Blood and Scales
Chapter 14 - Defeat
Grunna faced down the man who had cut him to shreds, and a shiver ran down his spine at the man’s confident smile. Aelia ran forward but one of her father’s men grabbed her arms and held her in place. The rest of the count’s men held off the lizigoth forces trying to fight their way into the city center.
“This one is mine,” Count Antipolis snarled, as he saw the lizigoth man that he had let flee a few days ago. There was something different about him this time but the count couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. He readied his already drawn sword.
The two men circled each other, looking for any opening that they could exploit. Count Antipolis feinted to the right, but the lizigoth man saw right through it. The rain and the fighting around them faded into the background as each man became completely absorbed in the movement of the other. Their guards shifted in response to the other man’s change as if some elaborate dance had been pre-choreographed between them.
Aelia managed to hold onto her spear when her father’s men grabbed her. She tried to struggle free from their grasp but they just held her tighter. She was being held so tightly she thought her ribs would crack. In a moment of luck rather than skill, she bashed one of the men’s noses with the back of her head.
Grunna slashed at the vanardis man across from him again and again, but he simply sidestepped each one. The man in turn tried to stab him with his strangely straight double edged blade. Grunna danced around each lunge, except for the few he had to bash away with the flat of his sword.
Aelia tried to swing the spear around when the man whose nose was bleeding profusely dropped her, but the man next to him caught it with a sneer. She tugged at the spear ineffectually. The man pulled on the spear but she kept her balance. When he tried to pull on it again, she decided to throw caution to the wind, and ran at him while holding the spear.
“I’m impressed, lizard. Tell me your name, so that I can remember it among those I’ve slain,” Count Antipolis shouted over the pouring rain. It hit him then, just who this other man was - the soldier in the swamp that he cut to shreds. He wondered just what had happened that he didn’t even have scars.
“I am Grunna, bloodsucker. Proud warrior of the Lizigoth tribe,” Grunna shouted back, baring his teeth, “and it is you who will die by my hand.”
“Perhaps it is better, you were forgotten for your insolence,” the count growled, before he charged forward.
The vanardis soldier that Aelia ran at, lost his balance and let go of the spear which plunged under the shoulder blade of the man clutching his nose behind him. He let out a scream which was cut short by a lizigoth woman who finished him off with a deft swing of her sword.
The flurry of blows that occured between Count Antipolis and Grunna would have been blinding to anyone who was watching. Unfortunately, everyone was busy with their own fights, as the two dodged and weaved their flashing blades through the rain filled night. Neither one was capable of landing anything more than a glancing blow against the other.
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“Aelia!” a tiny voice shouted out among the clangs and thuds of weapons hitting each other. Aelia turned to see the child she and Ardera had rescued in the swamp, being shuffled out of the city by Matron Grea along with all the other children. Ardera was escorting them vigilantly, though she paused to look at Aelia holding a bloody spear.
Count Antipolis’ sword deflected blow after blow from Grunna. At first, he thought he had been imagining that his opponent was faster, and stronger, but now he knew for sure.
Just what did they do to you, he thought, it’s almost like you have the strength of a vanardis.
The count paused his onslaught and looked at his daughter. She was fighting with one of those barbaric spears. The lizigoth was strong like a vanardis. The two had been running together into the city center. The truth hit him like a ton of bricks, and a wave of disgust and horror turned to pure rage.
“You ruined my daughter, you filthy creature!” He spat, practically foaming at the mouth.
Grunna was taken aback by the sudden exclamation, but even more by the pure rage he felt coming off of the count like burning waves. He barely saw the vanardis’ attacks coming for him, but he felt the cuts starting to cover his body. Even the blows he managed to block pushed his sword and more often than not only mitigated the cuts he received.
Before anyone could react, one of the children grabbed a dagger out of the sheathe strapped to Ardera’s thigh, and ran away from the other children. She let out a ferocious scream as she bolted towards the middle of the square platform, straight for Count Antipolis. Aelia sprinted forward to try and stop her, dropping her spear to the ground.
Time slowed as Grunna saw a lizigoth child out of the corner of his eye. She was holding a dagger in her tiny hands and running at the vicious vanardis in front of him, aiming it straight at his leg. He saw the other man look at her, and there was his opening. If he failed to take advantage of it, he wouldn’t have the strength to continue.
The count stabbed his sword mercilessly at the child’s throat, and Grunna reacting before he could think dove between the child and the sword. With a sickening shwick, the sword went into his belly. Adrenaline delayed the pain, and he spun, his sword leveled at Count Antipolis’ exposed neck.
Antipolis saw his mistake too late. His cruel nature, the thing he had prized his entire life, the thing that had allowed him to survive over a thousand years in the cut-throat courts of Rhime, in that moment it was his undoing. He closed his eyes as the blade sliced through his neck.
He had thought to force his opponent to sacrifice himself for the younger one. Which to his credit had worked. Unfortunate then that his opponent was able to turn it to his advantage. The world tumbled in the count’s vision as his last thoughts turned towards his daughter. At least she was alive.
Aelia screamed. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was because of the sword that plunged through Grunna’s belly or the head of her father flying off as his body sank to the ground. She screamed as Grunna fell to the ground, but she was stopped by three lizigoths. One of them punched her and her head snapped around, but the screaming didn’t stop. She wasn’t even sure what she said at this point.
Grunna felt a grin cross his face as the life left his body, because he had managed to stop the man who threatened his village. The grin left when he saw that Aelia was being dragged off by the men he had saved, she was screaming something but the throbbing in his ears made it impossible to make out.
Darkness filled his vision and Grunna the lizigoth warrior died, having fulfilled his purpose in life - defending his people.