Free Freelance Heroics by Stephen W. Gee Page B

hands.
    Gavi looked over at Cóstan, who was picking his way out of the rubble toward her. But his eyes had never left her. Gavi knew that if he wanted to, he could have attacked her already.
    I’ll take it. She held onto the stone base and dashed back to the column she was hiding behind before.
    Now Cóstan did attack. Gavi held up the base as a shield to block his spells, wincing as her hands and arms were splashed with white-hot mana. She drew close, and then hurled the base the rest of the way and dove after it.
    Gavi knocked two of the iron spikes off the loose base, then tossed it around the standing column until it was sitting on the other side, facing Cóstan. She ducked back behind cover and took up a stake in each hand.
    The clang of metal could be heard throughout the arena as spectators craned to see what was going on. Gavi was using one stake as a hammer and the other as a nail, forcing the latter under one of the bindings supporting the standing column. The binding popped off. Gavi did the same with another, her head darting up to see what Cóstan was doing every few seconds. He took potshots at her, but he didn’t seem interested in charging.
    The second binding popped free, and Gavi left them both where they lay. She kept the stake. Then she braced her feet against the wall, rested her back against the column, and pushed.
    There was no ominous groan or screech of metal as the one-story column fell. It simply toppled, the other bindings breaking free as it fell.
    Toward Cóstan.
    Not that Cóstan didn’t have plenty of time to get out of the way. He barely had to jog—and then the falling column struck the other pillar’s base, the one Gavi had shoved in front of it, and it bounced and rolled, the column coming apart in three separate pieces as it struck. Now Cóstan did have to run, but he escaped unscathed.
    Footsteps padded on the sand.
    Cóstan tracked the shape moving along the opposite side of the fallen column, using it as cover. He aimed and fired.
    Gavi hurdled the fallen column as her shield of stone crumbled in her hands, Cóstan’s spell tearing it apart. Cóstan readied another spell as Gavi reached into her pocket.
    “ Ichn ir ukk—Swiftness! ”
    Gavi drew back her arm and hurled the iron stake with all her might.
    Cóstan doubled over as the stake slammed into his stomach. Even without an aura, Gavi’s augmented speed caused the stake to rip through Cóstan’s defenses and batter his flesh.
    That’s when Gavi closed the gap and pounced. Cóstan fell to a flurry of stinging blows, and as the crowd roared Gavi drew her knife and knocked Cóstan’s sword away. Mana tore at her, but Gavi ignored it. She jabbed Cóstan in the solar plexus, spun him around, kicked his knees out from under him, and brought her knife to his throat.
    “Do you surrender?” she said, her voice hoarse.
    The crowd went wild before Cóstan could answer. The older man smiled. “You know, your knife doesn’t have an edge.”
    “Yes, but it would still hurt,” said Gavi. “Plus, I’d really like to win, please.”
    Cóstan smiled sadly. “Then I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
    Gavi cried out as mana winds like she had never experienced hurled her away from Cóstan. Her feet actually left the ground as she tumbled, the knife falling from her hands as she was thrown toward the fallen column. Gavi landed with a painful crunch, her holdout crossbow snapping in half as she crashed into the stone, and was pinned there.
    Cóstan walked over to her, and suddenly the winds changed direction. Gavi flopped onto the ground, the winds forcing her into the sand face first. Cóstan kneeled down and gently moved her head to the side so she could breathe.
    “I apologize, but you really did quite well,” said Cóstan as he pulled her hands together. Shimmering barriers wrapped around her wrists. “I actually wouldn’t have minded seeing a new guild, but I gave you too many chances as is. Had I surrendered it would have