Mercenary Little Death Bringer (8 page)

Master Sean yelled, “Begin!”

The two looked at each other and then one of
them ran at me. I blocked his downward thrust and elbowed him in
the stomach before rolling away from the second guy’s sword. He
spun around in an advanced technique no second year should have
known and I barely had time to jump back from the blade which
skimmed passed my shirt. I sliced upward, catching him in the chin
and knocked him on his back.

“That’s why you don’t use advanced techniques
until you learn them,” Micah called teasingly.

The student still standing circled me and I
stood loose and ready for his attack. “You’re not as good as you
think you are,” he said bitterly.

“I never said I was good,” I answered
seriously.

“Your confident attitude says it for
you.”

I smiled. “I’m not confident, just calm and
prepared for anything you throw at me.”

He snarled and kicked sand up at my face,
trying to blind me. I dashed backwards and wiped at my eyes trying
to see him before he got within striking distance. The crowd booed
and I heard Master Sean curse angrily. I finally got the sand out
of my eyes and found the boy circling me silently. I pretended to
still be blind and swung wildly with my sword in the opposite
direction as the boy. He smiled smugly and dashed forward,
expecting to catch me off guard from his dirty play. I spun around
and blocked his blow, elbowing him in the face at the same time and
then pressed my sword to his throat. “Cheap tricks don’t work,” I
said with a smile.

“You’re a fool,” Master Sean said, “And an
embarrassment for using such a dirty trick.”

I finished wiping my eyes out and faced
Master Sean. “Third years?” I guessed.

He smiled. “Yes. Multiple opponents.”

“Wonderful,” I said as four muscular kids
climbed down from the railing.

The kids spread out to form a square around
me and took loose ready stances. They were obviously better trained
than the other kids I’d fought so far, but that made sense because
they were third years. “Begin,” Master Sean said.

Unlike before, no one moved. I turned slowly
to be able to look at everyone as they kept their cool in statue
stances. I took a deep breath and then they moved at once. I
couldn’t think of moves ahead of time because they attacked too
quickly. In what seemed like an hour, but was really only a couple
of minutes, I finally defeated all of them. I leaned over, taking
deep breaths and trying to calm myself. My heart was beating faster
than normal and a weird fire burned inside of me at the
exhilaration of the fighting.

“Whoa,” one of the students on the railing
said, “I didn’t even see how she did that.”

Students walked out to help the third years
off of the sand and to tend to the few cuts I’d opened when
punching them.

“Fourth year,” Master Sean called.
“Archery.”

Finally I could take a break from fighting. I
sheathed my sword and squatted down to rest my legs a bit. I wasn’t
very good at archery so this test had me the most nervous. I could
handle myself in a fight, but standing still and aiming at a target
one hundred yards away was not my strong suit.

Master Martin walked out into the arena and
handed me a bow and quiver of arrows. “Do your best.”

“I always do,” I said as I positioned the
quiver on my back and faced the target which had been placed at the
other end of the arena.

A tall skinny guy whom I’d met, but couldn’t
remember his name, walked out with a bow and quiver to stand next
to me. He held out his hand with a smile. “I’m Tristan. Good luck,
Marin.”

I smiled and shook his hand. “Same to you,
Tristan.”

He took an arrow out and aimed carefully. I
found myself holding my breath with him and for some reason
actually rooting for him. Had I injured my brain during my
training?

He released the string and the arrow whizzed
down the arena. A few of the students whistled in appreciation and
then several cheered as the arrow hit the perfect center of the
target.

“Well hell,” I whispered, “I’m not going to
be able to top that.”

I aimed carefully and released the bow’s
string. The arrow sailed down the arena and landed two inches to
the right of Tristan’s. A couple kids laughed and others clapped
encouragingly.

Tristan shrugged. “You’re close. You tilt
your shoulder when you release your string. Try focusing on keeping
your body completely still, like stone and you’ll do better.”

We moved over to the second target and
Tristan easily hit the center of the target again. I tried to use
his advice and focused on keeping my body as still as a statue, but
I still missed the center by at least an inch. “Stage two,” Master
Martin said as students took the targets out and then made piles of
wool and twine balls. The balls were used for moving targets,
something I was even worse at then regular target practice.

Tristan knocked an arrow and nodded his head.
“Ready.” The students at the other end of the arena tossed up two
targets and faster than I’d ever been able to, he shot the first
arrow, grabbed a second from the quiver and shot the second,
striking both targets before they hit the ground.

I whistled in appreciation. “That was
incredible. You’re really fast,” I said seriously.

“Thanks,” he said with a smile.

I took two arrows from my quiver and Tristan
looked at me like I was crazy. I held the arrows in one hand and
the bow in the other and nodded at the students. “Ready.”

They tossed the targets up and I put both
arrows on the bow at once, turned my bow sideways so that it was
parallel with the ground and shot. The arrows hit both the targets
and the students cheered.

“That was an interesting way to shoot,”
Tristan said teasingly.

I shrugged. “It’s the easiest way for me to
hit two targets close to each other. That technique does not work
for more than two or for others far away from each other.”

“I’ll have to remember to try that sometime,”
he said. The students grabbed three targets and Tristan nodded his
head. “Ready.” They tossed the targets up and with the same speed
and skill that he had been displaying, he hit all of the
targets.

I was truly outmatched. I pulled two arrows
from the quiver again and then pulled a third and held it in my
teeth. “Ready!” I yelled around the arrow in my mouth. Now everyone
was looking at me like I was crazy. They tossed the targets up and
I hit the first two and then pulled the arrow from my mouth and
aimed at the third target, but it was too close to the students and
I wasn’t a good enough aim. I lowered my bow and shrugged. “Like I
said, that technique doesn’t work all the time.”

Tristan held out his hand to me again. “Good
try.”

I shook his hand. “Good job. I’m impressed
with your archery.”

Master Martin took the bow and quiver and
shook his head at me. “You really need to practice your archery.
You haven’t improved since you were a fourth year.”

“I know,” I said as I rolled my neck.

Master Sean called, “Fifth year. Dual
wielding weapons.”

Micah tossed me a second blunt sword and gave
me two thumbs up. I smiled at him and spun the blades to get
accustomed to them. Dual wielding was one of my strong points so I
was actually looking forward to this trial. I walked to the center
of the ring and was shocked to see Christopher walk out to me. He
was a fifth year, but he usually hung out with Favian, Micah and me
during meals and was a really good guy. I had no idea he was the
best skilled at dual wielding for his year.

He bowed to me and then held up his weapons
in a salute. “I’m not going to go easy on you,” he said seriously,
“This is a test and to properly test you I must fight with all of
my skill and might.”

I saluted him with my weapons and said, “I
would expect nothing less and know that I will not go easy on you
either.” We backed up two paces and then I nodded my head at him.
He charged forward with a war cry to make any master happy and
swung his swords. I parried and blocked and we made our way around
the arena as he attacked. I watched his movements, waiting for an
opening where I could attack him, but none were showing. I blocked
high and then cut low, but he swung one of his blades around and
down and blocked me. I tried to attack him again, but received a
hit on my shoulder for my troubles. I jumped back and rotated my
shoulder to be sure it wasn’t broken and I could still fight and
then jumped forward, attacking with everything that I had.

He spun around and nearly caught me in the
side of the head, but I ducked at just the right moment and hit him
in the stomach with the pommel of my sword before rolling to the
right and hitting his lower leg. He swung down at me and I rolled
away just in time to avoid his blade. I jumped up and he came at
me, one side high and one low. I blocked both and spun around him
to put my blade against his lower back and throat. “I win,” I
whispered.

“Never let her get that close to you when
she’s dual wielding,” Master Sean said. “She’s famous for her spins
of death.”

Christopher saluted me with his swords and I
saluted him back. “Well done,” he said as he limped out of the
arena.

Micah walked out to me to take his sword back
and said, “That was good, but you were open several times. If
Christopher hadn’t been so focused on getting a solid blow in, he
could have nicked you several times and caused you a lot of
pain.”

“Good thing for me that he didn’t see the
openings,” I whispered as my shoulder began to throb. I pulled my
shirt down and was shocked to see a three inch long gash in my
shoulder, bleeding slowly down my arm. “Hell,” I whispered.

“Sixth year. Final combat,” Master Sean
called.

“Marin, you shouldn’t continue…” Micah
began.

I glared at him and pulled my shirt up. “Keep
quiet. I only have one test left.” He didn’t want to let me
continue, I could see it on his face. “Go,” I said angrily. He
frowned irritably, but walked to the railing and climbed up to sit
on top of it. I turned and stared in absolute shock at Favian
standing in the center of the ring watching me. “What exactly is
final combat?” I asked Master Sean.

“It’s a test to find your weakness. You fight
with any weapons and the only rule is no killing.” That did not
make me feel any better. “Begin!” he yelled.

I could feel the blood beginning to run down
my arm to my elbow, but I had to forget about that. I had to forget
about everything and fight Favian. Fighting him was not easy when I
was in top shape. Fighting him with my emotions on edge and my body
injured was going to be downright impossible. I had to do it
though. I had to prove that I could be a mercenary, that I could
attack my best friend if I had to. I took a ready stance and raised
my hand, crooking one finger and moving it towards me to tell him
to come at me.

He looked at me with cold eyes and for the
first time I felt afraid of him. He was looking at me like we
weren’t friends. He was looking at me like he didn’t care if he
hurt me or not. He was looking at me like he didn’t know who I was.
The energy I had felt before and the fire I had inside turned to
ice at the look in his eyes.

He charged forward and I ducked his first
punch and kicked at his legs, but he sidestepped and my kick
missed. I wanted to use my sword, but I was right handed and the
wound on my shoulder would only hinder my sword fighting abilities
so I couldn’t use it. Favian continued to press me and fight me and
it was all I could do to ward off his blows.

I needed to attack him. I needed to fight
back, but I couldn’t. I had my throwing knives, but they weren’t
dulled and technically I wasn’t supposed to be carrying them
anyways.

Master Sean
had
said any weapons
though. I was about to pull one of them out when two spears were
thrown into the center of the arena and I knew what I could do. I
dodged Favian’s attack and ran around him and towards the center.
He was right on my heels, but I snatched up a spear before he
caught up to me and spun around in a perfect arch, brought the
spear up and hit him in the head.

Or I would have if he hadn’t grabbed a spear
as well and blocked me. I tried my hardest to hit him or cut him,
but he was too skilled at everything for me to land a shot. I
thought I was out of options until I saw that he was dropping his
left shoulder, something his father constantly nagged him about. I
watched for it again and then arched the spear up high and brought
it down to slice his shoulder.

He grunted in pain and I almost smiled
victoriously. It was a good thing I hadn’t smiled because he swung
his spear low and knocked my legs out from under me. As I fell onto
my back I only had a moment to wonder if he would hold back and
then he was on top of me, trying to pin my arms with his legs. I
punched his thighs and stomach and tried to get out from under him,
but he was too strong.

I growled in frustration and rolled over so
that my back was to him and when he leaned forward to grab my
shoulders I swung my head backwards, head butting him in the face.
He grunted in pain and fell backwards off of me. I spun around with
my throwing knife in hand to press it to his neck, but he already
had his knife out against my throat with a look of pure rage on his
face.

We squatted in perfect silence with my
knife’s tip against the side of his neck and the side of his blade
against the front of my throat. Fear and sadness made me quiver as
we held our squatted poses. It would have made for a magnificent
painting had an artist been around.

We had never fought like this before. He had
never come at me in anger before. I had never seen such cold eyes
directed at me.

“Looks like it’s a draw,” Master Sean said
happily with a smile.