I would like to thank Miss Lorze the Brookes, She has let me include one of her OCs in this story. If you've read the warrior of art, you know who it is. I will apologise if I've got her in the wrong clothing at the moment, but it's all I can find, oddly, apart from leather gauntlets.

Chapter 25:

The final part 2

Time to fight

That was when I saw her. That mysterious girl…

I held my 'blade' low, readying for whatever kind of plan Shang Xiang had. The rush of adrenaline from the crowd flowing through me. We both paced round, like one of those movie moments before the big duel between two warriors. Shang Xiang looked serious, and I did my best to look the same.

"Are we going to do this all day?" I asked her, holding my weapon above my shoulder, breaking my stance.

"I was just waiting for something" Shang Xiang replied, charging towards me. "Like an opening!"

She swung her left Chakam at my right leg, which I dodged by, obviously, raising said leg. She swung her right Chakam out after that, aiming for my chest. I swung my weapon at her to parry, only just hitting it back. I smiled, that was close. I took the defensive front so far; better let her wear herself out against my steel (Or rather wood at the moment)

She swung at my head, I jumped back to dodge. Using what little I had gained so far, I decided to jump back in, swinging my blade downwards. She moved her Chakam to block, to which both our weapons collided. I was just about stuck in midair above her, trying to force my blade down. She was trying to force me back.

"Is that all you have?" I taunted her, smiling.

"Nowhere near!" she shouted back, forcing me back and into the air. Now considering the weight of my stuff and my skill, I somehow did a back flip in the air, landing on the ground in one piece, my weapon out stretched at my side and my hand on the floor.

"This is going to be a lot more fun then I…" I started, looking at her. She was charging my again. She was quite fast, I'll give her that. "…thought?"

I rolled to the side, dodging, what I saw out of my eye corner to be, a kick. I also saw out of my eye corner that she was running to attack me again, this time doing cartwheels. I held my blade at my back; hearing and feeling her foot collide with it and her going over my head without hitting me. The whole crowd cheered at this, I just smiled, standing back up as Shang Xiang turned around.

"How did you…?" she started, I barely heard her over the crowd.

"Well I have to have some skill somewhere" I told her, resting the weapon on my shoulder. "Besides, this demon won't fall that easily"

"Apparently so" she took an offensive stance. "But it's two against one, weapon wise"

"Which is why this will be good training for me"

I moved my sword down to my side, the crowd still chanting. I looked at Ling Tong and Gan, seeing a young girl sat next to him. She had a creamy coloured sleeved top, ending at the elbows, white trousers which went down to the knees and I could just make out sandals. She had some kind of balls hanging around her neck. Oh, looks like Tong's got someone then. I wonder who she is. Either way, judging from Gan talking to her with a smile, she must be friendly.

"Fu!" someone shouted. I refocused on the match, seeing Shang Xiang running towards me.

"Jeez!" I shouted, moving my weapon in the way to block her. We both collided, resulting in me sliding a few inches backwards. Where the hell did she get this strength from? She must have a REALLY big secret, or she put some hours into training as well.

"If you're like this on the battlefield, then I'm not surprised you haven't made it through any battles" Shang Xiang told me. I looked at her, gasping.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that" I told her. I knew it was a taunt, but THAT was a low blow! "I'm not about to let my abilities be ridiculed!"

"You can't even beat me!" she shouted back, pulling one chakam off my sword quickly.

She swung it towards me. I sidestepped away from the first Chakam, pulling my sword off and blocking the second. She lost her balance but connected her second Chakam on my sword, using it as a balance. I sidestepped again, spinning around to try to finish this.

She lost her balance, falling down onto the ground. This must have been some form of divine intervention as I missed, the weight of the weapon dragging me along away from her. I managed to retake my balance, turning to face her. She got back up, her Chakam looking too damaged to use. I looked at my weapon, seeing the same thing.

"Looks like these are ruined" I told her, smiling as I threw it away.

"So now what do we do?" she asked me, throwing her weapons away.

"Spare weapons!" Quan shouted, we turned towards him, seeing him looking over the over side of the arena.

We turned that way, seeing two soldiers with a spare rack of weapons. It was full of the same stuff we started with. One of them pulled out what I assume is a spear, the other pulled out a long sword. They both threw them into the ring, me and Shang Xiang looked at each other.

"Guess that answers that" I told her.

"I want the long sword!" she shouted, running after the blade.

"I guess I'll take the spear then!" I shouted back, running towards the pole arm.

"Go on, Fu!" Gan shouted.

"You can do it Shang Xiang!" Tong Shouted.

"Go on Shang Xiang!" someone else shouted. The angle I was at in comparison to the guys actually showed me it was her…Ok, seriously, I don't know who she is, and she's probably Tong's girl, but she is good looking.

"Hey, Shang Xiang, Do you mind if I ask you something quickly?" I started, picking up the spear and spinning it round. (Well I wasn't going to stick with one weapon in training for 2 years)

"Depends what that is" she replied, picking up the long sword and spinning it in her hand.

"That girl over by Tong" she looked quickly to see who I meant.

"Oh, you mean Su Zhi" she replied, waving to her. I think I let slip the fact that I was gobsmacked in my expression.

"Who?"

"She's been serving here since you joined us as well"

"So where's she from?"

"Jing apparently"

"So she joined after the battle of Xia Kou?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I've never seen or even heard of her until today"

"Well, she apparently never heard of you until today"

"How very strange"

"Well, shall we get back to fighting?" she grabbed her sword with two hands.

"Might as well do" I told her, spinning the spear in my hand and then stopping with it resting against my thigh "Round 2"

We both charged each other again. I held the spear so that it pointed forward; Shang Xiang held her sword over her shoulder, ready to swing it down. We both swung our weapons at the same time, colliding with each other. The crowd cheered as we did so, chanting our names. This is great, if only things were like this on the battlefield.

"Shame to think this is going to end soon" I told her, smiling.

"Yes, and in my victory" she told me, smugly.

"If you believe so, but it isn't this time"

We both forced each other back, jumping a few feet back. I span my spear in my hand, Shang Xiang flipping the sword around in her hand. We were both breathing heavily, sweat falling down my brow. I better make this the last attack, time to end this. I charged back in, shouting as loud as I could. Shang Xiang charged me back, doing the same thing.

We both collided. I swung my spear again, hitting her sword with the end and sending it out of her hand. I continued the momentum, spinning round and pointing the pointy end towards her head. I smiled as Shang Xiang realised what had happened.

"Game over" I told her. The crowd erupted into raptures of cheering as I moved my spear away from her. She knelt onto the ground, punching it as she did so.

"No! So close!" she moaned. The crowd were still cheering, but some silenced as they saw this. I moved the spear so it was resting against my thigh, walking up to her and holding my hand out. She looked up at my hand, surprised I was doing that.

"Come on, there's always next time" I told her, my smile getting ever wider. "Besides, we definitely showed these guys we a force to be reckoned with" I knelt down, still holding my hand out. "Besides, the amount of times you had me on the ropes during that small fight…if that were a real battle, I wouldn't be surprised you could beat whoever it is senseless"

"But I still lost…it makes all that extra training…worthless"

"Just tell me one thing…did you enjoy this?"

She looked at me, surprised at the question. I put my weapon so that it was point down in the dirt, giving a quick stab downward in order to make sure it stood up. After a while, Shang Xiang nodded. I looked away, my eyes closed.

"Then that extra training wasn't worthless then" I told her, reopening my eyes and looking at her. "Besides, you haven't learnt anything that can't be used on the battlefield" I stood back up, holding my hand out still. "Now, Lady Sun, are you going to stay down there all day, or are we going to see what happens next" she nodded, grabbing my hand and pulling herself up. "Besides, you have your end of the deal to fulfil"

She turned red at this, looking away. I think that hit a note with her, maybe she forgot about our little bet. Hah, I think she hoped that I'd forget. I looked over towards the guys, seeing Tong talking to this 'Su Zhi'. She has my interests at the moment, considering I know nothing about her and apparently she served in the same battle I did. I turned to Lord Sun Quan, doing a quick bow.

"It appears victory is mine my lord" I told him, trying my best to look serious as the crowd silenced. Quan left it a while before answering to my annoyance.

"Lord Fu Xi" he finally spoke, getting out of his chair/throne thing and stepping forward. "You have been working hard since you arrived here I see"

"It's been a long road since Xia Kou my lord" I replied, looking at him. "But one that I would retread" missing out the capture at Chi Bi. That was probably my darkest hour.

"It is an honour to have you in our ranks" he told me. I felt proud at this, scratching my cheek. But he looked around the arena stands. "It is an honour to have all of you in the Wu army. I feel privileged to be fighting alongside all of you on the field of battle" I feel the same, especially with people like Tong, Gan and Shang Xiang. "We are the strongest force in the land; we are filled with people like Sister and Lord Fu Xi. We will be the one to take the land in the end"

He raised his fist, to which the rest of us did the same, shouting at the same time. It was uplifting to know that the whole of this place felt the same. Quan lowered his fist, looking at me and smiling.

"The reward for Lord Fu Xi… is extra food rations" he told us. This may not seem a lot, but when you're out in the field with not a lot of food ready to supply you, every little bit of food matters. "The rest of you, I implore you to keep training, using these two as an example to guide you all"

I turned to leave after that. I had a feeling that was it, as did everyone else I suppose as most of the stands were clearing out. Me and Shang Xiang left our separate ways, going down the tunnels again, taking our stuff with us and dropping them off in the changing area…or rather rest rooms, but you can call it what you wish. I left my sword in here earlier, so I put that on my back in its sheath

I decided to see what the new, to me, girl was like. I could place a name to a face, but anyone new could be someone like me, Nu or Fei. She could be from the 'modern' days as well. Whoever she else, I hope she's nice.

I'll admit, while I didn't get a good look, she looked HOT. I'm a guy, I tend to notice things like that that appeal to me. One rule I follow though; personality, not looks. If they are a stuck up c…person then it doesn't matter if they look like the avatar of perfect beauty, I'm not going anywhere near. The vice versa does apply though, so if they are nice, but ugly, then, yeah, it doesn't matter…why am I writing this stuff anyway? I doubt anyone will actually read what 'the great Fu Xi' writes.

Meh, anyway, if I had known how good that girl was then, I think I would have wanted to meet her sooner…