Noelle and I rushed to the house to get me into a change of clothes and attempted to clean me up enough so the fallout from Dorian’s match would affect me as little as possible for my finals with Chad. I mean, he still had to face Talyon, but the way my evening had gone, there was no way I would get lucky enough for Chad to lose.

We got back to the arena fashionably late, as Chad’s match had ended quickly, and everyone was awaiting my return to kick off the main event. I was still sticky feeling and there was still some residue in my hair, but we had managed to get most everything off my skin. I wasn’t going to get any cleaner without a full-on bath and soak, but it could have much been worse.

“Are you ready?? It’s time to drown in the sweet and deadly beauty—!”

I could hear the announcer drumming up the fight, stalling for some time while I rushed back and reached the edges of the crowd.

Wait a second, that wasn’t the Baron. I grimaced a bit as I realized I recognized that voice.

Noelle moved in front of me to give me space to wade through. Once people realized what was happening and that I had returned, the crowd started to part to allow me entry back onto the stage. Outstretched arms reached to brush against me or were attempting to coax me into touching their hands in a greeting or acknowledgement.

It was a lot to take in as I walked by.

Mere hours ago, I had just been a mildly popular girl in this small village. But now? It felt like I had become a folk hero.

A legend.

I didn’t reach out to any of the outstretched limbs, for fear of encouraging them and drawing them closer or bringing even more attention to myself, if that were possible. I cleared the crowd and the open dirt field spilled out before me.

Chad was waiting for me over in his starting position on other section of the arena, arms crossed and foot casually tapping. He didn’t look upset, but I was sure he wasn’t used to waiting on people either.

Then I saw the voice of the announcer that had been bleeding though the crowd on my approach.

Up right and conscious once more, his head wrapped in bandages, was Dorian. He, too, was playing the energy of the crowd well and was keeping them going while everyone had waited for my return. My entry into the arena had caused the crowd noise to shoot back up. Dorian had noticed the change in tempo and had whirled to acknowledge my entrance.

“There she is! The Darling of Destruction herself! What unspeakable pain does she have in store for her unlucky adversary in this, the final match of the evening?!”

Noelle had been right. Despite my borderline mean spirited punishment I had enacted on him, he seemed to be taking it all in stride. He still had that same smile on his face, what part of it wasn’t currently mummified anyway. I was curious what Dorian had done to get the Baron to step down so he could announce this fight.

I collected my sword from Ash, who was holding it out for me near my starting position like my own personal squire. Without thinking about it, I accepted my blade from him, then leaned down and kissed him on his cheek, in full view of not just the crowd, but specifically Dorian and Chad.

Ash’s eyes grew as large as dinner plates and the blood rushed to his face so quickly it was a miracle he didn’t get a nose bleed. He immediately pulled his shirt up to cover his face as he quickly spun back towards his seat and dashed off.

I watched him go and secretly wished I could do the same as I had come to grips with what I just did! I had just kissed my first boy! It was just a peck on the cheek, and it had been done to purposefully infuriate the two idiots across the way, but still! Butterflies started spinning up the most aggressive roller coaster in my stomach and I wanted to hide behind something.

Maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea.

Chad looked beside himself with disbelief and confusion, as if something precious to him had just been stolen right from under his very nose. Dorian, on the other hand, was rolling his eyes with a smirk on his face, as if he knew just what I was doing. He was amused, but hopefully still annoyed. It was fine if he wasn’t. Chad was the one I wanted to annoy the most anyway.

You boys want to play dirty? Fine.

Nothing about this tournament had been at face value. Chad hadn’t been joking when he had insisted it was to be training. Noelle had pushed me to the brink physically while Dorian made me doubt everything I thought I knew about how opponents might approach a fight. It only meant Chad must also have something up his pretty white sleeves.

“Alright it looks like we’re ready!” Dorian outstretched his hands to both of us. “You know both of our finalists, as they need no introduction— but I’m going to do it anyway!” Dorian had a mischievous grin on his face, and I was immediately worried for what was to come next.

“Over here, we have our Princeling, heir to the Crown! You know him, you love him… because you have to! Give a warm welcome to Prince Chad!”

Chad gritted his teeth in a forced smile as he waved. Dorian had purposely butchered any proper royal introduction Chad thought he was due. It was Dorian’s obvious revenge for being addressed as a “farmer” during the tournament. Nevertheless, the crowd enjoyed the entertainment and Chad was cheered on with appropriate gusto.

Like Chad was forced to do in my earlier introductions, Dorian also waved down the volume of the crowd before moving on to me.

“Are you ready for this? It doesn’t sound like you heard me, I said are you really ready??” He had his hand up to his ear, pretending the already clamoring crowd wasn’t being loud enough. He pointed at his hastily wound-up head dressings and exclaimed, “I thought I was ready!”

I was beginning to think the number of bandages used were exaggerated to extract excessive sympathy for his injuries.

He swung his arm back at me in a wide flourish. “She’s bad, she’s mad! She’s! Your! Amazooooooon!”

The crowd noise was again deafening, as it had been for each of my previous matches. The crowd chanted my title as before, but I also noticed more deep, royal purple flags and banners were found everywhere in the crowd, to match the one Ash had been waving in my previous matches. My popularity with the people over the prince himself was astonishing to me.

Chad, like Dorian before him, also seemed unaffected. By contrast, he had a small smile on his face.

“Such a shame to rise so fast,” he chided, while nonchalantly inspecting his fingernails, “only for you to fall so far in mere moments.”

And Chad’s game then became clear: he revealed a sword for each hand.

“The rules didn’t say anything about more than one weapon!” I cried out.

“My tournament, my rules.” he merely stated.

It was my turn to grit my teeth. Again, I was forced to remind myself that Chad had intended this as a training exercise. The entertainment was secondary, just to ease his boredom.

“Let the finals begin!”

A single firework shot into the air and crackled in the night sky above, and Chad immediately moved to engage me.

I quickly took up a defensive posture in response. This was going to be difficult. I had yet to ever attempt to defend against an opponent wielding multiple weapons. Goddess, I hadn’t even had a session where I fought Chad and Dorian simultaneously! Chad immediately started poking and swinging at me from various angles with both blades. His attacks weren’t varied enough that I couldn’t keep track of a pattern, however.

Overhead swing at my head from his right, a jab at my right thigh from his left, followed by a crossing slice at my front from his right again. Each move was varied, but they were something I could see coming by observing the shifts in his shoulders. There was something different about this though: I noticed for the first time tonight that attacks were coming at any body part.

Where Noelle and Dorian had made strikes to score, Chad was aiming at anything. I wasn’t sure if the goal was to connect with a blow to distract me or to hinder movement throughout the rest of the match, but it forced me to be aware of attacks from all angles. Another thing was different about this match than the others as well.

I was tired.

The previous matches had taken a lot out of me, and I hadn’t gotten much downtime in between. My matches had easily been the longest and most involved of the entire bracket, with Chad’s match against Talyon being the only other one that hadn’t been over in a few blows. Noelle and Ash had healed my injuries from my slugfest with her, but that did nothing for my endurance and stamina. And I’d had to rush into town for a change of clothes and then rush back immediately after Dorian’s match.

Add it all up, and I realized I was getting winded already.

Chad finally scored a hit on my left thigh, but I took the opportunity to push at his other blade that was currently in conflict with mine. I took a page from Dorian and completed the push with a shoulder tackle into Chad’s torso, then brought my arm and sword up in a slash at his chest.

I scored!

Dorian and the crowd all screamed, “And the Amazon gets the first hit on the prince all evening, and her first lead of the night!”

We backed away from each other and I realized my thigh was tender. It was the leg I lead with too. I put some weight on it to test it. It was sore, but not unbearable. I should be fine.

Chad dusted himself off from the ground and looked a bit amused.

“Glad to see you taking notes from your last fight. I’ll just have to keep in mind that you like to play dirty, Darling.” He had a small smile on his face, well aware of the double entendre at play.

And he was trying for endearing nicknames again. What a Chad!

He moved towards me again but not attacking. He instead got just within reach and then started circling me. I moved slowly with him, keeping my back positioned away and remembering his propensity to smack my ass when he had the free shot.

Wouldn’t score him any points, but I was sure he wouldn’t care.

My mind continued to flash to all our previous sessions, specifically the bruises and welts he had left on nearly my entire body at one point or another. I could feel myself clenching my jaw so hard that I was grinding my molars together. He knew he intimidated me. Noelle and Dorian I had mistakenly looked past earlier tonight, but for what I thought were good reasons: I had frequently started besting them in our sparring.

I had never beaten Chad, not when he was armed with a sword.

And now, he had two.

He liked to strike at my sword hand still. Maybe I could use that to my advantage? I came at him from my left, swinging wide, to see how he would respond and ready with a counter if he acted on it as I had hoped. He instead blocked normally with his right and immediately thrust the dull point of his left sword into the upper left of my chest, ramming me hard with the contact.

I grabbed at my now extremely sore breast and winced. So much for that.

The crowd gasped in shock and Dorian fed off it, attempting to make sense of my wild maneuver.

“I’m not sure what our demoness was thinking there? Maybe her grand strategy has yet to play out!”

Chad had brought both his blades back up to bare at me.

“What in the God’s name was that?” he tsked at me. “I thought you were ready for this next step. Maybe I was wrong.”

I was just as disappointed in myself as he was. I’d just haphazardly blown away my point lead on a reckless stunt. The score was again tied, and I still hadn’t determined a strategy to win this.

“You can do this!” shouted familiar voices. I realized I was right in front of Ash and Noelle.

I let their encouragement strengthen my resolve and I gripped my sword again with both hands.

“Good thing being wrong is your stupid face!” I barked back.

….What was that? What did I just say?! Stupid!

Why did I think I could come up with some snappy banter suddenly? If I was going to do something awkward and dumb, I should have just turned around and kissed Ash again!

Chad raised an eyebrow at me, unsure what to make of my latest quip. He chose to brush it aside and moved in for another attack. I started weaving dodges into my defenses, attempting to not block each strike as it came, which had been allowing him to control my sword positions.

He would strike, I would block, he then came at me with another swing, and I side stepped it. One swing came at my left ankle, and I merely lifted the leg and stepped forward to attempt to force him on the retreat. I swung down at him and put my weight into landing the blow. He had his other sword lifted protecting his torso and had halted my shot, our swords now jostling with each other for position.

I gave another shove and pushed him away while at the same time reaching and grabbing at his right arm with my free hand. I then swung the butt of my sword down on his right wrist hard. He yelped and dropped the sword but had already been in the process of bringing his left blade back around and smacked me right in my ribcage. I had planned for a two-pronged attack already so, after smashing his hand, I rotated my sword and desperately slashed at his chest.

“The Prince and the Amazon both connect! The score remains tied at two a piece! The next scoring hit will determine who walks away with it all! Will the Prince get to keep his lunch money, or will our Amazon turn out to be a very expensive date?”

Dorian and the crowd were on the edge of their seats. Dorian wasn’t even providing blow by blow commentary anymore and had just become another spectator.

We backed away from each other again. I held my side while Chad was shaking his right hand.

His dominant hand.

Not only had I successfully disarmed him, but he was also going to be forced to fight lefthanded. Dorian and Chad had been taken aback when they learned I was a lefty. After joking claims of me being a “witch” died down, we learned everything I had to be taught had to be learned like a mirror. Training and sparring were difficult for them as they were used to different stances and body positions from their opponent, so it was hard for them to move and teach at the same time. In short, it had been a nightmare.

And now, he was on my turf.

I kicked away his spare blade on the ground and smiled at him.

“Warlock.”

He smiled back at me, still shaking away the pain.

“Witch.”

It was the first moment of relaxation between us when drinking hadn’t been involved.

It was almost pleasant.

For a moment, he seemed to be seeing me as an equal in something. I was reminded of the handful of occasions where he actually was kinda cute and not the obnoxious and overconfident jerk he so often portrayed to everyone. I wondered what he was like when no one was watching.

But no time to think on that now. Now it was time to win.

He swung his left sword arm around in the air a couple of times to reset himself and then lifted his chin up at me in an aggressive taunt.

I wouldn’t fall for it. I finally had an edge in this fight, and I wasn’t going to blow it just by rushing in. Besides I was getting even more tired, and my leg had started throbbing from the hit earlier. Any bursts of movement or attacks would have to be calculated. I couldn’t risk burning myself out, not when I was so close.

I instead strode towards him in a slow manner to resume our dance. I didn’t want him to be able to dictate the upcoming flow, so I struck first, thrusting at the lion head’s crest on his left breast. He swept my blow away and extended in a lunge of his own, also aimed at my left. I rolled my body towards the right and allowed the sword to cut through the empty air. Chad reacted quickly and swung his already outstretched blade back towards my head, however I had already brought my blade back in anticipation of another attack and had it swung behind my head. My block was successful as his blade struck mine.

I then swung back forward in an overhead arc, pushing his blade away, and brought the sword downward to slash at his front. He was able to get his weapon back in position to block and we stood there in another stalemate, a test of strength between us looking for the next advantage.

I couldn’t keep putting more weight on my left leg for much longer and my strength was starting to give out in my other limbs. I was in another position where it was all or nothing, like with Dorian, and I gambled.

My mind flashed back to early during our training where he had chastised me for my readability.

“Not every attack from an opponent is going to leave an immediate opening for a counter move.”

“You’ve become too predictable”.

Alright, time to do something predictable then.

I moved like to shove him again, like I had before. He felt the shove coming and instantly disengaged and jumped backwards.

But my shove had been a feint.

Instead of completing the motion, I let him pull back from me. He had adjusted his sword arm in preparation to strike at where I would have been had I resumed the follow through of my push. His face when he realized I wasn’t there said it all. Instead, I had shifted to my left and skewered him in his wide-open right side.

I had won!

Everything after that moment happened in a rush.

Chad dropped to his knees from the blow and grimaced as he held his side. The crowd started screaming and throwing anything in the air they could get their hands on mostly drinks, flags, and banners. Dorian was yelling at the top of his lungs, “The Amazon wins!” repeatedly. I had doubled over and was leaning on my sword for support. I was more exhausted and winded than I had realized and was breathing extremely heavily.

Fireworks started exploding in the sky, adding to all the noise surrounding me. I took a moment to look up at the twin full moons, the same sight that had greeted me when I first arrived on Eitania. The various colors from the fireworks reflected temporary hues of red, blue, and gold onto them. I smiled then, imagining the orbs were the approving eyes of the Goddess, watching me take this first step.

I reached down and offered Chad my hand. He weakly smiled as he took it and rose.

“That was a good match, Amelia. Better than I have had in ages.” He sighed greatly. “I hadn’t expected to lose, but if doing so means you are ready to start your next task for the Goddess, then I suppose there is a divine purpose behind it.” He shook my hand briskly and then nodded behind me.

“I hope you are ready to enjoy all the fan fair that comes with winning!”

We started walking towards the core of the celebrating crowd where Noelle, Ash, Dorian, and the others were dancing and smiling in a jubilant manner. He thought a moment and then added, “At least I owe you money now instead of that dastard, Dorian.”

I stopped and pulled at him, and he turned to look back at me. “Yeah, about that…”