Page 94 of By Blade, I Love
“This isn’t how I planned this,” Icarus said as he started to move, a shark that circled another shark. “But whichever way this goes, it’ll be a beautiful ending.” Then he grinned as he started to move directly toward me.
He didn’t waste any time and made his first slash, and I dodged and turned with each strike, avoiding the cut from his knife. Hewas bigger and had more strength in his strikes, but he couldn’t move as smoothly as I could. It made it easy for me to dodge and hard for him to recover.
I moved away from him, while he came for me again, continuing on the offensive because that was his approach to any fight. To hack and slash until he landed a hit, to keep the pressure on so I would tire before he did.
“Are you mad that I almost killed your wife?” he asked, going still for a split second before he launched his attack again, trying to catch me off guard with the distraction. He made a flurry of hits, moving hard and fast, trying to slash my arms and then my neck.
I ducked and quickly sidestepped, and then I rushed backward as he came again.
“Because she asked for it.” He swiped again, left and right, and then down toward my clavicle.
I pivoted sideways, avoiding his blade, and stabbed mine down deep into his forearm. The second I felt the bone, I twisted then yanked it back out.
He didn’t scream, but his face immediately tinted blood red, and he turned into an angry bull about to charge.
I knew what was coming, so I quickly dashed away, never moving in a straight line but always jagged and unpredictable leaps. If he moved in one direction, he’d pick up momentum and then knock me flat on my ass.
A circle formed around us, and as Icarus and I engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the only face that really stood out to me wasDon Russo. A heavy silence was cast over the group, no one saying a word as they watched the two of us fight to take it all.
Icarus finally roared like a bear. “Fight me!”
“I am—and you’re losing.” I was already tired from all the dodging, but knife fights between two good fighters were always a long battle. A single blow could be death, so every strike and every dodge mattered, because if you made your move and missed, you made yourself vulnerable to a counterattack—and then you were dead. I could tell Icarus didn’t have the patience for this. He wanted instant gratification.
“You nick my arm, and you think I’m losing?” Icarus rushed me again, his rage and adrenaline giving him a boost.
This time, I wasn’t able to dodge. Instead, I had to block the hit with my forearm, his knife almost getting me in the cheek. He carried more weight, so it took all my strength to hold him back.
Then he bashed his head hard into mine.
I faltered and stumbled back.
“Wolfe!” Don Russo shouted.
My back hit the floor, but I immediately rolled before his boot stomped on me.
I hurried to my feet to run off, but I felt his knife cut me right down the back and rip through my shirt.
I clenched my jaw and grimaced when I felt the burn from his knife.
“You still think I’m losing?”
I faced him again, my knife gripped tightly.
Don Russo was right behind me. “You have to disarm him or kill him. Otherwise, you’ll tire.”
“Come on.” Icarus slammed his fist into his chest. “Are you going to continue to run into the corners like a rat?” He moved toward me again, his wild ferocity fueling him as he came down on me.
I dodged and ducked, following the flow of his movements to avoid the blade impaling me in the gut. He didn’t pause like he had before, going and going until he finally launched forward with his blade.
I waited for the perfect opportunity, his knife coming toward my chest. I turned and threw up my knee, which could have easily ended in disaster, and he slammed hard enough against me that his fingers loosened on the knife. I bashed my knife into his wrist and forced his fingers to release.
“Ahh!” Icarus screamed.
I kicked his knife away, so it slid into the crowd.
He didn’t look at his wrist before he charged me, blood covering his hand and flicking all over the place with his harsh movements. Now he tried to pummel me to death, and his size and strength made that as threatening as the edge of a knife because of the power he could pack into a punch. One bad hit in the wrong spot could knock me out cold. Even kill me.
But speed continued to be my advantage, and when he threw his punch and I evaded, I sliced the knife up his arm and opened a river of blood.
