by Billy Wong
"That's insane! Your brain is addled by the heat, it's driven you mad!"
"So what? This is my true dream! The empire, my father and the Overseer want to unite the world. I just want to be the strongest ever!"
They traded dozens more strokes. Cart-Dragger hit him glancingly a few times, but could never hold an advantage for long, tossed back by his fury again and again. Gaining confidence he spun at her like a top, a move that would have been far too reckless at normal speeds, but he was so fast she had trouble discerning where his blade was much less defend against it. She took several cuts, and finally went down from a chop to her breast at the end of the spin. She tried to push herself up, but fell back. Blood dripped from deep gashes all over her frame and she shook with weakness. Much of his skin was gone by now, giving him the appearance of a corpse pulled from a terrible fire. Dammit, why didn't he collapse? Wasn't his body supposed to give out?
"Your life is about to end," she gasped in defiance.
"Yours first. And perhaps I can still heal myself if I kill you quick enough."
She grew despondent. "No..."
"You have finally reached your limits." He lunged at her prone form.
Cart-Dragger rallied once more and shoved at the ground, throwing herself up off it so that she flew over his approaching blade. "Huh?" he said.
Always talking about how limited I am? she thought. How about this? She bent forward in midair and threw out all the javelins in her quiver besides the chain-attached one at once.
He spun easily between them, one just grazing his hand. "Not enough." She landed and hurled the chain-attached javelin. It passed by his left as he sidestepped it too. "Still no."
"I wasn't aiming at you," she replied under her breath, already sprinting towards a spot to his right.
"What are you..?" The javelin bounced off the Rings at an angle that sent it towards the same spot. She caught it and yanked. The chain looped around Maximilian from behind, pulling him towards her. He struggled to escape, but his speed didn't save him now. "No!"
She swung the hammer. "Empire Falls!" It hit him and pushed him into the chain so hard that, with the added momentum from his forward movement, it ripped him clean in half.
"Still... number two," he whispered in a broken voice as his upper body fell through the air, and died. She couldn't help thinking he had managed to be number one for a brief moment, because if they could have fought a hundred times in his burning state, he probably would've won more often. But only the one time turned out to count, and he deserved to go believing he had never achieved it anyway.
She flopped to her back, exhausted. The Overseer stepped towards her raising a curved dagger while she moaned with anguish. "Then I will serve as emperor." He would have been no match for her normally, but right now she didn't know if she could muster a third or fourth wind.
Luckily, she didn't have to find out. The sharp end of a broken wooden pole burst from his chest, and he blinked at it. "Who? Oh. How disgraceful to be killed by a fool."
"He's not a fool!" Lars protested while the Overseer toppled onto his face, Allen's spear in his back. "He has a brain injury. You should be considerate towards the disabled."
"Somehow I don't think that concerns him anymore," Ruth said somewhere nearby as the old man convulsed in death.
Cart-Dragger looked. She glimpsed Scott's arm draped over Ruth's shoulders. "You're all okay? I'm glad..." Then she saw the engineer fully, leaning against the female mercenary bloodied and bruised. A few surviving imperial turncoats stood behind them. "Scott, you're hurt! What happened?"
"Got overzealous attacking other machines while mine was already half wrecked, that's all. The pain's annoying, but I'll live."
"What about you?" Lars asked gently, kneeling at her side. "You look so bad..."
"Don't worry, I'm a girl. Girls are indestructible."
Allen frowned. "That isn't true. Jen was a girl, and she-" He realized what he was saying, and didn't say any more.
"So Allen, it wasn't as bad as it looked? We were all pretty worried about you."
Lars smiled. "He was knocked out for a bit, but woke up insisting he wanted to help you. So we got here as soon as we could. It might be a good idea not to let him risk himself in battles anymore, though."
"It should be his choice what he does. But I think it might be wise not to get concussed anymore, too."
After a short silence, Scott said, "Somebody will have to stay here to watch over the Rings until we can assign people to do it on a more long term basis. Should me and Ruth do it?"
Cart-Dragger raised an eyebrow. "Wait, are you falling for that rough mercenary? Always thought you were more the type for a educated city girl."
"What?! It's nothing of the sort. I just figured since I'm an engineer and she's from the empire, we would be better choices for monitoring the rings and working with these new guys than two generic fighters like Lars and Allen."
"Generic?" Lars said. "That isn't the nicest way to put it."
"Ordinary, average, mundane, normal?"
"Normal sounds the best out of those, I suppose."
"I was just teasing you," Cart-Dragger replied to Scott. "That's why I figured you suggested it, too." Although, she wouldn't be all that shocked if something developed between them after working with each other for a while. They had gone through a lot together, after all. "I should go ask Abaddon if he's willing to take the rest of us home, so we don't waste as much time going back." She tried to sit up, but grimaced in pain injured as she was. Lars stuck his arms under her legs and back and scooped her up. "Hey, what are you doing?" she snapped. "I don't need anyone to carry me like a damsel in distress!"
"You may not be in distress, but you are a damaged damsel. Think of it as a hero's reward for saving the world."
"I suppose it's not that different than when I let you drag me around on my cart. Would be kind of embarrassing to let Abaddon see me like this, though."
He set her on her feet, surprising her so she almost fell down. "Yeah, you're right. You probably want to look strong while requesting a favor from him, too."
"I didn't really expect you to put me down."
"I got an urge to be chivalrous, but then I felt your heavy body and had second thoughts."
"Hey, part of that is my hammer! But you did make a good point, so I guess I'll have to endure walking around wounded for a bit yet." Hugging her middle full of liquid fire, she limped on.
#
Abaddon agreed to take the trio back to Galantria. Along the way, Lars said, "It was kind of you to ask for the God Soldiers' help instead of ordering it. But do you think they'll want to?"
Cart-Dragger shrugged. "I befriended Abaddon, so I'm sure there are other elementals willing to work with humans. Besides, I freed them, and that might earn some of their goodwill."
"And with their aid, you'll build lots and lots of beautiful things, right?" Allen teased, curling strands of her hair around his finger.
"I don't know about beautiful, but things that will make life easier at least. And I'll have engineers study the empire's machines, and see if we can reconstruct some of them. I bet they could be of use in our rebuilding efforts too."
When they arrived at home, citizens stared in awe at the gigantic ally of their leader. Cart-Dragger's friends grew worried when they saw that Scott wasn't with them, but she told them he was just fine and would be back before too long. They held a parade for her and her comrades, and she savored being carried through the streets by the crowd. She didn't forget in her pride to dedicate her victory to Jen, though. She renamed a street known for two underrated bakeries and an old style clothing boutique after her fallen friend, which she hoped would please Jen wherever she was now.
"Wonder how Scott and Ruth will feel about missing the festivities," Lars said as they rode the hands of the people.
Cart-Dragger replied, "Don't worry. I'll make sure to hold another parade just for them when they get back."
She sent men to reli
eve the two, and Abaddon to pick them up. They soon rejoined the others at the city, where God Soldiers arrived in answer to her call through the Rings. With their help, reconstruction began to go much faster. Now that the elementals were no longer insane with pain, mercenary work available took a sharp downturn. It looked like a lot of warriors would have to find new careers. Allen agreed to retire from fighting after Lars pestered him enough, and accepted an administrative job sorting forms. He wasn't the fastest or most efficient at it, but he made do.
"Are you still going to be called Cart-Dragger?" Scott asked her. "You might not be doing much dragging of carts anymore."
"I'm already famous by that name. So I guess I'll keep it unless I get another one that sticks. Besides, it never hurts to drag around an empty cart in case it comes in handy."
Her hammer, she left short. There had been advantages to its extremely long reach, but its compact form offered benefits too. It could move faster, and the handle didn't get in the way of certain maneuvers. Besides, she wouldn't likely be fighting more foes the size of King Elementals anytime soon. She did, however, have Mindy forge her a replica of her weapon in its original size just in case.
One day months after their return, Lars visited Cart-Dragger on her balcony and asked, "It's been a while since you've left the city. Not feeling the hunger to fly free?"
She gazed over Galantria, looking so much better than it had even half a year ago, with joy in her heart. For years it had seemed so hard, and she feared their efforts would amount to little, but at last real progress was being made. "I am, but there's been a lot to do here. It's all right. Probably a good thing for me to get involved in organizational work, and practice other useful skills besides fighting."
"Yeah, but are you planning to travel again?"
"Of course, I'm not going to stay put for the rest of my life. Actually, maybe we should visit other places with people soon to offer them our help. We could start an alliance of states working to better things for all of humankind. Forced unification like the empire sought isn't the way, but I think cooperation is. And I've been thinking, we could call it the Commonwealth."
Lars smiled. "That's a good name. Maybe we could find Velinthe too."
"I would like that. They could finally learn how they were saved from Leviathan and thank their savior for it." They laughed, although there was some truth behind the joke.
A guard knocked on the balcony door behind them. When Cart-Dragger asked him to come forth, he said, "Lady Willow, a giant warrior has arrived looking for you!"
She retrieved her hammer and they went outside. Waiting in front of the manor was Strength, massive glaive in hand. "Little girl, I was out of practice the last time we fought. Now that I've refined my style and mastered some new tricks, I challenge you to a rematch!"
Cart-Dragger grinned. "I figured you wouldn't accept me as your superior that easily. Sounds good to me. But if I win this time, you'll come work for me right?"
"Agreed. Not like I know of a more worthy employer than you out there."
"Then let's do it!" She dashed towards the giantess who strode to meet her, the wind in her face as they closed exhilarating.
Watching from a window, one of her maids said behind her, "But Duchess, your new dress..." She couldn't be the only person flabbergasted at how eagerly Cart-Dragger jumped to accept the challenge. Even Lars probably stared wide-eyed at them.
It couldn't be helped. After all, she was still herself.
Cover design copyright © Jaka Prawira http://behance.net/ellinsworth
Author Billy Wong is an avid fan of heroic fantasy, with a special love for strong female warriors. He draws inspiration from the epic legends of old, and is on a quest to bring over the top deeds and larger than life heroes back to prominence in today's literary world.
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Other Works
Hammer Out A Path - After stopping the remnants of the Red Empire from reclaiming the world, legendary warrior duchess Cart-Dragger and her new allies finally make significant progress in the restoration of her city. When she expands her horizons and tries to mediate a conflict between two neighboring cities, she arrives just in time for one of them to be attacked by a sea monster army of unknown origin. Amidst ominous whispers of "the race of evil," Cart-Dragger must figure out whether old enemies are at it again or if the world faces a frightening new threat. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4EVQZP/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Bloom (FREE!) - A young woman with a kind heart and extraordinary constitution, Rose becomes a warrior to better the world. Despite the wealth and fame she wins as one of the greatest champions of her time, the bloody reality of her new life is nothing like her ideal dream. She yearns for a chance to escape the violence. She finds that chance in Ethan, the leader of an altruistic pacifist group. But when a barbarian horde invades their kingdom, Rose knows that she can make a difference by taking up her sword again. Will her need to protect her homeland cost her the man she loves? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AWKEKP4/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Flower - One of the greatest fighters in the world, nearly indestructible Rose lets few things strike fear into her—but magic is one of them. Nonetheless, she seeks out the magical dangers left by the ancients alongside warrior partner Finn and curious scholar Derrick in order to protect others from them. Their mission is complicated by Rose and Finn's budding romance, as her choice of lifestyle conflicts with his expectations for the woman he loves. But after their quest pits against such titanic foes as a prince able to slay a thousand men in a day and a draconic archmage, will Rose be forced to embrace the very magic she fears? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C2CV2CY/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Bonds - Nearly indestructible warrior Rose has brought the use of magic back to her world with the help of her love Finn and scholar friend Derrick. Yet there is no time for weary heroes to rest as Death General Joghra, military leader of the most advanced nation in the world, and vengeful giantess Fiona come with a vast army to conquer their homeland. But as Rose and Finn clash with these titans with their underhanded tricks and endless horde, will it be the magic she has always feared that ends up costing Rose her love? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D7HD8QQ/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Tears - Famed warrior Rose receives a request for aid from Count Brandon, who uses the ogre attacks in his territory as an excuse to get her close intending to woo her. Unknown to him, her husband Finn secretly comes along to help. But the monster problem turns out more serious than any of them expect, especially when they must also protect a pair of much less experienced friends. Can the three mightiest warriors of their nation work together in their strained relationship long enough to save their land? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DSOOLFK/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Champion - Nearly indestructible heroine Rose gets a letter from a foreign king inviting her to discuss opening a new branch of the center for magical study she helps run. Upon arriving in his kingdom of Terlon, she learns that his true motive is to request her aid against invaders from a larger country. Though annoyed by his deception, her compassion does not allow her to turn a blind eye to the suffering of his people and she agrees to help. Following unfavorable developments in the war, Rose finds more and more responsibilities being heaped upon her shoulders. A bitter dispute breaks out over the leadership of Terlon with her caught in the middle, and a battle with the enemy nation's war god looms near. But even that might not be the most daunting trouble fate has planned for her. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FGJFHVW/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Melting - Wracked with anxiety over a dread prophecy concerning her childre
n and guilt for the men she has killed to protect them, weary heroine Rose decides to take a break by visiting her mother with her family. But ill fortune strikes again as she and her husband Finn encounter The Lost, an organization of people who have lost everything and wish to balance the scales of fairness by making everyone suffer as they have. When they learn The Lost serve the same destructive force their children are foretold to revive, it looks like they may have to face a reckoning earlier than expected. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H16B2AS/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Clash - With the ultimate weapon in hand, treacherous prince Victor gathers allies from around the world to join him in his bid for Kayland. As civil war looms, Rose races against time to stop Victor's power from growing out of hand and save her country. Foes old and new gather under his banner, forming the fearful coalition of the Tri-Principality. But when Victor using another guise calls forth the last survivors of an ancient civilization, will his deception force Rose and friends to exterminate an entire race? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IGUTHL4/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Iron Seeds - Rose thought she had saved her children from a dread prophecy by destroying the evil they were foretold to revive. Her kids grown, the family now adventures together in search of lost knowledge. But when the wheels of destiny turn again and a dark fate looms over the twins once more, they all must face the most powerful enemies yet. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MBNANWO/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
Saving Fate -The adopted son of an earl, Mark fears he will never live up to his father's expectations. But when he learns his mother is a famous warrior who once saved their country from barbarian invasion, he sets out to meet her and become more than the underachiever he no longer wants to be. Joined by wild and brazen warrior princess Ann, Mark travels through barbarian lands and cursed wastes while ever hounded by the minions of an evil duke who plans to kidnap him to control his father. Will timid Mark find the strength to survive endless mercenaries, demonic shrubs, an awkward romance with the more experienced Ann, and the duke's conniving son who just happens to be named Marcus? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BC17YDW/?tag=bilthestaarts-20
