The Blue burst knocked Rafferty off balance, and she found herself reconsidering the excitement she'd felt this morning when Max told her it was time to get back to work.

She was matched with Tyler. Rafferty had been dodging Blue bolts in the Box for the last ten minutes now, but Tyler was getting wise to her moves, and landing hits more frequently, the pain a little harder to shake off each time.

Tyler wore a special pair of sunglasses that could launch powerful streams of Blue wherever she looked. She could cut right through God metal when she really turned it up.

On an unrelated note, Tyler never seems to leave her room unless she's wearing her full length blue coat with fancy metal toggles, and matching boots that go up past her knees. And she calls everybody "darling" all the time, and has weird, particular taste in food.

Maybe it wasn't entirely unrelated, because those things made Rafferty desperately want to punch Tyler really square, just once.

Except you couldn't.

Because you might break the glasses.

Sparring with Tyler was basically volunteering to be target practice. When you did manage to close the distance, you weren't allowed to do anything. You were just supposed to tap her on the shoulder and say "Got you," and then Tyler would tip her glasses down, and say "Of course you did, darling."

Then you would go off to have your Jack bandage you up, and Tyler would go off to eat gourmet pickled crayfish or whatever it was that she ate, and tell someone the story of the first time she ate it while watching a sunset with an artist that she rescued from a cave.

Stupid glasses.

Rafferty finally managed to make it all the way to Tyler, and did what she was supposed to do, instead of what she wanted to do. She must have looked like she was thinking about actually landing something, because she got a cautionary glare from Trevor.

She didn't get the customary response from Tyler, though, and Rafferty realized that Tyler was busy watching something else. Everyone was.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Rafferty turned and saw Cody and Katrin. She knew they were matched up, but now that she was watching she was surprised that they were really going at it.

The other sparring pairs were all standing to the side, giving them room. They had to, Cody and Katrin were flying all over the place.

Katrin didn't spar often, and when she did, she didn't like to lose. That was no surprise. Rafferty almost never saw Cody try this hard during a fake fight, though. Cody never wanted to make anybody look bad.

Rafferty looked at Sheridan across the room. Sheridan looked back, a little smile on her face. The look said one thing: Are you seeing this?

Cody actually blinked. Rafferty had never seen her do that in here. Not once. The first time, she caught Katrin totally by surprise, and Katrin was lucky to roll away from the ensuing attack. The second time, Katrin was ready. There were clues to where Cody was going, if you knew what to look for. The farther apart her hands were on the hammer, the farther she was going, and she had to turn her shoulder, just slightly, in the direction she wanted to move. Rafferty had no idea how Katrin had time to process everything, but she jumped before Cody even disappeared and almost came down right on top of the reappearing Cody.

Cody actually let out a little eep when she saw Katrin right in front of her, and lashed out with a lucky kick that sent Katrin across the room.

They came together several more times, each time the sole focus of everyone in the room. Finally, Cody landed a hammer blow that Katrin couldn't repel. To be fair, Katrin had it partially blocked, and her real sword would have added a protective burst that might have helped. Here, however, the power behind the hammer was just too great, and Katrin flipped over, hit the floor, and slid across the room.

Leslie called the fight, and Cody received a rush of congratulations, even from Brianna.

Now it was possible that Katrin didn't hear Leslie call it. Rafferty had been hit by that hammer before, and it left your ears ringing pretty good, and Katrin was halfway across the room.

Or maybe she just didn't like to lose.

Katrin launched herself at Cody, virtually a human arrow, sword pointed straight out. Rafferty had no idea had she got such velocity from a dead stop, lying on the floor.

She hit Cody, hard. Hard enough to break ribs, Rafferty was afraid. Cody flew all the way to the wall, and crumpled to the floor.

Katrin stood up, and Sheridan was in her face immediately.

"You bitch!" Sheridan shouted, and knocked her to the ground.

That brought Seth into the fray, claws and cattle prods were produced, and things were threatening to get bad.

Colin was up too, and being held back by Connor and Erick. Rafferty thought if he had his shotgun with him, he might have used it.

Brianna was trying to hold on to Katrin, who was yelling at Sheridan.

Rafferty looked over at Cody, and saw her getting up. There was a look on Cody's face she'd never seen before, and the head of her hammer looked like a great Blue flame.

Balls.

Rafferty jumped when Cody jumped. She didn't draw a weapon, or try to strike or anything. She just wanted to get in her hallmate's way.

She didn't even feel the thump of the hammer. The next thing she knew, she was smacking into the far wall. She fell to the floor. Then everything hurt. She tried to push herself up, and she realized that her arms didn't want to move.

Rafferty heard raised voices, plenty of them. Cody was screaming in a way Cody never screamed. There were a lot of curse words. Words Rafferty didn't even know Cody knew. Then there was something about how she didn't understand how someone could be friends with a person like this. Rafferty thought it might be directed at her.

I hope you don't expect me to catch all that, Cody.

'Cause I'm pretty sure I'm about to pass out.

Dark fuzz sprouted at the corners of her vision, and pushed its way in.

Yep, here I go.