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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Seven - Bringing a Ko a Chair Fight

  When I got called up a sed time, some of the nervousness from the first outing had left already. I followed a new clipboard person as he led me to the edge of the stage, then stood there while taking in all the crowds.

  The people were just as excited as before. And If anything, it seemed as if there were even more people packed in together iands. Sellers were running around, hawking big mugs of frothy beer and bits of meat on sticks. Copper and silver fshed in the bright sunlight and the entire area smelled like sweat and the sticky-sweet odour of ival food.

  A band had set up o the stage where they began to py a rumbly, growing fah lots of brass and heavy drum beats that made the ground thrum with excited energy.

  I felt swept up by it. It made me feel lighter, and the weight of my chair on my shoulder was suddenly not a .

  “Got your snacks? Got your drinks? Well hang onto them because we are about to begin the sed rounds of our single-elimination tour!” Zac shouted from atop his floating ptform. “On the right, we have the intrepid, the adorable, the absolutely brutal... Broccoli Bunch!”

  The first time he’d introduced me, the cheering had been lukewarm pared tu’s. Now it was a whole bunch louder and I felt my ears drooping down in embarrassment even as my cheeks warmed.

  “Aould you look at that, the poor little miss is flushing! Good work ds, you finally got a maiden to blush!” Zac said. Laughter rolled across the eadium, followed by catcalls and whistles.

  I was going to have words with Zac. Big, rude words. Objectifying women was wrong.

  “Annnnd on the left, hailing from the distant Kingdom of the Endless Swells, the sneakiest bde in the night, we have Whispersteel the Sanguine-Eyed.”

  The cheers were a little weird this time, more roars of approval and cps than the happy sounds they’d been making earlier.

  Across from me, on his on side of the ptform, was a shorter boy dressed all in bck. He o the crowd, his cowl bobbing up and down and shifting his dark cloak about. I kind nized him as one of the people who stayed in the shadows in the waiting room.

  “Will our bright and cheerful Bun be able to stand against the bloodthirsty Whispersteel? Let’s find out!”

  Clipbuy gestured me forward and I hopped onto the stage. My nding wasn’t quite as stable as I was used to and I almost stumbled a step.

  I was still able to jump and hop, the muscle memory was there, but the fine precision that the Hopping skill gave me was missing, and I wasn’t sure if I could use stamina to jump super high anymore. Maybe I could, and I just o practice?

  I shook my head ahose s aside. I had a fight to win.

  “Are you ready to die?” Whispersteel shouted as he pointed a very rge knife my way.

  “No, not really,” I said. “You’re very loud for someone called Whisper.”

  “Oh hoh, the pre-fight banter is starting already and Miss Bunch isn’t pulling her punches!” Zac said.

  Could the whole crowd hear me? Oh no. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to humiliate you!”

  Laughter rained down around us and I saw Whisper’s knuckles going white around the handle of his knife. “I am Whispersteel the Sanguine-Eyed. I have sughtered and assassinated my way through entire dungeons. Fools fear my very name. Who are you to mock me?”

  I blinked as I parsed that. “Okay, so I have two questions. One, your eyes are actually a very pretty shade of brown, not sanguine. I... guess that’s not really a question, more of an observation. Um. Okay, an actual question then. If fools fear you, does that mean that smart people... don’t?”

  Whispersteel poofed away.

  “Oh, and the fight has begun!” Zac yelled.

  Fes set he crowd raised staves and walls appeared all around the stage. I spun, looking not so much at the walls, but rather for Whisper who has yet to reappear.

  “Die!” Came a scream from behind me.

  I ducked and swept into a low kick.

  A hot line sliced itself ay cheek, barely missing my eye.

  Whispersteel reappeared mid-jump, arm extended in a luhat had bee for my neck.

  Had he not screamed...

  Whisper nded and aimed aab down at me, knife glinting as it reflected the bluish walls surrounding us.

  I nded on my bad rolled away from Whisper’s wild stabs. “Think you’re clever, huh?” he asked as he began to stomp towards me.

  I skipped up to my feet and spun to face Whisper only to find that he’d gone invisible again. That... was really annoying.

  A slight shift from below told me he was a lot closer than I wanted.

  I hopped back, eying the mostly-empty battlefield while bringing a hand up towards my cheek. The cut there was shallow, but it still stung. A bit of ing magic would keep it . Which also gave me an idea.

  I punched forwards, hittiy air, but also ung a tiny ball of ing magic that shot across the arena and booped the far wall.

  “Oh! The Bun has some tricks in her sleeves! Was the chair merely a distra? Was she a little wizard all along?” Zadered.

  I ignored him and started firing off more and more little balls of ing magiterspersed with fme-thrower like gouts of glowing liness.

  I didn’t take long to catch Whisper in the effect, the magic spshing harmlessly off of his side. He was running towards me.

  Eyes wide, I rolled to the side, then sprung to my feet, brandishing my chair. With both hands holding onto the seat and back of the chair, I thrust it toward where I thought Whisper would be.

  A knife's point thudded through the seat.

  Whisper appeared before me, a wide grin on his face. “Think you’ll st forever?” he asked.

  “I st as long as I st,” I said. “This would be a lot easier if we were friendly.”

  Whispersteel Desired Quality: Someoo fawn over how cool he is.Dream: To make his Mama proud.

  “Oh my gosh,” I said. “You’re here to make your mom proud?”

  Whisper’s smile turned a little strange. “What?”

  “That’s so cute!” I would have cpped, but my hands were busy with the chair. “Is she in the crowd?”

  “Leave my mother out of this!” he said.

  I spun the chair, a quick twistihat tore the k of Whisper’s hand a it cttering off to the side. L the seat, I reached out and grabbed Whisper by the wrist and tugged him towards me while shoving the chair forward.

  The dull ‘thunk’ of the edge of the seat hitting the boy in the shin made me win sympathy.

  Whisper pulled his arm back, then hopped ba one leg, his face going all sorts of iing shades. “I’m going to stab you so hard,” he gasped.

  I smiled back. “Do you want to sit until that stops hurting?” I asked. “We ask Zac for a time-out.”

  “Ohh, and the taunting tihis bun is savage!” Zac said from above.

  “That wasn’t meant to be a taunt!” I shouted back. “I was worried about Mister Steel. Shins hurt a lot when you bang them.”

  “Oh, the poor d! She’s just adding insult to injury!”

  “I don’t mean to! He’s just easy to actally insult!” I screamed back, then I spped a hand over my mouth.

  Whisper was gring so hard his eyes were twitg. With a roar, he charged at me while pulling out a pair of foot-long knives from somewhere under his cloak.

  I ‘eeped’ and stepped back, dragging my chair with me to make distaween us.

  Whisper pnted a foot on the seat of my chair, halting it ihen he vaulted over it, both knives held in icepick grips aiming for my head.

  I dove forwards, tipping the chair to make more room as I slipped between it and Whisper, then rolled onto my feet oher side. A quick turn ter and I kicked the chair back up to standing.

  I held onto it in both hands, moving it from side to side as if fending off a lion while Whisper moved from side to side and tried to f couldn’t st. At some point he’d remember he could go invisible, or he'd pull out another assassin-y trid I’d be in a whole heap of trouble.

  So I jumped forwards, chair spearing ahead so that all fs poked towards Whisper.

  Whisper spun around the blow and stabbed out with one arm. I pulled the chair bad twisted it so that his arm passed between the bars at the back. Twisting it more had his arm pulling up at an awkward angle, and just like that, Whisper en.

  I spped him.

  The sound echoed out across the arena.

  Whisper touched his cheek, then looked up to me with a look between anger and fusion. “You spped me?”

  “Sorry?” I said.

  Tears started to appear in his eyes even though he was trying hard to blink them away.

  I swallowed. Was, was I a bully now? “I’m so, so sorry,” I said. I carefully helped him move his hand out from the bars of the chair, then pulled Whisper into a hug. “It’ll be okay, don’t worry. I, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “Don’t, don’t hug me!” he said.

  “Shush now, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. Um. I forfeit and you’ll win. Would that make you feel better?”

  “No, no it wouldn’t.”

  I tsked. “Look, we end this, and we’ll find your mom. I’ll tell her that you were super cool, okay?” I pulled back a little ahe chair to one side, then plopped myself down on it before patting my p. “Did you want to sit and talk about it?”

  “World almighty!” Zac said in a whisper that carried across the arena. “She’s not just taking the boy out, she’s destroying him!”

  I huffed and pouted up at Zac. “I’m not destroying anyone. I’m not a bully. I’m not! I said I was sorry already, and I’ll make up for it!”

  “I don’t need your help!” Whisper shouted.

  “... Are you sure?” I asked.

  Whisper tossed his ko the ground and stalked off towards the edge of the stage in a huff. “I’m done,” he said. “I ’t do this.”

  I raised a hand reag out to try and grab him, but my attempt was cut short when the shields went down around the arena and the crowd broke out into fused cheers.

  “She did it! She did it! The bun pletely broke that man’s will to fight! How on Dirt did she do that? And will she be able to repeat it? We’ll have to find out in the round, because she is moving on!”

  I slumped a little, even as the crowd’s fervrew louder.

  Sighing, I picked up my chair and walked off the stage. “Here,” I said as I pushed it into the clipbuy’s hands. “I’m going to go see my friends,” I said.

  I could really use a pick-me-up. Some banter with Amaryllis, some smiling with Awen. Maybe a hug or two. Oh, and a cup of tea.

  Yeah, I needed a pick-me-up, and I khat after this part of the tourhere would be some puppetry shows and fireworks and other spectacles to watch. That would certainly work to get my mind off of fighting for a bit.

  I think I decided that tours just weren’t for me. They were too emotionally draining.

  ***

  Annouamon Bun, Volume Two, is now avaible on Amazon!

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