As they made their way outside for combat training, Eric hung a bit behind Illius. Hireth sat in the snow, her eyes closed in supposed meditation. An evil grin etched itself on her face as they approached.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Eric whispered loudly.
“You should,” Hireth said. Her eyes flicked open, and she snapped her fingers. Three glaives materialized in the air and fell to the ground, sticking up from the snow. She picked one up and tossed it to Eric. “You’re first.”
The man took a deep breath. “I think I should take this moment to remind you that a hard knock to the dome will probably not give me amnesia.”
Her lip curled up in a smirk. “What must you think of me that I would take this opportunity to get revenge for this morning?”
“You are definitely in a fine mood if you’re pulling out your passive aggressive talk.” Eric took the glaive and settled into a defensive stance.
Hireth walked around him loosely, not taking the first strike. “Let’s have a lesson in attitude.”
Eric moved with her, never letting her get behind him.
“Part of every battle is a game of the mind.” The witch stalked to his side. “Right now, you’re defensive, waiting for me to make the first move. What’s dangerous about that?”
Eric didn’t move, watching her.
Hireth swung her glaive from her shoulders, catching it in her other hand and jabbing the blunt end at Eric’s legs. He dipped the shaft of his glaive down to block the blow. The witch danced swiftly, yanking the sharp end up and slicing his glaive in half.
Eric froze, and Illius knew that opening would have cost him if Hireth had kept pressing. She stepped back though and started circling him again. Eric adjusted his grip and held the split weapon. This time, he struck first. But Hireth diverted the blow and brought her elbow down on the back of his neck. He dropped in the snow.
“Are you happy?” he groaned, flopping over.
“A little bit more, yes.” She smirked and offered him a hand to pull him out of the snow. “Any other day, you probably wouldn’t have overextended and given me the opportunity to get you with my elbow.”
“Yeah?”
“I looked more vicious today, so you were more cautious,” she remarked. “Every person is just a person. I broke your glaive to dishearten you, and it worked.”
“Yeah, well, you kind of took away my weapon,” he said.
“Honey, you are the weapon,” Hireth told him, and then she glanced at Illius to make sure he’d heard her point too. “Besides, I needed a proper damsel-in-distress for phase two of my plan.”
“Why?” Eric looked up with mild interest.
“Come on.” She grabbed his wrist and led him over to the tree line. “It’ll be fun.”
Illius trailed behind them.
“Now.” Hireth pressed Eric up against a tree. “You stay there.” She stepped back for a second and examined him. “Can you look more pathetic?”
“Oh, I was born for this.” He smirked, put his hands above his head as though he was chained up and sighed. “Oh, who will rescue me, a poor man captured by this lustful witch?”
“Why are you like this?” Hireth’s face contorted into something between a grimace and a laugh. “I said pathetic, not sexy.”
“Pathetic can be sexy.”
Hireth took a deep breath. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Look.” Eric moved his hands down to make a point. “You said pathetic—I improvised. You wanted a damsel-in-distress—here I am.”
“I already regret this.” Hireth sighed and turned back to Illius, who was practicing the art of turning into an embarrassed sculpture. “Alright, so we have our damsel-in-distress. Your job is to see if you can defeat me and… rescue… him.”
Illius sighed. This was a terrible idea.
“Oh, I forgot.” Hireth summoned a scythe across the clearing above their heads. “That will take ten minutes to reach Eric. Let’s see what you can do before then.”
Illius’ adrenaline started to pump. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” She smirked.
Phewww. Illius felt the magic inside of him pulsing, and he paused for a moment to shove it back down. He glanced at Hireth, who was standing between him and Eric, her feet planted firmly. No way could he dodge her, he knew that. The only way he could reach Eric was through her.
He ran forward, his mind flooding with plans. Elbows, knees, heels, and palms—Hireth’s words rushed into his mind. When he reached her, he slammed against her shoulder. It gave way easily, throwing him off balance. She helped him along with a shove to his back. He went down, rolled to keep his momentum, and bounced back up again.
“Nice,” she commented, slipping back between him and Eric.
He brought his hands up to his head to defend himself. For a moment, they circled each other. Then, Illius struck again, this time going after her knees with his foot. She hit back hard. As he fumbled to catch himself, she followed it up with a step and a kick to his chest. He managed to grab her foot and yank her forward, off balance. She twisted, going down, but landed a kick to his cheek first. He tasted blood. That was his tongue. He looked up and saw the scythe sliding forward. Breathing hard, he scrambled to his feet; they were both back up again, Hireth bouncing back and forth in place. He had to get past her, but how? One way or another, he’d barrel through her. He rushed forward. Her shoulder blocked him. Planting his foot, he whipped his knee into her chest. Though her hands softened the blow, she fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. She rolled, still struggling to breathe, and got to her feet again. Illius pressed his advantage, throwing a punch with his right hand, only to bury his left fist in her stomach. She swept his feet from under him, but he grabbed her hair and yanked her down with him. As she fell with her elbow aimed for his stomach, he rolled out of the way and clocked her temple. Two scythes appeared in Hireth’s hands, and Illius paused, breathing heavily. The scythes blinked out of existence quickly and she fell over to the ground, coughing and gasping for breath.
“Did I hurt you?” The illusion broke in his mind. Eric was no longer in “danger,” and Hireth was struggling to breathe.
She nodded quickly, trying to slow her breathing down. “Yeah, that last hit is gonna bruise.”
“Damn, dude.” Eric was suddenly beside him. “You broke my aunt.”
Illius flushed. “I’m sorry!”
“Don’t be.” Hireth sat up, shaking her head back and forth slowly. “Eric, let’s see how your healing training has been coming.”
“Probably won’t give you an extra limb. Might not do anything,” he commented as he started drawing runes and feeding his blue magic through it. He turned to Illius. “So, how does it feel to best the Witch of Dotric?”
Hireth packed a snowball and threw it at Eric. “Why do the healers always have this overwhelming desire to annoy the shit out of me?”
“You’re easily annoyed?” he teased.
“Shut it, Eric.” Hireth smirked. “At least Illius got me.”
“It’s because I was such an excellent damsel-in-distress.”
“Of course.” Hireth rolled her eyes. “Alright, enough for today. We’ll pick up tomorrow.”
