He threw another punch at my face, this time I was able to dodge it and threw a punch at his ribs which he managed to block. I took advantage to throw a direct punch at his face with my other fist but his hand held my wrist before I made contact. 

I knew he was going to try to break my wrist when something dark settled in his gaze, I've seen him do the same before with other candidates.

My instinct reacted immediately when his grip intensified too much and as if it had a spring, my leg rose, throwing a kick straight to his head. He released his grip and staggered when my leg hit him.

His features wrinkled in anger and he lunged, throwing one punch after another without stopping. I dodged and blocked some, some others managed to hit me. I also managed to hit him a couple of times, which only increased his anger.

—You're just a good-for-nothing girl! You'll never be of any help to the world, just give up.

I ignored his comment. Using his carelessness to my advantage, I placed 

my leg between his, knocked his face off balance with my elbow, then used my leg and arms to hold him down and knock him to the ground, causing his body to do a 180-degree turn. 

As the man lay on his back, an unfamiliar feeling of accomplishment filled my chest. The few candidates who were in the area admiring the fight murmured as the fight ended. We're all new here and only a few have managed to stand up to this guy, even I'm surprised at how well my strategy worked out. 

After the initial surprise some of them even applauded at my victory. 

I turned to leave the combat area when the voice of the "instructor" spoke behind me. 

—Did you think that was all?

I barely managed to look at him when the man hit my head with a cane, causing me to fall to the ground. Blood poured from my lips followed by a horrible pain, I felt my head spin and my vision became blurry. Still I could see the instructor with the now bloody staff in his hand and a disgusting smile of superiority.

—What does he think he's doing?! She had already won.— I could hear Mina's voice shouting in the background.

—No, she thought she had won and she got too confident. A fight is never over until your opponent can't stand up.

— But he used a weapon, that's cheating!

—That's the real world my dear. Not everyone fights fair in a real battle.

He crouched down in front of me.

—If you can't face something like this you'll never be able to win out there. You'll never be strong or a perfect weapon. You won't be able to protect anyone, not even that little brother of yours. What was his name?... Liam, right?

My eyes widened as I heard him mention his name. How does he know about Liam?

—Did you think we wouldn't investigate your past? We know everything about you. Your poor brother, always having such a useless sister, you were always a burden for him, although he never dared to tell you.—He pulled my hair up.— You have the opportunity to become strong and you are wasting it, you will never achieve it. Don't you get tired of always disappointing him?

The initial surprise and uncertainty slowly turned into anger. 

I began to hear how the sound of my heart increased in volume and vision became clear only focusing on him, the rest continued to be blurry. The palms of my hands warmed up and I felt a strong urge to put them on his disgusting face, but before I could do so, another voice intervened.

— I think you better stop, general. Otherwise you could end up dead. 

He immediately let go of my hair and with a pale face he stood up.

—Y-Young Gumiho, what are you doing here?

Both his tone of voice and his posture changed, now he looks like a scared and defenseless animal. It's annoying to see how docile he is when he sees someone stronger than him, and when it's someone as weak as us he always puts on airs of superiority.

— What am I doing here? Supervising them is part of my job. And it seems that I arrived on time, otherwise he might not still be alive.

—W-What are you talking about?

—Are you blind? look into that girl's eyes.—The instructor looked at me.—Those are the eyes of someone ready to kill.

I was startled when I heard it and immediately lowered my gaze.

«'Murder?...Me? No, I...wasn't going to do it. I couldn't do it.»

—Don't try to hide it, that's a good thing.— I heard footsteps approaching me, along with a slight sound of wood hitting each other— Sometimes, a simple look is more than enough to have an advantage over your enemy.

When his feet were in front of me, I looked up. 

The person who had scared the imposing instructor so much was nothing more than a teenager, even younger than the girl with purple hair, about fifteen years old at most. He was young, too young to be in a place like this. However, the scar on his face and his white eye confirmed to me that this boy was not an ordinary teenager.

He is one of them.

Like the rest, his appearance is also somewhat peculiar. His hair is dark with a large white lock, he wears a Japanese jinbei with a black and purple haori that instead of looking traditional gives him a modern and mysterious touch.

On his waist were tied with threads eight white wooden masks in the shape of animals, demons or people. On his head was a ninth mask, a fox. 

—It seems you know who I am.— His gaze turned dark—Recognizing your opponent before they recognize you is also a good thing. Nice to meet you Aisha, you can call me Gumiho.

«'Ah, now I remember.»

Gumiho is that fox from the legends, in Korea they know it that way, but its universal name is the "nine-tailed fox." 

«'Does its name have something to do with its powers?»

—We will have a quieter conversation later, for the moment I'm afraid you are not in a condition to talk.—He turned to look at Mina– You defended her, which means that you most likely know her. Take charge of taking her back to her room. 

The aforementioned was startled upon hearing her name but immediately obeyed and helped me up. The last thing I saw before leaving the training camp was the instructor on his knees shaking while Gumiho looked at him with contempt and authority. 

—That man must have gone crazy, touching a candidate like that. Even if it doesn't seem like it, our position is more important than his.— Mina pressed the swab on my forehead and I couldn't help but make a gesture because of the burning.— I mean, he's a simple instructor and we're important to PAROX, we could even kill him in one go in the future.

—He seemed in a bad mood.

—He's always in a bad mood.

—Today was more than usual.

–Yeah, you're right. Maybe his girlfriend broke up with him or something– she pulled out a band-aid and put it on my forehead.—Done. He's lucky that our bodies are more resilient than a normal human's, if you had gotten seriously hurt, the young Gumiho would have blown his head off.

I touched my swollen face. My head still hurts too much, if my body was that resilient I wouldn't have this pain. I guess I have to settle for still being able to stand up after that blow.

—Their job is to train us with a heavy hand, all instructors do. They've never cared if we die in the process.

—Mmm...yeah, I guess you're right, but then isn't it weird?

–What?

—The young Gumiho was very upset, he usually always had a cold and indifferent look.

—Do you know him?

—Gumiho?— she nodded.-No more than the rest, I only know that he is part of the survival team. He passed by the training camp a couple of times. Maybe he likes to see how the new ones suffer.

—Do you know...what his ability is?

She finished putting things in the first aid kit and shrugged her shoulders.

– It's rare to see any member of the team around here, and even if we did, it's even rarer to see their abilities. They train outdoors, with real monsters, so they only use their powers in battle.

I immersed myself in my thoughts trying to connect the dots to figure out what his ability was. I'm more than sure that his name and those masks have a great relationship with her, however, I can't think of a specific theory about what that boy's power could be.

Mina's short brown hair swayed as she brought her face closer to me, looking at me suspiciously and taking me out of my own world.

—It must have been because it was you.

—-Huh?

—The reason why young Gumiho was upset.

–Why do you speak so formally when referring to him?

—Isn't it obvious? We have a decent position in this place, but he is in a much higher position than us and all the people in the team are unpredictable, you have to be careful how you address them. Anyway, don't try to change the topic. You must have been the reason why he was upset.

—How could I be the reason?

 I see her get up to leave the first aid kit on the shelf.

Since I became part of the candidates, they have treated me a little better and even improved my room/cell a little so that I try to forget the fact that I am actually a prisoner.

—For your soul.

—¿My soul?

Mina looked at me and a hint of annoyance appeared in her eyes, which disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I even wondered if I had imagined it.

—You came to this place already having the soul of a monster in your body, it's normal that they are curious about you and want to study you for longer than the rest. 

—That's not necessarily good, you know? I don't want to be studied or be a weapon, I just want...

–Find your brother, I know.—She interrupted me and sat down next to me again.—We all want to get out of here, you're not the only one.

Her eyes filled with sadness as she looked at the ground with nostalgia. 

When my training began, I was able to meet Mina and the rest of the candidates at the training camp. I didn't recognize it was her until the moment I heard her voice. The first thing I thought when I saw her is that she is the typical girl who could be the protagonist of a fantasy story.

Not only is she beautiful, but during training I noticed that she is brave and determined, despite being in such a hostile environment like this one she does everything she can to become strong, she doesn't give up or fear anything. Not to mention that she always manages to find the good side in things, she is very optimistic.

She is a nice person and it is easy to befriend her, however, sometimes she has a somewhat... strange attitude.

Even so, she has become my confidant, she is the only more or less sane person in this circus. But, there are still things that we don't know about each other, especially about our past.

—Having his attention is our best option now, don't you dare belittle him. Not in front of me.-- She whispered, but I could hear her clearly.

—Are you... okay?

—Yes.- She said in a muffled voice. She stood up — I have to go, see you later.

She left so quickly that I barely had time to react.

–I couldn't even say goodbye.