Living Life As A Game: Through And Through

Upon entering the into the dojo, Atid and Jane were already moving about, conducting their responsibilities as instructors. While off to the side, Sun stood alone. He seemed to be in his own little world focused solely on himself and his training, with no one capable of disrupting him. Elizabeth didn"t know what to do, considering that last time it was Sun that had taken her from place to place.

Thus, after being put in this awkward position, she just offered herself to Sun"s side as that was where she was yesterday and another round of training commenced. Elizabeth went right into training with full force which came off as a surprise to everyone around her, as they were all still in the middle of warming up; everyone except Sun, that is.

However, upon remembering her as a new face from just yesterday, the veterans of Adit"s Dojo just laughed her off, thinking she would soon see herself out in embarra.s.sment for tiring herself too quickly. Alas, the minutes turned to hours and Elizabeth never seemed to show even a hint of weakness as her training led her to a state where only watching the numbers go up was on her mind.

An hour into her endless attacking of one poor sand bag, her Muay Thai skill increased to level two. Half an hour later, the entire gym could only look on at the frail frame of the girl in black, who would not for a second stop her rhythmic movements of a.s.sault against the helpless sand bag. She only stopped an hour and thirty-nine minutes into her acts of sandbag punishment as her Inner Strength had run out, else there was no telling when her ruthlessness would stop.

Even when she stopped to recover her Inner Strength, she didn"t look a bit tired from the hours long training she had thus far performed, at least physically that was the case. What everyone aside from Elizabeth could not tell was how much strain it took on her mind to constantly be focused on where her stance and form, her attacks and rhythm, all aspects of Muay Thai essentially, could be improved.

Taking a rest to recover Inner Strength would also let her mind loosen up after all the tensity it had acc.u.mulated thus far. Thus, Elizabeth sat down on the cold clean floor of the dojo and within minutes her Inner Strength was completely recovered. She stood up and moved towards the sandbag she had previously been hammering beyond compa.s.sion, when out of the blue, Jane confronted her.

Elizabeth was too busy thinking about where her flaws lay in Muay Thai and of how much she had yet to learn, when she ran into Jane and fell down to the ground. From her perspective, Jane seemed to have teleported before her as even though she was busy thinking about her training, she was still relatively aware of her surroundings.

Oddly enough, even though Elizabeth had ran into Jane without a movement to stop or slow down, even though she had fallen, Jane didn"t even look like she moved. Elizabeth looked at Jane with confusion in her eyes, wondering what was going on, when Jane finally started to speak.

With her trademark sunny smile, which seemed to go completely against the image of her icy martial arts, Jane said "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Just yesterday you didn"t even know what Muay Thai was and now your training with that sandbag over there as if its been your schedule for the last eight weeks! Tell me, have you really never done any Muay Thai training? Or any combat sport training for that matter?"

Elizabeth stood up from the floor and swiped at her nose in pretend humility, saying "No… This is my first time..." She looked into Jane"s eyes and felt an ominous precognition activate from depths of her instincts warning her to run away ASAP.

Almost as if to taunt Elizabeth"s subconscious, a subtle light of amus.e.m.e.nt lit up from the core of Jane"s irises. She look at Elizabeth with more fervor and said "Well, if I didn"t know better, I"d say you had already completed a quarter year"s worth of fighting camp lessons from the homeland! Your unyielding effort is clear proof of your dedication and everyone here is convinced of your strength."

From behind Jane, the faces of the dojo"s members all smiled as they looked at Elizabeth almost as if they were congratulating her. Only, to the girl in question, their congratulatory faces would better be described as s.a.d.i.s.tic antic.i.p.ation. She looked to Atid as if to plead for mercy, but his face was the most warped with "expectations" for her. Even Sun, her last bastion of hope and defense was still off to the side in his own little world, barely even paying attention to her current plight. The only thing he did was stop for a second as she turned to him and nod before resuming his even more ridiculous training regimen.

At the height of Elizabeth"s current rejection towards whatever was about to come at her, Jane reached behind her back and took out an… armband and headband? She gave Elizabeth a matching set of one armband and one headband, both black and gold in color. Elizabeth just took the "gifts" and kept her clueless face plastered upon her face, eager for some answers, but fate seemed to not have her interests in mind.

Elizabeth was just dragged over to a sparring ring, still clueless as to what she was supposed to do with her armband and headband. It was only when Jane finished putting her on a corner that she turned to her own corner and put on her own headband and armband. Elizabeth dreaded every pa.s.sing moment as it almost highlight a countdown towards her obviously getting beaten down…

She watched as Jane put on her headband and could only a.s.sume the worst. If this was supposed to be her initiation match, while she hated the idea of being beaten, she wouldn"t go down without a fight. Only, that might sound a bit more courageous if she didn"t already know herself to be outcla.s.sed by Jane, by about 13 or 14 levels.

Elizabeth didn"t cast away her fear as that was an impossibility; she was already too far gone to become a fearless Muay Thai warrior. Rather, instead of throwing away her fear and embracing the situation with the mindset of a hero, she took a "different" approach and chose to elevate her fear pa.s.s what sanity allowed.

With infinitely nervous twitch like movements, she mimicked Jane and put on her armband and headband. Going into a fear overload like she had just done had sent all the adrenaline limits of her body into working double time as she stood with bloodshot eyes staring down at Jane, for any signs that the fight would start. Moments felt like hours and the sheer quant.i.ty of sweat and tension this short-lived time caused her looked ridiculous, when compared to the amount generated by her actual physical training.

The notification of a new side quest appearing didn"t even faze Elizabeth as she eyed down Jane. Only the concept of self preservation was present in her mind at the moment, but nothing ever happened. Elizabeth just stood there, ready and in a proper Thai Stance, but Jane never made a move. She could have sworn that Jane had moved her mouth a couple times, but given her current state of being, any words being thrown were all but discarded.

Eventually, the ever tense position Elizabeth was put under just had to dissipate as minutes pa.s.sed and nothing happened, which slowly led her frightened self to being less frightened and more confused. Slowly as behavior returned to resemble something less b.e.s.t.i.a.l, Elizabeth could finally start understanding the words being thrown around her, and the first thing she heard was the constant questioning and small talk of the other dojo members.

"Come on pretty girl! We"re rooting for you!"

"Just start the spar already!"

"Guys! You don"t think she peed her pants, right?"

Jane seemed to have noticed she could hear again, so she drew her attention and said "What are you doing? We"re only going to start you on sparring." Her eyes did a couple rolls as she continued saying "You didn"t think I"d actually be fighting against you for real, right?" Obviously, Jane knew the answer to that question. But, to not further shame Elizabeth, she just left it as a question, before gesturing for Elizabeth to come at her.

Elizabeth, oddly enough, didn"t drown in yet another wave of depression after being slighted before everyone in the dojo; they had all seen her devolve into something less than human, in preparation for what she thought to be a life and death battle. Instead, she sighed a heavy sigh, carrying with it all her previous worries and concerns over getting ruthlessly beaten. She laughed at herself for jumping to conclusions, like she always did, but quickly moved away from that mindset to make the most of the upcoming sparring session with Jane.