Chapter Thirty Four

*** Gianna Cazador ***

“What is it honey?” I asked noticing my husband frowning at a letter he had just received. The messenger had already retreated.

“We have been invited by the amazon queen to bear witness to a duel,” he replied.

“To a duel?” I asked walking over to him.

We were currently in his office, the messenger had arrived suddenly and just as quickly had retreated.

“Yes,” he nodded. “Apperently our son has been busy. He’s to face princess Sora’s suitor for the right to...uhm...be with her. In a year the girl will be old enough for her...uh...first time.”

“Who is that?” I asked.

“She is princess to the amazons,” he replied. “Second in line.”

“But what about Leo?” I pointed out. “He can’t fight right now!”

***Almighty Narrator ***

And so Leo’s time drew to a close and soon he would have to face an opponent in his powerless state.

*** Leo Cazador ***

*Glug*

*Glug*

“Ahh,” I sighed putting the wine bottle down. I was currently sitting on the chair of my desk in my office located next to a secret workshop the Illuminated had set up for me with a simple request. I inwardly laughed, bunch of fanatics and cultists the lot of them. In my name I have demanded that they commit many atrocities, it brings a cruel smile to my face every time I think of the darker experiments I have commissioned.

Since I lost my power I have tried putting up a good poker face, to hide away my pain and anguish. Sophia...I have made her suffer, but the wine always makes me forget...forget the pain I cause and have been caused.

Eleanor, that child is angry with me again. Ha…

I turned to look at the current object creating conflict within me, a sleek black box with two gauntlets and a tome. The Ethereal Gauntlets and the Black Book, two very powerful items of my own creation. The gauntlets grant power to those who have none effectively making a mage of a mere mortal, and the book contains spells of extreme complexity and power, it is the lowest of the highest tier books I have ever written on magic.

It had suddenly appeared on my desk yesterday, there was no doubt in my mind that someone in the Illuminated was aware of my current state and had commissioned a package delivery.

The conflict was with my ego, my pride, it would not let me take the items and use them to restore my debilitated status. My crippled form.

Tomorrow I would be before the Amazon queen and present to her my strength, my power, how could I when I have it not?

*Glug*

“Ah…”

I sifted through some of the letters from the Illuminated, they were requests, some were requests for aid in understanding some subject or other, some requested the commissioning of certain high level missions, black ops, ghost ops, even a package delivery into the heart of Bulbaraia.

I was greatly tempted to throw in a little chaos into the world, but...no...that would go against what I was trying to do.

What I...what was I trying to do?

In my drunken stupor I took the gauntlets and strapped them on, I wanted to feel it again, the power. How it felt to truly be alive. I gripped the gauntlets tight, the leather straining from my fist as I willed power to flow. Like a machine, the gauntlets turned on and began to purr with power, but...but it was not there! I felt nothing! Where was the feeling of rushing energy? Quiet power? Thundering elements?

“Shhhhhiiiit!” I cried out ripping the gauntlets off and tossed them aside. Useless pieces of shit!

I stood to recover them, they were priceless pieces of shit afterall. I stumbled a bit as my footing was made unsteady by the strong drink on my desk.

Heh, I smiled as the image of an actual heap of fecal matter crawled into my mind.

I picked up the gauntlets and tossed them into their casing almost knocking the case off the desk.

Think...think...I was thinking of something important. Oh...yeah...what was I trying to do?

I felt lost, I once had a purpose, it was all planned out, then the distractions began. Then this...this crushing blow happened to me. Why couldn’t things go well for me?

In my past life I was always humbled by my tribulations, destroyed and made low by the world around me. I remember that I had been well into my twenties when I died defending my sister. My sister...it’s been a while, I don’t think I have once thought about her since I was brought here. But I digress...twenty...yes, twenty something and still I had been living with my parents. I was robbed of ambition and desire, I was not made for the modern world, but here I had thrived and now...look at me. Barely ten…

*sigh*

I trudged back to my chair after becoming aware that I had been staring at it in my drunken stupor.

--- Almighty Narrator ---

The next day Leo made his appearance before the queen in all his hungover glory.

*** Leo Cazador ***

“You look like shit,” I heard Sora whisper to me. Her voice was like a thundering drum in my ears. It was the first time I had seen her since that night nearly a month ago.

“Mmm,” was all I managed as I strained to survive the bellows of the announcer.

I looked around the small arena stadium, my mother and father along with Sophia and Eleanor with her friends were sitting behind me in the booth for honored guests while the queen amazon, her escorts, and Sola sat on the other side of the stadium in their own respective booth. There were several spectators including some of Boraia’s nobles. Fuck.

“Don’t kill him ok?” Sora requested fingering the ring I had given her.

Somehow this did for me what nothing had been able to do to me for quite a while. I could see it in her, she already considered herself mine,

I...how could I disappoint her. She didn’t know me, she knew nothing of the things I had done and of what I was capable of, yet here she was...I would say offering her heart to me but somewhere along the way I had already taken it. Now she was simply mine.

Ignoring the pain of my splitting brain I whispered back to Sora.

“Tell the announcer I want the combat to be melee only,” I said to her.

The girl nodded and quickly rushed over to the center of the arena and told the announcer my request, the announcer then went over to the man who was Sora’s current suitor. The announcer then went back to the center after a moment.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer began excitedly. “The contestants have agreed to a melee only duel! Nothing fairer than the strength of your own back and fortitude of your own mind to truly win your woman! The duel will commence as soon as the two contestants enter the inner circle, choose your weapons wisely!”

Immediately servants entered the arena carrying an assortment of enchanted weapons, they were designed to keep the duelists from dealing lethal and fatal blows.

“Are you sure about this?” Sora looked slightly worried as she looked down towards me. Ha….soon I will be taller, give it time…

She didn’t know, much like everyone else outside the family, that I had lost my power, this was fairer...for me.

“Yes,” I nodded already knowing which weapon I wanted.

I removed my robe revealing underneath my naked chest, I wore only a pair of sturdy leather shorts and sandals. I had decided to forgo the gauntlets last night and now I did not regret it, I was going to fight without magic afterall.

My weapon of choice were a pair of Katar like weapons with arm guards. They are short punching daggers no longer than eight inches in length and perfect for my fighting style. When I had trained with the knights I had not cheated with magic except when it came to strengthening my body. That was something that losing magic did not steal away from me. My body was at least five times stronger than it should be.

My opponent was a young man of probably sixteen, it was hard to tell with his facial hair already growing wildly.

He had bronze skin, a lean muscular body, he looked much like a swimmer. His black hair and black eyes placed him around the amazon region. A local. He was no mage, ha...how easy it would have been for me just a month ago.

His choice of weapon was a spear.

We both walked forward towards the circle that would initiate our combat exchange.

He was the first to enter, I followed seconds later. The entire arena was our battlefield, but the close proximity the circle would bring us to, a five diameter wide circle, was how these things were initiated.

Almost instantly and without preparation the boy thrust himself forward attempting to skewer me with a blitzkrieg attack. I waited. He closed the distance in three bounds. I waited. With one hand he level the spear aiming for my heart. His muscles rippling with the strain and effort of his strike.

At the last possible moment I leaned forward and launched myself into the air. The spear missed me completely but my daggers found flesh.

I aimed for a killing blow, but my daggers could not reach the organs or heart, instead magical sparks flew as one dagger grazed against his right thigh and the other sparked off the midsection of his pelvis. My face collided with his thigh snapping my head back awkwardly. I resisted the pain and rolled away as my body hit the ground. He would be immobile for but a moment.

The magic was designed to act like a barrier, instead of receiving a physical blow the magic would deal you pain and exhaustion depending on the kind of injury blocked by the magic.

I opened my eyes clearing away the tears of pain after having smashed my face into the boy’s rather solid thigh.

As I had rolled away I managed one more slice to the already stricken leg slicing at the hamstrings.

The boy was howling in agony as he clutched his thigh. He had tumbled sideways but managed to keep hold of his spear.

The forces crawling through my body made me feel alive. I stood and breathed deeply, the adrenaline was doing its work.

The berserker in my awoke, everything went quiet and once again I could only think of the target before me, of the kill that needed to be made. With reckless abandon I rushed the older boy, he deftly handled his spear twirling it around in a somewhat flashy but practical manner, Like lightning the tip sailed straight and true ramming my left shoulder as he aimed for my heart. It burned bright sparks, the force of the penetration was so great that the protection magic faltered for a moment as the tip managed to cut into my flesh, but I felt none of it.

With my injured left arm I pushed the spear up and away as I cut into the wrist with the right blade coming in to deliver a blow to the kidneys with the left blade. The right blade came around and with all my force I attempted to bury it in the boy’s chest, sparks flew like mad from the impact. The boy was actually pushed back by the force as but an inch of my blade made its way into his chest.

It could go no further as I heard a rather muffled pop from my shoulder. My body barely survived the strain of my movements so it seems.

I didn’t care. I had won, let my arm be limp as it wills.

As my high died down and the pain began settling in as throbbing waves of displeasure, I resolved myself. Without my power it was time to step out of the shadows.