The Darkness Before the Dawn - By Ryan Hughes Page 0,110
tried blinding him with amplified light, then tried to heat the dwarf’s sword hilt until Lothar had to drop it, but none of his abilities could reach through the shields the judges kept around him. He and Kayan were going to have to win this fight with club and spear.
“Don’t just stand there, jab him!” he yelled at her.
“I would if you’d stay out of the way!” she shouted back as she jabbed at the dwarf. “Quit jumping around so much!”
“He’s got a sword! I’m not letting him slice me with it just so you can get a clear shot. Spear him!”
The crowd had grown quiet, waiting for a bloody wound to cheer, but Jedra’s and Kayan’s words brought laughter from a few people close enough to hear them.
“Fight!” the dwarf hissed. “They laugh at you!”
“What do you think we’re trying to do?” Jedra demanded, swinging his club at Lothar’s legs. He connected that time, and knocked the surprised dwarf’s feet out from under him.
Kayan stabbed at him with her spear, but the point stuck in his belly armor and did no damage. Jedra leaped forward and clubbed him on the head, but Lothar swung back with the inner curve of his sword and sliced deep into Jedra’s right leg.
Jedra flinched backward, bleeding heavily from the wound, and the crowd cheered at the sight of blood.
Lothar tried to get up, but Kayan held him pinned to the ground. “Hit him!” she screamed. “Hit him!”
Jedra tried, but Lothar kept waving the sword faster than he could dodge, all the while struggling to throw off Kayan’s weight at the end of the spear and get up again. Jedra stuck his shield into the blur of metal, but Lothar managed to curve the blade around the edge of it and slice his arm.
Bleeding from two places now, Jedra flailed away with his club in a blind panic. Lothar seemed to be able to parry every blow, though, and now he was winning his shoving match with Kayan as well.
If he got up, they were dead. Jedra was already losing strength, and if the dwarf got past him, Kayan had no defense. She couldn’t fight in close with a spear, and her entire left side was bare where he had sliced open her armor. Frantic, Jedra did the only thing he could think of: he kicked sand in Lothar’s face. It didn’t go anywhere near the dwarf’s eyes, not until he kicked a second time and helped it along psionically. It was such a sudden impulse that the psionicists stationed around the perimeter had no chance to react. Either that or they had decided it was fair use; either way, Lothar cursed as the sand momentarily blinded him, and Jedra took the opportunity to slip past the dwarf’s guard and knock the sword from his hand. It flew end over end out of reach, and Jedra struck again, this time hitting his opponent squarely in his right side. The dwarf’s brittle chitin armor shattered, and Jedra hit him again on the same spot.
Lothar groaned and tried to kick himself away, but Jedra swung at his leg, breaking it the same way he had broken Sahalik’s. He swung at the dwarf’s head, but missed and knocked the spear loose, where it gouged a deep wound across Lothar’s chest before sticking against a rib.
The crowd was on its feet now, cheering and shouting, “Kill, kill, kill!” but now that the dwarf was disarmed and crippled, Jedra backed away. He looked up at the stands, then over at the arena entrance where Sahalik stood watching. The elf drew a finger across his throat in an unmistakable gesture, but Jedra couldn’t do it.
He looked up again at the stands and at the rows of balconies where the king and his templars sat. He couldn’t see the king in the glare, so he held his hand out to block the sun.
A sudden hush spread across the crowd. Jedra heard the creak as every person there turned to look at the balconies.
“What did I do now?” he whispered to Kayan.
“I don’t know,” she whispered back.
“You’ve asked for mercy,” Lothar said through clenched teeth. “Very sporting of you, but if I’d wanted it I’d have asked for it myself.”
“You don’t want mercy?” Jedra asked, stunned.
“Do I look like a weakling?” the dwarf spat.
There was movement on the balcony. Jedra squinted, and saw a single figure in a golden robe hold out a fist, thumb down.