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Ok, I don't exactly know what it's called yet, but here is a short story that I had to do for creative writing. My aunt suggested I call it "Unparried" but i want your people's opinion. Here it is:
My sword swung down and clashed with my opponents as he parried the heavy attack on him. He grunted in pain from the force of the attack. Almost as soon as my sword hit his, I slid it away from his blade and slashed at the opening that he introduced to me as he swung his hand up to block the blow. The blow caught him unawares and he crumpled to the ground.
Even though it was dull, the sword in my hand still inflicted some pain. He looked up at me and forced a smile, the pain evident on his face.
“Damn,” the man grunted, “you’re good.” The man on the ground was the village battlemaster, a strong, heavily built man. Not the best swordsman, which is probably why he was assigned a small village, but he was pretty good with tactics. He made a special trip down to the town just to face me.
“Thank you,” I said. “Now that I have beaten the battlemaster, I consider myself virtually invincible! Is there anyone here, now, that thinks that they can defeat me? If there is, then I challenge you!”
I didn’t expect anyone to answer; I thought I would get to go home and rest. There are rare occasions when someone else accepts my challenge. This was one of those rare occasions.
“I will!” I heard someone shout from the crowds. It took me by surprise and I just stood there for a second or two, stock still, until I finally answered the voice:
“Come forward, mystery voice,” I called to the crowd.
A man stepped out into the open. He had bright red hair and blue eyes that would stand out in a massive sand storm. He looked to be just barely younger than I am. He was about an inch shorter than me and fairly muscular.
“Hello, my name is Kaz,” he said.
“Hello Kaz,” I said. “Just in case this is your first time at one of my skirmishes, my name is Dredon.”
“I know your name. I’ve been to all your skirmishes. You are the best swordsman I know, although I’ve always dreamed of coming up here and trying to beat you. I don’t think it’s very likely, but this is the first time I’ve actually had the guts to raise my hand.”
“Well today is your lucky day,” I said. “Walk over there and grab the blade on the ground there and we’ll begin”
Kaz walked over to the sword on the ground and picked it up. I was surprised to see that he held it like a professional and with no strain at all. I walked close to him and started to circle him. His eyes locked on me and followed me until I moved out of his peripheral vision. He stayed in place until I got to the opposite side of him, and that was when he really surprised me.
He whipped around and slashed at me. He caught me by surprise and I just barely blocked it. It was like he had eyes in the back of his head!
I was stunned for about a second, and then I retaliated with a heavy downward swing, which he blocked effortlessly and then repelled off of my blade and went for my hip. I blocked that easily and jumped back a foot or two. I could tell that fighting this guy would take some strategy.
Oh well, I wasn’t that good with strategy anyway, I only knew one trick and that was the one that I performed on the battlemaster. I just got really cocky and at that moment, I lunged forward and tried to slash down at him; and just a moment after, I regretted it.
Kaz took that one opportunity and stepped to the side and stabbed at my gut. The sharp pain came only half a second after that. I fell to the ground in mid-flight.
The crowd was as stunned as I was, then they recovered and started cheering and clapping. I sat there and listened for about five seconds, then my face got really red and I jumped up.
“Kaz, I don’t know what that was and why it came over me at that moment,” I said, “but I claim that this match was unfair and I want a rematch! Two days from now, same time, in the town stadium.
The stadium wasn’t too far from my home and was fairly small. But it should suffice.
“Oh, come off it!” Kaz said, still smiling. “I beat you fair and square, just leave it and get on with your life.”
“NO!” I bellowed “I will not just get on with my life! I want a rematch, a fair rematch, in the stadium two days from now.”
Now no one was laughing. Kaz thought for a moment, staring thoughtfully at the sky. “Alright,” he said finally, “I can do with a little amusement and popularity in my life. Two days from now, in the stadium.”
The next day, I had my friend, Luke, go into town to spy on Kaz while I was relaxing. He only took about an hour and came back with obvious news.
“He’s practicing like crazy, Dredon,” he said. “I think you should practice a little bit too, I mean he did beat you the first time.”
“He did not!” I exclaimed stubbornly. “Something involuntary happened in my body and made me fling towards him while I was thinking of what to do. Practice is unnecessary!”
Luke shrugged. “Whatever you say, it’s your dignity at stake here, not mine. Just don’t come crying to me when you lose again.”
“I’M NOT GOING TO LOSE TO HIM AGAIN!” I screamed at him. Luke’s eyes grew wide and he stepped back a couple of paces.
“Holy hell, Dredon, you don’t have to scream at me about it, it’s not my fault that you aren’t good at swordplay anymore.”
My eyes flared with anger. “Get out of my house!” I bellowed at him. He rushed to get out, jumping over furniture and what-not. Just our usual one month fight. He would be back to apologize most likely after my battle with Kaz.
In the meantime, it was getting late. I made myself some supper and ate alone, which I usually did unless me and Luke weren’t fighting.
I went to bed at a reasonable time that night and had an odd dream in which I was lost in darkness and couldn’t figure out what was what, or just what was going on around me whatsoever. It felt like I had to cling on to consciousness to stay in this world, and it felt like that the whole night until the sun intruded my sleep, seeping through my eyelids until I finally opened my eyes, sitting there blankly until I forced myself to rub the sleep from them.
Today was the day. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a repeat of what happened two days ago.
It definitely wasn’t.
I got to the Stadium only a couple minutes before the appointed time. It was filled, so much that there were people standing outside! I’d never seen the place so filled! Everyone in the whole county must’ve been there!
I had let Kaz keep his sword so that he could practice with a dull sword and didn’t risk injuring anyone else. I didn’t care much. But when I walked in the stadium, I saw him in one of the corners and he looked like he’d lost it. I walked over to him and heard him muttering something. I walked up to him and he jumped when I put my hand on his back.
“Hey, Kaz, I just wanted to apologize about the other day, I admit that I really over-reacted, I’m sorry. Let’s just have a nice, clean fight.”
“Oh, thanks for the apology Dredon, but we might have to postpone the fight,” Kaz said gloomily. “I’ve somehow lost the sword. I got here, put the sword in this corner, and then went to go talk to some old friends that heard rumors of the fight. I’m so sorry.”
“What? No, we can’t do that, do you see how many people are here? We can’t just postpone it; we need to look for it.”
“Ok, you check on the left side of the stadium and I’ll check on the right,” he said, walking away.
I walked towards my side and found it almost instantly. I picked it up and ran towards Kaz. “I found it! Kaz, I found it. It was in the shadows over there.”
“Oh good, the fight goes on,” he said.
Silence fell over the stadium as we each walked towards our sides. When we got to our sides and turned to face each other, applause broke out throughout the huge crowd of people. We each started by walking towards the center of the stadium, pulling our swords from their scabbards. Kaz seemed to have some trouble taking his sword from his scabbard, having to use two hands to do it, which was odd because he should be using the same size sword and scabbard as I was. I set the thought aside, paying attention to more important matters.
As we approached each other, our swords clanged with the sound of metal hitting metal as we each clashed them together. Then the crowd cheered as we each tried slashing at one another, he parried my attacks as I parried his. He was backing towards the wall with each assailment.
I smirked; I knew that this time would be different. That was a bad idea. I let my guard down, and found that I was the one getting backed towards the opposite wall. I tried a heavy downward swing, which Kaz blocked easily.
We were already back at the middle of the field. I had to force myself from trying to go berserk because I knew that doing that would end badly. I tried an upward slash and was greeted by another seemingly effortless parry.
That was when it happened. Kaz went to do a downward swing, which I blocked. Then he slid his blade off mine and went for my open hip. I couldn’t believe it! He got me with my own move that I had used only two days ago!
“Oh my god, Dredon! How the hell did that happen?” He said, dumbfounded.
And that was when I noticed that I was bleeding profusely from my side. The world started to go dark, I couldn’t see out of the sides of my eyes. I heard someone yell from the crowd. Then I saw that it was Luke, who was jumping into the middle of stadium and stumbling towards me. We were best friends, and I could see that, even with my vision getting darker by the second, that he was already getting teary eyed.
Then I figured out what happened within the depths of my mind. Kaz didn’t misplace the sword, someone had took it and switched it with a real one, a sharp one.
But it was too late. All went dark for a moment or two, then I saw the light, barely, off into the distance. I knew that I was dead.
And that's it. please give your opinions and an idea for a title. Keep in mind the title "Unparried" because if you like that one, then I'll just use that. Thanks!
