Worlds' Strongest

by Simon Archer

  “Fair point.” I sighed, still annoyed that we had to take a long route when a shorter one was perfectly available. I felt like the treefur was heavy, so I had no idea how Elle seemed so comfortable hauling the deer.

  By the time we made it to the butcher, the sun had gone down. If I was honest, I felt completely disgusting, having hiked and sweated through the woods all day while carrying dead animals. Still, it was exciting knowing that I’d accomplished something with tangible results, especially something I didn’t think I could do.

  Elle must have felt the same. She had the most relaxed expression on her face I’d seen all day as we walked out of the butcher’s shop.

  “That feels good.” She let out a deep sigh, stretching her arms behind her head.

  “What, the accomplishment, or not having to carry the deer anymore?” I nudged her side with my elbow.

  She giggled and recoiled as though she thought I’d tickle her. “A little bit of both. We've been on such a rigid schedule since we’ve been here. Honestly, it’s nice just to have a day that’s different.”

  We walked through the center of town toward the road leading to August’s home when something caught my eye.

  “What do you say we make it even more different?” I asked as I slowed my pace.

  “What?” She blinked.

  I grinned and nodded my head in the direction of the bar with no windows, the one Elle had aggrandized in her mind since she was young. Her eyes went wide, and a shocked smile appeared on her face.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah!” I put on a playfully tough voice. “We’re hunters! We’re tired from killing game all day, and we deserve a drink!”

  Elle threw her head back in a fit of laughter and leaned on my shoulder. “Okay!”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, let’s go!” Before heading for the bar, she wrapped her arm around my waist and kissed me. Admittedly, it left me dazed for a second before I finally turned and followed her toward the door.

  Most of the buildings in Grave were wooden, but a few had other materials. This was one. Its walls were stone, as though that could somehow better protect the secrets within. We walked up to one of the doors that was slightly propped open to let out smoke and walked in.

  I expected one of two things from all the fantasy novels I had read. Either everyone would be covered in tattoos and war paint and throw us out of the bar without ever spilling their beer, or everyone would be wearing dark cloaks, huddled in small groups trading secrets over poisoned wine. Admittedly, I was disappointed when it was neither of those things.

  It looked like a regular old bar, aside from the fact that everything was wood, and everyone dressed, well, the way they did. Actually, about half the patrons were in the grand silk clothes I’d recognized in Eon, while the other half wore cotton clothes, things Elle had shown me noted dirtier professions. Those people had silk clothes just as nice as the others, but hunting in the woods or forging metal were things done easier in cotton.

  The one thing that did seem to stand out to me was that most of the people in the room had considerably longer hair. There were a few odd drinkers with hair like Elle’s, just past the shoulders, and others with their hair pulled up, so it appeared short, but no one had hair like mine. Even so, everyone minded their own business, though I was sure they all noticed.

  The center of the bar was completely open, just an empty floor. Clearly, this place knew what its reputation was. The only tables in the building were against the wall and tucked in corners, places where you had an easier time making sure no one overheard you. The building was in the shape of an L, with the main room that we walked into being the one that held the bar up against the back wall and a smaller room directly to the left.

  As we walked up to the bar, I could see the smaller room. That one looked more like what I’d imagined. Though it was completely open without doors or curtains barring anyone from entering, it had a distinctly unfriendly feeling to it. It contained fewer tables, only about six even if it could have fit over a dozen, and at each one sat people who looked as though they were seconds away from killing the person next to them.

  What really caught my eye was a man in the back, wearing dark grey and red silk robes that matched one of his companions. My eyes must have lingered a bit too long, because his eyes darted up from his conversation and met mine. The second they did, I snapped my head back straight ahead. Immediately, I realized how obvious that must have seemed, but I just hoped it would be seen with the regard of a curious passerby rather than a potential threat.

  There were stools in front of the bar, and only one other one was occupied, so that was where Elle and I took our seats. A young woman came out of a backroom behind the bar to serve us. She had tight-fitting, light brown clothes made of silk, but they weren’t like the robes everyone else in Solivann wore. It fit her well with an angled neckline that revealed her cleavage. I might have been inclined to stare if it weren’t for the even more shocking fact that she had hair as short as mine.

  I glanced at Elle, who seemed just as confused as I did. This woman was obviously a few years older than us, and her robes seemed to imply a certain level of esteem from the elaborate embroidery.

  “What can I get you?” the bartender asked, disregarding our rather rudely obvious shock.

  “Um…” I looked to Elle, completely unsure of what was even available. It wasn’t as though they had one of those bright chalkboard menus up behind the bartender. Elle gave me a side glance and smiled before turning back to the woman.

  “Two glasses of mead,” Elle ordered with confidence.

  The bartender nodded and went to work pouring the glasses. I took that chance to lean in closer to Elle.

  “Why is her hair short?” I whispered.

  “Shh,” she whispered even lower. “I don’t know, maybe-”

  “You two should be careful,” the bartender said with her back turned. She was at least two-and-a-half feet from us, and there was a significant amount of noise in the bar, so I wasn’t sure how she even heard us.

  We were both struck with silence. Finally, she turned around and set the glasses in front of us. With one glance at our expressions, she shook her head.

  “Never been here before?” she laughed.

  “No,” I said quickly. I opened my mouth to explain further, but found myself at a loss for any coherent thought.

  “Stay as long as you like.” The bartender nodded. “If you’ve nothing to hide, talk loud.”

  “Why?” Elle furrowed her brow.

  The bartender gestured around the room. “Makes it harder for someone to listen in on something they shouldn’t be hearing.”

  “Right,” Elle muttered.

  “Hey,” I said, a bit nervous. I knew I should mind my own business, especially here, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there was any chance her hair was short because she was like me, if she’d somehow arrived as a stranger and gone undetected. “Can I ask, um, why is your hair short?”

  The bartender smiled and raised an eyebrow. “It’s a test to see if people will mind their own business or if they’re too nosy for their own good.”

  Elle’s face dropped out of the corner of my eye, and a chill ran down my spine.

  “I-I didn’t mean to - I was just asking.” I gestured at my own hair. “Mine too, and I-”

  “Calm down.” The bartender laughed and shook her head. “I like my hair short. That’s all. There’s no law that says I have to keep it long just because people expect me to. Let me know if you need anything else.” With that, she turned and disappeared back into the room behind the bar.

  I let out the breath I’d been holding and heard Elle do the same. I thought she would be pissed at me, but she just laughed.

  “That was exciting,” she quipped.

  “What?” I cracked a smile of my own. “Me almost getting us thrown out of a bar for asking questions?”

  “Yeah,” she grinned, taking a drink of her mead. “It’s no
t what I always imagined, but it’s just as cool.”

  “The bar?” I picked up the glass and took a drink. Immediately, I regretted it. The mead looked like liquid honey, but it just tasted like something had gone sour in the mixture. “Ugh! I think that stuff’s gone bad.”

  “What?” Elle blinked and took another sip.

  I frowned and pushed my cup over to her. “Maybe it’s just mine?”

  She picked up the glass and took a drink before setting it back down in front of me. As soon as she swallowed, she started laughing.

  “Nope. That’s what it’s supposed to taste like.”

  “Oh,” I felt my face twist into a sour expression.

  Elle giggled at my obvious dislike for the drink. “You don’t have to drink it.”

  Perhaps this was my own interpretation, but I took that as a challenge.

  “Nope.” I shook my head, picking up the glass. “I’m gonna do it.”

  She had a playful expression on her face as she raised her eyebrow and shrugged as if to say, “Go ahead.”

  With a deep breath, I took another drink, trying to ignore the taste. Just before I was about to put the glass down, something bumped into my arm, hard. The glass shifted, and mead spilled down the front of my face and clothes. I set the cup down, wiping my face and turning to see the man who’d been at the other end of the bar staring at me as though I’d been the one who hit him.

  “Watch it,” Elle said sharply, a threatening tone to her voice.

  “Oh, no, hey,” I frowned, shaking my head. I’d been bumped into in bars before, and in my experience, genuflecting and apologizing was the best way to keep things from getting worse. “It’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Do you have some kind of problem?” the guy sneered. He was about a foot taller than me. His hair fell halfway down his back, and he wore dark-colored silk robes, but they were stained, as though he’d spilled a few too many drinks on them. He’d been the only man in the bar who was alone. Everyone else had some kind of posse or group they were with. The lone drinker had an aggressive expression on his face.

  “No,” I shook my head quickly, “there’s no problem.”

  “Actually, yes,” Elle scoffed, standing to her feet. She didn’t seem jarred by the fact that she had to look up at the man before her. “You’re going to pay for his drink.”

  By now, we’d attracted attention from the nearby tables. They’d fallen almost completely silent and had turned to watch us.

  “No, really.” I stood myself, putting a hand on Elle’s shoulder. “I don’t need-”

  “Are you joking?” The man laughed. He swung his arm and shoved Elle. “Get out of here.”

  “Hey!” I glared, stepping directly in front of him. I wasn’t about to let this man get away with shoving her when he was the one in the wrong in the first place. Hell, I don’t know if I even needed that justification. He’d shoved Elle, and that’s what mattered. “What the hell? Apologize to her!”

  A low gasp of shock rang out from the tables that were paying attention. For the first time, the guy seemed to realize we had an audience.

  “It’s past your bedtime,” he said with a laugh. He turned to walk away from me, but I stepped in front of him again. If it were me alone in a bar, I couldn’t care less what a drunk asshole had to say. But this wasn’t about me.

  “I’m afraid I have to insist,” I pressed. “Apologize.”

  The man’s gaze narrowed challengingly. I felt Elle’s hand on my elbow and heard her next to me, trying to draw me back. “Ren…”

  Before she could pull me away, the man swung. I hardly even saw his fist, but I certainly felt when it made contact with my nose. I stumbled back and eventually fell directly on my ass. At least the relatively open layout of the bar meant there was nothing to crash into. I recovered quickly and got to my feet, but I almost couldn’t see with how badly my eyes were watering.

  I could make out the figure of the guy moving to come at me. I flinched out of the way, but before he could even get to me, Elle grabbed him by the back of his robe and threw him back against the bar.

  The short-haired bartender came rushing out of the back to see what was going on as our glasses went crashing onto the ground. She shouted something at the guy, but adrenaline pounded too hard in my ears to make anything out. Either he also couldn’t hear her, or he just didn’t care, because as soon as he stabilized himself, he launched from the bar toward me.

  Elle clearly expected him to come at her, so when he went in the opposite direction, she was clearly shocked. I could still only barely see through my blurry vision, and I didn’t trust myself to get out of the way fast enough. Instead, at the last second, before he ran into me, I dropped to the ground, pushing my leg out to sweep his legs out from under him.

  He tripped and tumbled to the ground as Elle rushed to pull me to my feet. The guy let out an angry scream, pulling a knife from his belt. A chill went down my spine as I pictured newspaper headlines that read ‘College Kid Killed in Bar Fight,’ the anachronism lost on me at the moment. Shouts erupted from around the bar, but I was way too focused on the knife-wielding drunk lunging at me.

  What he didn’t expect was for Elle to reciprocate by rushing toward him. He almost seemed thrown off by the confidence with which she ran toward a blade, but it didn’t stop him from swiping it at her. She yelled as she grabbed his arm with both hands, trying to push it back, but it was as if she tried to move a mountain. He stood completely still.

  Well, almost still. Eventually, he pushed out his leg and hooked it around her ankle. Elle dropped to the ground. He was quick to aim the knife at her, but she managed to roll out of the way and scramble to her feet. I noticed blood on the floor, and that was when I realized there was a cut on her left forearm. I took a deep breath and sensed that her intention was to lunge at him again.

  Without much conscious thought regarding a plan, I grabbed Elle’s shoulders and pushed her back out of the way. By the time the man worked his knife out from the wooden floor, I had planted myself directly in front of him. I took a deep, centered breath, focusing my energy as he kept his hand low, pulled it back, and thrust the blade forward at my abdomen.

  In all honesty, I was taking a big risk. I hadn’t touched a blade since arriving in Grave. All the training August put me through started with hand-to-hand and the staff rather than more dangerous weapons, so I had no idea if that day the blades couldn’t pierce my skin had been a fluke or if I could rely on that protection once again. Still, if it meant protecting Elle, I was willing to take the chance.

  I felt the blade hit just below my ribs. The sheer force of the weapon knocked the breath out of me, and I doubled over. Elle had hit me pretty hard a few times during training, but clearly, this man belonged in Silver or Platinum Class because he delivered a much harder blow. The surrounding room gasped as none of them anticipated a violent end to this. Elle screamed my name, and I felt her hands on my back and my shoulders, as though she expected me to fall over.

  I coughed a couple of times and straightened back up. It was difficult because of the lingering pain in my torso, but I managed it all the same.

  If the bar had been shocked a moment ago, they were aghast now. Even the man with the knife stared at me, completely stunned. His eyes went from me to my stomach to his blade, which was still shiny, silver, and not covered in blood.

  Elle had a similar look of disbelief on her face. She grabbed my hands, which I’d been holding over the place where he’d stabbed me simply because it felt sore. There was a clear cut in my shirt, but no blood.

  A slight smile formed on my face as I realized the risk I took paid off. I put a hand on Elle’s arm and gently moved her aside as I walked back up to the man. He grabbed my arm aggressively and pulled it out.

  I let him. I knew exactly what he was doing, and it was only going to scare him more. Just like I assumed, he took his blade and slashed it across my bare skin, right where he had initially attacked me.
r />   The knife barely left an imprint.

  When the drunk finally looked up at me, I gave him a dark smirk and grabbed his knife with my free hand. The blade shattered under my grip, sending small shards of metal tumbling to the floor. He jumped back, a terrified look on his face. The bar was in utter silence around us. I didn’t turn to look, but I could sense even the men in the smaller room had moved so they could watch what was happening.

  I stepped toward our attacker, and he jumped so hard that he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he screamed, holding his arm above his face.

  I had to admit, a pretty satisfying surge of adrenaline rushed through me from this whole thing. No one had ever cowered in fear from me before.

  I smirked down at him, contemplating what to do now. I’d only been fighting, so he’d leave Elle alone, and I’d achieved that. Instead of trying to make a big show of threatening him or finishing him off, I turned around and walked back to Elle.

  “Are you okay?” I asked calmly.

  She held her arm where he’d cut it and nodded, just as shocked as the people around us. I smiled at her and nodded toward the door closest to the bar.

  “Let’s go.” I grabbed the bag tied to her waist, fished out what I assumed was enough money to cover the cost of the drinks and broken glasses, and set it on the bar next to the bartender. I almost didn’t know what had come over me and winked at her before turning to leave, keeping a protective hand on Elle’s back.

  17

  After leaving the bar that night, we practically ran back to August’s house to tell him what happened.

  Well, aside from the half-hour or so that we let our adrenaline get the best of us, and I laid Elle against a tree.

  When we got to August’s house, he helped bandage Elle’s arm and made sure to scold us regarding needless fighting. He seemed just as shocked hearing about the incident with the knife as he’d been the day we met.

  “I don’t get it,” I muttered as I absentmindedly pulled on a scrap he’d cut from the bandage. “He tried to walk away, so it wasn’t like he wanted to fight. Still, the whole damn bar was empty, and he practically had to go out of his way to bump into me. He just wanted to be an asshole, I guess?”