Reaver’s Song

I had every advantage. I was faster, stronger, more agile and my vision in the dark and smoky tunnel was far superior to anything a human could muster, allowing me to see as well as a human would in bright daylight. I was also losing badly. The gulf between my skill and hers began to quickly look more like an ocean. The assassin’s movements were minimal and conservative, her blades easily deflected every thrust I made. Rather than merely blocking she allowed my momentum to carry me out of position, so I had to struggle to dodge or block her vicious counterattacks. I was quickly running out of time and breath as her defenses remained impregnable to my increasingly clumsy and desperate attacks.

“I must admit,” she sighed in disappointment as sparks erupted from the point where my dagger glanced off her blade, “I had hoped for more.”

“Sh-shut up,” I gasped, leaping back, narrowly avoiding her counterthrust. “If I suck so bad, just give me the goddamn antidote and go find someone better to fight.”

“I will have to find someone who can challenge me that’s true, and I had such high hopes,” she agreed sadly, barely moving as I circled to my right, desperately searching for an opening. “I still have a job, though and, as Drudge and his cohorts found out courtesy of you and the cat, the king does not suffer failure lightly.”

“They were pigs and got what they deserved,” I snarled feinting left before striking right. Jaxxin didn’t even blink as she deftly parried my attack and sliced at me. I managed by a hair’s breadth to avoid her blade and leapt back into my crouch. I was, I realized for the tenth time, wholly outclassed.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Jaxxin shrugged. “It’s why their security was removed by the king. Do you think you could have gotten within a hundred meters of them if Drudge hadn’t been working for the countess in his off time?”

“Your king is a monster,” I figured I’d try reasoning with her since, plainly, I couldn’t beat her.

“Yep,” Jaxxin nodded. “Through and through. He’s the worst kind of creature. He’s cruel and perverse, paranoid and, as you say, a monster.”

“How could you work for someone like that?” Maybe if I appealed to her humanity, I could get her to see reason.

“Because if he falls there are always worse monsters lying in the shadows,” Jaxxin replied evenly. “What’s better? The beast you are familiar with or the creature you know will rise in its place. Besides, I get paid well to do a job I’m uniquely qualified for.”

“Maybe someone good and decent will take his place!” I protested, well aware of how naïve I sounded.

“Well, your skills are the worst kind of garbage, but I give you full marks for inane bullshit,” the assassin grinned infuriatingly. “It’s time we finish our date, lover. I can’t say it’s been pleasant given the expectations, but thank you for what little foreplay you provided, anyway.” Finally slipping out of her defensive stance Jaxxin moved forward like a shadow.

Her blades spun and whirled like scythes as she lunged forward. I stumbled backward, my daggers desperately parrying. I supposed that with her closing I should have had the advantage given her swords were over twice the length of my daggers but despite the Ferrari of a body I inhabited my lack of skill, training and knowledge was like chaining said car to a water buffalo. Before I could react properly, I’d been driven back against the unyielding stone wall and the assassin’s face was centimeters from mine. Her blades had cut through the armor on my shoulders and blood flowed freely down my skin.

“First blood is mine, sweety,” Jaxxin whispered, her lips tugging upward in a smile. “I would say the victory is mine as well, but I’m nothing if not equitable.” She sheathed her blades and stepped back a pace, spreading her arms out wide as if she wanted a hug. “I’ll give you a free shot! How’s that for fair?” My heart was pounding painfully in my chest, my pulse thrumming in my ears as I regarded her through narrowed eyes. Jaxxin tilted her head slightly as if in confusion before smiling.

“It’s the armor, isn’t it? Intimidating?” She pulled the top of the armor down, exposing her breasts before extending her arms again. “There! My heart is readily available to your blades. You can’t get much fairer than that.” I stared at her exposed breasts suspiciously. Her pale globes were firm and taut with nipples like the first blush of strawberry syrup over the top of shaved ice. They were, in a word, amazing and if she hadn’t been a sociopath I’d probably have been turned on. Well, if I was honest, I was still a bit turned on, but now didn’t seem the time for it.

“You’d best hurry up, lover. It’s getting cold in here. Another few seconds and I might be able to finish you off with my nipples.” She glanced down before fixing me with a coquettish grin. “Just take those daggers of yours and plunge them right here.” She drew an invisible x over her left breast with her finger. “If you can.” I gathered all my strength and lunged forward, my daggers spinning in the low light and promptly fell to the floor limply.

“Hmm?” Jaxxin’s bemused smile didn’t falter. “What’s wrong?” A moment later she sat atop my chest, staring down at me over the erect peaks of her exposed breasts.

“What did you do to me?” I gasped, finding it hard to breathe. My chest constricted as if wrapped in the coils of an anaconda, my heart pounded and sweat poured from seemingly every pore in my body.

“I just wanted to give you a little bit of a boost,” Jaxxin shook her head in mock sadness. “Something to help you reach your potential. Some adrenaline mixed with a little something of my own creation to help drive home your situation.”

“You didn’t need that!” I gasped. “You’d already won.”

“I don’t expect someone like you to understand my reasons,” Jaxxin replied. She leaned closer to me, one breast brushing against my cheek as she tilted her head to whisper in my ear. “It’s not enough to be the victor.” Her fingers brushed against mine before she took the dagger from my limp grasp. A moment later she’d stabbed the dagger through my hand with almost unhuman strength, digging it deep into the stone of the cave floor itself. I screamed in agony, my heart rate increasing even further.

“I want you to understand the depth of your loss.” She whispered into my other ear, her warm breast pressing against my other cheek before my other dagger pinned my hands to the ground. I screamed again and my heart felt like it was about to burst. She sat back up, brushing her finger against my cheek as she did, leaving a smear of my blood on my skin.

“Now, if you don’t calm down your heart will give out,” She warned, rocking her hips back slightly as she stared down at me, her black hair falling over one green eye as she did so. “We still have a few minutes to talk until the princess expires. I think you owe me that at least for the disappointing performance. Hopefully you’re better on your back than on your feet. Can’t be any worse, honestly.”

“Just kill me,” I managed through heaving gasps.

“No, no, no,” Jaxxin shook her head emphatically, her silken hair bouncing from side to side. “I know you’ll just come back, and I really don’t want that because then I’ll just have to hunt the bunny down and kill it again and again and that is sooo tiresome. If I kill you and then the king finds out you’re not staying dead that makes me look bad.”

“So, what? Torture? I’ll come back from that, too, you know,” I tried to block out the agony from my hands and rising panic as it became harder and harder to breathe.

“Believe me, I’m no torturer,” Jaxxin slid down my body until she was lying on top of me, head propped on her elbow as she stared into my eyes, bare breasts pressed against me.

“Could have fooled me,” I muttered glancing toward my hands meaningfully.

“Well, I can’t just leave your hands free, now, can I?” Jaxxin shrugged her free arm. “After all, I have no idea what you are actually capable of, do I? I suppose you don’t, either, but it’s safer to not find out to my detriment, don’t you think? By the way, your breath smells divine!”

“I brush and floss,” I was finding it harder to calm myself as my body struggled. The adrenaline coursing through my veins seemed to be opening every vein and artery to its fullest capacity and my heart was aching from the strain.

“Personal hygiene is so under-rated,” Jaxxin nodded appreciatively.

“You do know you’re fucking insane, right?” I asked.

“I came into the king’s service by way of Drudge and his friends,” Jaxxin replied, tracing one bloodied finger over my lips curiously. “I saw you during one of my many trips to be broken. I saw what they were doing to you and others, and I tried to stop them. It went poorly for me. It doesn’t pay to do a good deed, you see. After so many times, so many broken bones and shattered innocence and screaming until my voice died and my throat bled, it would be a bit surprising if I didn’t have some issues to work through. I assure you, though, I’m perfectly sane.”

“That’s exactly what a crazy person would say, you know,” I pointed out, my lungs feeling like they were filled with cotton.

“I vowed I would never be a victim again,” Jaxxin looked into my eyes.

“So you became a stealthier Drudge,” I shrugged, feeling a tug as the movement pulled the daggers. I was trying desperately to clear my mind, but my panic was rising faster and faster. It felt like a pit viper had been unleashed in my head, coiling, and striking desperately as my fear began to take overwhelm me.

“Maybe I did,” Jaxxin whispered, a hint of misery on her face, a glimpse, perhaps, of things the assassin tried to keep buried. “We all have to do what we must to survive. Although you’re plainly not who you were and can’t understand exactly what I’m saying, you grasp enough to see the truth of things. The difference between survival and depravity is razor thin. Drudge wallowed in his depravity and became a craven sadist.”

“You’re not acting any differently,” I managed through clenched teeth.

“Perhaps not,” Jaxxin shrugged, pushing herself up easily back to where she straddled my belly. ““You have beautiful eyes. Did you know that in this light they glow? Our little conversation was quite the walk down the footpaths of the past, wasn’t it? While not entirely pleasant it was, at least cathartic, in a way. Alas, though, your stick princess doesn’t have much longer and I have finally figured out how to kill you so this tryst must come to an end, I’m afraid.”

I glanced toward Lysabel and felt my composure slip away. The wall keeping whatever primal and feral force coiled inside me began to break apart and I felt something giving way. The assassin’s lips still moved but I could no longer hear what she was saying. All of my senses faded to a pinpoint of darkness, and I felt I was drowning.

In a haze I saw Jaxxin’s face coming closer to mine. Suddenly the world exploded into complete clarity and my body reacted to my will. I lunged forward, ripping the shimmering vial from her neck with my teeth as my legs curled up forcefully, pushing the unprepared assassin over my head. Whatever wall had been erected inside me shattered and the coiling snake roared free. I didn’t even notice the pain as I tore myself from the floor and turned to face a thoroughly surprised Jaxxin. Lurid blue flame exploded from my fingers, and down the chains, setting them and the daggers at the ends alight in roiling fire. Faster than the blink of an eye I flicked the blades out from my hands. The assassin leapt aside just barely in time, one of the daggers ripped through the girl’s armor, leaving a ragged cut along her side.

I pulled the blades back to me and crouched like an animal, the fire from the chains and blades dancing and weaving like a thing alive. I flicked the right dagger out again and Jaxxin narrowly managed to avoid the blazing missile, dodging left before rolling back to her feet. Without giving her any time to recover I bound forward, the fiery daggers weaving and slicing as I drove into her.

For the first time Jaxxin looked worried as she struggled to react to my onslaught. Second after second, I pressed the attack and Jaxxin retreated, desperately keeping her defenses up as the fire seemed to engulf the entire area around her. Too late she realized she’d been herded. I dropped back onto my hands, ignoring the agony lancing through my body, and kicked my feet forward, catching the unprepared assassin in the stomach with both heels of my boots.

She flew backward with an audible gasp as the air was driven from her lungs and collapsed to the floor some five meters distant. I rolled backward and in one single movement was back on my feet. I hurled the flaming daggers toward the cave roof. The powerful grenades Lysabel and I had planted exploded in a maelstrom of sound, fire, and pulverized rock. I drew back my daggers, grabbed the motionless princess and leapt backward to safety as the cave roof collapsed behind us. A second later I’d uncorked the vial and poured it between Lysabel’s frozen lips.

I waited for a breathless moment as there was no discernible change in Lysabel’s condition before she blinked and jerked as if she’d just woken up from a nightmare. Coughing and sputtering she drew a deep, heaving breath, eyes staring around in confusion.

“Where am I?” She gasped.

“It’s ok!” I soothed, hugging her close to me gratefully. At least Jaxxin hadn’t been lying about the antidote. “You’re safe.”

“What happened?” She asked in bewilderment.

“I’ll explain once we’re out of here.”

“Hey, lover,” a voice came from the other side of the pile of rubble. “I see you’ve got some skills after all. That was, honestly, the best climax I’ve ever had. Looks like I’ll have to keep up the bunny hunt.”

“I’d really rather you didn’t,” I replied as my breathing began to slowly return to normal.

“And miss out on the rush? I think not. Next time we should peak together.”

“You’re not ok, Jaxxin,” I shook my head.

“Jaxxin? Jaxxin is here?” Lysabel squeaked in panic.

“Probably not, but I feel alive for the first time in forever. I’ll definitely see you again, lover.” Of that, I had no doubt.