Death has a Daughter (DHAD Series) (4 page)

“
But, she didn’t...I was expecting something like a flip or...no, it was too quick...ahh,” John said from behind me as he stormed off. 
Nothing like being a sore loser
, I wanted to shout but held back.  Herald released my hand, and I walked over to the stands to once again speak with my father.

“
Oldie but goodie,” Dad said, as I approached him.

“
Yeah, I figured something simple would work this time since, during my last match, I’d pulled out something big,” I said as a proud smirk formed on my lips.

“
He thought you were going to pull out something big, too.  That’s why you never assume anything!”  My dad said as he gave me a high-five.  “Head back to your bench now and rest, Cendall.  Drake’s match might take more time, and the more time you have to clear your head and strategize, the better.  I’ll see you next round.  Good luck.”

“
Thanks, Dad,” I said as I headed back to my bench, watching as the crowd behind my dad looked disappointed.  They had hoped for handshakes and to speak with me again, but that could wait for the next round.  Dad was right—I definitely needed as much time as possible to clear my head and ready myself for Drake, who surely would be winning his current match soon.

The door to my bench was open as I walked past.  Once inside, I
closed the stone door.  I took a deep breath, laid down on the cement bench, and let out a laugh.  John had been easier than Eric!  Who would have guessed that?  Remembering the look on John’s face, I let out another laugh.

“
I wouldn’t laugh quite yet,” Dave said, as I jumped up at the sound of his voice.

“
How the hell…”

“
I got in as soon as the fight ended.  I knew your dad would want you to come in here and rest before the next one.  Did you see the look on John’s face when you pulled that on him?  He was so pissed, I loved it,” he said.

“
He wasn’t expecting something so simple.”  I sat up to face him.

“
Thank you for sneaking in here.  I’m not one for sitting in silence to concentrate.”  If Drake’s match lasted awhile, I knew I would have started thinking about other things.

“
That’s why I’m here—to keep you focused on this match.”

“
Thank you, Dave,” I said.

“
Sure thing. Do you know what you’re going to do with Drake yet?  Like which move or whatever?  I have a few ideas that I wanted to give you.”  I was so grateful that Dave had snuck in to talk to me.  I hadn’t even begun to think about what I would do with Drake’s match.  I had been enjoying the memory of John’s face too much.  A long time ago, I promised myself I would silence these boys one day.  That day was today, and it felt good.  Just one more...

“
I have no idea.  I can’t pull either of the previous ones, and I’m drawing a blank to be honest.  Drake is just so different.  He doesn’t really have a weakness like the rest of these guys.”

“
Yeah, he’s not really going to fall for anything that I can think of.  I think your best bet would be either high strikes and dives, or runs and strikes,” Dave said, and I nodded in agreement.

“
That’s what I was thinking, too, but he’ll be expecting that,” I said.

“
That’s true, but you can’t take him head-on with one-on-one combat. He’s stronger than you.”

“
Ugh…this is going to be crazy,” I said as I let out a deep breath.

“
I think my best bet is going to be just to not think too much and see what happens.  I don’t really want to plan anything, because, if it fails, I won’t know what to do.”

“
Well, then have multiple plans. For example, instead of a plan A and B, you’ll need to think of like plans A through E.  If they don’t work, I’m sure something will come to you as the fight wears on.”

“
You’re right, Dave, so let’s start with what plan A will be,” I said, as the door to my bench opened and Dad entered.

“
Hello, Dave,” Dad said with an ‘
I knew you would be in here but you shouldn’t be’
look. “Drake’s match is over with Eddie and Tom,” he said, and my stomach began to twist as I realized I wouldn’t get as much time as I wanted to plan my strategy.

“
Alright, so that gives me ten minutes, right?”  I asked, and my dad’s head shook from side to side.

“
No, he’s refusing a break.  He wants to fight now,” my father said, as my mouth flopped open.

“
But, how can…”

“
You are allowed to refuse a break.  I believe it’s part of his strategy.  He doesn’t want you planning.  You have two minutes, and then you need to be out there.  Dave, come with me, we must grab our seats; the whole realm is here,” my dad said, as he and Dave left

“
Good luck!”  Dave shouted as the door slammed.

Two minutes. How could I come up with a plan in two minutes?  Drake was such a dick.  This had to be part of his plan. Crap.  Well, I’m just going to have to go with the plan of not planning.  Trying to slow my adrenaline, I forced myself to take deep breaths as I walked out into the arena.  My father wasn’t kidding when he said the whole realm was here.  There wasn’t an empty seat in the stadium.  My side of the stands cheered as they saw me come out of my bench.  Scanning the crowd, my eyes found my father and Dave.  Front row, of course. My thumb shot straight up as I smiled at them, and they both gave me thumbs-up back.  This was it.

The crowd roared again, much louder than a few moments ago, and I looked to the other bench.  Drake came out and began waving his hands in the air at the crowd.  He loved this.  Unlike me, he had several cuts on his arm and a bruise on his left eye.  This, of course, didn
’t make him look any less intimidating.  To him, those bruises were probably as bad as a paper cut.  He didn’t look tired at all, and it appeared the crowd was fueling his energy.  He gave me a cold stare with his dark-blue eyes, and I felt a shiver roll up my spine.  I hated that I was intimidated by him.  Unlike the other guys in my class that I had trained with, none were as skilled as Drake.  His body was solid muscle, and he was built like a Titan legend.  He was just too ridiculously strong, quick, intelligent, and amazingly good-looking.  The last part had nothing to do with his fighting abilities, but I would be lying to myself if I didn’t admit it was part of his distractions.  The fight hadn’t even started and I was already letting him affect me.  As I met his cold stare, I stuck out my tongue and waved.  He looked sort of shocked for a second, then let out a small smile.  He had absolutely no fear of me.  Maybe that could be his weakness.  We both walked up to Herald.

“
Ah...the time has finally come,” Herald said.  “I’ve been waiting for this since you both were six years old.  The hostility you two have for one another is what has built up this fight so much!  Let’s make it a good one—one to go down in the record books,” Herald said.  He lifted his hands to silence the crowd.

“
This match is for top in class for these Reapers.  Both are now tied in first, so it is a winner-takes-all match.  As my hands lower, this match begins!”  At this, the crowd went crazy.  He lowered his hands, and Drake and I each took our steps back and brought out our scythes.

We bowed, and the match began.  Drake ran at me, and I did the same.  Our scythes collided, and the hand-to-hand combat began.  He went for a strike and I blocked it.  Over and over this happened.  He was too quick for me
—I couldn’t get a strike in.  Perhaps I needed to bolt.  I dodged towards the right and ran a few steps away to prepare my strike.  Only a few seconds passed before he came upon me again.  He was trying to make it go back to one-on-one strikes again.  If I let that happen, this fight would be over in a minute.

As he charged at me again
, I jumped, using the move to bring my scythe down and smack him on the back of the head.  Flipping out of his way, I landed with a roll to his left and spun around.  His eyes started blinking rapidly, meaning the impact had made good contact, but it wasn’t slowing him down.  He took a deep breath and again came at me.  Blocking was useless because he was too strong.  He stepped out and spun his leg high, and I braced myself. His kick landed square in my chest, sending me flying. Already winded from that kick, the remainder of my air rushed from my lungs as my body collided with the stadium wall.

A rustic bitter taste pooled into my mouth and drowned my tongue.  My lips opened and I
felt the blood trickle out between breaths.  This wasn’t good.  I lifted my neck and felt it ache as my eyes caught Drake readying himself to attack again.

It was a good thing he had struck my body so hard that I flew to the other side of the stadium.  This at least bought me some time for the spinning to ease and for me to assemble myself.  I attempted to get up.  Pain and weariness took my legs out from under me before I had even made it to an upright position.  I cried out in pain as I realized my left leg was probably fractured.  Trying again, I endeavored to keep as much weight on my right leg as possible, and this time I was able to struggle to my feet. Every part of my body ached and begged for me to quit, but I couldn
’t...not now.

The crowd rose to their feet
, assuming it would be over soon.  My father’s concerned eyes connected with mine. I couldn’t let him down.  With the mere seconds I had remaining, I would give it one more try.

Drake was staring at me from
a distance with a confidence like he had already won.  He knew this wasn’t going to last much longer; we both knew this would be my last assault on him.  He just simply outmatched me.  I had only struck him twice, and the blows took him back slightly but not enough to do any real damage—unlike the damage he had done to my body.  My body could only block so much, and he was quicker than me. 

My arms raised my scythe in the air, and I charged at him.  He did the same. As we ran
towards one another, our eyes connected and everything appeared to be moving in slow motion.  We were about thirty feet from one another when I saw him raise his scythe—he was going to throw it at me.  Smart move—if he didn’t hit me, he knew I would have to dive out of the way.  He would then take that opportunity to go back to one-on-one combat with me.  If I somehow missed his scythe and was able to throw mine, he would be able to block mine with his massive forearms, which, then again, would bring us back to one-on-one combat, and he was probably correctly assuming that all he needed to do was get one more hit on me and I was done.  Be it with his fist or his scythe, one hit on me and it was over.  The scythe left his hand and flew toward my body.  His aim was dead-on for that blue heart at my center.  This was the perfect move.  This match was over once I dove out of the way.  I made a slight move to the right to ready my dive.

If I was going out, it would at least be in glory. At the last minute, I decided that, instead of diving, I would keep to my original path, letting out a chilling scream as I felt the scythe impact my body.  As it collided with my chest, I flew back once again from the impact and found myself on the ground. 
I glanced down and saw, with relief, that the scythe had missed my fake heart by two inches.  It was likely that Drake thought the scythe had penetrated my fake heart and the match was over. 

In dire pain,
I rolled onto my side to wait for Drake to walk over and gawk at me as he claimed his win.  It only took a few seconds before I felt him behind me.  My head turned to look back and double-check.  As I looked up into his face, I saw that he was smiling with a look of utter confidence.  My head turned to look away, as if I was ashamed. He walked around me and bent down to grab his scythe to take it out of my chest so he could raise it to the crowd to celebrate his win. 

The second he put his hand on his scythe, I grabbed my scythe from the ground.  With all the strength I had left, I shoved it upwards, inserting the blade into his blue heart.

The crowd went silent in confusion when all the happiness escaped Drake’s face as he looked down at me.  I had found Drake’s weakness:  his cockiness. He should have checked the wound before he let his guard down.  Lucky for me, he hadn’t.  As my blade remained embedded in Drake’s fake heart, and his scythe in my real body, I let out a deep sigh and let my head fall back so I could concentrate and take a few breaths.  That was when I saw Herald running towards us.

“
NO!”  Drake screamed. I forced my head to look at him and saw that his eyes were raged with fury.  Herald arrived and slowly took the scythe out of my body.  My mouth let out a loud “SHIT” as I tried to yell over the gushing sound the scythe made as it left my body.  Herald reached out his hand and helped me up, as the blood poured from my wound.  It was definitely going to leave a scar but, luckily, had missed any main arteries.  I would live.  When I was up, I grabbed ahold of the wound and looked into the crowd.  They still hadn’t a clue what was going on, and they were patiently waiting.  I had never seen the realm this quiet.

As I held my wound with my right hand, Herald raised my left.  The crowd went crazy.  Looking at their faces, I wish I could have frozen the moment forever.  Half of the crowd had tears flowing, while the other half just looked plain shocked.  I let out a chuckle but
it hurt, so I just took deep breaths as Herald held my hand in the air and I continued to scan the crowd.  He released it, and I turned slowly to where Drake stood, now holding my scythe in his hand.  He then bowed and in slow, precise steps brought it over to me, placing it gently back in the loops of my belt, where it stayed when at rest.  Drake then held out his hand, and I held out my left, since my right one was holding my bleeding wound, and we shook hands.  It was a brief, light shake, then he released my hand.

“
Nice fight,” he said and walked away.  I started after him, my mouth hanging open. I had not expected this outcome.  An outraged scream of fury, yes, but Drake being civil to me wasn’t expected.  He took it like a real Reaper would be expected to—with dignity. 
Well, Damn! 
I wanted to shout as I turned back to the crowd, but let out a smile when I saw who was leading the rushing line.  My father and Dave both had grins from ear to ear.

“
I knew you would do it!” Dad shouted as he lifted me up and spun me around.

“
Dad, my wound, you’re hurting me,” I said.

“
Oh yeah, I forgot that was real. Damn, Cendall, taking a scythe for the win, I’ve never seen it done.  That has to hurt!”

“
Extremely. Before the rest of the mob gets here, can we please go to the nurses?”  I begged.

“
I’ll take her,” Dave said as he gave me a gentle hug.

“
Cendall, I know it hurts, but you have to acknowledge the win.  It’s the right thing to do, unless you think the wound is deadly,” Dad said with a raised brow.  “You know that will heal in a day with our blood.”

“
Fine, but only for like a half-hour.  It is still bleeding,” I said.  Then, the rest of the crowd of people, who never gave a shit about me before, approached me.  I gave each of them my fakest, sincere smile as they congratulated me.  At least one thing was off my checklist:  First in my class—CHECK.  The real test would begin tomorrow, when I was finally given my scroll of human souls to collect.