Back to Created and Consumed: Ch 3 Pt 1

“What?” I replied in an agitated whisper while Gura continued his pep talk. It wasn’t usually wise to speak through his lectures.

“You gonna fight him again?” I could feel the eyes on the back of my neck; all three of them were there. Automatically, I rubbed my ribs where Gura had punished me for challenging him a week earlier; I had held my own until Jurdo decided to help me, that day I found out that it is impossible to wield two training blades at the one time as well as hold onto your wits. Between balancing out the blades and watching my opponent, I lost concentration, toppled and was crushed under his foot for over ten minutes while he explained my error, then for a further ten minutes he demonstrated which of the Sangheili organs were most important for survival. This meant that he shocked each into failure with the training sword one after the other until I was unconscious, or dead, I couldn’t tell. I woke to the sounds of laughter, the burn of humiliation, and from then on; I vowed to get Gura back.

I was prodded again, “Zee!” Ehle whispered, “I think you’ll do great if Jurdo doesn’t help!” a snigger and the snap of a hard fist contacting with armour sounded from behind me, “Argh, oww, jees!”

“Ooh, don’t cry now, Ehle, Gura might start to like you…” Doxo pestered, “He goes for those sissy kinds you know… easier to beat and all…”

As much as the pointless conversation would amuse me, I couldn’t be associated with these three. Doxo was a wealthy elite, I had little place by his side. The Tahnamee family was rumoured to have bought their adopted son into the Guild, but Doxo denies that he was ‘bought in’. He also denies that he is adopted, bragging that he acquired his dashing good looks from a distant ancestor who was once an Arbiter. Of course, he has been known to exaggerate a little with his stories and hisparents have told him that he doesn’t resemble any arbiter they’ve seen before. Jurdo, quite the opposite of Doxo, had come from the pod of Sangheili children my Prophet Sanctuary had nursed so long ago; he was my brother, but he had forgotten me easily, just as my father said he would. He provides the idiocy for the three of them, honestly, he is stupid, there is no other way to describe him. And then there’s Ehle, the last of the terrible trio. He provides the wit for their little group, quite the artist when it came to a blade but his skills with a firearm could quite well be compared with a blindfolded grunt… who had never held a weapon in its life… and no fingers to speak of…

For some reason, these misfits were still in the Covenant and still in the same damned Guild as me.

“Not afraid are you?” Gura jeered us.

I watched the first of few competitors to step up to him; each was thrown or dodged easily, which ended the sessions quite quickly. Relief flowed over me, one lasted more than thirty seconds in Gura’s ring, he was toying with them.

“Zyrra, you gotta take him on! He’s probably tired out from beating everyone else in the Guild. Come on! You actually have a chance this time, I know it!” Ehle prodded.

“I’ll face him when I feel like it…” I said coldly, growling deeply when I heard quiet boos and hisses from behind me, I turned quickly, “If you lot want me to fight Gura yet again and fail to defeat him that’s all well and good, but not until you three each go and face him yourselves!”

“Fine then, I will!” Doxo huffed, I shook my head in disbelief, there was no way he was serious…

“Jurdo will too, won’t you Jay?” Ehle slapped him on the back.

Jurdo did a double take and almost fainted, “I’ll what?”

It was difficult to believe that in some distant way, I could be related to these three…

“Jiserramee!” I flinched, never had my warrior name felt so much like a stab between the vertebrae, “Why am I looking at your behind and not your face?” Gura snapped.

“I know which I’d prefer lookin’ at…” Jurdo crooned, I burned with fury and turned back around to face Gura.

“Jiserramee, I’m disappointed in you.” I said nothing while he peeled my protective armour from my skin with his eyes, it was unnerving when he looked me over so thoroughly, “You lot, here. Now.”

I walked forward and gripped my training weapon, even if I was to lose; I wasn’t going to give Gura the pleasure of publicly embarrassing me again. I would damage him this time. As if by a switch, the trio behind me were organised and even civilised, taking a few paces forward then waiting for Gura’s instruction.

Gura took my weapon from me and then threw it aside, “The rules are, Jiserramee fights alone. The situation is this…” He said audibly above the hum of High Charity’s coolant pipes, “… a warrior has been negligent to his pod and has strayed from the Heretic territory alone. He has been unwise with his actions, he has been discovered by the enemy and he has no weapon to speak of…” I watched in horror as Jurdo, Doxo and Ehle activated their training swords and held them in preparation for battle. I waited for Gura to confiscate their blades also but he stood fast to his place. He was going to face an unarmed soldier against three fully equipped warriors. I was a meat sack prepped for tenderizing.

“Sir, this is an unfair bout, I demand I be allowed support!” I protested.

“Is war ever fair…?” Gura leaned on the wall and dropped his hand for the round to begin and I was stabbed thrice by my peers, once in my chest, once in my gut and a third time through my neck, had this been a real sword bout, I would have been dead almost instantly. There were gasps from the class as I was held there by the holographic blades, each was sending a strong current through my body, amplifying my pain and disrupting my thought.

Gura stepped forward, “This, warriors, is a prime example of where your expectations of the war fails. There is no right or wrong in this war, only us and them… if you are not one of us, you are one of them…” he pointed to me, the metaphorical enemy, “… enemies deserve no mercy, do not hand it to them for it will not be returned to you, a Human, a Heretic, they will see you and slay you where you stand. Fairness has nothing to do with it.” I knew there was a lesson to be learnt by this but my mind was focussed more on the excruciating pain I was enduring, it was like birthing, my whole body was convulsing, squeezing, muscles were tightening, my gut was seizing. I convulsed again and screamed in agony. Gura watched my muscles dying from the shock; my heart was pounding in my head. I grew dizzy. He wasn’t going to be my salvation, my mercy, no, he was the arm gripping this three pronged blade…

I drooped, the blades impaling me were firmly held but the hands upon them were young and easily fooled, and they slid from my flesh as I dropped onto the floor. The room burst into applause and Jurdo kicked me to make sure I was out cold. That was his first mistake.

I took him by his foot and twisted it, this caused him to yelp, drop the blade and fall to the floor. I pressed my thumb into his neck sharply and disrupted his jugular, he struggled for a while but his body fell limp on the floor when his brain ran out of blood. Doxo stepped backward into Ehle, obviously surprised, and drew his sword again, neglecting to check for hazards and activated a gas canister in his haste. It exploded and threw both him and Ehle into the wall perpendicular to them. By this time I was on my feet again and I had claimed Jurdo’s weapons as my own. I was at least in with a fighting chance now.

Doxo lunged, I evaded him easily, tripped him and sent him into the other elites, they all moved aside and let him crash to a stop between them, again, applauding the performance. I thrust the blade into Doxo’s back, sending shockwaves through his heart; he twitched for a few seconds before losing consciousness also. This left just one of the three. Ehle. If I could get him away from his key weapon, I would do fine; unfortunately it wasn’t so easy to separate this yin from his yang.

“So, Zee…” Ehle breathed, taking his stance, “… fair enough for you?”

I was exhausted, short of breath, but not beaten, “This is a war, Ehle…” I panted, “… fairness has nothing to do with it…” I flung my blade at him, just scathing his fighting arm, he cried out as the twinge surged down to his hand, his grip failed and I kicked the hold from his open palm. I then followed through with a second roundhouse kick to his chest, flinging him a few paces backward, then again, and then a third time, then I finished him with an upper cut to his jaws. I lost balance part of the way through the combo and was easily finished, myself, by an outstretched foot, I fell to the floor painfully and coughed in satisfaction. Gura’s foot hovered next to my face, I expected him to crush my skull for even contemplating victory.

“You were a dead warrior, Jiserramee…” he growled and snatched my weapon away again.

“I am a ghost… of High Charity then…” I panted, “… neither alive… nor dead… trapped between worlds…” I gasped for air as Gura pressed his foot onto my chest, “… if I must, I will kill for victory…”

“I don’t want you to kill anyone… I want you to get up and defeat me…” Gura grinned, and then stood away from me, “This warrior, this weedy nuisance…” I felt a twinge of anger rising again, “… has managed to defeat three armed warriors, single handed!” he threw the blade back to me and it clattered at my feet; “Watch and you may learn something…” he waited for me to get to my feet, “Jiserramee, now!”

I heard the command; it barely registered before I lost control of myself. My heart stopped, and I froze. Gura would attack, he would step slightly to the left and he would lead with his right shoulder, it made perfect sense. I’d seen his technique so many times, why had I not spotted similarities in it before? I left my weapon where it lay and dodged around his blows, one after the other, swing, swipe, he became ever more enraged with each attempted volley. An opening, he left his stomach unprotected for a split second and I took advantage of it. A quick knee to his gut rendered him paralysed for a short period, allowing me to disarm him and twist his arm behind his back.

“Ngh! Jiserramee… give me one good reason why I shouldn’t split you in half… mark my words female, I will…” Gura muttered.

“I’m sure…” I replied, “… I suppose I had better let you go then…?” I grinned, “I wouldn’t want you to face the wrath of the Prophets for destroying their little project now, would I?” I tightened my grip, and leaned in closer, “Remember what this feels like, Mothanamee…” I received a grunt of a reply and shocked stares from the rest of the group began to press me, “… it is no stranger to me…” I released him and began walking back to my barracks.

“Jiserramee! Get back here! I’m not done with you!” Gura demanded, a tad shaky from his quick defeat.

“Try training your pets rather than putting on a show for them…” I called back, “… they might learn something other than how to act like a jerk…” I glanced back, “They need no assistance in that regard…”

Onward to Created and Consumed: Ch 4 Pt 1