Learn Your Own Definition of Tenacity (II)

Auden hastily got up and back on his feet. His rapier once again met her sword and they tried to win the upper hand with the colliding parry.

Before she could properly react, he hit her with a quick kick to the groin. This sent her back a foot and out of her range to get a strike into his chest.

He quickly took some steps and began going for a strike to her left shoulder, which she countered and blocked repeatedly as he tried to evade and get around her sword.

Slash, block, slash, block. Slash, block, slash, block. Over, over, and over again. Slash, block, slash, block. Twing, twang. Ting, tang.

The timer ticked down to 16:46.

"Hmm. She's not doing too bad." Cara said to herself. "She needs to find her way around him to win, though."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Rambone turned his head to her and asked.

"Well if you look right now, all they're doing is pacing back and forth and around each other trying to breakthrough." She made hand gestures with one of her hands to motion in the direction she was talking about.

The timer ticked down to 15:42.

Then Luca made the unfortunate mistake of pushing his rapier to the right, letting her get caught off guard by making a sudden move with his wrist to get past her unrelenting wall of blocks.

He broke through her defenses and managed to sharply cut through her uniform and put a gash in that same spot on her right shoulder that he had previously been aiming for.

She recoiled in pain, screaming and dropping to the floor in pain. She dropped her sword as well.

"Shittt!" She screamed and cursed in pain while holding the hit shoulder with the other.

Rambone and Cara nearly screamed out in worry as well. They were shocked by the sudden mistake she had made.

"She fucked up! You better be okay, girl!" They were both thinking. They both moved to focus on ever so more.

She fought back tears but sprawled back when her vision returned to her, which had made her realize that Auden had not disappeared or taken a step back.

Auden picked up her sword and threw it at a part of the wall closest to him, about 50 feet away from either of them.

"You're done," Auden said, in a deadened tone. "I'll give you to the count of 5 to surrender before I fuck up your face."

Luca panicked. Thoughts rushed her head as she panicked, her eyes flying all over the place, in a desperate solution to get out of this situation.

Don't cry. You can't join Pat now. Don't cry. Don't cry. Calm yourself. You can't die now. You're going to die now.

"5." The clock ticked down to 15:06.

There must be a way out of here, calm down. There's no need to panic. You're better than him. Don't cry. Save your tears for later.

"4." The clock ticked down to 15:03.

Look around. The sword is over there. His weapon is just above your chest. He's standing nearly right on top of you. The devil isn't calling for you.

"3." The clock ticked down to 15:00.

Why don't you try pushing him away from you somehow? That has to be it. The world around you isn't burning in flames.

"2." The clock ticked down to 14:57.

Sweep his leg. That must be the key to all this. Then you can move there. Calm down.

"1." The clock ticked down to 14:54.

Luca swept his leg and used arms to support herself up as she jumped up to get back on the ground, swiftly following up with a hard kick to his groin to push him back even more.

The clock ticked down to 14:51.

She looked around for the sword and which part of the wall it was on, her eyes nearly darting all over the place. It was 50 feet away. Not too hard a distance to clear for her. She was beginning to sweat. Her breathing became heavier than it was before. Her heart was nearly about to jump out as her blood was pumping like that of a lion's.

She was still somewhat trembling. But, she was determined to get her sword back, no matter how hard it may be. One thing became clear to her in her mind as she blocked out any other thoughts in her mind: Get the sword back or it's game over.

She rushed over to it. He nearly dropped his sword in the process of getting back up but he was also determined to get the sword back, but for an entirely different purpose: to keep it out of her hands.

20 feet from the sword. Auden was 25 feet.

15 feet from the sword. Auden was 19 feet.

10 feet from the sword. Auden was 13 feet.

5 feet from the sword. Auden was 7 feet.

And then she reached the sword and began fighting with the wall to pull it out. She had one leg leveraged against it as she fought with a desperate effort to get it back before he came into her range. She grunted and ached and nearly screamed in the effort.

But it was nearly no use. Right as he came into range with her, she managed to pull it out from the wall and get it into her right hand.

She did a rapid 180 turn to meet his face right as he threw a swing at the right side of her stomach.

It went nowhere as she managed to trap the blade in between her side and upper arm, beginning another desperate struggle.

"Shit." He yelled out. He began using his superior strength to pedal them both back while at the same time dodging kicks from her aimed his groins to give her breathing room.

"You go, girl!" Cara shouted, followed by her giving some applause.

"Holy shit..." Rambone was in awe of what he was witnessing from her. It reminded him of something.

"Hey, Luca why don't you like violence?" Rambone asked. "It's weird."

"I was never raised to do that kinda shit. No matter if I win or lose, I know Pat's going to whoop my ass for it." She responded. "That responds to you."

"I mean, fair." He said. "But like, my parents don't really care about what happens as long as I don't lose."

"But, like, why though?"

"We're not raising our son up to be a pathetic loser when he grows up." He harshly quoted from memory.

"Damn. That's crazy."

"I know. To me, it's like, aren't those who fight all the time losers too? Kind of a shitty reason if you ask me."

"Probably." She shrugged.

"So what reason did Pat give?"

"Gives me, too, bad looks and a bad reputation. You should know that. That's why I don't want you ever going off and starting fights now, okay?" She quoted.

"Hmm. I never thought about it that way. Besides, not like we never need to fight anybody, do we?"

She agreed with him. "Like, why do people fight each other in the first place? I mean, there's no real reason to anyways, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

As the dodging and the backpedaling continued, Cara took a quick look over at Rambone's awed expression before returning her eyes to the match.

"What's with the face you got going on there?" She jokingly poked at him. "Looks like you're seeing god and not this match going on right now."

"I'm just shocked... I've never seen her remotely act like this towards anyone... not even me." He said.

"Oh, is that true, my young stud?"

He nodded.

"Wow. Guess we're lucky that she's finally stepping up to the plate!"

"Nah, not it's like that. I don't think you'd get it."

"I'd get it. I'm young enough to understand! I'm 28 after all!"

"I doubt it."

"Well, you can try and explain it to me when I get back from the bathroom. I'll be back in a moment to prove your doubts wrong, kiddo!" She got up and headed towards the stairs, and in a general direction towards the bathroom.

"What am I kidding, would she actually get it?" He thought to himself.

Luca then landed a kick on his left groin and sent him back more than a few feet.

"She knows that Luca has a real reason to fight now." The clock ticked down to 13:26.