CONQUERING THE CONQUEROR

pt.19

Battle tested solders collided in a ferocious struggle as the leaders of the two sides fought their own heated battle for dominance against one another. Xena slashed at Draco with her blade as the opposing warlord used his weapon to block the attack. He then parried and retaliated with a small series of swipes of his own. Xena hastily stepped out his blade's range as Draco's attack missed and Xena immediately took advantage of the opening as she drove her blade toward her opponent. But Draco anticipated the trajectory of Xena's strike and tilted his head to the side causing Xena's attack to miss. And with the both of them too close for Draco to swing his own blade effectively, he instead mounted some unarmed offense as he landed a hard punch in Xena's stomach. The sudden shot caught the Conqueror off guard for a moment as she hunched forward from the powerful hit. But then feeling as though her opponent had thrown a cheep shop at her, Xena let out an angry roar as she threw an elbow back into the side of Draco's face. The shot staggered the warlord as he was forced to back off slightly, thus giving Xena an opportunity to retaliate. The Conqueror yelled as she launched herself at Draco with a downward swing of her weapon. Draco again blocked Xena's attack and the two then proceeded to exchange several attacks on one another with each blocking or dodging their opponents strikes. This went on for several moments until Xena attempted to catch Draco off guard as she feigned attacking from head on as she planted one foot forward and looked to be coming at Draco's midsection with a stab before at the last moment pushing off with her back foot as she pivoted and used the forward momentum to spin around and end up on Draco's side as she continued her blade's swing straight for the warlords neck. Certain that she had outsmarted and out maneuvered her enemy, as no normal person would be able to avoid or stop her attack from Draco's position, the Conqueror could practically taste her victory at hand. The blade came just within a hairs width of Draco's flesh when at speed that was inhumanity possible, his hand shot up and caught Xena's blade in what Xena quickly found to be a surprisingly vice-like grasp. Xena made a brief attempt to pull herself free, but when that failed she opted to use her fist to get her blade away from Draco as she drove it as hard as she could into the side of his face. The warlord's head snapped to the side from the force of the hit. However instead of it causing him to relinquish his hold on Xena's weapon, Draco just returned his head forward as he smiled at the Conqueror, which received a brief surprised look from Xena.

DRACO
(Sarcasm) Oh I'm sorry, was that supposed to hurt?

Xena's expression returned to an unamused scowl after hearing Draco's comment.

DRACO
Well as you're already aware by now, Ares gave me a pretty good boost to my overall vitality. Which includes my physical strength, speed, stamina, overall fighting ability. Basically everything you thought that you had over me on the battlefield you're now hopelessly outclassed in.

XENA
You know Draco you should really focus on actually beating me before you start bragging about needing the help of a god just to beat one person.

DRACO
Oh you're just bitter that you weren't smart enough to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity when it was presented to you. And now all that power that you could've had is now mine. Just as everything else of yours is about to be too.

XENA
If I were you Draco I wouldn't get too far ahead of yourself, because I don't care how much power you get from whatever god you wanna go crawling to, the only way that you'll ever get anything that belongs to me will be to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

Draco smirked.

DRACO
(Sinister tone) Glad to hear that we actually appear to agree on something here Xena. Because that was exactly what I was planning on doing anyway.