Behind the Veil, the crowd is no longer unappreciative; instead, they are stunned that I am holding my own. No longer a one-sided wager, but a full-fledged duel.
I meditate seven breaths, the material world fading until our souls exist in a sea of darkness, buckling with uncontained Heavenly Energy. They dance like birds, bonds contracting and expanding, testing each other. Next, I crack my toes, more bonds expanding.
I charge, nur engulfing my wrists and blade. Each step light, each breath a calculation.
A pace from his attack zone, I feint left before cutting low, the khanjar in my mouth slashing at his ribs, spraying blood. He pivots, a right-armed hook glancing off my cheek. One direct blow from him is like playing with death, so I jump right and then drive low. The movements dance, too rapid for the naked eye as we whirl faster and faster, each clash of our blades a deadly song, each drop of blood nourishment for the clay.
But he offers no chance to breathe. When I scramble for space into the date palms, he closes the distance; when I parry and counter into his attack zone with a slice of nur, he shuffles back. His Three-Feathered affinity hardens his skin into the leathery cast of an azhdahak serpent tosnuff out my meagre Second-Stratum nur against his all-encompassing Third-Stratum.
My chest burns from an open wound. The crowd senses my pain, jeering. Fayez headbutts me, crushing my nose before flipping me to the ground, his grappling techniques unparalleled.
Doubts creep into whispers, dwindling my strength. And Fayez loves it. He pounds his foot on my left leg.
‘Is this it?’ he snarls. ‘I expected a decent fight.’
Colours burst in my vision and with them, a collection of memories. The taunting as Fayez had me crawl to his feet. I trained, more than him, more than anyone.You made a vow, Khamilla. You win by rage.
My arm lashes out, fingers gripping Fayez’s neck. ‘Fool.’ Spitting out the khanjar, my tongue opens, bonds erupting with nur as my head crashes upon his.
‘Another feint! She uses a tongue bond!’ The crowd baulks as he stumbles away.
My arms lift. One leg. Another leg. Now I am standing. My left leg threatens to collapse but I rewire the bonds, the muscles left no choice but to obey. My hand wipes away blood on my cheek. I cannot use a tongue bond again without sacrificing immense Heavenly Energy.
Everything slows as the metaphysical reality blossoms, rearranging Fayez’s bonds into neat lines,predictable lines. Delving into my rose-scented bonds, I will them to tighten into Second-Stratum, summoning which combines Heavenly Energy through multiple bonds. My body is limited and my muscles shred.
I float back to the human realm, time galloping forward. Before me, I do not see Fayez: I see enemies, I see the Sepahbad, I see Akashun. I even see the emperor. I see people I fear. I see my mistakes. I see a test I shall pass.
Fayez recovers from my hit, transforming his balled hands into sharp talons. Flashing a lethal look, he says, ‘Now the duel begins.’ He lunges and I roll on to the ground before my face gets battered. A barrier of nur rises around me, forcing him into a wide berth.
With the barrier, my left leg rotates, bonds expanding as Second-Stratum compresses the nur into a dense formation of golden chained tails lashing around Fayez’s ankles. It singes his skin, but his legs thicken into the coiled scales of an azhdahak, deflecting the worst penetration.
To this, I stomp with bone-breaking force, splintering the nur intominiscule needles to sink into his scales. It slows his movement, leaving him no choice but to counter with long-range manoeuvres. He rolls six throwing knives between his fingers before his scales explode around his wrists.
In a burst of steel, the blades whine toward me.
Crouching into a narrow but weightless third stance, I whip out a second blade, twirling my khanjars around my fingers. Inhaling deeply, my vision narrows, nur engulfing my blades. The speed of the projectiles slows from the meditation, and in a flurry of movements, I deflect the knives in clanking slashes.
It works in his favour. I turn at the last blade, exposing my side, forcing me to rotate my shoulder bonds. I throw up a vertical shield of two planes of nur, but his scaled body erupts with a fiery burst, shattering through it with a hidden blade. Pain hisses across my chest and I blindly dive, left arm swinging under, clocking him on the jaw with knuckles covered in nur.
He reels back and I gather my bearings.He could have punctured my heart, I realise, if not for my wild punch.
Unrelenting, he throws hook after hook, pursuing me to the edge of the arena. My forearms rotate through each blow, muscles trembling. I suddenly slash up, but his scales shift, azhdahak affinity bursting with fire, liquidating his skin. My knife skids up into the air, flying high. His eyes brighten and he pounces.
My feet slide back as I counter: flick palm, flick palm, wrist cross, turn, thrust,there!I sidestep outward, and stoop, palms slapping into the dirt.‘Die,’I hiss. My toe bonds expand, bathing my legs in nur, slamming into his chest. He soars back, but before my relief manifests, he curls mid-air and rolls, landing smoothly.
I stoop into ninth stance, thumbs at the pommels of my blades. As I channel a rapid seven-breath meditation, my skin ignites with nur from my soul like white fire. I urge the bonds to pulse faster, the compression so dense, the clay cracks beneath me.
We are at another deadlock, the momentum of battle teetering on an edge.
I wipe sweat from my brow, jaw clenching. When I feel the Heavenly Energy peak inside my soul, I shoot forward, faster than he can see. The force propels me to his side, and I stick out my knife to slash, tearing his ribcage, across his neck, jaw and leg.
At the final thrust, he uses my hunched form and cracks his elbow into my back.
‘Quqnoos,’I hear him chant as I roll forward, only looking up in time to see his affinity transform him,again. This time the second feathered creature: a winged quqnoos. Red fiery wings blaze the metaphysical arena in tremoring waves, and I throw up my arms at this mesh of human-phoenix form.
My mind scrambles at the unexpected positioning. A clever move by him, for his large body gives me no space to manoeuvre.
To his surprise, I throw myself on to his large scaled back.
