The Great Duel (4)
Ushun drove her horse forward, eyes fixed on the sky.
Dawn clouds stained blood-red — even for Ushun, a veteran of a hundred battlefields, it was a sight she had never seen before.
"Doesn't feel much like dawn."
The sun had risen? Impossible. That flickering thing overhead could not possibly be the sun. It was the will of a single living creature, its very action, driving back the darkness before daybreak. And when that fire guttered out, the dark would swallow everything again.
Kuoooooh-
"So that's the cry of a dragon?"
Could a beast truly bellow like that? It sounded nothing like wind. It was like the roar of gathering winds moments before a storm breaks.
Ushun did not awe easily at living things. But when she saw the dragon twisting its body mid-air above her, she felt less as though she were facing an animal and more as though she stood before a mountain peak or the sun itself.
Cold sweat ran down her neck.
"...Unlike me."
Fear did not suit her. Least of all a soldier in the middle of carrying out her mission.
"Move faster."
Truu-
Ushun pressed on, refusing to let the dragon occupy her thoughts.
Something came hurtling at her.
-A face?
Instinct took over. She tore the flat of her blade from its sheath and swung.
Thwack-
A wet, crushing sound rang out, followed by a slick, viscous sensation. The byproducts splattered in every direction.
Ihiiiiing-!
Her horse reared, losing its balance.
-If I stay on, we both go over.
Instead of falling with the horse, Ushun threw herself clear.
She tumbled across the rough stone floor, but her mind stayed locked tight. There was a high probability this was an ambush.
-Your courage is commendable.
She rose and settled into a fighting stance.
The flying object appeared to be an orc's severed head. The cross-section was ragged. From what she could see, the neck had been twisted until the vertebrae snapped, then simply torn free.
"Who's there?"
"Ah, sorry about that. Was aiming for your feet, honest."
The imperial tongue. The corners of Ushun's eyes creased.
"I know that voice."
She was no ignorant woman. She had been talented enough to earn appointment to the Khan's personal guard, and she sat among the elders who decided the great matters of her clan.
The wasteland where the Tamugai held sway crawled with 'Wastelanders' who had fled up from the Empire. Basic imperial speech was something she had mastered as a matter of simple education.
Fwoosh-
Dawn broke anew under the dragon's fire. A sunset-red glow swept the darkness aside and revealed the figure of a man.
Theo. Theo Baranthios.
"That's right. You're the one from that damned circus."
This was the third time. The first had been at the tug-of-war contest. The second, at the colosseum where the execution was held.
"You."
And now she was looking at him at the foot of a dragon.
"You'd better have one hell of an explanation for why you're standing in my way."
A vein bulged on Ushun's forehead.
"I'm in something of a hurry right now."
Her face was a mask of barely leashed fury. Theo, by contrast, curled his lips upward.
Ushun exhaled a long, heavy breath and spoke.
"You've got eyes. So you know — there's no telling what that dragon is about to do."
Go check on the people around you. It was sincere advice.
"Theo Baranthios."
"What?"
"Former gladiator."
Whoo-
Whether it was the heat rolling off the dragon's flames or her own mounting irritation, her head was burning.
"Look, kid. This lady here is rather busy. I'll give you the thrashing of your life some other time — now get out of my way, would you?"
Naturally, Theo did not move.
"Hmm. You're asking me to pass up the chance to fight with a dragon's fire as my backdrop? That's a bit of a shame."
-This bastard's lost his mind.
He was like a fighting dog. Ushun thought of those mutants bred for nothing but combat — incapable of guarding anyone, incapable of hunting prey, made solely to fight.
Drool was running down the corner of Theo's mouth. Seeing that, Ushun understood that persuasion was pointless.
"I am carrying out the king's orders."
"Don't care."
"Shut up and listen."
Ushun said, tilting her head with a crack.
"I like fighting. But I don't put it above my duty."
-Exactly.
"This won't be a fight. I'm going to destroy you. Quickly."
At her answer, Theo broke into a bright smile. He felt pure, uncomplicated joy.
Though that smile looked monstrous, grotesque in the extreme.
Swish-
Theo's rear foot launched his entire body forward. It almost looked as if he were gliding low across the ground.
-Fast.
Ushun's eyes snapped wide open.
-He's a full head taller than me, and he moves at that speed?
This was movement beyond the human boundary. Instinct drove her fist out.
BOOM.
Her skull rang. Her vision shuddered.
"Arms are a touch short, eh?"
Ushun's arms were anything but short. It was simply that Theo's reach was abnormally long. He struck from farther out than an adult man swinging a one-handed sword.
For an instant she felt pain as though a hammer had come down on her.
-If I hadn't turned my head, my face would have caved in.
More force than a stone flung from a sling. More than the kick of a rearing beast.
Chin.
"Oh?"
But Ushun's eyes were still alive. She caught Theo's wrist. She pulled it in.
And then she hammered her drawn-in head into his with everything she had.
CRACK!
Ushun was a woman who could take down a horse with her bare hands. Killing a man was little more than a pastime to her.
Her fist was heavier than the hammer swings of even a notably strong human. On that point there was no doubt at all.
"Good punch."
Theo's upper body rotated — astonishingly fast, and at the same time, perfectly precise.
"Ugh."
His fist slammed into Ushun's flank. The shock rang through her armor. Gritting her teeth, she tried to swing her head into Theo's skull in return.
Shh-
He slipped it with a minimal motion. Dodging and striking her face in the same breath. Ushun pre-emptively turned with the blow to bleed off the impact.
Crrrick.
She felt her cervical vertebrae rattle. This was not what it felt like to be hit by a human fist. She would swear on her life that an ordinary man would have had his jaw dislocate on contact — torn clean off, even.
And that was no exaggeration whatsoever.
"You. Bastard."
Ushun raised her guard.
-How long has it been since I raised my guard?
Whoosh-
A long, fast punch. It was like a whip. There was no way to dodge it; she took it on the guard.
Thud. Her body rocked. She almost wondered whether she was even wearing armor.
-I'm being out-struck.
Orcs charging with weapons in hand, centaurs — Ushun had felled them all barehanded.
-This bastard. Is he even human?
Honestly, she was impressed. This was the first human like this. No — among every race she had ever faced, centaurs included, she had never met a fighter of this caliber.
Theo's punches poured down without a breath of respite. Ushun felt a pain like flesh being whittled away.
With inborn durability and her eyes, she sorted out which blows could not be allowed to land. She let the striking points slide off. She extended her punches while obstructing his movement.
Then she broke through his check and drove in.
The instant she punched, she dropped her stance. She burrowed under Theo's lower body. Chest met chest. Her hands clamped behind his knees, her legs driving between his own.
"Wrestling?"
"Bökh, you bastard."
A spark of fresh interest lit Theo's eyes. The thing you can only feel when flesh meets flesh — the other's strength, the other's sense.
"First time for me. This kind of strength."
Eyes blazing, Theo drew his lower body back. The textbook defense.
"Did I look like I wouldn't know wrestling?"
Boxing. Wrestling. And pancratium, the marriage of the two.
Theo considered himself not a boxer but a pancratium fighter. He simply didn't favor it, because every time he used pancratium, people died.
"Hey."
"Hm."
Ushun's fingers dug into Theo's mouth. Then — chin. She seized his lower jaw along with the bottom teeth.
"What's knowing whether it's wrestling or whatever going to do for you?"
-If knowing were enough to stop a technique, would it even be a technique?
Theo's massive body floated into the air — then plummeted headfirst toward the ground.
THUD-!
Theo executed a breakfall. For the first time in a very, very long while.
*
-This is joy.
Chemicals flooding from his brain battered every corner of Theo's mind. It was the pure pleasure reserved for warriors who fought with their lives on the line.
-I have the edge in striking.
But in wrestling it was the exact opposite. And the fact delighted him beyond words.
It had never happened before. Not a single soul in the Empire had ever been able to withstand Theo's strength. The contest itself simply failed to exist.
-Can a bear and a man truly wrestle?
He'd thought it impossible. At least until moments ago.
Rising to his feet, Theo spoke.
"You're the first wrestler ever to throw me."
Ushun answered nothing. She spat out a glob of blood-flecked phlegm.
"When you threw me, you had an opening to attack. Why didn't you go for it?"
"Trading blows one at a time gets us nowhere."
"How's standing back up any different?"
"I told you clearly."
Ushun clenched her fist. Blood dripped steadily from between the clenched fingers.
"You maimed yourself...?"
"I have no intention of fighting you. I'm going to destroy you. Quickly."
Theo raised his guard. His animal senses were screaming at him.
"The clouds are gathering."
"What does that matter?"
"It means you're dead."
Ushun swept her fist in a tremendous arc. Theo reacted, reaching out for it.
"Passing through."
KWA-BOOM!
A bolt of lightning came crashing down into her fist.