Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) by Peter Last Page A

two combatants stepped into the arena
and walked to the platform in the middle. The first cadet ascended the structure and saluted the crowd, bringing a thunderous cheer.
After the applause had died down, the second cadet copied the motions of his
opponent. Again the crowd yelled their approval. The two opponents climbed off
the platform and moved to opposite sides of it. An officiator climbed onto the
structure and raised a flag. When he dropped the flag and backed away, the two
opponents began to circle toward each other.
    Senndra knew that focusing on the two
fighting cadets would probably distract her more than it would help. Instead,
she began to inventory her body, checking all of her joints and other body
parts for mobility and pain. All of her joints appeared to be in working order,
though her left knee was a little bit stiff from her bout with Lemin earlier in
the day. Her limbs were free of pain and would not present any problem in the
contest. Senndra looked up and saw that both contestants in the ring were
holding up well. Sighing, she tried to come up with something to think about in
order to pass the time. Vladimir came into her mind, and though she tried to
push the thought away, it remained. She couldn’t figure out what it was about
him that made her so uncomfortable. She wasn’t normally outgoing, but her
behavior regarding Vladimir was very strange even for her. She was so lost in
thought that she missed the name of her opponent and almost missed her own
name. Looking up, she saw a different set of cadets leaving the arena and
wondered how many matches she had missed. She shrugged off the thought as she
grabbed her helmet and entered the arena. Her opponent was already several
yards ahead of her. She fastened her helmet as her opponent scaled the platform
and saluted the crowd, bringing a roar of applause. After the cheering had
subsided, Senndra climbed onto the platform and saluted the crowd. She didn’t even
wait for the applause to subside before she drew her sword from her back
scabbard and jumped off the platform onto the ground. She circled to one corner
of the stage and watched, as an officiator ascended the stage and raised a
flag. He let the flag fall and quickly left the stage.
    Senndra had seen these fights for several
years now, and all but one of them had started with the combatants circling the
stage toward each other. In only one fight had a contestant started by leaping
onto the platform in order to give himself a height advantage against his
opponent. This opening move had ended in disaster, and no one had tried it
since. But Senndra was not one to do things the accepted way. Besides, she had
a plan that would utilize the stage for more than just height advantage. As
soon as the flag dropped to start the match, she took a step forward and leapt
up onto the stage and looked down at her opponent. He looked up at her in
astonishment, but took very little time to adjust to her new position. Senndra
watched as he stepped forward and jumped up onto the platform. She vaulted over
him, landing in a crouch and instantly spun, straightening as she did so to aim
a blow at his ankles. He jumped over the blow, landed, and brought his sword
down on Senndra from above. She lifted her arm so that the leather armor there
only received a glancing blow, and the blade slid off. Jumping straight up in
the air, she landed on the platform in front of her opponent and brought her
elbow up into his face. He fell senseless onto the platform, clearly beaten.
    The whole fight had taken less than half a
minute, and it seemed as though the crowd was not ready to cheer yet. Silence
reigned in the stands for a full second before the cadets realized that the
bout was over and the arena was filled with shouting. Senndra raised her sword
in a salute, slid it into her scabbard, and headed to the contestant box. She
walked back to her seat and sat down, ignoring everything around her. She knew
that if she paid attention,