literature

Kinodana the Hunter - Ch 12

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Part 12


As Sarun's staff struck, the laser bonds holding Selanious, Dur'uk, and me blinked off, and the crowd roared. I snapped my wings out and let the small updraft of the arena carry me a few feet back and to the side of the platform I had been on. As I drifted back, I saw Selanious flex his fingers into claws and crouch low on his platform, preparing to spring upon Dur'uk. The oily growling in his throat had grown louder, and I could hear it above the roar of the crowd from more than 20 feet away.

Dur'uk stared dumbly at the crowd for a moment, and then down at the knife next to his feet. For a moment, I thought he might have been too dazed from his own ordeal to realize what was going on. Then, he leaned down and yanked the knife from the platform, his face contorting into an evil grin as he raised his head and looked square at me, ignoring Selanious completely. I felt my stomachs drop, and I knew in that moment that regardless of whether he won or lost this fight, Dur'uk was going to try and finish what he had started with me down in his dungeon.

Dur'uk stepped down off his platform as Selanious pounced towards him with a roar. They rolled and landed in a heap, kicking up dust from the arena floor as the crowd cheered. Selanious disentangled himself and got up first, crouching and flexing clawed hands, teeth bared. Dur'uk rolled back and away, picking himself up and dodging as Selanious made a foward strike with his claws. I could tell Selanious was running purely off instinct and rage, and while that made him damn scary, Dur'uk was an experienced fighter, and Selanious was going to get himself killed if I didn't think of something quickly.

I scanned the exits and the first few rows of spectators, looking for something I could use. I spotted it four rows up in the crowd, just over where Selanious and Dur'uk were circling each other, looking for an opening. I spread my wings and lifted myself quickly, flapping up to the startled Gulgrian who had been dumb enough to bring a sword strapped to his back. I grabbed the sword hilt and pulled it from its sheathe, gliding back down to the arena floor before the guards could work their way through the crowd towards me.

Selanious had fallen back, with a long scratch across his chest where Dur'uk's knife had grazed him. Dur'uk had his knife raised, looking to find another hole in Selanious's defense. Dur'uk struck forward, and I stepped in between them and parried his blow, ending the parry with the sword pointed in Dur'uk's face. "Mind if I cut in?"

Dur'uk snarled at me, screaming, "You stupid bitch!" as he lunged towards me wildly. He stumbled past as I sidestepped and hit the back of his head with the pummel of the sword. He dropped to one knee, then whirled about and threw sand in my face, blinding me. I sputtered and coughed, trying to shake the dust from my eyes, but my vision remained hazy and I couldn't figure out which way to point my sword.

"It's all your fault, you know," Dur'uk muttered as he circled me, keeping me disoriented and unable to home in on his location. "If you had just dropped him off, collected your bounty, all of this could have been avoided! But no, you had to be noble! You should know better!" I felt a slice across the top of my right shoulder, but he was gone again before I could orient on where the knife had hit me from. He was toying with me.

He circled me again, then leaned in and grabbed my wounded shoulder, pressing into the cut he made, making me drop my sword and kneel to the ground wincing. "After all, being noble is what got your mother killed, wasn't it? Little Kinodana, last surviving child of the martyred Annisa, you could have been royalty in your own right, but you ran away! Ran away, and became just another orphan of the war, just another worthless bounty hunter. Tell me, princess-in-rags, how does it feel to be alone in the universe?"

My vision finally began to clear, and I glanced past Dur'uk and then looked him straight in the eye. "You're forgetting one thing, Dur'uk." Dur'uk's eyes narrowed into slits as he raised his knife to finish me off. "Oh, what's that?" I grinned wickedly up at him. "I'm not alone." Selanious let out a cry and tackled Dur'uk, knocking him against the wall of the arena. Selanious pinned Dur'uk there, slamming his arm against the wall until Dur'uk's arm was bloody and the knife fell from his grasp.

Selanious started beating Dur'uk savagely, putting his whole arm into every blow. Dur'uk sank to his knees and fell forward, and Selanious followed, continuing to rain blow after blow down on Dur'uk's head. I could hear bones crunching, and I staggered up, going towards them to try and put a stop to the whole bloody mess.

Selanious grabbed Dur'uk's knife from where it had fallen, raising it above his head and bellowing something I didn't understand in shlaash-nessh, the Gulgrian native tongue. I dropped to my knees next to Selanious and grabbed his arm to stop him, yelling in his ear, "Don't! Not like this!" Selanious glared at me through the adrenaline, then his expression relaxed into confusion. "Danny, I...," his voice broke as I took the knife from his grip and threw it away from us across the sand.

I took his face in my hands, glancing over my shoulder at Dur'uk. Dur'uk's face was smashed, to the point where he was unrecognizable, but he was breathing. Looking at Selanious's hands, I could tell he'd broken bones of his own giving that beating. I looked up into Selanious's eyes, searching his expression. He looked lost. "Selanious, I'm the last person to say that Dur'uk deserves any sort of mercy, but we can't do this. We can't sink to their level. Please..."

Selanious closed his eyes, his shoulders sagging as he leaned forward until our foreheads touched. "Danny, I'm sorry. I just... I can't let them hurt you again." I nodded slowly, then stood. Selanious followed, and I said to him, "Let's finish this."

Selanious and I walked out to the center of the arena. The crowd which had just been cheering was now hissing and booing, displeased that we had left Dur'uk severely injured but alive. I glared up at Sarun and Felen, and after a moment, Sarun raised his hand to silence the crowd with an amused expression. "A fine show," Sarun drawled out, "most entertaining. Yet you seem to have forgotten a step."

I raised my voice to be heard. "You've had your sport, Sarun. You've seen blood, you've seen violence, and in due time you can perform the long, excessively cruel, drawn-out execution of Dur'uk that you seem to want so badly. But I will be damned if you're going to make us your executioners!"
Chapter 12, which concludes what I have written so far. I'm very proud of the fight scene here--I think it comes across perfectly.

Unfortunately, my muse ran out of ideas just after giving Kinodana her 'Braveheart Moment' at the end there, and I'm a bit stumped as to how to continue. Well, sort of--I have a basic idea, I'm just not sure how to write it out.

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Hitotsuboshi's avatar
Good job, Kinodana. :nod: :D