeps going and going and it’s been half an hour and none of these ‘beginners’ have taken her down. Not even my friends, who pulled back out before it started. But some tried their luck. Claude and Josh looked very confident for a pair, and yet they end up writhing in pain in their body parts. Claude mumbled to himself that why he even bothered to try.
Failure isn’t what I saw in them. It’s the spirit.
It seems like the beginners’ turn has ended as Mark finally faces her. He cracks his knuckles, and a smirk is on his face. Nathalie scoffs and taunts him, gesturing him to come for her.
It goes with some good punches but Mark takes more than she does. For me, it feels like he’s only taking easy on her or Nathalie is overdoing it. She throws a few punches at his face and when she gets a closer encounter, she goes to his side and gives an elbow punch onto his rib sides. That makes him groan.
He walks back away as he touches his injury and chuckles. Then, he charges himself back to her and then blocks her punch with his arm, and then gets a hold of her foot when she attempts a kick, and pulls her down but that doesn’t seem to be a loss because she takes herself rolling into a crouching position, one leg is stretched out. Everyone applauds when they thought Mark won, but it disappears when they see Nath running to his back and jumping onto him, locking herself on his neck with both legs, and then she uses her weight to pull him down to the floor by twisting him. And that, I’d say is the loss for Mark.
Thankfully he doesn’t get his face slapped on the floor as he covers it with his arms.