43 THE WOLF AND THE SHEEP (1/2)
She had the combined grace of a dancer and the smile of a performer enjoying the heat of the moment as she frolicked past the cohorts of frogs and their choruses—other contestants and their calls—with fleet feet. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that a few minds felt motivated to train upon feasting their eyes on her artistic maneuvers.
”Like flies collecting near honey, everyone is attracted to her, although love is felling all who approach her, or should I say 'her loving feet?'” The referee spoke through the mic referring to Sariyu. ”Ahem, is anyone, who can hold off her kicks, going to stand in her way before she reaches the end of the ice dumpster?”
”Hehehe, he must be talking about us,” Like wolves prowling through the snow hail in search of prey, the brown-haired man and the gray-haired man crept through the packs of scuffling men and hounded the only girl in attendance for the test.
It didn't take long for them both to get to her, but the moment they arrived, a man whom Sariyu had just kicked fell at their feet and soundlessly cried in distress.
”Her kicks are taking breaths out of men,” the brown-haired man expounded upon analyzing the condition of the beaten man.
”Heh,” the gray-haired man snickered as his eyes met with Sariyu's, ”we meet again, cheesy cheeks.” He walked toward her while scrutinizing her from top to bottom. ”You didn't fully bloom yet. Girls who couldn't bloom cannot explode.” He glanced back at his friend, wearing a fleeting smile that stretched a corner of his lips toward the ceiling. ”We must help her bloom into a bombsh—”
A fiery cannon of death came into his face in the form of a looming kick that hurtled him to his side for a brief instant before his whole body crashed sideways, splashing water all around locally; however, he got back to his feet just as fast and further beamed a brash smile at her. ”Not a bad kick, but it ain't enough to put me to sleep.” He dashed ahead, his legs pushing through the water in a foolhardy fashion. ”If you don't want to get bloomed, at least fund me your cheeks, will ya?”
”The last one didn't land properly, but it won't happen again,” Sariyu's feet quickened onward when the gray-haired man wholly focused his eyes on her legs. As her kick stormed into his body from left, he grinned and curled his arm around her leg in an attempt to grab it. He did succeed, but in that process, the kick stormed straight into his ribs and cracked two of them, drastically changing the gray-haired man's expression from that of an amused gorilla to that of a disheartened one as he later crashed into the water.
Seeing his friend scream his way into the water, the brown-haired man lost his cool. ”How dare you hurt Gul, Hac's best friend!” he scuttled ahead to attack Sariyu, but someone grabbed his hair from behind. His messy hair got pulled so hard that tears welled up in his eyes. Hac howled in pain as a few hundred strands of hair got ripped out.
”Your hair is so lifeless that even a starving horse wouldn't mistake it for a dried grass,” the one pulling Hac's hair, Burton, dispassionately spoke before he blew the hairs away with a slight blow of air through his mouth.
”My hair!” Hac's face darkened, his eyes wet and scalp on fire. ”My precious hair... Damn you!” As he was about to turn and attack Burton, a sidekick in his waist sent him darting aside a dozen feet.
Sariyu landed in front of Burton, her eyes glancing at both Gul and Hac. ”A pair of fools turned freaks.”
”Don't focus too much on the offense,” Burton cautioned, ”this isn't the time for that.”
”I know, I know… But everyone in this ice dumpster is acting crazily you know. It's tougher to implement our plays than I imagined,” she looked in the direction of Hardy Brothers who were taking on many men. ”Seems like we'll have to get past those four if we want to win this one.”
”Yeah, the quicker we get to them, the better it is for us,” Burton's eyes surveyed the area around him, possibly looking for any hiding personalities. ”But we can't ignore the fifth one either.”
”Oh, you mean,” she turned toward the entrance of the ice dumpster and noted Aziz who was quietly watching everything like another spectator. ”What's that guy still doing there?”
”Not sure, but I don't think that he's there only to watch,” Burton's smile appeared tight.
Sariyu gaze shifted back to Burton, her face glistening with a mix of water and sweat. ”What makes you say that?”
”Well, you can't put a wolf to watch the sheep and hope it does not make a move on them,” they both looked back at Aziz who was observing different contestants at the time.
”A wolf can only watch the sheep for so long without acting huh...” Sariyu sighed, gently bit her lower lip. Hoping that the fifth brother didn't act, if the three of them could reach the remaining four Hardy Brothers before those four took care of most men around them, then the four wouldn't be able to focus entirely on the three youngsters. That was what Sariyu had been thinking about, but now, she felt like that things might not go as favorably as she calculated.
At the time, Burton looked in Lirzod's direction and was at a loss of words for what he regarded.
Lirzod was shaking his hand with a short-braided man, Limon. ”Oh, so you hate that Gergora.”
”It's Geragorn, not Gergora, brother.”
”Yeah,” Lirzod chortled, slight solace emanating off his eyes. ”I thought that guy would be here.”
”He was here,” Limon frowned to some degree, ”and he won the test in the first attempt itself.”
”Oh,” Lirzod crossed the arms across the chest, a tightening building under the eyes, ”so he was fast enough to do that.”
”Not really,” Limon repined in a half-hearted shake of his head, ”he threatened everyone saying, 'If anyone acts like a wolf other than me, then I would make them live with sheep for the rest of their lives.'” His voice strained further as he continued, ”After that nobody dared to run past him.”
”Then, he casually strolled to his victory,” Lirzod maintained a steady eye-contact.
Limon responded in a long and low sigh, ”Yeah.”
A strange sort of recognition dawned on Lirzod's face, ”Haha, that guy is funnier than I thought.”