The Demon's Travels. Sanctum.

I Get Out, Mostly.

I stood on the deck of the ship. Pirates jeered at me as demons cried out words of encouragement. 

It felt like one of those stereotypical fight clubs I used to see on tv shows and movies. Only I was using something a bit more deadly than my fists. 

The crowd watching surrounded us like a ring, with Phil on one end of the ring, tossing off her coat and flexing her shoulders, and me on the other, just holding her sword like a confused idiot who couldn't figure out what exactly was going on.

"How the heck did you piss her off?" Agnese whispered from nearby.

"I dunno. She started spouting off random crap about how I have it better than her, and now she's convinced that I'm going to lead a mutiny to become captain of the ship!" I said.

"Well she's half right, but for the wrong reasons." Helen said from somewhere near my left.  "What do we do?"

"This is a traditional fight between pirates to determine who gets to be Captain." said Griffin. "In a way this is good. If Mira wins, the crew belongs to her, an' then we don' even have to continue the plan. The pirates abide by a code of their own that they will not disobey even if their lives depended on it."

"Really?!" I said. "But why would Phil risk something like that? I mean she's always been arrogant, but this.."

"Just take the advantage for what it is, an opportunity, and don't die." Medi growled from somewhere on my right. "You're stronger than her, my mother trained you, no, our mother trained you. Nobody is better."

"This isn't exactly a weapon I"m good with though." I muttered, looking at the cutlass in my hand.

"Fuck it! Get used to it or die!!" Medi spat.

Ahh, good ol' Medi, always knew how to do a pep talk. Funnily enough this is also his pep talk when advising on how make the perfect creme brulee.  

At that moment, Phil stepped forward, smirking viciously, as if contemplating how much she was going to humiliate me in front of everyone. "So what are you waiting for Huntress!? Lets get on with it!"

I looked around. In the distance I could see the island that was sitting below us, with a small village that was designed specifically to provide ships with what they needed for the long journey ahead.  If I could win here, I could go down there, get some food, real food, finally. And then we could go Sanctum, finally. 

Such an enticing thought.

But Phil wasn't going to make it easy. And to tell the truth I was afraid of Phil to an extent.  Back in our world Philip had always been nuts about body building and training his fighting skills to the max. He was obsessed with joining the Navy Seals, and his combat training was impeccable. 

He sometimes liked to joke that he could take me over his knee and break me like a twig. Considering his kill count on missions totaled at 107 confirmed kills , I don't think he was wrong. I didn't know how Navy Seal training compared to Valkyrie abilities. And honestly I don't think a cutlass suited either of our fighting styles, but Phil still had the advantage.  She had fought with the cutlass her entire time in Varismalia, while I was trained to use a shield and a large double edged sword. 

Having a sword with only a single sharp edge instead of on both sides severely  limited what I was capable of adapting to with Yggdrasil style. 

If we fought with cutlasses here, there would be a certain chance of my own death. I might put up a decent fight, but in the end there was a very large chance that she would get under my guard, especially if she had training in using the cutlass like I suspected.