Page 77 of All You Need is Alien Love
“Absolutely.” He clears his throat and speaks loudly. “The duel will commence at my mark and will continue until one of the duelists can no longer fight—or admits defeat.”
“Or until you’re dead,” Fabian snarls, brandishing his own knife, a mirror to the one I hold.
Not gonna lie, my palms are sweating and the adrenaline is pumping. I’m a bit freaked but also amped up. I also have a rather handy wild card in my favor, one I don’t think Fabian is aware of. In fact, I only learned about it recently when I managed to escape the notorious intergalactic assassin, Shilgar the Deadly.
I possess the rare protective Klaturian Survival Gene particular to only a handful of the Quintharian royal family members.
Suck on that, evil grandparents!
While it sadly doesn’t make me a super badass, heroic fighter by any stretch of the imagination—there go my Mortal Combat fantasies—it does make me one uncannily lucky bastard who tends to thwart any deadly attack aimed my way.
I can only hope that the gene is still alive and well, and ready to keep my ass safe once again.
It should be fine.
Right?
Nirblob raises his tiny arm and then slashes it down. “Let the duel begin!”
Fabian wastes no time in coming right for me, charging like an angry bull. There’s no subtlety to his attack, and it’s like I can anticipate his next move with ease. Maybe my epic showdown with Shilgar honed my battle readiness or something? All I know is that evading Fabian’s attacks is a piece of cake.
My body bobs and ducks out of the way with the greatest of ease as he swings wildly at me. I keep a cautious eye on the blade in Fabian’s hand, not taking it lightly, but his attacks are almost… clumsy.
Like Lord Vardox, I take my time to study my opponent before going on the offensive.
As I deftly block yet another wild slashing motion, I begrudgingly acknowledge that some of my skills are thanks to the Spartan training I received from Zamir. Dammit.
Once again, I’m going to have to thank him for all of the torture he put me through. He’ll probably smirk with satisfaction and make me work twice as hard going forward. The bastard.
Fabian continues to strike out at me with a whole lot of rage and a minimal amount of finesse, while I manage to dance out of his way with very little effort. I’m not even winded.
With a screech of frustration, Fabian finally brings his tentacles into play, lashing out with them in an effort to strike me down.
It’s not a bad strategy in theory. Iyaran tentacles are incredibly powerful and full of muscle. They often possess morestrength than one’s other appendages. But I’m not going to take this combo attack lying down.
Nirblob’s contraption seriously saves my ass. As Fabian’s tentacles come flying at me, my own lash out in response, blocking his attacks, to the point where I have to focus on tightening my core muscles and not letting the power of the impact of tentacles on tentacles take me down. Those suckers are fucking strong! I’m more used to the gentle way Kai uses his on me, but now I can fully appreciate just how dangerous his extra appendages can be depending on how they’re used. Meanwhile, Nirblob covertly assists me on the sidelines, operating the tentacles with a level of skill that Lord Vardox would be proud of.
Right now, my strategy, such as it is, involves tiring Fabian out until I can easily render him unconscious. I can picture Zamir’s sour expression in response to my approach, but not all of us have the physique of The Hulk, thank you very much. My tactical plan starts to pay off faster than I had imagined it would; before long, Fabian’s sweating and panting from his exertions. Granted, I’m also getting a bit tired, but he looks like he’s ready to pass out. Zamir has built up my stamina too, dammit.
I frown, a flicker of concern growing in me despite my better judgment. The more I look at Fabian, the more he resembles a strung-out drug addict. Could this be Layne Madison’s work?
“Are you on something?” I ask as I neatly deflect a tentacle and parry his blade.
“Shut up!” he screeches, eyes wild.
Now that I’m up close, I can see his pupils are blown.
Shit. Heison something.
“Fucking Layne Madison.” I stare down Fabian. “Is he drugging his own damn people now, or did you take this shit willingly?”
“You don’t know anything! He’s helping me.”
That’s when I do something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.
I grab hold of one of my mechanical tentacles and bitch-slap him with it.
Not too hard, mind you. But enough to try and snap him out of whatever delusional state he’s in.Galactic gods, that felt good!“Wake the fuck up. He’s using you just like he’s used everyone else.”
