by Aaron Hicks
In one fluid motion, Uktesh picked up his sword, stood, and nodded to the man, “Yes.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer started to the roar of the crowd, “today is the day you’ve been waiting for. A whole year has passed since you’ve gotten to cheer your favorites, ridicule your enemies, and celebrate your victories!” The crowd shouted approval again. The announcer lifted his hands circling to view the whole coliseum. “Today we have a special fight! I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now, but in case any of you’ve been living under a rock, let me tell you. The first fight is a grudge match! On one side the match is a man who needs no introduction, the fourth best swordsman two years ago. The only three that were deemed his superior are not here this day, so will he become champion this time? Only time will tell, I give you Irtith!”
The crowd cheered so loudly the ground shook, “On the other side of this intriguing match is the first time gladiator and suspected thief Uktesh!” Against his will Uktesh felt frightened by the sudden outpour of hate towards him. Youreth came on to the gladiatorial sand with a confident stride towards the announcer who bowed and said, “To begin the games this year is one of our esteemed Triumvirate, lord Youreth!”
Again the crowd cheered, but Uktesh noticed that it was less than Irtith had received, “Greetings! I’ll make this short. The winner of this fight will be determined the victim and the loser the thief.”
Uktesh walked to Youreth and asked, “Do you mind if I say something?”
“No, but shout loudly or you’ll lose their attention.” he turned to the crowd, “Uktesh would like a word before his battle against the favored winner this year!”
Uktesh shouted in as commanding a voice as he could muster, “This man that you cheer is a coward!” He didn’t pause or allow the crowd any time for a response. “Your hero tried to take advantage of my fiancé! When I stopped him, he tried to rob me in order to get back at me. Then when I stopped him again, he tried to kill me in my sleep, but instead killed one of my friends! For those of you who’ve bet against me in this conflict, know that you are moments away from losing your money!”
Uktesh nodded to Youreth who smiled and said to the stunned crowd, “What this boy says may be the truth, let the gods decide!”
He in turn nodded to the announcer who shouted, “Who’s ready for a fight!” The crowd, suddenly uncertain, gave a halfhearted shout. “I can’t hear you! Are you ready for a fight!” This time the crowd knew what was expected and they shouted in agreement. “Then let’s begin! Fight!”
Irtith threw down his sword and shouted, “I can’t be expected to kill a child! I’m a man of honor. Let us fight with wooden weapons!” The crowd stopped their cheer midshout and again in confusion answered with a mediocre shout, some approval, some dismay.
Uktesh threw his swords to the ground and shouted, “Then let us do this barehanded!” He sprinted towards Irtith and flowed into Bull Rushes Down and after a step flowed into Hawk Soars to close the distance between them in an instant. Irtith was ready for him. Two hidden daggers sprung from his sleeves and, with a grin that promised death he threw one at Uktesh. As he dodged with a perfect defensive unarmed Crane Snaps, he heard Laurilli shout his name, and his hand flashed out and grabbed the knife from the air. Irtith looked shocked for a moment before he stabbed at Uktesh. Uktesh flowed into a balanced Dances with Bull and spun around the attack. He stabbed down with the imperfect Lightning Flashes into Irtith’s shoulder.
Irtith quickly switched grips, but Uktesh didn’t let up. Still spinning he continued in imperfect and let the Leaf Falls attack hamstring Irtith, first his right leg, then left. Still spinning, he moved to a perfect Woodsman’s Work and brought his acquired knife down vertically into Irtith’s wrist that held the knife. Irtith fell to the ground because his legs were no longer able to hold him up.
The knife, still clutched in Irtith’s hand, fell to the ground. Irtith stared at his stump and Uktesh slammed the knife to the hilt into the same arm’s shoulder, and left it there. Irtith shouted as the pain finally caught up to his brain. Uktesh turned his back on him, picked up Irtish’s sword, and walked towards his swords. As he bent down to pick them up, he heard the sound of the blade being pulled from Irtith’s shoulder and knew that soon Irtith would throw it at his back. Uktesh spun in the balanced Dove on the Winds and deflected the knife that had been aimed for where his heart would’ve been. Uktesh walked towards Irtith, who somehow had already healed his hamstrings. He stood and suddenly shouted, “I yield! You win!”
“No,” Uktesh replied, “I do not win. You’ve taken something irreplaceable from me, and I am going to repay the favor.”
Uktesh spun his arms in opposite directions and brought both blades in towards Irtith’s neck. “But I was made immortal!” shouted Irtith, moments before, with only slight resistance, Irtith’s head rolled to the ground.
The announcer came out and shouted, “In a one sided battle, not likely to be seen again, unless it’s by this kid and his next opponent, the victor and vindicated Uktesh!”
The crowd jolted out of their stupor and cheered with a volume that dwarfed the accolades that Irtith had received.
“While we have the body removed and get ready for the second fight allow me to entertain you with a joke! What did the farmer say when he found his daughter and neighbor together in the barn, ‘rolling in the hay’ as they say?” Uktesh didn’t listen for the punch like, but walked to where his friends waited for him, as the announcer continued.
“Are you ok?” asked Heathyr when he joined them.
“No,” as the weight of their loss hit him again, he was forced to fight back tears, “but I will be, I hope, in time.” Laurilli smiled nervously, “what did I miss?”
“While you were waiting to fight, we found out the order of events and our matches in them.”
Uktesh took a deep breath and wiped away his tears before they could fall before he said, “I assume that it is not good news?”
“We all are fighting relatively easy opponents, but Laurilli is fighting Dekan.”
“The stupid, but strong bully.” Uktesh said resigned, “Here’s how you beat him.”
“That’s not the worst.” said Laurilli.
“If you win you fight me?”
“No, that would be fine. if I win, I fight Baloce.”
“We’ll worry about that later. First concentrate on the enemy in front of you. Dekan is stupid. He’s going to try to finish you in one blow. Use your speed to dodge him until he’s tired. Then use the quick attacks we’ve practiced Bull Rushes Down and Moth to the Flame are two quick offensive slashes. Once he’s tired, he may be able to block those once or twice. But if you both patient and persistent, and if you keep your distance, you’ll win.”
“I’ve barely done those right in practice. How will I do them in a real fight?”
“If I didn’t think you could do this I’d tell you to withdraw, but I know you can. You’ve mastered Dances with Bull which will help you a lot. When do you fight?”
“Third.” she said dejectedly. Behind him Uktesh could hear the announcer had started to the call for the second round fighters.
“Ok. Wow. Start warming up.”
“Don’t worry,” said Larut, “I’m second, I’ll take my time.” he winked at Laurilli, who mustered a grin for him.
“We should get our winnings and bet on you before the betting closes.”
They all quickly bet five gold coins each on both Larut and Laurilli to win. Larut was a ten to one odds victor while Laurilli was a forty to one odds loser. “They know I have no chance!” said Laurilli as Larut took the sand.
“They gave me the same odds. They don’t know anything about you or Dekan, they are judging by his size versus yours, the fact that he’s a man and you’re a girl, probably also that you’re so pretty.”
“Don’t try to cheer me up that way,” but she smiled at him anyway.
Larut won the first point with a quick thrust to his opponent’s
chest. The wooden sword knocked the breath from his foe’s lungs. As the man tried to catch his breath, Uktesh tried to instill some confidence in Laurilli, but he quickly saw that she just became more nervous as time went on. Uktesh caught Larut’s eye and nodded, and Larut quickly ended the match.
As they announced her and she walked to the wooden sword racks, Uktesh shouted, “Remember a touch is a point, it doesn’t have to be full power! Two points wins it for you!”
“What are her odds?” asked Heathyr.
“Against anyone else, I’d say sixty or seventy percent to win. But against someone who tormented her most of her life,” he paused, “I don’t know. It could either lower it to twenty percent or raise it to one hundred. Right now she’s not mentally ready, I’d say she’s dipping towards the twenty percent.”
“And you let her fight!”
“What would you have me do? Cripple her chance of fighting back against those that would harm her? A loss here is better than forfeit. Besides she could still win.”
“Then why are you so scared?” Heathyr asked.
Uktesh realized that his breath came fast, his heart hammered against his chest, and he had chewed his fingernails almost to the point of bleeding. “It’s an important fight.”
“We have, for the first time in the tournament history, a fourteen year old fighter! To make things more surprising, this fourteen year old is a girl! Tell us, why did you join this battle that you have virtually no chance of winning?”
Uktesh smiled as Laurilli’s eyes hardened, “I’m here to fight to my best. We won’t know if I can go all the way until I fail or succeed!”
“Spoken like a true fighter! I give you Laurilli!” The crowd cheered politely as the announcer turned to Dekan, “Tell me lad, what do you think your chances are?”
“One hundred percent! We grew up together, so I already know I’m better than her.”
“What about the possibility that she’s trained and gotten better than you remember?”
“How much better could she get? She’s still just a girl!”
The crowd laughed and the announcer politely chuckled, but Uktesh turned to Heathyr and he knew he had a huge smile on his face, “One hundred percent now.” He said confidently, “Oh man, look at her. She’s pissed!” Just like that suddenly Uktesh couldn’t wait for this fight to start.
The announcer shouted, “Fight!” Dekan lifted his giant two handed sword above his head, but before he’d completely lifted it, Laurilli rushed into him and slammed her sword into his stomach. He fell to his knees and threw up.
The crowd laughed and Uktesh shouted, “Don’t turn your back on him!” Laurilli had gotten too caught up in the adulation and wasn’t paying attention to Dekan, who lashed out with his sword at Laurilli’s back. Uktesh didn’t know if it was his warning, her skills, or if she’d planned it, but she flowed into a balanced Dances with Bull and continued into the balanced Cricket Springs, a lunge with the sword that she hadn’t perfected and until this moment had never executed correctly. Dekan was still on his knees, so the attack that was aimed for the chest went right over his head. Proud as he was that she’d put two balanced moves together, he watched in fear as Dekan grabbed her ankle with his free hand, only to be hit on the head by Laurilli’s sword as it descended.
“Winner! Laurilli!” shouted the announcer and the crowd partially cheered Laurilli and partially booed Dekan.
Laurilli skipped back to the group and threw herself into Uktesh’s arms, “Did you see I did it!”
“I saw. What happened to wearing him down?”
“I couldn’t do that after what he said! I had to knock him down a peg!”
“I’m so proud of you.” said Heathyr, which was echoed by the rest of the group.
“We need to watch this fight though, it’s Baloce.” said Uktesh. To their horror, he easily beat his challenger and pointed his sword at Laurilli.
“Well we knew he was the better of the two.” said Uktesh.
“Oh no!” shouted Larut, and everyone turned to him, “I have to fight Uktesh in my next fight!”
“Does that mean the winner of our fight fights the winner of Baloce and Laurilli?”
“Just say it,” he pitched his voice up mockingly, “’will I have to fight against my fiancé if she wins?’” moaned Larut. He perked up immediately, “At least I don’t have to fight you with real weapons!”
“Hey! I wouldn’t hurt you!”
“See, he knows he’s going to win!” and everyone laughed, until Myrtin’s name was called to fight next and just like that all their lighthearted banter went away. Tylor walked into the arena and whispered to the announcer.
“You heard it from Uktesh first, the bastard Irtith killed one of his friends. Unfortunately that friend was Myrtin, who’s scheduled to fight next, and so by default the victory goes to Basam.”
Basam didn’t look happy, but nodded and exited the arena. Slowly the fights progressed and after another four fights Basam came back where the friends waited for Tylor, Esolc, Repus, and Heathyr’s turns. He was six feet one inch tall, muscular not in a binding way, had a red tattoo that started at his left temple and spiraled down to end on the left side of his chin, and had blue dyed hair. “Basam won his fight because your friend was not here to fight. Basam would like to give you half the prize money, to give to the family of Myrtin.”
Tylor rose to meet Basam, “That’s very generous of you. We will honor your wish. Would you care to join us while we wait?”
“Basam would enjoy that. Basam wanted to speak with boy who moves like lightning.”
Tylor smiled, “That would be Uktesh.”
Uktesh motioned for Basam to join him and Laurilli. Basam bowed deeply and said, still bowed, “Basam would humbly beg for your guidance. Basam is unworthy, but Basam would try Basam’s best to learn, if you would teach Basam.”
“You want to train under me?”
“Basam would be honored to be trained by you.”
Uktesh looked around surprised, “Don’t be surprised lad. By the end of this thing, dozens of people will ask to be trained by you if not more.” said Tylor. “Heck the whole unarmed category is basically people auditioning to be allowed to join the dragon clan.”
Uktesh had never heard of them, “Really?” He asked rhetorically.
“Basam I am honored by your request, but I am a guest where I live and it is not my decision to give. I cannot make promises that others will have to keep. Having a man live with us, one that we don’t know well would be,” Uktesh paused thinking of a word that would describe what it would be and ended with, “Bad.”
Heathyr spoke up, “I am the one who he speaks of, and from what I can see you’d be a good addition to our home. That’s not a ‘yes,’ yet, stay with us during this tournament and we’ll get to know you better.”
“Basam would be honored to earn your trust.”
They continued to wait, and soon Tylor, Esolc, and Repus had each fought and won their fights. Each time they won, the group gained more money to wager. Finally it was Heathyr’s turn, “Any advice for me Uktesh?”
“I don’t know how your opponent fights, but don’t try to match strength with him. If he slashes at you, leap back, and if he overextends himself, leap back in and try to get a quick point.”
The announcer, clearly tired shouted their names and a quick introduction before he started the fight. The very first attack was a sweep slash that Heathyr jumped back from, and then quickly back in because in his attack he had overextended himself. After that point, the man went on a wild offensive that Heathyr was able to keep one step ahead of. Then when the man tired out, she quickly came back in and finished him off.
She came back to the group with a big smile, “I didn’t think I’d be able to win! This is so exhilarating! No wonder you boys enjoy fighting so much!”
“Oh no! Mother’s gotten a taste of the sweet joy of fighting and is starting to sound a little blood thirsty!”
“No I’m n
ot! I just think it’s fun testing my skills against someone who’s not my daughter.”
They settled down again to wait for Uktesh and Larut’s fight. When it arrived, everyone bet on Uktesh, who was ten to one favored to win, and Larut said, “That’s not fair! I can’t bet against myself! Well I’ll be back momentarily.”
The announcer must’ve gotten a second wind because as Larut and Uktesh squared off, he shouted, “Larut who struggled in the first round, must now go against the lightning god, death’s reaper, Uktesh!”
The crowd cheered loudly for Uktesh and Larut muttered, “I didn’t struggle, I just delayed.”
“Fight!”
Larut took a deep breath and used what looked like Bull Rushes Down, over and over, faster and faster, so that it was all Uktesh could do to block. Suddenly, Larut gasped for breath and Uktesh quickly hit him in the side. His breathe came hard and labored, but Larut circled Uktesh who circled back, each step with a smile. Larut cut right, then left and feigned a second left, that didn’t catch Uktesh off guard. Larut attacked in a blazingly fast pattern, but each attack was blocked cleanly by Uktesh. Finally, Larut shook his head, still with a smile, and left himself open for the final hit.
As they walked back Larut said, “Heck forget Basam! Train me, I never came close did I?”
“You’re very skilled, and with training you’d be one of the most deadly fighters around, you’re quick, strong, and imaginative. If you want to train, just meet Laurilli and I at our house whenever you can. We’d welcome any friend wanting to learn.” Uktesh didn’t add that he wished he’d trained Myrtin, but he was sure Larut knew he was thinking it.
“You’d better calm your fiancé, she’s looking freaked out.”
“Li, you ok?”