Drifters

Dark side of the Moon

Marie stepped into the arena, hands empty at her sides, and the crowd cheered.

There was a block ahead of her, obscuring her view of the opposite gate. This close, it looked higher than it had from above.

"Left or right, Captain?" Peter asked, checking that his two new revolvers were fully loaded.

Marie felt her lips curl into a wicked smile. "Cowboy, sneak left and try to pick them off when you see them. Samurai, with me." With that, she strode around the block and straight towards the center of the arena.

Razan followed, one pace behind her on her right. He had one sword out, and was casually spinning it in his hand, the lazy motion making a beautiful swish sound as its blade cut the air.

Across the dusty floor, two people stepped around a block. A bald woman with skin darker than Marie's, carrying a long-bladed spear, and a person disguised as a bush. Or perhaps a pile of moss, Marie guessed. Either way, the pillar of green cloth gave absolutely nothing about the person inside away as it glided across the ground.

Marie glanced at Razan. "Did you bring the communication devices?"

"No," he replied, his sword stilling.

"Pity. Would have told Peter to target the bush." She watched the person, trying to remember military hand signals. And which military she'd learned them from. Giving up, she pulled out a pistol and shot at the bush.

The shot missed, but it had been marked as a target. Two shots came from their left, the bush only managing to dodge the second. Marie saw two people run from behind one block to the cover of the block in Peter's direction.

And then she was distracted by the woman dashing at her. Before Marie could react, Razan had ducked around her and was running at the woman. Marie smiled, then frowned as a projectile emerged from the bush, heading for her. She stepped aside as the ball hit the ground at her feet. At which point it exploded.

Green paint covered her beautiful boots. Glaring at the bush, Marie drew her cutlass.

Razan searched his memory for the woman's name as she ran at them, spear held ready.

He dodged her first strike, and she jumped back as he tried to slash her arm. She spun around on one foot, clearly aiming to slice him across the chest.

Grinning, Razan bowed at the hips. "A pleasure to fight you again, Nsona." The blade passed close enough over his head he felt the wind.

As he straightened up, she thumped the butt of her spear twice on the ground.

She gave him a smirk. "Likewise, Razan."

A pistol fired, and red-orange paint hit her in the temple. Nsona vanished. Razan decided he absolutely loved fighting at Marie's side.

"Not sporting, I know," Marie called, putting her spent pistol away as she resumed marching towards the man covered in cloth. "But she should have remembered I was here."

Razan laughed, sprinting after her as the announcer called out her "kill".

Peter was aware Marie wanted him to fire at the man in the bush, but he had two people sneaking towards him.

He could see their movements on the pictures displayed above them.

Silently thanking the hawks for showing everything, he clambered to the top of a block just as they rounded the final corner. Peter shot down at them, counting bullets. He got the woman once in the shoulder, and the man twice on a shield. Then the man threw a ball at him.

Peter was mildly surprised. There were hundreds of projectile weapons, but the man chose to just… toss the ball.

It landed, there was a click like breaking eggshell, and it exploded. His legs were covered in green paint. Cursing, Peter shot at the man, but his shield took the hits.

The woman, meanwhile, was climbing up the next block over. Peter stepped away from the edge, aiming at where her head would appear. He only had two bullets left, one in each gun, but he only needed one to land.

The man below him casually tossed up another ball, and almost automatically Peter kicked it.

It exploded.

As green paint covered Peter's boot, his leg below the knee became covered in the blue transport glow. It tingled, making his ankle go numb.

Peter nearly fell, but managed to balance himself on his right leg. His left leg didn't hurt, exactly, but it felt like if he put any pressure on it it'd break.

The woman pushed herself up onto the block, the movement catching Peter's eye. He aimed and fired, leaving his guns empty.

One of the paint bullets went over her head, but the other grazed her ear.

The announcer's voice rang out over him. "What does the audience think, does that count as a headshot?!"

The crowd around them screamed in approval.

"Are you sure?" the announcer asked as a hawk swooped in for a closer look. "That's hardly anything lethal! Three seconds to vote yes or no to send Luna away!"

The picture above turned blank, except for two alien words. The audience briefly silenced, all the rostari in the stands looking at their wrists. A bar sprang up above one of the words, shooting to the top, while a much smaller bar crawled up above the other.

"The people have spoken! Peter has killed Luna!"

On the other block, the woman gave Peter the middle finger as she was covered in a blue glow. She vanished as the crowd cheered again.

And then Peter had his leg pulled out from under him.

Marie tried getting her dagger to hit something solid, but it seemed like this man was made entirely of moss. Her weapon sank in and came out clean.

Razan had tried to stab the person, and his sword hadn't come back out of the spongy fabric. He was now hacking at the bush with his other sword, occasionally catching and tossing away paint balls that the man shot at him through… Marie wasn't sure where.

Marie decided she was going to find this man on the ship, and give him a firm handshake. She wanted to know exactly what this was and how he'd thought of it.

Finally one of her stabs got a faint squeak of pain, and her dagger came back with blood on it. Marie stabbed into the same place, and the Moss man released Razan's weapon to grab her blade.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Razan, an instant after realizing his sword was pulling out, pushed it back in.

That got a yelp.

Marie locked eyes with Razan, and they both grinned.

Marie pulled out a knife and stabbed it towards whatever was holding her dagger, and Razan shoved his other blade into the fabric, too.

They pushed in, squeezing the spongy armor as the man inside started screaming. Marie didn't let up until he was covered in a blue glow and vanished.

Blood dripped off Razan's swords. He casually brushed it off the tip of his longer one, sighing as he apparently found a flaw.

"Bent?" Marie asked as the announcer told everyone they'd killed the Moss man.

"No, just a scratch," the samurai said, resignation in his voice.

She looked at her old, worn, notched cutlass. "Oh dear, a scratch, good heavens, whatever shall you do…"

Razan gave her a flat glare before cleaning his blades and sheathing them.

"With a third hit, Peter is taken out!" the announcer decreed, catching Marie's attention. "Two against one now, let's see how they do!"

She looked towards where she'd last seen Peter, and saw someone peeking around the edge of a block. The bearded man quickly hid, probably to reload a weapon.

"Samurai, run to flank him. I'll keep his attention."

"Yes, Captain," Razan said, then took a step before pausing. "He's the one who makes the exploding ammunition; stay clear." He took off, moving almost silently across the arena floor.

Marie reloaded her pistols, walking calmly towards the man. A few heartbeats later he came into view, aiming a musket of all things. Surprised into stopping, Marie wasn't prepared when he pulled the trigger. She barely had time to dodge, and the projectile hit her arm. It exploded, paint hitting her face and chest as well as drenching her arm.

She tsked, wondering how hard paint was to get out of hair.

Despite not having used, or even really seen, a musket in ages, she knew they took forever to reload. Marie broke into a run as the man took cover. She switched the pistol in her right hand for her cutlass.

The man moved out of cover, aiming what she assumed was a second musket. She fired at him, the shot hitting the block next to him. He fired, and with a grin Marie batted the projectile out of the air with the flat of her wide blade.

It exploded, showering the ground around her with paint in an arc. Marie glanced at her now-green cutlass as the crowd cheered. Her wrist and elbow twinged from the impact, and she knew if she did that again her right arm would be practically useless. But the man was behind cover now; she just had to reach him before he finished reloading.

Marie pushed herself into a run again.

Peter sat in the medical area, watching a raven as it scanned him.

"Other than light bruising on your hip, you have no injuries," it announced. "You may go back to the stands."

"Thank you," Peter said. He twitched, but somehow his legs refused to push him to his feet. It was quiet in this room. "Uhm, may I stay here as well?"

"Of course. You may stay in this room until your next fight, providing we do not need it."

He nodded. "How likely is it you'll need it?"

"Not likely."

"Thank you."

The bird bobbed, then hopped through a hole in the wall, leaving him alone.

Nice and safe and alone.

Razan watched the German shove a green ball down the muzzle of a musket and tap the butt on the ground. He wondered how the ball didn't crack when it was fired.

Hearing Marie's footsteps rapidly approaching, the man lifted his weapon to his shoulder and spun around the corner of the block. Razan dashed forwards, taking Till by surprise. He slashed him across the arm, making the musket's aim wobble enough the paint ball went wide.

The Moss cursed, swinging the musket at Razan like a club. Razan hopped back, grinning.

"See, you're much better with this than a sword," he taunted.

The man dropped his weapon, apparently wanting to strangle Razan with his bare hands, apparently having forgotten Marie existed.

The pirate rounded the corner and fired point-blank into the space between Till's shoulders. Till yelped, spinning to punch Marie. Who was several paces back, smirking at Razan.

Razan gave her a small bow, then poked Till lightly in the calf. Till spun again, pulling a paint ball off his bandolier to throw at Razan. Razan caught it, rolled it to his elbow, and bounced it into his other hand.

As he rolled it down to this elbow, Marie stepped in and nicked the Moss on the wrist with the tip of her cutlass. As Till turned to throw his last ball at her, Razan bounced the ball from elbow back to his hand, and threw it as hard as he could at the man's shoulder blade.

Marie caught the ball thrown at her and started bouncing it on the flat of her cutlass.

Till roared, backing against the block as the audience laughed.

Marie tossed the ball behind her, not even twitching as it exploded against the ground. She looked at Razan.

"Doesn't your culture have a thing called 'death of a million cuts' or something?" she asked.

"No," Razan said. "Sounds highly entertaining, though."

"Precisely what I thought." Her grin turned nasty as she looked at Till. "Shall we?"

Razan felt his face adopt the same grin as he drew his wakizashi. "Yes, Captain."

The audience began chanting something as they moved in, giving the wildly swinging Till one small cut after another. Every time he turned to one of them, the other would move in. Razan wondered why the man didn't just bail, but was glad for the opportunity to practice small precision strikes.

Finally the Moss was surrounded in a blue glow, and as he vanished Razan caught what the crowd was calling out.

It was Marie's name, over and over.

He looked up, where hundreds of people were cheering, then looked at his captain.

She laughed, cleaning her blade. "I could get used to this."

Sophie screamed as the announcer declared her team the winners, leaning as far over the edge of the barrier as she could. Rani bounced next to her, also yelling.

In the pictures on either side of the stadium, Marie and Razan bowed before being transported out.

Sophie pushed herself away from the edge, turning to her friend. "Where did they go? I have to congratulate them!"

"Medical," Rani said, taking her hand. "I'll show you!"

Together they ran up the stairs, down the corridor, and into an area lined with doors. Rani stopped, letting go of Sophie's hand.

"They're somewhere around here; there's a lot of rooms," she said.

Sophie nodded, then shouted, "Nop! Where's Marie?"

A raven dropped out of the ceiling and hopped to a door. "Marie is in here. Would you like me to ask if you may enter?"

"Yes, please!"

There was a pause, then the bird bobbed. "You may enter."

As soon as the door opened, Sophie ran in. Marie was just getting off a cot, but fell back onto it when Sophie crashed into her for a hug.

"You won! That was amazing, you were brilliant out there!"

Marie patted Sophie on the back. "Thank you, thief."

"Congratulations," Rani said from the doorway. "Four more wins and you'll get to fight me."

"Assuming you get five wins," Marie countered.

Sophie bounced back, still smiling. "You have to teach me that thing you did, with the ball on your sword."

Marie tilted her head. "Really? I thought what Razan did was much more impressive."

"Oh, I'll ask him to teach me that, too," Sophie said.

"And what will you have Peter teach you?" Rani teased.

"I… don't know," Sophie admitted. He hadn't done anything particularly exciting in the fight.

A raven hopped out of the wall. "The next fight will begin soon."

"Thank you," Rani said, turning to the door.

"I'll be staying here a moment longer," Marie told Sophie. "Let me know what happens."

"Yes, ma'am," Sophie said, following her friend out of the room.

They stepped into the corridor at the same time as Razan. Knowing it would annoy him, Sophie ran over and gave him a big hug.

"Congratulations on winning, you did an excellent job!"

He sighed, not moving, not even looking at her. Feeling wicked, she decided to push it.

She kissed his cheek. "I'm ever so proud to have you on my team!"

Razan rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

Marie lay on the cot, staring at the ceiling. Her elbow hurt, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to go through another four fights. One, yes; perhaps two. But she was well out of her twenties now, and had limits.

"Would you like me to display the fight in here?" a raven eventually asked.

Marie turned her head, trying to see it. "You can?"

"There is a slight delay, but yes. I can put it on the wall for you."

Marie nodded. "Yes, show me, thank you."

The bird opened its beak, and a picture appeared on the wall. The announcer's voice came through as well.

"And with that, Lydia is out of the fight! What will our masked doctor do next?!"

On the wall, the Mask in a full plague doctor outfit began dancing.

Marie sat up, frowning. "Can you show this from the beginning?"