Antumbra - A Lost Cause

Breaking Even - Chapter Fifty Seven

The first blow nearly took Arva's head off, and her attempt to get distance only gave Vladolf an opening to advance. She was able to block his swipes with her halberd, but her weapon wasn't effective at close range. His was, and so he had complete control of the battle immediately, forcing her to keep retreating from his blows. Worse, the ice was slippery despite her suit's weight, which just made it harder to get a foothold and advance. He hadn't ambushed them here on a whim, he chose this battlefield because it was his advantage. That needed to change, Arva needed to adapt, but she had no idea how.

"Battle," Vladolf's voice came into her cockpit, the deep reverberation of his suit's loudspeaker distorting his suave voice into something bordering on unnatural. "Is the truest form of expression. It taps into our deepest, most raw instinct to survive. It is liberating to know that when you fight someone, you are experiencing the true them. No politics, no lies. A man bears his soul when faced with oblivion."

"Come on, fight back-" Arva ignored his words and tried to egg herself on. She wasn't a tactician, but she saw his rhetoric for what it really was: yet another attempt to control her. Just like Boomer using goading and insults in their practice battles to throw her off, Vladolf was trying to distract her.

"It's also how you gauge one's devotion," he surprised her by dropping to one knee and swiping at her leg. She blocked it by dropping her axe head down into the ice, but this left her open, and he grabbed hold of her neck. With only one arm he managed to nearly lift her off the ground, tossing her aside as though Antumbra were a ragdoll. His strength was immense on top of his dizzying speed, and Arva felt the wind knocked from her as she landed hard on her back.

"And from you," he said, swiping the air with his sword as he got ready for another strike, "I sense no commitment. I sense someone who is wavering, someone who doubts."

"You're wrong about that-!" Arva tucked her legs in, rolling backwards and up onto her feet. She still remembered what she learned about staying on the move.

"Then educate me," Vladolf plunged his sword into the ice where she fell, and it cracked, forcing her to leap back lest she plunge into the frigid waters below. The ice may be thick enough to stand on, but the abuse of a fight between Argonauts seemed to be stressing it. Vladolf deftly avoided the cracks and weak points as he moved, "As a Hybrid you're not part of the GDU Habitat. You're a surfacer, no doubt treated as second-class, yet the humans have pulled you into their war. What is your stake in this struggle?"

"I may not come-" she was cut off as he swung for her side. Antumbra had gradually repaired the hole, but it was still a visibly weak point. Now on top of maintaining her foothold, she had to worry about covering that vulnerability. It made her aware that her own side was still injured, and could already feel small wet spots beneath her bandages, much to her chagrin.

"I may not come from the Habitat," Arva began again, "but my friends and family live below it. Your war affects more people than just the ones you fight." She thought about the Kovacs, how they were caught in the crossfire, and their suffering. More people died on the surface than those in the actual Habitat.

"So you fight for selfish reasons?" Vladolf said, staying his blade for a moment, which Arva used to properly recover and compose herself, "which is to say, you care not for the GDU's cause so much as your own people's survival?" She didn't think of it like that, but he wasn't entirely wrong. Indeed, she never thought about those on the Habitat like she did the Hybrids, or even the humans of the city, but she didn't forsake them, either.

"Maybe," Arva admitted, trying to match his verbiage and tone so as not to come across as beneath him, "but at least I'm fighting to protect people, even if they're my people. If that means fighting for the GDU, for Eclipse, that's what I'll do. I'll always stand up to people who think they can just take whatever they want by force."