Rise of Tempest Merlin

Chapter 18

Tempest’s POV

“Are you sure, lass?” asked the Spartan warrior. I was definitely not sure about this but there was no chance in hell that I was going to let this get away from me.

“Of course. Do you think that I would try and get in this without thinking about the pros and cons?” I asked him haughtily but I had a growing fear in my heart that this was going to end in disaster.

“You seem to have been well taught and well read, Lass that you speak words which are not known to me,” said the warrior and I smiled at him.

“No problems. What do I need to do?” I asked him.

“Soon the warrior will be here and you will be the one to challenge him. If you win against him then you are going to win whatever you want from him and if you lose then you will lose your life,” said the warrior and I looked at him hoping that he would say that it was a joke but his expression did not change. Not even an ounce.

“You are serious!” I told him and he nodded. “Why is it that I have to die and he gets to live? What happens if he dies?”

“Welll there has been no possibility of that yet and he has been the undefeated champion in sword fighting so I do not see why that question even arises,” he said and I still prodded,” Humour me. Count me as curious.”

“If you can vanquish him in battle then everything that he owns, that is his horse, his weapons and his prized dagger all belong to you. The shield that he carried alone is double your weight, and yet you are hell bent on making this your funeral,” said the warrior. He was a blue eyed one….muscles which were like cubes of white chocolate glinting in the sun. The leather cover that he wore around him like a covering made me only anticipate what might be hiding underneath that. His thighs were like oak trees with muscles and sinews..

 I said,” There will be a King in your country later on whose name will be Leonidas. And he will fight Persian army with only 300 soldiers, whose name will go down in your history as martyrs but before that happens he will have a Queen. The one who will be a warrior, honed for battle, because only a true Spartan woman can give birth to a Spartan warrior. So unless she is a warrior herself she can never let her child go through what you had to go through when you were seven years old.”

The warrior looked at me for a while without a word on his lips and said,” Are you a sorceress? How do you know about the future?”

“Because I am from the future. Just visiting. So never underestimate any woman’s capacities…” I said as I took the dagger that had been handed to me and bent down. I caught hold of the coarse material of my dress and pierced the knife through the middle which covered my thighs. And then I sliced the knife through the entire surface area of the dress and took the cloth and then tied it around my waist like a belt. And slid the dagger in it.

With the sound of the cloth tearing like that, the entire crowd there had gone silent. Everyone was looking at me, this was the first time that I was the centre of attention and that too not a begrudging one. I felt embarrassed and then I recalled that this is a game and I am in my Avatar. Nothing could hurt me here.

And soon there was a loud roar at a distance.

A huge man was coming in this direction and I felt like running away with my tail in between my legs.

“There is still time, lass. Why are you inclined on sacrificing yourself I do not understand,” said the warrior as I looked up at him and smiled.

“Cowards run from their own battles. Warriors fight each and every battle that comes in their direction and I do not consider myself a coward,” I said as I took a deep breath. I had no skill, no confidence and absolutely zero clue of what I was going to do in the fighting arena but I knew this that I had to trust my instincts because this was a game and I needed to play in order to forge ahead. This was a game where I needed to learn the skills not by coins or by buying but by winning the levels and actually playing them physically.

“Welcome, men and women…today we are here like every afternoon to see if there is any one lion hearted to fight the most fearsome gladiator in a match fighting for their life and also for the honour. And after a long time we have finally come to see the rise of a new unmarked and unknown lass, who tells that she fights for the sake of her honour and her dignity. SO are you all ready?” screamed the announcer who are probably one of the patrons of the bar.

But I found that all of them were looking at me with such shock that even I forgot to breathe for a second.

Then everyone shouted and screamed in outrage that how could a woman fight and why would I even want to die at the hands of such a brutal warrior. Had I lost all my senses? I heard them all and then composed myself. There was nothing that they could say which could deter me from what I was going to do.

I entered the arena which was an oversized mud trough and I looked at the man who could punch through me and there would be nothing left of me. But he was huge in size whereas I was lithe and spry and a lot smaller in size and that was my only advantage.

“Choose your weapons now. There will be no hand to hand combat between a lass and a man,” said the announcer as I pulled out the dagger from my waist and then showed it to him.

“And Ragor, choose your weapon now,” said the announcer as he pulled out a huge blade and then I saw it. It had the power to cut through anyone in a single time and the metal glinted in the slanting rays of the afternoon sun. That weapon could decimate in a moment and still I knew I had to fight because if I killed him then I could get that sword and I wanted that.

I looked at the man who smirked at me. It was clearly a smirk which said that I am going to eat you for dinner.

But then I saw his feet. The leather covering which covered his loins left most of his feet empty and there were sandals on his ankles which were made of leather. I had a feeling that he came here only because he was obliged to and he had not been challenged in quite some time. And that gave me little bit more confidence.

Without any warning he charged in my direction like a bull who had been shown the red cloth. I held the blade even, a perfect, undaunted horizon; always leveled with the nose, just as I thought it should be, since no one had taught her. I had stalled the man’s strike, but watched a wretched, stained grin split the bastard’s lips as her blade shivered under the brutality of his compelling strength. “Weapons do not belong in the hands of women,” he throatily crooned, pressing closer to her face. The blade flashed as he brought it over his head and hummed a low, swift tune when he brought it down.

But what he did not expect is me to fight like a man. He did not expect me to fight down and dirty. So it did not bother me as I dropped down low and swooped in between his feet cutting the tendons behind his knee in a swift stroke. Before even he knew what was happening he was bleeding so badly that he fell down just like a huge oak which had been felled.

Everyone was silent. The man looked at me and then swung the blade again and I quickly moved away as the blade sunk to the ground and I stepped on to the hilt and with the force of a pivot I was on his neck and without even thinking once I buried my dagger in his neck up to the hilt. As I could hear the gurgling of the blood, there was a warm rush on my legs soaking my clothes.

I stepped down and then watched as the crowd erupted in a loud applause. Even if I had just killed a man, they were still applauding because I had killed him when it was impossible.

“We have a new victor in town. What are you called, lass?” asked the announcer with a wide splitting grin on his mouth.

“Tempest,” I answered. He shouted my name to the crowd as I could see the Spartan warrior smiling at me and nodding his head as if it was unbelievable. As soon as it was done I knew that I was going to be thrown out of this place so I quickly grabbed the sword, prying it from the dead man’s fingers.

N sooner than I had caught hold of the sword I was sent reeling back and thrown on my a*s inside a white room. I looked up and saw that Percy and Lilith were there as well. While Creon and Volga were yet to arrive.