The Rise of Marquis 14 (Patreon)

The Rise of Marquis
Chapter 14: Training under the Marquis

-VB-

“Again!”

Taylor scrambled up from where she’d fallen and forced her blood to coat her forearms and then crystallize.

Marquis - Samuel - was upon her no more than a moment afterward her blood crystallization finished.

She bent down low as she brought her guards up, and winced when his own bone gauntlets smashed into her blood crystal gauntlet with a loud crack. She skidded back an inch from the force of the blow, but she held on, closing her arms in tightly.

‘Taking blows,’ he called it.

To her, it was just getting hit again and again and again while he tossed her a few tips as he beat her down.

If mom hadn’t been the one to recommend him, she would have left already!

“EEK!”

Because this was too much!

She quickly sidestepped another assault but managed to dodge by a hair’s width, and had to keep ducking, weaving, and dodging whatever Marquis threw at her.

“Alright, I’m now going for a twelve consecutive combo.”

A shiver ran up and down her spine in an instant, and she quickly drew more blood from herself and reinforced her gauntlet.

And then Marquis was upon her.

The first punch was a left jab, lightning fast. It came almost too quickly for her to dodge but she did, but his fist clipped her gauntlet, making her right forearm tremble from the pain of a merely glancing hit.

The second hit came from the same hand. Once he missed, he hooked the arm and punched inward.

She knew that this was a trap. It made him look like there was an opening for her to take advantage of by stepping into his guard at this moment, but she saw his right arm already reeled back for counter-counterattack.

Instead, she bent her knees and back, ducking underneath the haymaker, and then stepped away and to her right, ensuring that Marquis would have to turn his body more, thus more time and energy he needed to spend, to strike at her.

To her surprise, he spun with the momentum of his strike and spun low. His leg struck out with a low kick, and she yelped as she jumped backward to dodge.

Before she could regain her balance and composure, he came at her with a body check.

“OOF!” she choked as his shoulder slammed into her chest, and sent her tumbling backward.

She groaned on the floor for the seventh time today, and she knew that this wasn’t over.

Oh no, if she laid there on the ground when he specifically told her about what was coming, then she was just going to get beaten on.

She shot up onto her feet and roughly assessed her situation. Marquis had backed off, but only just. He was already starting to strike at her with another left jab.

She grunted as she moved into his guard… and then ducked and spun in place with her own low kick.

Marquis stomped down on the ground and held his ground, and Taylor cursed internally when her shin struck his shin and pain blossomed like a bomb. She rolled away, and he chased after her.

He continued with his left jab. She knew that he was doing this on purpose! A jab was the fastest attack a normal person could throw, and by continuously moving forward and jabbing at her, he was keeping her backpedaling and off balance.

She brought up her guard again, and took the sixth jab, but turned her body just so that she could slide into his guard as his gauntleted fist skimmed off of her smooth crystalline gauntlet.

Before she could try to body check him, he took two steps back and swung his right leg up.

And brought it back down as a vicious and nearly blurring hammer kick.

She was too close to dodge, so she brought her gauntlets up.

When his kick connected, her entire body shook from the force of the attack. Her knees bent to compensate and then sent her kneeling.

‘Oh shit.’

She was now incapable of moving quickly because both of her knees were on the ground.

She tried to grab at his leg but he moved too quickly, taking his extended leg back.

And then he struck right back with the same leg by push-kicking her.

She fumbled with her guard this time and lost her focus. His push kick slipped in between her weak guard and slammed into the center of chest.

Taylor screamed in pain as she bounced away. She tumbled on the ground again and came to a rest on her face.

“... Fuck,” she mumbled.

He clapped and it wasn’t … sarcastic? “Well done.”

She slowly got back up. If he was talking, then their current bout was done. He always gave her a brief moment where, if he talked, there was a pause.

“Everything hurts…” But mainly her abused and bruised forearm.

“That’s a good thing. You lasted all twelve strikes, you know that?”

She paused as she let her gauntlets dissolve and rubbed her forearms. She … did, didn’t she? That was better than the first time she faced him.

He went for a simple three strike combo on their first session, and she got laid out on the second hit. How did he describe her then? Oh, right. He called it a miracle that she survived against Lung.

“You did great, even, by counterattacking when you could. But don’t try low kicks unless you know your kick has greater force than their ability to remain standing. With so many fliers, low kicks are considered weak and prone to failure.” Then he clapped once, which rang with a note of finality. “Okay, I want you to make twenty laps around the basketball court before you go.”

She bit down on her urge to groan and started jogging.

As he liked to say, “if she had energy to groan, then she had energy to take at least one step forward.”

Fucking taskmasters.