Making her own path

Chapter 9 - Ice, sea and fish

As soon as she gave him all clear, Matthew placed his hand on the orb. The training ground vanished, and she was met with cold air. She was standing on a floating patch of ice at least ten meters in diameter in the middle of the sea, with a few other ice patches floating around.

“This is just great,” Aysha grunted and grabbed her bare arms as the cold sea wind engulfed her, her cropped tank top doing nothing to shield her from the cold.

She could feel Mel claw at her mental barrier and almost forgot that she had locked her out before.

“About time!” Mel shouted as Aysha opened their link again.

“Are you really blaming me for blocking you out, when you were doing nothing other than showing me your horny thoughts?” Aysha said sternly as she tried to get used to the cold.

“Fine, that’s on me,” Mel sighed and admitted defeat.

“Now that we’ve got that settled, mind helping me a little here, I’m freezing,” Aysha said. She started to notice the water move around her and saw that the timer had started counting. 

Something jumped out of the water and Aysha lunged to the side, making the creature grab nothing but air. She quickly turned around towards the creature with her bow ready and fired. She hit it in the center and took a moment to see what she was up against. 

“Flyfish. Great.” Aysha sighed and got ready for the next attack. The creature had a typical fish body, but the wings were razor-sharp and it had a gigantic mouth with teeth strong enough to take a chunk out of whatever they managed to bite. Aysha had faced them a couple of times before and could still remember the nasty feeling of being killed by them.

One fish jumped out of the sea from behind her, and Aysha slipped a little on the ice as she turned, and the fish’s wing cut her left forearm before it vanished into the sea again.

She ignored the pain, fixed her footing, and readied her bow. Two others jumped at her from the same direction, but Aysha took out two arrows and shot them both. The creatures started jumping out at shorter intervals and Aysha had to use all her senses to be able to anticipate from which direction they were coming. Thankfully, she was starting to feel a little warmer as Mel’s warmth started to course through her.

She did not know why, but her bond with Mel was much stronger than other wolves. She could utilize some of Mel’s abilities in her human body, like what she was doing now, and using Mel’s better resistance to cold with her own body. Over the years, she had also discovered that she could use it to help her run faster, make her stronger, and even increase her hearing radius. She did not use this much since she did not want anyone to know, although she did suspect that Matthew might know, but he had never said anything to her.

With the cold not bothering her anymore, she had better control over her body. She managed to shoot most of the creatures just as they jumped from the water, but she easily dodged those who came closer and shot them before they hit the water again.

It was getting hard to dodge the creatures since her ice patch was filling up with dead ones. She saw three of them jump from the same direction and took them all out with three knives in a single throw. She almost lost her footing when she slipped in some blood from one of the creatures, but still managing to shoot the creature that came jumping out.

“I need to get to a new ice patch,” Aysha said to herself as she quickly looked around to see if there were any close enough, all the while shooting creatures that came flying at her. She noticed that the closest one was at least three meters away from her, and she doubted she could make that jump from such a slippery surface.

“Are you sure about this?” Mel asked hesitantly since she already knew what Aysha was thinking.

“No,” Aysha said, not sure if she was answering Mel or her own doubt. 

The creatures were appearing more rapidly, and she knew that there was not much time left. She knew that she might not make it if she stood here since it was getting harder to move around.

“But there’s one way to find out,” she said to herself as she wrapped the bow around her and ran.

---

Zayne had been watching Aysha closely and could not help but admire her strength and skill. After somehow getting used to the freezing temperature in only a few seconds her movements became smoother, and he was enjoying watching her. Every shot was a kill shot and she never missed. She skillfully dodged the oncoming onslaughts and whenever it was more effective, she used her knives to take down the fishlike creatures.

“Man, she’s good,” Jeremy said behind me. “She’s surely not your average princess.”

“No, she’s not,” Zayne said and could not help but wonder why she spent so much time training, especially since there had not been any turmoil or wars in years.

He noticed that she was starting to have trouble moving around the ice patch since it was filling up with the corpses of the creatures that she killed. He looked at the time and there were still forty seconds left.

“You think she’ll last?” Jeremy asked. “There’s not much room left, and the creatures double in the last thirty seconds.” 

He was right, and Zayne doubted that she would last if she did not do something to give her an advantage, and fast. He noticed Jian’s smirk as he no doubt noticed that she was having trouble moving around, but Zayne had not lost faith in her yet, because there was something about her that told him that she did not give up easily.

Suddenly Aysha wrapped her bow around her and ran. Zayne’s eyes widened as she pulled out knives and shot the creatures in her way, but not stopping as she ran towards the edge of the patch. It was not easy due to all the corpses, but she somehow managed to build up speed, ran to the edge of the patch, and jumped. 

Two creatures came flying out of the water as she was midair, but she had already taken out knives, which she threw, taking them both out. 

She managed to reach the platform and rolled, the ice making her slide to the other edge, and unfortunately, all the arrows fell from her quiver during the roll. Just before she plunged into the sea, she took out another knife and thrust it into the patch, stopping her. She stood up as the ocean started bubbling around her, and at least half a dozen creatures came flying from all directions. 

Since all the arrows were lying all around her, Aysha took out her daggers and started throwing them around. 

“Damn,” Jeremy said surprised. “She’s like a female version of you!”

Zayne did not answer since he was way too focused on Aysha. The creatures started dropping like flies around her and she did not waste a single knife. The time was ticking, and Zayne watched as Aysha practically danced around the ice patch, and he felt… proud?

He did not know why he was feeling that way, since this was the first time he saw her fight, so he had no idea if he was watching her on her best day or an off one.

“What’s wrong with me?” Zayne thought to himself. Ever since he had laid eyes on the girl, he had a tough time focusing on anything else if she was in the room. He had never experienced something like this and was still not sure how he felt about it.

“I like her.” Xander purred in his head, and he did not think he had ever heard him wolf purr like that.

“Xan, we don’t even know her.” Zayne sighed and continues watching Aysha fight.

 Ten seconds left.

“One way to fix that,” Xander answered ,and Zayne rolled his eyes as he ignored the thoughts of his dirty-minded wolf.

“What am I ever going to do with you.” Zayne sighed and watched as Aysha’s finished her three minutes.

The icy sea disappeared, and Aysha grabbed her hips as she calmed down her breathing.

Zayne looked up to see her score and what he saw made him pleasantly surprised.

Score: 43.

Zayne could see the stunned look on people’s faces since the score put her in third place, only one point behind Alpha James, and two points higher than Alpha Jian.

“What kind of scam is this?!”