vivi stares at the spear forced into her hand by sooyoung. sooyoung wraps her coarse hands over vivi's, holding tight, imprinting an unspoken promise onto them. sooyoung squeezes twice, before reaching for her broken blade, and stumbling away into the darkness.

it's a heavy thing and the metal only feels cold under her touch. she doesnt want this, she's never had. the guilt is already resting in her throat and she hasn't even lifted the spear from the ground yet. she closes her eyes, pressing the metal to her forehead.

frantic footsteps approach and she bites her lip, she reclasps the cold metal in her hands, and lifts her head. jungeun stands in front of her, heaving air back into her lungs. she's holding her halberd to the side, not even thinking of vivi as a threat and vivi thinks thats the worst part.

"vivi, where is she?" jungeun spits out.

"i'm sorry," vivi steels her voice, lifting her spear. "you have to stay here,"

"you--"

a flash of anger filters through jungeun's eyes but vivi doesnt move from her stance. she waits for jungeun to process her words, waits for both of her hands to grip onto her halberd, waits for jungeun to charger at her. vivi knows the stories of the halberd, witnessed first-hand on jungeun might but she has a promise to keep. jungeun jumps forward, throwing her entire weight into a swing at vivi's spear.

"i dont want to hurt you," vivi whispers, deflecting the swing with the tip of her spear, and taking a backward step to absorb the blow.

jungeun follows up with another swing that vivi meets with the shaft of her spear that leaves them at a stalemate.

"vivi please," jungeun begs, her eyes are red-rimmed and her halberd shakes against vivi's spear.

"i'm sorry," vivi repeats, kicking jungeun back before she can react. vivi flips her spear around and the thrusts the blunt end of the spear against jungeun's collarbone.

jungeun stumbles back once more, there's pure rage in jungeun's eyes now and vivi thinks this is what she deserves. she breathes in, resets her stance, and breathes out as she watches jungeun charge at her once again.

chaeyoung presses the edge of her daggers against the the tip of her finger, pouts when the she finds the edge dull. they've slashed a hundred people since she got them last year which is good but they require much more maintenance than she had anticipated.

she takes out three whetstones and pours water on the roughest one first. she angles the edge, slides it against the whetstone, over and over again. it's a slow process, one that she has to complete properly if she wants to keep these daggers. she flips the blade to the other side and continues. they had taken a quarter of her savings to get and she's really not willing to fuck this up. not until she assassinates her next target and gets filthy rich from the bounty. chaeyoung switches out the whetstone for a finer one, repeating the process.

the sun is laying low when chaeyoung finally finishes. she holds the daggers to the sky, studying the dull shine on them. she places them back on the table rummages through her bag for the wax she needs. she dabs the wax onto a rag, and then rubs it onto the surface of the blade, smiling when she sees it glow under the moonlight.

chaeyoung stills, theres someone in the forest, watching her. she laughs, getting up and flips the daggers in her hands. what a wonderful opportunity to test them out.

damn yall really like this place sjkfskdjf

momo wraps her knuckles with bandages, tucking them in once she feels enough cushioning, she clenches her fist to test out the feeling before putting on her knuckledusters. she's new here but the instructor is nice enough and everyone else is well interesting to say the least. she hears yelling behind her but dahyun approaches her before she can check herself.

"hey momo, your opponent is--"

"can i fight you?" momo interrupts.

dahyun stops writing on her clipboard. the entire place has gone dead quiet and momo thinks she may have done something wrong.

"you want to fight me?"

"y-yeah?"

dahyun grins, "finally! no one here wants to fight me,"

dahyun drops the clipboard onto the floor, momo frowns, looking up to the others, but theyre shaking their head at her, sighing.

"good luck!" sana shouts to her.

momo steps into place across from dahyun, who is now sporting the same bandages and knuckledusters on her hands as momo's. how did she get them done so fast?

"ready?" dahyun smiles at her.

mom takes a deep breath and nods. dahyun's arms are up in guard, a perfect mirror of momo's. huh. momo gives her a light jab, to see her reaction, dahyun sways out of the way and sends a jab her way as well. momo collects the punch onto her arm, hissing at the feeling despite the arm guards protecting her. dahyun smiles at her again, and momo can only clench her fist and throw a left hook that dahyun absorbs with ease with her guard, and she counters with a left hook of her own. momo shuffles back and away from dahyun's reach. dahyun follows momo, reaching forward, and pressing a flurry of jabs that doesn't seem to end. momo tries her best to limit the blows to her guard but dahyun taps momo lightly at every opening she finds. momo grimaces but strengthens her guard and throws a right uppercut, to the apparent delight of dahyun who regards her now with shining eyes and another counter.

it's a pattern that holds for the next fifteen minutes and now momo can't seem to get air into her lungs, and dahyun is getting a little blurry now. dahyun goes for a right jab this time, she has to move out of the way now or else shes going to be tapped again. she stumbles back and she thinks she's hallucinating the seven pairs of hands reaching out for her.

"sorry momo, i got excited and got carried away," dahyun frets, grabbing an ice pack and shoving it onto momo's forehead.

"this is why no one wants to fight you!" chaeyoung grumbles, forcing water down momo's throat.

nayeon slides behind cover, reaches into her quiver, and grabs an arrow. she doesn't even get a chance to notch it when a covered figure grabs her bow and throws it away. fear seizes her heart and she scrambles back but its too late they grab her throat and drag her down to the dirt.

she reaches blindly for the arrow she had dropped and once its in her hand she stabs it through their throat, and pulls it back out. hands fly away from her throat to grab at their own but nayeon pays no attention to it not when she desperately needs more air in her lungs.

she sucks in deep breaths and her throat feels like it on fire, but theres a bloody arrow in her hand and a dead body settling on the forest floor. despite it all, she's still alive.

sana hums a song as she walks into the battlefield. does she want to be here? no. will she do her job? obviously. someone is screaming at her, rushing at her with a bloody sword.

"that's not a good idea," sana tries with a smile, lifting her spear.

the soldier charges forward, despite her warning, and all sana can do it thrust her spear forward. the tip runs into his chest and his charge ends with the drop of his sword. she pulls back, swinging the tip away from her to get rid of the blood flowing from it.

she hears footsteps approach from behind her, and she snaps her spear back, the blunt end catches the collarbone of the soldier waiting to stab her in the back. she swings around, kicking the man for good measure, making him fall on his back. he's still wheezing on the ground, when sana approaches, the tip of the spear now pressed against his neck.

"sorry," sana says, pressing the spear down.

sana removes the spear from the still body, looking up to see more soldiers have arrived to surround her. she smiles, at the fear in their eyes.

"well, what are you waiting for?"

hmmm im just going to make tzuyu change weapons jkfhskdjf

"you're still relying too much on your shield," dahyun tuts at tzuyu who only chugs her water. Dahyun sighs, goes to the weapon rack and pulls out a longsword. "use this, and dont complain i know you know how to use it,"

"okay," tzuyu pouts but abandons her trusty sword and shield to pick up the longsword.

jihyo grimaces at the change of weapon, and looks down at her own warhammer. its too short, it doesn't have the reach of tzuyu's longsword. it'll be difficult, very very difficult especially considering tzuyu's defence. she turns to the weapon rack, grins when she sees the longer 2-handed warhammer.

"dahyunnie, im changing too!" Jihyo laughs without abandon which only causes dahyun to sigh and cross something out on her notepad.

"whatever go to your places,"

jihyo's eyes light up at the feeling of the warhammer in her hands, she takes a practice swing and her smile grows. she could get used to this. she takes a glance at tzuyu who is already in her stance, perfect as usual but still managing to have perfected the art of looking as bored as someone could possibly be.

tzuyu doesn't charge at her, she waits and waits, but thats okay jihyo will start this off, just like she always does. she skips forward and swings at tzuyu's sword just to see what she would do.

tzuyu doesn't attempt to parry the swing but instead sidesteps to avoid it. jihyo doesn't have the space not the time to swing again this close so she shuffles back. tzuyu's longsword slashes half-heartedly at her, almost like an afterthought. she thinks she hears a sigh somewhere behind her that makes her smile.

"tzuyu, i'll take you to jeongyeon's new litter of puppies she's been hiding if you win," dahyun calls out.

jihyo's jaw drops, bites back a scream when she sees tzuyu dash at her and slashes at head.

"That's unfair!" jihyo whines, rolling out of the way out of a now energised tzuyu. "bribe me too!"

'i'll order you a custom warhammer," dahyun drones.

jihyo giggles and absorbs another of tzuyu's blows with the handle but now she thinks she sees an indent on the handle from the blade and she kicks tzuyu back and away. tzuyu doesnt fall but does stumble a few paces back. tzuyu looks up at her, and jihyo grins when she sees the fire in tzuyu's eyes. jihyo once again throws herself forward. tzuyu lifts her sword up to her face as if she expects jihyo to swing at her head. which she was going to, twenty seconds ago, but she sees the open space across tzuyu's chestplate and at the last second changes her angle to slam against it. the metal reverberates into jihyo's hands and down onto her body. she watches tzuyu crumble on the ground and drops the warhammer to put her hands up in celebration.

"well you actually tried for once so thats nice," dahyun pats tzuyu's head, who is still flopped onto the floor. "i'll take you to jeongyeon's after you get changed,"

jeongyeon gulps, trying not shake at the sheer size of the creature in front of her. the axe in her hands doesnt feel right. it never has, if jeongyeon were to be honest. it was her father's once, now its her burden to bear.

a snarl brings her out of her thoughts. its looking down on her, this much jeongyeon can understand and its right. the scales the glitter in the morning sun would be tough to get through, and theres still the razor sharp teeth that is currently smiling at her. her grip loosens a little as she shuffles back.

"stay back!" her voice wavers.

she sneaks a glance behind her and all she sees is the peaceful village that she's been burdened to protect. there's so much of her heart that screams at her to run, to drop the axe, and save herself, if she did she would be able to run far away enough to not hear the screams as it decimates the village. she lets herself take another step back, but freezes when she hears gentle laughter in the wind, cheers in the distance that are now muffled by the now slowly approaching monster. she slaps her face, getting herself to face reality. theres a whole world behind her. her burden, her responsibility. she just needs to protect it.

she breathes in, tightens her grip on the axe, and charges.

beloved <333333

jihyo hates this knight. hates the bored stance she holds as she taps her sword onto her shield, beckoning jihyo to come at her. jihyo tightens her grip on her warhammer, skips forward and swings. the knight raises her shield and the hammer bounces off of it. . the knight slides back when jihyo pushes forward, swinging again and again at the shield.
jihyo's arm aches and feels like it might actually fall off but she doesn't care, she can see the shaking of the shield arm and she grins. the sword finally swings at her but all she does is raise her shield arm to stop it. the strike is more powerful than she anticipated and it makes her to stumble in her steps. she clicks her tongue but doesn't fall back, she's so close even if now the sword is aiming for her chestplate. she can swing faster than her opponent she knows it.
"stop!" A voice calls out. they stop mere inches away from each other. her opponent steps back first and takes off her helmet, sweat clinging onto her face.
"jihyo, nice power, and reaction time," dahyun reads her notes out loud. "But you're too aggressive, you're getting sucked in, you're going to tire yourself out before you can break your opponent, take a step back reassess, dont be pulled into taunts,"
jihyo pouts, she knows its true but she doesn't like to hear it, especially from dahyun.
"tzuyu, very good defense, but you were way too passive," dahyun pokes tzuyu's forehead who only grins sleepily at her. "there were several openings you could have exploited,"
"okay let's try that again," dahyun claps her hands together and they both sigh before taking their places once more.