“Yes, Jinja,” Madam Eternal asked.
“I request bladed weapons be allowed in the next phase of choosing a leader,” Jinja proposed. “If all are in agreement.”
Madam Eternal frowned but looked at the remaining contestants again for a consensus.
Atilla nodded with a wicked smirk.
Not to be outdone, I also gave my consent.
Already out-voted three to one, the wounded Hyperion warrior’s vote really didn’t matter. Still Madam Eternal looked at him for his permission.
He shrugged.
I had a feeling he would have voted against weapons if he had any kind of chance, already wounded to this degree whoever fought him in the next round wasn’t going to have much to do.
“It has been decided, then,” Madam Eternal informed us. “Weapons will be brought for use in the next round of battle. While that is being done, we will choose the next pairs of stones.”
All eyes were glued to the Madam as she removed the rocks of those contestants eliminated from the fight and placed the four remaining stones inside.
She looked at Julian, the only member of the Order still wearing his mask. “Would you like to take a look to ensure the validity of the choosing?”
“If no one else raises an objection, neither will I,” Julian said with a short bow. “I believe we all understand this has been carried out as it should.”
“Very well,” Madam Eternal said, reaching inside the bag Bapz held out for her.
She came back with a pair of stones.
“The Order will face off against Hyperion, and as such, Immortal Corp will be fighting Valkyrie in the second fight,” Madam Eternal stated. “We will begin immediately. Contestants will be reminded that this is not a fight to the death, only until one is knocked unconscious or yields.”
“Your weapons are on the way,” X said. “I sent a message for them inside and Bapz is on it.”
“Thanks,” I answered.
“This is going to be such a joke,” Angel spat. “The Hyperion warrior can barely stand.”
Angel wasn’t wrong. The warrior from Hyperion Industries was patched up as best as possible, but he was in no condition to fight. He limped his way out into the square sand area now sprinkled with his own blood.
He came out with a curved knife in his right hand.
Atilla carried a kind of rod in his hand the likes of which I had never seen. It was short, no longer than his forearm. It shone against the light of the sun’s hot rays.
Both men squared off. Atilla wore a grin on his face as he examined his wounded foe like a predator would its prey.
“Begin!” Madam Eternal called.
I watched in disgust as Atilla circled his wounded foe. The rod in his hands apparently extended in both directions. With a touch of a button, Atilla no longer held a rod, but a six-foot-long metal staff.
The Hyperion Industries soldier had no chance. Wounded and attacked with a weapon with that kind of reach, the fight was over before it began. Atilla battered him with blows from each side of his weapon.
It was hard to watch. A part of me felt sick inside. The Hyperion warrior was little more than a punching bag. Wet thuds met our ears as Atilla’s longer weapon ignored the knife, trying to block it and struck over and over again.
It wasn’t even like the Hyperion warrior could get away if he wanted to. A heavy limp from his left leg saw to that.
It looked like Atilla was playing with him, mocking him by striking at his legs and chest but never his head. He wanted to keep him conscious.
Atilla finally came to a stop near my tent.
I was seething with righteous indignation. I owed the Hyperion soldier nothing, but to see someone brutalized like that was almost more than I could bear.
Angel put a hand on my arm. I didn’t realize it, but both my hands were clenched into fists. I was shaking.
Atilla looked over at me, extending his staff out toward my chest. Our eyes met. I wasn’t going to back down.
“Save it,” X warned me in my head. “Everything you’re feeling right now, save it for the fight. You’ll get your chance.”
Atilla sneered at me then spun so fast, he was a blur of motion. The back side of his staff cracked the Hyperion warrior across the temple. The man fell in a heap.
I kept Atilla’s gaze as he did the same, walking over the unconscious man in a show of disrespect.
“He’s just trying to get into your head,” Wesley warned. “Forget him. Concentrate on getting past the Valkyrie leader first. Jinja’s not going to be a walk in the park.”
Thirteen
Jinja stepped into our impromptu arena, even as the Hyperion soldier was being carried back by the other members of his corporation. Each Hyperion soldier stared daggers at Atilla, who spat into the sand next to him.
What a jerk, I thought to myself, looking over at the woman from the Order. I remembered her kindness in the Badlands sparing Sam’s family. How could someone like that be involved in the same company as scum like Atilla?
There was no answer to the question, at least not yet.
Jinja was already in the middle of the sand square. She withdrew a long blade from a sheath on her back. Unlike the samurai sword Preacher used, this one was heavy, a two-handed claymore that was nearly as tall as the woman herself.
It looked ancient. Jinja held it with respect, her scarred face gleaming off the shining metal.
“Good luck on this one,” Angel said, handing me my axe and knife. “You’re going to need it.”
“Hey,” I said with a scowl.
“Oh sorry.” Angel’s face broke from worried into a reassuring grin. She gave me two thumbs-up. “You’re going to do great.”
“I don’t believe you,” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes.
“She’s fast and a master with that blade,” Wesley told me as Madam Eternal announced the next fight. “You’ll have to do something to take her by surprise.”
“Right,” I said out loud. Internally, I was thinking that his words were no help at all.
My wounds from the fight with the Hammer were already healing. I was a bit tired and hungry, but other than that, I was good to go. I gripped the short axe in my left hand and the knife in my right. Both weapons were light and maneuverable.
What I liked about them was that if I needed, I could also throw each of them. My time with the axe and knife in my previous life had been extensive. They felt like tools in my hands more than weapons.
Tools that I had spent years learning and honing my skill with.
“The winner from this fight between Immortal Corp and Valkyrie will fight the Order for the right to act as lead for the coming coalition,” Madam Eternal stated. “You may begin.”
Valkyrie dropped to her knees, holding the weapon’s blade in her open palms. Her head bowed as if she were saying a prayer.
I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of tactic or trick, but I wasn’t about to fall for it if it was or try and decapitate her with her head down.
Instead, I twirled the weapons in my hands. I stretched my arms and studied my opponent.
“She’s praying,” X confirmed in my head. “Wouldn’t hurt if you sent up a prayer yourself.”
I was thinking of a witty reply to X when Jinja looked up at me. She rose to her feet, taking her weapon in both hands.
“You’re an honorable warrior,” Jinja said, bringing her weapon up beside her. “You could have tried to attack me during my prayer. Many have in the past.”
“Just didn’t seem right,” I said, stopping just outside the range of her sword.
“I’ll try and make this as painless as possible,” Jinja said as matter-of-factly as if she were telling me we were standing on Mars. There was no sense of aggression or ego in her tone. “Unless you’d like to surrender now.”
“Can’t do that,” I told her. “But when I’m giving you orders when we attack the Voy, I’ll be sure to remember you offered me mercy.”
Jinja’s lips twitched ever so sligh
tly.
When she jumped into action, she used the claymore like an extension of her body. Her movements were as swift as they were brutal. I wasn’t prepared to weather the storm of the steel she brought on me over and over again.
The claymore never stopped moving as she turned one attack into the next and came at me over and over again. It took everything I had in me to track the weapon in time with my axe and knife blocking the deadly blade as it arced down and sideways into my body.
The sound of metal on metal punctured the air with deep ringing as she pushed the attack.
I was so busy tracking her weapon, making sure I wasn’t turned into a pin cushion, that I missed how close she had gotten. Jinja placed a boot in my sternum, slamming me to the ground.
I felt something pop in my chest, breathing turned from hard to downright painful.
I rolled out of the way as she brought her weapon down on me. It stuck hard into the ground. I rose to my feet as she ripped her weapon free from the sand. I managed to get in close, landing a punch with my right hand to her jaw.
I held the knife in that hand with the blade pointed down. When I struck, I made sure not to impale her face with my blade.
Jinja took the blow like a champ, shrugging it off in a spray of blood from her lip before she lifted her weapon again. I was so close, I was able to bring the back side of my axe that ended in a hammer head onto her grip.
She yelped in pain, dropping her sword under the pressure of the hammer. I couldn’t be sure if I had broken a finger or two, but right now, it was the best I could do.
Jinja dropped her weapon, smashing a fist into my throat. Breathing was suddenly nonexistent as she swept my legs out from underneath me.
As soon as I fell, I knew I needed to act. Jinja was already ripping the axe out of my hand. I let her have it and instead focused on getting to my feet. She rose with me, tearing the axe from my grip. She landed a spinning kick to my side.
If I could breathe at all, the wind would have been knocked out of me. I brought the knife in my hand down on her shoulder. She caught my wrist in both her hands.
I grabbed her throat, thinking I could get her to surrender if she couldn’t breathe. At least make her release the vise-like grip on my knife hand.
Jinja jerked my hand with the knife in it. Twisted so hard to the left, it popped. Pain lanced through my wrist and up my arm as it hung useless.
The knife fell from my numb hand into her own waiting palm. I dropped to my knees, grabbing the hilt of my axe buried in the sand. Before I could lift it, I felt the edge of my own knife pressed into my chest.
Jinja had dropped to her knees. One hand on the handle of my knife, the other poised to press it through my heart. Already the blade pierced my shirt and skin. A thin trickle of blood fell down my chest.
She had me dead to rights.
“You fought well,” Jinja said. “There’s no dishonor in stopping now. Like you said to the Yakuza, we’ll need all of us for the fight to come. Surrender.”
Everyone around us was still. Even X had allowed me to do my thing without breaking my focus on what needed to be done.
My body ached in a dozen different places, mostly my chest, throat, and wrist. My left had still gripped the shaft of my axe. I could bring up the blunt end and slam it across her temple, but not before she drove the blade into my chest.
I was pretty sure I could survive that, somewhere like ninety percent. I had never been stabbed in the heart before, at least not to my recollection.
As one, the group held their breath waiting to see what I would do.
Jinja saw it in my eyes before I even said a word.
“No, you fool!” Jinja shouted as I brought the axe up from the sand.
Time seemed to slow in that instance. Jinja’s eyes doubled as I took Wesley’s advice and caught her off guard.
Jinja plunged the knife into my chest as I struck her forehead right across her hairline. I heard the crowd gasp as one as both Jinja and I fell to the sandy ground.
Pain wasn’t really the right word for what I felt in my chest at the moment. It was more like a deep burning sensation that demanded I just lie there and do nothing.
I could hear shouts, but at the moment, I was unable to respond.
“They’re both down!” someone shouted.
“What does that mean?” It sounded like Commander Shaw.
“Get up! Jinja, get up!” Jinja’s Valkyries shouted to her.
“You still with me?” X asked. “Good news is that you’ll heal. You just have to stay conscious and get up to your feet right now.”
I tried to say “easy for you to say” but ended up grunting something as I pushed myself to my hands and knees.
“He’s getting up!” Wesley shouted. “He’s getting up.”
More shouting I ignored, pushing myself to sit on my heels. I looked down at my torso. My own knife still protruded from my chest. I grabbed the handle and ripped it out like I was pulling off a band aid. It hurt a lot more than pulling off a band aid, for the record.
“Daniel Hunt from Immortal Corp is on his feet,” Madam Eternal called as I wobbled to stand on two legs. “The final fight will be Immortal Corp versus the Order.”
“And why should we wait!?” Atilla shouted from somewhere behind me.
I was still getting my bearings. My wrist was starting to work. I felt lightheaded from the loss of blood in my chest.
“Daniel, duck!” Angel shouted.
I caught her voice in the crowd just in time to lower my head. I felt a harsh blow of wind sail past my skull. Atilla’s staff whistled along with it.
As classy as always, Atilla saw me in my weakened state and decided to start the final fight early. The last thing I felt like doing right now was fighting a Cyber Hunter. I still remembered the battle with the woman. With her, I was fully rested and healed; against Atilla, I was neither.
“Get out of range; he’ll go for a headshot to take you out as soon as possible,” X warned me.
I stumbled forward, trying to create distance. It was no use; Atilla was on me like he smelled blood in the water.
I covered my head with my hands and forearms, but that left my ribs open. Atilla maneuvered the staff like a blur of silver light. He cracked me across what felt like every inch of my exposed body.
Get up, just get up, I yelled inside my own head.
I stumbled to my feet, bleeding and bruised from so many different wounds, I couldn’t even count them all. My entire body felt like one big welt.
Atilla must have struck me dozens of times. With each blow, I staggered a bit but refused to go down to my knees again.
If you go down now, it’s over, I told myself. Stay up. You’ve got to stay on your feet.
Atilla’s frustration was beginning to show, as was his own fatigue. Exhausted from holding his weapon and sending so many strikes at me, he hesitated for a moment before landing his next blow.
Instead, he circled me, twirling his staff.
“You Pack Protocol members don’t go down easily, do you?” he asked with a smirk. “I know that firsthand. That’s why Amber didn’t die and the Order fished her out of that lake.”
The mention of her name, the fact that Atilla held all the answers I wanted, but instead of giving them to me, decided to toy with me instead. It set me off in a way I’d never felt before.
Heat gathered in my chest.
My vision went red.
Fourteen
I let out some kind of roar that sounded more animal to my own ears than anything else. I lunged at him. Stupid. That was what he wanted me to do.
Somewhere in the background of the moment, I could hear X trying to calm me. Her words landed on deaf ears. I was lost in my rage.
When I lunged, Atilla sidestepped, sending a new wave of strikes with his staff to my head and legs.
I hurled both weapons at him as he jumped back. The axe spiraled through the air, followed by the knife.
How he was able to track
both weapons and deflect them with his staff, I’d never know.
I rushed him, hot with anger.
Atilla did a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. His staff spun so brutally, I couldn’t follow the movement. All I knew was it felt like I got shot in the head. I slumped to the ground, sand in my eyes, mouth, and nose.
“Don’t go!” X shouted, trying to keep me conscious. “Don’t go, stay with us! Stay awake. They’re cheering for you. Daniel, can you hear them? They want you to win!”
The metallic tang of blood filled my mouth anew as I struggled to stay conscious.
X was right, I could hear my name chanted over and over again. It was so loud, everyone had to be joining in, save the other members of the Order.
“Daniel! Daniel! Daniel!” The chants rose to the Martian sky.
“Him!?” Atilla screamed past those chanting. “Is this the leader you want to unite the heads of the Corporations and meet the alien threat?”
I was still face down in the sand, but I could hear Atilla’s boot crunch as he moved closer. A rough hand grabbed the back of my hair and jerked my head up.
I knew my healing ability had already closed the knife wound in my chest and was working on the multiple cuts and bruises Atilla had opened up. Still, this did nothing for the level of fatigue I felt.
Even my abilities had to have limits. With no food or water to draw energy from, I felt as though I was a well running dry. Healing was happening slower. I had abused my body and demanded too much from it.
“Him!? This bloody excuse for a soldier?” Atilla mocked the crowd. He jerked my head back and forth so violently by the back of my hair, I thought for sure I was going to be bald in a moment.
My left eye was swollen shut. Blood poured into my right to the extent I could barely make anything out. I was facing Julian and the woman from the Order. My eye found hers.
Despite the member from her own faction winning, she looked anything but pleased. She gave me a quick jerk of her head as if she were giving me permission to keep going.
I understood she couldn’t root against her own faction, but that look in her eyes, that tilt of her chin was enough for me to tell even she wanted to see Atilla taken down a peg or two.
Vendetta: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 4) Page 9