Crimsonic Maiden

Chapter 2

“Listen class, since we have an upcoming program here in school, we decided in the meeting that every year and section must perform a presentation. Of course, so that you won’t take it so easily and avoid it, it will be graded.” Miss Veron, our teacher announced.

One of our classmates raised his hand.

“What kind of presentation we will be preparing maam?” the class president asked.

Smart and top students do really strive hard in their studies eh?

“We’ll be presenting a stage play!” Miss Veron excitedly said.

You can hear the class groaned upon hearing the dreadful news. Chitchats started brewing. Who would really like stage plays?

“Now… now…” She clapped her hands attempting to get the whole class’ attention. “To be fair for everyone, we will be having an audition on who will take on the roles.”

After she finished announcing that really dreadful news. The class became really noisy after all the chatters. Some of my classmates were excited and fired up for the upcoming event, while some kept complaining about such bothersome event and activity.

“OMG! Let’s join the audition Mira! I’m sure we will get picked as one of the important characters in the play.” She was bouncing, while talking to me.

“Yeah, as if…” I replied dryly, full of sarcasm.

“You’re really so negative…” She commented.

“I don’t want to join. I’ll be happier if I’ll be placed on the backstage so I won’t get into bothersome things.” I replied.

“What if you’ll get selected?” She leaned closer to me.

I erupted into laughter. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“It’s just a what if…” she said.

“Then I’ll give you the role…”  I replied.

“W-what? Really? As in for real?” She held on my arms and was bouncing.

“Yes, for real, so you can keep quiet now and let’s head to the next subject.” I gestured to the doorway.

“Okay!” she replied, as she grinned to me.

We went on outside the room and walked through the hallway, heading to the next room where our next subject will be held. Well, the next subject should get a bit interesting as it was all about training and engaging to mock battles.

Well we had a specific place or a gym in school where it was wide and spacious enough for us to perform hand to hand training and get into mock battles. It’s not the arena, but just a training gym. As soon as we entered the room, we immediately head to the locker room to leave our things there and get changed for the next subject. After preparing, we head back to the room and waited for the teacher to arrive.

“So, is everyone here now?” Our teacher emerged from the doorway.

“Yes,” we all replied in unison.

“For today’s training, you will perform practice in handling your weapon. But before that, you should all pick your weapon of choice to use in combat. While you might have ideas on what to pick up, it’s not as easy as you’d like. You need to know what weapon is compatible with you. So, pick up what you think is best for you. The weapons you practice right now, may help in realizing on what specific weapon really suits you in the future.” Mr. Ramirez lectured.

He walked towards the center.

“So, to start let’s get the weapons.”

He gestured a swiping motion with his hand and a floating holographic window emerged from it. He typed something from the keyboard on it and various weapons of choice materialized beside him. The weapons were properly aligned and well placed in their respective cases. All of us immediately approached them and got amazed as we scan from weapon to weapon. They were all nice and seemed pretty strong.

He swiped again and the window in front of him vanished out of thin air.

“You may go ahead and choose your weapon for today’s practice.” He said.

It seemed like we were all in a weapons shop and were walking as we scanned through all of them to decide which weapon to pick. The weapons were properly organized and arranged; they were placed under each specific category. Like, this side were full of spear-type weapons, on the other side were swords and the other side were bows and some kind of ninja tools. I picked up a bow, as it really got my attention. I also wanted a long-ranged weapon.

“Now… it seemed like everybody has chosen the weapons they like. So, let’s start mock duels. Don’t sweat it, just try to use it according to your instincts. It will help you choose what weapon would really be compatible for you.” Mr. Ramirez said.

He picked and called two of my classmates. They were the first ones to try and do this mock battles. The others, including me, were just standing on the sides to watch the battle. We may learn a thing or two here.

It was obvious that the other one had a hard time trying to use his weapon and was confused on how he would sync the weapon in his movements. The other one seemed adept. He easily coordinated the weapon with his movements.

“Mark has a potential and he found his perfect compatible weapon.” Mr. Ramirez commented.

Yeah, this must be what Mr. Ramirez was aiming for.  He wanted us to feel ourselves the weapons to find what really syncs to us. And Mark showed that, he hit the jackpot. He immediately adapted the weapon to his rhythm and movements. If he can knock our other classmate out or force him to surrender then he will win. Well, that was a bit hard since his rival was a bit hard to take down. He didn’t go down as easily as we thought even if he was finding it hard to use his weapon. Well, after some time, he will eventually get caught to his increasing losing of balance. And yeah, he was caught. Mark was able to knock him down rendering him immobile.

“And the victor for this duel will be Mark…” Mr. Ramirez announced. Mark immediately rushed to the side of his fallen classmate together with the others and helped him.

“The next duelists will be partners. So, who wants to volunteer?” our teacher asked.

“I will sir!” I raised my hand.

“Oh, Mira. So, who would be your partner?” Mr. Ramirez asked.

“I’ll pick Torry.” I replied.

“Ha? M-me?” She jerked her thumb to herself. She was obviously surprised about her getting picked into battle.

“Very well, so may I ask who wants to challenge them to a duel?” Mr. Ramirez brought his gaze to our classmates on the side.

But none of them raised their hand and volunteered to challenge us. What’s their problem?

“Um, can I request who I will be fighting, Mr. Ramirez?” I asked.

He brought his gaze to me and nodded. “It looks like, that’s what will happen in this case since no one volunteered so.”

“I want Deven Night.” I resolutely said.

I could hear the whispers and the murmurs that imbued on the class when I picked him.

“Can she handle the challenge?”

“She’s pretty confident on her own huh… I wonder.”

“Let’s say she’s one of the elites but is she pushing herself too much?”

“You have great confidence and nice guts in yourself Mira, but are you sure?” Mr. Ramirez asked.

“Yes, I’m sure…” I replied without having even a single shred of doubt and fear.

“Deven, do you accept this challenge?” Mr. Ramirez asked him.

We just locked gazes for a few minutes. He’s in his usual facial expression whenever he’s here in school. That pokerfaced, lifeless, stone-cold like Deven. I don’t really know what’s his real character. What now? Are you scared? Just because of that little connection we had?

“Sure, I don’t mind.” He coldly replied.

“Who will you choose as your partner Deven?” our teacher asked.

“Anyone, it doesn’t matter who.”

And there our classmates went into chaos. They were arguing who would be his partner in battle, may it be men or women. I sighed. His frigging face would become the reason why this duel will get canceled. They might kill each other just for that stupid reason.

“Guys, just calm down and lower your voice. If you won’t then I will have no choice but to end this mock battle.” Mr. Ramirez warned.

See? Just as what I’ve thought right? I stared at him again.

“What now? Won’t you do anything so we can get started here?” I asked.

He started marching towards the center, where will held our duel. I followed him through as well and faced each other at the center. My partner followed me to the center and him? He walked solo; well he didn’t name anyone to help him.

“You don’t want a partner? It’s okay that we’ll be having a one on one.” I said.

“I’m fine. I can take you on both. This is good, so our audience won’t see a boring match.” He replied.

“You’re as proud as hell.” I said.

“Let’s cut all this chitchat and get started.”

I could only clench my fists. This man was really as annoying as hell. I kicked-off the first move and dashed towards him. I threw my fist towards him that he just masterfully dodged and backed off.

I won’t give you a breathing space!

Before he can reestablish his stance, I fired volleys of arrows towards his direction. In which he kept on hopping and backflipping to dodge all of them. Every arrow and every attack I did, he just dodged it.

“So, that’s all you’ll do whole day? Just dodge?” I scoffed.

“You’re not worth it…” He dryly replied.