Macha's Journey

As he strolled onto the ring, he gave the crowd a wave and flexed his muscles.

He pa.s.sed her and said in a low voice that only she would hear, "Sup, b.i.t.c.h."

She frowned upon hearing his remark. In her mind, she cursed having to meet him again, "Can"t I be rid of this pest? How has he not learned his lesson?" Out of all the people she had met in this world, Magni was probably the most stubborn. She had to give it to him, he was one of the few who really knew how to annoy her. His existence in her life was like a deep splinter she could not pull out.

"What a pleasant surprise to see you again Lord Magni," she replied dryly.

Although she thought of him as a degenerate, she did not want the public to realize how much they hated each other. It was bad enough she was fighting in the ring tonight, and she hoped her actions would not affect Tyr or the Swat family.

The announcer walked between them, "All right. Before we start, since this is Lady Swat"s first time, I will go over the rules." He sped up his speech, so it came out in a flurry of words, "No groin attacks, eye gouging, biting, hair pulling, headb.u.t.ts, or fingers in orifices. When an opponent is down, I don"t wanna see you striking the back of their head or spine. It"s also not acceptable to knee their head while they are on the ground."

He took a deep breath. "Got it?"

Macha nodded.

The announcer turned his back to them and faced the crowd. His vest shimmered from the light as he shouted, "The first one down for the count of ten loses. Now, are you ready?"

The crowd roared with antic.i.p.ation.

He repeated louder, "I said, are you ready?"

Now the audience stomped the ground and the thundering waves shook the stadium.

His voice carried above the loud cheering, "For the thousands in attendance, from the Mercenary"s Guild in Ma.r.s.eille. Let"s get ready to... r-r-rumble!"

DING

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of the match.

Magni cracked his knuckles. Today he came down to the coliseum to do some betting and had been surprised to see Macha in the designated area for fighters. This was not the sort of place a little thing like her would frequent, so it piqued his interest.

Luckily he had been in the VIP section talking with the guild leader, Nina, about a new bar that opened up. He immediately begged her to find out what was going on. When he discovered the reason Macha came down here, he asked if the small woman could subst.i.tute for Gabin.

Magni narrowed his eyes; his grey irises appeared as cold as steel when he looked at her.

In a c.o.c.ky voice, he called over to her, "What you gonna do now that you don"t have Tai Shan or Tyr to save you?"

While she did not fear the man who stood before her, she did worry about how experienced he was at fighting. The first time he was beaten up, he had been drunk. The second time, her brother, who was a Captain, had handled the situation.

She clicked her tongue at his question.

Her lips mouthed, "Kick your a.s.s."

She remembered that Ullr was about two hundred and fifty years old, so she reasoned that Magni, being the youngest, would probably be in his hundreds. He did not seem to be the type to train a lot, so she hoped her seven years of diligent training would be enough to fight against him.

Magni scowled at her response. He knew what she mouthed. He ran towards her and jumped into the air. His food aimed for her pretty little face. He wanted to see it battered and b.l.o.o.d.y.

Macha tilted her head to the side and grabbed his leg. She swung around, tossing him to the edge of the ring.

"You"re too slow," she stated matter-of-factly.

The crowd hollered at the unexpected turn of events. They did not expect the small woman to be as good as she was.

Instead of attacking, Magni decided to let her come to him. She did not have the reach that he did, so he wanted to use that against her.

"Come here, b.i.t.c.h. Let"s see you do better," he jeered.

Macha lowered her head to hide her scowl and ran towards him. She dashed in to hit him in his chest. Before her fist could land, he swept his leg out and knocked her to the ground. Magni"s foot glowed silver, and he slammed it down onto her abdomen.

The force of the blow caused her limbs to lift off the floor, and the wind was knocked out of her. When he raised his leg, preparing to bring it down again, she rolled away.

Gasping for breath, she stood up and held her stomach. The blow had been terrifyingly strong, but she needed to push aside the pain.

Magni laughed and lifted his hand to his ears, "What was that you said? Huh? Oh. Guess you can"t say s.h.i.t cause you know I"m gonna win."

He spat on the ground and ran his fingers through his messy red hair.

Tyr walked back into the arena holding a few slips of yellow paper. He did not bother sitting down and watched the match in silence.

Now that she experienced the force of his attacks, she realized she needed to focus on defending and using her speed.

"Magni, Magni," the crowd cheered.

Most of them placed their bets on the youngest Lord Rosenkrantz. He was older, stronger, from a better family, and well known.

The cheers filled him with hubris. The blow he inflicted upon Macha would have hurt, so he did not worry about her anymore. He wanted to end the fight and find a woman to spend the night with.

He dashed towards her, his arm glowed as it was enveloped by winds that wrapped around it.

Her body tensed, he moved at a normal speed, but the wind surrounding his arm meant that the attack would be faster than normal. When she saw his chest turn to begin his attack, she swept her forearm in an arch to deflect his punch. The force was too strong and she could only redirect his blow slightly.

Magni smiled the moment he realized his attack would land. "Got you," he thought. As his fist piled into her, a sharp pain shot through in his knee.

The strike clipped the side of her eye and her body went flying across the ring. As she tumbled along the floor, a wide grin was plastered on her face.

Her attack landed, and she knew she would win because of it. After her body stopped rolling, she stood up. The world spun slightly, but she shook her head to focus her vision. His punch was stronger than expected and left her dizzy.

Her vision whirled as she looked at him. He now lay on the floor clutching his knee and crying out in pain. While he was busy attacking, he did not bother to defend his lower half. His form was bad, and he straightened his leg, so she kicked down on his kneecap, breaking it.

Now she stumbled over to Magni, waiting for the referee to begin the count. The stadium was silent, surprised that the small woman had done a counter attack like that.

The referee did not start the count so Macha began to punch his face. After each punch, she looked up to see if he would start the count. She never went to a fight like this before and was unsure how incapacitated the opponents needed to be.

Gabin ran to the edge of the ring. The whole stadium was shocked, but he realized the match was over.

"I think someone should count to ten," he yelled.

The referee shook his head and snapped out of his stupor.

"ONE... TWO... THREE..."

When the crowd heard the referee begin counting, they all began to beg Magni to stand up. They thought this was an easy win and did not want to lose their money.

"TEN!"

On the count of ten, Tyr"s figure filled the doorway as he exited the arena. He tried to suppress a smile as he made his way to the counters.

DING

A hush of silence fell over the arena. The spectators could not understand how they had lost this bet. When the realization sunk in, a roar of anger erupted. Yellow betting slips were being torn apart and thrown down into the ring.

Macha looked around at the yellow papers flying around her. She could only open one eye and her wide smile stung. Tossing her head back, she laughed heartily at the situation.