Menegar armed with swords but no body armor poured into the arena from another gate. The Menegar were of various sizes, some were smallish, but most were big for their species. Winn could see that there was no orderly precision in which they were formed, nor did they have a central plan of attack. That was good for Winn. He surmised that these were the thugs of the Menegar society and like all thugs they would be dirty street fighters. Winn liked a good street fight.
Two of the bravest thugs charged Winn. One swung high and one swung low. Winn dove between the narrow space between the two swords and as he went by the Menegar he sliced both cruelly in the abdomen. Three more rushed up in a staggered line and Winn weaved between them dishing out lethal cuts to the neck, chest, and groin. Five more rushed him but all from the front. Winn traded blows with the first two and kicked the third one in the neck crushing his windpipe. Two heads flew as Winn countered sloppy chops and struck back with power and speed. The other two tried to get close in and use their superior strength to wrestle Winn to the ground. One paid for that strategy with a stab to his heart but the second avoided Winn’s blow and grabbed him by the neck and drug him to the ground. The eleven Menegar that were left saw an opportunity and all of them jumped on the pile. The crowd started cheering thinking Winn was defeated. Suddenly the pile of Menegar exploded and Winn blasted up into the air. He turned his body, swooped down, and flew over the Menegar scattered on the ground, stabbing them as he passed over them. When he stabbed the last one. He flew high up, circled the arena, then landed in the middle and stabbed his butterfly swords into the sandy ground. The crowd was silent, then it erupted with applause, cheers, and shouts.
“He plowed through those Menegar like they were nothing,” Ferris said.
“I’ve been with him since the beginning, and I have never seen him fight like that,” Vant said. “It’s inhuman.”
“They have unleashed something in him,” Svae said. “It’s like getting rid of his morality made him into a pure killing machine.”
“I see the difference too,” Sarah said. “He hated the humans and he hates the Menegar, so he killed them. Before, he fought with his head, and with purpose. This is all instinct, and instinct to kill. What have they done to you Winn?” Tears leaked out of Sarah’s eyes, but the others wisely did not comment.
“The next test of his prowess will be the most difficult indeed,” Ajani said to the crowd with the help of the wizard amplifying his voice. For we have captured three of the rarest predators known on Menegar soil. Delver Kide will fight three Dromae!”
Cheers and gasps came from the crowd.
“Do not fear, the Dromae cannot jump higher than the walls of the arena. You are perfectly safe. Release the Dromae!”
Winn saw them open a third gate in the arena wall and out came three of the strangest creatures that he had ever seen. They looked like humongous lizards with very long back legs and medium sized front legs, or he supposed, arms. Their heads were also huge with large teeth in them. From head to tail they were four span long and at the shoulders they were a tad shorter than Winn. They had black, grey, and orange colorings.
As soon as they were out of the gate they stopped, looked at Winn, and made a strange warbling sound. Winn realized they were communicating, and he realized he understood what they said.
“Circle and attack at the signal.”
The Dromae started running around the arena, hugging the wall. They spread out until they were equidistant apart. They ran very fast, much faster than a horse. Winn didn’t look at them as they ran around. He looked at Ajani. What is his game. Is he trying to kill me now? These creatures are lethal. Winn didn’t know it but only groups of Menegar had ever brought one down, no single Menegar, or man, had fought one and lived.
A shrill cry went up from one of the Dromae and they all converged on Winn at the same time. Winn was expecting it, and he dove out of the way as they were coming in, slashing at who he thought was the dominant one. The good news is that Winn connected with its leg and sliced it off above the knee. The bad news was one struck him in the back and left a huge gash because he underestimated their attack speed. There was a shriek from the wounded Dromae, and it hit the ground and skidded to a halt. Blood was pumping out of the wound. Winn considered that an eventual kill. He got up with his back searing in pain and his blood spilling onto the ground. The other two were circling him closer now. They had not communicated again so Winn assumed the same attack pattern. This time there was no shriek, they came with one directly behind Winn and one directly in front of him. They closed faster this time. Winn didn’t try to attack, he just evaded, diving to his left. The one that attacked from his back came within a hair’s breadth of slicing his neck open.
Winn rolled to his feet and decided to bring the attack to the creatures. As they circled again Winn decided to show the creatures what he could do. He got ready, picked his target, and took off and flew like a shooting star at the one coming across his view. He swung hard at its neck but the Dromae evaded him. As he flew by after his missed stroke, he grabbed the creature by its tail and pivoted and picked it up and slammed it against the stone wall of the arena. The creature was dazed, and out of the corner of his eye Winn could see the other creature zooming towards him. He didn’t have time to stab the Dromae below him, but he didn’t care, he swung with all his might and cleaved off the creature’s head just as he shot up in the air. The creature running toward him proved Ajani a liar and jumped up, crashed into Winn, and bit Winn on the chest plate he was wearing. The impact made Winn drop his swords. While in the air Winn slithered out of the creature’s mouth and slid around behind its neck. Then he performed the most amazing, controversial, and deadly move of the Pho Ren doctrine.
Winn started spinning sideways with the creature like a crocodile does in a death roll. He flipped over backwards four times in the air dragging the Dromae with him. He released the handhold on the Dromae’s neck long enough to wrap his legs around it. Flipping and spinning in the air, he grabbed the Dromae’s long chin and tried to snap its neck, but the creature’s neck muscles were too strong. Winn had no choice but to execute the final stage of the move. He came out of the death roll spins and did one more flip as he descended downward and slammed the Dromae’s head into the ground. The crack could be heard by everyone in the arena. Winn had learned to stop descending suddenly inches from the ground in his training with Master Chen. He mistimed it a little bit during this maneuver and hit the ground hard. He was lucky all the Dromae were dead because it took him a while to get his head clear. He got off the ground onto his knees and shook his head a couple of times. Then he got on his feet, and the crowd roared like it hadn’t all night.
“That must have been the forbidden move,” Sarah said. “That was so amazing. I don’t believe what I just saw.”
“Neither do I, Your Majesty,” Vant said. “No mere human could survive one of those animals attacking them. Your husband killed three.”
“He is supernatural,” Alana said. “This new Winn, he is unstoppable. How are we going to get to him?”
“We aren’t going to fight him,” Svae said. “He knows us all, we just have to hope he doesn’t hate us enough to kill us.”
The attendants came to move the carcasses of the Dromae away and while he waited Winn knelt in the middle of the arena, staring up at Ajani. A Menegar boy came up to him with some water, and Winn took a cup and drank it.
When the arena was clear Ajani stood and made ready to speak again.
“My fellow countrymen, there is only one more test for Delver Kide to prove his loyalty to Menegar. That test is for him to battle his oldest friend, Jaunty Chen, and kill his last link to Aviel. Bring forth Chen!”
The gate opened, and the guards nudged Jaunty out. Jaunty walked to the center of the arena. The crowd booed him and hissed at him, many trying to spit on him. He didn’t care. He was scared to death that Winn was going to forget in his passion his words and kill Jaunty for the glee of it.
&n
bsp; “By the Almighty, its Jaunty! He is alive!” Alana said. “By all the gods please don’t kill him Winn.”
Sarah was thinking the same thing. If he somehow spares Jaunty, then he may be redeemable, but if he kills Jaunty, I fear the worst.
Jaunty and Winn circled each other.
“Remember when we used to fight with sticks,” Winn asked
“Yeah, I beat your ass back then,” Jaunty said.
“Relax, its not payback time, but we have to go fast, so the best thing I can to is telegraph my moves and yell some out. I’ll aim for your armor, but when I say duck, duck fast.”
“Got it.”
“Move towards the north, in front of the royals. I’ll shout ‘Hooch’ when I am ready. Make it high and straight. This is our chance.”
“Just don’t kill me.”
Winn sighed.
“Let’s put on a show!”
Winn let out a scream and came toward Jaunty swinging high with both blades.
“Duck!”
Jaunty ducked just in time. He counter attacked with a stab to the chest, but Winn brushed it aside easily.
“Left, right, left, left, right!
“What?” Jaunty asked, but Winn didn’t stop to answer as he swung vicious blows that Jaunty did his best to block, but more than one clanged on his armor and dented it.
“High, low, gut, duck!”
Jaunty did better this round of attack and avoided all the blows. They were coming so fast Jaunty couldn’t see them, he just moved how Winn told him. All the while he was backing slowly against the northernmost point in the arena.
“Jump, chest, high chop!”
Jaunty was getting in the groove of dodging Winn’s moves. He jumped, but it wasn’t high enough. Winn caught Jaunty in the foot and he tripped and fell on his face. Panic hit Jaunty like a wave and he started rolling as Winn stabbed at him, going down on one knee and crawling forward and stabbing as Jaunty rolled. In an act of desperation, Jaunty kicked out at Winn’s face, and by the grace of the Almighty, or because Winn let Jaunty hit him, Winn fell over from the blow Jaunty landed. That gave Jaunty time to get up with his back against the arena wall. Winn sprang up just as fast.
“Hooch!”
Winn took off at a sprint towards Jaunty. His swords were pointed straight at Jaunty’s heart. He has tricked me after all, he talked me into this stupid move and instead he is going to kill me right in front of Ajani to prove his loyalty. I am an idiot.
Winn raced toward Jaunty, and right before impact Winn took off flying over Jaunty’s head. Winn let the motion propel him over the arena wall then he touched down between two Menegar and zoomed up directly toward Ajani. At the last second Ajani rolled out of his chair, but he wasn’t quite fast enough as Winn’s sword smashed mightily into Ajani’s shin and shattered the tibia while nearly taking the whole lower leg off. Winn’s other sword slammed into Ajani’s makeshift throne and shattered it.
Ajani was pulled away by his guards as Winn recovered from his landing. Winn thought fast, ten guards with cross bolts already surrounded Ajani, but his son, Crown Prince Ranuk, who was a teen about Winn’s size, sat transfixed in his seat next to Winn, and on the other side was Legga, his wife. Winn pulled his swords out of the chair and grabbed them both putting his swords around their necks. Just as he did that the six sorcerers who were circling the arena flew towards them and started circling eight span above Winn ready to strike.
“Don’t attack, don’t shoot,” said Ajani as he writhed in agony. “Let go of my wife and son, and your death will be quick and painless. Hurt them and you will suffer such an agony hitherto unknown to humankind.”
“Your threats are nothing to me,” Winn said. “You have already taken my mind, there is nothing more to take. There are things I do remember. A few dark things. The day I was captured on the ship, for instance. I most vividly remember the day I learned I lost my child. It was an attack on my wife by an assassin, designed to keep me from fighting. Who could have been behind the attack? Who is the one person who has orchestrated the entire invasion of the north? That would be you, Ajani, King of the Menegar. I don’t remember much, but I remember this Menegar saying. ‘Repay a death twice.’ Here is my chance.”
“If you kill either of them everyone you love will die!” Ajani said.
“That is just it, I don’t love anyone. You have taken that away.” Winn slid his sword across Ranuk’s neck. Ranuk grabbed his throat as blood gushed out and then he fell to the ground with his life rapidly ending.
“No!” Ajani yelled. He tried to get up to attack Winn, but he couldn’t with his ruined shin.
“A child for a child, Ajani. Now the woman will live if I get out of this arena alive.”
Svae, Alana, Sarah, and the rest of the party almost couldn’t watch as Winn and Jaunty went at it.
“They are coordinating their moves, Winn isn’t going quite as fast as usual, and he is yelling out something, which I bet are instructions to Jaunty,” Svae said.
“It’s hard to be sure, they are going so fast,” Sarah said.
“Exactly, Jaunty is very good, but he isn’t that good at anticipating moves,” Alana said. “Neither one has got a blow in. In normal circumstances Winn would destroy Jaunty, all of us really.”
“I agree,” Vant said. “They are up to something.”
The fighters drew closer to the north arena wall and suddenly Winn flew at Ajani.
The group was momentarily stunned but then acted quickly.
“Everyone I am sure you have noticed the eight archers on the top row of this section,” Svae said. “We are quietly going to go up there and subdue the archers, take their bows, and provide fire support for what Winn is going to do next.”
The group left their seats and climbed the stairs to the top row where the archers were. Svae was in the lead followed by Vant, Allana, Peders, Sarah, Metto, and Ferris.
When they reached the top Svae was challenged by one of the archers.
“You can’t be up here, go back down.” The archer said in Menegar as he pointed downwards.
“I am sorry I don’t speak Menegar,” she said, and she took another step toward the guard. “These seem like the best seats; you can see everything from up here.”
The Menegar archer lost his patience. He growled and made to push Svae down back toward the other rows when Svae grabbed his hand and flipped him over on his back. She pulled out a dagger from under her baggy clothes and stabbed the archer in the neck. The other members of the band save Sarah rushed the remaining archers, and catching them off guard, were able to make mostly one strike kills.
Svae looked around when the struggle was over, and because everyone’s eyes were on Winn they were not noticed. She turned to look at Winn just in time to see him cut Ranuk’s throat.
“Everyone get ready,” Svae said. “This is about to get ugly.
Winn made a tactical mistake. Menegar valued their wives less than their children. Once a wife was passed childbearing age, she sometimes was made a servant to a younger wife. Ajani loved Legga which was considered unusual and had kept her as his wife even though she was not bearing children any longer. Even so, Ajani would gladly sacrifice Legga for a chance at revenge on Winn.
“Take him! Don’t kill him unless you must! He is not to leave this arena alive!” Ajani shouted.
Winn let go of Legga, pushed her aside, and flew backwards and up so that he was hovering above the arena. The sorcerers followed and started casting spells. Winn dodged lightning and a fireball that slammed into the other side of the stadium destroying it, killing the spectators that were sitting there. Arrows were flying at Winn which made him have to move around or get struck. He flew at one of the wizards while she was preparing a spell and cut her head off. Two more were flying toward him with what looked like a glowing rope between them but as they approached, they were shot out of the sky with arrows. Winn didn’t know what to make of that.
Another wizard hurled a dark mass of something at Wi
nn but he dodged it and when it hit the far damaged side of the arena it sucked in everything around it, rocks, people, parts of the arena, and then it exploded into a massive fireball, destroying what was left of that side of the arena.
Three arrows in succession hit that wizard and he fell out of the sky. Two were left. They circled Winn on either side of him. They lashed out at the same time with bars of pure energy. Winn contorted in the air kicking his legs out, arching his back till his head touched his arse, and bringing his arms across his chest. Somehow at such close range both wizards missed. Their beams hit each other and they both disappeared out of existence.
Winn noticed there were only a few arrows flying now and most of those were at the Menegar. He supposed he had a friend in the crowd, but now was not the time for reunions. He flew down to the floor of the arena and saw Jaunty fighting off a Menegar. Winn ran and stabbed the Menegar in the back.
“Thanks Winn, you really pissed off Ajani,” Jaunty said.
“I’m the one that is pissed,” said Winn. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They ran toward the south of the stadium where there was a path straight out to the streets thanks to the wizard’s destruction. Just as they got to the path five Menegar blocked their way. Winn didn’t hesitate. He stabbed the one in front in the chest, vaulted over him and kicked two in the back of the neck and they fell. Jaunty stabbed those two while they were down, and Winn traded blows with the other two before gutting one in the side and slicing the other on the side of the neck.
They exited the arena and ran down the path toward the south of the city.
Chapter 14: Escape from Menegar
August 13, 850 A.A.
A few seconds later, Svae and her party arrived at path that led out of the arena, among the five dead Menegar that Winn had killed. They all, including Sarah, carried bows in their hands along with other weapons.
Trials of a Champion Page 17