Redux: Lineage

Angela hadn't been too hard to get ahold of, taking no more time than five minutes to find her training in the exercise yard of the castle. She'd dressed down from her usual coat, pants, and boots to nothing more than a raggedy, sleeveless black shirt and a pair of tattered old brown pants, lacking any kind of footwear. Shining went over to talk to her, but the mighty mage didn't stop training, continuing her set of one-handed push-ups, sweat visibly dripping down her strong arms and soaking through her clothing.

I'd hoped she was wearing some kind of supporting bra, for her sake.

"What can I do you for?" Angela barked, her voice loud and excited as usual, once again making the most of the strength of youth.

"We need your assistance on a certain matter," Shining answered, crouching next to the blonde fighter and locking his fingers together.

"Again?" she asked, pushing herself up hard enough to allow her to switch arms without stopping, landing with a grunt and a grit of her teeth before continuing her set. "So soon?"

"Evil never sleeps, Angela," Shining said, looking out across the exercise yard and into the distance. "And we can't either, not until it's all stamped out."

"Alright then, General, what mess are you dragging me into this time?" Angela asked, starting to use her other hand to perform clap-push ups, her shoulders visibly tensing and straining with each impact of her body on the rough, dirty ground.

"We need you to use a few of your connections," Shining explained. "Get the word out to as many hunters across the globe as you can about a certain group we're looking for."

"And what would that group be?"

"Vampires," Shining said, looking back down at Angela with a serious expression.

"As good a prey as any," she shrugged, finally giving one last mighty push up before dropping onto her backside, rolling her shoulders before clawing her sweat-slicked fringe out of her face. "You want me to smash them for you?"

"If only it were that simple," he chuckled. "Are you aware of how Vampires operate?"

"I know they drink blood, are really miserable, and don't have a good sex life," she shrugged. "Beyond that, all I know is where to find them and what to kill them with."

"Do the other hunters know those things as well?"

"The older ones will, and the younger ones can learn," she said, resting her arms on her knees and panting quietly. "How many are we going after?"

"If it goes well: half of them," he answered in a simple manner.

"That's not a number, General," Angela stated with a cocked head.

"Because I don't know what the total number of their population is, but I know we're gonna need to kill half of them," he said, standing up and stretching his back.

"That's gonna take a good few hunters," Angela said. "A good few."

"We've already got most of the muscle for dealing with the Vampires ready and waiting for the kill order to be given," Shining said with a wave of his hand. "We just need the hunters to mark the targets."

"I'm sure a few of the other guild masters around the world can keep an ear to the ground for any sickly-looking whiners," Angela nodded, holding her hand out to be taken.

Shining grabbed it and pulled the smaller woman to her feet, Angela dusting her dirt-caked trousers off before turning to look at myself and the other three.

"Are they gonna be helping too?" she asked, smiling and waving politely at us, a gesture we returned.

"In their own ways, yes," Shining nodded. "How soon can you get word out to the other guild masters?"

"If I use our network, probably a few hours, at least," she shrugged. "I'll take a shower, get dressed, and get a start on that. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect," he said, nodding his head in thanks as Angela walked off the exercise ground, giving us a wink and a wave as she walked past.

We watched her make her exit, her long, blonde hair disappearing into the castle and leaving the training grounds quiet, except for the few grunts and sighs of the other training soldiers.

"She terrifies me," Annerose said after a moment of silence.

"How so?" Zane asked.

"Her thighs look like they could crush my head without any kind of effort," she said in a shivering tone.

"Not the worst way to die," I commented, standing up and walking over to one of the training rings.

"He's not wrong," Zane shrugged, leaning back and staring into the clear blue sky.

And it was quite a sight to behold. The weather was in the height of a warm summer, the wind was cool, the birds chirped and sang in beautiful unison, and I had a warm, glowing feeling in my chest that told me there was only one thing I wanted:

Violence.

I drew two swords off the practice rack, tossing one like a javelin over to Annerose. She was unaware of the missile at first, soon being made aware too late, only for Zane's superior reflexes to allow him to catch it before she was knocked to the floor.

"Little warning next time?" she barked as Zane handed her the sword. "And what're you playing at, anyway?"

"Fight me," I said, holding my arms by my lower sides and smiling at her.

"Excuse me?" she asked in a surprised tone.

"You heard," I said, throwing the wooden scabbard of the practice sword aside and twirling it in my hand for a brief moment. "I want you to fight me."

"You mean you want me to tan your arse for the four seconds you'll last?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Exactly," I nodded. "I need to get better, and the only way to do it is by fighting someone I need to surpass."

"I'm not a good teacher," she shrugged. "Ask someone else."

"No, I'm asking you to train with me," I said in a sterner tone.

"There's nothing to gain from it besides bruises and broken teeth," she said, flicking her hair over her shoulder and turning her nose up at me. "You're only gonna get pissy with me when you lose."

"Annerose, as your Crown Prince and Royal Superior, I am ordering you to draw your sword and spar with me, or so help me Goddesses, I'll have you stripped, blindfolded, tied up, and paraded through the streets as a public event just to prove a creature with tits as small as yours can still be female," I said, throwing as much as I could to get her angry enough to fight in my utter bullshit threat.

Judging from the fact she launched the scabbard off the sword hard enough to crack it, I imagined it had worked rather efficiently. She was fuming mad, clutching a weapon, and approaching me at a rapid speed...

Why did I think this was a good idea again?

She was mad, and that made her slightly sloppier than usual. A two-handed overswing aimed straight for my head was not something she'd usually do, and she paid for it. I ducked under the attack, rapping her on the knees with the sword hard enough to get a yelp of pain out from her before unleashing an uppercut that knocked her square on her arse.

She landed hard, staring at me in confusion before realising that we weren't following usual duelling rules. I made several mistakes in this fight, mostly from a lack of proper practice with my own techniques, but deciding to throw the rule book out the window whilst facing off against one of the most vicious and well-trained scrappers in the kingdom was probably one of the bigger ones. She had dirty fighting down to an art, and I was not desperate to see what she had planned for me.

I didn't have to wait long.

Not even back to her feet yet, she tossed... launched her sword from her hand towards my head, something that was hard enough to dodge at such a short range, only to realise she'd outright baited me into being off-balance and off-centre. Once back to her feet proper, she launched forwards with a knee to the groin, knocking my will to live out my asshole, only to then grab hold of my shirt and slam three right hooks into my nose that hit hard enough to break it on the first impact.

In pain, bleeding, and broken, I went for the only strategy I could think of with both of her hands occupied: I headbutted her. I slammed my forehead right onto her nose, definitely breaking it in return, if the loud crack was anything to judge by, before following it up with a simple grapple: I grabbed hold of her dazed form, stuck my foot out behind the backs of hers, and threw her backwards. Her feet caught on mine, had nowhere to go to steady herself, and she went down like a sack of bleeding potatoes.

I cocked my hand back for a shot to her face again, only to receive a momentum-charged boot to the back of the head that sent us both scrambling to the floor. Blood splattered the ground, our clothing, and knuckles less than twenty seconds into the fight, and both of us were climbing to our feet in a dazed and pained fashion. I could still see stars, saw two of Anne, and was barely able to keep steady. Sadly, she'd landed more stunning blows than I had, was in better condition, and fucking proved it.

She launched forward with a straight jab I could barely see to block, throwing my hands up and catching the bruising blow on the brunt of my bracers, trying to use as much of my sluggish bodyweight to stay up straight and not give her a gravity advantage.

It didn't work too well.

A second, much more power shot slipped past my guard, hitting me in the face and sending me staggering back, only to have Anne drop like a rock and sweep kick my feet out from underneath me, turning me into a groaning, bleeding, pile of pain on the floor once again. Once more possessing the advantage, she raised her boot up to kick outwards, hoping to use her momentum to carry her across the unstable ground and right into my face, but I was able to catch it before it made impact. Her leg was caught and her stance was over-extended, so I decided to go for the crocodile move:

Rolling like a madman.

I threw myself side over side, pulling the precariously-stanced woman with me as I went, slamming her side and head into the dirt, no doubt paining and dazing her something vicious. Instead of going for some other kind of grapple or tackle, I decided to back the fuck up and put some distance between the two of us, trying desperately to clear my head and figure out which Annerose I should hit.

She got to her feet, blood dripping from a cut on her ear and on the side of her head, spilling down onto her cheek and staining her raven-blue hair. She knuckled up once more, keeping her defences primed and ready as she began to circle me.

"I've gotta give him credit," Zane nodded. "He's stayed standing longer than he usually does."

"Aye, especially when she's this angry at him," Grael commented from his nearly-asleep position on the floor. "Be ready to get a healer once she's finished beating him to pulp."

"Already planning on it," Zane said, reaching down and scratching Grael's neck as the Direwolf napped in the warm sun.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys. Focusing my attention back on the livid living weapon in front of me, I waited to see what she had planned next. Apparently the plan was 'beat the living shit out of me' as she charged forward with a volley of hard-hitting hooks and vicious knee strikes, most hitting their mark as I kept on the back foot, but remained determined not to go down again. I had one illegal strategy that would get me immediately disqualified from any official match like this, but it would work perfectly if I could just pull it off.

So far, it would be difficult to do it as Anne was staying planted in mostly the same location, not moving with the forward momentum like I needed her to. I threw a few weak jabs of my own, catching her cheek, the corner of her eye, and just above her top lip, getting snarls and grunts of fury and pain in response, trying to bait her into getting angry enough to-

Suddenly, and thankfully, she went for the knockout combo she always used on those she fought, slamming her fist into my gut, something I managed to dodge back far enough to avoid most of the force transference, but not the entire impact itself, managing to turn a temple shot into a glancing blow thanks to a lucky dodge move, and waited for her to unleash that finishing third hit she always went for.

And she ran right into my trap like a wild animal.

She cocked her arm back, stepping forward on her right foot as she threw a punch aimed straight for my face, allowing me to keep my guard up and perform the only spin move that worked in actual combat. I spun and stepped slightly around her just as the punch carried her forwards, managing to get just behind her and throwing a momentum-charged punch right into the back of her skull and delivering a knock-out shot.

The force of the impact sent her rocketing forwards and off her feet, knocking her down onto her face and causing her legs to turn to jelly, robbing her off the knowledge of which way was up, and her entire equilibrium in the process. She shoved herself over onto her back, her eyes wildly moving around in her skull as she tried desperately to push herself back onto her feet, getting as high as on the backs of her heels and one hand before tumbling back down to the ground again.

"Well I'll be damned," Zane commented just after Anne dropped and gave up trying to recover her footing.

"A first time for everything, it seems," Grael chuckled, cracking an eye open in a lazy fashion and seeing me raise my arms in victory like a child that had just won a prize.

"And let that be a lesson!" I laughed loudly. "Nobody batters women like a rich nobleman!"

I turned around to grin at Grael, wanting to see my black humour make him roll his eyes for the thousandth time, only to see Zane grimace quietly and Grael shake his head. A moment of confusion rolled through me, only to have fear and regret surge through my entire being as I heard the scuffle of boots on dirt, turning around just in time to have that same knock out shot slam straight into my face, ploughing me into the dirt and knocking the wind out of me on impact.

Stars shined brightly, pain ran throughout my entire torso, and a wave of confusion rolled over me as Anne's boot was pressed to my neck, pinning me to the dirt and slowly beginning to choke the life out of me.

"And let that be a lesson," she snarled. "Don't turn your back on your opponent until you're sure they aren't faking."

"I..." I said, looking up at the woman as she leaned down, smiling smugly at me as she proclaimed her victory.

"And that's why I never waste my time dealing with-" she began, only to be cut off as I hooked her in the face, sending her tumbling thanks to her over-extended standing position and kicking off the second round of a very painful scuffle.