Ame Perdue

Chapter Seventeen

I cursed as the sword was knocked out of my hands again, backing up swiftly at a swing that would have caught me in the side. My opponent kicked the fallen sword back, My eyes darted to it. I tried to think of a way to reclaim it, to spin us so that I could make a run for it. Looking at him now. He didn't give me much time to think about the disadvantage I found myself in before he stepped for. I nimble dodged a blow that would have taken off my head.

I darted to the side, ducking under his next swing. It took him a brief moment to reset from the failed attack, and I took full advantage of it. I dashed forward, driving my fist into his stomach before darting back out of range. I rocked on the balls of my feet as we circled one another. I felt more comfortable without the weapon in my hand, but the lack of the weapon had me more vulnerable to his attacks. I glanced back towards my weapon.

Somehow, I was even farther away from it now.

The sword he was using was meant for swinging, not stabbing. It was something that I had figured out quickly, but the knowledge was useless to me at the moment. He was far more skilled with the weapon than I was, and I wasn't used to defending myself against someone that was used to using a weapon. It hadn't taken him much to disarm me, and I knew that he wasn't half as easy to disarm.

My eyes traced his form again, carefully searching for any openings in his guard. There weren't many, and the ones that I could find he closed before I had time to exploit them. I narrowed my eyes, anything I did, I would have to be quick otherwise I would lose my neck. I feigned to the left as he took a step forward, immediately twisting to aim a blow into his side. He had been expecting the attack.

He caught my fist in his free hand, yanking me closer towards him. His knee slammed into my gut before I had time to prepare myself, nearly knocking my breath out of me. I didn't allow it to stop me as I threw my weight into him, throwing us both unto the ground. His hold on my arm broke for a split second as we fell, rolling for a moment. I grunted he landed on top of me.

Before I could make a move to flip out position, his sword appeared at my throat. The elf wasn't even breathing hard as he looked down at me, "The only reason that I didn't stab you as we fell was because I was trying hard not to," Milo scolded, "You need to keep a better hand on your weapon. You can't stab someone without it."

I pushed him off of me, getting to my feet with a low groan. I stretched, feeling my bones pop at the action. I could already feel the bruises that were swiftly forming, Milo only pulled his blows so much, and thus far, he had hit me far more than I had hit him, "It would be easier to stab someone if the sword was more comfortable. It feels awkward. Why can't you just give me a gun?"

I had been trying to convince him to give me the more useful weapon for hours.

Acilia and Kam were sparing far enough away that I wasn't worried about them overhearing us. We had been traveling for hours already, we had decided to take a break for a few hours. Which to Milo apparently translated to kick us all into shape in sparring. It had been amusing when he put both Kam and Acilia into the dirt, but he swiftly turned his attention on me, declaring that I needed far more training before I faced anyone with a weapon.

At the rate that we were traveling, it would take a little over two days to reach Aaron. I wasn't worried about him leaving the lake. Something told me that he was waiting for us to arrive. He knew that he had cut me, knew that we would have no choice but to find him if I wanted to live. We were playing into his plans. Milo had agreed with me when I mentioned it to him. Neither of us had any illusion that our arrival would surprise the demon. I stuck by my opinion that they were a terrible plan.

I self-consciously ran my hand over my arm. The black mark was now covering half of my forearm. I tried not to think about the fact that if this failed, then I would die. I couldn't let myself think about that. I tried to push the rapidly spreading curse out of my head, thinking of anything else in place of it. Milo had done his best to keep my attention off of it on the way up here.