𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟏𝟏

It had only been a day and Delphina had almost forgotten how much she loved the smell of shattered egos at high noon. Chad, Ben, Sam, and the other boys in Advanced Swordsmanship were all sprawled across the sparring mat, groaning in pain while Delphina stood in the middle of the mat, watching them all in amusement, spinning Chad's sword, which she had managed to disarm from him ten minutes ago.

"Come on!" Delphina teased, nudging Ben's torso lightly with her foot. "Best 25 out of 30?" The loud groans of refusal only made Delphina laugh. After getting through warm-ups, Coach Jenkins had paired the teenagers up for sparring matches. Delphina's first opponent, Tristan, Tiana and Naveen's son, was on the floor in under two minutes. In typical male fashion, every other boy had wanted to see just how talented Delphina was after seeing her put their friend on his ass so quickly.

Sam was the next to go down, then the rest fell like dominos. Ben and Chad were the only ones who could hold their own against her for longer than five minutes.

In hindsight, they wouldn't be in as much pain as they were now if they hadn't charged into rematch after rematch. Delphina had even tried to warn them, but boys never listened.

"Honestly, if you guys are acting like this when I went easy on you--" Chad barked out an incredulous laugh, then winced almost immediately after and gripped his torso.

"That was you going easy on us?" He demanded. Delphina grinned, tossing Chad's sword onto the floor next to him.

"Yeah," She shrugged. "I mean, if you'd rather I stop pulling my punches, then I'll happily--" A loud cacophony of 'No!''s made Delphina cackle. A ragged groan caught her attention and Delphina turned to see Sam shakily pulling himself up to his feet. The sight made every other boy groan out a warning as Tristan tried to pull him back to the floor.

"Don't you dare!"

"You're gonna die!"

"Are you stupid?"

Delphina watched, slightly impressed as Sam finally managed to pull himself to his feet, gripping his sword loosely and glaring at Delphina. "You don't pull your punches," He began, breathing heavily. "And I won't pull mine."

Delphina shrugged, unsheathing her own sword and getting into a defensive stance. "Sounds good to me."

Everything in Delphina's line of sight seemed to slow down as she examined every detail she could about Sam. He was putting too much weight on his left foot, like he had been doing all class long. It wouldn't be hard for Delphina to knock him off balance. He was holding his sword awkwardly, too. It looked like he was holding something in the range of a baseball bat to a golf club.

His poker face definitely needed work. It was clear he had no strategy or plan of attack. He was just going to charge in like an angry bull. He was exhausted from his previous matches, which meant his reaction time was severely delayed. If Delphina kept her moves fast and swift enough, he'd slip up and trip over his own feet. If he didn't, it wouldn't be hard for her to simply sweep his legs out from under him and send up to the floor.

As she expected, Sam lunged forward like a wild animal, bringing his sword down in a reckless slash. Delphina blocked the move easily just as Sam leaped into the next hasty move. He seemed to run through the same rotation of lunge, slash, stab, just in a different direction and order. It didn't take long for Delphina to speed up her attacks, moving so fast, Sam could barely see where her arms were. Her face was like granite and her eyes held no emotion. There was nothing to tell Sam where he could potentially get an upper hand against her.

At the same time, she managed to give off such an aura of determination and certainty in her ability, Sam could feel his nerves rising. His muscles were on fire while Delphina didn't seem to be wincing slightly.