BloodStar

Chapter 75: The Battle Begins

“Fighters! The battle will begin in one minute! Please make your way to the field if you have not already!” A booming voice echoed throughout the fields and tents jarring Xenia from her meditation.

She stood from her lotus position fully armored and ready to battle. She took one last look in her mirror and smiled at herself thinking, “I look so good in my warlord armor. The people of the world may not all love me, but they certainly will all lust for me.”

She confidently strode from her tent to see numerous drones flying overhead. She regally waved at the drones with a beaming smile on her face.

The television announcers immediately began to comment on the live television broadcast, “Here she is! Warlord Xenia BloodStar! An underdog in today’s match but don’t let that fool you. She is the premier talented youth of the world. Let’s face it, she’s the only youth who could even dare to take on a fully realized Master like Pope Gregory.”

The second announcer chimed in, “She’s talented, yes. But my God, look at her body. She is a sex icon of the world, and by the looks of her armor she is soon going to be a fashion icon as well. I know she’s the underdog, but wouldn’t you just hate to see her lose this battle?”

Billions of people around the world were glued to the TV as coverage began in earnest. Most cheering for Gregory, some cheering for Xenia, and all cheering for the biggest fight in modern history.

Xenia took her place in the field approximately 50 yards across from Pope Gregory. She was no stranger to showmanship or gladiator games, and she called out to Gregory, “It’s not too late to surrender Pope Gregory. I would be happy to make you my assistant in running your empire.”

Gregory genuinely laughed and shook his head. He stood with his sword impaled into the ground with both of his hands resting on the hilt. He called out to her, “This isn’t a fashion show Xenia. Are you ready for me to slap that fancy armor right off of you?”

She quipped back, “I’d like that very much. I’m a girl who actually enjoys a few really hard hits. Pain fuels me in all aspects of life. In fact, in only one place do I enjoy pain more than on the battlefield. I’m sure you can guess where that may be.”

Gregory unsheathed his God sword from the ground and took it one hand as he pointed it directly at her with the sword beaming with a brilliant luster as he held it horizonal to the ground below, “The time of your family’s lecherous and sadistic ways is over. Enjoy it if you must, but I will kill you today.”

Xenia smiled and said, “Ohhhh I will enjoy every second of this. And after I kill you, I am going to play with Peter all night long.”

She then held her hand outstretched in front of her and bloodbent her obsidian black hilt around her body from its position on her back to her hand. As it made contact with her hand, a vibrant red blade of concentrated and flickering energy shot upwards to form an evil red blade of destruction borne of ki and blood.

She called out one last time, “Let’s find out who has the stronger sword, my BloodBane or your God sword, shall we?”

Just as she finished her remark, a loud siren began indicating the beginning of the battle. Everyone for one hundred miles had evacuated. The siren lasted for three seconds before abating leaving the two warriors at a standoff.

Gregory smiled and waved for her to come at him, “Ladies first, Warlord.”

She smirked back and took a fighting stance, “What a gentleman. If you insist.”

She disappeared in a flash covering the 50 yards between them in an instant. She reappeared and swung her sword at Gregory. Gregory defended from her attack meeting her sword with his own. The clash of powerful strikes caused a massive wave of energy to expand outwards flattening the grass in the plains for 100 yards in every direction.

The two began to exchange sword attacks one after the other without either delivering a successful blow.

Gregory packed a massive amount of energy behind each of his sword swings catching Xenia by surprise. Her hands were numb from receiving the impact of his blade time and time again. She switched to a more graceful style of deflecting rather than completely stopping his strikes. She was on the defensive as she twirled, backflipped, and maneuvered around his stubborn strikes.

Gregory meanwhile stood firmly where he had started the battle. He found her strikes to be underwhelming as he could easily push her back with his God sword. What he hadn’t expected was her speed and agility.

Xenia suddenly deactivated her sword hilt and bloodbent it to its resting position on her back against her armor.

Gregory hesitated believing only a fool would decide to come at him without a sword; however, that is exactly what happened next.

Xenia rushed at him without a sword in hand. She dodged his first sword strike, somersaulted over his next sword strike, and dipped below a third strike before she was right in front of him. She then delivered a solid punch to his abdomen slightly knocking the breath out of him.

He hunched over momentarily but quickly caught himself as he threw a massive kick at her. However, she backflipped over his kick and countered with a kick of her own to his neck.

Although her kick landed squarely, Gregory immediately threw his sword at her as she landed her flip. She summoned a massive shield of ki blocking the sword as it bared down on her energy barrier.

She knelt on one knee bracing herself as she held one hand up maintaining the barrier between her and the powerful God sword. Gregory focused more and more energy into his sword as he took another downward strike at her barrier. He had her right where he wanted her.

However, just as his sword made contact with her barrier once more sending shattering cracks along its surface, he detected a faint energy soaring towards him from behind. He looked to her back to see her sword hilt missing.

Without looking, he raised a massive wall of defensive energy at his back as he heard a loud crash followed by the rumble and sizzle of powerful energies clashing. He took his eyes off Xenia for a second to see her sword, BloodBane, had made contact with his energy barrier. He thought to himself, “Sneaky tactic. But it didn’t work.”

Xenia noticed his lack of attention on her and lowered her barrier to move in close to attack. She gathered a ki-powered fist and prepared to uppercut Gregory square in the chin; however, the tables turned quickly.

Gregory had planned for such an attack, and he quickly raised the hilt of his sword up as fast as possible to protect himself from the blow. As he did, the solid metal hilt of his sword made contact with Xenia’s chin sending her flying 20 yards back.

Gregory looked on to see a bloody faced Xenia laying on her back 20 yards away. Her chin had been split wide open with a gash measuring at least 4 inches extending from her lower chin up through her right cheek.

He thought to himself, “Too many close calls. She is faster than I can believe. And powerful.”

Xenia lay on her back with a disfigured smile laughing and moaning in pleasure from the pain. She licked up the blood that flowed into her mouth and around her lips.

Gregory frowned at her dissatisfactory behavior and then realized her wounds were healing at a rapid pace. He silently thought to himself, “And I can’t forget she is a prodigal healer. I will need to be swift and powerful in striking her down when the time comes.”

Xenia stood fully healed although with blood still staining her face and armor, and said, “A great counter Gregory. But in the end, you’ve dealt me no damage. How long can you keep this up?”

He gave a bellowing laugh, “That kind of child’s play? I can keep that up for eternity! I think my warm up is over.” He pointed at her and yelled, “Prepare yourself! For total annihilation!”

She spread both of her arms to the side gathering balls of energy in each palm and retorted, “You may try!”