Page 7 of Rune

My feet dug into the ground as I shifted my weight forward to slam one of her shoulders back with the face of my shield and drive my axe hilt against her other. Tova stepped back to the edge of the sea. Water pooled around her feet. Then she snapped her arm up, arched her back, and pushed hard enough to shove me backward. Her axe came down to seize my own, and I hardly had time to twist before she could yank it away.

I swung again, and there was a loud crack as the handles of our axes connected.

Tova gritted her teeth. Droplets from the sea climbed aboard the breeze to nip at our legs and our cheeks, mixing with the sweat that collected there. It dripped into my eye, burning. With hazy sight, I tried to push Tova back as far into the water as I could so she’d lose her standing.

But she was stronger. She shoved me backward until I fell into the sand. I raised my shield and axe together to block her next strike.

“That’d have dented my skull,” I grunted beneath the weight.

“I knew you’d deflect it,” she huffed.

She let up enough to allow me to stand, and though neither of us said it, we were thinking the same thing.

Tova: one. Rune: zero.

I advanced harder, this time driving the axe around the side and leading with my shield so she couldn’t deflect it. She made a satisfying grunt as my blunt blade hit her hip, then she braced herself and jabbed her axe upward.

It connected with my jaw.

I tasted blood, but I didn’t stop to fear how deeply I’d bit into my tongue. Tova’s eyes blazed, proving she’d reached the mark in fighting where her senses were focused onto one thing: defeat her opponent. She wouldn’t let up, nor would she stop to ponder my moves. As relentless as she was reckless.

I shoved her with my shield. She used the end of her axe to knock my shield into my stomach, and her shield came down on my foot. The corners of it were stained in blood—my blood—but the vibrant blue of the center was still clear enough as she lifted it to jab again.

My axe came quicker, striking the center of it hard enough that the wood groaned. Good. I hated that thing.

She was breathing hard now. My own lungs were roaring. She heard the wheeze, and grinned. “Breaking down so quickly?”

“Not yet.” I swung my axe at her shield again. It slammed hard. Her own axe swiped at my head, and I had to duck before jumping back up with wide eyes.

Hers were still pools of fire.

She swung again, putting me on defense as I stepped back. I twisted to keep away from her axe. Now she had me pinned between her and the waterline, with nowhere to go but through her.

I let out a warriors’ long cry, aimed for her shield, and threw my entire weight with my axe to strike against it.

It cracked again. One more hit and it’d break.

Tova heard the crack, and pulled back to bring her axe up, but I drove the tip of my axe against her side. Her axe came up with sickening speed. I sliced my shield across my body to deflect, before bringing my axe down for a final time.

It hit her shield, and this time, itsank into the wood.

I ripped the axe back. It tore her shield away and brought her to the ground.

“You will die now,” I said with great joy. Beating Tova was no small matter.

But there was a gleam in her eye I should have seen sooner. She didn’t need her shield to win. She used both hands to grip the axe, swinging it against my shield again and again with no relief. With each step she pushed me further into the sea until the currents swept the sand from under my feet. Tova’s next blow shoved me underwater.

She kept me there for almost ten seconds as I thrashed to get up before she relented.

I stood, dripping water from the ends of my braids, my clothes sticking to my body. My expression was not so triumphant now.

“We will call that one a draw,” I grumbled.

She laughed. “We will do no such thing. Fair try though! You’re getting stronger. If it were anyone else, you’d have severed their head clean from their body as soon as you got the shield away. And you’re breathing is still steady! When was the last time you fought for five minutes and didn’t struggle to breathe?”

“It’s been a while.” I threw my axe onto the beach, still stuck in her shield. “Perhaps my fate is changing.”

Tova inspected the wooden splinters at her feet. “You’ll need to make me a new shield.”

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