Ch. 14: You DARE

With brute force, Broxten's blade came crashing down. I managed to deflect with my broadsword, but the impact caused my weapon to go flying. All around, the crowd was in uproar, spurred on from the anticipation of the final fight. Broxten raised his sword again, however the weight was causing him to move slowly. I successfully dodged while running around to his side. I flung two throwing knives at an opening beside his armpit - one met with success. He winced and turned his body my way, grabbing his sword with both hands to make a blind slash for my mid-section. Jumping out of the way, I grabbed another two throwing knives and slung them in the direction of his face. Being as his helmet had fallen off at some point earlier, he had to hold up a hand to deflect, giving me an opportunity to raise my leg high and kick his sword out of his other hand.

His weapon clattered to the ground, but Broxten didn't even reach for it again. He unsheathed two shortswords from either side of his waist belt to begin fighting me with more speed than power. Rushing forward, he began tactically slashing at my body. I managed to successfully evade all of his attacks except for one. Wincing in pain, I felt a sword slice upward on my left shoulder. Blood began trickling down and I could see Broxten give a smug smile.

"Hahahaha! You're going to die today Ezran! How does it feel knowing the most honor you will get is being smashed under my heel?!" Broxten raised his two swords diagonally to hack me in two causing me to roll away while grabbing the dual semicircular blades from off my back. I whirled back around to face my opponent, choosing to go on the offense. Broxten's strength exceeded my own so I knew I had to end this fight quickly before I received another blow. Our blades collided against each other with an ear-splitting ring. I was able to slide a blade down his shortsword and make contact with his wrist. Making a twist, I sliced off his limb allowing him an opportunity to howl in pain. He lunged forward with his remaining hand and sword, as I maneuvered side-ways. Raising my dual blades, I crossed by arms then extended them straight through his neck. His head popped off like a cork while blood spurted out of his arteries onto my face. His body dropped to the knees then fell on the ground, never to move again.

Tired and doused in Broxten's blood, I looked up at the crowd. They had been silent for the death-blow, however cheers began to erupt portraying their enthusiasm for this grand spectacle of blood and gore. The herald came forth and raised my right arm in victory shouting my name and 'birthland' while the King disappeared from his podium. Lowering my arm, the herald told me to look sharp for the King was coming to congratulate me personally. Shortly after, the King and a small entourage came strutting out to the arena. At this point I noticed a very fatal fact; in the entourage was the wannabe-doctor. I closed my eyes in dismay praying to the heavens that they wouldn't make me take off my helmet.

The King advanced with a small smile on his face, but as he got closer, the smile began to fade. Instead of a calm saunter, the King began stomping forward till he was right in front of me.

"What is this?!" he bellowed pointing at my left arm. Confused, I followed his accusatory gesture when my eyes widened in surprise. Out of all the areas on my body, the one blow I received just so happened to allow the sleeve of my tunic to fall down revealing my birth-tat. The King reached forward to rip the remaining sleeve off, causing everyone to gasp.

"You claim to be from Isotope? Then tell me how it is that you have markings from the badlands of Eurosia?"

There wasn't anything I could think to say that would get me out of this situation alive. Noticing that I remained silent the King called forth the guard. Within seconds thirty soldiers stood at attention with Captain Sarce standing at the King's side.

"Remove your helmet." The King ordered. With no apparent choice, I slowly took the helmet from atop my head. The young wannabe-doctor's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets while his cheeks burned crimson. It would have been rather humorous if not for the fact that I was about to be killed.

"You have such a beautiful face along with being from Eurosia, tell me now and do not lie - are you a woman?" demanded the King.

Although every inch of my being wanted to lie and say no, I figured they might strip me down to find out otherwise, "Yes, I am a woman."

Relief appeared on the wannabe-doctor's face as the King's face darkened with murderous intent, "You DARE to infiltrate our military, compete in our games and disobey our laws?! You DARE to lie to the empire and kill our men?!"

As matter-of-fact as possible I gave him my reply, "With all due respect sire, I have followed your laws to the best of my ability. YOUR recruiter was the one who decided I should be in your military. YOUR men were the ones who decided that I should be in this competition. YOU ordered me to kill and be victorious. And quite frankly, I only killed one person because YOU stated there could only be one winner. If anything, I have done everything that was asked of me."

Never in my life had I seen such rage. The King completely lost his cool, "HOW DARE YOU?! You may try to twist the truth, but do know that lying about being a man is a crime and you will be punished!"

"Technically, no one ever asked me if I was a man before, so . . . I never really lied about that."

"Insolent wench!!" The King raised his hand to back-slap me across the face when the wannabe-doctor came forth and gently grabbed his arm.

"Brother, how about we not lose are cool, eh? I know that she seems incredibly 'insolent' but it's possible the woman didn't realize our laws since she's from Eurosia. They are such a backwater dying society that she simply may not have known better and was only thinking of her survival." Lowering his voice, he then added, "A man of your stature should not allow the crowd to see you in such a frazzled state. Besides, she must be here for a reason - why not find that out before you commence a killing-spree, hmm?"

The King appeared to calm down a little, "My brother seems to have a point. Before I order my men to kill you, tell me, why would a woman from Eurosia come to our grand city in the first place?"

"Why?" I chuckled and shook my head. I was about to die, and this man had the gall to ask me why I came. All I came for was to live and try to make a change for the better, however it appeared that wasn't going to happen, so my anger began to spill out, "What if I were to tell you that your 'grand' city is founded on so much evil, malicious and unfair principles that you are too brain-washed to actually see it? In your eyes, women are only breeding machines, forced to carry on a race of egotistical brutes who care about nothing more than the next battle. I am here to witness this lack of intelligence - to try and make sense of all this waste. You may have a wealthy city, but it has been built on the backs of subservience, sexism and genocide. I stand here now to let you know I HATE your empire, your principles, and your unwillingness to change or accept anything that could possibly pull this forsaken land out of this pit of totalitarianism. Your civilization could achieve so much more if only you were willing to accept that things MUST change." I looked straight in the King's eyes and said with disgust, "I pity you. You are nothing but a lowly, rotten meatbag who will not allow your people to receive better. You call yourself a King, but in reality you are nothing more than a wannabe dictator who will NEVER achieve greatness," and with that I spat on the King's boot for good measure.