Sea of the Dead

by Matthew Holmes

  Chapter 13: The Fight for the Blade

  “I can’t believe I was so stupid! Why did he save our lives and then steal my sword?” Michael was so angry he jumped up and snapped the ropes that held him down like old threads.

  “First off,” Tristan began “we can’t break ropes, so get us untied!”

  The group was still in disguise, and the magic altering their voices was in effect.

  “I’m just so angry!” Michael punched a branch, which went flying and almost smacked into Reno’s head.

  “Watch it kid!” Reno said. “That’s a good way to decapitate someone! Now settle down and act a bit more grown up!”

  Michael clenched his fists and took deep breaths to smother his rage. He knew the man was right; with Reno being the oldest in the group, they needed his guidance.

  “I don’t understand why I, the best fighter here, am the only person to get something stolen!”

  “Well, it really was a nice sword,” Ryan pointed out.

  “If we had left when Sphergol suggested, it wouldn’t have happened!” Michael shot back at Ryan. “Where are we anyway?” he asked as he looked around.

  “We were dragged out through the Northern gate,” Sphergol stated, “just as you demanded.”

  “What’s wrong with you lately Sphergol, you aren’t acting like yourself?” Michael said, noticing that her gold color had an even more reddish glow than before.

  “Nothing is wrong with me! Why is it that you blasted humans cannot mind your own business?”

  “Somebody rolled off the wrong side of the bed!” Ryan said to Tristan under his breath.

  “Maybe Michael’s bad attitude is starting to rub off on her,” Tristan whispered back.

  “So what do we do next?” Reno asked.

  “First, we find that kid who stole my sword, and then we make him pay,” Michael said angrily. “Sphergol, you can fly up into the sky and look for any signs of him. Reno, Tristan and I will blaze a trail in the forest to look for him.”

  “Well, what about me?” Ryan asked feeling quite rejected.

  “You get the most important job,” Sphergol said rudely. “You will stay here and keep watch. When or if you see him, yell. That should be easy enough, even for you.”

  Michael was troubled by Sphergol’s strange behavior, but he did not pursue it. “Well, let’s head out,” he said and ventured deeper into the thick trees of the forest.

  Nearly an hour had passed when Ryan heard a sound coming from behind a tree, so he went to investigate. He walked over to the tree and peered behind. “Nothing, that’s weird,” Ryan muttered under his breath. He was about to turn around when someone covered his mouth with a black gloved hand. He felt a sharp, cold steel point touch his neck under his chin.

  “If you make one sound, I will cut your voice box out with a flick of my wrist, got it?” a deep voice whispered in his ear.

  Ryan nodded slightly, aware of the sharp knife on his throat. His captor released him, and he turned around to see the strange boy that had killed the phantom. Ryan stared at the masked boy for a moment, then raised his hand.

  “What do you want?” the boy asked.

  “Hi,” Ryan stated. He raised his hand again.

  “What now?”

  “Why was that phantom after us?”

  The boy let out a sigh. “That was not an ordinary phantom. Really, it isn’t a phantom at all, but rather a shape-shifting monster called a Morphantom. And obviously it was attacking you because it was commanded to by Malumous, the same as I was ordered to kill all of you.”

  “Oh,” Ryan said. “Why did you steal my friend’s sword?”

  “I stole it because I wanted it,” The boy grumbled.

  “Well that’s not very nice.”

  “You are lucky to still be alive. I don’t really do nice that often; it’s an assassin thing.”

  “Well maybe you should try it sometime,” After he said this there was a long silence. Ryan couldn’t take it any longer, and he let out a huge wail.

  The boy backhanded Ryan on the face so hard it knocked him over. “I told you not to yell!”

  At that moment, Sphergol dropped from the sky, and Tristan, Michael and Reno trotted out of the woods to see the thief.

  “You! You masked demon!” Michael shouted.

  “I beg your pardon? I do not appreciate being called a demon!” the boy in the mask shouted back. He pulled a knife out and held it up to Ryan’s throat once more. “Turn around for twenty seconds, and I won’t kill him.”

  “Alright, just don’t hurt him,” Reno said. “He is my only living grandson.”

  The boy laughed. “Do you think I’m stupid? You’re too young to have a grandson of this age!”

  Reno and Michael looked at each other in confusion. Were their disguises really that bad?

  “What are you talking about?” Reno asked. “I’m old enough to have great-grandchildren!”

  “You don’t look a day over forty,” the boy replied. “This kid’s at least seventeen, so if he was your grandchild, you would have had to have a kid when you were thirteen, and your kid would have had to have a this one at the age of about, ten years.”

  “Look,” Michael said, “if you give my sword back, we won’t hurt you.”

  “Just as I thought: really bad liars.” The boy pointed directly at Michael. “How about a little one-on-one fight between me and you! If you win, you can have your sword back if you agree to leave me alone, but if you lose, I will take all of your things and sell them for money.”

  “Everything?” Michael asked.

  “Forget that last part. Everything with the exception of your trousers, but I will take your belts. So are you up for it?” He sounded very confident.

  The stakes seemed high, but nevertheless Michael accepted the challenge. “Keep my sword at close hand, thief. This will be swifter than you think,” He stepped up to the challenger.

  “Are you so certain?” the boy asked. “I will make the rules. Strikes to the stomach, face, legs or arms are considered as fair. No choking will be tolerated. Do not kill your opponent, and no help is allowed to either side.”

  It seemed fair; Michael didn’t want to kill him, and he certainly did not wish to be killed himself. As for help, he believed wouldn’t need it anyway. “Ben will watch the fight and make sure that there is no cheating,” He gestured toward Ryan.

  “This should be amusing,” Sphergol said under her breath.

  Soon the battle began. They both were without weapons, so it was just hand-to-hand combat. Michael would jab straight forward with his fist, but the masked boy would dodge. The boy swung right and Michael ducked.

  The assassin reached out to grab Michael by his left shoulder. The prince deflected the grapple with his right wrist, then grabbed the arm with his left and struck his right elbow against the opponent’s jaw, careful not to use much strength.

  The boy chuckled. “Think I can’t take a hit? Show me what you’ve got!” He flipped over Michael’s head and planted a hard boot to the back of his skull. Then he rolled to his side and knocked Michael down with a quick scissor motion of his legs.

  Michael pushed up off of his stomach and kicked his opponent in the gut, hard. The powerful strike sent the assassin flying backwards and onto his back. The boy rolled back with the momentum of the fall, braced his hands in the dirt and stood back up laughing.

  “You call that a kick? You’re weaker than I thought!”

  Anger raged in Michael’s veins, heating his blood and turning his cheeks red. The boy laughed again.

  “Now, now, no need to go home blatting to your mother. You can cry on my shoulder if you must,” he said mockingly, smoothing the wrinkles out of the black fabric of his shirt.

  By now, Michael had had enough. He clenched his fists, felt power flow into his legs, and he jumped at the cocky boy. He flew into him and carried him several yards into the air before dropping him. When he realized what he was doing, he panicked and fell, landi
ng clumsily on his hands and knees.

  “Now that’s more like it! Light some fire under those feet! That is, if you can keep up,” the assassin dusted the dirt off of his black outfit.

  Reno, Tristan and Ryan were amazed. One, Michael had just defied the laws of the air, and second, that fall would have injured a normal human tremendously. This boy didn’t seem troubled in the least. Who was this stranger?

  Sphergol floated on the sidelines, glowing brighter with each moment of aggression.

  The battle resumed as the two locked arms, but out of nowhere a block of ice appeared above Michael’s head. The prince looked up just in time to see it fall and leapt out of the way. He used the opportunity to back away to a safer distance.

  The boy picked up the chunk of ice and looked it over. “Hmm, freak hail storm?” He chuckled. “Or maybe it was magic? Oh well,” He looked at the chunk of ice once again. “I never said that there were to be no weapons!” He chucked it at Michael’s head.

  With his incredible speed, Michael pulled the gloves Reno had made for him firmly onto his hands. The tough leather beckoned to him and he made a fist, revealing the long spikes. As the ice was about to smash into his head, he caught the projectile on the spikes and hurled it back at the assassin.

  His opponent seemed to be expecting it. He flicked his wrists and long, sharp double edged blades popped out from the fingertips of his own black gloves. With two quick motions, he sliced the block vertically and horizontally. It fell to his feet like snow. The assassin saw Michael charging at him and he kicked the white powder up into his red face.

  The prince jerked back, stunned. The cold, white ice shards dusted his face and got in his eyes, blurring his vision. He blinked and water drops fell to the ground.

  “Aww, don’t cry! It couldn’t have hurt that bad,” the boy mocked.

  Michael’s face burned red and his chest quaked with every quick breath. The prince bolted toward the quick-talking boy. He stuck his fist out and drove the spikes into the assassin’s arm. Blood trickled down his arm out of four deep gashes.

  Michael clenched his teeth. “Give it back! Give it back, or die!”

  As if that was what he was waiting for, the assassin raised his other hand to his mouth and gave a loud whistle that echoed for several seconds. Suddenly, the white wolf pounced out of the forest and sat on the sidelines.

  Michael was about to go into a blind rage when the beast pounced on him and tried to hold him down, with no success. Like he had done to Aaron in the city of Jenoth, he rolled the wolf over, but instead of landing on top he kicked his feet out and threw the animal through the air. The only thing that stopped the wolf’s flight was a tree, which he smashed into with great force. Seeing his companion injured angered the assassin to his limit. There was no holding back now.

  Reno, Ryan and Tristan all sprang into action. They hurried over to Michael who was getting up off of the ground. Reno held the angry prince’s arms behind his back and Ryan and Tristan struggled to hold his feet together.

  Out of nowhere, a burning fist went flying toward Michael’s head, striking him directly on the nose. There was a loud crunching sound and an extreme pain shot through Michael’s face and blood gushed out through his nostrils. The assassin had taken advantage of the restraint and broken Michael’s nose.

  Reno and the others scurried back to get out of the way. “This boy is as strong as Michael!” Reno shouted. “Not only that, he can use magic as well as, or even better than him!”

  “I know,” Tristan said. “If this goes on much longer, they’ll end up killing each other.”

  “More like the other boy killing Michael,” Sphergol laughed.

  That was the undoing of the last thread of patience for the prince; He was not going to hold back either.

  In single, simultaneous movements, Michael kicked at the boy’s stomach, who in turn blocked with a still flaming fist. The prince whipped around, lowered his foot, and brought his right fist around in line with the assassin’s head. The boy used his right hand to block, and used his left when Michael swung with his left to attempt a blow again. When their arms were locked with each other’s, the two combatants slammed their heads together, sending off an explosion of invisible force that pulsed outward from them.

  Ryan, Reno, and Tristan watched in horror as the two continued their brawl. It had gone from staked competition to a fight to the death, and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it. Michael and the masked boy were going to tear each other apart!

  Suddenly, the white wolf jumped onto Michael’s back, knocking him to the ground and away from the boy. Michael threw the beast off of him and leapt towards it, only to be tackled to the ground by the young stranger.

  “Stay away from Bastian!” the boy ordered angrily.

  “I’ll be happy to take it out on you!” Michael spat back, throwing the boy off as well.

  He rolled a few times after hitting the ground, then jumped to his feet and tackled Michael again.

  “Get off me!” Michael shouted.

  “Not until you get your head together!” the stranger said. “You’re going to hurt someone; most likely yourself.”

  “I’m more likely to hurt you or your stupid animal than myself!”

  “Touch him again, and I swear I’ll kill you.”

  “Not if I kill you first!” Michael clenched his fists and the spikes emerged from their hiding place. He began to swing madly, left and right fists swinging one after the other. Eventually, the stranger’s dodging slowed and Michael swung at his face, ripping the scarf and hood off, revealing long brown hair done up in a tight braided bun.

  “A girl!” Reno, Michael, Tristan and Ryan all shouted in unison. The girl scrambled away a distance.

  “Funny,” she said with a feminine voice, “I was going to say the same thing about you!” She charged forward with her hands stretched out, long blades reflecting light into Michael’s eyes.

  “Yes!” Sphergol exclaimed.

  The prince felt two feet hit him in the stomach and vomit came to his mouth. Half-digested food shot out of him as he flew backward into a tree. The girl charged toward him and jumped, kneeing him in the chin.

  “What’s the matter? Scared to hit a girl? That never stopped you before!” she screamed, pinning him to the aged tree by his clothing.

  Michael placed his hands on the wood and pulled heat from the air around and concentrated it into his hands. The heat coming off of him was so intense that the assassin had to take a step back, yet Michael felt nothing. The tree behind him exploded into flames and sent burning clumps of pine needles and moss falling to the ground like tiny meteors.

  Michael ran behind the burning tree, jumped up to a weak spot and kicked hard. The tree toppled to the ground, landing on the girl. He walked over to her and looked down. “So, looks like I won.”

  “Not yet.” She squirmed around to move some dirt out of the way and crawled out from under the blazing tree.

  Michael prepared to fight again, but the girl ran over to the tree. A huge glowing blue ball appeared, separated into tiny parts and fell like rain. Soon the fire was extinguished and there was a disturbing silence. The magnificent sword with the diamond edge landed at the prince’s feet with a dull thud.

  “Take it and go,” the girl said. “If you ever see me again, turn and run, or you’ll regret it,” She slowly walked over to the wolf and knelt by its side. “I said go!” She threw a ball of fire near the prince, deliberately missing.

  The group all turned to leave, but Michael looked over his shoulder to see a bright yellow and white light, and then the girl was gone. He turned away and caught up with the others.