Chapter 229: Trouble

Rue could only shake her head as the two continued walking back to the camp. When Lyca arrived, everyone was surprisingly already standing in rows. Their faces stern as they looked straight towards Hogan.

"Tell them to run in the mountains," Lyca said. "Make the weight's thirty this time." She looked at Hogan before turning her head towards the group of men and women in front of her. She immediately noticed the difference between their gazes to their posture. "Questions?" she asked.

This time someone from the back raised his hand and announced his number. "Seven!" the man was a little shorter than number one but his body was definitely bulkier. "Miss Xi, please forgive me but I am wondering why are you giving us nothing but weights and just run back and forth towards the mountains."

"You are questioning the training?" Lyca said calmly.

"Yes, Maam."

Surprised at the man's honestly, Lyca smiled. "Come here. In front of everyone." She hated explaining, so she chose to just show it instead. After all, action certainly speaks louder than words. She watched as the man approached her, his footsteps were obviously lighter, his movements more agile than when Lyca started the training.

Lyca threw a dagger towards the man. "Stand twenty feet away from me. Threw the dagger towards my direction."

For a few seconds, the man paused and stared at Lyca. "Miss Xi— I— "Seeing the man hesitate, Lyca clicked her tongue and threw another two daggers towards Hogan. "Threw the daggers at me."

"Your body?" Hogan didn't ask any questions. He stood twenty feet away from Lyca.

"Yes."

Without any hesitation, Hogan threw the first dagger towards Lyca. As someone who had worked with the special forces before Hogan was quite an expert when it comes to knives and any other weapons. Handling a small knife was one of his expertise. Hogan's posture and even his agile hands easily made everyone thought that he would definitely hit Lyca if he was taking the task seriously. Half of them immediately thought that this was all staged, while half of them thought that Hogan would not seriously try to target Lyca.

The next thing they knew, the knife already hit the ground where Lyca was standing.

Each and every one of them stilled when they notice that Lyca disappeared from where she was standing earlier!

"She's behind him!" someone from the back whispered. Almost immediately, everyone turned their heads towards Hogan, and just as they already expected, Lyca was indeed standing behind Hogan. A smile was on her face as he held another dagger against the old man's thoughts.

While everyone was still wondering what the hell happened, Lyca didn't tarry. She stood next to Hogan and suddenly threw her dagger towards number seven. The movement seemed too fast, it looked like a blur to everyone else but to Lyca and Hogan, everything was really clear. 

Gasps echoed.

It was as if the air stopped moving as everyone held their breaths. They didn't understand what was happening, all they knew was that Lyca tried to attack someone with another dagger. Everyone was expecting the dagger to hit Number seven.

Yet, another surprising thing happened.

Number seven was able to move a few inches to his right, completely avoiding the knife by a few inches.

"You— "

"Without the training, you wouldn't be able to avoid my knife," Lyca said while smiling at the ashen face of number seven. The weights are there to make everyone's body lighter, their movements more agile and alert. It was that simple. And she knew that after that demonstration, everyone now understood the importance of the weights. "Make the weights forty." She said. "Two more days and we will start with weapons training. I will teach you— "

"Miss Xi! Miss Xi!" 

The sound of an older man's voice echoed all throughout the campsite. It was followed by a few more voices of men that Lyca didn't recognize. She frowned as she looked at the other side of the camp.

She could already smell trouble brewing. She wondered what took these people too long to come in here and create trouble. But most importantly, why are they creating trouble when she was here?

Can they come here when she wasn't in the camp so she won't have to deal with these people?

Everything was just too hassle, ah.

"What is it?" Hogan asked the man. Lyca remembered that this was one of the older people under Hogan who is making sure that supplies are delivered and that ambulance was always ready in case something bad happens to anyone here.

"The nephew of the mayor here wanted us to leave. He said, he is having his annual shooting competition a few kilometers away from here and he doesn't want to injure anyone from the camp. He said everyone was welcome to join the competition." The man looked at Hogan then to Lyca. "Miss Xi, these people had been causing us trouble for a few days now. His people are constantly harassing our people who are transporting goods in and out of the camp. One time, they even dared to stop an ambulance from coming inside."

"Oh." Lyca eyed the four people coming their way.

"Are you the one in charge?" A blond man with a cross earring asked Hogan before turning his gaze to Lyca. "Oh, are you, Miss Xi, that everyone had been talking about?"

"You are?" Lyca asked, ignoring the fact that the four men had been staring at her body like they were checking out meat that they were about to cook.

"Oh, I am Luis Tan. I am the Mayor's nephew. Nice to meet you." He walked towards Lyca and held his hand in front of her. "I never expected a woman to actually come here and train people. You in the military or something?"

"Or something."Lyca smiled. "I am Xi." She answered but didn't shake the man's hands. "Is there a problem?"

Luis stared at her for a few seconds, wondering if she was not really planning to take his hands in front of his friends. He faked a smile. "Aren't you going to shake my hand?"

"No," Lyca uttered. She didn't hide the irritation in her eyes. "Is there a problem?"

"You— "

"Luis… just tell her what you want. Clearly, you aren't her type." One of the guys laughed. "Come on."