Darkness Girl: Trickster God

Chapter Twenty-One: Low Trickery

Herrick went on the offensive and attacked with a short, quick slash to the girl's eyes that missed by the width of an eyelash. The close corridor restricted her angles of attack, but she'd been trained for this type of cramped, below decks fighting. On top of that, Herrick knew she had the strength advantage, even despite the girl's speed. She used her bulky frame and pushed forwards with heavy cuts and slashes. The girl blocked and evaded them smoothly, but she started to retreat. Each time Herrick brought down the blade of her katana on the girl's aluminium table leg, it left deep notches in the metal. The sound of the weapons clashing echoed loudly as, step by step, Herrick pushed the girl back with her power. 

After three more strikes, Herrick saw it: a brief tremor in the girl's leg as she blocked a savage overhead strike. There was fresh blood dribbling down the girl's thigh from a reopened wound, and her movements seemed to be getting slower. Her wounds were weakening her. 

Herrick feinted and savagely kicked the wound in the girl's thigh. The girl hissed and stumbled backwards clutching her leg. Blood oozed between her fingers as a flow of fresh blood began to leak from the wound. Herrick sprang forwards, but the girl recovered and slipped away from a cut aimed at her neck. 

Herrick's confidence grew. She had the girl on the back foot now. Her lingering damage was catching up with her, and it was all she could do to avoid getting cut down. 

'Drop the weapon,' Herrick ordered again. 

'You think you've won just because you made me bleed?' 

'I'm not going to make the offer again.' 

'The fact that you think you could offer me mercy makes me sick. It's like being offered mercy by an insect.' 

Herrick felt a surge of anger. 'I'm not the one staggering around bleeding.' 

The girl straightened and pointed the shard of metal in her hand at Herrick. 'There's no killing intent in the way you fight. It doesn't matter how wounded I am; you're going to die.' 

Herrick squared her shoulders angrily. 'Don't take me lightly. I've trained with some of the best fighters in the world. If you don't surrender now, I'm going to be forced to put you down.' 

'Come and try it.' 

Herrick's cheeks were hot with frustrated rage. She charged forward with a wild swing. It was reckless, but all she could think about was how much she wanted to cut the girl in half. It was a mistake. 

The girl calmly stepped out of range and flicked the point of her weapon across Herrick's forehead. Herrick felt a sharp sting as it opened up a gash above her left eye that started gushing blood almost immediately. Sticky, stinging blood dripped down into Herrick's eye and sealed her eyelid shut. She cursed and jumped backwards, keeping her sword point ahead of her to ward off any attacks. 

The girl watched her impassively. 

Through the pain in her eye and her rising panic, Herrick felt a small thread of confusion. If it had been her, she would have instantly pressed her advantage and attacked with everything she had, but the girl might as well have been carved from ice. Herrick took two quick steps backwards and tried to wipe the blood out of her eye, but it just made the pain worse. 

The girl side-stepped and disappeared into Herrick's blind spot. 

Herrick swore and twisted quickly to bring her back into view, but almost as soon as she caught a glimpse of her, the girl disappeared again. She realised that the wound was deliberate. The girl had purposely goaded her into a wild attack and used the opening to blind her. She clutched her forehead and put pressure on the cut in an attempt to staunch the bleeding, but warm blood dribbled through her fingers and down the left side of her face. She held her sword ahead of her in a defensive position and tried to move close to the wall. 

'You're trying to restrict my angle of attack on your blinded side,' said the girl. 

Herrick tried not to let any emotions show on her face. 'That was a low trick.' 

'There are no low tricks in combat; only victory and defeat.' 

The girl swung the metal table leg from side to side like a cat's tail, and regarded Herrick with the scientific inquisitiveness of a naturalist looking at a butterfly in the killing jar. She didn't seem to be in any particular hurry. Despite her wounds, her movements were smooth and predatory, and there was no sign of the damaged limp that was slowing her before.  

Herrick took a gulp of air. It had to be a bluff. The silencer girl had been tortured and beaten for days. There was no way she wasn't in pain. Herrick shifted her grip on her sword. She regretted her impulsiveness from earlier. She'd let the girl's words push her into making a mistake, but she wouldn't let it happen again. 

'Only victory and defeat. I'll keep that in mind,' she said. 

'It makes no difference to me.' 

Herrick tried to keep calm and look at the situation tactically, like she'd been trained to do. The girl had been slowing down before, and Herrick was sure it wasn't an act. That was why she'd had to rely on goading her into a mistake instead of attacking head on. She looked like she was recovering, but Herrick guessed that she was holding herself up with her last reserves of energy and willpower. One strong push would put her beyond the limit. 

Suddenly, Herrick sprang, putting everything into one attack. She stayed close to the wall, holding the girl in her field of vision. The sound of her feet slamming into the floor echoed in her ears as the metal wall raced past inches from her face. Herrick lifted her weapon. The girl side-stepped and disappeared. Herrick didn't falter. She was so close to the wall that there was nowhere for the girl to go. 

'I can't see you, but I know where you are!' Herrick shouted. 

She stabbed forwards into the darkness on her left side, putting everything into one powerful thrust.

She hit nothing. 

Herrick overbalanced, unable to stop her colossal momentum. An instant later she felt an impact as the girl's elbow speared into her stomach. It was like running into a metal rod. The girl's elbow sunk deep into her diaphragm, driving the air out of her lungs and twisting her intestines in knots. 

Herrick hiccuped and tried to keep a hold of her sword as spots swum across her vision. She'd completely underestimated the girl's speed and timing. She must have dropped down and closed the distance the instant she'd disappeared. It was a move that only an experienced fighter could execute. 

Herrick tried to breathe, but all that came out was a short wheeze. As she struggled to stand, a boot slammed into her chest and sent her sprawling backwards onto the floor. The sword slipped out of her fingers and clattered noisily across the floor. Herrick felt the girl land heavily on her chest, and through the fog, she saw an image of the girl sitting with the shard of metal raised above her head to strike.

Pure survival instinct kicked in. Herrick caught the girl's hands as they plunged the broken table leg down towards her throat. For a moment, the two girls were locked in an unmoving struggle. As the girl leaned down on the weapon though, Herrick felt her arms start to give. Slowly, the point began to sink downwards until it was pricking the skin above her carotid artery. Herrick felt the girl's ragged breaths against her face. Her matted blue hair formed a cage around a savage face. She pressed down, and Herrick felt the jagged metal break the skin. Sweat began to appear her forehead. 

'Please, don't,' she croaked. 

The metal began to sink into the flesh. A trickle of blood beaded at the wound and dribbled down the side of Herrick's neck. She felt her arms weakening. The girl started to twist the metal and her grip began to slip. 

'Don't,' she begged. 'You were right! I didn't want to--' 

Herrick twitched as the girl's hands twisted out of her grasp and the sharp metal plunged into her throat. A thick pulse of blood spurted out into the girl's face. It ran down her cheeks and dripped off her hair as she worked the metal table leg from side to side to open the wound wider and release a gushing torrent of red. 

She kept going, even after Herrick's eyes rolled back in her head and it would have been clear to anyone watching that she was dead.