Chapter 4: HOW DARE YOU

Chapter Four

HOW DARE YOU

Rora’s POV

“Then you throw the punch to their side when they’re twisted, when they’re expecting you to strike from here.”

I had refused.

I shifted my stance, pivoted, and slammed a punch into the air. I did it three more times, each one cleaner than the last.

Their eyes followed my every step that I did and they seemed to be intrigued and in awe.

“Now it’s your turn,” I said, pointing to the wiry one. He wasn’t the biggest or the loudest, but the way he watched my feet told me he actually paid attention.

The others broke into laughter.

“Rora’s throwing him to the wolves!” one cackled.

“He’ll be flat before he blinks,” another added.

I frowned, trying to cut them down with a look. It didn’t stick. Their mockery rolled louder, and the wiry one shifted nervously under the weight of it.

I sighed. Clowns, a lot of them. I stepped back, giving the pit to the two men.

His opponent stepped forward, he was a pound of muscle and his broad shoulders added to his huge figure. Twice the smaller one. The big man cracked his knuckles and his neck as a huge smirk covered his face.

The wiry one trembled, but only for a second. He circled left, keeping light on his feet just as I’d shown. Smart. The big man swung first. The smaller man slipped it, just barely, the air of the blow ruffling his hair.

But then, his mistake. He got cocky. Rushed straight at the huge man.

The big man grinned, braced, and slammed a fist into his chest. The sound echoed through the pit, and the smaller man flew back, crashing onto the dirt. The laughter around us doubled, louder than before.

I clenched my jaw. No. Don’t quit now.

And to his credit, he didn’t. He staggered up, coughing, wiping blood from his lip. But this time, his eyes weren’t shaky or as scared as before. He looked focused.

Then, finally, the chance came. The brute overextended, weight spilling forward as he tried to crush him. The wiry one twisted his body just as I had shown, ducking low. He let the big man’s own force carry him forward… then, with perfect timing, he slammed his fist into his ribs from the side.

The bigger one let out a grunt.

The smaller man spun behind him, hooked his foot, and shoved with all the strength he had. The giant toppled and the ground shook as he hit the dirt flat on his back.

The pit went silent.

For one breath, no one moved. Then the wiry one straightened, chest heaving, blood on his lip, but a wide smile on his face.

I grinned. “That’s how it’s done.”

The others stared, jaws slack, their laughter frozen somewhere in their throats.

“Still think size wins every fight?” I asked them.

No one answered.

That was what I thought.

I placed my hands on my hips, exhausted from today's training. I was ready to turn around and crash into my room when I felt a large hand on my shoulder that flung me across the training centre, slamming my back to the wall as air escaped my lungs.

A murmur filled the clearing and I slowly raised my head to see the man from before. The man I had won in my last fight.

He didn't look as though he wanted a rematch. You could feel the bloodstain for a mile away.

“GET UP!” Aira yelled in my head, but I was so weak from not sleeping so well and exhaustion that had been building up recently, and I tried my best to get to my feet.

I staggered as I took in deep breaths to calm myself.

His fist came down and hit my stomach hard.

Why was he so fast? I couldn't keep up and I could feel my strength leaving me with each finger he laid on me.

Some men stepped forward and tried to hold him back but he threw them all off without even wasting a breath and held me by my throat, tightening his fingers around them as he squeezed the breath out of me.

My nails tore at his skin, but his grip only tightened. Panic clawed deeper than my own fingers, the sharp burn in my lungs. The world narrowed to the crushing vice of his hand, and the shame of realising no one… no one… was stepping in to help me.

I didn't have a choice.

I raised my legs, intertwining them with his hand and spinning around, twisting his hand so hard that he had to let go of my throat as he yelled out in pain.

He hung from his hand as he fell around and I felt my breakfast come up my throat.

Urgh, I was going to throw up.

He then spun around and slammed me to the wall and I coughed out blood, falling to the ground with a thud as my vision blurred.

I watched in horror as he held on to his hand and then rearranged the bone I had crushed without even flinching from the pain.

Th-that wasn't ordinary.

My vision blurred some more as my head ached badly.

When I turned to look at him again, I saw some sort of dark aura surrounding him but as quickly as I saw it, it vanished.

Was it a figment of my imagination?

He raised his hand above my head, and at that point, I wanted to say my last prayers because if his hand met my skull, I was done.

No.

I gathered all the strength I had to get up.

I fell.

I tried again.

But once again… I fell.

My body refused me. My knees buckled at every attempt to get up. The sting in my chest got worse and my eyes stung as unshed tears filled them.

I had never lost a match, I had beaten him previously, so why couldn't I now?

Was I weak? Was it because I didn't belong to any orientation?

Self-loathing and doubt began to fill my mind.

My strength was the only thing I had…

I looked at him with my bloodied face from being flung around multiple times. Even as my body wanted to give in to exhaustion, raising my middle finger at him with all of my remaining mustered strength, I rasped.

“Fuck you.”

That seemed to have infuriated him the most because he brought his fist down to my face.

Huh?

The impact never came.

For a heartbeat, I thought I was dead already.

I peeled one eye open to see a hand blocking him from getting to me. Before I could look at whose it was properly, he was flung across the room, his head hitting the wall like a rag doll.

“How dare you!” he yelled, a vein popping on his neck as his jaw ticked and his fists clenched.

I knew how familiar that voice was.

When I raised my head to stare at him, he was seething, his shoulder rising and falling in quick succession.

Zayn?

My eyes were fighting to stay open. Why did he…

A low dark laugh slipped from him, then a crushing feeling filled me, pushing me to the ground. I struggled to look up and saw I wasn't the only one who could feel it…

The Alpha command.

Even the brute was nothing under Zayn’s command.

“You dare taint my grounds with forbidden powers just because you couldn't stomach defeat? Because a woman bested you? You damned fool.”

Oh.