ALL NOVEL Chapter 226: All At Once
After finishing what must have felt like the longest breakfast of my life I found my fancy dress that one of the servants had washed all the slime off of for me and quickly got changed. I thought I could do it by myself since my sister somehow managed… But figuring it out was a bit difficult, feeling like a puzzle… After tripping and falling on the ground a second time one of the servant girls asked if I needed help, but my pride wouldn’t let me accept it… Eventually, I figured out I could put it on backward, tie it, and then spin it around before pulling the collar up and redoing the ties around each shoulder. It was extremely exhausting, and… A little painful, but I got it done… Even if my knots weren’t as cute as when my mom tied them. I was at least able to dress myself.
I double-checked with the servant and I was in fact wearing it properly, she was even nice enough to teach me a cute knot that turned the extra string into a big flower shape. When I looked in the mirror and spun around, feeling the dress sway and twirl, it made me so happy I held my breath for a moment, making me a little concerned about my mental health. ‘There is nothing wrong with liking cute things is there? I’m tiny, so if I can’t get big and intimidating I might as well be cute… Although…’ I looked closer in the mirror, with my dragon blood calming down my eyes turned bright white again, still holding their almost creepy lizard shape and I still had that strange streak of white in my otherwise orange hair. ‘I’m so going to get made fun of…’
I poked at the cute little rose knots. ‘I hope they stay like this after the fighting.’
…
I walked out into the courtyard again, stretching my arms and getting ready for another fight. ‘I still don't know how far my magic can actually take me so I was being careful with who I fought before. This might be a good test. Sure I could beat Lu and Air, but that’s mostly through technique… And I have to push myself to an unsustainable point to do that, I end up being sore for days.’
“Ok…” Grama groaned, standing up from a small chair and kicking it back across the courtyard. “I’m ready when you three are. Go ahead and come at me all at once.”
Airsidh let out a sigh, true to character, while Lu started to look angry like she was ready to knock a few holes through a cliff face again. ‘All at once?’ I felt my enthusiasm slowly drain. ‘Ok, I guess we can do this too…’ “What do I get if I win?” I asked.
She crossed her arms. “Well… I can’t really hand down gear… You’re still a bit small… What do you want?”
‘What do I want?’
She chuckled, “I can give you some clothes.”
‘Yeah… I should have brought more than two outfits…’ I sighed. “Sure… Why not. Oh, actually, you don’t have any spare hammers do you?” ‘Just picking one up apparently proves my strength, so having one might be useful.’
She cracked her knuckles. “I could probably work something out. Are you ready?”
Lu growled. “Can we just get this over with…”
‘That’s my line…’
I slowly widened my stance, pulling on the hem of my dress and smoothly flowing my manna through my body. ‘I don’t like fighting in dirt fields, but here on stone. This feels good.’ My gramma shrugged and without warning went into a mad dash straight for me, covering the distance in a single step. I stopped in time, and the battle had officially begun. ‘She’s gunning for me… It’s not a surprise. Not only does she know the least about me, but she’s also the type to get excited about this sort of thing.’
I slowly scanned my surroundings. Quickly reviewing everything I knew about the three of them. ‘Her opening move is enough to tell me I can’t win by myself, but if there's three of me… The trick is going to be getting them to work together. I slowly turned my focus back to Grama. ‘The first step is going to be getting her off me and directing her attention towards Air, his speed should be able to keep up with her, at least if he’s focusing on just defending himself. If I throw her she’ll probably manage to keep her balance and counter, I’ll abandon the throw and back away behind Lu. Let’s just start there.’
I took a moment to center myself and make sure I knew how I wanted to move and resumed time. With a single step, I narrowly moved my head to the side getting in close and twisting around. As I grabbed her arm I felt a dull impact to my side making the muscles in my core twitch, remembering the pain from my broken ribs and causing me to pause time again out of reflex. ‘No… It’s fine… They’re healed now… I thought about this, her punch has no real weight behind it with how close I am… I’m reinforcing my body to its limit… Why does it hurt so freaking much!’ As I resumed time I let out a loud growl, grabbing her arm and leveraging it into a shoulder throw… Only… She didn’t move… Even with my strength enhanced I couldn’t lift her off the ground. ‘Fairy dust…’
She picked me up as I held onto her arm and slammed me back down cracking the stone tiles under my feet and sending a shock through my right shoulder that was all too familiar, knocking some of the wind from my lungs. My teeth rattled but my head stayed clear. ‘If I can’t throw you with my weight… Then I’ll make you let me use yours!’
With another growl bordering on a scream of pain, I yanked on her wrist, twisting again and reaching for her right leg, forcing her to change her stance and break her balance, allowing me to flip my wrist and try to pull back on her left ankle. She was too fast though and lifted her left foot before I could grab it, kicking at me. I managed to duck, again narrowly avoiding a serious blow to my head, making my adrenaline start to rush as I started to sense real danger. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I jab stepped around her back taking advantage of her blind spot.
She thought I was going for her ankle again, lifting her foot as she twisted. It probably made sense. Because I was so small it was much easier to execute something easy to reach, but that was never my plan.
Her turning into me only leaned into my next move. ‘I got you now.’ I slid under her arm, staying close and jumping into the air, this time reaching over her arm and hugging it tightly, grabbing my other wrist and locking my left hand as tight as I could onto her arm and bending it at the elbow. Her arm was completely locked, all that was left was to fall… At least… In theory…
She let out a loud groan as I fell between her legs, never reaching the ground as her back tightened, that alone being enough to keep her shoulder in its place against my full weight.
‘I know I’m not that heavy but this is insane!’ At the very least I caused her enough pain to buy me a few seconds. With those few seconds, I uncurled my legs, placing my feet on her knee and jumping again, this time kicking her in the crotch as I fell, finally forcing her to flip over me. I almost felt bad… But, not really...
She hit the ground like a sack of bricks, falling hard and letting out that signature family growl.
With her on the ground I finally had a moment to back away and fall behind Lu continued to back up until I slid past my brother too, breathing heavily and waiting for her to make her next move as I mentally double-checked my ribs and shoulder. ‘There we go… Done with the easy part…’