Strength Of My Own

My body still waking up as I slowly clambered out of bed, my eyes weighed down by sleeplessness, bags formed under them. Phyora hurried ahead and went to go do her morning routine, whilst I headed to the nearest bucket of water to dunk my head in. As I plunged into the icy cold water Mak and Ash passed on their way out, Mak patted my back as he went by towards the doors. Hunched over I went to get into some casual clothing before grabbing my bag with armour and headed to the arena. As I trudged through the streets I had moments of doubt in myself, around me everyone slowly flooded into the stands, and as I approached I could hear the crowds voices shaking the ground around me. The hairs on my arms began to stand on end, the air surrounding it felt tense.

When I entered I looked around at my opponents, a woman that towered over us all called Jone, a smaller man with a large beard that reached down to his belly button called Trov and a man about my height called Aurens. I took a look at the fighting schedule for the day, I was second fight against Aurens, I calmly began to dawn my armour as I waited for my match to arrive. The crowd roared and as the first match began I started to prepare myself for the fight. During this time I moved closer to the arena entrance to get a view of the current match in order to scout my next opponents.

Jone seemed to be a hit for hit style of fighting, doing very little in defence but far more in offence. Whilst Trov would dance around Jones attacks his beard flowing in the wind as he dodged around the arena. He would go in for a quick skirmish every now and then before quickly retreating, from my position I could tell he was wanting to tire Jone out and was waiting for that critical moment. Jone swung her sword around without a care in the world, if she was in a forest she would've cut down a couple trees with how wide her swings were, and as she swung her sword back to begin another strike Trov quickly moved in and tried to catch her off balance.

As he stepped in and under her strike Jone herself began to topple backwards, during this motion the exceedingly large woman kicked Trov under the chin and sent him backwards about a foot. Both were on the ground neither showing any sign of getting up, For a while nobody knew what was going on, until Trov got to his feet faster whilst Jone lay there unmoving. The crowd cheered as Trov was declared the winner, and all I could think was about how weird the ending was. Jone slowly brought herself to her feet gripping the back of her head as she headed back into the staging area.

"Nice fight." I said as the pair re-joined us in the area, Trov simply nodded back as Jone went to the other side and sat down. Slowly I began to prepare my mental as the fight approached, the small break adding more to my nerves than anything else. Then the trumpets blared out making me jump slightly. As I entered the arena, I held my breath and closed my eyes as I walked to my spot, slowly I let out a calm sigh as I tried to calm myself. The crowds cheers echoing in my ears and as I prepared my stance. I formed a high guard and waited for my opponent to begin his attack.

He slowly circled around me before beginning his assault, his attacks came in quick, I attempted to block and dodge his hits. Parrying slashes coming in from left and right, slowly I began to develop a strategy to knock him off his balance. I parried quickly drawing his sword over myself and twisted my body around to be facing his back as he passed. Then with this opening I moved in and shoulder barged him to knock him off balance, as he faltered I began to move in and quickly deal a blow to his side.

Failing to block he fell into the side of the arena, the wall keeping him up, then all of a sudden he lunged towards me, my mind now clear and calm I quickly dodged leaving a leg out to trip him over. Then as he fell I held the point of my sword to his neck. The fight was mine. As I sheathed my sword the crowd roared at my victory, so I held my fist up high, I could see my friends cheering for me and I turned my gaze up into the royal box, my eyes falling prey to her gaze as she smiled and clapped at my victory. I quickly blinked snapping myself out of it, and within me came a sense of pride as I walked back into the staging area.

"Well fought." I said to Aurens as he passed me but with no reply. There was a tiny break between the matches to let the fighters recuperate, then the next match was me against Trov. After watching him in his last match I understood how to fight him, his dancing style would try to catch me off guard and punish tiny footing mistakes. So I had to be careful when approaching him, the fight began in a flash as he darted forward, a different strategy than last time. His attacks came in at lightning speeds as I dodged and dipped out of the way. I brought my sword up perpendicular with my body as I prepared again for his attacks.

As he moved in to attack I slowly shifted my weight to the opposite side of my body, parrying his sword as he lunged forwards. His thrust grinding the steel off my dulled blade then as he passed I quickly grabbed the blade of his sword putting it in my control. He tried to struggle and attempted to yank it out but as he did this he left himself open and my attack slammed into his side causing him to wilt. As he held his pain I pushed my weight forwards, trying to knock him to the ground. When he fell I again pointed my sword at his neck winning the fight.

I began celebrating again and as I again stared at her eyes, I again became entranced by them. My heart began beating faster and as I walked back into the staging area I felt overcome by her. Everything in my mind became active and flew around at high speeds, I felt something different in these moments, different from anything I've ever felt before. As I regained my composure I realised that with that fight victory I had managed to book my place in the bracket. I decided to sit and rest before my last fight, not wanting to watch. The crowd roared again and I could hear the clashing of steel, the OOohs and AAAhs of the crowd as each fighter tried to ground the other.

Then the crowd roared as Aurens and Jone came back into the area, they both looked exhausted as another break came to let us rest a little bit more. Jone had lost to Aurens putting her out of the tourney, which just left between Aurens and Trov to take the last road to the bracket. As the trumpets blew the pair of them entered the arena and began to fight. I stood again at the exit into the arena watching the pair, similar in style move around each other. Using different attacks, lunging in together and binding their swords, the fight went on for a while with both of them becoming exhausted.

Trov began a fast attack, sliding under Aurens's attack and slamming his sword hand into the jaw of Aurens. Aurens flew off his feet and landed a couple feet behind him with a loud THUD! Completely unmoving as Trov was declared the victor, our side of the bracket had been decided and all was left was for me to fight Jone. I had been thinking all this time on how I would fight her, due to her height I felt that I'd have a rough time coming to grips with getting around it. Then as we entered the arena, I realised that her speed would be her downfall.

Quickly I sprang my plan into action, moving quickly and skilfully dodging under her first huge attack, knowing full well that she would go for a kick. As she did I spun around to her back, and slammed my foot into the back of her leg. Causing her to topple under her own height, and she slowly collapsed to the ground. The crowd roared at the speed of the fight, how quick it had ended, a sudden thought of why my friends felt that I had the worst group before I began to celebrate. The crowd roared back as I did, and for the last time that day my eyes became fixated on hers, my heart raced as I bowed and made my way into the staging area.

I had finally found a strength of my own.