As the title suggests, this chapter contains a pretty violent scene. It's not rated or ual or anything, but since this story involves "you" I thought I should warn you guys beforehand :) On to the story!
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The last of your mentors was Hangeng, Head of Combat and the best martial artist in Rogue Court. He was your mentor and guide during your days at the academy. It was thanks to him that you had such awesome fighting skills. He was also the only person in Rogue Court who could beat you at hand to hand combat. Not even Kibum could beat you. You were just too good.

You walked in on Hangeng practicing martial arts with Donghae and a Rogue trainee, Jonghyun.

“Hello, --------. How have you been?” asked Hangeng.

“Very well, thank you,” you replied.

“Let me introduce you to my new trainee, Jonghyun. He’s like you, you know. Extremely talented, and with enough foresight to anticipate the moves of his opponents. Very imaginative, too. He makes up moves that allow him to win. Can you beat him?”

You sized Jonghyun up. He was only a few years younger than you, but he was taller and more muscular. Of course, most of your opponents were taller and more muscular than you, too. But you beat them anyways.

“Good luck, both of you!” said Donghae. Behind your back he started to place bets with Hangeng.

You and Jonghyun moved to the center of the practice mat, turned to each other, and bowed. Then you started the combat. The aim was to render your opponent incapable of fighting, but with no permanent injuries. Whoever could beat their opponent the fastest wins.

Jonghyun took a swing at you, but it was just a feint. You ducked his fist anyways, then came up behind him and grabbed his elbow. Before you could do anything, though, he twisted away and down, knocking your feet from under you. You quickly sprang up, regained your balance, and aimed a kick at Jonghyun’s stomach. He moved to block your kick but before he could grab your leg, you brought your foot sharply down to land on his foot. Before Jonghyun could react, you used your momentum to twist your body and punched Jonghyun squarely on the jaw with your left hand. With your right, you grabbed his arm and twisted it up high behind his back, and kicked out at the backs of his knees, making him fall forward with you still twisting his arm.

“Ouch,” he muttered. “Alright, --------, I submit.”

You let him up.

“Yes! I win the bet!” cried Donghae as Hangeng sadly gave him money. You gave Donghae a look.

“I-I mean YOU win, ------!” Donghae laughed guiltily. “Um, you want half the winnings?”

Jonghyun bowed to you. “I guess I need more practice with Hangeng before I can truly compare myself to you, -------,” he said ruefully, massaging his arm.

A voice sounded across the training room. “Ha! Why would you WANT to compare yourself to her? She’s nothing. Anyone can beat her!” It was Kyuhyun.

You sighed and turned to the arrogant jerk. “So you finally decided to show up after missing the gambling assignment,” you said to him. Immediately he looked slightly guilty.

“I had…other assignments to do.” His body language was quite suspicious. Perhaps there was really was a traitor in Rogue Court. Was it Kyuhyun? You remembered that Kyuhyun was at the meeting where you received the assignment to pick up information from Henry. Perhaps he had somehow found out that Henry was the hidden Rogue, and then told someone. After all, on the successful gambling assignment that you’d been on, Kyuhyun wasn’t there.

But you put the speculations from your mind. Kyuhyun was insulting you again. “I’ve heard that you’re the best hand-to-hand combat fighter here in Rogue Court. It’s all a bunch of bull, I’m sure, but I simply just HAD to see for myself. Of course, beating that trainee hardly proves anything. You’d be better off fighting someone with some worth.”

“Like you?” you quietly asked.

A slow sneer spread across Kyuhyun’s face. “Like me.”

You two walked to the center of the mat, faced each other, and bowed, just like you did with Jonghyun. But this time was going to be different. As soon as finished bowing, you sprang into action. Kyuhyun faked a blow at your head, and as you ducked, he hit you in the stomach with a blow too fast for you to jump away from. You recovered quickly and dropped to the ground, hoping to trip him up with a leg sweep. He avoided you, though, and swung again at your face. This time you leaped away and did a two-handed strike at his neck, landing a hit. You dodged his swings and used your elbow to attack the point right above his collarbone. He gasped in pain and punched you so hard in your shoulder that your whole arm went numb for a few seconds. You kicked out with your knee at his stomach.

However, Kyuhyun simply grabbed your foot and neatly flipped you over, so you landed with a gasp at his feet. He fell on top of you and you felt your ankle twist in an odd way. Before you could wriggle out from under Kyuhyun, his hands went for your throat and began to squeeze. You did everything you could think of to escape, twisting your body to try and slip away, applying force to Kyuhyun’s pressure points, using your hands to claw at his eyes and face, and kicking at his unprotected sides, but nothing you did seemed to work. And meanwhile, his hands kept squeezing and squeezing around your neck, until there was no more air left in your lungs.

You looked at Kyuhyun with wide, frightened eyes. He’d clearly won, but he wasn’t going to let go, and you were going to die. He looked at you, and there was something very, very, scary in his eyes.

Putting his mouth close to your ear, he said, “Say it. Say the words, and I will let you go.” He meant the ritual phrase that a Rogue said when he was truly beaten, to express his complete and utter defeat to the one who beat him. Kyuhyun wanted you to say, “I submit.”

*Say it*, screamed your body. *I want to live!*

But you couldn’t. The only person you had ever said those words to was Hangeng, your teacher and friend. There was no way you were going to humiliate yourself in front of Kyuhyun. But did you have a choice? You resisted a bit more, trying to loosen his grip from your neck. Nothing happened, except that you had even less oxygen than before.

Donghae, who was watching you struggle, couldn’t take it anymore. “Let her go!” he cried to Kyuhyun. “You’re killing her!”

“Not until she says the words,” replied Kyuhyun grimly. You fought against the bastard’s hold with all your strength.

You. Were. Not. Going. To. Lose.

But it was impossible. Kyuhyun watched your struggle with a smirk on his face. Finally, as your body began to weaken and you started to black out, you gasped out the words with your last breath. “I submit”.

Immediately Kyuhyun released you. You rolled away and started to inhale great gulps of oxygen. You thought Kyuhyun had moved away, but then he started speaking.

“Out of all the people I’ve beaten, out of all the defeats I’ve witnessed due to my hand, yours was the most pathetic.” Grimacing, Kyuhyun wiped his hands on his shirt, as if to wipe the feeling of you from his hands. “So much for being the best, ---------”. And Kyuhyun turned his back on you, then walked away.

Donghae and Jonghyun rushed to your side.

“--------, are you alright?” Jonghyun asked. You tried not to show it, but you were in pain.

“My ankle…” you gasped out.

Hangeng gently helped you up. “Go to Leeteuk, and he’ll bind it for you.”

“And in the meantime, we’ll go beat up Kyuhyun,” added Donghae. “Unless you need help getting to Teukie hyung ?” he asked worriedly.

You smiled at him. It was good to have friends. “No thanks, I can get to Leeteuk by myself. Don’t beat up Kyuhyun,” you told Donghae. “I still don’t have proof that he’s a traitor. When I do, though, feel free to pound on him as much as you like.”

You hobbled to Leeteuk’s office. Leeteuk was the Head of Recovery. He was the doctor of the Court, tending to the many injuries that the Rogues got as they went on their assignments. He was everyone’s umma, and did his best to take care of and heal the Rogues.

“Oh no,” said Leeteuk as he saw you. “What happened, -------?”

You scowled. “I was sparring with Kyuhyun and lost.”

Leeteuk clucked his tongue. “Oh you poor thing! Do you want me to make you food?”

“No thanks,” you replied. “Could you please just bind my ankle?” As Leeteuk gently cradled your throbbing ankle in his hands, he also noticed the huge bruise on your shoulder.

“Kyuhyun again?” Leeteuk asked. You nodded and he shook his head. “That guy is a bad apple. I don’t care how talented a Rogue he is, he shouldn’t have hit you this hard. You need to keep that shoulder still for a couple of days. Don’t put any pressure on it,” he told you as he applied salve to your bruise.

You sighed. “Thanks, umma,” you said teasingly.

Leeteuk gently flicked your head. “Take care of that ankle, or I’ll come after you when you’re on one of your assignments,” he warned.

“Nag, nag, nag,” you shot back.

“I mean it!” he said sharply. “By the way, I heard about your theory of a traitor in the Court. Good luck trying to prove that,” he said. Suddenly he dropped his voice. “My guess is it’s Jaejoong.”

You looked at him, shocked for a moment that the usually sweet Leeteuk would even think of suspecting someone. Then Leeteuk winked at you and went inside his office, as you turned and limped away.