The Reef's Treasure
Chapter 12
Red is not only for Wine
To be honest, I was just going through the motions of the fight for the Queen's sake. I mean this wasn't a real fight; right? It's not like my life was at stake. That usually included a rather long wait while I journeyed to some planet for that to occur. I couldn't imagine the Queen would invite me here just to put me in any real danger. That was until I felt a painful sensation on my arm. Consciously spreading my fingers apart that smothered my upper right arm; I watched helplessly as warm blood oozed out and slowly began covering my hand.
The gash wasn't life threatening, but it was bad enough to piss me off; especially since my ghost wasn't there to repair me. The wound was probably no more than two or three inches wide and stung a bit but honestly it was my ego that hurt worse. My opponent withheld her next strike as the crowd reveled at the sudden contact. Nearly every Awoken was on their feet; nearly. From the glint in her eye and the smirk on her face, Seetra was enjoying this more than she should have been.
Now truly engaged, I readjusted my position and was ready to fight. Relaxing her stance as she waved her dagger around Seetra bragged, "Everyone! Look how easily the Guardian has been wounded!"
"Now you're in for it!" I spat.
Nearly turning her back to me, the Royal Guard hissed, "Oh, I already thought that that was your best."
Mimicking her early tactic, I spun my borrowed dagger around where the hilt was facing my opponent. Having the blade behind me was intended to use more force when swinging. Seetra languidly copied me and also readied herself for a more intense battle.
It wasn't until I lunged so fiercely that Seetra had to roll out of the way that the Queen seemed to take notice of the fight at all. Taunting me the entire time, I snapped at my opponent. "Keep it up and I'll cut that tongue of yours out."
That seemed to please the crowd as they oohed and aahed. The mass of onlookers hungrily gathered around us making a perfect circle so there was no escape route to be had. Making up the mob was an onslaught of armored warriors mixed with high society ladies and lords in their long overly exaggerated outfits. Each of them shouting, adding to the chaos already in place. My snarky remark ignited the onlookers, which in turn seemed to rile me up as well.
My heart was pounding and adrenaline was coursing through my veins. Unlike my attacker, who seemed to be getting angrier by the second; I was calm and my mind was sharp. I was adjusting well to my new suit of armor, if that is what you want to call it and the elongated dagger in my hand.
I stood, keeping pace with Seetra as we circled one another. I studied her every move. She was quite skilled at combat of that I can assure you as she didn't miss a beat. She countered every attack I made, equally as well as I did her advances. I even thought being left handed would somehow open a small window but as she used both hands to wield her favorite weapon with ease, that was clearly not the case.
Then it hit me. I was fighting her way, her style: the Awoken way. I snickered and thought, it's about time she learned the good old fashioned Earthly way of combat. First, I had to draw her in close, so I faked an over exaggerated strike which left my right side completely open.
Exactly as expected she countered; attacking the weak spot. But what she hadn't anticipated was having her wrists trapped in my grip. Her bewildered expression was priceless, but the slow stream of blood dripping from her nose gave me the most pleasure… Thank you Titan for demonstrating the finer points of head-butting…
"You animal!" Seetra shouted as me as she staggered backwards.
Amused that it had actually worked, I politely replied, "Who me? You mean this little ol' Guardian who just bested you?"