Chapter 50
Though he couldn’t see them clearly against her glimmering, sweat-drenched face, he knew she must have shed them earlier. Why would she cry? Did someone hurt her in his absence? He didn’t want her but that didn’t mean someone could hurt her.
Though he found the notion cheesy and absolutely absurd, her eyes were as blue as the ocean and also held a deep abyss of emptiness and anguish that made one want to uncover what emotional torture had carved such look into eyes so clear. She was emotionally troubled. He sensed it and he hated that he could feel it and wanted to protect her from it or any demons eating her from within.
Everyone has their demons; he has his, dark and deep, but hers felt too deep, and it made him frown.
’She’s hurting,’ his wolf said. ’It’s in her eyes, and I smell it p>
Viola yanked her arm from his grip when he wasn’t letting go. “No. It’s my sweat she muttered emotionlessly and began to walk past him again to resume her training, and he let her go without stopping her this time around. She let out a small sigh of relief.
Good that he wasn’t keeping her from the only thing that made her sane and steady.
If she remained in her penthouse or became idle, Viola was certain she would end up hurting herself, and her fingers, which she needed for the competition, would be raw with bruises caused by her own hands. This was the only way to escape her inner demons, the only way to forgive herself.
With that thought, she walked to her bow and pack of arrows and picked them up. She straightened her shoulders, grounding herself, then spoke clearly to the AI system embedded in the hall.
“Bring up the target p>
Immediately after she gave the order, the hall fell into a heavy, expectant silence as the system activated.
“Virtual combat training system activated p>
The walls and floor shifted, dimming as the lighting changed. Large wolves the height of horses and the size of lions appeared around her, formed entirely from yellow light and moving images. They looked so real, so alive with glowing red eyes, that the danger felt real. Good. If she was wolfless, then she needed to learn how to fight wolves in her human form.
There were ten wolves in total, and they circled her slowly, deliberately, like she was prey that had nowhere left to run, like they would tear her to pieces the moment they decided to strike. She had done this before, every night. She had to shoot them before they reached her. If even one wolf touched her, the system would mark her as failed and incompetent, and not to mention she would be electrocuted by the bite or even the slightest touch of any of the wolves.
Viola pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back and fitted it into her bow. The moment she began to pull the string taut, the wolves howled and attacked all at once.
Sebastian, who stood to the side watching her train, found himself unexpectedly invested, his curiosity sharpening as he watched the situation unfold. She was surrounded by enemy wolves while trapped in a human body. She couldn’t possibly shoot them all at the same time with arrows… right? he thought.
That was close to impossible. Did she even know how to use a bow and arrow properly?
Then he watched her do exactly that.
They came at her from every angle, but his little, suicidal, wolfless possessed the fastest hands he had ever seen. She pulled and released one arrow after another with blistering speed, so fast it was hard to follow. She turned and twisted, angling her body in different directions, firing arrows with flawless precision.
Sebastian held his breath when he thought she had finally let her guard down and two wolves pounced at her at the same time, but then she did something unexpectedly astonishing.
She pulled two daggers from her waist belt, bent backward with impossible flexibility, and threw them both at once. They struck the wolves at a fatal point, their hearts, made vulnerable in the instant they leapt for her.
Sebastian watched her in complete disbelief, utterly speechless, as she stood there afterward, breathing heavily while the system screen scored her speed and performance after she had brought down every single one of the ten wolves.
A cold mechanical voice filled the hall.
“Combat simulation complete p>
The dead wolves on the floor dissolved into light, their bodies breaking apart and fading into the walls and floor. The hall brightened again, returning to its original state.
A transparent screen appeared in front of Viola, numbers and lines moving rapidly as the system analyzed her performance.
“Targets eliminated: ten of ten p>
“Time to neutralize threat: four point eight seconds p>
“Accuracy: ninety-nine percent p>
“Reaction speed: exceptional p>
“Threat response: adaptive p>
“Close-combat decision-making: high-risk, high-success p>
The numbers slowed, then locked into place.
“Overall performance score: A-plus p>
A brief pause followed, almost as if the system itself hesitated.
“Warning,” the voice added.
“Physical strain detected p>
“User operating beyond recommended human limits p>
Sebastian stared at the score, disbelief crashing into something dangerously close to awe.
An A-plus.
From a wolfless.
In a scenario designed to kill the wolfless.
This system had been designed to be played in wolf form, those wolves were meant to be fought by wolves. And yet she had faced them in her human body and earned an A-plus? Only Alphas had ever achieved that score.
’And you called her weak?’ his wolf taunted darkly. ’I dare you to say it again, and I will bite you from the inside. She just earned the same score you did p>
Viola stared at her score, but no satisfaction came to her heart or mind. She still wasn’t good enough; she didn’t feel good enough. She let her bow drop from her hand, and she hugged herself as if to protect herself from something, only what she wanted protection from was within, because it ate at her from the inside, and she believed nothing would ever make her feel that deep sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.
She had worked every night to reach this score. She had been electrocuted by the virtual wolves, and she had pushed herself far beyond what her body could take just to earn this score. Viola had expected that when she finally got it, she would feel accomplished, but… she still felt nothing. Nothing at all. The empty, biting feeling was still there, eating at her, killing her from within.
She stood there, staring at the score, completely lost in thought and in the coldness that washed over her.
Hadn’t she paid enough for her sins in that Hollow quarter for four years? Until when would she stop feeling this miserable about everything she did? Until when would she feel like she was truly living again? Perhaps until she won the competition and not just against a virtual system p>
Until she really fixed things.
She thought this as she tightened her arms around herself, shivering from a sudden chill that ran through her body, completely forgetting that she wasn’t alone in the hall and that someone was watching her intensely from the side.
She shouldn’t be standing around. She should fight another round.
Viola told herself this and reached for her bow again, even though every part of her body was burning into numbness, her muscles screaming in protest. She didn’t care. Ignoring the pain, she spoke to the system again, ordering it to bring up another threat.