Wren was pretty happy with himself, he was aching all over, but he was happy with himself. He’d managed to go toe to toe with one of the top recruits in Ventus Academy, a Legacy no less. Some might have said his tactic was cowardly, running around and dodging, wearing out his opponent until he could barely fight any longer. But that’s all it was, a tactic. When it came to fighting, the only thing that mattered was the end result, whether you walked away intact, or if you were carted away in a hospital gurney.

So when he’d walked away from Chadwick after landing a couple hits with the open palm thrust and sent the boy to the floor he felt a real sense of accomplishment. For once in his life he felt strong, in control, a feeling he wasn’t used to growing up in District 8-12.

Perhaps that was why he didn’t see the attack coming.

The looming threat of the incoming wind slice was clouded by his over absorbing self-satisfaction.

“What a dick.” Was the first thought that came into his head as he saw the shimmering wave of air heading towards him.

But by that time it was already too late. Upon his first use of the skill Wren noticed one thing, and that was that it was fast, faster than you’d expect. It’s speed, paired with its lack of visibility made for quite a lethal ability and if Wren was perfectly honest with himself, he wasn’t quite sure if he could dodge it even if he had seen it coming. He was fast for sure, but not that fast. The only thing he could do was tense his body and brace for impact. Hopefully it wouldn’t kill him. Although Chadwick was a Legacy, he’d also only been an elemental for a few days and so his skill should be fairly low level.

It would hurt though. Oh it would definitely hurt. Wren was expecting a lot of bruising, maybe some bleeding, if he was really unlucky maybe a severed limb. Did they have special elemental doctors to fix things like that? Surely they did, elementals got injured all the time hunting monsters, and sure their healing factor was better than regular humans, but it wasn’t so good as to repair serious damage like that.

It was crazy how many thoughts raced through the brain as you’re staring down the barrel of a gun. Or at least in Wren’s case staring down a fast approaching wind slice.

Wren was ready, he wouldn’t be getting up for a while, but at least he got a shot in at Chadwick, he would forever remember the look on the boys face when he realised he’d been hit.

Only, the wind slice didn’t hit.

A flash of white appeared from the forest behind him and he heard a loud bang as the wind slice crashed into something in front of him. In front of him stood Anastasia, both palms raised and a wall of shimmering air in front of her. She’d protected him from the wind slice. He had no clue what she’d done to help him, but he was grateful. She’d saved him from a world of pain.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” She shouted angrily in the direction of Chadwick and his friends.

“Oh shit.”

“We need to get out of here.”

“It wasn’t my idea.”

The boys behind Chadwick were shaking in their boots. As they should have been. Anastasia swooped in like a badass, used some crazy skill none of them had seen to defend from the wind slice and then shouted down at them in a tone that would scare the grim reaper himself. Wren was glad he was behind her. He didn’t want to see the look she was giving them, if he went by the responses on the boys faces, he knew it was serious.

One by one, they all backpedalled and ran off into the forest, leaving Chadwick alone with Anastasia and Wren.

Chadwick wasn’t as terrified as the other boys had been. He’d been put off and was shocked a little at the instructors sudden appearance but he had a steady confidence that said he would be fine. He knew that he’d done wrong but he also knew that he could get away with it. His father being on the surveying council had to come with some perks and he knew it.

But he didn’t want to push his luck.

“Get out of here.” Anastasia growled at him.

He nodded and walked into the forest at a brisk pace following his friends. Going past Anastasia and Wren, he delivered a look to the latter that told him things weren’t over. But Wren knew that already. People like Chadwick didn’t respond well to being stopped. It would only ignite the fire underneath him even further.

He didn’t blame Anastasia though. She’d saved him at the end of the day. If she hadn’t been there to do whatever she’d done he could have been mincemeat. Albeit very large mincemeat, but mincemeat all the same. He just hoped she didn’t treat him too harshly. He’d been fighting as well after all.

“Umm, thank you I guess.” He said to her. “You really saved me there.”

“You bet your ass I did.”

She was angry. Oh boy was she angry.