Chapter 41: Fun
“I can’t believe we’re really doing this Damien!” Krista called as she stared him down about 20 feet away from her. “Are you sure you’re not just Shix in some sort of disguise?”
After Dark, Damien and Krista snuck out of their tent and headed to the heavily hidden area he had scouted. Bringing along their weapons, in Damien’s case, his bow and black dagger. For Krista, two short swords, a small shield, and crossbow. Krista had a few guesses as to what he had planned. What she had not expected was for Damien to challenge her to a duel with the added stipulation that the loser had to do any one thing the winner wanted.
“No, it’s just me Shix’s “Daddy” ready to fight.”
“Seriously, it’s already been like two weeks since she lost that bet, when are you going to let her stop?”
“Whenever I stop finding it funny.”
“You’re never going to stop finding it funny.”
“I’m never going to stop finding it funny.”
Krista couldn’t help but laugh inwardly, but what she felt most was excitement. She and Damien had always been on the same side and never had a chance to fight with one another. Krista’s inner battle junkie was crying out, pressuring her to launch herself directly at Damien. Especially as Krista watched Damien barely pay any attention to her, choosing to instead play in the sand.
“I feel like we should set some ground rules, so I don’t end up cutting you in half.”
“Whatever keeps me from feeling bad from putting an arrow between your eyes!”
Oh yeah, he’s gonna get it , thought Krista, “1 st rule, let’s make our fight a best of five rounds with each round ending when someone gives up or is cut.”
“Just a cut? Won’t that make our fight go by too fast?”
“Well, we are fighting in secret, so I’m pretty sure we should keep any injuries to a minimum before having Amelia heal them, but if you really want to risk it, then I guess…”
“I get it, I get it. By Iroh, I swear you’re only this fast when it comes to a fight. Let me go ahead and propose the 2 nd rule, you cannot leave the area past the furthest rock on each side. That gives us about 50 feet on all sides.”
Krista looked around and saw that he was right, but she was confused as to why he’d make a rule like this, “I never took you as the up close and personal type. Are you sure you don’t want some more room to run around in?”
“I’ll make due, I’m only trying to keep things fair,” he responded smarmily.
“Fine, third rule, I’m not allowed to use the black sword I made from you from a while back. It’s too well made, using it would just end the fight to quickly. I’m also allowed only one black weapon at a time. Just trying to keep fighting in ‘fairness’ as you said.”
“Hey, I’m not going to argue against a handicap if you want to give me one. Just to let you know, I’ve fought in several duels before, and I’ve never lost one.”
“Fine, any more rules that you want to add?”
“No, any more would just ruin the fun, I’m more interested in getting started,” said Damien as he tied a piece of rope to his bow.
“Same here, so let’s get started!”
As the words left her mouth, Krista crouched into a ready position with one of her swords in her right hand, and a shield in her offhand. She was fully ready for Damien to pull one of his preemptive strikes at any time with his bow. in order to gain an advantage over her. What she had not expected was for him to make a mad dash towards her with his dagger, after dropping his bow to the floor.
Damien sent a heavy downward slash that Krista angled off her shield. As the quick clash finished, Krista noticed something shiny on the floor, a sheet of metal from the shield. “Let’s get a little up close and personal!”
He continued his onslaught, striking over and over and any small opening Krista would leave. Before, she had thought his dagger was mostly decoration or something Damien would use when he couldn’t use his bow but as it turned out there was a little more to it that that.
Soon to be unfortunate for Damien, it still wouldn’t be enough to overcome her own abilities. Krista took her chance when she left an extreme opening to her side, not wide enough for a slash but perfect for a thrust. Damien didn’t waste the opportunity, stabbing his blade towards the opening. Krista, however, had planned for this, pulling her shield so that the blade cut directly through. Then, before Damien could pull the dagger back through, twisted the shield and tossed it to the side, along with the dagger.
Damien tried retreating, knowing that if he focused on the blade, it would come to his hand shortly. Krista wasn’t about to let him as she grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled his arm behind his back. Krista then began to wrench his arm as far back as it could go and then some, more surprised that she didn’t see a red aura materializing around him than anything.
“I give, I give, the first round is yours!” Damien cried, “Krista released her grip and backed off slightly as Damien tended to his injured arm. “Of course, we never decided how the next round wou- Hey!”
Damien had quickly turned with the intention of pressing his next attack on Krista while she was unprepared, only to be met with the edge of another black weapon, a spear. Luckily, he had already thought to bring his dagger back to his own hand, glancing the weapon off his own before taking many steps back.
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“Why aren’t you using your wattiez?” asked Krista.
Damien barely had the breath to answer, having lived through his entire life in those short moments, “Why in Iroh’s name did you just attack me?! I wasn’t ready!”
“That’s precious coming from you, what were you just saying before I swung?” Krista asked snidely, “Something about ‘never deciding how the next round…’ I’m guessing the next words were ‘would start.’ Am I close?”
“Maybe I’ve spent too much time around you. Next round is mine, guaranteed!”
“Not unless you start using your wattiez. You’re making this too easy.”
“I just wanted to prove that I could beat you without it. I may have overestimated my abilities… sightly. No need to worry, I won’t be holding back anymore.”
“You shouldn’t have in the first place!”
This time Krista started the attack considering her weapon held a distinct range advantage. As she approached, a dark yellow aura surrounded Damien’s body, he held the dagger outward, and a thick cloud of grey smoke encompassed both him and Krista.
Krista quickly held her hand to her mouth but found it no harder to breath. Compared to the smoke Damien had let out earlier, this was closer to a thick fog merely meant to obscure their view. She held her ground and stabbed outward in several directions, hoping to catch an accidental blow on her now invisible foe. Met with nothing but empty air, she cursed inwardly.
“Going to try and hit me from a blind spot?” Krista reasoned. “Can’t imagine that’s going to be easy. Fog is pretty common around Horizon, I’ll be used to it in a couple of moments, so don’t turn tail and run yet!”
A bluff, if one could even call it that, said with the intention of luring Damien in. Strike at his ego a bit, and he was liable to do something out of character.
“Well, it’s a good thing that I’ve already got you!” chimed in Damien.
A voice from close behind her. At this point, dodging or blocking the strike may already too late, but she could at least make it a trade. Krista turned to face the voice and just like she reasoned, there was no avoiding Damien’s next blow. Instead of trying and failing, Krista confronted her attacker and struck back.
“What the!” Both attacks missed, or rather, Damien had run past- through Krista. In her confusion, she only just felt the small pain of a blade lightly cutting on her shoulder. “Two Damiens?”
“Not quite.” Both Damiens had moved their mouths at the same time but only one had a voice. Looking closer, Krista also noticed that only one had an aura, three at that, with it being sectioned off in yellow, orange, and green colors. “Not going to lie, that probably wasn’t worth the effort it took. I guess you took more out of me than I thought.”
The aura surrounding him began to die down with the fog around them slowly dissipating. Krista couldn’t quite tell if this was a trap or if it was legitimate. Either way, Krista figured it was better to run in and regret it later.
“Next point is mine!” yelled Krista as she charged towards Damien.
Damien readied himself for the next advance, almost too tired to lift his dagger past his hips. The first hit was already too close of a call as the spear cut into the side of his cloak as Damien barely avoiding the attack. He’d have to knit that back together later.
Krista’s barrage didn’t end there, three more thrust forced Damien’s back to a wall. Once there, Krista noticed a faint red aura begin to emanate around Damien. Krista wasn’t stupid enough to engage in a contest of strength against someone boosted by an augmentation affinity.
She dodged back giving Damien some room to move. With some space, Damien had his red aura disappear, and a yellow one replaced it, followed by a blast of very light mist. Immediately after, the yellow aura was replaced with a nearly transparent one. Looking closer, Krista guessed that it was a blue or green, however, when Damien split in two, she reasoned green was the answer.
Both Damien’s ran in two different directions, with the near transparency of his aura along with the mist made it impossible to quickly differentiate between the two, so Krista didn’t try. Rather, she chose to grab her crossbow from her back and she fire a bolt towards one while dashing towards the other.
As Krista ran towards one, she watched as Damien leaned back to avoid nothing. Quickly realizing that this meant the other Damien was the real one. Adjusting herself, Krista turned sprint the other way, only to be faced with Damien with two auras, green and orange.
Krista wasn’t too worried, while she didn’t quite know what his life synthesis was, she could be sure that his wave affinity was the cause of the other Damien. Considering that she could see his aura clearly, differentiating between the two would be easy. Just to stay on the safe side, she reloaded a bolt into her crossbow.
Both parties approached at the same time, but Krista stopped short of their clash, ready to chase after the real Damien after he split. Yet that never happened, instead, Damien touched the ground and a piece of rope fell up out of it. Damien pulled on the rope and out of the floor followed his bow!
Krista was overtaken by a sudden sense of confusion, “How in the?!” as Damien cocked in an arrow he was hiding within his cloak.
At the range they were at, there was a zero percent chance that Damien would miss his shot and, with only a spear to protect herself, she had a zero percent chance of shielding or avoiding taking a hit. What bothered her most was the sense of utter confusion over what Damien had just done.
That last action had to have been because of some Relativity affinity. If it was that much it would have been fine, but the aura around Damien had been green and orange, not one hint of purple. That’s when Krista noticed, half his aura was purple, no orange at all, but how could that be? She was sure it was orange before, but now it was suddenly purple, and it wasn’t because he changed it. She had been watching him this whole time.
“Third point is mine then,” mocked Damien.
She gazed at him more closely, and just like how the orange suddenly changed to purple, the green part of his aura changed to blue. A mental affinity! He tricked her, and she fell for it harder than a griffin without its wings.
“Not yet!” Krista cried as she aggressively threw her spear. “Don’t count me out yet!”
Without any effort, Damien avoided the attack and let an arrow fly, catching Krista on her left leg, “Wouldn’t dream of it!” he retorted as he pulled a second arrow from his cloak.
Krista laughed inwardly; she wasn’t sure if her plan was going to work, but it was worth a shot. Worst comes to worse, she’d have admit Damien beat her in a duel, and she’d owe him a favor. On second thought, maybe the worst case scenario was worse than she thought.
She reached her arm out towards were the spear landed and focused intensively, “Right, that worked so well the first time,” taunted Damien already sure of his win. Unfortunately, his win was a lot less assured than he thought has he heard a metallic whirring behind him. “Whoa!”
The spear came bursting past him, cutting into his own leg on the way back to Krista’s hand. The surprise caused him to fire the arrow wildly, missing Krista by a mile.
“That makes us two and two, match point!” laughed Krista excitedly.