The Darkness Before the Dawn - By Ryan Hughes Page 0,114
he shouted at Kayan. “Don’t give up before the battle’s even begun!”
Braxa swung at him while he was distracted, and metal clanged against metal as he blocked her and then let his blade slide down to slice at her legs. She danced out of the way easily and struck again, raining blows down on him faster and faster until the arena echoed with the clang of blade upon blade.
Jedra could feel himself tiring. The cut in his arm bled and stung furiously, but he didn’t want to change hands. He wasn’t good enough with his left to last ten seconds against this demonic woman. He tried using psionics on her, tried pushing her blade aside telekinetically, tried throwing sand in her eyes the way he had done with Lothar, but neither attempt got through the psionicist guards’ restricting shields. Only when he tried blasting her with amplified light and sound did he get a flash and a boom around her head, but she fought on as if nothing had happened.
He beat back another series of blows, then leaped backward for a moment’s respite. Kayan backed up with him, trying to stay out of Braxa’s reach as well. Her sword arm hardly moved, save to block the other woman’s weapon at the last moment. She was fighting purely defensively.
She wasn’t mad enough, Jedra realized. She was terrified, and defending herself, but to come out of this alive they needed to win, and to win they both needed to attack. And as Sahalik had taught him during that first week of practice, to get someone to attack when they didn’t want to, you had to make them mad.
Braxa stepped back, also growing tired from swinging her sword continuously, and in the momentary lull in battle, Jedra slapped Kayan on the butt with the flat of his sword. “Go after her!” he shouted. “Come on, have you forgotten everything we learned? Don’t let her rest. We can wear her out if we work together, but I can’t do this all by myself.”
She shot him a look of such hatred that Jedra was afraid she would turn on him, but instead she mindsent, I’m doing all I can!
Try psionics, then, he sent back, but do something.
He felt the psionicists’ shield descend on him, blanketing his mind from further contact. He didn’t know if she’d heard him or not, so he repeated aloud, “Do something!”
With that, he raised his sword and advanced on Braxa again, circling around to put her between him and Kayan. She knew better than to allow that, though; she sidestepped ahead of him until he tried to duck around the other side, but she dodged around him that way, too.
“Shall we dance?” she asked, laughing. “Perhaps that would amuse the crowd more than your pitiful showing so far.”
“We’re just getting started,” Jedra said. “Right, Kayan? Kayan!” Braxa had lunged at him, and he nearly tripped over Kayan’s feet when he backpedaled to get clear. She had been right behind him.
“Damn it, fight with me or get out of the way!” he shouted.
The crowd had been unusually quiet, listening to them bicker, but they laughed long and loud at that. That seemed to humiliate Kayan into action; she jumped out of the way to the side and kept going in the same direction, trying to circle around Braxa just as Jedra had. Braxa pressed the attack against her, but Kayan’s sword became a blur every bit as fast as Braxa’s, and the arena echoed again with the clash of metal on metal.
While her sword arm was held high, Jedra took the opportunity to spring in behind Braxa and slash at her exposed right side, cutting deep into the soft flesh just below her ribs, and when she whirled around to defend herself he swung in under her guard and raked his blade across her neck. Blood spilled down her chest and over her brass brassiere. She staggered back a step, her eyes wide and frightened, then she sank to her knees.
There was no need for a final blow; Jedra had hit a major artery, and within seconds the formidable amazon lay face down in the sand.
He looked up at Kayan. “Thanks,” he said, sighing heavily.
“Thanks?” she screamed. “Thanks? You treat me like dirt, and when I save our lives again all you can say is thanks?”
Jedra couldn’t believe his ears. “You didn’t save our lives. I saved our lives.”
“Oh, you think so? Then why were you whining for me to do it