Free There But For The Grace by A. J. Downey, Jeffrey Cook Page B

off-balance again. He followed up with an upward slash as he rose. I ducked back out of the way, but it was still in the wrong direction, as he forced me back to the wall.
    With nowhere else to retreat, I batted aside one thrust, taking a shallow cut to the arm, and caught him with a wing buffet before he could strike again. My attempt to get away from the wall failed, but I was able to step away from his swing. Frustrated, he tried for a more forceful blow on the next attack. I side-stepped it, barely, and his blade stuck in the stone. Before he could pull it free, I’d shifted alongside him. I managed to grab the hair at the back of his head, and slammed him forward. The stone wall partly gave way under the force of my attack and impact with his forehead. That stunned him enough that I was able to do it twice more before he got his wits about him enough to teleport away.
    He reappeared, looking dizzy, face bloodied, on the other side of the chamber. I ran towards my sword. He cleared his head, then teleported again, appearing between me and the weapon, readying his attack. He realized too late that this time, the weapon hadn’t been my target. As soon as Kasdaye materialized, I dove, burying my shoulder in his gut and tackling him backwards. I followed it up with quick punches, then rolled away, before diving for the sword.
    I grabbed it and kept rolling, with the sound of metal-on-stone ringing just behind me as he struck just an instant too late. By the time I looked, though, he was gone.
    I kept moving, noting movement just in time to dodge, as he tried to keep me off my feet. I parried a blow, after managing to get to my knees, and shoved him backwards. He came right back at me, raining down slash after slash. I blocked them desperately, forced to fight strictly defensively. He finally made enough of a mistake—a swing I could parry aside instead of just stopping—that I was able to follow it up with a quick punch to the stomach, using my sword hilt like brass knuckles. He staggered back long enough for me to get to my feet.
    I was unsteady and a bloody mess, but standing and facing off with him nonetheless.
    “I’ll kill you,” he snarled, meeting my eyes.
    “If you can’t handle me as I am, you won’t last ten minutes in a real fight with Gabriel.”
    He came at me hard and fast. I knocked his powerful swing aside, but he was too quick, getting his guard up before I could respond. We traded several more back and forth exchanges, each managing to deflect or dodge every swing. Bit by bit, I managed to force him backwards this time. As he neared the wall, I raised my sword, as if I were about to hammer downward and attempt to knock his sword out of the way, or power through his defense. Before I could strike, he disappeared.
    In doing so, he finally played into my hands. I reversed my grip on my sword, holding the blade underhand, and, without turning, stabbed backwards. I met resistance as I thrust the blade back, and heard choking and gurgling that grew into a muted shout. I twisted the hilt in my hand, turning the sword, and finally looked back. I’d caught him perfectly in the gut before he could manage another try at stabbing me in the back. His sword was still raised, but he dropped it when I turned the blade back the other way.
    I readjusted my grip on the hilt, and drove him back to the wall, pinning him there, and, judging by the fact he stayed pinned, I guessed being held in place like this also disrupted his gift for teleporting. My other hand caught his throat, cutting off the next attempt to scream. Tightening my grip, I started pulling the blade upward through his gut, eventually reaching his ribcage. I could see him mouthing “Mercy!” with blood bubbling up from his mouth each time he did.
    “Why? Why should I show mercy?” I asked, but did lighten my grip on his throat, and stopped the sword before reaching his ribcage.
    “I’ll tell you...” he started, struggling for words, even though