16

My muscles tensed up as my hand went down to the hilt of my sword. Blocking him from removing my blade from my sheath without touching him. He tried to force the hilt of the blade past my hand, but I didn't budge. He wasn't strong enough to force the hilt past my hand. His face twisted with rage, and he struck me.

He'd hit me full force, but that wasn't enough to knock me off my feet. The stupidity of some of these elves. I wanted to strike him back but I had to stay in character. Sekka pretended not to notice. The elf tried to remove my blade again, and once again I prevented him.

Once again he struck me. Some how this strike was harder then the last. I'd thought he'd put his all into the last one so I was both a little impressed, and a little irritated that he'd hit me again. Sekka finished up what he was doing, and turned around to face us about the time the elf struck me a third time.

"Hold him," Sekka looked at me.

I knew what he meant. I was suddenly behind the elf, and I had both of his arms locked behind his back. Sekka made a black whip appear in his hand from his storage device. The whip had both fire, and darkness cores forged into it. Sekka's two main elements.

"If I have to give you a reason not to touch my property then I won't hesitate to do so," Sekka's whip lit up with black fire.

The elf in my grip tried to free himself only to find that my arms were stronger then metal. The others froze when they realized that he wasn't strong enough to get out of my grip, and that Sekka's whip was covered in black fire. Black flames that were burning rivulets into the floor. Sekka flipped his whip to the side so that he wouldn't catch himself when he swing the whip. The other elves rushed over to rip me off the main elf that had been harassing me before.

They might as well have been attacking a statue. Not even the guy that gripped, and tried to yank out my hair got the slightest reaction from me. Sekka slashed the whip once across the man's cheek. It caught two of the others on the back swing causing them to yelp, and jump back.

"Release," Sekka drew the whip back around himself, and let the flames go out.

I let go all at once. Causing the elf I'd been holding to fall to the ground, and nearly take two of the others with him. Stepping back over to retrieve the saddlebags I'd dropped in a movement so fast that I doubt the elves here were capable of tracking my movement. Sekka's fire burned for several seconds on all those that had been caught by the whip. It was only then that I noticed a small lick of the whip had caught me on the left shoulder.

The faint welt, and the itch told me he'd done enough damage to irritated my skin as I watched the black flame burn for a few moments before going out. Now that I thought about it that was probably why he stopped at one lashing instead of unleashing all his rage on this one elf. It would also explain why fear was now his dominant emotion again.

"Don't touch my property again or I won't stop with a warning," Sekka gripped the hair of the elf that was screaming because his face cheek was severely burned, and corroded.

None of the higher authorities of the guild seemed to react at all.

"I haven't seen many merchants that were also fused with their elements," A single voice broke the silence as bloodlust fell on everyone within the room, "Most merchants prefer to hire muscle."

All the eyes in the room turned to the source of the voice except for me. I didn't need to look to know that this guy was a high elf. Unlike the city lord one of his ears had been chopped off, and he was covered in scars. Unlike the rest of the mercenaries in this room he was the only true soldier in the room. He crossed the room in an instant, and went to slash his blade through Sekka.

I needed both arms to block his strike. This elf could have tossed me in the air even in my dragon form. My feet dug into the floor. Sinking all the way up to my shins. I threw his strike off me as a psychotic smile split my face.

Diving in for a strike of my own. I could tell he was surprised I'd managed to block that as he blocked my counter. He's next strike was just as hard as the first. Unfortunately since I couldn't use mana at the moment I was too light to block the strike without being thrown. I was thrown through the front wall, and landed on the street.

Sliding backward until I was nearly on the front steps of the brothel. I braced my foot against the bottom step as the high battle elf flew through the same hole he'd just used me to make. His strike came down harder then the first two. The first glimmer of a smile was making it's way onto his face. I could tell he hadn't gotten a good fight in a good long while.

This was the first elf I'd met that I didn't outright hate at my first meeting. I took the force of his blow at an angle. Allowing the vast majority of the force to get lost as the blade slid to the side. Unlike him I was duel wielding blades so I still had a free blade I stabbed the direction of his face. By now most of the people in the guild were pouring out on the street to keep the public out of danger while we were duking it out.