Chapter 10:
I walked back out again, and headed towards the Training Centre. I saw Darvant again, waiting round the corner from my room, twirling two one-foot long hard wood sticks. I approached him, sheathing my practice sword at my waist.

"Yo Donoph, lets go. I booked the virtual reality room, this should be fun. Hey, I was wondering what you thought about those Hunters, you know, the ones that wrecked the soldiers. They must have been on Pioneer 1, to be down before us, but everyone on Pioneer 1 was supposed to be in the Dome for our arrival." Darvant looked at me expectantly, as if I had the answers to his questions.

"I don't know. It's possible they were Hunters from Pioneer 2, but they must have landed sometime before the explosion. We didn't see any other drop pods. I think its more likely they were from Pioneer 1, but weren't around for the explosion for whatever reason. I also don’t particularly care."

"You know what we Hunters have to do now? We are assigned into kill squads, and all we are meant to do is go down and make it safe for the people who don't even know it's dangerous. We go down there and fight, and the civilians know nothing. Lazy, all of them. They know nothing of what's down there, and even if they did they would be just as useless."

I remained silent as we rounded another corner into the Training Area. Darvant strode over to one of the larger doors, punched in an access code and walked in, a faint shimmer dancing over his form as he went in. We would be fighting in a VR room, so the surroundings wouldn’t be real but you could make it seem like you were wherever you want.

I walked in, looking at a lush jungle landscape, with a thundering waterfall crashing at my left. The door hissed shut behind me and faded into the background. Several tropical birds flew past, chittering at our presence.

"I programmed the environment to be random and fluctuate, so this fight should be interesting," said Darvant as he turned from looking around to face me. I rolled my eyes. If the scenery was random and would fluctuate, that would mean every now and again the area would change to another setting, and in a fight it could be disconcerting, even if the surroundings were only aesthetic and not corporeal.

"Ready?" Darvant asked with a smirk as he twirled his daggers.

"Always."

He started to strafe around me, flipping his daggers from under to above his fists. I grabbed the handle of my bokken and drew it from my belt, holding it in front of me to fend of any attacks. As he had dual weapons I would have to be fast in defending, but he would be defending very little.

Darvant leapt forward, swinging the right dagger in a downward arc while holding the other back to sweep beneath the first blow. I stepped back to dodge the first blow, then swung my bokken up to knock back the second dagger. Darvant stepped to the side, thrusting a dagger towards me. I grabbed the upper part of my bokken with my free hand, and held it horizontal, waiting for the dagger to pass before I flipped the bokken up, smashing the dagger free from Darvant's hand. He growled, stepping backwards and grasping his remaining dagger with both hands.

The air shimmered. We were in a sprawling city, skyscrapers towering on all sides. Paper and litter blew across the background, caught up in a swirling wind. Shadows of people slinked past in the distance.

Darvant slammed his dagger down at me; I barely countered his attack with a diagonal parry. He leapt forward, raining blows on my defence. I was able to keep up blocking, but there was no time to attack. Remembering my fight with the crazed engineer, I ducked to the side, bringing my bokken round, to crack down on Darvants back. He fell forward with a grunt, sliding on the ground.

"You're dead. Donoph: 1, Darvant: 0 " I smiled, relishing the look of angry and repressed pain that was carved on Darvant's face. He snarled as he grabbed his daggers from the ground.

"Ok, lets go. You won't get me again." He said as he winced in pain getting up.

He dived forward, and as I sidestepped to avoid him, he spun on the ground, kicking me in the back of the leg. I fell forward to my knees, and he slammed one dagger into my back. A trickle of blood escaped my lips as he punched me in the face. I was on the ground, trying to bring up my bokken to defend, but the lancing pain in my legs told me it was too late.

"You know what Donoph, it should be us Hunters who get the credit for clearing up Coral. The military doesn't do anything, and the civilians are useless. We are the only one who can survive down there. We don't need them."

I couldn't understand what he was saying. Survive down on Coral? Without the military and the civilians? What was he talking about? My questions were answered by a sharp kick in the ribs from him, telling me to get up.

I flipped to my feet, swinging my bokken round behind him, to hit him in the back of the knees, so he staggered for an instant. In that time I ended the horizontal arc with the bokken, brought it about, and smashed it into his back. He fell to the ground, releasing his daggers. He got to his feet, brushing himself off as the background swirled, revealing the caves we were in before.

"Think about what I said Donoph. I'll see you later, when you're allowed planetside. See you later." He said as he walked out, dismissing me with a casual wave. I thought he was rambling, angry with adrenaline, but he was serious.

What can I say I've been busy, hope everyone enjoys the new chapters...
Luke