by Aaron Oster
How had he gotten so lucky?
Morgan could feel his nervousness evaporate as excitement for the upcoming fight took its place.
If Shul, the number two, had nearly beaten him, how strong would the number one be? He couldn’t wait to find out.
Morgan came to a stop once he reached the white line, facing across from his first opponent, as Keldor began to speak.
“You both heard the rules, now shake hands and walk back to your respective ends of the arena.”
Morgan and Hilda shook, each sizing the other up; then walked back to the opposite ends of the arena. Once they’d both reached their designated spots, Keldor held a small device up to his lips.
“Ladies, gentlemen and nobles of all kingdoms, the rules have been stated and our combatants are ready. For those of you sitting higher up, please turn your eyes to the screen for a better view of the fight.”
Looking up, Morgan could see that the two screens that had been displaying the fighter’s names had now been replaced by a single massive screen showing a live view of the arena. He could see himself looking up and quickly turned his attention back to his opponent.
“Now, without further ado, let the fight begin!”
There was a loud roar as the crowd cheered their enthusiasm, but Morgan tuned them all out, focusing in on Hilda. As soon the referee began the fight, she began moving forward at an incredible speed.
Not nearly as fast as Shul, but definitely close to matching his own.
Morgan grinned and launched himself forward as well, using fly as soon as his foot left the ground. He shot toward his opponent; feet just a few inches off the ground and spun in the air, using his momentum to enhance the power of his kick.
His foot collided with the side of Hilda’s head and sent her flying. Not to give up on his advantage, Morgan landed, then launched himself through the air, skimming low to the ground as he closed in.
Hilda was already on her feet by the time he reached her and surprisingly, looked to be completely unharmed. Morgan landed, then pivoted his back leg and threw a punch aimed straight at her face.
She wasn’t fast enough to dodge, yet his fist didn’t connect with its intended target. Instead, it impacted an invisible something just a few inches from her skin.
She grinned at the surprised look of his face and threw a punch of her own. Morgan moved his head to the side to avoid the blow, but as the fist passed, something slammed into his face and sent him staggering back.
Hilda moved in and followed up with a kick. He threw his arms up in a block, but when he caught the foot, he felt a heavy blow land on his side. He gritted his teeth and shoved back, sending Hilda stumbling and off balance; then he reached out to grab her collar for a throw, but his hands were stopped once again by the invisible barrier.
Hilda regained her balance and threw another punch at him, but Morgan had already begun moving as soon as his grab had failed. He threw himself backwards, using fly and landed a good twenty feet away.
Just what kind of ability did this girl have? When he threw an attack, it was blocked by some kind of barrier. When she’d retaliated, he’d been hit, both when he dodged and when he blocked!
Morgan took up a defensive posture as Hilda approached once more. He grimaced inwardly as he felt his face and side throbbing in pain.
Hilda wasn’t just a skilled fighter; she had an ability that seemed to be able to cause damage no matter what he did. He couldn’t let this fight drag on and look for an opening, the way he’d done with Shul. Hilda hit way too hard for that to be an option.
A few more hits like that and he’d be out of the fight. He wasn’t sure how her ability worked, but he thought he had an idea on how to counter it, now he just needed to test it out and hope it worked.
“What’s the matter there, Morgan?” Hilda called out, as she slowly closed the distance between them.
“You look worried. Is it because you can’t seem to hurt me?”
Morgan was surprised by Hilda’s light and airy voice.
He wasn’t sure why, but he’d been expecting something a little deeper.
“I’ll take your silence as confirmation,” she shouted, suddenly lunging at him and covering the ten foot gap in the span of a second.
Morgan watched her movements carefully. He saw the punch aimed at his face, moving as though in slow motion. He moved his face to the side as the fist passed, then threw his arm up; not to block the punch, but to block the second blow he knew was coming.
He felt a blow slam into his upraised arm, wincing at the power of the strike, but glad that he hadn’t caught it with his face. A punch like that would have dazed him, at the very least.
Morgan grinned at the shocked look that was now on Hilda’s face, then used heavy handed and threw a strike of his own. Hilda was standing too close to throw a punch, so he tucked his fist against his chest and pivoted on his back leg; bringing his elbow across in a powerful strike aimed at her jaw.
His elbow slammed into the barrier and Morgan heard a distinct cracking sound; then the strike slipped through. The power of his attack was greatly reduced because of the shield absorbing most of it, but Hilda still staggered back, clutching at her face.
“How did you do that?” Hilda looked both shocked and impressed. “No one’s ever managed to break through my shield. Just what kind of ability do you have?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Morgan answered, using the same tactic she had before and lunging in as soon as he finished speaking.
She got her hands up just in time to deflect two of his blows, but the third one landed; a knee to her stomach. Morgan, who’d been expecting to hit the shield, put all the force he could into the blow; but he’d been mistaken. There was no shield.
His knee impacted against her stomach and Morgan felt it give way before him. He tried to pull the blow, but by then it was too late. The air whooshed out of her lungs and she let out a gasp of pain as her internal organs ruptured. She was thrown backwards under the force of the attack, bouncing several times before coming to a bone jarring halt. She didn’t get up.
Morgan ran towards her, already feeling a twinge of fear as he approached her prone form. The crowd had gone deathly silent and he could hear the distinct crunch of the sand under his feet.
He’d still been using his heavy handed skill when he’d hit her and without the shield in the way, his attack could very well have killed her!
As he approached the downed girl, he could see both Eric and Keldor running over as well. They reached her first and Keldor held up a hand, stopping him from coming any closer. He watched as Eric bent down over the girl, placing a hand on her stomach; which Morgan could now see, contained a nasty indent in the shape of a knee.
He waited with baited breath as Eric worked over Hilda, feeling a mounting sense of panic that he’d accidentally killed someone for no reason.
Sure, he’d killed before and felt absolutely no remorse, but this girl didn’t deserve to die! All she’d been doing was trying to win a fight.
He could hear the crowd begin muttering behind him as Keldor left Hilda and walked over to talk to Loquin. Eric was still leaning over the girl and with Keldor out of the way, he had a better view of her prone form.
Her eyes were wide open and staring up at the sky. Blood flecked her lips and her chest wasn’t moving.
Morgan could feel his heart sink even more as he saw this.
He’d seen plenty of dead bodies before. Hilda was most definitely no longer among the living. So why was Eric still trying to heal her?
Morgan took a step forward, thinking to pull the healer away and at least save the girl’s dignity, when a shudder seemed to move through her. Then she blinked, coughed a few times, then turned her head to the side and began vomiting up a fountain of blood.
Eric was covered in the stuff, but to his credit, didn’t even flinch, keeping his hand on Hilda the entire time. After another minute of this, she finally stopped and began taking in huge heaving lu
ngful’s of air.
“Back away, boy! I think you’ve caused enough damage to the poor girl.”
Morgan looked up to see Keldor approaching. He didn’t look at all upset and a nasty half sneer covered his face.
“I was told that you had a vicious temper, but I never could have guessed that you would try and kill someone during your first match.”
Morgan wasn’t about to rise to the man’s bait.
He may have severely injured Hilda, but she was alive, which meant that he had nothing to feel guilty about. He would apologize for nearly killing her, but to feel guilty about it would just be stupid.
Keldor’s smirk vanished when Morgan didn’t reply and was instead replaced an angry glare.
“Did you hear what I just said, boy?”
“I heard you,” Morgan said, turning to meet the angry man’s stare with an impassive one of his own. “It was an accident. I thought she still had her shield up and, as a result, hit her much harder than I normally would have. She isn’t dead, thanks to Eric, so you have no reason to be angry with me. Now if you don’t mind, I would appreciate it if you would announce my victory, so I can go rest before my next match.”
Keldor stared at him for a moment in disbelief. Then his face contorted in rage and went from a light pink, to a deep crimson in a matter of seconds.
“Listen here, boy! I am the referee here, not you; and I say that you’re disqualified for the attempted murder of another student!”
Morgan folded his arms and stared back, not allowing even a hint of emotion to touch his face.
“Last I checked, killing wasn’t against the rules. Now, you can either announce my victory, or I can go to the judges and ask them to do it.”
Keldor seemed to blanch at that and after taking a look back at the judges table, he finally conceded defeat. He raised the small metal device to his lips and made the announcement.
“For rendering Hilda unable to continue, the victory goes to Morgan!”
The crowd burst into cheers and Morgan began to move past him to speak with Hilda. He was stopped however, when Keldor’s hand dropped on his shoulder.
“Don’t forget who makes the calls in this tournament, boy,” he hissed so only he could hear. Then he let go and walked away.
The message was perfectly clear. If he went up against Grub, Keldor would make sure to do all in his power to sabotage him.
He knelt down next to Hilda, who was drinking something from a cup that Eric was holding up to her lips.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as soon as Eric removed the cup. “I was expecting to hit your shield and didn’t hold back.”
Hilda stared at him for a few seconds, her mouth a hard line. Then she smiled and Morgan felt instantly relieved.
“I can’t blame you for getting hurt during a fight. I have to know though, what kind of ability do you have? No one’s ever managed to break through my shield before. I’ve never been hit that hard in my entire life! Just how high is your strength attribute?”
Morgan smiled back as she became more animated with each question.
He liked this girl; she reminded him of Sarah somehow.
“I’ll answer one of your questions, since I did almost kill you. I won’t tell you my strength attribute, but I’ll tell you what the skill I used does. It doubles my strength for a set amount of time, that’s how I managed to bust through your shield.”
Her eyebrows shot up at this.
“That skill sounds amazing! Why aren’t you the number one with a skill like that?”
Morgan shrugged.
“I don’t really use it in fights where I’m not trying to kill my opponents. I tend to rely more on my hand to hand skill than any chi related ones. If anyone’s amazing, it’s you. I couldn’t figure out what kind of ability you have and you hit harder than just about anyone I’ve come up against so far,” he said, patting his side and wincing.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, then he felt the throbbing pain from where Hilda’s blows had landed recede and then vanish.
“The two of you better get off the ring before they kick you off,” Eric said with a weary smile.
Morgan rose, holding out a hand to help Hilda to her feet.
“Thanks, Eric. You always do an amazing job.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Hilda said, taking his proffered hand and getting to her feet. “Without you I likely would have died.”
“Just doing my job,” Eric said humbly, but he had a wide smile on his face all the same.
It was then that Morgan realized that Hilda hadn’t let go of his hand yet. He tried to do so, but she pulled him in close to her, bumping her shoulder into his and patting him on the back before letting go.
“I expect we’ll fight again,” she said, giving him a dazzling smile. “And I look forward to the day we do.” Then she turned and exited the ring.
Morgan stared after her for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had just happened. Then he turned and headed for his own booth, wondering at the strange behavior of people from other kingdoms.
Morgan entered the booth to see Gold standing there with a smile and Sarah looking distinctly unhappy.
“Congrats on winning your first match, though you did have a pretty close call there,” his teacher said, clapping him on the shoulder.
“Yeah. Guess I’ll need to be a little more careful in my next match,” Morgan replied.
“What did that girl want from you?”
He turned away from Gold, to see Sarah glaring at him.
He had no idea what could possibly have made her so angry. Shouldn’t she be happy that he’d won his fight?
“I apologized for nearly killing her,” he said carefully, not sure if this would make her even angrier.
“Did you talk about anything else?”
“Um, no,” he answered, feeling that this would be the best course of action.
He wasn’t sure why she was acting this way.
Maybe her upcoming fight had her on edge.
This seemed to be the correct answer though, as she instantly brightened.
“Well, then. Congrats on winning your first fight.”
Just then, Keldor announced the next fight, this one for the mage class. They all turned their attention towards the board and watched as the names rotated through the open brackets. As they came to a stop, Morgan felt his heart begin to race once more.
This had to be rigged! There was no other way this could have happened on the first fight!
Keldor had an almost malicious smile on his face as he announced the two fighters.
“For the first fight of the mage class, give it up for Frush and Sarah!”
40
Morgan and Gold both turned to look at Sarah as the fight was announced, expecting to hear another outburst. She didn’t look bothered in the slightest, however, and had a contemplative look on her face.
“This is such an obvious setup, it’s ludicrous,” Gold said, turning to exit the booth. “I’m going to have a talk with the judges about this!”
“No.”
Gold stopped and turned to look at Sarah, who now had a smile on her face.
“This is perfect! I’m sure that little toad is still smarting from what I did to him last time. So long as I don’t let him touch me, I’ll be able to take him out without a problem.”
“Are you sure?” Gold asked, giving her a questioning look. “After all, you can’t forget who’s going to be overseeing this fight. It was most likely set up this way so that Frush can kill you.”
“I know,” she replied with a shrug. “But I don’t plan on losing. That slime ball won’t even last five seconds.”
She turned to Morgan then and flashed him a grin. “Wish me luck.”
“Why? You won’t need luck to beat him, only skill, and you have plenty of that.”
“Just do it,” she replied in exasperation.
“You know that you make no sense at all sometimes ,right?” he grumbled.
Sarah jus
t folded her arms and began tapping a foot impatiently.
“Good luck. Are you happy now?” he finally relented.
“Yes; very,” she replied with a cheeky grin, then she turned and walked out of the booth.
∞
Arnold had already seen Morgan fight, so he’d been fairly certain that Sarah would be here too. Regardless of that, he felt a massive sense of relief when he saw Lord Simon’s daughter walking out onto the ring below.
Now all he had to do was wait for the signal, then he could go down and retrieve her. It was about time, too; he was sick of this mission and would definitely be taking a long vacation once it was over. But for now, he may as well enjoy the fight.
∞
Sarah stopped on her side of the line, not three feet from her would be rapist. She stared him down as Keldor made his pre-fight speech, but when he asked them to shake hands, she abruptly turned her back on him and walked to her side of the arena.
Keldor glared at her once she’d turned back around, but she simply ignored him. After all, he was working with that toad, so she didn’t owe him anything.
After seeing that Sarah was completely ignoring him, he just motioned Frush to his side of the arena and began the fight.
Sarah’s mage shield flared around her as soon as the fight began. Even as she was putting up her defenses, she used frostbite to make sure Frush’s movements would be slowed.
Frush was much slower in getting his mage shield up and as a result, was blasted full force by the skill, lowering his speed by thirty percent.
Sarah smiled grimly as she saw her attack land, then both her arms snapped up as she began using icicle spear. Within a few seconds, ten icy spears were on their way to Frush, spread out in a wide pattern so she couldn’t miss.
Frush was surprisingly nimble and managed to dodge all but two of the incoming spears. One of them glanced off his mage shield, but the other punched straight through his stomach and out his back.
Sarah ran forward as soon as she saw this, conjuring a few more spears as she went.
He was defenseless!
She made it halfway there, then stumbled, suddenly feeling very weak. Her spears dropped to the ground and her vision began to grow blurry.