The Place Before the Core (Reprise)

Chapter 6: Battle Against Cecil

He held his trident forward and tried to for a jab, with his shield in front. I dodged to the left and thrusted my blade in his direction. He moved his shield and parried my blade away. Abruptly afterward he bumped me with the shield and spun slashing with is trident. I stepped back when the trident left a slashed in my armor. I felt the scratch on my armor with my gauntlets and then the guy charged again.

He ran with his shield angled at me. As he got closer it began to tilt back, and soon it was at a perfect diagonal. I sprinted towards the shield and I ran onto the shield. As I put my foot on it, the guy buckled up and tried to push me off. I was launched up and I preformed a front flip off. Now we were back to back. I spun around and slashed at the guy's back.

He fell awkwardly on to his back, holding the wound with his sword hand. I spun around in circular motion around the guy's body and ended up right next to him. I extended my sword to his face and he stopped squirming. I looked up into the box containing the higher up. He signaled for him to survive, just like in the Roman times with gladiators. I recoiled by sword and helped the guy up. He whispered good luck and left the coliseum. The arena roared with excitement as the next opponent met me in the center of this place.

It was a girl this time who was double wielding two long swords with easy. She spun her swords around her while she moved towards the center and I. When she arrived she crouched down with her left leg extended forward, her right leg was under her and she had her left sword over her left foot and her right sword overhead. The swords were pointing at me swaying to and fro like a snake. I went into my stance again, the one from I fought Maverick.

My sword bounced methodically left to right, it the exact same beat. Then the loud 'Commence' rang and I was charged again but by a much faster enemy. She came swinging with her blades, rotating from left to right, almost to the point were it looked to be only one hand. I parried expeditiously at the incoming blade with one hand. Wait...one handed? Realizing I was using one hand, I also discovered the crowd was leaning in and were getting a little melodramatic. Even the King and Cecil wanted more. So I decided to give it to them.

I reared back and angled my sword flawlessly as my opponent swung with her left sword. My sword caught the hilt of her sword. Not missing a beat, I flung the sword out of her hands and it slid across the field. My opponent was in shock giving me an open shot so I sent a kick towards her jaw. She recoiled as I spun around her, abode my foot right behind her, and tripped her, causing her to fall back. I quickly hit her with the butt of my sword on her way down causing her to land and bounced. I dilated my sword to her face and, again, looked up to the King. He said to let her live, which I would do anyways.

The rest of the competitors were a breeze, they didn't come close to scratching me. I won without a problem and looked into the box to see Cecil rise from the seat she was leaning so far on. She smiled down at me and winked a cordial smile. I nodded admirably back as she disappeared into the box.

"Now, for thy main event. Thee battle between Madam Cecil vs. the challenger, Madam Justalyne. Perchance Justalyne may be victorious or shall Cecil reign victorious!" The king voiced, grabbing the audience in more.

Some of the crowed yelled my new name but most roared Cecil's. While she came, I began to cogitate about this fight and about her reputation. I'm expected to lose against her. Is she that skilled? She's going to be using magic, how will I overcome that. I was so distracted that I hadn't noticed Cecil walking towards me.

She wore an armor corset fabricated with 18-gauge steel, a scale armored skirt with a green, almost transparent, fabric hanging on her left leg, and a pair of golden Roman sandals with the straps almost up to the knee. She had no armor covering her arms, legs, and her stomach. She had Herculean like features yet she was very beautiful. Her very light tan skin glistened in the sun and a burgundy silk flew behind her. As she got closer something began to take form on her back. It prolonged until it reached the top of her head and to her knee caps.

She came closer to me and quietly spoke "Good luck, Jessica. You'll need it."

"Wait, how do you..." I never got to finish my question as a metal stick came down on me.

I unsheathed my rapier and intercepted the incoming attack. She recoiled her bo and slammed again towards me. I side stepped as her staff crashed into the ground. As her staff touched the ground, I jumped on to it and took two steps on it. It began to abridge but I jumped into the air and sent two vertical midair kicks to Cecil's jaw. Cecil stumbled backwards but immediately regained herself and spoke something under her breath.

A ball of flame erupted into her hand and it blazed with life as she thrusted her hand forward. The globoid of fire flew towards at speed faster than the one sent by Alys before. I wanted to dodge it but my body said otherwise. I jumped into the air and preformed a rather fast jump spin hook kick. My foot came in contact with the ball causing it fly towards Cecil. She quickly dodged the attack with a backbend. When she bounced up she gave me a pleasured smile.

She muttered another spell and a column of fire shot towards me like the jets of a rocket. Again I wanted to dodge but alas my body did what it felt like doing. I raised my rapier holding it at an awkward angle and as soon as the column came in reach I suddenly jerked my wrist, causing my sword to glow green, and sliced the column into two. The column dispersed leaving sparks of green and red to sprinkle to the ground.

Emerged in the spark, Cecil slammed her pole into the ground and pole-vaulted overhead of me. She ended up behind me and I heard something whip threw the air. I immediately lifted my blade and blocked my back. I auspiciously interposed Cecil's staff. I flamboyantly yet carefully moved her staff to my front. When I got it there, the staff contracted fabricating me to stumble forward.

I heard the reoccurring sound of the thing whipping through the air and reacted to it. I preformed a back handspring, surely soaring over a staff. I was surprisingly flexible in the armor, it wasn't even funny. I landed the handspring to see Cecil still in movement in her last attack. She spun in a circle, with her metal staff out in front, slowly gaining momentum. As she got closer I deluded an attack and in response she lost her spin. Without missing a step, I used my rapier to make her drop her staff, kicked it away, and raised my blade to her neck.

Cecil lifted her head back looking down at my sword. Then she looked up into the box, towards her father. He was wide eyed and shock, and so was the crowd for that matter. It was silent in the coliseum. The King returned from his shock and nodded towards Cecil and me. I lowered my sword and slid it back in it's sheathe. Cecil and I made eye contacted and she looked blissful and wore a winner smile. We clasped each others forearms for a great match.

"Well, that was fun. You beat me without having to actually cut me. Haven't had a fight like that in years, Jessica." She gleamed.

I smiled back knowing that I would have time to talk to her later. Right now, the king will speak.

"Spectacular! Justalyne has overcome the unbeatable Cecil. Thou shall geth the weapon and any request thou pleaseth!"

"Any?" I yelled back getting a nod back, "then I would like for Cecil to be part of my guild."