Battle Strong by Elizabeth McCready (have you read this book TXT) 📕

The bus ride was awfully quiet in comparison to how it normally was. Usually the only quiet ones on the bus were Ander and Beth. Chaess had decided that they were silent because they were the most lethal of the group, and the rest of them used their noise to cover up the fact that they will never compare to the fierceness of those two. The bus screeched to a halt and all seven of the team scurried off the bus like sly little creatures. He saw Beth just ahead of him jogging to the western region of the battle grounds, her and Ander were shouting orders and pointing to different sectors of the battle grounds. Chaess increased the speed of his gait to match strides with Beth. The two nodded two each other and parted from the rest of the group heading directly for their planned sector. Almost immediately, the skill of the partnership was tested as six Dumarian soldiers appeared from the wooded area ahead of them. Beth and Chaess stopped running and pulled their best weapons. Chaess pulled his two swords while Beth pulled four daggers holding two in each hand. The Dumarian soldiers attacked. Chaess sliced the air, yelling and grunting as he sliced a mans chest open and another's throat, returning to the man with the sliced chest for one final blow to the heart. He saw, through his peripheral vision, Beth sending two daggers clear through two mens' hearts. A lethal smile formed on her lips as she flicked a dagger to her left where a man was about to slash her with a sword and jumped onto him to continue her fight. Chaess met eyes with the remaining soldier who looked as though he was about to piss himself. He leaped for the soldier with one sword in the air and the other at waist level and collided weapons with the soldiers. Clashing and banging sounded as their swords met between their bodies. With one swoop of his sword Chaess disarmed one of the soldier's. The soldier, while Chaess was focused on the weapons, kicked Chaess's knee in causing him to fall to the ground. Silence. The soldier stalked towards Chaess who was lying on the ground, hands on his knee. The soldier smiled like a predator and raised a swords to kill Chaess, that was until a dagger lodged into his heart, dropping him to the ground immediately.

"Are you okay to get up?" Beth asked. "Do you need a healer?"

"I'm okay. Thank you for that."

"What are partners for?" She smiled offering a hand to Chaess who stood with her help.

 The two continued on through the forest, Beth now using her bow to take soldiers out in the distance and Chaess slicing through anyone who got close. They tore through their sector with vicious calculation and action. They were fearless and unstoppable. It wasn't long before the forest fell silent and the two retreated back to the rest of the group for the night.

*~*

It had been a rough day for everyone. They all had pushed harder than any of the battles before. Ander watched as Beth snuck into the stables, watching her surroundings, attempting to make sure no one was watching as she slipped in the sliding door and pulled it shut behind her. Part of him wondered why she was being so secretive, the other part knew it was better if he didn't. He sat and watched the stable door for hours, worried that she was in trouble or something of the sort. Darkness fell quickly, and in his concern he went to the stables. He found Beth cuddled up in the corner of a stall fast asleep. He smiled, then shook his head. He didn't know how he felt seeing her so peaceful, so- beautiful. Her body moved slightly and her eyes opened slightly.

"Is this going to be hobby for you? Coming to this stall?" He asked to avoid embarrassment.

Startled, Beth sat up quickly and ran a hand through her loose blond hair stained with blood.

"Depends, is it going to be habit for you to come in after me?" She retorted.

"Point taken." He said, unsure of what else to say he slowly turned and started to leave.

"Wait," She said, "Where are you going?"

"To bed, it is night. I sleep during the night."

"Night already?"

"If darkness means night, then yes. Yes, it is night." He said smirking at her.

"Well, I have no intentions of sleeping out here." She said as she brushed debris off of her battle suit.

He decided to wait for her, but he didn't know why. He watched as she brushed pine shavings and straw away from the corner of the stall where she had cleverly hidden her weapons.

"Now why did you do that?"

"You never know what dangers there are. Plus it was more comforting knowing that I wouldn't accidently impale myself with a dagger in my sleep."

He laughed as she gathered the rest of her weapons, together they left the stables and headed back to their cabins. The night was barely lit by the small sliver of light that was the moon. Ander observed the sky, noticing how truly beautiful the night was. He intended on seeing it again.

"Thank you." Beth said softly as she turned to her cabin.

"For what, may I ask?"

"For making sure I was okay." She said with a bashful smile, she seemed almost afraid to speak to him, and when she did speak they were only witty defenses. He wondered what it was like for her. To see him, he wondered if it was anything like it felt for him.

"You're welcome," He said turning away but paused and smiled delicately, "Goodnight, Donoway."

"Goodnight, Rockwell."

*~*

The siren screamed and the Seven jumped into action. Beth strapped her usual gear and weapons to her body, wide awake within a matter of seconds and sprinting out the door followed by the others. Once on the bus, she sat on the first bench soon accompanied by Ander, to her surprise. Although they sat next to each other, the two didn't speak for the entire trek, even when they ran in stride to the battle grounds. Bombs exploded around them, and the sounds of battle filled the open landscape.

"Remember your partners and let's show these sons of bitches what they're up against!" Ander shouted to the other members of the Seven. Beth and Ander nodded to each other as they ran to their partners and continued on.

Beth and Chaess ran to the center of the battle ground, masked by trees and brush. Killing and fighting anyone that got in their way. They were an amazing pair, using each other as amplified weapons. Shouting in warning to the other and latching arms to sling each other from danger. The two could take on armies without losing a beat. They were an unstoppable team. They continued on through the woods. Magnificently dodging knives, and arrows as if they knew when and where they were coming from. But, perfection never seemed to last. Beth sensed the very moment the weapon went flying that no good would come from it. Her heart stopped beating. Started. Stopped. Then dropped to her stomach as the world altered to slow motion, knives flying every which direction met by shields and arrows, men dropping to the ground like flies, all such a blur. But she felt something, something inside of her that she had never felt before and it filled her veins like fire burning through a forest. She had hardly gotten the chance to explore what it was she was feeling when she heard a familiar voice falter.

Chaess screamed as one knife lodged in the space centered on his chest and another sliced through the muscle of his left arm before falling to the ground. Beth knelt to the side of the sobbing and wincing boy, soldiers watching her every move, paused, cautious of the woman that would soon tear them to shreds. Slowly, she rose, lifting her gaze to the men surrounding her, that strange feeling still bubbling beneath her skin. She gripped the hilt of her sword, chin lowered, eyes fixed on her targets. Without a word she launched, plunging her sword into a man's gut, pulling it out and slicing another's neck, and continuing from soldier to soldier as they tried and failed to fight back. She was moving more swiftly than she ever had, the feeling beneath her skin exploding, until every cad was dead. Shaking, she sheathed her sword and turned to her friend was now bleeding more than she had ever seen a person bleed.

"Chaess, Chaess it's okay, it's going to be okay."

"Help me." He cried.

"I'm going to help you, Chaess, but you need to help me too." Beth grabbed him and lifted him off the ground as if he was a paperweight and slipped her arm under his shoulder.

"Come on, Chaess, you have to walk with me." His pain was unbearable but, he listened to Beth, knowing she could help him. The two walked back to the location where the bus had left them, Beth killing anyone who tried to stop them. Once back to the stop, she left Chaess outside the small shack to find medicinal tools, to no avail. She pressed the emergency medical assistance button, broken. Frustrated, she sifted through the shack looking for anything she could use. Grabbing a bottle of alcohol, a sewing needle, and three pillow cases, one with a pillow still inside, she dashed back to Chaess.

"You are not going to like what I am about to do, and it is more than likely going to cause you to lose consciousness. Just so you know what I am doing, I am saving your life." She put a foot against his functioning arm and applied her weight to it. With her other leg, she pinned his injured arm to the ground, straddling his body. Alcohol and pillow in hand, she yanked the knife out of his chest, and quickly poured the liquid into the open wound. Chaess's scream ripped through her body and what seemed like the entire country, she shoved the pillow against his wound hoping to assist in the clotting of the blood pouring out of the wound. Just like she had predicted, the poor bleeding teenager fainted. Beth waited until the blood flowing was weaker and used the alcohol soaked thread from the pillow cases to stitch his wounds together with a trick she had learned from Emylee, who was in training to be a healer.

"What happened?" Ander shouted as he came upon the scene.

"He was stabbed, and I did what I knew how to save him."

Ander stared at her for a long second before he said, "We need to get him on the bus. Thank you, Beth." He meant it.

*~*

Beth had made sure to explain the details of what had happened the hours prior to Stievan so that he could relay the story to the healer. She did not want to further indulge herself in the possible death of her partner and friend. She instead ran to the stables. As children, Beth and Emylee would ride the ponies at the nearby stables every week.