A guard climbed out of the tangle of arms, legs, and armor faster than I’d expected, but not fast enough. His fingers and arms were extended like he wanted to strangle me to death with his bare hands. There wasn’t any time to retreat or advance, so I decided he looked like a fine grappling partner. As if in slow motion, his face turned from a spit-slinging snarl to the crazed grin of someone who just got the thing he most wanted in life. I jabbed him in his throat, and I heard something shatter. His eyes bulged as he reached for his neck and wheezed.
The other guards seized the moment and charged me, but I jumped ten feet into the air and landed behind them. They all shared dismayed looks while the crowd cheered.
“I heard you have a superpowered human in the arena,” I said. “How about letting another one join?”
I almost choked on my own tongue when I realized that Reaver might actually be the person Yaltu had referred to. If she’d visited the Lakunae, then it was all the more reason for me to find her.
The guards recovered from their astonishment and charging with their polearms leading. I didn’t think any of them were going to do anything except try to run me through. I waited and focused my attention on the immediate threat.
The two guards in the lead thrust their weapons out at me as if they were a single unit. Their precision was impressive. Each had the exact same idea of aiming for the center of my chest.
I stepped to one side and slammed my fist down hard on the wooden poles behind the metal blade. That, combined with the momentum of their charge, turned the two guards into pole vaulters. First the guards went up. Then they soared through the air like they’d done it on purpose. Their form could have used some work, but if I were a judge, I would still have given them a solid four out of 10.
They landed right on top of two other guards, who threw their own halberds to the side just in time to prevent their flying comrades from impaling themselves on the weapons. The landing was nothing but twisting legs, tangling arms, and huffs, squeaks, and grunts. Their score dropped to a measly two out of 10.
A guard behind me did something mostly right. He came in low, moving fast but using short steps. His movements were noisy, but they would allow him to change directions quickly if he needed to.
He swung at my calf with the non-business end of his halberd. Obviously, I had his respect, and he wanted me alive. Otherwise, he would have tried to cut my leg off rather than try to disable me. I knew it would hurt, but I decided to take the blow.
Well, the attack didn’t hurt in the slightest. It was little more than a light touch, but it also broke his weapon’s wooden handle, sending a piece right at the forehead of a guard who’d just managed to untangle himself.
The guard glanced at the broken end of his stick, then shifted position. I probably could have killed them then with a single punch to his head, but I wanted to be taken into the arena, not stand outside it with a pile of corpses surrounding me.
The guard’s face bore a look of triumph as he raised the broken wooden end over his head. He didn’t want to kill me. He just wanted to beat me senseless. I’d only give him one more shot, though. He’d demonstrated that I could be beat, but I didn’t want to go down too easily. I had to enter the arena, after all.
When he swung his stick again, I caught it, yanked hard to bring him close, and gave him a hard left hook to the inside of his ribs. He gasped but didn’t let go, so I hit him again. I really had to pull my punches if I didn’t want my fist to plow through his armored stomach. When another guard ran in to intervene, I yanked the stick again and struck him in the armpit with the jagged end, right between a big gap in his armor. It sounded like it must have hurt.
With him down, I hit the guard, who was miraculously still holding the stick, three more times in the same spot. He collapsed in front of me.
Nobody else was coming, which meant they were having second thoughts. I’d overdone it a little and had to give them a reason to try harder.
“I thought you were guards,” I laughed. “Looks like you can’t even guard yourselves. I bet none of you would last two minutes against any human in the arena. That’s why you don’t want me in there, right? Because you’re afraid of us?”
A cold wad of spit flew past my face. I turned the direction it came from and found a scarred guard wearing too-small armor, staring down at me. He growled and drew the most ridiculous weapon I’d ever seen: a double-ended halberd with a yard long stick in the middle.
I stifled a laugh. I couldn't imagine a safe way to wield such a thing, especially with sausage-like fingers and a giant, barrel-like chest. The guard would be likely to cut his own head off. But such weapons weren’t designed to be effective just intimidating.
Suffice to say, I wasn’t intimidated. Still, maybe it was time for me to feign defeat.
My plan hinged on the guards having a win, so I decided to give them one. I looked around like a scared rabbit trying to find a place to hide. A few more guards
