“I know that you can beat her, Shana. I know that deep down you have the tools. Just reach in to where you keep them and pull them out when you need them the most. It’s like sex, you just have to show confidence and be ready for just about anything.” Braden was only trying to help. I was nervous, but not as nervous as I thought I was going to be. Something had changed and I was looking at her and she was looking at me and I think we both knew that this battle was going to be one for the ages.
She came after me, not saying a word. Where I was expecting a primal scream of some sort was more of a determined woman on a mission. I moved slightly, seeing her in my mind’s eye going by and then slamming my elbow down onto the back of her neck. It didn’t knock her out, but did momentarily stun her. She looked at me and was rubbing her neck. I think that she was getting the idea that I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
The way that she was dressed had given her an air of mystery, but when I stripped all that away, all I saw was the vulnerable woman underneath. I didn’t have to worry about the warrior, because the warrior was just a myth, something that was placed there to make me feel like I was inferior. I worked on the premise that she was the one that was weak, unable to withstand the onslaught of my attack and then I perfected that into something that I could use against her.
She was already feeling the effect of my first counterattack. I’d heard all my life that the best offense was a good defense. If I were to strike out on my own, I’m sure that she would have seen it come. Instead, I stayed completely still and waited for her to react. I could see that she was getting antsy to the point of wanting to do something. She was almost willing me with her eyes to come after her and even that slight smile that was meant to be condescending did not get my goat.
I had centered myself, allowed the universe to surround me and keep me in its embrace. She went into these moves that looked very precise and intricate. Some of them impressed me. They could do some real damage and I think that she was trying to instill in me some kind of fear. At first, I felt ill equipped to deal with something like this, but then I stood there and narrowed my eyes and gave her no hope for a sneak attack.
I breathed deeply and watched her hands and suddenly they began to slow down, so that I was literally watching them go by. I don’t know what other people saw, but to me this was a well choreographed ballet. I could see all her movements, predict where they were going to go and I moved to make a concentrated effort to give her nothing to strike out against. She was the one that was feeling the effect of doing those moves and I hadn’t done anything, but move slightly to the side each time that she had decided to level a blow.
“Do something.” Her anger was evident by the way that she was gritting her teeth and breathing heavy after such an exhaustive display of expertise. “Why do you just stand there and do nothing? Why do you infuriate me to the point that I just want to kill you?” I could see that she was making slight mistakes. There were chinks in her armor that had never been seen before. “My purpose is to end you and by Lord Vadam’s decree, it will be done.”
She slashed across in a wide arc and caught my face. Her fingernails dug into the skin and caused the blood to come to the surface. She had only done it to make me angry and had I been wearing my armor, I was almost assured that it would have attacked on my overwhelming and demanding thoughts. It would feed on my desire for revenge. Without it getting in the way, I could concentrate on going further in the competition.
“I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of a response, Gemini.” I think that I was secretly happy that she didn’t remember a damn thing. It was possible that those memories would resurface, but for the time being, I had nothing to worry about. The only thing I had to do was make sure that she was incapacitated for 5 minutes and the best way to do that was to let her tire herself. That was when I would strike. This tactic was working like a charm and she was having a hard time trying to balance herself after putting such an effort forward.
“You will fight me, or you will die where you stand.” She came at me with her hands lethal weapons. I felt that numbing pain in my face and I think she had only done it to distract me and make me think about it and nothing else. It worked to a point, so that she could at least get a few good strikes in that made me feel like I was losing a step.
The shot to my kidneys made me twist against the attack, not quite knowing how I was supposed to avoid something like that. I gave in to my emotions, letting them carry me on a wave that would probably be detrimental to my health and well being.
“I never said that I wouldn’t fight you, Gemini. What I said was that I wasn’t going to give you the satisfaction of fighting you on your own terms. It’s obvious that I would probably be beaten quicker, if I were to stand here and fight back. You’d use that against me; try to find that opening that you could use to make me suffer. I know that you have never gotten over Braden. You may say that you did, but I think underneath it all that you still secretly harbored a desire to be with him. You wouldn’t have been with him in the first place had you not seen something that was worthy of your love. I have him now and that must burn into your very soul like a knife.”
“You talk a good game, Shana. You have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t feel anything towards Braden. I don’t feel anything towards anybody. The only thing I know is that your death will make me smile and that’s more than enough to make me want to do it.” She came in with a knee and I moved, while bringing my hand up underneath her knee, so that I had her leg immobilized and was able to bring my elbow around to strike at the side of her head.
That resounding smack caused everybody to stand on their feet, watching, as she stumbled after feeling the effect of what I could bring to the table.
Chapter two
I had walked down this path with the express purpose of taking out my competition. Gemini was going to stand there and bring her best. She had not gone down, but she did slip to her knee and then back up on her feet. I had caused her to feel like her life was on the line. This was not going to be easy. To beat someone with no emotion meant that I had to use her hard focus against her.
I was smiling and I think that was getting her even angrier. She was slightly out of it, her eyes looking around like she didn’t know where she was. “I can’t believe that you just did that. I will be victorious and the sooner that you realize that, the better off all of us will be. This is a losing battle and by the time everything is said and done, I will be the one that is taking the place of one of the guardsmen. I will be the first woman to do it and I will take away the one thing that you desire most. It will give me infinite happiness, even though I don’t feel any more. I don’t know what happened, but I get this funny feeling like you’re responsible.” Her subconscious was telling her that I was the one that attacked her. I was lucking and it appeared that those memories were still currently out of reach.
“I know what you’re trying to do, Gemini. You’re trying to throw me off my game, but it’s not going to work.” I’d seen that she was not invincible, not some warrior that was going to destroy me and leave me vanquished in the sand for everybody to look down upon from the stands. “This is just a tactic and it’s not going to work. I really don’t care what you throw at me. I could be half dead and still beat you.” This was a very bold claim to make and not one that I was sure that I could back up with actions.
“I don’t think you know what you’re saying, Shana. It’s one thing to avoid attack, but it’s another thing to beat me in a fair fight. I don’t think anybody has been able to do that and that was when I had emotions to cloud my judgment. I have a vivid clarity, something that makes me look back at those times that I was strangled by emotions and wonder just what the hell I was doing. That accident had certainly showed me the right way.” The one thing that she didn’t know was that emotions were necessary and without them, we were basically robots. Without them, we didn’t have a mind of our own or any semblance of how
to deal with certain aspects of humanity.
She was missing that piece of the evolutionary scale and I was going to capitalize on. Emotions were the one thing that we could hold onto.
I brought my leg straight out, but instead of catching her in the nose, I smashed into her shoulder. It made her moan, but she did not go down and I felt like I was in a fight for my life. I didn’t know how true that was, because in her eyes was this one track mind of killing me. This was a reward to Lord Vadam for taking her underneath his wing. She still had this need to please, even though she probably didn’t even realize that that was what she was doing. His bidding was her only thought and that was going to get her killed.
She was a consummate fighter and the way that she moved was conducive to somebody that had a lot of training. I think I was using the fact that she didn’t know anything about the person that attacked to give me a leg up on the competition.
“It’s not going to help you. If you’re going to beat me, then you’re going to have to become something that you’re not…a killer. I can see it in your eyes and you’re just not capable of snuffing out a life. You hold each life precious and that is going to be your ultimate downfall. Shana, Your kindness is your weakness. I’m going to take great pleasure in making you realize that emotions are for fools.” She rolled on the ground, coming up with sand in her hands that she threw into my eyes.
It was unpredictable and I wasn’t quite ready for it. I was trying my best to get my eyesight back, while knowing full well that she was going to use this. I felt her pound me and I was barely able to move away from the fist that had my name written on it.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Gemini. It’s my capacity for good that is going to make it easier to defeat you. You’re so caught up in feeling nothing that you don’t have any clue that that is the one thing that is going to hurt you the most. It’s those feelings that make us who we are. It’s that fear that makes us want to fight and it’s that nervous energy that makes us want to come out on top. You fight for the Lord and I fight for the masses. Women everywhere are looking to me to become their role model. They want me to be victorious, because that will give them a reason to stand up. That is not something to be afraid…it’s something to rejoice.”
“Shana, I really don’t care what you have to say. I don’t care that you want to give these women the rights that they deserve.” I think I was seeing something that she didn’t want me to see. “You just finished telling me that women deserve equal rights. If you really believe that, then maybe deep down you know that fighting me is wrong” It was a shot in the dark, but something that I had to try.
Using that newfound knowledge, I moved quickly to her side, while bringing back a straight kick into her ribs. They were the perfect target and the most vulnerable when it came to hurting the form of a human being.
Following it up, I held the back her head, while repeatedly smacking my elbow against her face. I didn’t know how long I had been doing it, but when I finally let go of her hair, her face looked like how I felt. She was swaying on her feet, looking like some kind of drunken person looking for a handout.
“This is what you get for coming after me, Gemini. Remember this day and I hope to god that we never have to have a repeat performance.” I ran towards her, leaping into the air and bringing down a superman punch. I made contact with the bridge of her nose, landing on one knee with my face looking down at the sand. I had my eyes closed and had she had anything left, she would have turned and most likely put her hands around my throat. I wasn’t putting up any kind of fight, turning or even facing her for that matter.
I didn’t even bother looking at her and that might’ve been the wrong thing to do, but I felt like it sent a message to those that would face me next.
I heard the soft thud and I glanced back. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was on her knees. The last shot had taken her out of her boots and your entire body was swaying like a tree that was going to come down at any moment. Everybody was on their feet. All the women were hanging over the sides to get a better view.
Gemini’s hands came down into the sand and blood was now dripping onto her hands. She looked up with her eyes burning with rage and she managed to get on her feet, although I don’t think that was the most prudent course of action. The best that she could do was stay down and hope for the 5 minutes to elapse quickly. She didn’t do that, because she wasn’t thinking clearly.
“Get up…you damn fool. Don’t make me have to punish you.” Even though she didn’t remember the last few days, something was ingrained into her about the mark that was currently placed on her body. She turned her head abruptly, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking up at Lord Vadam and at that moment, I could see that her main focus was not on me anymore. “Don’t even think about it.” She ran towards the stands and I watched quite fascinated by the way that she seemed to move with the grace of a panther. She leaped over two guardsmen that were positioned underneath the parapet. Lord Vadam was standing with a look that I could only be described as fear. It looked good on him. I didn’t like feeling this way, but he had given me every reason to.
“I think that we should get you out of here, Lord.” He wasn’t budging. There was no way that he would be able to stand here in front of his people without looking like he had tucked his tail and ran away from a fight. Instead, he reached for something that was hidden from view, lifting it up and showing everybody the gleaming metal of this sword that looked like it could cut through just about anything. He looked confident, but I was betting the farm on Gemini. She looked like she was a woman possessed.
“I’m not going anywhere. She can come, but she better know what she’s doing or she’ll find out in a hurry that I’m not just going to stand here and take this insubordination.”
Gemini was only a few short feet away from her ultimate target. Her mind had been twisted by a man that only wanted her for the ultimate weapon. “You’re the one that did this to me.” She turned towards the people, showing the mark and then pointed toward Lord Vadam, as the culprit. It was widely known that there was a rumor going around that he did such a thing to those that he was displeased with. It was one thing to think that you knew it, but it was another thing entirely when you were forced to face it up close and personal.
Chapter three
They were staring each other down and Lord Vadam had his sword at the ready, but I think he even knew that he was up against a woman that wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “I need you to back down, before this escalates any further, Gemini. Remember your place.” That was the last thing he should have said, because she reached out and grabbed onto that sword and pulled it from his grasp. She held it out and then without warning drove it into his side. “NOOOOOOO.” The man that was standing beside him at the time had decided that a hasty retreat was in order. He was not concerned with his Lord and was more concerned with his own safety.
Using one hand, Gemini pulled herself up and was now standing on the parapet like some kind of animal about to attack its prey. “I’m through taking your orders. I am nobody’s slave and I will not be treated like one. This ends right here and right now. Your conditioning might have worked, had you not been, so hell bent on revenge against the woman that didn’t do anything to you. Shana has only done what she thought was right and for you to think otherwise has made you begin to think that you are superior. Believe me, you are not anything of the sort. You are a weak minded man with a god complex that needs to be taken down a peg.” The blood on the blade of the sword was now calling attention to it.
All I had to do was look around at the people in the stands and they were now glued to the spectacle of someone about to kill the Lord. I could see that they were afraid that their way of life was in jeopardy. Those that felt that way began to pelt Gemini with food and any other things that they could hold in their greedy little hands.
One look from her steely eyes and they stopped this form of ridicule. �
�Leave this to me and stop this petty nonsense. If he is meant to die, then he will by my hand. If he’s not, then somebody will come to his rescue, but it doesn’t have to be you people
“They are only trying to protect their way of life, Gemini. You would know that, if you were thinking straight.” I had begun to realize that she had gotten her memory back. It was in her eyes and the way that she looked at me with animosity, but also with respect at the same time. I thought that she would be angry with me, but I think any anger that she felt was directed towards Lord Vadam and his rule of tyranny.
She was about to make the final blow, when two arrows came out of nowhere and pierced both of her shoulder blades at the same time. To her credit, she did not scream, but she did drop the sword with a resounding clang that could be heard by all. Two guardsmen came through the doorway leading to the parapet. They were holding those bows tight with arrows ready to take down the enemy. They were acting like good loyal foot soldiers. You couldn’t expect anything different. This was the way things were.
They got on either side of her and escorted her from the terrified and wounded Lord Vadam. He was doubled over, but he had the semblance of mind to stand to address the crowd. “Gemini is not feeling well, so with that in mind, I have no choice but award the victory to Shana.” I knew that it was killing him to say that, but he had no choice. It was obvious that Gemini was not going to fight me any longer. “I will do my best to help Gemini and I hope that everybody prays for her.” There was a moment of silence and everybody was throwing their good wishes and vibes towards a woman that had shown that she wasn’t going to bow down.
Lord Vadam barely turned and started to fall before one of the guardsmen helped him up. He was slapping his hands away. He wasn’t going to show this kind of weakness in front of his loyal followers. He managed to stand on his own 2 feet, but you could see that it was a shaky beginning and most likely was going to a very shaky end. I still don’t know how he was able to leave on his own power, but that was a testament to the man that he was trying to project others.
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