You were staying late to practice. You weren’t the best fighter in dauntless and you didn’t want to become factionless because of it. You struck the punching bag again; your knuckles were raw and your hands stung, but you continued--choosing to use the pain as motivation rather than an excuse to quit.
You dodged an imaginary punch and swung at the bag again. “You know it’s easy to beat an opponent when you know all his moves.” You stopped your assault on the bag and turned to face your leader. “Yeah, well I don’t see anyone around for me to fight.” You told him.
It was true, the halls were empty. It was somewhere around midnight, everyone was getting their rest for tomorrow, you and Eric were the only two in the pit. “I’m right here.” Eric said with a shrug.
You had to admit, you were slightly taken aback, though in reality you should have seen it coming the moment he walked up to you. “You?” You asked with a raised eyebrow. “You want me to fight you?” You asked trying to clarify. “Are you scared?” He asked as a menacing smirk spread across his face.
“No.” You said as you straightened out. “I just don’t want to make my superior look bad.” You said with a smirk of your own. Was it a stupid thing to say? Yes. Was it a total lie? Yes. Were you about to pay the price for saying that? Probably. To your surprise Eric let out a low chuckle. “Well, you can try.”
The two of you walked into the ring, the mats wouldn’t provide much cushion when he knocked you down, but it would help at least a little. “Don’t hold back.” You said, if you were going to fight him you wanted to see if you could handle him at his full potential. He let out a low laugh. “I wasn’t going to.”
It went as expected, he knocked you to the ground in under a minute. “Are you holding back?” He asked mockingly. You rolled your eyes and stood up again. The process was repeated several times each time you learned more and more about his style and it helped you last longer in the ring, but you were still losing.
The two of you circled one another, neither of you breaking eye contact. He was trying to bait you, to get you to make the first move.
Tired of waiting you gave in and attacked, he grabbed your arm and used your own momentum to throw you to the ground. You rolled away before his foot could hit your side. You pulled yourself up and got back in a defensive stance. He sent a punch which you managed to dodge. He kept sending punches which you kept blocking. With every punch he took a step forward forcing you to take a step back.
You were angry, he was forcing you into a defensive position, he kept swinging at speeds that prevented you from attacking. You were getting desperate, running out of options you dropped yourself to the ground and swing at his legs making him hit the mat hard. You pulled yourself back up and before he could stand up you pulled your leg back to kick him. He grabbed ahold of your foot and yanked it out from under you.
As soon as you hit the ground he rolled over you and pinned you to the mat. “Give up?” He asked, both of you were breathing heavily. You didn’t say anything, you were determined to beat him. You raised your knee choosing to strike his gut rather than his balls. His grip faltered for a moment and you used that as your opportunity to roll the two of you over so that you were on top. You placed your knee at his throat keeping him from moving any further.
“I swear to god if you say that that was anything but good I will find a way to kill you.” You said extremely out of breath. He laughed as best as he could with your knee limiting his breathing. “You did good.” He said you nodded and stood up on your own two feet happy with your victory.
You made a move to help Eric up but before you could really do anything he grabbed a hold of your ankle and you fell to the ground. The force that you hit the ground with sent the air out of your lungs and your head was fuzzy from where it hit the ground. Eric pounced on top of you once more and he held a knife to your throat. “But you can do better.” Eric said.
To say you were angry was an understatement, you let your guard down and he’d gotten the upper hand. You felt Eric’s eyes intensely focus on you. “You’re not scared.” He said as he trailed the knife along your neck and chest. “I know you’re not going to hurt me.” You said, whether it was in confidence or just because you were cocky you couldn’t say.
He pulled himself off of you and picked you up with him. Your head spun slightly but you shook it off and went to gather your things. “So, you’re an Erudite transfer.” You said as you glanced up at him.
“What makes you say that?” He asked. “Well the opponent comment wasn’t really something a Dauntless would say. Besides you always have this look in your eye like your studying everything, a habit left over from Erudite maybe?” You said, something in his gaze changed, he looked at you differently.
“So how long have you been in love with me?” He asked you laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself sweetheart, I’m just very observant.” You said as you put your jacket on. “And what faction were you from?” He asked, you shrugged. “You’re the genius, you tell me.” You said before walking out of the pit. “Good night Eric.” You called out as you walked into the dark hallway.
