by W. C. Jasper
Once the crowd had quieted, Akini yelled out towards the King, “I will fight your strongest fighter, and if I lose, I will forfeit my prize. When I win, I will get to lead a force of female warriors under me, whom I will train and oversee.” The crowd became furious at a 19-year-old disrespecting their King and two guards standing by charged at her to take her into custody. Prince Jared took a break from devouring his chips, without taking his eyes off the entertaining show in front of him and stopped his elder brother who was about to order the soldiers to desist.
The two guards charged at Akini from her 10 o’clock. When they had reached within six feet of her, she launched at them with great speed. Suddenly, she was standing between the two soldiers, facing the same direction they were. When the soldiers realised what had happened and started turning towards her, her fists had already made contact with their faces and sent them flying over two feet to both sides. King Jeraash yelled out with an authoritative voice, “Enough! Nobody will make a move.”
He turned towards Prince Jared and told him, “I understand that you find this to be fun, but it is time for you to get your future pupil under control.” Prince Jared, who was enjoying a great show until now, put down his bag of chips and mumbled, “This is annoying…” He jumped out from their seating area which was at a height of 22 feet and landed on the ground almost effortlessly with the skill and physical dexterity of a panther.
“You will have to settle for the second-best,” Prince Jared spoke loudly as he started standing up from his landing posture. Staring into her eyes, he continued with a rather relaxed tone, “Your wager will still be honoured, of course!”
Akini spoke with a smug smile, “Am I supposed to be intimidated by that leap you just made? I’ll admit it was impressive, and I might not be able to do that as effortlessly as you did, but I can still defeat you, My Prince.”
While everyone else would have been enraged at her insolence towards the prince, Prince Jared was greatly pleased with her spirit.
He replied in a voice that wished to divulge no information of his thoughts, “My chips are waiting for me. Can we please hurry this along?” His sentence had just ended when Prince Jared had to block a powerful kick to his head on the left side. He blocked it with little effort using his left hand, put his right hand on her stomach and pushed her back. Having put some distance between the two of them, he released the belt holding his sword and set it down. After placing it on the ground, he spoke, “If you wish to make it at least look like I am putting in any effort, then you will have to be much faster, at least three times faster than you were that time. Also, even if that kick had landed, it would not have hurt me more than a slap from a six-year-old child would hurt you.”
She launched at him with more than twice as much speed as earlier and unleashed a series of high-speed kicks and punches with the flow as that of a mesmerising stream. Not a gentle stream, of course; a powerful stream breaking through tightly stacked rocks. A powerful, but steady and mesmerising stream. Her strikes were fierce as a viper’s. Prince Jared chose to block all her attacks instead of dodging. For he did not want to miss any part of the magnificent sight of Akini’s attacks. He wanted to feel every strike she delivered. Prince Jared could feel her intense spirit in her attacks like a dragon breathing ferocious fire onto his face. But, of course, for the Prince, it was not really troublesome; but rather, just intense enough to be entertaining. He continued to block her attacks masterfully without the smallest hint of any effort for the entirety of three minutes.
King Jeraash spoke aloud, “You may have your fun later, this needs to end for now.” Immediately, Prince Jared moved his right hand towards her right hand, which her eyes were fast enough to notice. But before she could do anything about it, he had already caught her right hand by the wrist. He quickly pulled it to her left, causing her body to turn around 180 degrees as if a force of nature were forcing her to obey its will. With her back towards him now, he winded her hand downwards and backwards, twisting it behind her back with a very calculated amount of force. Instead of writhing in pain as any normal person would have, she leapt into the air without losing a single microsecond. Performing a high backflip, she landed on his shoulders with perfect footing.
As soon as she had started leaping into the air, Prince Jared was exploding with excitement and his eyes lit up like the night sky performing its beautiful dance. His face would have soon blossomed into an expression of a child widening their mouth in joy and awe of a grand illusion. But he knew that he needed to neutralise this situation at the earliest. He subdued his excitement and waited patiently for her backflip to reach completion. As soon as she landed on his shoulders, he pulled down her right hand which was still in his right hand and now directly in front of his face. As he pulled it down, she was brought meteoring to the ground and crashed down on her back. Before her brain could realise that her body was on the ground, Prince Jared had turned her on her stomach and gotten both her hands behind her back in a lock. He asked for ropes as she continued to struggle. He knew by now that she was not going to listen to anything he said and he loved that about her. The crowd cheered and sang praises of the Prince as he tied up her hands and feet, while he gleefully turned towards the King and yelled out with a grin, “I couldn’t be happier!”
King Jeraash stifled a laugh and signalled him to move when an arrow came flying at a speed faster than any hand-held bow could shoot. It was aimed right in front of Prince Jared from the west. Even in his distracted state, the young Prince’s reflexes were fast enough to catch this arrow that came from out of sight. He caught it and turned 90 degrees to his left where the arrow had come from as all the guards became alarmed and alert, and searched for the attacker. King Jeraash, General Thayman, and Prince Jared noticed that there was a very convenient and atypical hole in one of the cargo boxes and deduced that given the trajectory of the arrow, and the fact that no one saw the attacker that it had to have come from there. Prince Jared yelled out, “I’m taking that, General Thayman, please take care of this prisoner.”
He dashed towards the cargo box at once and stood at the opening of the 8-foot box and put his ear to it and sniffed the air. He could hear someone breathing inside the box. King Jeraash noticed Prince Jared signalling to him that the attacker was still inside the box. King Jeraash grabbed his swords, set them on his back and leapt out from his seating area and landed on the ground with an almost straight posture with his feet barely bending to absorb the shock of the landing. There was no visibility of effort, but only the embodiment of grace as he landed without the faintest hint of thought to it. As if such a leap were an action as natural as walking. As every eye in the arena was mesmerised by the sight of grace incarnate and awed at the beauty of his perfection, he had already started walking towards the Prince.
Prince Jared whispered to the attacker who was still inside the box, “I smell the slightest hint of garlic, which is revolting… But I also smell a lot of sweat, which, if I am being honest, I’d take over that abominable smell of garlic… And your breathing is not really air-deprived, it tells me you are petrified, I bet your legs are even shaking a little bit…” The attacker’s breathing stopped for a moment which was confirmation enough for the Prince, and so he continued, “Ha! There it is! Your legs are indeed shaking eh… Hahaha, well, I will tell you this, if you promise to tell me the truth about how many of your accomplices are here, I will try to be as merciful to you as possible.”
“I do not have any accomplices,” came a voice from the box, shaky and scared, “I— I was told to do this by someone— who saved me from a robber— This is supposed to be me— *gulp* repaying my debt of having my life saved— I was told that when I get surrounded or caught, I should say this and that you would let me go free in exchange for the real culprit.”
Prince Jared and King Jeraash looked at each other as Prince Jared asked, “So, where is the ‘real culprit’?”
“I was told that I could reveal that— only after the arena was ev
acuated completely. And that— it was for the safety of the civilians.”
King Jeraash called for the complete evacuation of the arena, and once all the civilians had left, he pondered for a moment and ordered all the guards to leave the arena as well. As soon as the guards had left, Prince Jared was about to ask the attacker for the perpetrator when the perpetrator emerged from behind one of the cargo boxes on the northern end.
The perpetrator wore an extraordinarily thick and heavy cloak with a hood. The person walked with an absolute lack of fear or caution even while crossing General Thayman who was only four feet away. General Thayman could sense that this person was no ordinary fighter. This aura was powerful enough to even put General Thayman on his guard. General Thayman realised that this was someone to not be taken lightly and conveyed as much with a look aimed at the King and Prince. As the perpetrator reached within 20 feet of King Jeraash and Prince Jared, they could both sense very clearly that this was someone extraordinarily powerful, powerful enough to battle them as equals.
Prince Jared started walking towards the perpetrator as King Jeraash said to him, “Do not hold back as much as you usually do, this one might prove troublesome if you do so,” as he proceeded to open the cargo box and get the attacker out of it. He noticed that it was an extremely old man. King Jeraash looked inside the box and noticed that there was a large, stationary crossbow inside. The kind that the military used. But this one was less sophisticated, and could not fire at the rate that military arrow machines could. It was clearly fashioned by someone who did not have the best resources at their disposal.
King Jeraash sat the old man down, knowing well that he would not be stupid enough to try and run away. Prince Jared and the perpetrator stood at a distance of six feet, waiting for each other to speak or make the first move. The perpetrator carried a longsword on the back, concealed blades in the ends of the sleeves around the wrists, and many other small objects in holster belts above both ankles. Prince Jared did not have his sword on him at the moment, as he had discarded it while fighting Akini. He knew he had to be careful about charging in without a weapon. He did not have the habit of carrying or using knives and daggers, and at the moment had no weapons. King Jeraash realised his predicament and threw him one of his swords. Prince Jared played around with the sword and practised a few combos to get used to it. His elder brother’s sword was clearly considerably shorter than his own, and he knew that he would have to be extremely mindful of that. He made a note in his mind to be constantly accounting for the difference in the range of the weapon he currently held.
The perpetrator pulled up the hood and looked at the Prince with austere and focused eyes. Her eyes were somehow fierce, but also gentle, much like the Prince’s. It declared intimidating strength and power and commanded respect. She proceeded to throw away her cloak to the right as everyone stood mesmerised in her beauty. Her elegant hair flowed all the way to her hips, and her form was indescribably gorgeous. She was almost 6 feet tall and wore a dark green, leather-like garment fitting tightly to her skin that was fashioned for combat. Her left thigh had a knife holstered to it with a strap of thick cloth. The belt around her waist carried multiple smaller objects and only some of them looked like weapons.
With her austere eyes diligently focused on the Prince, she spoke, “Why don’t we do this without weapons? I assure you that me not using my weapons is advantageous for you.” Prince Jared looked towards King Jeraash, who provided his approval with a nod. He threw back the King’s sword and stretched in preparation for fighting as the perpetrator also discarded her sword, waist belt, the belts above her ankles, and the concealed knives around her wrists. She stood still without stretching or preparing herself for anything.
King Jeraash yelled out to Prince Jared, “Take no chances, be as cautious and careful as you can.”
Prince Jared nodded without turning his head.
Prince Jared: “We can start whenever you are ready!”
She replied with a relaxed tone, “My Prince, I am as ready as I need to be.”
Prince Jared launched a roundhouse kick to her head with his left leg at a great speed. She blocked it with her right hand with ease as the gust of wind from the contact blew her hair to her left like a flag on a pole. Prince Jared’s eyes widened as he marvelled at how fast and strong she had to be, to be able to block that kick with such ease. Given the ease of her movements, General Thayman and King Jeraash realised that she was definitely faster than King Jeraash.
Prince Jared fell back at once as he had decided to alter his approach. By the time her hair had fallen back to its original state, Prince Jared had already retreated five feet to the back.
Prince Jared: “May I know the purpose of this? It is obvious that you never intended for that arrow to ever hurt me. You clearly know our skills and abilities very well. You definitely had a pretty accurate estimation of how powerful and fast we are. What do you wish to accomplish here?” As soon as he finished his sentence, Prince Jared found himself evading a punch to his stomach as he hopped to his right and delivered a powerful right fist to her face in one single motion. Her head was halfway to the ground on account of her previous attack as she ducked further to evade his punch, put both her palms on the ground and spun her body to sweep his feet with hers. Prince Jared’s feet were still in the air on account of his previous evasive manoeuvre which made it the perfect opportunity for her to get his feet. But Prince Jared’s speed was still unmatched. With his unmatchable speed and elite physical dexterity, he pulled up his legs mid-air to evade her leg sweep.
But this meant that it would take him longer to land, restricting his movements for a longer period. As soon as her leg-sweep missed, she turned her head back and launched a kick to his chest because that is as high as her leg could reach while ducking on the ground. Prince Jared’s speed was still unmatched and he used his right hand to catch the sole of her feet as he punched down on the side of the bottom part of her thigh. As soon as he landed the punch, he fell back again. Their exchange was so fast that even General Thayman, with his visual prowess, his vast experience in battle, and his elite warrior instinct had to focus intensely in order to follow their movements.
Prince Jared could see that she hated being bested, and he liked that. For he himself was a highly competitive man who hated losing at even the most trivial games. She got to her feet with a conflicted smile that conveyed her annoyance at being bested and also her respect for her opponent. She turned around slowly and spoke, “Well, that earns you some answers.”
Everyone listened intently as she continued, “I came here with the purpose of earning an audience with you and our King. I too am a faithful citizen of Jerudia who is loyal to our land. But, you see, given the nature of my request, and the fact that I always desired to test my skills against the greatest warriors, I decided that this was the best way to do this.”
“Well, it still does not explain—” said the Prince as he was cut off by her, “You haven’t earned that much information yet.”
Prince Jared launched at her with a straight kick to her head while airborne, which was one of his favourite moves. Given that he had launched a straight attack from a distance of five feet, she was fast enough to be able to see the attack and react in time. She planted her hands on the ground beneath her and pushed herself off the ground upside down. As Prince Jared’s leg reached her, her hands were high enough in the air that they were at the same height as his leg, and she grabbed his leg and dragged him into the air as she herself flew upwards. Prince Jared jerked around his leg with great force releasing his leg and then backflipped to land safely on the ground. As soon as they landed, they both charged at each other with great speed; with the Prince launching a straight punch while she glided on the ground aiming for his feet. But Prince Jared’s superior speed and his visual prowess with the polish of a skilled fighter’s instinct enabled him to see her move soon enough for him to counter it with ease. By the time she had reached him, Prince Jared changed his
form mid-charge with incredible footwork and stomped on her stomach right as she reached beneath him. She spit up a little blood as Prince Jared once again fell back.
Prince Jared: “I believe that earns me some more answers.”
She stood up, wiping the blood off her face and once again smiled in admiration for her opponent’s prowess in battle.
She replied, “I am Maomi Otama, from Numaj village. Both my parents were in the military and were killed in the line of duty. I was raised by my aunt, whom I deserted in my ignorance when I was only 13 years old. I ran away from my village in order to become a warrior. I earned my bread by serving as an informant for one of the female guards posted at the eastern border. When I turned 19, I learned during one of my conversations with her that since she was posted on that duty, she had come across eight women who had run away from Devaar because their country was trying to kill them due to something called Thias. It is a practice wherein when the husband dies, the wife is forced to walk into the fire that cremates his body and burn herself to death.”
The King, Prince, and General Thayman shared a look amongst themselves as she continued, “It seems you are aware of this cruel ritual… Anyway, I slipped past our guards to learn about their land. The place where I had entered through had a factory that exploited little children for labour. These children were orphans who had no other option but to work for money that was not even enough to keep their bellies satisfied. They received no education, and their government did nothing for them. I am told that in other places in their country, kind individuals adopt such children; but in this village, no one was allowed to do so. The governor of that town is a crime lord who is backed by the government of their country, and he kills anyone that tries to help these children. I have thought about every possible way, but there is absolutely no way that I can help them, there is absolutely nothing I can do for them. Ever since then, I have been training myself to become as strong as possible so that I can help these people. So, I have decided that I wish to create a force of female warriors of my own. What I will do with them, even I have not completely decided; but I have time for that. So, here’s my proposition, I request for just one more opportunity. If I can best you, I get to create a force of female warriors under the military; if I fail, well, I guess the King will decide in court what is to be done with me.”
