The woman’s eyes glittered, but it was not all menace there. I could see a hint of amused approval glimmering in their liquid depths.
Jazmyn smiled a cruel smile. “Ashrin is right, Dragonmancer Noctis,” she said. “You have the gab certainly, but do you have what it takes to back it up?”
“You’re asking me if I can walk the walk?” I said.
“That’s right,” Jazmyn said.
“I can do better than walk,” I said, allowing myself the slightest smirk. “I’ll dance rings around you.”
Jazmyn clapped her hands and growled, “Fuckin’ fighting talk! Well, you’ve got to bloody well respect that, even if it turns out to be full of hot air, aye?”
“Besides, we ought to know what you’re capable of before we head down into the roots of the mountain with you and your little boyfriends here,” Ashrin said, casting an unimpressed glance and a sarcastic smile at Gabby, Bjorn, and Rupert who stood behind me.
I really was not in the mood for this. I could practically hear the hiss of sand running through the hourglass. However, weighing up my options, I realized that sparing some time now to deal with this and try to secure the goodwill of these two capable looking dragonmancers was probably the prudent thing to do. We all needed to go down into the Subterranean Realms having each other’s backs one hundred percent. It was likely going to be one of the most hostile and unpredictable environments most of us had ever encountered. There was going to be little room for error.
“All right,” I said, “I’ll spa with you. Now, I’m all for a threesome, so if you ladies want to show me where you want to get down…”
Jazmyn chuckled and shook her head. “Damn me, but you have some fuckin’ stones on you, don’t you?”
“Didn’t you hear?” I retorted. “That’s why I’m so goddamn special.”
“Follow us,” Ashrin said. “We can’t be caught fighting right outside the General’s tent. And as for a threesome, I think we’ll see if you can handle us one at a time first. Don’t want you getting too big for your boots now, do we?”
Ashrin led me and my squad down a dirt road heavily rutted with cart tracks and into what looked like a supply yard. There were piles of lumber lying about, pallets atop which sat sacks and crates branded with simple arrow or sword pictograms.
“This is where soldiers come to settle their differences,” Jazmyn explained.
I looked over at my squad. “You brought the pom-poms and the moral boosting signs, right lads?” I quipped.
Bjorn glowered, his eyes never leaving the two sable-clad dragonmancers.
There was a space, a rough circle, in the middle of the yard. Looking carefully, I saw vague signs of a scuffed line running around the edges of the space.
“If you’re thrown out of the circle you lose, right?” I asked Ashrin.
“That’s right,” she said.
“Remember, junior,” Jazmyn said, stretching her arms over her head, “this is a bit of an amiable spar, yeah? Only friendly stuff allowed, right? Nothin’ that’s going to put the other person out of action. Kicks, punches, and throws. No weapons. You can use spells, but nothing lethal.”
“I get it,” I said, jumping on my toes a couple of times. “Let’s get on with it. Who’s first?”
Jazmyn nodded at Ashrin, who stepped out of the crude fighting circle and went to stand with my squad.
“That’d be me,” Jazmyn said, and she charged.
This was not the time for showing off. This was time to take care of business and gain respect. At least with dragonmancers, gaining respect was an easy enough thing to achieve. You just had to fight like a lion and never say die, while adhering to the rules set out at the beginning of the scrap.
With the speed of thought, I transferred Noctis into my Head slot and used my Blink ability to teleport right behind Jazmyn, just as the woman’s gauntleted hands reached out to seize me.
Jazmyn’s fingers snapped closed on empty air, and she let out a little sound of confusion. At the same time, my leg came back, and I drew a bead on my adversary’s ass. I was going to deliver her a kick in the pants that she wouldn’t forget in a hurry.
Then, with a suddenness that defied belief, I found myself enmeshed in a net made out of liquid light.
“What the fuck!” I said, struggling.
The net clung to me like a spider’s web. The more I struggled, the tighter it bound me.
Jazmyn turned, her heel scraping in the dust right at the edge of the circle, and sneered down at me.
“Oh, dear,” she said. “Did you just fall for my old charge trick? Fuck me, but that old chestnut is so ancient you could probably fnd it at the bottom of a peat bog.”
I struggled some more, but only bound myself tighter. I attempted to switch Noctis to my head slot to use my Blink spell, but something about the net prevented me from casting it.
“That’s Ensnare,” Jazmyn said. “Do you like it? Your little teleporting gag wasn’t bad, I’ll give you that. I almost ran clean out of the ruddy circle.”
I pulled an unsure face. “Yeah, Blink’s not bad,” I said, “but not quite as good as Forcewave.”
“I must’ve missed that one in all the excitement,” Jazmyn said. “What’s Force—”
I placed Garth in my Right Arm slot and showed her.
The wave of energy released made the air ripple and flung Jazmyn off her unsuspecting feet. She was hurled out of the circle and smashed into a stack of heavy wooden crates, sending splinters
