Well… here we are folks. This is THE chapter that the story up to this point has been building up to. This chapter was actually a pain to write and even more of a pain to re-write, so I hope I did the duel justice.
On that note, the events of this story so far and also what will happen in future chapters may seem very similar to what happened in season 3 of Arrow, but I promise that I conceived the plot line for this story a long time before Arrow S3, even before S2 of The 100 finished. This story may follow the storyline of S2, but it has an entirely different base plot.
Right, with all that nonsense out of the way, I present to you: Aerrow vs Lexa.
Aerrow was cut down from the post and his swords were brought out to him. Somewhat gingerly, he lifted them up, one in each hand, and just held them there with his eyes closed. Feeling their weighting, imagining how he was going to use them. Preparing himself for the coming duel. Considering the importance of the coming fight, he seemed calm. Unnaturally calm.
Lexa meanwhile shrugged off her outer robe, leaving her in only her skin-tight clothing and her chest armour. She too, needed to be as light and nimble as possible for this fight. Her sword remained undrawn in the sheath by her side.
A ring of grounders formed around the two, creating an arena of sorts where the duel would take place. Clarke stood at the edge of it. Although she had no doubt in Aerrow's fighting ability, she was still nervous as hell.
Deep down inside him, Aerrow was too. He knew his own ability, but he had no idea of Lexa's. Surely, as the Commander, she would have received more extensive training than the grounder's he had fought in the past. To what extent, he did not know. In just a few moments, he would find out.
Locking her eyes on him as she did so, Lexa slowly drew her own sword. It was about a metre long, and straight away, Aerrow could tell it had been forged with a higher level of craftsmanship than the other grounder swords. She gripped it in both hands like it was an extension of her arms. She was clearly experienced in wielding it.
Both warriors stood facing each other in the centre of the clearing.
All was silent.
Aerrow shifted his gaze from Lexa to Clarke. He saw the fear in her eyes, the desperation. She didn't want him to beat Lexa, she needed him to. He gave her a single, slow nod. Then turned his attention back to his opponent. He took a deep breath.
"Fight." Indra growled.
At first, neither Aerrow nor Lexa made any attacking movements. They simply moved around each other, opposite sides of an invisible circle, just sizing each other up.
Aerrow made a lunge at Lexa. The Commander blocked it easily and quickly. A little too quickly. Her senses were on high alert. She was nervous.
Aerrow made a few more half-hearted jabs, all of which his opponent blocked with ease. In truth, he wasn't even trying to maim her. He was toying with her. Figuring her out.
Suddenly, in a rapid counter attack, Lexa came at him with a flurry of swipes with her sword. The attack caught Aerrow off-guard and Lexa sent him to the ground with a powerful kick to the chest.
Aerrow rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows, only to find himself staring right at the tip of Lexa's sword.
"Yield." The Commander growled.
The surrounding grounders were silent with admiration for her. It was over that quickly.
Strangely though, Aerrow did not do anything of the sort. He simply grinned at Lexa, and winked.
Lexa tiled her head slightly, ever so slightly, at the bizarre action, but that was all Aerrow needed. Quick as a flash, he parried her sword away, spun himself around – bringing himself back to his feet – and sliced his sword across her face before kicking her away.
He held both his swords at his side. Now he was ready.
"You'll have to do better than that, Commander" he mocked.
Lexa growled in anger. She held her hand up to her stinging cheek. She felt a wetness there. She held her hand in front of her and saw it was covered in blood. Her blood. The murderer had actually managed to wound her. She saw him standing there, so cocky, so confident, and she felt the anger start to flow through her veins. She harnessed it, used the power it gave her. The two warriors charged towards each other, meeting at the centre of the clearing in a clash of blades. The tempo of the fight had escalated exponentially. Now things were serious.
Clarke looked on as the two brought their weapons together in a furious exchange on swipes, lunges and stabs. Both warriors moved fluidly, perfectly in sync with each other. Neither appeared to have the upper hand as the intensity increased, and soon the swords were just blurs of movement.
Aerrow fought grimly. He knew this was about more than just his life or death. Every duel he had ever been in had been like that. No, this was something more. This was something much bigger. This was a battle for supremacy, to see who was better. Not just between he and Lexa, but between the Sky People and the Grounders. This was a battle for supremacy. This was the two deadliest warriors of their respective sides, engaged in a fight to the death, and that was exactly what this was going to be.
Lexa was indeed a supremely skilled swords-woman. Her strikes were coordinated, efficient, accurate. Clearly, she had been trained in this art since she was very young, and she was at one with her weapon. He was grateful for Alexis's training, and her lessons in how to control himself and his still relatively unfamiliar weapons. He was fairly sure that if it weren't for Alexis, he'd have been in a lot more trouble.
Lexa however tired faster than he did, and soon Aerrow broke through her defences with an unexpected, lighting fast upwards swing. He hit her sword up, leaving her exposed and he kicked her backwards. Hard.
She was not going to give up that easily though. She charged right back at him, but he calmly ducked under her swing, grabbed her shoulders and hurled her into the wall of grounders.
For a moment, Lexa let herself stay there, help up only by the grounders. It shouldn't have been possible, she thought. There was no way he could have fought her off for as long as he had. She had been trained since childbirth, she was fairly sure he hadn't been. There were too many inconsistencies in his attacks. However, he still had somehow managed to hold her off, and with relative ease at that. It was like he wasn't human.
But then she pictured the future, of what would happen if she lost.
She picture her dead body, lying on the ground, forgotten, the sky people roaming freely on the ground, taking the land of her people. And finally, her people bowing down to new Commander, a stronger Commander. This… this Murderer.
It infuriated her. She felt a renewed energy surge through her as she let out a cry of rage and re-engaged him. This time with venom. She wasn't just out to win. She would out to kill.
She flung her sword at him over and over again, and he seemed to be visibly trying harder to block them. This escalated until finally, he caught her blade with his own, and they stood dead still, blades locked together in the centre of the clearing.
Both were dirty, bloody and breathing heavily. The fight had taken its toll on both of them, but neither were going to surrender any time soon, for surrender would mean death.
They stared daggers into each other's eyes. "Impressive." Aerrow jibed. "Sara was better."
For some reason, that comment infuriated Lexa more than any other. Grunting in effort, she broke the stalemate and re-commenced her attack.
This time though, Aerrow was ready. He was focussed, his brain operating crystal clearly. He decided it was time to end this, once and for all.
In the blink of an eye, he unleashed his signature move.
Catching Lexa totally off guard, he swung his sword behind his back, spinning around and swinging at her. Lexa was totally dumbfounded. She had never encountered such an attack before. She only just managed to avoid being beheaded by his sword. She didn't, however, avoid the following kick.
She was sent to the ground, hand gripping her stomach in pain. She was winded, and badly. She tried to will herself to her feet but her exhausted body was unresponsive. She could only flop pathetically to the ground.
She rolled herself over to see Aerrow standing over her, eyes dark, his sword pointed directly at her heart. She closed her eyes in resignation. She knew she had lost.
"Do it!" she hissed defiantly, "Kill me!"
Aerrow hesitated momentarily. The grounders held their breath, waiting for the inevitable, killing blow. Clarke watched on in horror. She had seen that look in his eyes before.
Aerrow raised his sword over his head, and brought it down fast and hard, impaling…
…the ground beside Lexa.
Everyone was stunned, the grounders, Clarke, and none more so than Lexa.
Clarke watched as Aerrow stood up. This time, he looked directly at her. She looked into his eyes, and gasped slightly. The darkness, the pain, the fiery rage. It was gone. Replaced by a dark purple. Not the gleam they used to have, but not the jet black they had been only moments before.
When he spoke, his voice was soft, directed only at her. "I'm not that monster" he said "Not anymore."
Despite the watching grounders – who were still frozen in shock – Clarke raced towards him and embraced him tightly. In that moment, she didn't love anything in the world more than him.
He let his swords drop to the ground as he returned her embrace. He let himself bury his head in her blonde hair in relief that it was all over.
Suddenly, a cry of rage sounded from behind them.
To Clarke, it was like it happened in slow motion. Aerrow separated from her and turned around just as Lexa got back to her feet.
She stared in horror. She saw Lexa swing her sword across Aerrow's chest. She saw him spin around to face her, saw the deep gash that had just been opened up on his chest, saw the blood starting to pour out. And finally, she saw him collapse onto the ground.
Clarke screamed as she dropped to her knees by his side.
"Aerrow… no…" she stammered.
Aerrow looked up at her, water forming in his eyes. Not even he could withstand the pain of the wound Lexa had just inflicted. It was like what Dylan had done all over again. He could feel his blood flowing from the wound, down the sides of his body where it stained the ground red. "It's ok, Clarke." he spluttered, "You're safe now. It's over."
Clarke stared at the wound Lexa had inflicted on him. Up close, it wasn't as deep as she first thought. She realised in horror that Lexa hadn't even tried to kill him. She still wanted his execution to go ahead.
Aerrow reached up to stroke her cheek. He brought his other hand up to his mouth briefly, before swallowing painfully. "Do it." he whispered.
The world around her froze. She knew exactly what he meant.
She leant down over him, close to his face.
"You're ok." she whispered, "You're going to be ok."
Aerrow chuckled softly "Don't be so serious princess" he choked out "You can't die without living a little first."
Clarke held him close as his breath began to even out, and she felt his body relax against hers. In that clearing, in the arms of the girl he loved, Aerrow Eroxin breathed his last.
Clarke leaned back slowly, revealing his chest.
Sticking out of it, was her knife.
She had killed him.
It took a second for the situation to sink in to the grounders, but when they realised, they shouted angrily, drew their weapons and charged towards her, only to be stopped by Lexa. "It is done!" the Commander said loudly.
Clarke just kept her eyes on Aerrow's motionless body. Tears flowed down her cheeks as his words echoed over and over inside her head.
Don't be so serious princess. You can't die without living a little first.
The first – And last – words he had ever spoken to her.
Well then… how on Earth is Aerrow going to come back from this one? Stay tuned for more to find out…