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Previous: Chapter 17
Chapter 18 (A fist
fight)
About a day
after escaping Blood the second time, I laid Yalrein’s body next to the fire
then fed Pentorse and Wholt.
It had been
a hard ride, and Barges was still as groggy as Yalrein, but at least the hammer
didn’t weigh like murder anymore.
After
pulling out some food and our bedrolls, I proceeded to kick Yalrein awake.
“Stop being lazy. I didn’t hit you that hard.”
Yalrein
gritted his teeth and drew his gladius, eyes still closed and lying flat on his
back. He slashed at my shins.
I scampered backwards then ruled his bedroll,
hitting his gut so hard he folded around it, his gladius flopping into the
grass. I kicked out of his reach before tossing Barges on top of it and setting
the food and my bedroll down.
Eyes wide
open, Yalrein stared murder at me and snarled something under his breath. He
tossed his bedroll aside, the edges singing as it passed through the fire.
Acrid wisps rose from his bedroll as it caught fire, and the stink of wet paint
filled the small clearing. I extended a hand and devoured most of the food that
remained in my stomach to quench the fire. It wouldn’t do to come all this way
just to have Yalrein get since from sleeping on the cold ground. Ekanli was
going to owe me big after putting up with all this—
Yalrein’s
stomach groaned. He was standing
right beside me, fire-wrapped fist cocked back.
The One,
Ekanli was going to owe me really really really big.
Throwing my
shoulder back, I slipped under his strike, but the fire tore through my new
shirt. Ugh, I’ve been going through way too many shirts recently. I twisted and
kicked out with both feet, knocking his legs out from under him. Next time I
get clothes, I’m going to get some that are resistant to attacks.
Yalrein
pushed off the ground before he hit and shot back to his feet as I tumbled back
to mine.
“This any
way to thank me for saving your life?” I stepped into an orthodox stance,
knowing he’d only fought me when I used southpaw. This wasn’t my best foot
forward, but it should give him pause. “Really?”
“Saving my
life?” Yalrein hesitated, the fire around his fist snuffing out. “You mean
taking away my chance at revenge.”
“Don’t
delude yourself; you know as well as I do that he would have killed both of
us.”
“After you
fed him!” Yalrein charged forward and threw a wild, looping punch.
I caught
his wrist and used my shoulder and his momentum to flip him over, slamming him
into the ground.
He gasped.
I took a
few steps away and reset my stance. “As we are now, he would’ve killed both of
us well before the villagers showed up to interfere.”
Yalrein
slammed his fist against the ground, leaving a small crater. “I. I. I—”
“He won’t
stop chasing us.” I moved over to him and offered him a hand up, which he took.
Reluctantly. “And we’ll have another chance.”
“To do
what? Die?”
“We’re
going to kill that bastard.”
“I still
hate you.”
Grinning, I
gestured towards the fire. “That makes two of us. Should make training fun.”
“Training?
With you?”
“We can’t
go all out until we reach Jutzoran since we didn’t have a healer, but we can
get strong enough to crush Blood the next time we see him. Even if it takes
longer to get to Jutzoran.”
“And what’s
so different about Jutzoran?”
“The preliminaries
for this year’s Gladiatorium for this region are being held there. We can go
all out against one another in the finals.”
Yalrein
licked his lips. “Then what are we waiting for?”
I reached
over and grabbed the food, skewering the meat so we could heat it over the
fire. “Dinner.”
Next: Chapter 19
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