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We watched a ferocious looking woman who was built like a bull, fling herself at a grumpy little man from the time servers group on another mat. He screamed just before she took him out and the crunch that came from the impact made me shudder.
“How often is a messenger killed?" I asked nervously.
"Not often." Her response did little to reassure me, I was hoping for a firm never. "But it's not fair to send people out there without any training, even if they shouldn't need it. Come on, if any of you can land a hit on me I'll give you a lie-in tomorrow." She raised a hand and beckoned us forward with an annoyingly smug grin on her face.
Taylor went for it first but he swung his arms too wide and gave her plenty of warning before he even got close. After several failed attempts and more than a little laughter from me, he tried charging at her but Laurie just stepped aside at the last moment and tripped him so that he fell on his face.
Tears were running down my cheeks as I tried and failed to contain my amusement and I noticed some of the other Wardens around the room frowning over at us.
“I just don't want to hurt you," Taylor protested as he regained his feet.
"Don't worry, you won't." Laurie smiled sweetly. "Oh I meant you can't. I can take you on with my eyes closed." She stood back with her arms spread wide and shut her eyes to prove her point.
Taylor took a deep breath before starting towards her. As he drew near he snapped his fist forward and got it within inches of her stomach when Laurie twisted aside and wrapped her fingers around his wrist, using his momentum to throw him on his ass. She opened her eyes and grinned down at him.
I was gasping for breath and our red haired companion was cracking a smile too.
"I presume you're laughing so hard because you expect to find this easy?" Laurie asked, gesturing me forward.
The smile slid from my face and I shook my head.
“No. Honestly, I'll learn more from watching," I protested.
"I don't think so." She raised a hand and beckoned.
"Do you want to go first?" I asked Evander.
"No," he said simply, leaving me without a choice.
"Come on chicken, show me where I was going wrong." Taylor gave me a shove as he moved off of the mat.
I stepped forward reluctantly and stood in front of Laurie. It didn't help that she was about five inches taller than me and she still had that gun and taser lashed to her belt.
I thought about the advice she’d given me on the punchbags and tried to implement some of it.
I decided the best thing I could do would be to swing a punch at her face as quickly as possible, but she knocked it aside practically before I started. I followed with a left hook but that was no more successful. I threw a succession of punches at her face and chest and even tried to twist around and hit her in the kidney but she knocked me aside with ease every time.
After about ten minutes I was huffing and my hair was sticking to my neck and Laurie had barely broken a sweat.
“You're too hot headed. You get angry and it just gets easier to predict your moves," Laurie said, which only really helped to incite me more. I jabbed my elbow at her but she dodged it, without even looking my way and laughed as she offered Evander a chance at her.
"She can be kind of a bitch," I whispered to Taylor.
“You just can't stand losing," he replied, watching Laurie with unconcealed admiration as Evander hit the mat with a thump.
“I'll just have to be satisfied with beating you then." I smiled up at him.
“Good luck with that, shortass."
Evander crashed to the ground again and Laurie beamed.
“Okay, now I'll show you how to use some weapons," Laurie announced with a little too much enthusiasm.
The knives turned out to be plastic replicas, weighted correctly but not sharp enough to cause any real injuries. She showed us how to use them in close combat but also how to throw them at a target dummy which would light up with different colours: red for a skim, yellow for a hit in an outer limb, green for a lethal hit.
I watched as some of the time servers threw knives further along the room. Most of them were getting red or yellow lights which made me feel less worried about failure.
The first time I let the knife fly, I released it too late and it flew to the ground where it bounced on impact. The knife arced upwards and back towards me, smacking the top of my boot with a thump and I jumped half out of my skin before I remembered it couldn’t take any of my toes off.
