Episode 3 - A Tale of Nine Tails

"Hiiyyyaa!" Sarah cried as she charged at Wendy, trying to land a punch.

Unfortunately for Sarah, Wendy had seen through her move as bright as day, and moved just enough to sidestep her attack and stuck out her leg to trip Sarah in one smooth motion.

"Waaaugh!" Sarah cried as she hit the matted floor.

"You're coming at me a bit slow, and your swing is too telegraphed," Wendy advised, "Let's go again."

"Ugghh! Can't we take a break?" Sarah huffed.

"We just took one ten minutes ago," Wendy pointed out, "Now come at me again."

The girls were practicing martial arts in the gym that Wendy worked at, under the insistence from Wendy that they needed to be better fighters to face the challenges ahead. They were all even given white martial arts gi to wear.

Next to Sarah and Wendy, Sophie and Ashley were practicing against each other.

"Here I comeee!" Sophie yelled as she charged at Ashley.

"Eek!" Ashley shrieked as she perfectly redirected Sophie's momentum by flipping her over Ashley's shoulder.

"AAaahhh!" Sophie screamed as she rolled across the floor and hit a wall upside down, legs sticking in air.

"Sophie! Why aren't you wearing any panties!?" Ashley's face went red as Sophie's naked lower half came to view.

"It feels lighter that way! I might be faster if I fight without it!" Sophie giggled, getting up.

"It's true, that's why I'm not wearing any either," Wendy agreed.

"You WHAT?" Ashley and Sarah said in unison. Sophie was always up to something unusual, but they didn't expect it from Wendy.

"I won the Wiscosin State Mixed Martial Arts Tournament with that strategy," Wendy elaborated, "Every time I did a high leg raise kick, my opponent would freeze. Making it easy to strike them and defeat them in one move."

"Uhh... that's great that it won you the tournament I guess..." Ashley laughed nervously.

"Well... regardless of how you did it, that's still cool you won a whole state tournament," said Sarah.

"Thank you," Wendy replied, "It found it strange that I was the only woman in the tournament. My theory is that too many women just don't care for martial arts."

"You'd be right about that," Sophie said, trying to fix her gi, but giving up after a few tries, "I'd much rather serve customers at Titi Milk. I'm an expert barista!"

"Can't disagree with that," Wendy shrugged, "But we're going to be facing more Cryptids as the Secret Club, so I you're going to need some combat skills."

"Ugh... I'm tired of these drills though," Sarah groaned, "Can we just all go watch a movie or something?"

"You can take a break from drills," Wendy said, taking a swig of water from her water bottle.

"Really!?" Sarah asked.

"Yep, we're gonna run ten laps around the gym," said Wendy, "Don't worry, I'll do an extra ten."

The other three groaned collectively, but reluctantly began to jog.