Page 5 of King Foretold
Haesan is by far the best in hand-to-hand combat. A few cadets with similar builds have put up a good fight, but he has never lost a sparring round. Captain Seo matched me up with him so my ass and my pride would take a beating, and she knows it. She’s been extra nasty to me all day, ever since Jihun came to the cadet quarters this morning.
“Haesan won all three rounds.” I try to keep my tone civil. I really do. But civility isn’t my forte, especially when Captain Seo routinely berates me in front of the other cadets for my many inadequacies. And I’m pissed at myself for giving her more ammunition to humiliate me. “As you well know.”
Captain Seo pivots on her feet in slow motion until we stand face to face. Her expression is set in stone, and there’s menace in every line of her body. “And how would I know that?”
The Mean Girls snicker behind me. I don’t waste my energy acknowledging them. I have my hands full with the furious angel in front of me, as well as the angry gumiho inside me. The captain picked the wrong day to mess with me.
“Because he’s three times my size and weight.” I throw an arm out toward Haesan, and he whimpers. “And he’s a being of Water, with the might of waves in his veins. Without magic, no one in this training yard can defeat him in hand-to-hand combat.”
“Is that your expert opinion, Cadet Cho?” The captain sounds terrifyingly calm. “That no one smaller and weaker can defeat him?”
“It’s common sense,” I bite out, doubling down.
I’ve already shown enough disrespect to earn me a week of barracks cleaning. I might as well crash and burn like a blazing meteorite. Besides, the captain can’t work me to literal death. This whole cadet farce grants me amnesty, which means no killing me ... for now.
“Would you agree that Gang Haesan is stronger and bigger than me?” Captain Seo unbuckles her leather belt and drops her twin knives onto the ground.
Fuck.I shoot a panicked glance at Haesan, who turns an interesting shade of green. I’m the one who challenged her authority. She’s angry atme. I won’t let her take it out on my friend. I round on the captain with murder in my eyes.
“Leave him out of this,” I growl.
“You’ve made that impossible, haven’t you?” She steps into the sparring circle that Haesan and I recently vacated. “How else can I unburden you of your flawed thinking? As your instructor, it would be remiss of me not to use this as a teaching opportunity.”
With his giant shoulders drooping, Haesan walks inside the circle. Captain Seo is taller than me, but she still only comes to the merman’s chin. Even assuming her slender figure is made of corded muscles,Haesan could lay her out within three minutes. Is the captain counting on that so she can punish him for hurting an instructor? I can’t let that happen. I suck in a breath, ready to apologize ... to beg.
“In this circle, I am not your instructor,” Captain Seo says in a clear, carrying voice. “We stand as equals. Don’t be afraid of repercussions. There will be none unless you fail to try your best. And donotinsult me by holding back because I am smaller and weaker than you. Is that understood, Gang Haesan?”
“Understood, Captain,” Haesan answers automatically.
“I am not your captain.” A ghost of a smile crosses her face. “I’m Seo Cheyun, your sparring partner. Ready?”
Haesan nods and takes his fighting stance. “What are you waiting for, Seo Cheyun?”
The cadets, as well as the other instructors, gather around the circle, jostling me from behind, but I don’t take my eyes off the fight. The excited murmur quiets into awed silence as Captain Seo and Haesan face off.
Haesan is big, but he’s startlingly fast. He’s been holding back with everyone, not just me. But Captain Seo ... She fights like a work of art come to life. She moves like poetry, lithe and fluid, and strikes like lightning. Their fight is an intricate dance choreographed to a symphonic masterpiece—beautiful and deadly, nuanced and brutal.
They punch, kick, block, and spin in a blur of flying limbs and twisting bodies. Haesan lands the first punch, and they break apart, dust swirling at their feet. Cheyun wipes the blood off her busted lip with her knuckles and gives her opponent a nod of acknowledgment. He smirks and beckons her with a flick of his hand.
After another furious burst of fighting, Haesan grunts and stumbles back two steps, barely stopping within the circle. Cheyun stands with her leg in the air for a second longer—the leg that just delivered an explosive kick to the merman’s chest—then lowers it with impressive control.
Then they circle each other in loose fighting stances, panting from the exertion. The two seem evenly matched. I don’t know who I’d put my money on. This fight might come down to stamina. They can’t fight at this speed and intensity forever.
Yet, they spar for fifteen more minutes straight without seeming to tire. They are fucking machines. I’m exhausted just from watching them.
Suddenly, Cheyun moves in on Haesan like a streak of light, heading straight for his center of mass. She is so fast that I would’ve missed it if I wasn’t paying attention. But it’s not going to work. I already tried that strategy. Battering into Haesan is like slamming into a mountain. It’s going to hurt her a lot more than it’ll hurt him.
This will be over as soon as he gets his hands on Cheyun and throws her across the yard. I don’t even blink because I’m afraid to miss her spectacular defeat. But—and I don’t say this often—I’m wrong.
Cheyun lifts Haesan off the ground with a grunt and throws him over her shoulder, and he flies feet first through the air. In a blur of movements, she slams him down on the dirt and kneels on his chest, pressing one knee against his throat. “Do you yield?”
Haesan gurgles, and she eases the pressure off his windpipe to let him speak. “I yield.”
Riotous cheers shatter the awed silence. The cadets jump, whoop, and pump their fists in the air, like their favorite basketball player sank a game-winning three-pointer with 0.01 seconds on the clock. They already think Captain Seo is the biggest badass to ever walk the Realm of Four Kingdoms, and she just handed Haesan, someone twice her size, his ass on a platter. It’s going to be nauseating to watch them suck up to her even more.
The captain helps Haesan to his feet and claps him on the back. That probably hurt her hand, and I hold back a snort. But the merman nods and smiles at something she says, and I purse my lips. I’m not obtuse enough to miss the fact that she’s behaving like a decent being toward Haesan.
Then why the hell is she such a jerk tome? I swallow the small knot of hurt. It isn’t bigotry, because I don’t feel that slimy mixture of rage and shame when she torments me. It feels like straightforward loathing.Whatever.I don’t care if she hates me. At least, I don’t want to care.
