Part 4 Index Part 6
The Battle
I could have wished for a warmer reception than the one I got, from both Sergeant Aximar and the troops around the command tent we Trumped to. At least Flora, Random, Benedict and Julian didn't react as badly. And I'm glad Random was able to get me up here to at least try to do my bit.
I suppose I can blame my reception from the troops on being in my demon form. So I suppose I can't really blame them, in that case. I'd react negatively to me in this form! At least Aximar seems to have adjusted to me being like this, for now at least.
I don't know what Tobias was thinking when he suggested I turned back to human. I'd rather have a few hostile glares than be humanly vulnerable. Still, I suppose it might have been more than just glares without Aximar there to call them off.
Now, here I am, on the battlefield of Chaos. I really don't want to be here, but it's better than being sidelined as Benedict wanted. Not that I can blame him really, either - he doesn't know me from that rock there at the moment. But if I'm here, and fight, and don't balls it up too badly, then I hope it'll count better for me than just standing about waiting for Amber to win or lose would. I'm killing Chaosites for brownie points with the Amber family. Though I do hope I had some effect more than that.
Cold of me, I suppose, but I've killed before, of course, and it's even easier here, with them so far off. Less messy. Less chance to look them in the eye as they die.
I'm impressed by what my pistol has turned into now that I've fired it. Very useful! Pity it doesn't have a little more range though. But on the other hand, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth too much.
These demon types I found really scary at first, like things out of my nightmares, especially when that whole troupe of them came after me (and Aximar, I suppose). Gods, I was scared when the cavalry surrounded us there.
Why did Tanisla call me a traitor? Did she think I was one of them? I suppose she must have. And did she really expect me believe all that crap she spouted about honourable combat? That's almost the oldest trick in the book! As far I as I've ever seen, this honour lark is just a cover for people to do what they want, to whom they want without having to explain or justify it. So we ran. Not that it got us too far.
And in the end it did come down to single combat between me and her, though not through my choice. I didn't want to fight her in single combat, but it seemed the best way out at the time, in the heat of things. Perhaps I should have used a Trump instead. Damn! I didn't think of it then. Maybe next time.
I wish Aximar had kept his big fat mouth shut about who I was. But then again, maybe it helped in the end. I doubt Tanisla would have offered the single combat option if she hadn't known that.
Did she think her taunts would make me fight if I could avoid it?! Life on Timashkurabad taught me the error of that idea, at least. I wouldn't be alive today if I hadn't got over that hurdle.
But when the cavalry surrounded us the second time, I thought I was dead. Them alone I could maybe have got past, especially with what my pistol seems to do now. But with Tanisla there too, there was little chance of that.
So I accepted her challenge. What other choice was there?
Gods she was fast. But stupid with it. Blinded by honour? We would probably have been dead, or prisoners. Certainly injured more, if she hadn't had a rush of honour muffle her brain. She really was good. I've never fought anyone so skilled. I really could have died! If I hadn't got desperate and jumped in, she would have cut me to pieces in the end. I had no choice but to leap in, even if I did get hurt in the process. If I hadn't got my tentacles on her, she would have just whittled me down.
I was surprised, and so relieved when Tanisla proved much weaker than me. With her speed nullified by my grabbing her, she really was mine. To kill. After all that, all her taunts, all her trying to kill me, yet she tried to surrender in the end, just before I killed her. Why? She was the enemy. There was no chance I was going to let her get out of this alive. Did she have no idea?!
And so she died. I tore her head off and threw it and her body at the feet of her remaining troops. I suppose I was pleased when they obeyed her orders and let us live. Not that that stopped me killing them as they rode away.
If all the Chaosites leaders are as stupid as Tanisla was, I'd suspect there's no way Amber can lose this.
I wonder who those sky-riders who flapped down to where Tanisla and I fought after we left were? Vengeful relatives, perhaps? Hope not. Scavengers? Hope so.
And now, we really must rest. I need to heal.