He stands on his mark, eyes sharp and eager, as he studies me. “Ready to show me what you’ve got, Claws?” he asks, his smirk taunting.
He says something else, but I tune him out, taking Ventis’s advice and setting the pace. I start walking toward the commander, my speed picking up with every stride until I’m all out sprinting. Surprise flares in Aeson’s eyes, and his jaw tightens as he watches me come for him. He quickly adopts a strong defensive position, his knees bent and his hands ready at his side.
Less than ten feet away, I start to get low as I sprint across the sand. He matches my positioning, using his fighting prowess to read my body language, which is telling him I’m coming in for a hard body tackle. When I’m almost on him, we both dive at each other. Only I don’t go low like Aeson’s expecting, I aim high and clear him altogether.
I soar over him, weightless and floating for a fraction of a second before sand explodes all around us as the scion tackles nothing and drops hard to the ground. He recovers quickly, rolling back onto his feet just as I touch down behind him, but I’m already running deeper toward a large hill of sand where it’ll be harder for his big heavy frame to maneuver and easier for me to start tiring him out.
A deep threatening rumble vibrates across the desert floor behind me, and I feel Aeson’s growl roll through me as clearly as I hear it bouncing off the hillside of dunes in front of us.
“You can’t run forever,” Aeson warns, his voice like rolling thunder.
I sense him giving chase behind me, but I don’t waste time turning to look. All my focus is on gaining ground. But as I run, something uncurls in my depths, responding to the resounding growl of the predator behind me.
I just start to make it up the gritty slope I was aiming for when I feel him at my back. Without a second of hesitation, I dive forward. Massive arms wrap around my thighs, throwing off my center of gravity, but I manage to get the handfuls of sand I was aiming for. I twist, as Aeson tries to pull me closer, and toss the sand in his face, aiming for his airways.
He ducks his head to try to avoid the onslaught, loosening his grip enough that I’m able to scramble away from him.
“How’s that for dirty, asshole?” I snap, flipping back onto my feet and aiming a kick at his head.
I connect with his shoulder when he quickly drops back to protect his face and skull. He grabs for my leg, but I retract it too fast. With an unexpected burst of speed, he dives for me with a snarl.
Shit.
Throwing myself to the side, I coil, mid-air, and just barely avoid his massive reach. I land, and somehow he’s already there trying to swipe my legs out from under me. I jump to avoid it, but he clips one foot and I go down. Pain blooms in my shoulder and side as I crash to the ground. Sand plumes around us as we slide through the onyx grains. I try to angle myself to get in a few hits, but he covers me too quickly with his massive body and starts to work to pin me.
“You’re good, and fast, but you’ll have to do better than that, Claws.”
I land two succinct elbows to his ribs, and he grunts in response, even though I’m pretty sure it hurts me more than it hurts him.
“Are you made of fucking stone?” I croak as he presses his full weight onto me and tries to pin me in the sand.
But this is my terrain, not his, and I simply sink and squirm, the loose ground not giving him the purchase he needs to properly hold me in place. I wiggle out from under him enough to aim a knee for his nose, but he swiftly lifts a hand and stops me. I throw more sand in his face, and he roars at me when I manage to kick free and start scrambling away from him like some slippery desert crab.
“That’s getting old,” he grumbles, spitting sand out of his mouth, and then he really starts moving, almost like he was in first gear before and now he’s warmed up and ready to go.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I spend the next sixty seconds of my life dodging and weaving his brutal strikes with only millimeters of space to spare and nothing but panic and instinct pumping in my veins.
Suddenly, Aeson loses his footing when he steps into sand that’s looser and deeper on this part of the dune, and I’m on him, capitalizing on his mistake with a crisp roundhouse that connects right with his jaw.
The crack of unforgiving bone on bone vibrates up my leg, and his head forcefully snaps to the side. I follow through with another kick to his inner thigh and then move in for the kill, but he uses my own dirty trick of sand to the face to force me back.
I blink granules from my lashes and spit more out of my mouth. I’m breathing heavily as I regroup, assessing my options as Aeson drags a thumb across his lips like he expects it to be bleeding. It’s not. His bio shield has done exactly what it’s designed to and kept him from sustaining any actual damage.
I smile over at him as he cracks his neck and takes me in.
“You can tap out anytime,” I taunt.
The tip of Aeson’s tongue darts out to test the corner of his lip where his pain receptors are telling him he’s injured, and then he aims a dangerous smile my way.
My stomach flops around like a beached fish, and I don’t know if I’m excited or worried about the renewed gleam in his eye.
“I don’t tap out…ever,” he informs me, rising to his full, towering height. Sand sticks to his sweaty chest and throat, and pours down the rest of his muscled body in tiny streams.
“Neither do I,” I snarl, and then I leap for him.
He catches me, but my hits are swift and packed with power. I’m out for fucking blood, done with playing, done with being underestimated, done with holding back. He aims body shots at my torso as I hammer blows to his head. I feel my bones break under the onslaught, but I know it’s not real. I know it’s just a mind fuck.
