A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 29

I entered the room behind Diane and looked around in curiosity. There was a slightly padded floor in the middle of the room and a shelf with some padded weapons. A large guy in a blue uniform waited, the silver border on his blue badge showed that he was a Guard Group Leader.

Rick was beside me watching with a relaxed expression as Ace, Diane and the Guard started putting on padding and picking up the practice swords and daggers. Rick spoke quietly, "We have done some training with you as to what you are supposed to do if Diane gets into a fight, but you two really need to practice together with actual fighters."

I nodded. I was still excited, although I was also pretty nervous. Ace waved us over, "Laura, I am going to get you to curl up on the floor and pretend you have an injured leg. Rick will be nearby to help you. Diane is going to be fighting against the two of us while giving you various hand signals. If it involves small movements, follow the signal. For the other signals, tell Rick what you think they are. They will look different since Diane will have weapons in both hands. Any questions?"

I shook my head and walked over to Diane to lie on my side and curl up on the floor. I kept an eye on Diane. Her eyes were brighter than usual and her body language had shifted slightly. She didn't seem to be trying to hide her abilities as hard as she normally did. That was odd. It was as if it was just the two of us outside of the fence in the middle of the forest.

Diane stood right beside me and watched the two men approach with sharp eyes. I noticed her muscles shift and tense slightly. Her hands tightened slightly on both her sword and dagger. Her eyes also brightened marginally. I was familiar enough with her to know that she was not impressed with their slow threatening approach.

The two split up and Diane gave me a hand signal. I realized that the hand signals I knew so well weren't nearly so easily distinguished with the weapons in Diane's hands. It took me a second or two to work out the signal and scoot to the left a bit as she had requested. This was going to be much harder than I originally thought.

They closed in and Diane dropped into a fighting crouch with her weapons at ready. My heart sped up, although I wasn't sure whether it was from excitement or nervousness. Ace darted in and Diane blocked his sword with her dagger before slapping her sword against his leg. I blinked in astonishment. I had never seen anyone move as fast as Diane and Ace had just moved.

I squeaked as I noticed the big Guard coming up behind me. My alarm had been in vain though, even before I made the noise Diane had already skipped over my form to slash her sword at his legs. He jumped back out of her range. She didn't stop her swing and dropped into a deeper crouch as she swung her sword over me – causing Ace to jump backwards. I hadn't even noticed him sneaking up.

I remained on the floor and kept my eyes on Diane. The thudding impacts of various weapons reverberated through the air as Diane spun around my form to keep both Ace and the Guard Group Leader at bay. Their speed was phenomenal.

All three were lightning quick and I simply couldn't keep track of where all of the weapons were. I had no idea how Diane was managing to block them and get some strikes of her own in. Despite the Guard's larger size, Diane had no problem pushing him backwards.

I was having problems tracking Diane's hands to watch for signals. Most I managed to get, but Rick had to help me with some. After a bit, I got the hang of how she held her weapons and how it altered the signal.

Well, I had wanted Diane to stand guard over me and now she was. The other two were trying to get close to tap the floor beside me, but Diane kept both at a distance. I started to relax and enjoy myself. It was a very intense training, but it was still just training so it was fun. Rick looked quite amused as he kept out of their way, but the other three didn't look like they were having that much fun.