The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Oberin shook his head. "There is a surface-level amount of numbing with the armor settling into the skin and to keep it from irritating the user, but its minimal. You should feel other pain—punctures, broken bones, burns, etc."

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi nodded, as if this was all some routine exercise. "Fine. Make sure they call off the fight once I collapse," he sighed.

[Emora Deen]

Oberin grinned. "Of course. What kind of man do you take me for?"

Laurius looked away before his face betrayed him. He eyed the crowd.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi rolled his eyes to Laurius. "If he doesn't, just go back to the hotel," he said to the man, glancing at his sword meaningfully.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius nodded. "That sounds better than watching you get pummeled."

The man mediating the fight clapped his hands together. "Alright. Get in there." He motioned for Havitharon to take a position in front of the giant minotaur. "When the bell tolls, the fight begins."

He stepped back and lifted his hand. Above them a large bell swung, and the chamber shook with a low, ominous ring.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi bent into a fighting stance and assessed his opponent. This was the first time he'd met a creature on this world that was taller than him. He wondered if this being possessed intelligence. It appeared to be a beast, so it might fight like one.

There was no point in theorizing. He decided to attack first and see what happened. He feinted to the left and then swung his weight into a spinning kick to the creature's unguarded ribs.

The minotaur staggered sideways as if he'd been hit with a tree trunk and not Havi's leg.

Havi landed in a crouch, shifting weight to attack again while his opponent was off balance. Instead, a sensation he'd never felt before stopped him in his tracks. The closest thing he could liken it to was the feeling of landing flat on his back and having the wind knocked out of him. The minotaur's furious roar oozed through his awareness like a distant warning.

He shook off the feeling as best he could and launched himself forward. The minotaur swung a massive arm toward him, and Havi dodged out of the way before slamming an elbow into the side of the creature's knee. This time, it was even more obvious that Havi's normal strength was being augmented. A typical hit might have thrown the creature off balance, maybe damaged the joint at most. But with one strike, the beast's leg crumpled beneath it like a mangled green bean.

It looked easy, and it was.

The payback, however, wasn't. Havi's senses lurched dangerously as he retreated from his howling opponent. He staggered, and his knee folded to the ground for an instant before he managed to force his weight back up.

The minotaur cradled its ruined knee, then turned on Havi and deafened the room with a howl of bloodthirsty rage. It cleared the space between them much faster than seemed possible, somehow running on its ruined leg. Havi didn't have the breath to curse as he saw a fist the size of a kiln closing in on him.

The side of his head lit up with pain, and Havi felt himself twist several times in the air before he crashed into the arena gate. The impact should have broken his spine, but instead he felt another vacuum inside him, as if an enormous straw was sucking him inside out. He sagged against the gate, hanging onto it because he had the feeling if he went to the floor now, he might choose to stay there.

The crowd was yelling something, and he knew without needing to see it that his opponent was coming at him again.

*Laurius... how many minutes...has it been?*

[Emora Deen]

Laurius winced every time Havitharon staggered. His own heart was beating viciously, and he wasn’t even in the fight. How was Havitharon even alive?

How many minutes…has it been?

Laurius didn’t know how to tell him it hadn’t been long at all. Maybe five. Laurius replied. Oberin was talking to him and he couldn’t even hear over his own mind. Tap out. Before you get killed. We’ll tell him to tinker with it.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi shook his head, and the world spun. *Oberin said... go until the armor takes me under. If I tap out-*

His argument cut off as the minotaur grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him up in the air. Havi grabbed the beast's wrist with both hands and twisted, causing something beneath the skin to make a wet popping sound. The minotaur tore its wounded wrist back and used the other to chuck Havi across the arena like a ragdoll. He hid the ground and slid, leaving a bloody skid mark across the arena floor.

He rolled onto his side, coughing, while his opponent limped toward him. He barely managed to throw up his arms and block the minotaur's boot as it stomped down on his chest. Havi grasped the creature's foot for all he was worth and twisted, sending the beast tumbling to the floor next to him. Havi gagged as he threw his focus back together and leaped onto his fallen opponent.

What followed was a grappling session so vicious that even the hardened crowd could be heard wincing and cursing. Havi kept on strategically injuring his opponent, crushing joints and damaging tendons in a desperate attempt to slow his opponent down. The minotaur, despite being in obvious agony, only seemed to grow more furious as its injuries accumulated, and didn't mind striking Havi repeatedly with its mutilated limbs.

About 6 minutes in, the fight finally found a conclusion. Havi was pinned beneath his opponent, but had managed to get the creature into a strangle hold. He used all the strength he had left to keep his grip around the creature's neck while it flailed and pounded against him. It seemed to take an eternity before the minotaur finally, finally passed out and lay still.

The crowd roared, but it sounded miles away. Havi lay wheezing, unable to get a proper breath in. The minotaur shouldn't have been that heavy. His body was just that drained. He tried to get his senses online enough to see around him, to find Laurius at the sidelines, but nothing worked.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius skirted the wall separating the their viewing box from the arena. He ran out towards Havi, meeting the Minotaur’s handlers at the same time. They dragged the creature off of Havitharon and began taking stock of it. If it were a horse it would be put down.

Laurius patted Havitharon’s cheek. “Hey,” he said. “Stay awake.” He began to unbuckle the spelled armor and pry it off, hissing at the small pinprick holes left behind.

Oberin loomed over them. “Well, it wasn’t the best record on time, but it was an impressive show! I did say I needed to make adjustments to fit your physiology and build. He’s inhuman—what are you anyway?”

Laurius crammed the rage he felt at Oberin’s callousness down. “Is there a healer here? A doctor of some sort?” Laurius asked, looking up. He knew there was a medical ward but didn’t feel comfortable taking Havitharon there. A private doctor would be better—safer. “He needs medical attention.”

“I can have a doctor sent to your rooms, I suppose,” Oberin said, unfeeling and detached. “But, it will go onto the debt already owed. We didn’t negotiate covering medical expenses.”

Laurius felt heat in his face. He frowned, looking down at Havitharon, trying to calculate how he could carry him back. How he could nurse him on what limited knowledge of medicine he had. But he decided to worry about that when he knew Havitharon wasn’t dying.

“Havitharon? Can you walk?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi was blindly conscious of the armor prying loose from his skin and of a hand tapping his face, but the words floated in and out. Something about the shouting and the stench of blood combined with his exhaustion and the familiarity of it all twisted his thoughts. He was no longer on Heirot. He was where he'd always been.

He was so sick of the pact with his sister. He was sick of duels and challengers, sick of competing for his own sense of self. He'd survived a match, but barely. If they saw he was weak, more would step forward. They would win him, and they would break him.

"I'll walk," he wheezed to the voice next to him, and tried to stagger to his feet. He didn't get far before his legs refused to carry him. Someone's hands caught him before he could collapse. But he couldn't trust them, even if they were trying to help. He was too damn vulnerable like this. "I am fine. Just hand me the pearl, and get out," he mumbled, assuming they'd offer him the Toothsbane as usual.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius frowned at Havitharon as he settled him into his bed with the help of two men that Oberin hired to help him get back to the room. No doubt an expense that would be added to their "debt". The professor lurked in the central chamber to their quarters, admiring the red stained-glass windows. Laurius kept tabs on him while he settled the delirious Havitharon into bed.

"Just hand me the pearl, and get out," Havitharon murmured.

Pearl? But then Laurius remembered the silvery round pills. It would be great if they had that. Then, they wouldn't be more indentured to Oberin with every passing second. "I'll get something," he said, and motioned for the two men who helped him to leave. He wondered how bad the hallucinations could get, and wished Tenara were here to keep him settled, to heal him.

Oberin looked around the small living space as the two men left, his eyes falling on the closed door hiding Lee away.

"Thank you for your help," Laurius said, going to the front door. "Please do whatever calculations you need to do and we'll settle up, I'm sure."

"I'm sure," Oberin said, his gaze sliding to Havitharon's door. "Want me to send for a doctor?"

"I'll tend to him. We have some bandages. It will be easier to treat him when he's coherent."

Oberin nodded, lingering in the room and making no moves to leave. Laurius wanted him to leave so badly he worried his breathing was giving him away. Then, Oberin sat on the couch and Laurius's hand clenched over the door handle until his knuckles popped. "I should tend to him."

"Is he coherent?" The man tilted his ear toward the door, listening.