18. Rion: The Blood Guard for Hire

As they all got closer to the giant doors of the arena, the anticipation in the air began to sink in. Doren and the others had found an armory and equipped everyone with weapons and armor. What ever was most suitable, they took.

Standing outside the giant doors, they readied. They were locked but behind it the crowd sounded in a cheer. "Meko! Meko!" they screamed.

Before trying to open the door, Doren ran over to Katrina. "Did they just say Meko?" he asked pointing his thing towards the arena.

"We need to hurry." Katrina said, tightening the grip on her Pike staff. "Before he's killed."

Doren ran over to the door and put a hand on it. Taking a deep breath his body started glowing. The cogs in the locking mechanisms shifted, the giant gears turned, and there was a click that seemed louder than the crowd. The door cracked open.

Doren, followed by thirty six others, stormed the front of the arena. The guards were ready, noticing the female prisoners had escaped. Using his air powers, Doren pushed some of the guards away from him. Bastille, Danaka, Katrina, and Herstring followed behind him. The females held their own against the guards and followed shortly after.

Danaka yelled where to turn up at Doren. When Doren turned, he bumped chest to chest with a guard. A scar across his eye and blood red hair, the guard attempted to grab Doren. Using his air power, Doren pushed him away.

The guard flew back a couple of feet and, once recovered, bit the area between his thumb and pointer finger. The guard bled and his blood formed a whip, snapping against the floor.

"Back to your cages, you animals." he shouted.

Just as the words escaped his mouth, Herstring swung her hammer his way. The blood whip changed shape into a shield and absorbed most of the blow. He got thrown back into a wall as the blood fell to the floor.

"Go ahead." Herstring said tapping the end of her hammer on the concrete ground, "I can take care of him."

Doren looked at Herstring and nodded towards her. He motioned for the rest of them to follow him and they took off past the guard. Herstring watched them leave while the guard regained the strength.

The blood floated into the air and formed spikes. The guard lifted his arms and shot the blood towards the giant. Herstring put her arms in front of her face as the spikes shot past her.

Holding his head, the guard muttered, "That was quite a hit. Must have made my accuracy a bit off." His blood slithered past Herstring and back to him. It began floating once again and he aimed the spikes at her. "Shall we try another shot?"

Raising his arm, the spikes flew at her again. Herstring slammed her hammer into the concrete. It bent and waved, shielding her from the blood. Continuing waves shot the guard into the air. He landed on his side, grunting from the impact.

The guard picked himself up. Bleeding from his head and from the couple scrapes her had, the blood moved across his body and into the palm of his hand. It whirled around his palm as he began walking towards Herstring.

"Surrender now. We will be able to arrange for you to have your own cell." the blood formed into a blade as he continued, "It will be far better than perishing here, giant girl."

"My name is Herstring."

"And I am Rion. One of the guards to the big man that runs this shindig." he put the blade to his face and got in a running stance. "And now, have you decided to concead?"

"Of course not. I will not be a pet." she yelled. When she focused back on Rion, he had his sword pointed at her. Like an arrow, it found Herstring's shoulder. She crashed into the ground, as the blood moved back to his sword.

The giant picked herself up. With a smirk, she twirled the hammer around, ignoring the trail of blood going down her arm. She started walking to Rion, the spinning getting faster until the hammer was just a blur.

Herstring lifted her hammer into the air. Bringing it down, she struck the ground, making the ground shake. Unbalanced, Rion's blood weapon became as wobbly as he was. However, able to keep steady, Herstring continued over to him.

She swung as hard as she could to strike him, but Rion bounced into the air. While in air, he kicked at Herstring. She blocked the strikes with her forearm that held the hammer. With her free arm, she slapped him into the flooring. He rolled away before she could land another blow.

Launching back at her, he dug his shoulder into her stomach. On impact, he twisted his body into hers, knocking her throwing distance away. Before she could recover, he was in front of her, sending a fist into her cheek.

Rion rubbed his knuckles and said, "Ya know. This could be so much easier if you would have just surrendered. I mean, come on. You and your friends are making a mess of this arena. Not to mention, that pretty face of yours." He bit his other hand. Now with both of his hands bleeding, he formed his blood into two whips.

He cracked them both on the floor. Lifting his right arm, the whip came down on the back of one of her shoulders. She held in the cry of pain as the snap tore through the rags she wore. Each time the whip struck, more tears rolled down her face. The cries got louder as they were muffled through her hands.

Some of the escaped girls had finally made their way to the same area Herstring and Rion were in. There were only three that had joined up with her. Rion turned to the trio and withdrew his whips so the blood just rested in the palm of his hand. Herstring cowered behind him, her skin torn up from the whips, her rags just barely holding on anymore.

"I will give you three the same option I gave the giant here." he pointed his thumb back to her, "If you go peacefully, this will be over faster and you won't get hurt."

He couldn't more than finish his sentence before they began to pounce at him. He stepped out of the way from the one with a long sword and kicked her in the ribs. She fell to the ground holding her side. He then kicked her in the jaw with the bottom of his foot.

The second one with a shield and an axe knocked him back. Before he recovered, he grabbed her by the hair and fell to the ground, forcibly bringing her with him. While on the ground, the blood in his free hand formed a knife and he stabbed her in the spine, drawing it up.

Rion pushed the dead woman off of him and before the third could react, he used the blood as a rope and lassoed it around her. Yanking her to him, he kicked her in the chest. Sent to the ground, the hand that didn't have the blood rope turned to a sword. In one quick motion, the girl's head rolled to where Herstring was.

The blood cuddling scream could be heard through the whole arena. Herstring doubled back in horror. Unable to get a grip of what happened, she grabbed her hammer.

In a fit of rage, she charged at Rion swinging her hammer about. Easily, he dodged and weaved away from each strike. His blood formed a hard shell around his forearm and he stopped on of her swings. Holding the giant's hammer back with just his hardened blood, he stared straight at Herstring.

"I am surprised you decided to keep fighting." he threw the hammer away out of her hand, and his blood shot at her knocking her onto the ground. He hopped on her chest and stood above her. "And I'm honestly surprised on how weak a giant is."

"I'm not weak. I'm weakened. There's a difference!" she shouted as she swung her fist at him. With her fist being almost the size of his torso, he was flung off of her and through the wall they were next to.

She cracked her knuckles, breaking away the wall so she could walk through. Rion stood up and slicked his hair back. He held his arms up as she emerged from the hole.

Herstring grabbed part of the stone from the broken wall. With a grin, she tossed it up in the air. "This should be good enough to beat your skull in."

"Good luck, giant." He jumped into the air and spun his body. From his foot, a spike of blood formed. He kicked the air and sent the spike hurdling towards her.

Herstring stepped to the side as the spike broke another hole through the wall. She launched herself towards him with one of her feet. Rion ran towards her. As they met, Rion punched at her. Herstring side stepped and slammed her hand down.

Jumping out of the way, Rion put his hands together. Two swords emerged out of the fingertips of both hands. He landed and began swinging at her. Getting scrapped and cut up by the blades, she couldn't match his speed.

Rion's blade had found the middle of her chest in one of his strike.