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

she might lose her concentration.
    “Senndra.”
    Senndra looked up and saw Lemin crouching
beside her. He extended his hand, and she shook it.
    “A brilliant move,” he said. “That’s the
first time I have seen an opening move like that actually work. I don’t think
anyone has ever finished off a match in so little time, especially against
someone that much larger.”
    Senndra glanced across the field to the
platform and saw two officiators placing her unconscious opponent on a
stretcher. Now that she had time to look at him, she could see how big he truly
was. He was somewhere between six and six and a half feet tall and had to weigh
at least two hundred and fifty pounds, with no fat on his frame. His sword,
which lay beside him on the stretcher, was twice as long as hers.
    “That was a very smart move,” Lemin
commented. “The way you put him away, you hardly exerted yourself at all. And
because of that, you’ll have a slight advantage over your next opponent.”
    “Thanks for the tip,” Senndra said as
Lemin rose to his feet. She closed her eyes and mentally went through each move
she had been taught. Some of her competitors would be better sword fighters
than her recently dispatched opponent, and she needed to be ready for them when
they came.
    ******
    Senndra drew her sword and saluted the
crowd. This time, she continued the salute, soaking up the excitement of the
spectators. She could hardly believe that she had gotten this far, to her fifth
and final fight of the night. This one would decide the winner of the
tournament. The cheers of the crowd were subsiding, so she jumped lightly off
the platform and headed to a corner. She took several deep breaths to calm her
nerves. She needed to be in the best condition for this fight. She glanced
across the platform at her opponent and wondered if she had any chance at all.
He was massive and, concealed as he was by his armor, looked a lot like her
first opponent. Her only hope would be to outmaneuver him with the sword and not take a direct attack. But she had seen him fight his
other opponents and knew that he was at least as good as she was with a blade.
    The officiator climbed the platform and
raised his flag. He then lowered it and backed away.
Senndra’s opponent immediately jumped up onto the platform, ready to confront her,
but she stayed where she was. She slowly backed away from the platform
so that her opponent couldn’t attack her from above.
    The other combatant seemed at a loss for
what to do. In every previous fight, Senndra had started out by jumping onto
the platform, and her lack of aggression clearly flustered him. He recovered
quickly and jumped off the platform to meet her. He landed several feet in
front of Senndra and advanced quickly, aiming a swipe at her head. Senndra
dodged left and ran back several steps. Her opponent attacked again, swinging
hard toward her torso. Senndra was able to catch the blow on her sword and let
it slide to the side. She ducked as her attacker brought the hilt of his sword
around and came up as the blow passed. He was wide open, so she aimed a blow at
his shoulder; he stepped backward to avoid injury.
    Senndra retreated a handful of steps and
tried to catch her breath. The onslaught of the other cadet couldn’t have taken
more than a minute, but it was extremely ferocious and had left her gasping. Her training kicked in, and she launched
herself across the area that separated her from her foe. She acted on one
principle that Lemin had drilled into her head time and time again: never let
the enemy act first; make the first move. She spun as she flew through the air,
moving from left to right so that her sword came at her adversary from his
right side. He saw the move just in time and jerked his sword up to block the
blow, but was too slow. The parry rotated Senndra’s
blade so that it hit her opponent's head with the blunt side, smashing
against his helmet with a ringing sound. The blow threw him sideways, but