Chapter 8 Opponent's Weakness

• Raya's POV
• My eyes widened as I stumbled back in surprise as I barely dodged his swiping hands.
• “You're fighting with your wolf.” I pointed out, not peeling my eyes off his stalking figure.
• “And you're fighting with your words.” He growled, clearly not satisfied with my defensive stances.
• “That's because you're…not exactly who I can take down. You're stronger than me, there's no way I'll win this one!” I gritted through my teeth, hands clenching besides me as I slowly moved to the sides, avoiding his stalking moves to my direction.
• “Do you often look down on yourself like this?” he asked, his tone firm but inquisitive. “When did you start having these thoughts again, little wolf?”
• My chest tightened as I fought internally on whether I should tell him the truth or come up with something so believable.
• But when my lips parted slightly, the lies burned at the tip of my tongue as his wolf eyes stared back at me.
• “Don't lie to me, Raya.”
• “It's been five weeks now. When I…lost to Azrael…”
• “Azrael.” He tasted the words on his lips, nodding with content like he agreed with whatever thought had swirled through his mind. “I sent him to you that day.”
• “What?” I blinked. “I thought…”
• “That he was your trainer?” he completed my statement, his head cocking to the side when he saw that I wasn't denying it. “No, he was just your opponent for the meantime. I’m your trainer, little wolf. He was placed to challenge you until you were ready to spar with me.”
• “What makes you think I'm ready?” I glares at him through the anger and betrayal in my eyes.
• “Your will to continue fighting. It's admirable.” He pointed out, bolting towards me without hesitation. Thinking fast, I tumbled underneath him and tried to pin him down from behind, but he was faster.
• He dodged my moves and easily brushed me off to the side. A groan escaped my lips as I slowly rose from the ground.
• “However, focus that will on something else rather than your weaknesses,” he commented, easily cracking off the muscles in his neck and fingers as I brought my hands forward, ready to take on whatever jab he was preparing for me. “Your will to find out your opponent's weakness, rather than looking at yours.”
• “But how do I do that?” I whispered, frustration evident in my tone as I rushed forward to attack this time, barely dodging his gleaming claws past my shoulders.
• “Watch.” he whispered as he tapped on my shoulders with firm, quiet eyes. I nodded, watching as he circled around me again, but this time, I wasn't just defending.
• I was playing both sides.
• I dragged in a deep breath and closed my eyes briefly, swiftly remembering something that Azrael was always good and bad at using against me.
• He was good with his hands, but he was awfully terrible with his senses.
• Mainly because he'd lost an eye to some sort of attack years back.
• So, when that little price of information popped up in mind, my brows raised in understanding and I looked up at Kael, who was still looking in my direction too intensely like he was waiting for something.
• Waiting for something.
• That was it.
• His weakness was watching.
• He looks for weak spots in his opponents. Meaning that he's predicting their moves and looking for an opening for mistakes.
• He knows what I'd do next that's why it's almost impossible to hit him!
• A grin slowly spread across my lips at this realisation. Then, I prepped my arms forward again and put my hair up into a ponytail, much to Kael's surprise.
• I'd trick him with two things.
• Hopefully, it works.
• Or tomorrow, he'd probably take away all my breaks.
• I dashed forward again, replicating the move I’d done earlier—pretending to tumble underneath him—and just like I'd predicted, his arms were splaying out to grab on to my legs.
• “Yes! Yes!” Taking him by surprise, I caught on his arms and forced him to fall backwards, using my legs to straddle his vulnerability and my claws to pin him by his neck.
• My chest heaved with excitement as both of our eyes locked, mine with disbelief and his with satisfaction.
• “I…I took you down, Alpha.” I whispered, my hands still on him.
• “And your wolf's finally out, Raya.” His eyes gleamed with pride as they moved to my claws, narrowing down with thought as if he was sniffing out something.
• I gasped in surprise, feeling a strange sense of power burn deep inside of me—something else besides my wolf.
• ‘I'm here, Raya. You did great.’
• ‘Mira…you're back!’ I screamed at the back of my head with excitement, slightly forgetting that I was still on Kael.
• “How did you do it?” Kael's voice suddenly asked, interest evident rather than his typical strong tone.
• “I watched.” I tilted my head to the side with a smirk.
• He scoffed, realizing I was taunting him. Then, in a blink of a second, the tables turned.
• I was now under him.
• My eyes grew wide as a claw slowly ran down my neck.
• “Another rule when fighting,” he whispered, his cold demeanor back on board. “Never take your eyes off your opponent.”
• I swallowed, realizing he was right. I mean, he was Kael, but what if it was someone else?
• Someone who really wanted me dead?
• The realisation turned my blood cold.
• “What if…. something happened to you—or the Pack while I was fighting? Then, can I look away?” I slowly asked, brows furrowed into a serious look.
• “Never.” he warned. “Kindness and compassion should be the last thing you think of when faced with death.” And as if emphasizing on his words, he added two claws to my neck this time, pressing on it lightly while his eyes remained on mine.
• My breath hitched at the pressure, fear and something…warmer mixing in as I didn't flinch away from him, but rather trusted him enough to watch and learn.
• “Aren't you afraid of me? Of what I can do?” he asked, his black eyes slowly fading into his normal silver eyes as he watched my reaction with a strange look on his face.
• “I mean, you are scary sometimes…” I pointed out, quickly regretting my words when I saw how quick his coldness was slipping back on. “B-but! I'm not scared of you. I don't think I ever have, because I trusted you from the moment you saved me from myself.”
• His claws paused on my neck and the gleam in his eyes were gone. It looked like he was slowly taking in my words, like this was the first time he was hearing something like this somewhere around here.
• I bit my lips in regret when I noticed his jaws were clenched now and he wasn't looking at me anymore.
• “D-did I say something wrong?”
• He didn't answer but his eyes did.
• “Oh sh-shit, I'm so sorry! I'll get off now!” I stuttered with pink cheeks, quickly getting off as soon as he did.
• And just as I opened my mouth to ask what was next, he turned his back to me and slowly started to walk away.
• “You’re getting better. Keep it up this way and we might just switch things up for a run in the woods.”
• ‘So, like a date?’ my wolf popped up at the back of my mind, her words making me shake my head vigorously as my lips moved to whisper-yell the words.
• “No! What the hell!”
• “What was that?” he drawled, turning around immediately.
• “I said, yes, I can't wait.” I plastered a smile, watching as he disappeared behind the big doors.
• Finally, I released a breath I didn't know I'd been holding for so long.
• ‘What do you think about a run, Mira?’
• Without a word, my claws immediately flicked on as a response. I chuckled and moved towards the doors.
• I'd take that as a yes then.