novelraw Chapter 6-12
Chapter 6-12
“Woo! Hope you enjoyed that kick-ass anthem! Now, before I head over to The Arena, I’ve got a hot news update for y’all! With me here in the K-RAD studio is our part-time Investigator and friend of the station, the mysterious Deep Voice! DV, how’s it hanging?”
(responding voice is slightly distorted and exceptionally bass-heavy)
“You tell me, Kerner, you tell me. I fucking hate cold cases.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, my man. How about cold cases of Wasted Gold from BMF? Maybe one of those would spark a little insight!”
- DJ Demophon Kerner with guest DV, on K-RAD LA, May 4th, System Year 453
We barely had a moment to check if Jayce was OK – they claimed they were – before Thompson called H’ruk down to fight Vera. As the instructors checked the dueling collars and placed them on the fighters, I studied his opponent.
Vera was tall and muscular for a human but looked like a dwarf compared to the orc. She was wearing a scarlet cuirass with silver brightwork over chainmail, and the colors contrasted with her jet-black hair and pale skin. Her spear was about her own height in length, which made it considerably shorter and thinner than H’ruk’s staff. I wondered what was going through the girl’s mind as she stared up at the seven-foot-tall orc who was easily twice her bulk.
crack!
H’ruk dashed forwards the moment the fight started and I marvelled at how unfair it was that someone so big could also move so quickly. Vera circled to the side, forcing him to slow, and then they were exchanging blows, staff clashing with spear in a blur. I could see the runes glowing on H’ruk’s staff, signaling he was using his fire infusion, and knew that if he could land a hit on Vera it would be devastating.
As fast as H’ruk moved, Vera was keeping up with him, but she was being forced back, unwilling to risk taking one of his strikes directly. Suddenly, her spear blurred, and it slipped past H’ruk’s guard and shattered his barrier as it seemed to strike multiple times in a single moment. H’ruk’s roar of anger was so loud I could hear it over the crowd, and he kept up the pressure with a relentless advance.
His huge muscles bulged as his staff whistled through the air, and the force of his strike was so great that even though Vera blocked, her own weapon was batted aside and the tip of his staff crashed into her side, shattering her barrier and forcing her to retreat again. She Quick Stepped out of the way of another strike, scoring a glancing cut on H’ruk’s arm, which only goaded him on. Moments later, she Quick Stepped back again, then her off hand released her spear and flashed into a pouch on her belt.
She flung something small on the ground between them, right at H’ruk’s feet, and it exploded into a cloud of smoke. The Spearwoman dropped back into a deep stance, her spear leveled at the cloud, and my eyes widened as everything suddenly seemed to slow to a crawl. I saw H’ruk burst out of the dark grey cloud, which billowed around him. Just as I’d feared, my friend hadn’t slowed his charge even when blinded, and the force of his own momentum drove him right onto the blade.
His barrier was down, and Vera’s stance was strong, her blade sharp. I cried out as I saw the tip of her spear punch out of my friend’s broad back and I braced for the crack of the signal to end the fight. It didn’t come.
G’hala screamed wordlessly into the Comms as her brother dropped his staff and clamped both huge hands around the shaft of the spear that had impaled him. I imagined the blood draining from Vera’s pale face under her helm as the massive Mage yanked the spear towards him, pushing it even farther through his own body and dragging the Spearwoman along with it.
She processed what was happening a moment too late, and her weapon vanished into her Inventory only a moment before H’ruk’s hands closed on her lead arm. Bright blood poured from the wound in my friend’s back, but he never wavered. With a crushing grip on Vera’s arm, H’ruk pivoted suddenly, and the smaller woman was ripped right off of her feet. H’ruk took two long strides towards the nearest wall, Vera dragged helplessly behind him, and then he spun once in a complete, shockingly quick circle before releasing her.
I could barely hear the crack of the signal over the sound of her body smashing into the wall and the shocked, eager roaring of the crowd around me, G’hala’s voice rising above all the rest in a roar of triumph.
I was yelling in astonished relief right beside her and the rest of our team when Thompson announced H’ruk as the winner even as Lydia went to work on him while another Healer attended to the crumpled Spearwoman.
Raylan was the next one called down to the sand, facing off against Marta. The instructors were getting them lined up when I got the notification that Raylan had left our Squad. A moment later, Marta produced a quiver I didn’t recognize from her Inventory and secured it to her back.
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“The match between Trainee Eleson and Recruit Raylan will be decided by the first to three hits!” Thompson announced the terms to everyone.
Shit, those must be one-shot arrows! That’s not her usual quiver!
There was no way to warn Raylan over the noise of the crowd. I hoped that he’d noticed it as well and reached the same conclusion. When the fight started, I was holding my breath. He’d picked the small arena, so he only had to cover thirty feet to reach the Archer. Raylan opened with a dash at a diagonal, as Marta summoned her bow and drew back the first arrow in a smooth movement.
Raylan Quick Stepped, blurring forward, yet it did no good. The arrow Marta had fired curved in mid-flight, and it struck Raylan with an impact that stopped him dead in his tracks. I couldn’t see my friend’s face, since we were behind him, but I could imagine the shock he was feeling. He pushed off again, trying frantically to close the distance, but he had to re-accelerate even as Marta fired another arrow.
Her second shot punched through his barrier and took him in the gut, and with the close range it had no trouble driving through his leather armor. Raylan screamed as he was slammed to a halt again. It almost looked like he was running into an invisible wall each time one of her arrows hit him.
By the time she’d finished her explanation, Marta had stopped Raylan cold with another shot to the thigh. Her vicious grin was visible from across the arena as she casually reached into her normal hip quiver for another arrow. She stalked forward slowly, savoring the moment. I almost turned away from the awful sight of Raylan writhing in pain on the sand, but I forced myself to look.
The Archer slowly circled around my friend, who was gritting his teeth to avoid crying out. She drew back and loosed, sending an arrow thudding into the sand right next to his body. He flinched away instinctively, and I saw her tilt her head back and laugh. I saw her look up into the crowd, finding me, and she used another arrow to make a throat-slitting gesture. Then she fired that arrow into the sand on Raylan’s other side, taunting him.
Rage exploded in me, and I suddenly found Wolf’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, locking me in place. I hadn’t even realized I was taking a step forward until I couldn’t move any further. I opened my mouth to shout when she sent yet another arrow into the sand, this time right by his head.
crack!
The signal sounded to end the fight and Marta whirled, looking to the side at Thompson. The Head Instructor’s voice boomed out over the crowd noise as the Healer leapt down into the area. As Lydia dashed towards Raylan, Marta stepped between the Healer and my friend as if to block her path.
Lydia didn’t bother to slow down or dodge. Instead, the leather-jacketed Healer accelerated, lowering a shoulder that caught Marta in the chest. The impact shattered her barrier and launched the girl into the air, sending the Archer flying over Raylan’s prone form to crash into the sand a dozen feet away. Ignoring the shrieking Archer and shocked gasps from the crowd, Lydia crouched over Raylan and went to work.
crack!
The end signal ripped through the air a second time, and Thompson’s voice rang out over the noise.
“Trainee Eleson is disqualified for interfering with the Healer after the fight was stopped! The fight is a draw!”
The crowd, stunned by Lydia’s reaction to Marta’s arrogant display and Thompson’s announcement, had quieted enough to hear the Archer’s furious scream.
“What the FUCK!? I only hit him twice! The rules say – “
“THE RULES SAY THAT I CAN STOP A FIGHT AT ANY TIME IF I JUDGE IT IS OVER! The rules ALSO say you are NEVER to interfere with a Healer! You will report to my office after the fights are concluded for further punishment!” Thompson bellowed.
Blur had jumped down into the pit and grabbed ahold of her student, yanking Marta around to face her and hissing something at her too quietly for me to hear. Without waiting for a response, she hauled the apparently uninjured Archer back to the stairs and gave her a shove to get her moving up them.
In the middle of the arena, Lydia had extracted the two arrows from Raylan and he was sitting up. I sighed in relief as she helped him to his feet and got him started walking back towards us. I grabbed him in a quick hug as soon as he reached the top of the stairs.
“Are you OK?!” I asked him quickly. He rejoined the Squad a moment later.
We had to quickly explain to Raylan what had happened since he’d been in too much pain from the two arrows lodged deep in his body to notice. As we did, Thompson announced that there would be a five minute break while we moved to the larger arena for the next fight.
That means I’m still not up… She really is saving me for last! It’s either G’hala or Zaire next.
Wolf guided us to our new position near the far stairs of the larger arena and the crowd re-formed around the larger space. With much more room available, there was no need for an elevated platform, and everyone was shoulder-to-shoulder right at the edge of the pit. The atmosphere was even more tense now that the crowd had gotten a taste of the true level of animosity between our Squads.