keeping with the times

"Start!" Allan screamed and jumped away from the training ground.

I tightened my pony tail all while keeping my eyes on Derek. He disappeared from my sight.

Sensing that he was coming from behind, I took one step to the side, easily dodging the attack and calculating the time he would be by my side, I successfully landed a hit on his side, but he was also able to counter by strengthening his muscle so he wouldn't take too much damage from it.

I didn't let him get much rest, because I followed with a series of attacks, but he dodged most of them.

When I was too concentrated on attacking him and in the midst of being on defense, he managed to kick my legs and I stupidly fell on the ground.

It was a huge opening, the next thing I saw, he was in the sky on top and was about to land on me, in a punching stance.

Wow, he doesn't hold back, does he.

I roll myself away from there and avoided the attack, but the ground shook and I still felt the impact.

I got up quickly and used the mess he made to my advantage. He must've been trying to sense where I went and so I gritted my teeth and punched the ground with as much force as I could.

When rocks flew and and the sound of the ground breaking grumbled, I took a deep breath and concealed my presence so Derek wouldn't sense me and I ran towards him full speed.

He wasn't able to sense me, but when I was about to hit his chest with my knee, he sensed me and with his quick reflexes, tried to block by holding off my knee and using force to push me off midair.

It would've worked had I not put more power on my legs at the last minute, but he found himself on the ground with my knee holding his chest down the ground and a dagger on his neck.

Everything was quiet for a few seconds and Derek's eyes were wide open, still trying to process how he ended up with a dagger on his neck.

"Derek you loser!" Allan came and laughed at him like I also didn't beat him a few minutes ago.

I laughed quietly and got off the Beta.

I extended my hand to him and he gladly took it, getting up.

"Shut up, Al, you got beat up worse than me. At least I lasted longer than you did!" Derek retorted to the Gamma before turning to me. "Great work there, Luna." he said.

"You too!" I answered.

And then we all turned to the last person who was quietly sitting at one of the benches, his face resting on his hand, disengaged from the current events.

"Hey, Arch! It's your turn to get beat up by Hazel!" Derek called for him.

With those words, Archer smiled amusedly with Derek's statement. "We'll see about that." he said and took his hoodie off revealing him in his white undershirt.

Ah, foul!

His smile alone could make me lose!

I shook my head off from the thoughts. Concentrate Hazel!

"You know the rules, defeat your opponent in five minutes and I guess we have to clarify that you're not allowed to kill each other. First to knock off their opponent within five minutes or use their wolf form loses." Allan said as they walked away from us.

When it was only the two of us at the field, I watched him for any movement he was going to make, but all he did was do the same.

A minute passed and he clearly didn't have the intentions of attacking first.

"Hey! This isn't a staring competition!" Allan screamed.

"Boooooo!" Derek followed up.

Archer eyed them annoyedly and that's when I sped up to attack him, aiming for his right foot.

Unfortunately, he read that and took and easy step on the side. I followed up on his other foot, but he also read that.

I pushed myself off the ground and jumped up high enough to be a few meters off the ground and diving down on him.

He looked up and met my gaze and waited for my attack. He may have already known where I was coming from, but I smiled.

I didn't put any power in my punch as I was swinging my arm, but at the very last second, at the moment of impact, I put all force on it and hit his right bicep.

He was pushed back considerably, he had an expression on his face showing that he wasn't expecting the impact of the punch. However, I made a mistake of rejoicing too early because Archer didn't stall at all.

He grabbed my arm and it was an iron grip and he tightened even more and that alone hurt. He tried to conceal his next attack, but I was still able to sense it so using my legs, I laid it on his chest and pushed myself off from him.

I thought I was going to be free from his hold, but it was still there so I had to spin my body to quickly break free. Luckily, it worked.

But just as I was recovering, he came at me and started attacking me. He was quick, super quick that I hadn't even noticed that I was holding my breath dodging from his attacks. In the end, I had to jump away to create distance between us and give me time to rest.

However, even that didn't work because he quickly met me.

Alright, Haze. You know what they say, the best defense is a good offense. And so, in the midst of my dodges, I also threw attacks in and he equally dodged them.

The exchanges were quick, I used my senses to the maximum because I couldn't let a single guard down and even with that, it was hard to see an opening to get him.

Right when I was about to land a powerful kick, we both heard a loud whistle.

"And it's a draw! Whew" Derek announced and stopped the timer he had in hand.

Allan stayed in place, his eyes wide open as if he couldn't believe what just happened.

With that, I finally let myself relax and fell on the ground.

"AH! That was tiring!" I exclaimed and couldn't help but lie my back down completely as I tried to catch up with my breath.

"You guys really are on a different level, huh. Guess I gotta train harder." Allan says.

I see a hand in front of me and saw Archer looking down on me.

"Get up, it's dirty." he says. I shook my head.

"I'm tired!"

Without warning, he squatted down and carried me off the ground. Surprised, I tried to make him let me go.

"Rest by the benches, instead." was all he said through my protests and carried me there. He left and promptly came back with a bottle of water to give to me.

I thanked him and drank from it, finishing it off.

"Good job." Archer told me and then turned to the other two to say the same. They started talking about some affairs that they still needed to do and while they did that, I thought about my fighting skills.

There was definitely a huge difference after the moon goddess gave me Effyía's memories back. I was faster, more powerful and most of all, my reflexes and counterattacks were quicker.

I would have had a hard time fighting with Allan alone.

On my free times, when I went out for runs I've been trying to see which abilities I have acquired more and they were too many to count. Effyía is truly someone who's strong huh.

Although I was careful not to be seen by anybody because whenever I was in my wolf form, I had unusual changes and I didn't know how to explain that to anybody yet.

I was waiting for the news about Chári to be confirmed because so far, all I've heard were rumours, even Archer wasn't sure. He said that Panselinos' Luna will soon be officially named as the Luna and observed as a Warrior by the Council.

I couldn't blame anybody for believing that it's just a rumour though, all this time, we thought that the story of the moon goddess warriors was just another bed time story, who knew it would be true?

"What are you thinking about?" Archer asked when we went back home to get cleaned up and get ready for the pack lunch that was organized for today.

I looked turned to see that Archer was drying his hair with a towel in hand.

"Uhm... nothing. Are you done? I feel like we're late." I tell him and take a glance at the wall clock.

He smiled and wiped the towel against his hair some more. "Let's go then, everyone's most likely just waiting for us." he says.

I was thankful that he didn't press on for more.

We quickly walked down to the pack house and we were right, everyone was simply waiting for us to arrive.

When we did, everyone saluted and led us to our seats.

The atmosphere was joyous and almost festive as if we were celebrating some historical event, but no. It was a normal lunch with the pack, well those who attended anyways.

Archer kept putting food on my plate. "Stop, I'm already full." I whispered, but obviously it was heard and everyone around us laughed.

"You just eat up, Luna! Miss Jemmy cooks the best food around here." a pack patrol said and raised a cup of liquor.

I smiled and nodded at him and thought that it probably wasn't a good idea to have given him strong drink at this time.

"Everyone, please quiet down, I have some news to announce." Archer said all of a sudden which made all of us turn towards him.

My eyebrows met and I looked towards him. He must've sensed my confused look that was directed to him because he turned and smiled as if assuring me that it wasn't a bad news.

"I know things have been very busy lately and we have been pushing off the Luna ceremony for Hazel, but it's not right to keep delaying it. The ceremony will be held by next week, it is in a short span of time, but I know we can do it. I expect you all to collaborate and work hard to make this occasion a joyous one. And also, my parents will also be attending."

Everyone, including me, was shocked, but that surprise didn't last long because soon enough, everyone cheered and expressed their excitement.

"Leave it to us Alpha! We will deal with the flowers!" a lady in her mid thirties screamed.

"Of course, Miss Jemmy will prepare the food with other pack workers." someone seconded and soon enough, everyone was screaming out which will be their share in the upcoming ceremony.

I was surprise but nonetheless delighted with the news.

I was kind of dreading the ceremony since one, it was going to be a big celebration and two, because it would be a celebration and I would be the main character.

I sighed, already feeling the pressure and the stress, but I'm still happy.

In the midst of everyone's cheers of joy, my eyes searched the place when I picked up a familiar scent.

Just in time, I saw Jessica standing by the wide doorframe of the dining hall, probably coming to get food. She seemed to have heard the news and she had a terrified look on her face.

She looked our way and our eyes met, she had a look that I couldn't read, but I understood that she was anxious.

And then, very quickly, she turned around and walked away.

It seems that everyone was too busy deciding who will do what and they didn't notice her come and walk away.

I turned to Archer and I knew that he must have also seen her. I waited for him to excuse himself to stand up and follow her, but he didn't.

"Aren't you going to follow her? She looked... scared." I whispered and was thankful that no one else heard this time as the scene was still very chaotic.

He forced a smile at me and shook his head.

"No, it's fine."

I stared at him for a while. I nodded and respected Archer's decision, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that I felt bad for Jessica.