Page 21 of Gladiator Moon

“My life belongs to them.”

“I will save us both.”

“No, fool! They will kill us both.”

“We’ll see.”

Then she attacks again, and this time she gives the crowd the fight they hope to see. She comes low, zigzagging across the sand so fast she seems to appear and vanish between heartbeats. I meet her with the ice sword, sparks and frost exploding each time our blades clash. She strikes high, low, high again, then spins behind my calf and stabs for the back of my knee.

I pivot away and bring my sword down hard into the sandy pitch.

The blade hits inches from her and explodes in a geyser of ice shards. The blast lifts her off her feet and throws her backward. She tumbles end over end, hits the ground, rolls, and springs up with both swords raised.

The crowd loses its mind. They assume I will cleave her in half. I do not. Again, I show her mercy.

Confused again, she flies straight at my chest. I catch her with the flat of my blade. Not the edge. No, never the edge. The impact runs up my arm. She slides along the now-icy surface, claws scraping, then kicks up and flies over my shoulder. A tiny blade bites into the flesh between my not-quite-attached wings.

“Ow!” I bark. “You little shit.”

Distracted, she lands on my right wing. Wonderful. Soon, tiny, clawed feet run up my back and along shoulders. I reach back, but she avoids my hand, likely jumping over it, and scrambles toward my neck with terrifying speed. She is going to slice my neck.

Not that it would kill me.

But still... ouch!

So I throw myself forward and roll. She ends up in my arms. Back on my feet, I fling her away like a fishmonger at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. She tumbles end over end before finally righting herself with her wings.

I rise slowly, breathing hard for effect. My cheek is bleeding. So is somewhere in the middle of my back. My thigh burns, too. Her magic swords are keeping me from healing as quickly as I am accustomed to, though I do feel my skin trying to close. Still, I can feel the blood dropping too. Something I’m very much not accustomed to.

The audience likes blood. And, apparently, so does the stadium, whatever that means.

The sprite spins around and faces me, growing. She is so stinkin’ cute it hurts.

Then, with a shriek that could have cracked glass, the cute little bundle turns into something hellish as she launches herself at me again. I meet her in the center of the arena with an overhead strike that would have split a horse in two. The strike misses her by a whisper and instead smashes into the sand.

Ice erupts upward in a glittering wall between us.

She bursts through it first, both blades crossing toward my face. I stumble backward, making the move big and ugly, selling panic to the cheap seats. She presses the attack, raining blows against my sword so quickly that I am certain I am about to lose a finger or two.

Spoiler alert: I don’t.

Frost snaps off my blade in white sparks. She even drives me back one step. Then another. The crowd chants now. I can’t understand the collective language, but I understand the meaning.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

Blood! Blood! Blood!

Weirdos. I let my sneaker dig into the sand. Let my balance go, warble on purpose. Mostly, I let the little sprite see the obvious opening. Instinctively, as a warrior, she takes it, and flies at my throat with both swords thrust forward. With the crowd fully engaged and the wizard and royalty hopefully buying into the assault, I spread my wings wide and drop my ice sword.

Like catching a buzzing fly with chopsticks, I catch the wood sprite by her tiny ankles with a perfectly timed swipe.

The crowd goes nuts, though they are confused. I beat my wings hard and rise quickly into the air, higher and higher.

“You will return to the pitch, Moon Warrior!” barks Baltazar, his voice magically enhanced.

Miraculously, the little sprite stops struggling. Her swords somehow slip back into their little sheaths on her back, and she goes almost completely limp. It reminds me of how sharks sometimes enter a trance when turned upside down. Maybe wood sprites have a similar quirk.

I continue flying up.