by Logan Jacobs
“You bet,” I shot back as I sheathed my dagger and drew my sword. “I want you to come at me with your axe, and I’ll use my seaglass blade. Obviously, we’re going to try not to hurt each other.”
“No promises.” Nadir winked, and then she tossed the dagger to the side, twirled her axe into a ready position, and began to snarl.
I began to sidestep to the right, and my sparring partner followed suit. Then we circled each other for a few seconds like two sumo wrestlers scoping out their opponent. Finally, Nadir’s foot pressed into the sand, and she lurched forward with her axe high in the air.
She let out an “ayeayeayeaye” battle cry as she came toward me, but I quickly tossed up my sword horizontally to block her blow. Nadir must have been expecting this, though, because she instantly lunged at me with her razor-sharp teeth.
I leaned to the right, used my free hand to draw my dagger, and threw the dull side up against her throat.
“Dead.” I shrugged.
Our friends around us gasped at the sight, and I just smiled as Nadir backed away with a look of disbelief stretched across her face.
“I want a rematch,” the Coonag woman demanded. “You’ve fought with me before, so you know some of my clever tricks. If you had been an orc, you wouldn’t have had any clue what I was going to do.”
“You can’t be so sure of that.” I shook my head. “Try again, maybe with a different tactic?”
Nadir nodded, but she was obviously frustrated by the scowl on her lips. Then she flipped her axe back around and took a deep breath. This time, she was the one who started to move. The Coonag woman sporadically took a few steps to the side before she lurched forward, but pulled back at the last minute. She was trying her best to confuse me with the old “no strategy” approach, but I wasn’t having any of it.
When she finally took a leap forward, she lashed out at my side with the blunt end of her axe, but I knocked it away with a swipe of my sword before I threw my blade up at her head.
Nadir ducked down and took a swipe at me with her claws, and I just barely got back out of the way before she would have hit me. Then, while her attention was fully on my torso, I grabbed the arm that held her axe, twisted, and sent the weapon flying into the sandy ground.
The Coonag woman let out a growl of frustration as she kneed me in the gut and knocked the air out of my lungs, but that was just what I wanted her to do.
As I doubled over in pain, I dropped my sword, grabbed Nadir by the throat, and drew the seaglass dagger from its sheath. When I raised it up to her temple, she let out a gasp of surprise.
“Dead.” I grinned.
“Oh, come on!” Nadir threw out her arms and hissed.
“Try again…” I offered. “Look, I’ll even do it without the sword this time.”
I stuck my long blade into the ground, stepped over so I was once again in front of my sparring partner, and then took a fighting stance. Forearms up against the chest, with the knife pointed outward, just like we’d been taught in basic.
“Wow.” Nadir rolled her eyes playfully. “I appreciate the gesture, but I won’t need the advantage.”
This time, the Coonag woman took a very different approach. Instead of circling or trying to confuse me with quick, rapid motions, she stood completely still. She wasn’t going to move, probably in the hopes I wouldn’t be able to telegraph her attacks.
Then, after a long, tense moment, Nadir sprang into action. The Coonag woman dashed toward me, hauled back, and swung at my left leg with her axe.
I jumped up and pulled in my feet just as her axe swished beneath me. Then I came down with a spray of sand and lashed out at her with my dagger. She ducked to the side, twisted her head around, and then tried to bite into my passing arm with her teeth, but I was too quick for her, and all she got was air.
Before I could make another move, Nadir’s foot came up into my side and sent me stumbling to the right, and I only had seconds to use my momentum and hop off to the side as her axe came down into the sand where I’d just stood.
The Coonag woman was quick to strike again, this time with the claws on her free hand, but I threw out my left elbow, dispelled her attack with a swift blow, and then used the opening to bring the dagger up inches away from her throat.
“Dead again.” I whistled.
Nadir’s face fell as she stumbled to get a word out. “H-How is that possible? You barely had anything, and you still beat me.”
“Like I said,” I reminded everyone as I turned to address them, “a calculated, well-trained fighter will take down a brute nine times out of ten, and a brute against a brute is about a fifty-fifty fight. The orcs that are coming for us? You can’t get any more brutish than them. So, what kind of odds do you want to be faced with?”
“Sooooo,” Nadir chuckled, “you’re telling me I would have won if we went around seven more times?”
“Very funny.” I narrowed my eyes and shook my head.
“I joke, Ben,” the raven-haired Coonag woman promised. “I want to learn the ways of your clever warriors, and I’m sure most of my people do, too. What do you say, Coonag warriors? Should Ben teach us how to fight smarter?”
The raccoon women responded with a less than enthusiastic “haroo,” but at least they were trying.
“Excellent,” I said as I turned in a circle to address all of my subjects. “Everybody pair up with a partner, one Coonag and one of my people. We’ll go over all the techniques I know, and soon you’ll be able to fend off these orcs without so much as batting an eye.”
I watched as all of the people on the beach began to break apart from their groups and find their own sparring partners. So, as they got themselves set up, I sauntered down the beach to the two water dragons who stood along the shoreline.
Uh-oh, George chuckled when he saw me approaching. I know that look. You’re about to ask me to do something that might be dangerous.
“Why don’t you just read my mind and find out what I’m thinking?” I snickered, but George shook his head.
You know I wouldn’t do that, the blue water dragon admitted. It would be very rude if I was always going around reading your thoughts. Plus, I’m not sure I want to know what’s brewing in your mind all the time…
“Wow, that’s hurtful.” I feigned outrage as I clutched at my chest overdramatically. “But you’re one hundred percent right. I have a job for you two, and it may put you directly in harm’s way.”
Just say the word, and we’ll do it, Nixie interjected telepathically. You know George and I will do anything to protect our children and our friends.
“I need you two to be our stealth flankers,” I explained. “You guys can hold your breath for a really long time, right? Well, would it be possible for you to swim out around the orc ships, come up behind them, and then block off their escape route? I know that’s asking a lot for just two water dragons, but if we somehow are able to force these bastards to retreat, their forces would surely be whittled down enough for you to handle.”
We will do our best, dear one. George bowed. But I’m going to admit, I don’t know how much damage the two of us could do against a larger boat like that one.
“Well, if we do our job right, you won’t have to find out.” I winked at the dragon as I gave him a few scratches on the head. “But in the event you’ll have to do something like that, at least you’ll have a lot of time to figure it out.”
Just let us know when you want us to get into position, Nixie added.
I gave both of the dragons a parting rub on the neck, which caused them to emit a loud, low drone of a dragon hum. Then I turned around and sauntered back up the beach.
Hey, Ben! Tirian’s voice echoed through my head. Whattya want us doing? Should we come down and learn how to fight, too? What about during the battle?
“You can come down, but not during the battle,” I countered. “The orcs are currently looking for baby dragons to capture, and I don’t want them to know you’re here if we can avoid it. Or at
least, I don’t want them to know you’re here until you swoop down and light them on fire.”
I can live with that! the baby dragon agreed.
What about me, Draco Rex? Jemma asked. I could offer a lot of assistance down on the battlefield.
“No, you’ll be up there with Tirian,” I countered. “He needs his bondmate as close as possible just in case things go sideways.”
Ben… Jemma’s tone changed into one of annoyance. We’re telepathically connected. I know when you’re lying to me.
Damn. As great as this connection was at times, there were times when I wished my thoughts were still completely my own because I was in fact lying to the auburn-haired beauty up above. She was currently pregnant with my child, and I didn’t want to put her directly into harm’s way any more than I had to.
Sure, we’d agreed Jemma would continue accompanying Mira and me on our journeys to the different islands around us, but we usually only traveled with a tiny crew. It was much easier to protect Jemma and my unborn child when I was literally right there fighting alongside her.
On a chaotic battlefield like this, though? It was easier to just have her and Tirian hang out above, under the cover of the clouds.
“Well, if you’re reading my mind, you already know the truth,” I chuckled to my deer-woman partner.
I’m not that far along, you know, Jemma argued.
“It’s not worth it.” I shook my head repeatedly. “Besides, you’re one of the best fucking archers I’ve ever met. It’d be kinda stupid to have you down here doing hand to hand stuff, right?”
I guess, Jemma sighed, but I want to at least take out one of those scary green guys with my bow. Can you at least let me do that?
“I think that can be arranged,” I mused.
Suddenly, Tirian’s shadow burst through the clouds above, and he and Jemma landed down onto the beach with a sandy thud. The deer woman un-mounted her dragon, patted her companion on his scaly neck, and then smiled.
“You run off and play with the other dragons,” she suggested. “I’m going to train out here with Ben and the rest of them for a while, so just be back before nightfall.”
The small, silver dragon’s tail began to wag like an excited puppy's, and then he hovered up a few feet off the ground and shot over to Nixie and George.
Meanwhile, Jemma smiled at me and then headed into the fray of fighters.
It was kind of strange. When I’d first met Jemma and her people, they refused to even pick up a weapon. Now, though? She was literally telling me she’d be sad if I didn’t let her kill at least one orc.
Talk about progress.
When I got back to the main group of fighters, I saw Mira was already leading them in their combat training, and the jade-haired woman stood on a small sandbank a few feet away from Sela.
Uh-oh… This was going to be good.
“… So, whatever you do, don’t let your guard down when you’re holding a dagger,” Mira warned the trainees as she held her arms up against her chest. “Observe. Sela?”
I could see it on her face that the moss-scaled warrior across from Mira wasn’t happy about playing the victim in this case.
Still, Sela unenthusiastically relaxed her fighting stance, took a step forward, and haphazardly lashed out at Mira, who quickly dodged out of the way. Then, when Sela pulled back, the gray-haired warrior seemed to intentionally not pull her arms up to her chest as tightly as she had before, and Mira took advantage of the flaw in her opponent’s stance. The green-haired warrior woman grabbed Sela’s wrist by the top and pretended to slam it down into the dragonkin woman’s knee. Then she let go and turned back to her crowd.
“Ow,” Sela grumbled and rubbed her wrist.
“See?” Mira announced. “Always hold your stance as tightly as you can. Because if you don’t, it leaves you open to have your own weapon used against you. Now… I want all of you to try it. Take turns disarming your opponent, and then take a loose stance and let them disarm you.”
I wandered around the training women as they tried to repeat Mira and Sela’s demonstration, and the dragonkin and deer women were swift and agile, since they’d already done this exercise a million times before.
Much to my surprise, though, the Coonag women were naturals at disarming their opponents as well as protecting themselves from being disarmed. I watched Trin narrowly avoid having her weapon taken away by Zarya, and the gray-haired woman hissed at her opponent mockingly. On the other side of things, I watched as Malak and Jira both disarmed their opponent with ease.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Though they might have been somewhat primal in their actions, the Coonag were anything but slow. They needed their incredible agility to scale the large trees on their island, as well as to flee if they were overwhelmed by an enemy.
It made them naturals at hand-to-hand combat, even if they didn’t know it yet.
Mira and Sela kept the pace up for hours. They showed the Coonag women not only how to disarm their opponents, but also where to find the most critical kill-spots on the body and how to quickly unsheathe and strike.
“This one is probably my favorite,” Mira announced after the women had gone through the other exercises. “Mostly because it requires you to overpower your opponent, and I can do that to Sela here very easily.”
“Try it,” Sela snorted, but then she said no more.
“The last thing you guys need to know is takedowns,” Mira continued as she completely ignored her partner’s words. “If you do these right, it puts your enemy in a position where they are completely helpless, and then you can do whatever you want to finish them off.”
Mira turned back to Sela, and the other dragonkin woman was already prepared. Mira took a swing at the moss-scaled warrior with her knife, and Sela simply knocked away the attack with a blow to the arm.
Then, while Mira’s body was open, Sela lunged for her stunned hand. Mira responded with a knee to her attacker’s side, but that was probably the worst thing she could do.
Sela threw her arm underneath Mira’s leg, gave it a sharp yank upward, and used her weight to bring Mira down onto the sandy ground. Then, before her opponent could retaliate, Sela held her knife out in front of Mira’s body.
“See?” Sela said through a sly grin as she turned to look at the rest of the trainees. “It is all about overwhelming your opponent and catching them off guard. It will be difficult to overpower an orc, but you can almost certainly use their own heft against them.”
“I think you used your heft against me,” Mira grumbled as she stood up and brushed some sand off her stunning, scaly body. “But sometimes it’s all about thinking two steps ahead of your opponent. Watch this.”
Mira lashed out at Sela, who sidestepped the incoming dagger blade. Next, Sela stabbed at her sparring partner and promptly had her hand knocked away. Then Mira went in closer and tried for a slash, but it was completely in vain.
Sela caught Mira’s arm with the inner crook of her elbow, and I swore a smile rose up onto her face before she did the next sequence. In one swift motion, Sela knocked Mira’s arm into the air, moved in close, and wrapped the same arm underneath Mira’s armpit. Then, with a hefty grunt, Sela lifted her opponent completely off the ground, tossed her down into the dirt hard, and held out her dagger victoriously.
“Okay, okay…” Mira coughed up a few spittles of sand. “Maybe you’ve got me on this one. But it’s only because you’re about as brutish as an orc, you know.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Sela offered her hand to Mira and then lifted the jade-haired woman up onto her feet.
The training session continued late into the day, until we saw the sun begin to lower in the sky. Tirian, George, and Nixie all returned to the beach just as the twilight began to break, and when that happened, I realized I had a choice to make.
We could either stay down here, on the beach, and meet these bastards in the morning. Or, we could try and return to the palace and crash there for the nig
ht.
However, if we went with the latter, it left open the possibility of the orcs trying some sort of trickery while we were all away. If we weren’t close to respond to a sneak attack, the orcs could take the beach without so much as a single drop of blood shed.
Ultimately, I figured out we needed to crash here for the night.
“Alright, guys…” I whistled to get the attention of all of my women and the dragons. “Here’s the deal. I know we’ve all had a super long day, and we’re all horrifically exhausted. So, we’re going to stay in the village huts for the night. By my approximation, we have about ten hours before the orcs are at our doorstep, which gives us plenty of time to sleep but nowhere near enough time to go back to the palace for the night. Our weapons are all out here, as are most of our warriors and our dragons. I’d suggest that everybody get some rest, because tomorrow? That’s when shit’s going to go down.”
The groggy figures of the Coonag, dragonkin, and deer women sighed with relief when I released them from their training. Then they all quickly dispersed, found the closest empty hut, and disappeared inside.
Everybody except for Zarya and Darya, that is, since the two golden-scaled twins returned to their posts atop our giant barrier wall.
I followed Mira into the hut we used to share, placed our weapons on a nearby pedestal, and then instantly plopped down onto the cot. The beautiful warrior laid her head against my chest, and I ran my fingers through her half-cut green hair as I pondered what the morning would bring.
“Are you nervous, Draco Rex?” Mira murmured, but I could tell she was half-asleep already.
“Of course, I am,” I sighed. “I’m getting really fucking sick of all these orc bastards trying to come here and take over our island. I’m afraid if we don’t eventually find their home island and take care of these ugly bastards once and for all, they’re just going to keep sending more war parties, probably with more members each time. And, even if we keep increasing our population and gaining allies, there’s eventually going to be a day when we can’t win, based on sheer numbers alone.”
“But not tomorrow,” Mira reassured me. “Tomorrow, the victory will be ours, my king. We have trained the Coonag women to be even mightier than they used to be, and we still have all of our fortifications. And who could possibly forget our secret weapon?”