Samuel Drake
Entering the training field for their hand-to-hand combat exercises, Samuel had to resist the urge to sigh. He had never been much of a fighter. When he was younger, Samuel's knack for sensing when danger was near had allowed him to avoid most of the situations where he would have had to fight. In the few instances where conflict had been unavoidable, Samuel had relied on a more defensive style of fighting. Observing his opponents carefully while they attacked, he would try and discover their weaknesses and then take advantage of those weaknesses with ruthless efficiency.
Moving into his spot, Samuel turned and looked around at the other recruits as they trained. It was quite clear that some of them were going to need a lot of work while others seemed to excel at the exercise. So far Samuel had done a good job of keeping himself unnoticed, or, at least he thought he was doing a good job.
Glancing over as he caught sight of his partner walking towards him out of the corner of his eye, Samuel turned back to face the boy. He was about the same height and build as Samuel, maybe a little stockier but all in all it was a fairly even match. "Hanzel." The boy said with a slight smile, holding out his hand. Samuel looked down at the hand and then back up towards the other boy. There was no need for him to take part in the formalities and so he simply stared at Hanzel blankly.
"Uhh... I guess we could start then?" Hanzel muttered, embarrassed. Shuffling awkwardly he glanced towards the wooden knife that lay on the small table beside them. Seeing that Samuel was making no move towards it, Hanzel shrugged and walked over. Picking the knife up from the table, he was surprised by its realistic weight. Turning back to face Samuel, Hanzel readied himself. Though the instructors had taught them the basic moves, Hanzel wasn't sure he would be able to execute them as well as he was supposed to. Taking a breath, he adjusted his grip on the knife and charged.
Samuel watched the boy carefully as he moved. It was clear that Hanzel wasn't overly experienced with the techniques, but the boy did an admirable job of trying to follow them to the letter. That was his mistake. Samuel was also familiar with the techniques, meaning that he could predict Hanzel's moves. Waiting for the boy to get closer, Samuel watched as the first strike came towards his head. Ducking under it, he threw a swift, vicious punch to Hanzel's sternum, causing the boy to lose his breath and keel over. Continuing his movement, Samuel grabbed Hanzel's arm, wrapping his other hand the back of the boy's neck. Pivoting, he thrust his hip out and threw Hanzel to the ground with force. The shock of the impact caused Hanzel to drop the knife, which went skidding a few feet away. Samuel made no attempt to move towards it however, he simply stepped back and waited.
Kicking himself backwards, Hanzel tried to regain his breath, staring with nervous apprehension towards Samuel. His eyes traveled hesitantly to the knife laying on the ground, and then back up to Samuel. Suddenly Hanzel darted towards the wooden knife, grasping it and whipping back around, expecting his opponent to already be attacking. A slight sense of alarm filled him as he saw that Samuel was still simply standing with his arms crossed, no emotion on his face. Getting to his feet slowly, Hanzel hesitated. Rushing into an attack got him nowhere, so he'd have to be more careful this time.
Watching the other boy preparing for another attack, Samuel did not move from his position. Hanzel moved towards him, more slowly this time. The knife was held out in front of him in a more cautious, defensive position. Stepping towards Samuel, Hanzel's focused intently on his opponent, not wanting to get caught like last time. Reaching out, Hanzel swung the knife upwards, attempting to hit Samuel in the chest. His attention was so focused on Samuel blocking the attack, that he didn't notice the vicious kick his opponent threw at his knee.
Hanzel's eyes widened in surprise as his right knee buckled under the force of the kick. It put him off balance enough that he began stumbling forwards. Shifting to the side, Samuel reached out, one hand grabbing Hanzel's knife hand, and the other came around in a flat palmed strike to the other boy's elbow. The blow wasn't strong enough to break Hanzel's arm, but it did cause him to drop the knife. Pushing the boy further off balance, Samuel managed to catch the knife before it hit the ground.
He stood still, waiting for the other boy to pick himself up off the ground. As Hanzel stood, Samuel surged forwards, keeping the knife at his side. Hanzel brought his arms up to defend himself, but Samuel suddenly deked to the side, whipping his free arm around in a sharp elbow to the boy's midsection. Dropping an arm to block the blow, Hanzel tried to bring his other arm around to grab Samuel. Seeing the attempt, Samuel spun back around, avoiding Hanzel's grasp.
The boy was now left in an awkward spot, and Samuel took full advantage of that by leaping forwards, straight at him. Seeing the panic in Hanzel's eyes, the memory of his father's death popped into Samuel's head, sending a surge of rage through his body. His eyes growing darker was the only visible sign that anything was wrong as he tackled the boy and raised the knife, ready to strike.
As the knife swung down, Samuel briefly caught a glimpse of one of the trainers watching him intently. Cursing inwardly, he adjusted the path of his strike so that it hit the ground beside Hanzel's head. So much for remaining completely anonymous...
Clinging to the rock face, Samuel felt quite relaxed, unlike a lot of the other recruits that he could see. Climbing was second nature to him and, although climbing the buildings was a different beast than climbing a rock face, the principle was the same. Pulling himself along from handhold to handhold, Samuel made sure to stay about midway through the pack. He paced himself, continuing his climb nearly effortlessly. Samuel looked up, trying to spot his next handhold. The nearest spot for him to climb to was going to require a bit of a leap as his arms were not long enough to reach it.
Preparing to make his leap, Samuel straightened his arms, leaning back so that he could push off with more force. Just before he could push off however, Samuel felt something strange. Glancing up quickly, Samuel watched as the rope that had tied him to the mountain plummeted down past him. Did they just cut the line? He thought to himself, wondering what to do. Reaching down with one hand, Samuel untied the rope from his waist, allowing it to fall completely. He didn't want the extra weight to pull him down. Setting his sights on the handhold above him once again, Samuel made his leap.
Gripping onto the rock face tightly, he waited for his momentum to settle before reaching up to grab the next hold. Samuel pulled himself up, bit by bit, ignoring the fact that if he fell now he would end up dead. Looking up briefly, he could see the top of the cliff not far above him. Keeping his focus, Samuel continued to climb.
Moving through the forest with more ease than he first had, Samuel was excited to be back in the 3DMG. He was still working on being able to move around as quickly and as smoothly as some of the other recruits, but Samuel had a knack for being able to manoeuver through difficult spaces with relative ease. This made the obstacle course a very fun place to experiment for him, as he had to react quickly in order to avoid the moving dummies. Holding himself back a little, Samuel watched as several of the recruits ahead of him made their ways through the course.
Two of the trainees were travelling with too much speed, most likely trying to race each other to the finish. Their eagerness to get ahead of each other caused their attention to slip, and they were both caught by surprise as a large dummy swung out into their path. Neither of the recruits had time to manoeveur out of the way, and they smacked into the padded dummy with some force.
Making his way around the new obstacle, Samuel made sure to keep a close eye on his surroundings. He didn't want to get caught like those last two...
Arriving to the cafeteria, Samuel followed the same routine he always did. Grabbing his food and heading to the corner, he sat down on the floor and ate with his back against both walls. He gained a little comfort out of knowing that his back was covered and that he could see everything going on around him.
