Chapter 55 - The Match for the Matchbox District

A knave takes what he wants. Be it coin, blood, or love.

-Lancaster’s Manual of Wills

I brought my knife to the ready and swung the cards out in a loose chain. Annalisa bounced on the balls of her feet, beside me. She cracked her neck to the side and raised her fists in a close guard. The skin of her wrists and hands darkened, becoming hard like stone as she pulled strength from the plane of obsidian. I wasn’t sure it would repel a direct hit from Foe Skull’s axe, even with the reinforcement.

“Two of them, two of us,” I said.

“Think we should ask a couple more to join in?

Across the ring, the chieftess of the Teeth spun her axe and stalked to the side. You have to understand, This woman terrified me by her name alone. Not for what the name was (though, it certainly didn’t help), but for the fact that it was incredibly rare for a mongrel to have a true orc name. That meant she’d done something to leave a lasting impression on the full-bloods to the point of codifying her. Orc names weren’t just names. They were part of the oral history of deeds passed down through a culture with no written language. Her champion, for comparison, the gods-damned champion pit fighter of the Teeth, was named Sump. Because that’s where they’d found him: the sump of a ship pumping water out of bilges. Sump moved the other way, looking to encircle us. Orcs were pack hunters, and they were treating us like prey.

“We stay together,” said Annalisa, noticing the same thing. “We protect each other, don’t let them between us. Give me the dragon juice.”

I slid the three of dragons from my lash of cards and touched it to Annalisa’s shoulder. Direct skin contact wasn’t explicitly necessary, but it was easier than projecting my will over a distance. My stamina began flowing into her, and any signs of fatigue she had vanished entirely.

“Here’s what we do,” said Annalisa. “We both run behind us and I take down the fighter. I know all his moves and he’s already tired. Can you keep Foe Skull back?”

“I make no promises,” I said.

Annalisa didn’t believe in counting to three. Surprising me almost as much as our opponents, she turned on her heel and charged headlong for the Teeth champion, roaring at the top of her lungs.

I followed a moment later, and a look behind me told me that Foe Skull hadn’t remained flat-footed for long. Her long legs ate up the ash at an alarming rate. While I still had time, I pulled out the five of knaves and charged it with my will. The tithe of knaves, it was called. It was a buff card, like the three of dragons. Only, this one didn’t siphon my energy to someone else. It siphoned everyone else’s energy to me—in the form of their speed and agility.

I used it only rarely because of the staggering will debt it incurred, and my concentration flagged just evoking it at the same time as the dragon’s bounty. But it super-charged Annalisa, as well, through the three of dragons, and she hurtled into the Teeth fighter like a meteor. She caught the mongrel off guard with a fist right to his nose. Sump staggered back, and I had no more time to pay attention to what Anna was doing, because Foe Skull leapt at me with her axe raised high.

The tithe had slowed her, but not much. What alacrity I’d taken from her, I put to good use. I threw myself to the side, and the axe split the ground where I’d been standing. It wasn’t stuck, though. Foe was too good for that, and the black axe cut clean through the ash as she scraped it out and carried the momentum into a spin for her next attack. I whipped my deck out as a chain, wrapping the haft of her axe and pulling it around before she could step into her swing. The blade passed within a finger’s width of my unarmored chest, close enough that I heard the blade whistle and felt the air on my face.

Before I could even blink, Foe Skull stepped in and smashed her forehead into mine. I staggered back, seeing stars. The chieftess laughed as I stumbled, resetting her stance and spinning her axe. The fight continued at a savannah cat’s pace behind me; the cacophony of meaty blows sounding more like the rhythm of a battlefield drum. But they weren’t all for the Teeth fighter. Just as Foe Skull brought her axe around for another swing, a blast of snowflakes hit her left side, and a blue-black fist erupted out of a shimmer in the air, catching her above the cheek. Her timing shattered, and I didn’t waste the opportunity to dart in and slash at Foe’s midsection.

Her hand shot out to parry, and I twisted at the last second, slicing into the meat of her palm. She recoiled and brought the Axe around—only for it to meet the solid surface of the plane of obsidian from another of Annalisa’s portals.

I had to drop the buff from the five of knaves in order to send the keen edge of the two of knaves into the deck, but I did, and slashed the chain down, trying to take her axe-hand off at the wrist. Foe was quicker, pulling back in time for the cards to wrap the metal haft, instead. The enchantment shattered, along with my concentration, and the three of dragons and five of knaves went still, as well. It was just too much to juggle at once.

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“Darcent!” shouted Annalisa. “Do like the shark!”

With an effort of will, I pulled the three of dragons back into my hand and reactivated it, putting everything I had left into Annalisa. I couldn’t have recast the five of knaves, even if I had time. I was at my limit. This was my all-or-nothing. Foe Skull stalked forward, wary of attacks from my otherwise occupied companion. The half-orc feinted left, and another portal opened. Foe skull ducked the punch and brought her axe up from a low swing.

Exhausted from maintaining the siphon, I couldn’t call on any more cards. I brought the entire deck up as a simple screen to block her view, and the axe cleaved through the deck, splintering cards and scattering their remains. But when Foe caught a glimpse through, it wasn’t me that she saw. It was Annalisa, leaping through the ruined remains of my deck. Her right hand caught Foe Skull Crusher on the wrist, shocking her axe-hand into dropping the weapon. Her left caught Foe before the she-orc could bring up her guard.

The third strike, Foe Skull caught, and used to pull Annalisa into a grapple. Her fangs bit down, but Annalisa tucked her chin and Foe only bit horn. The two toppled to the ash, twisting for position. Foe was bigger, heavier, and stronger. But a clinch is less lethal than a swinging axe, and that gave me time to turn my focus to Stump.

The Teeth fighter was in bad shape. I’m sure Annalisa took her hits as well, but one of the mongrel’s eyes was swollen shut, two fingers on his left hand were broken, blood ran freely from a vicious set of slashes on his shoulder, and his midsection was a mottle of yellow-grey bruises. He was also unarmed. I leveled my knife.

Stump looked at the knife. Unarmed and unarmored as he was, slowed, hurting, and half-blind, he knew it was a death sentence. He looked at me with one eye, pleading. “Please,” he said. “I’m a fighter, not a killer!”

I pulled out the bloody guild patch I’d found in the hideout. “Not a killer, just their champion. Your gang ate your own fixer’s brother to make a point,” I snarled. “Now I’m going to make one.”

Whatever he had been about to say in his defense cut off as I darted forward and toward his blind side. As he twisted to follow, sluggish after Annalisa’s mauling, I slashed my knife across his throat. His hands went to the wound, and blood ran free down his front. He gasped and looked at me, shock in his eyes. Then the light drained out of them, and he slumped to his knees. I put my foot against his chest and pushed the mongrel over onto the ash.

Now, for the woman who had thrown me in this pit to die.

Foe Skull had gained position over Annalisa while I finished off Stump. She was on her back, with Annalisa stretched over her, with the devilborn’s arm in a savage joint lock. Annalisa screamed as Foe Skull wrenched. The chieftess of the Teeth managed to get her opposite hand around Annalisa’s horn and torque her head back, as well, arching my partner. Annalisa’s heels dug in the ash for traction.

I made my way over, gasping and hurting from the half-dozen minor injuries I’d taken that night. I jammed my knife hilt-deep into Foe’s hand and twisted it. She let go of Annalisa’s head and screamed, staring at the wound. I pulled the knife out and plunged it into her leg where it wrapped my partner, careful to avoid the tail Annalisa used to lessen the pressure.

The second stab turned Foe Skull’s scream into a stifled, choking gasp. Quick as a devil, Annalisa was twisted around, and putting fist after fist into the she-orc’s face. I heard bone break, but Annalisa kept hitting.

“Annalisa,” I said, quietly.

“No!” she screamed “This isn’t like at the Mop, Darcent! She tried to kill you! I won’t let her!”

“Anna, she’s already dead.”

Annalisa’s fists stopped. She looked at the orc’s sightless eyes, staring up. Then back to me.

“I just cut the major artery in her leg. She bled out in seconds. Stand up.”

Shaky, bruised, and bleeding, Annalisa pushed out of the ash and climbed to her feet. She was caked in grey soot where the red of her blood didn’t show through. Her knuckles dripped into the pit. She stumbled back, turned, and wrapped me in a hug.

“I wassoscaredshewasgonnakillyou,” she sobbed into my chest. “I didn’t know if I could help you in time.

I put my hand on the back of her head and tucked her into me. “I know, Anna. Look, you’re in far worse shape than I am.”

I didn’t deserve a friend like Annalisa of Dunnemarsh. I don’t know what god of fortune smiled on me the day she barged into my room-for-rent above the money lender, but woe be unto those who would try to take her from me. Be they orc, mage, demon, or… weird… fish-man thingy from Hollowdown. Why that sentiment was reciprocated, not even the Wills could reveal.

I wanted to let her rest. But we still stood in a pit, under the eyes of a thousand or more of Dragonmaw’s fickle mob. I looked across the crowd, at all the people staring down, silently. They weren’t sure what they’d just seen. So, it fell on me to tell them. I pushed Annalisa to arm’s length, and then took her wrist in my hand.

She looked down at it, then cocked her head and looked back up at me. I offered her a lopsided smile. Then I turned to the crowd and raised her hand high over our heads.

“ANNALISA of DUNNEMARSH!” I shouted.

A single, solitary “Woo!” from somewhere deep in the crowd sounded. And, truth told, I’m fairly sure it was Jeedle.

But that was all it took. The people came for a simple fist fight, and they got treated to a bloodbath grudge match with two bodies at the finale. They were starting to realize that this was a fight they would talk about for years. The claps came. Then the shouts.

Then, I heard it.

“Anna! Anna! ANNA!”

Only one person said my name. Annalisa leaned in and whispered it. Her eyes had glazed over and a vacant smile spread across her face. “Darcent!” she said. “They’re doing it!”

“I know,” I replied. “You earned it.”