I've been thinking lately about making a world just for Dragon Dancer. I'd resubmit edited chapters and see if I could get them published as Fan Words. Maybe when I'm finished with it...
Anyway enjoy the chapter!! All you Brand fans should enjoy this one.
Chapter 13
Kitty
~Luecor~
The sound of my lone footsteps echoed in the cold tunnel. It was pitch black with the sporadic drips of water, giving off that underground feeling. My pace was just a bit hurried, spurred with the fear of being late. I dusted off my clothes and smoothed down my hair, pep talking to myself. There’s nothing to worry about, you’re Luecor, the undefeatable Luecor. The words fell flat, my logic and instincts told me I was dead wrong.
“Now where’s the undefeatable Luecor going?” Instantly I stopped and there was a familiar chill. I turned and kneeled, bowing my head to make sure my eyes didn’t meet his; a disrespectful move like that would mean…
Gulping I forced words out of my mouth, “To meet you my Lord, just like you commanded.” The degrading words were like poison to me, it took my all to speak them.
My ears felt like they would pop from his laugh, “That’s right, but why so servile Luecor? Be a little brighter, aren’t you about to win the tournament?”
He was teasing me, he knew that I wouldn’t dare act like I was on his level, hastily I nodded, “Y-yes, just one more round.”
The tunnel was quiet as he thought and I didn’t dare to speak, sweat dripped down my neck. You could never tell what he was thinking, whether he would suddenly decide if your life isn’t worth it. Every heart beat that passed was more precious than the last…was I not of value anymore?
“Don’t worry, you’re still of use to me,” he said, easily reading my thoughts.
I flinched; reminded yet again I had no privacy, “So did you meet the Dragon Dancer?”
“No,” I said shaking, “she has been avoiding me.”
“You’ll see her soon enough,” he said.
“My Lord, are you sure she is in the tournament?” I asked quietly.
The whole room was suddenly freezing, I had gone too far, “Perhaps I should make it so that you will never see her again?” he said, his voice on the edge of being angry. . I threw myself down at his feet quivering in fear, slowly the temperature rose to what it was before.
He turned and started to walk away from me, “Where are you going my Lord?” I asked.
“I have some business with the King,” and that was the end of the conversation.
I waited until I couldn’t hear his footsteps and got up, boy have you got yourself into something Luecor, I thought. Heck, being back in that cavern was better than being a servant of the Master of all Gea.
~Dragon Dancer~
At this point of the tournament I was wondering if I should ditch the group to spare myself the embarrassment of losing to Luecor. Our plan was being turned against us; with Gret’s and Rook’s losses we’d have to win all of the next three. Finally after thinking about it I decided I might as well stick with this group, it would have been petty of me to abandon them in their time of crisis.
There was thirty more minutes until the next round with Brand against Marca. It was the norm, the Dragon Seekers were in a bad spot. We were all in the room, excluding Gret who was still in the infirmary healing. They were all in a bad mood and Aaron was trying to lift everyone’s spirits (emphasis on trying), “We still have a chance,” he said, “I’m sure Luecor is just like any other fighter. He’s just had a lot of luck.”
“So I guess it was just ‘luck’ that made Luecor win last year and all the fights in this tournament up until now,” said Rook sarcastically. He was quite the sore loser, especially after making such a big mistake and with all of us watching.
“Rook-,” began Aaron.
“Don’t Rook me Aaron! It’s not luck, the Excruciates are cheating!” yelled Rook.
“Just because you lost-,”
“Luecor is the favorite Aaron! The judges and the king want us to lose and we’re playing right into their hands,” Rook got quieter with every word making sure that it didn’t just seem like some outburst of anger.
Aaron was still uncertain, “I don’t th-,”
“Think about it! Who nearly killed the king’s son? Did you really believe that the king would be okay with that?” Rook was starting to impress me, the fact that he thought about that was notable.
Aaron went quiet, considering this, Brand was the first one to speak up, “What does it matter?” he said smiling, “It all just comes to busting some heads and I’d say we’re all pretty good at that, eh?” he thumped Aaron’s back looking at all of us expectantly. I nodded, he was right, in a way. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all, Brand was next and who wasn’t better suited to lift our spirits up?
~Brand~
I felt good. Never mind the whole “we’re going to lose” thing, I was doing great. The cheers, the sweat, the excitement, this was where I belonged. When I heard my name called out I didn’t think oh no I’m going to die or even better, I’m going to do this! No, I just walked up those stairs with a smile. See there’s no need to think, it doesn’t change anything and besides, I had this all handled.
The crowd greeted me with fanatical enthusiasm and for their sake I waved and flexed my muscles for them. Really, what would they do without me? Over on the other side of the stadium, walking toward me, was a pretty muscular, tan, and mean-looking guy, with dirty brown dreadlocks. I’d say we were about the same height and width (I think I had a little more muscle). His weapon was a ball and chain, the giant spiked ball dragging behind him. That would be fun.
“Ladies and gents now we come to the third fight of the final round. Who will be the winner? The Dragon Sekers?” the announcer allowed the audience to get out some screams, I waved again, “or the Excruciates?!” the crowd screamed louder along with the announcer. No problem, I’d make them love me.
“Now my good people! I present you Brand and Marca!”
Marca? Marca? A grown man called Marca? What a girly name. I laughed out loud just barely hearing the announcer, “READY!” I tried to pull myself together, “BEGIN!”
I unsheathed my sword and jogged toward Marca, chuckling as I did. Marca jogged too, easily dragging the spiked ball that followed him like a dog on a leash. After a couple of steps I couldn’t help it and broke out laughing, stopping and putting my hands on my knees. Marca started to run with an angry scowl that looked like it was etched permanently on his face. I could see why, just imagine all the guys who made fun of his name all his life.
When Marca swung that ball at me I instantly stopped laughing. Suddenly I realized that I couldn’t use my hands to fight this guy, the spikes would hurt like hell. Hurriedly I pulled my shield off my back and didn’t have the time to strap it to my arm as the spiked ball collided into me. It hit the shield, jarring my arm and causing me to drop the now dented shield. Marca pulled the chain back, getting ready for another swing. I hurriedly picked my shield off the ground and strapped it onto my arm. Judging on the dent on it, I knew the shield wouldn’t last much longer and without it I wouldn’t last either.
I heard the sound of clanking metal and turned around and saw the same metal door they used for the dragonets in the first round opened and let in four large cats. I think they were called tigas or something but they had stripes and had three pairs of legs and on all of them they were up to my elbow. Beasts, that was my obstacle, and I wouldn’t ask for it any other way. Sure they were going to be tough but I wouldn’t be facing any bizarre over the top magic stuff.
Distracted by the cats I nearly forgot about the large spiked ball that nearly slammed into my face. Luckily I did remember and just before the ball hit me I ducked. There was a roar from behind and I turned to see one of the giant cats charging at me. Despite its size the animal was fast with the extra leg power and it reached me in two blinks. The stripped cat jumped, it’s claws reaching for my head and it’s muzzle open showing giant yellow teeth. As it was in the air I ducked and used my shield to block the claws and to help the animal over me. I stabbed the cat in the belly as it continued over me, when the cat landed on the ground it was dead. It was a shame, I thought as I looked at the animal, the tiga was a beautiful animal. All good thoughts about the cat disappeared when another came from behind and bit me on the shoulder. Pain exploded there as the cat’s powerful jaws clamped down on my collarbone. I dropped my sword and using my shield arm I punched its stripped face with all I had. With a screech it let go, angry with pain I turned and using my shield like the back of my hand I slapped the crap out of the tiga. It screamed again and swiped it’s paw at me but I knocked it away with my shield again. I put both of my hands together in one giant fist, brought it up, and then slammed the animal’s head like a hammer. As the tiga was disoriented I grabbed it by the scruff of it’s neck and punched it in the face some more for good measure. Then I got the cat’s neck in the crook of my arm and chocked it. The cat weakly growled and clawed me, its nails tearing into my thighs but I ignored it. After a while the tiga didn’t move and when it stopped breathing I left the body fall to the ground. I looked over at Marca, one cat lay dead right by him and he was having trouble with a second one. I reached down and picked up my sword, I moved my right arm around experimentally, cringing with the pain. Damn, that cat sure made a mess out of me, my right arm wouldn’t hold out much longer and my clawed legs weren’t doing any better.
There was a strangled scream and I knew Marca had taken care of the last tiga. I turned and faced him just before he swung again. My shield arm went up and the ball hit it straight on. I stepped back a few times from the sheer power of the ball and my metal shield crumpled, molding painfully onto my arm. Cursing I immediately dropped my sword and unfastened my shield that was severely bruising my arm. My only defense against the spiked ball was now gone, to put it pleasantly I was screwed. Marca stomped forward in long strides as he spun the ball over his head. I planted my feet in the ground; I wouldn’t back away from him. My mind meanwhile was racing to find a way to get to him, not really getting anywhere. It didn’t take a genius to realize that I was in over my head, I was straightforward, swing my sword a few times and punch the crap out of someone, you know, brute force. This situation called for a thinker like Aaron or Rook or even Gray.
Marca swung it at me again, hey, I thought, why not move the chain away with my sword? As good of a time as any, I tried it out. I swung my sword at the chain and sure enough, the ball swung the other direction. Before I could congratulate myself on what a great idea I had, the chain wrapped around my sword and when the ball hit it the blade broke in half. Crap. I looked up, Marca was smiling now. I dropped my now useless sword, I’m such an idiot! I thought, I had heard about how a ball and chain could do that. Marca pulled back the chain and quicker than before swung it at me. I was close so he couldn’t really miss me, the spiked ball hit me on the side. The spikes, which were about as long as my pinky finger, were worse than the claws and the force of the ball crushed a few of my ribs and knocked me to the ground. The air in my lungs came out with an oof! and I winced. I tried to get up pathetically but I found that my body wouldn’t let me get up from the pain battering me from all sides.
I heard a laugh and looked up to see Marca standing over me, “You sure are all bark and no bite. I have to say you were pretty good at killing kittens but that muscle doesn’t amount to anything against the real boss huh?”
I spat out some blood, “Just because you’ve got a sissy name doesn’t mean you have to be bitchy.”
I got a kick right on my broken ribs for that, “You know you suck at fighting, what was that guy’s name? Gret? That pansy was worse than you.”
“Shut up,” I said through clenched teeth. He could say all he wanted about me but about my group…
“Oh? Then what about the last guy, Rook? He just had a hissy fit and could throw a rock and he still couldn’t win cause he was stupid enough to step out a circle the size of his ego.”
“Shut up, Shut up!” I yelled, trying to get up.
“You’ve got no right to say that to me,” he spat at me, “I bet your two other friends are just like you, that Aaron dude isn’t all that. All he uses are pretty fighting moves. And that Gray kid, ha ha, you guys must have been really desperate.”
I didn’t say anything, there’s a point that words don’t even matter, you just gotta get some punches in, and that point was passed a long time ago. I ignored my screaming body, forcing it to sit up.
“Now let’s get this beating over with,” Marca said, spinning the spiked ball.
“I plan to,” I murmured, he let go of the chain and I got to my feet. I didn’t bother dodging and raised my hands, smack! the ball hit straight on my hands as I caught it. This was one second long but time decided to go slow for me so I could relish every millisecond of it. The spikes did hurt like hell and the ball had the force of a charging ram but I pushed against it, pouring all my strength in my legs and arms. The gravel tore at my knees as they dug into the ground and I forced one of my legs in front of me to help push against the ball. Finally the moment passed and the force of the ball was canceled out with mine and with all my might I threw the ball directly at Marca. Time hadn’t slowed for Marca and in that small moment he didn’t have the chance to catch it and he was knocked onto his back from his own weapon.
I stood up and walked over to Marca my breath ragged and my hands a bloody mess. Marca’s breastplate hadn’t protected him from the crushing power of the ball. He was barely breathing and couldn’t talk, instead choosing to stare at me hatefully. I couldn’t feel my hands and in some corner of my mind I wondered if I’d be able to use them anymore. Not like it was a problem; it just made it easier to throw some hits. I grabbed Marca by the collar and clenched my fist, “I’d hate to be cliché,” I hissed in his face, “but the way I see it, you’re all worth it.” I pulled back my arm then swung, focusing all my anger and hatred in my fist. My knuckles met his face with a satisfying smack and I was only disappointed that I couldn’t feel its contact, “that’s Gret’s,” another, “Rook’s,” another, “Aaron,” Marca was starting to go unconscious, I shook him roughly, “Don’t you go out on me! I’m not finished yet!” I winded back another punch then let it fly, letting go of his shirt the moment it hit and let the impact throw him to the ground, “and that’s Gray’s!”
The noise of the audience which I never realized had gone, returned. I looked at them then back at Marca, he was now unconscious and didn’t look like he would be getting up anytime soon. I lightly kicked him, “Hell, that was nothing,” I said to him with a smile, “compared to what the four of them would have done to you.”
The announcer yelled that I won; the Dragon Seekers still had a chance. So overall: broken right collarbone, clawed thighs, shield and sword broken beyond repair, bruised left arm, at least three broken ribs, shredded knees, and my hands riddled with holes. The blood loss was starting to get to me now, I threw up my arms for the crowd once more and they cheered their hearts out for me. My legs gave out and I fell to the ground, and you know what? The crowds shouted louder than they did for Marca.
Told you I’d make them love me.
