We were screwed.

That wasn’t the best way to put it, but it was the word I was choosing to use. Ether had a knife, but that wasn’t going to do anything against the reach of the ax or the dagger. Plus he had hostages, which would make fighting him that much more difficult.

“Put them down.” I ordered.

“You don’t give the orders around here.” He tightened his grip on Justia,

“OW!” She let out a sharp scream.

“I swear." Anger boiled inside me. We did not have time for this. “If you hurt them anymore, you won’t live to regret it.”

“A Mundane thinks he’s above a Noble?” Edward let Aelin fall off his shoulder. She fell awkwardly in a pile on the ground. He tossed Justia to the side and swapped the ax over to his right hand. “You think just because you beat me once. Just because you HUMILIATED me, that allows you to give me orders?” He pointed the ax at me. "I’m going to teach you exactly what the difference between a Noble and a Mundane is.”

He didn’t give me a chance to respond. He just charged.

I picked up one of the long sticks and swung it wide to halt his advance. He tried to close the distance before I could reverse it for a backswing, but I hadn’t been planning for a backswing.

I’d wanted enough time to get close to the embers of our campfire.

I could see the confusion on his face when I let go of the stick. I’d learned something from watching Rix fight. Forms are well and good, but you need to be able to fight dirty.

I swept my foot through the ashes, throwing a cloud to wash over him.

“Gah!” Edward brought both of his hands up to wipe at his face.

I hadn’t waited to see what would happen, I trusted that he wouldn’t swing and closed the distance.

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I grabbed the ax and wrenched it out of his hands. He slashed with the dagger, forcing me back, but at least now I had a weapon.

“CHEATER!” He roared as his veins began to pop.

“Did you really think that I was just going to stand here and let you hit me without fighting back?” I pointed the ax at him. “I’ve got the longer reach and you’re wounded.” I started rotating to my left, and he took the bait and moved in a circle with me.

Ether had stayed behind me and once we were in position I partly turned so I could see her and keep an eye on Edward. "Make sure they’re okay.”

“HEY!” STOP!” Edward started to move towards the women, but I moved in front of him.

“Don’t get distracted.” I waved the ax head in between us. "You’re fighting me, remember?”

“Get out of my way!” He slashed, but the difference in our speeds made it easy to avoid.

I knew exactly what Edward’s stats were because Trent had told us. He was a ten - three - six - two - six - eight. That basically meant that while he could hit hard, he couldn’t take a punch.

I stepped towards the embers, which backed him up. "Why are you doing this?” I kept backing him up towards the water.

“You aren’t in control here!” He started slashing. "I’M IN CONTROL!”

I was torn by what to do. I reversed the ax, so that I’d hit him with the flat side instead of the sharp side. That’d keep me from chopping anything off, but in order to be effective, I was still going to have to hit him hard enough to break something.

I let him drive me backwards and began angling towards the firepit again. Edward saw what I was doing and shifted, trying to move there himself.

I parried a slash and started thinking about where to hit him. I didn’t want to kill him, so the head was a no-no. Arms would be fine, but harder to connect. That left the body and legs. I was concerned about how much damage I’d do if I broke a rib. Which left the legs.

I parried another slash and he was closer to the campfire. I saw triumph in his face as he shifted over and readied his right leg to kick ashes at me. Since the campfire was on his left, he had to take a few more moments to get in position, which gave me plenty of time to back up. I was safely out of range, but he still was launching the kick.

His foot came down but dust never came up. He went rigid and fell over.

I ran over and pulled him off of the embers. The jumpsuit had protected his body and he’d mostly gotten his knees in the middle of the firepit. As I rolled him over and began examining him I noticed a huge knot on his head. He hadn’t come close to hitting anything when he fell.

“Did I kill him?” I was surprised to hear Aelin’s voice.