Beginning of Arc 2
Chapter 19 – Undersea open-palm technique
No powerful Dragon-Courted Soul Seeker became so in the lecture hall.
-Lancaster’s Manual of Wills
Organizers seemed quick to exploit Annalisa’s willingness to fight anyone, anytime, anywhere, regardless of her actual chances of winning that encounter. Last time, they’d pit Annalisa unarmed against an elf with paired blades and a bronze adventurer’s rank. This time, When the door to the back opened, a four-armed undersea horror slithered out. I looked across the ring to an opponent who was part snake, part fish, and part woman. The Mayazians, the gang running Hollowdown, had dredged up a deep sea lamia to fight in the pits. Even for Dragonmaw, that was a new one.
The sea serpent cracked two sets of knuckles and paced (slithered?) in her corner, staring daggers at Annalisa with eyes that were almost all pupil. Thick, dark scales covered her face, throat, and shoulders. A leather harness protected her chest and belly. Behind her, I could see the Mayazian lieutenant speaking with who must certainly be their side’s fixer. The half-elf had a street-mage look about him. You know the sort: slender, aloof, but not dexterous enough for the rogue life or rich enough to be a noble’s kit. I’d seen him at other fights. We locked eyes, and I saw a spark of suspicion cross his face. The four of demons hovered in front of his forehead, inverted. Paranoia, voices, suspicions.
If anything, the odds were even more stacked this time. The host of this less-flammable venue came out and introduced the fighters. Annalisa of Dunnemarsh, and the lamia, Kel of Bitterdeep.
“You’ve got this Anna,” I muttered. “It’s going to be a fish fry,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. Shallow water lamia were tough enough—a match for two or more bronze ranked adventurers whenever they slithered up the salt road to raid villages. Their deep-sea cousins were known for scaling ships and devouring whole crews. It didn’t matter, since Annalisa couldn’t hear me anyway. I wasn’t next to the ring.
The devilborn girl practically ricocheted around her corner, electrified with the impending fight. Her tail thrashed the air as she stalked. She’d trained relentlessly for this, after the disastrous fight a week prior—which made for awkward seeker readings when she insisted on exercising while guarding me. Her wounds had healed over, thanks to the guild menders Kridick sent after the fight. But more important, she’d gotten tougher.
Zarry leaned down next to me. “We didn’t pay off the Mayazian sniffer, so their odds are set for their advantage. You know what you need to do,” he murmured. “Whip up another miracle.”
I nodded. The half-orc got up and walked to the back of the arena, leaving me to it. The threefold suits in my deck resonated with my desires. Dragons, knaves, and towers. I fingered the deck underneath my jacket—no robe or hood, this time. The most valuable aspect I had as a fixer was a forgettable face. The ability to hide in plain sight. Time to go to work.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
The brass drum sounded, and the lamia slithered forward, sinuous and graceful. I doubt anyone had described Annalisa as graceful in her life. She shot out of her corner like a bolt from an over-tight crossbow, meeting the lamia in an exchange of jabs, hooks, and elbows. Annalisa had become more precise with her hits after training with the three of dragons. Even without it, she had begun to channel that boundless energy of hers into striking. Her fists were a blur of light, quick jabs and heavier jabs.
Kel of Bitterdeep had four hands and put them to excellent use. She batted away one of Annalisa’s jabs and struck back with an open palm. The heel of her hand smacked the side of Annalisa’s face, and the sea serpent put a chop at the crux of her neck. Even as she attacked, she used her other hands to block a hook that Annalisa sent in. The two split apart and began to circle each other. They clashed twice more before the brass drum sounded.
The crowd roared. Unbeknownst to them, a second invisible duel had begun, as well.
The Mayazian fixer was subtle. I almost didn’t feel his touch questing toward the ring. Subtlety was the most important quality for a pit fixer—so said Kridick. That Soul Seeking couldn’t be sensed by other mages made it incredibly valuable, as it turned out, for cheating. I’m not above leveraging my talent for ill-gotten gains. The key word in that phrase is not ill-gotten, but gains. But most other magic, whether arcane, wilds, or planar, had tell-tale signs and suffered under the wane light of the dragons.
The second round kicked off with Kel's lower limb sinking a quick knife-hand uppercut into Annalisa’s short ribs. The plane-touched fighter lifted off her feet, doubled over, but danced back before the lamia could do further harm. Kel slithered forward, hands open and straight. Apparently, fists weren’t useful underwater, so they fought in a deep-sea open hand style most of the time, striking with palm, heel, and fingertip.
Meanwhile, I spread my cards under the table and sifted through for my newest bonded card. The four of dragons, called the greed. Insight, measures of worth, maneuvers of position.
My vision took on an amber sheen. Suddenly, I could see what the Mayazian fixer was doing. His technique was a risky one. Rather than buffing his own fighter, he tied invisible strings to Annalisa’s joints that resisted her movement more and more over time. They began to slow her punches, making them require more effort. Kel smiled as she saw them start to slow. started intercepting more of them, fending off a pair of jabs and then batting away a close elbow even as one of fists dug a sharp uppercut into Annalisa’s left side.
The approach was useful when the opposition assumed only they were cheating. But it left me with a problem on how to address it. I couldn’t attack those threads directly, or they’d catch on. The sniffer had already been paid off, so if he figured out who was doing it, he could finger me. I winced as Annalisa took a sharp jab across her cheek. The strings had slowed her just enough that she couldn’t bring her guard up in time.
I pulled the skin of towers and fed my will into it to increase Annalisa’s resilience. That should take the edge of the blows. The plane-touched was tough. Pain didn’t scare her, even if it would start to mount over time. And time was what I needed now. Underneath the table, I called on the cards to restack and shuffled themselves, then I did a reading.
I didn’t need to see the cards anymore. Bonding with more of them had seemingly tuned my senses to the entire deck. I cut the deck and slid three cards off, flipping them against the underside of the table.
Wandering child, inverted. Three of petals. Wall of storms.
In short, the fixer was in over his head. Combined with the demon card on his crown, the reading painted a picture of a jumpy, paranoid boy caught in the chaos of Dragonmaw who wished for stability. I could sympathize. Could. But I didn’t. Instead, I was going to exploit that weakness. I looked around the crowd for what I needed as I began to scheme. The knaves in my deck rumbled with anticipation.