Ronny blinked in the glare of the early morning sun.
He’d been provided with a much better fare than the usual slop that the mess tent served up, and he’d been in a pretty good mood until a minute ago. Thoughts about his impending release and return to his haunting grounds had cheered him up further. “Probably be a few young ‘uns that’ll need reminding of where their turf ends”, he’d thought, almost gleeful at the prospect of a good old fashioned beating.
So when a guard had entered the room and said “The Captain will see you now”, his good mood had been at a peak. A peak that he was rapidly coming down from, seeing his surroundings, which he hadn’t made sense of yet.
“Reginald. Ronald. Bryce”, a commanding voice slowly and carefully enunciated his full name. No one called him Reginald. Or Reggie, if they were tired of living.
“You the Captain o’ this sorry lot?”, Ronny asked arrogantly, spotting the man standing opposite him.
“Captain Ishmeal, at your service”, the voice replied, followed by a polite bow.
“A little runt of a man. Looks the sort, to give the orders and have others do his dirty work”, Ronny thought, a slight sneer briefly flickering over his face. “I was told you was lookin’ to talk to me about my debt. Mean Sally finally pay up?”, he responded.
“Mean Sally”, Captain Ishmeal stated tonelessly. “That would be your employer, yes?”.
“She’s more than that, she raised me from the streets, made me the man I am today. I knew she wouldn’t let me rot in a ‘ellhole like this for long”, Ronny boomed. If the man wanted to make a spectacle, Ronny would give them spectacle.
“In that case, I am sorry for your loss. Now, to the business at hand. Your debt”, Captain Ishmeal carried on in his deadpan voice.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?”, raged Ronny as the Captain’s words sank in. He took a couple of steps toward the runty little man in front of him before the sound of swords being unsheathed brought him back to his senses.
“Of course, you wouldn’t know. ‘Mean Sally’ is no longer with us. I’m not clear on the details, but I believe the family of the man you wounded wasn’t satisfied with your punishment. Steps were taken. And heads”, Captain Ishmeal explained.
“As to your debts”, he continued after a moment's pause, “Our records show that you’ve been enjoying our hospitality for the last month, while doing nothing to earn your keep”.
“A POX ON YER STINKING HOSPITALITY!”, Ronny shouted, still coming to terms with the loss of the woman who’d raised him. Mean she was, but she was the closest thing he’d had to a mum. “I ain’t no stinking miner, a slave”, he growled.
“You have eaten my food, drunk my water, worn my clothes, slept in my bedrolls and enjoyed your stay in my tents”, Ishmeal listed off the ‘perks’ of the mining camp. “But you have yet to step foot in the mine, so you are technically correct”, he said, with a slight nod to acknowledge the fact.
Ronny glowered at the Captain.
“Since you are unwilling to pay for what you’ve consumed by the simple act of mining, I’ve come to make you an offer”, he stated. “An offer this is always open to the rest of you as well”, he said, looking around and gesturing to the miners seated around the arena.
This drew several snorts of disdain from the seated miners, and chuckles from the soldiers.
“Yeah? I’m listening”, Ronny said flatly.
“Simple. As you can see, there are two doors to this arena”, the Captain pointed, and paused. “Leave through the door you came through, and you return to the mining camp. And mine.”
“That doesn’t sound like much of an offer...”, Ronny started.
Captain Ishmeal lifted a finger to forestal him. “Leave through the door behind me, and you’re a free man. Free to return to your city and your thuggish ways”, he explained the second option.
“What’s the catch?”, asked Ronny.
“You’re a smart man”, Ishmeal smiled for the first time. “I am the catch. To leave through this door, you must go through me”.
“This runty little man thinks he’s going to stop me? I’ve been fighting my whole life”, Ronny thought to himself. “That’s all? I beat the crap out of you, walk through that door and I’m a free man?”, he checked to see if he was hearing right.
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“That’s all”, confirmed the Captain. “Would you like a minute to decide?”, he offered politely.
“What’s there to decide? When do we start?”, Ronny grinned in response. “This is probably a trap, but at least i’ll give this ‘Captain’ a good beating”.
“Very well. I strongly suggest you use that”, Captain Ishmeal said, as a scabbarded sword landed next to Ronny. “Whenever you’re ready”.
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“So if he kills the Captain, they let him walk free, just like that?”, Jack turned to ask Isaac.
A dismissive snort. “Yes. Just like that”, Isaac replied.
Isaac had explained about how the Captain was an Awakened, but Ronald had at least a foot on him in height and reach, and probably more than double in weight. “They’ve even armed him”, he noted.
“One…” “Five…” “Three…”, Jack could hear some of the soldiers in the stand talking amongst themselves.
“Are the soldiers betting on this? On their Captains life?”, he whispered to Isaac, shocked.
“They are betting, yes”, was Isaac’s reply. “But now, eyes front. The show is about to start”.
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Ronny unsheathed the gladius and swung it around a few times to get a feel for the sword. It was a bit longer than the knives he was used to, but at two feet it had a decent heft and the two foot blade was decently balanced.
He looked at the Captain, still just standing there motionless, hands clasped behind his back. “Arrogant bastard”, he thought as he took a stride. Two strides.
He rushed forward, covering the few meters to the Captain in less than a second. He thrusted, aiming to impale the little man before him before he could even react.
His thrust met empty air, the Captain stepping to the side faster than Ronny could react. “Wrong side, fool”, he thought. The Captain had stepped to his left, so Ronny used his brute strength to slash the short blade out to his right to catch him off guard.
Nothing. The Captain, who he’d been sure would have been standing off to the side where he was slashing, wasn’t there. While Ronny was still processing this thought, he felt a hand grip the wrist of his sword hand and pull, using his momentum to send him stumbling off to the side.
He regained his balance and whipped around, expecting to see the Captain attacking him from the rear. “Little runt’s fast”.
The Captain was calmly standing, not having moved from where he’d deflected Ronny’s attack, hands already clasped behind his back again. He looked bored.
Ronny closed the distance, approaching with far more caution. Judging him to just be within reach, he stabbed out at the Captain’s chest. Who simply turned to the side and let the blade plunge past his chest.
Ronny took another step closer, and used his knife fighting skills. Two upward diagonal slashes in quick succession, forming an ‘X’ where the Captain stood. Who just swayed out of the blades’ path, effortlessly avoiding both attacks with a minimum of fuss.
“Ye’ jus going to dodge all day?”, he spat, aiming to anger his slippery adversary.
“Very well”, came an unexpected reply.
“What does he mean, ‘Very Well’?”, Ronny was trying to make sense of the reply. He stepped in closer, aiming a swing at the Captain’s head, wanting to get in close and use his size and strength advantage in close quarters.
It didn’t go as he’d envisioned.
The Captain stepped in faster than Ronny would have believed possible. Smashing an arm into Ronny’s sword swinging arm, ducking to avoid the blade as it was knocked loose. Ronny was still just thinking about raising a knee slam into the Captain’s ducking head when something hit him in the solar plexus.
“How the fuck can he hit so hard?” was the last thought that went through his mind before that same first caught him precisely across the jaw.
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Jack sat in the stands, jaw slack as he was still processing what he’d just seen. The scholarly looking Captain was a monster!
He’d never seen a real fight before, outside of the odd MMA match he’d caught on tv. He’d thought that maybe the smaller man would evade and wear down the larger, slower Ronald. Or use some mystical martial arts like he’d protagonists use in movies when facing larger opponents.
He’d barely been able to keep track of Ronny’s attacks, the man clearly wasn’t a stranger to a brawl or a blade. But Captain Ishmeal had been able to read him like a book, seemingly evading the attacks almost before they were launched.
After the first few failed blows from Ronny, he’d been sure the Captain was aiming to tire him out. And then he’d seen the two of them exchange words he couldn’t quite make out, followed by the Captain exploding, dropping the bigger man like a sack of potatoes with a combination of punches that Jack actually hadn’t been able to follow.
He’d winced at the meaty sound of those punches.
The Captain straightened his clothes after the brief fight. “As you were”, he gestured to the people in the stands to return to their normal duties, his point made. He watched impassively as the troublemaker was stretchered out of the arena, through the same door he’d entered by.