SHATTERED| 1 (UNDER MAJOR EDITING)

1.| Thirteen Years Later

Cast is after Chp.15

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Everything hurt.

Her cheeks, her lips, her knuckles; they all burned and stung like a sore rash. With bloodshot blue eyes, she felt as if she couldn't even see; everything was just so red.

Wiping at her bloodied lip with the back of her blood stained hand, she bounced on the balls of her feet as her and the opponent in front of her took a small break.

Her knuckles were already split and bleeding, a small side effect to punching out someone's teeth.

That someone being the person in front of her.

With eyes of fury, Natalia stared at her opponent; he was immensely taller than her by a few inches with muscles that were almost as thick as her own head. His biceps alone were about the size of her waist.

The boy with the black hair and vibrant hazel eyes stared back at Natalia as he popped his knuckles and twisted his head side to side. Natalia crept across the mat like a cat; her feet barely touching the ground as she crouched and stepped.

"Every opponent is different."

They charged together with Natalia throwing the first punch right to his liver.

"Some are big and some are small, but each of them share one thing in common; a weakness."

Natalia's liver punch forced the man to hunch over as a shooting pain blazed up his entire side. He staggered back, allowing Natalia to sprint to him and quickly go behind him.

"Weakness can be in many forms. There are bodily weaknesses,-"

Natalia punched the sensitive area of the spine.

"-injury weaknesses-"

As the boy staggered forward, her eyes caught the small cut he had on the back of his bicep from her punches. With agile movements and a cunning stealth, Natalia ran towards him and weaved her way around him so that she was next to him. When she was next to him, she took her nails and dragged them against the raw cut in his skin.

"-and size weaknesses."

Natalia, being the smaller one of the two, slithered her way around the boy's legs before running behind him. After there was a good distance between the two, she began to sprint straight towards his back.

Though before she could reach him, she quickly forced her weight backwards in a cartwheel before straightening her legs mid air and kicked the boy straight in the center of his back.

With a loud thud, he collapsed on the floor with nothing but a faint breath leaving his lips as he fell completely unconscious.

Natalia was panting as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. Her hands were trembling from the adrenaline and the feral look was still in her eyes as she looked up to the instructor.

The woman with stark red hair held a pleased expression as she watched the boy get carried to the infirmary with blood oozing out of his arm. With solid green eyes, Professor Stone looked at Natalia and nodded her head once.

"Well done Natalia," she commended in front of the other students. Natalia felt sick to her stomach about the entire ordeal, but for the sake of her own reputation, she just nodded her head back and wiped her bloody knuckles against her black tee shirt.

Professor Stone turned to the students behind her and watched as all of them stared at Natalia in marvel. Her skills were the best which was exactly why Professor Stone chose Natalia and her opponent, Tyler, as an example.