Servitude: The Hydrangea Chapters

Chp 42: Beggar's Gambit - Part 3

The two then begin to circle each other, with Neterion's steps small and quick, while Rueben's stance is wide to maintain his balance. Although the wide stance allows Neterion to feint with his hands before hooking Rueben's calf with his foot and pulling out his leg from under him, forcing him into a clumsy split. Rueben groans as he gets up, and Neterion gives him a moment to steady himself.

After a few moments, it appears Rueben is playing defense, swatting away Neterion's fists as they come toward him, but he leaps back when his foot barely twitches in his direction. Neterion then takes a long step to swing a fist at Rueben's stomach, but Rueben blocks and slams a fist into the side of Neterion's head, causing a thud and drawing blood. Rueben then takes the opportunity to deliver another hit to his head and then to his side.

Neterion quickly brushes it off. "The old man hit harder than you do. Was your friend just as much of a pushover?"

A flicker of irritation crosses Rueben's face as he lunges to grapple when Neterion turns away and drops to his knees. Neterion grabs his arm, throws him over his shoulder, and slams him onto the concrete floor, flat on his back. Spinning on his knees and smoothly rising to his feet, he lifts his leg to drop it down onto his head.

Rueben has only a moment to react after that slam, just able to tilt his head out of the way as Neterion's heel cracks the floor. He rolls away and leans on the wall for support, while Neterion moves forward.

Neterion's feet slide across the floor as he lifts his right leg, which Rueben initially expects to be a simple jab. Instead, it becomes a hop, allowing Neterion to turn and send a spinning back kick to his chest. With Rueben's arms raised to defend himself, Neterion's foot strikes his left forearm, and his friends hear the crack of his bone.

Rueben, enduring the pain, counters with a swift right punch to Neterion's solar plexus. A gasp escapes him as his wind is knocked out, and he staggers back.

For just a moment, as Neterion looks up from the floor, he'd see another's feet. Instead of Rueben's, they are tan like an Urushian, in strapped warrior sandals and metal plates at the shins.

The further up his gaze shifts, armor can be seen on the Urushian man before him. A long tunic of chainmail reaching to his thighs, a chest plate with metal of an iridescent luster decorated with the Giftless Republic insignia. The helmet on his head has a pointed dome shape, branded with the same insignia at the forehead and chainmail secured to the rim, creating a covering all around the Urushian's head, the only gaps being for his eyes, which are difficult to see clearly from the shadows cast by the helmet.

In just a blink, the Urushian is gone. Neterion's energy shifts, grips Rueben's wrist, then swings his foot toward his head. With a swoosh as the only warning, the kick connects, knocking Rueben and a couple of his teeth to the floor.

Neterion then grabs his collar, pulling Rueben to his knees, where he leaps back. His fighting stance immediately changes, swinging a quick kick that Rueben leans back to dodge and scramble to his feet, backing away from a follow-up roundhouse kick that he barely avoids. However, he is knocked to the floor again, this time on his back, from Neterion's heel slamming into the side of his head. 

When Rueben tries to sit up, one arm barely supporting himself and the broken one to defend, Neterion grabs it tightly with both hands.

Rueben shouts from the grip on his forearm, the hold like a pincer. He looks up into Neterion's eyes, which have a razor-sharp focus, the eyes of a man ready to deliver judgment. 

When Neterion squeezes harder, Rueben screams out, and Neterion lifts his foot to stomp on his head when Natalia steps into the ring and stops his leg with her hand.

"He's had enough. You've proved your point," Natalia tells Neterion. 

With the look in Neterion's eye, it wasn't going to end well for Rueben and would disqualify him on top of other, more serious trouble. Looking down at Rueben, her expression softer than Neterion's, but showing she only stopped him because she didn't want to deal with the mess later. 

"Tap out, at least your arm will heal. Can't say the same for other things."

His friends shout at Natalia to get out of the ring while telling Rueben to get up. With Neterion's piercing stare still fixed on Rueben, the intense, vicious intent burning in his pupils, Rueben knows when to back down.

"I'm out," he said, patting the floor, and his friends groan in frustration.

Natalia gently places her hand over Neterion's to loosen his grip and guide him away. Once they step back, the friends rush toward Rueben. Natalia then steps over to the bookie, who hands her a large satchel of money from her bet.

While Neterion takes Mordecai's scimitar and crossbow, his gaze meets those of the friends who now show disgust at embarrassing Rueben. Natalia stores her winnings in her pack, and they gather their things to walk away.

Once they reach the foot of the steps, an uproar starts to brew. The men are frantically counting the Coin in their satchels, the betkeepers looking annoyed. All of their higher-value Coin is gone, leaving them short of covering their losses.

"Wait! We had enough! We got robbed! It had to be them!" one of them accuses the twins, pointing towards the steps. But the moment the betkeepers and the approaching bouncer turn to look, the two of them are already gone.

Once the staff follow the men to the streets, neither of them is in sight.

"You guys got their identification, right?! Track them down and get that money back!"

"That's for the law to deal with, but right now, you all have losses to pay."

The men are dragged back inside, and the twins are already at a brush-hidden hole under the fence leading to the middle ring.