Wings - A Hamilton Fanfic - Lams, Mullette, and Jeffmads

Chapter Nineteen

Hercules's P.O.V.

After a long two days of which I borrowed Paul's sword and practiced, the day of the duel is here. We're meeting off in the forest in a clearing meant for training, and I got there early morning to warm up. John is still bed-ridden and healing, so I'm a bit less encouraged to fight. But hey, we did agree on it. Once Acer gets here he starts to warm up with some other guy. I overhear them talking once they finish.

"Acer, I get that you were close with Tyler, but is this really necessary?" The guy asks quietly. Acer laughs humourlessly.

"This guy is not only the reason Tyler is gone, but he's the reason some others are gone too. If he doesn't admit that he made a mistake, he might cause Wolfpine to fall as well. I have a girlfriend, and I'm not just gonna lose her too," Acer explains to him. He says some other stuff too but I can't hear him. Gosh, he doesn't know me that well at all. Of course I can admit when I'm wrong! Like that time when...okay, I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I''m sure at some point I knew that I was wrong. I'm not that prideful...right? Also, who the heck is Tyler? Please, we didn't lose that many people. From what I've heard it's only been three.

"Acer. Shall we begin?" I raise my voice from the middle of the clearing and grip my sword tightly. As I said before, this is Paul's sword, and throughout the days I've practiced I've barely gotten used to its weight. I still much prefer my daggers, but hey, this is a swordfight. Acer's eyes flick over to where I'm standing and he nods. He coolly walks over and slightly lifts his blade in greeting. I raise my blade as well and cross it against his. We both know the procedure in a swordfight duel, so no speaking is necessary. We go back to back and take five steps before turning back around, swords raised and ready.

The duel has begun.

Throughout the fight, I can't stop thinking about a few things. I know my mind should be clear if I want to win but I can't help it. By the look on Acer's face, I can tell he's the same. My mind keeps going back to what Acer said earlier, what Lafayette would think if he knew his boyfriend was participating in a duel, and then back to the actual battle. Acer is swift with his blade but lacks the strength to strike hard as well as fast. I'm not as fast as him but I make up for it in strength, and clearly, I'm wearing him down. None of us are that good at disarming people so this may take a while. I did practice with Carl but with Acer, it's totally different. After I deal a heavy blow to Acer he takes a few steps back to recover. He should really be dodging, not taking the hit with his sword. He looks up at me, and I swear I can see a fire burning in his eyes.

"Do you even know the names of the ones who died?" He says quietly, just loud enough for me to hear. His blade is down, but I keep mine up and ready for anything. "Five people are gone. Five. Our camp only held 62 people, yet now we only have 57. Tyler, Hugh, Vincent, Jaxson, and Zachery. Did you even know these people? I think not. You were too busy living at the top of the world with General Lafayette," He continues, voice still low. "Wake up Herc, everyone makes mistakes, even you."

"Yeah, and you made the mistake of letting your guard down," I counter before running in to disarm him. I see a flash of a smile as Acer lifts up his blade and dodges out of the way. Huh. So he does know that he should dodge. We continue the fight, gracefully leaping in and out to try and gain the upper hand on the other and utterly failing. Man, I didn't know the names of those who are now gone. But that doesn't mean I'm snobbish! It just means that I've never met them. And of course, everyone makes mistakes, it's just that I make them less than everyone-

Suddenly, it dawns on me. Maybe it was my stupidity that clouded me from it, but Acer is right. Oh my god, he's right. What the flip happened? How did I do this? I just followed my instincts when it happened. I guess my instincts suck.