The Champion's Companion Ch. 21

With a metallic *PAANG* Marcos swung the back of his sword at the weight as it looped around toward him from behind. The weight and the chain unwound and arced off into the crowd to the right as Marcos charged the opening made on the left. Mios corrected his spiraling chain in only a brief second, but it was enough for Marcos to close to within his sword's reach.

Mios went into a flurry to coil his chain shorter and keep Marcos back. Using the short length on a swordsman meant both men had only split seconds to react. Mios used his weapon to block the flicking slashes of Marcos' sword by using the chain wrapped tightly around one arm.

After Mios got his footing and started moving Marcos back and out of his face, he went into overdrive. Slashing wildly with the sickle, or using the doubled up extra length to try belting Marcos and tangle his sword. Mios fought desperately to keep Marcos away. He had good reason too.

"This is just sick." Saliss muttered shifting in her chair. "He's toying with him. Marcos is breaking him down like he's laying siege."

To the untrained eye, the two seemed as if they were equally matched. Mios looked too fierce to allow Marcos off the defensive. It was apparent though that soon one was going to fatigue.

Janis however could see what Saliss had noticed. The swordsman in black was masterfully dodging the chain so he only had to move once for every third strike Mios made. Marcos spent his unmolested time just sitting in front of Mios making tweaks to his posture and keeping Mios completely occupied defending against the threat of attack. Simple gestures with his handgrip and the set of his shoulders were drawing Mios' trained eye and making him adjust his erratic defense.

The chain Mios wielded seemed unpredictable compared to a sword or a spear but Marcos was always several steps ahead. In the maelstrom of activity, the swordsman was looking bored while Mios' snarling beet red face and enraged eyes matched how he lashed out blindly.

"You're right," Janis confirmed. "I wonder how long he's gonna be at this."

"He'll drag this out as long as he can so he can take his own measure of this guy. Marcos is twisted like that." Saliss raised a brow. "Eventually he is just going to break Mio's hopes and crush him like a bug."

True to her words, after waiting till his opponent slowed and his rage turned to panic and a glimmer of realization sparked his eyes, Marcos elaborately disarmed Mios by smashing a finger with the back of the blade and knocking the sickle free.

The black swordsman flowed forward as Mios started falling back in pain. Reaching out, he stripped the coiled chain from his arm like a nimble pick pocket after ladies bracelets. Before Mios could realize the trouble he was in, Marcos gave the poor man a vicious straight leg kick to the chest.

Knocking the shocked man back onto his ass at Paes' feet, the two looked up with an identical pale look of stunned horror as Marcos stood before them admiring his latest prize.

After looking over the sickle-chain, Marcos scurried back over to Saliss grinning like a child before planting his sword in the dirt and wrapping the long chain over an arm and brandishing the sickle for all to see.

Saliss harrumphed and motioned for the bet taker as she adjusted her stool. Ambling over slowly, the Mister Oggbe balked at paying so soon.

"Your man hasn't killed him. The fight is not over, the 'Master' still has a chance." He noted.

Saliss smiled up at him as if he was a small child full of ideas, dreams, and imagination. "Well I suppose, but how?" She motioned to Mios who stood ready to defend himself. Unlike his eager start, he was now keeping his distance from Marcos and stood at the far end of the circle from him. He favored his wounded hand and held a small throwing knife uncertainly in a low defensive stance while he looked around the crowd.

"Well," Saliss started and cleared her throat. "Well then throw Mios a sword so this is interesting. However, if you do give him a sword or something, that's gonna be extra. You tell them all to double their payout." Saliss said finally and turned to the old fool who bet against her. "What say you?"

"Hmm... I'll tell them what you want." The man said with resignation. He ambled back slowly then motioned to the others to toss in a sword.

The sword they tossed in was tossed high so Mios could see it. Before he could act however, Marcos snapped it up with the chain. With it wrapped tight and secure, he snapped it overhead and took a few steps forward. His swings were off balanced from the sword at the end making the swipes at Mios all the more unpredictable. After a few moments, the chain fouled as the sword planted in the dirt behind Mios. Marcos gave a tug to test how secure it was before shaking the chain off and leaving it.

"Now Marcos is just waiting for the fool to die." Saliss muttered. "This is sad."

The two men stared at each other as Mios gathered his courage to make a move for the sword. Marcos stood ready and leaned forward waiting for the first move from his opponent. Both men knew once Mios took his eyes off Marcos and turned his back He was dead.

Just before Mios could make his move, Marcos turned to the crowd.

"Your apprentice will die by my hand just as your family has done, and your daughter is a whore for the enemy. You still cower and watch from afar but I feel you and your weak resolve. Come to me, I will relieve you of your vengeance. That burden is wasted on a coward like you. Your foolish ancestors are crying in their graves to know you won't even try to avenge them."

As he spoke, the crowd in front of him parted as puzzled people stepped out from under his wrathful words and murderous gaze. As the masses stepped away, a short old man was revealed standing with his hands together in front of him over a short walking stick. He was very pale with beady intense black eyes and beaklike nose. His balding head had some white hair on the sides. His clothes were sun bleached a drab dark grey and brown. His knee high boots stood out for being well cared for; they had a shine to them too.

As the spectators moved away from Marcos' heated gaze confused by his seemingly random act of hate, this man stood firm where the masses could partially obscure him. He continued to stand silently and regard Marcos with a haughty untouchable expression.

"Well old man, which one were you?" Marcos asked in a low voice. "Did I rape your mom? Was I the one who gave the order to have your house burnt down with everyone inside? Did you find your father wandering the fields with his eyes pulled out and his hands cut off? Maybe your family was one of the ones whose legs and arms were crushed before they were dropped into the wells and latrines still alive."

The old man held his ground as Marcos lifted his gaze and continued to taunt him in an almost airy voice. "Did your father tell you how great your people were? Did they pound the dinner table and say 'we deserve the lands to the west! It's our right!' Did they use the word fair?" Marcos dropped his grip on the chain as his voice got angry for a second as he said that last word. "Was that what the used to justify themselves?"

"Maybe they told you that your people would defend their lands with the arts they had come up with. Maybe those same arts are the ones you think will be enough to defeat me. Maybe you really do think that your people, a bunch of incestuous dogs without culture or even their own written language, came up with 'the Divine Heaven's Fist'? Perhaps the 'mind of light' really was something your dog people discovered?"

Marcos offered a smile as the old man straightened his back but other wise stood firm. If looks could kill, the old man might have stood half a chance stepping into the ring like Marcos wanted.

"Perhaps, you want to see the pure form of the style you heathens tried so hard to emulate. Perhaps, you want to know why we reacted so harshly? You probably still don't know why Menthino's Imperial army came for the blood of your clan over what supposedly just a minor territorial dispute. Perhaps, you also want to know why no one came to stop us as we burned through the fields and towns of your people."

Marcos turned his back on the old man but spoke louder as he continued his insidious remarks.

"Have you found any of those truths in your travels? Were there any clues in the cold fire blackened towns? Did former slaves of great houses tell you the story of how the lords and ladies of the once powerful clan were raped, mutilated, and made to watch the death of their children?" Marcos turned back to the man but his face was hard. His lips were curled in a cruel sneer. "Well? I can tell you. I was there after all."

"In fact if I remember right, you were that egg-headed bastard to one of the military families. Sic, Slic, or Class, or Cass." Marcos shrugged and the old man's face started to blush. "You father was a decent fighter. We burnt him alive inside the house with all his servants, and your mother too I'm guessing. But then, we could have taken her to a dark corner to see how badly she wanted to live. You'd be surprised what women instinctively do to survive." Marcos nodded over to Paes. "She was one. She has been very eager to see the morning light of just one more day. Of course, I'm usually asking at night just what she'll do... So far, she has kept me satisfied.

"Perhaps your mother would have put up a good fuck too. I'm sure the men had enjoyed her to the fullest." Marcos paused realizing the old man was going to stand among the safety of the crowd no matter what he threw at him. Slowly he turned to square up to the older man with a cold calculating gaze. "So do you want to die? I could let you and your children live."

The old man shifted his feet and looked at Mios and Paes. The two both looked at the ground ashamed.

Marcos stepped closer. "Tell me how many others live. You were young back then. When the killing started, you must have been taken in by a family or a lonely woman. You grew up in either your old lands that became someone else's, or perhaps in some foreign land down the river. You must have seen others as you grew up, or after you left. Tell me where they are and you may live out the rest of your days."

"No one else," The old man said slowly. "In all my years and in all my travels, no one even knew what was there before they came to my homeland and settled. You did well wiping my people from their lands, there aren't even ruins."

Next to Janis, Saliss snickered quietly.

"So I guess you still don't know why?" Marcos inquired with a grin turning away and showing his back again. He started wandering the fighting circle as he spoke

"It was simple. The Principalities are never allowed to unite. Your clan, the Mestapins, were the closest to doing that. They had created a fair amount of resentment both inside and outside their lands. They tried to rally the last of their western enemies into allies by attacking our eastern frontier. If the gambit worked, they would have had effective control over all the lands from the far eastern sea to the Ort on the west, and every thing north of the Lazy River. On paper it would be the second largest nation if not the largest if you include the small towns that border the wilds on the south side of the Lazy River.

"And do you know how these Mestapins became to powerful?" Marcos stopped in the middle of the Circle waiting for an answer.

"They were always a militant family that served as generals and guards for Princes. However, they weren't special in anyway or even sought after. They served quietly, and held little power that is until they asked for the power through the our goddess the Dark Mother herself. They called her out and the goddess of death gave them an art for the purposes of war." Marcos turned again and continued his stroll. "The names given to the tactics weren't fanciful

"But of course once they had the power, they made it their own and abandoned the word they gave. And of course they ignored the warnings of their actions. And of course they attacked us wielding the very arts we gave them." Janis watched Marcos pause and raise his face to the sky.

"For all their fervor and energy they were simply being made to pay for what they had done." He took a deep breath and faced Mios before looking back to the old man. "The toll the goddess demanded was heavy. Even your people's pride had to be taken back. They knew whom they had made a deal with. They knew that they couldn't be simply forgiven. Generations had passed... But now..."

The ball weight and several lengths of looped chain dropped from Marcos' left hand. Jumping forward high into the air Marcos pulled the trailing chain like a whip and snapped it out towards the old man.

The elderly man moved quickly and tumbled into several onlookers trying to dodge. As the chain reached the point where his head had been, it flicked about like a tongue tasting the air before Marcos yanked it back to coil onto his arm.

Covered by the crowd the old man threw out his own chain.

Marcos jumped over the chain and counterattacked with a wide sweep to separate the old man from the crowd. Janis could see how the taller people the old man hid himself among were only obstacles to Marcos. Hitting an onlooker too stupid to move would block the ball weight and foul the chain.

Just indiscriminately hitting those people in the way could cause a panic so these crafty rogues could escape. How long Marcos could keep missing was anyone's guess. He moved too fast to be making any calculations with the weapon he was still learning to use.

Next to her, Saliss was having a fit with her bet taker. "...Well I called it on the old man first... If you are just going to follow my bets now then put my earlier stuff to coin now because Mios is done... So what?... Mios gave up and has been hugging his wife or sister over there for the whole history lesson... No, I don't care! PAY ME NOW!" Saliss growled from her stool. The old man next to her pointed at Mios who had entered the fight if only to distract Marcos.

Salis chattered away keeping one eye on the three. "Oh he's getting up, well good that is what I like to see. Your bets stay with your man... So then, if you pick up the old man now too, I want another set for him and Mios... No, no eighteen to one... Ya..." she beamed at the old man who shrunk back at the intensity of her smile. "Ya that should be it for now, go and tell them."

Janis felt a little sorry for the old man who scurried away. From what she gathered, they had initially bet in the hundreds. Payout now would be small ransom. Saliss was going to milk the whole town dry just to keep herself entertained.

"Are they really prepared to pay that much Saliss?" Janis asked finally. "You are doubling and tripling the payout. Might these men just leave or attack us while Marcos fights? They are surrounded by mercenaries already and even a fraction of what you are owed could buy a lot of swords..."

She really didn't need to say more. Saliss knew where this was going, and it touched on something she might have thought of earlier. The blonde's brows crumpled and her face darkened. "I wanted to see that dragon too..."

Down in the circle, Marcos was having his own high stakes fun. The old man had come out from hiding to keep the heat off Mios and Marcos was able to bring to bear all of his cunning and experience. With a sword in one hand and the weight in the other, Marcos swung the chain with the scythe at the end attacking Mios and the old man in a steady rhythm of elegant flourishes. In his hands, the two weapons complemented each other as he bore down on one man then jumped over to pound away at the other.

Mios for his part was awkward with the sword he carried and several times, it seemed he was going to lose his head. Unlike Marcos and the old man who both seemed untouched, he was sweating profusely and bleeding from several cuts. He doggedly staggered back into the fight out of breath as Marcos fought off the old man's chain.

"Dammit! The perverts may get a plan going if this takes any longer." Janis could practically hear Saliss grinding her teeth at how long this fight was taking.

Suddenly slender blonde shot up from her stool and raised a finger imperiously as her voice roared over the assembled crowd, "Finish Him!"

Jumping back over to Mios, Marcos slunk down behind the tired man, wrapped the chain around his thick neck, and pried the sword from his fingers. The old man running over froze when Marcos turned the sword blade down and stabbed it through Mios' foot into the ground. Using his own sword, Marcos pinned it down through the chain. Saliss' bodyguard left just enough length to slowly choke the immobilized Mios.

The scythe was used to cut at the hamstring of Mios' other leg before it was dropped blade up to keep Mios from simply sitting down and ruining the whole effort. The cresent blade caught the sunlight and shined between his legs as Mios stood over it on one shaky leg. His gurgling coughs and struggling wheezes made a pleasant jangling sound with the chains.

Janis giggled at Saliss' face. The blonde had froze with her hand up and a quizzical expression on her face as her eyes darted around following the chain binding Mios' neck and the various blades that kept the man imprisoned. On one hand, she just wanted this over with already, and on the other hand, this startling development was perversely interesting. She, like everyone else, wanted to see how this would play out.

"This is it old man," Marcos called out from behind Mios. "I may keep Paes, but you two must die."

"If that is your wish..." The old man acknowledged. "This old body has one last move in it. You both may die but you will not escape."

The old man straightened and looked Marcos in the eye with a hard look of determination. I'll send you to the Goddess with this and you can give her my thanks. Now face Heaven's Resentment."

The old man took an exaggerated deep breath and then just disappeared.

"What? Where did he go?" Saliss said. "Wait he's there! Look!"

Janis followed her gaze up. The old man was using the chain to climb through the air itself by throwing it higher and higher and spinning himself up by some impossible flipping maneuver as the chain fell.

He stopped in the air finally and started falling from two chain lengths up, an impossible height.

From his decent, he coiled and threw out the ball weight in bursts. It slowed his fall even further and pulled him forward so he seemed to hover in the air repeatedly throwing the weight into the ground towards Marcos. The ball weight was moving so fast it could barely be seen until it reached the end of the chain and recoiled back. As the old man came in closer and fell further, the ball weight started to hit the ground.

With loud thumps, the dust was kicked up as the old man walked the ball weight onto its target. As it got close, Marcos unwound the chain from Mios' neck and shouldered it looking ready to run. As it started to impact among the pair, Marcos jumped around to avoid its impacts leaving the helpless Mios in the path of the old man's steel rain.

With a sickening thunk, the ball weight slammed into Mios once then twice more in quick succession. Using that as the distraction Marcos rolled out of the way and threw up his own chain. The ball weights collided and the chains tangled. For an instant time froze, then Marcos tugged the old man to him on the ground.

The old man bounced through the dust and lay face down for a moment then struggled to lift his head. His face wore a depressing look of defeat. "Well this is the end old man," Dropping his end of the chain, Marcos backed up leaving them knotted together. "You see, though it was interesting to see that, it wasn't real. But I think you deserve to see a few things before you go."