Called by the Dragon
2

This was unfortunate.

Anzi had expected the wyrm because there had been one when shefirst ran the Gauntlet herself, but what she hadn't expected was a nearlyfull-grown beast ready to devour whatever it managed to sink its teethinto. Was the quartermaster insane? These kids were too young, no wayany of them could outpace a creature of this size. And the chances ofsurviving the attack? Laughably low. If she hadn't sneaked down in thefirst place for other reasons entirely, she would never have been here tostop the beast in time. It had exploded out of the sand like a lightningstrike and gone straight for the closest children hanging from the rockwall, and if she had been even a half-second slower in leaping on itshead to throwing off its aim, at least one of the recruits would bemaimed or dead. On her own First Run years ago, the wyrms in thecanyon hadn't been half so dangerous. Idiot quartermaster! She wouldreport this to the colonel so he could go and shred the desert garrisonapart for their carelessness.

And worse, all the trouble she had gone to would be for nothing now.Pierro had caught up to her in the chaos, so even after she dispatchedthis wyrm, she would still have to deal with him. And no doubteveryone else was on their way, too, for their own piece of the spoils.But for now, at least she had this: the spear in her hand was as solid asever despite having been gnawed on by powerful jaws. Magicked woodwas strong enough to withstand the bite of an adult wyrm, a lesson shehad not expected to learn today. But against Pierro’s brute strength andhis steel sword, could it last?

“Come on, Anzi. Have you lost your nerve? You can just lay down yourarms and let me take the kids. I'll put in a good word for you when I'mpromoted and tell them all about how you took down a wyrm alone. Ajuvenile one, anyway.”

Sometimes, she really hated Pierro. He was tolerable most of the time,reliable, steady, and amusing company, but his habit of trash talkingduring competitions and spars was one of the reasons she never heldback from thrashing him soundly. Today would be no different. Sheshifted her weight between her bare feet after dismounting from thewyrm's neck. The serpent was out cold, knocked unconscious by aperfectly aimed magic-laced strike from her palm straight to the baseof its brain, but how long would it be out for? Hard to tell. She wouldneed to take care of this quickly, which meant no humoring Pierro’stheatrics. While he continued to spin his sword, she simply brought herspear back and positioned it upside down in a diagonal stance behindherself, ready to lash out and strike. She didn't like wasting her timewith a preamble before the main act.

“Alright, then, come at me-"

He was still in the middle of taunting her when she lunged across thethree-meter distance between them, body so low to the ground shelooked more like a desert fox streaking across the sand than a human.It was dim down here at the bottom of the gorge, courtesy of theshadow of the cliffs, but there was enough illumination from the dawnlight to see the spark of surprise on his face when she was suddenlytwo inches in front of him.

She couldn't parry his sword with her spear half; his blade would cleavethrough it from the sheer force of her strength. Magicked wood couldwithstand ordinary steel, but Pierro had a charmed blade that wouldsnip through her weapon if she hit it hard enough. She had to rely onagility alone to avoid the sword while using her spear to landdebilitating strikes at close range. Easily done. She just had to putherself in his face - like this.

“Damn you!”

He only had time for one frustrated curse before she leaped up andrammed her shoulder into his chest, dodging neatly between his swordthat had still been mid-twirl and his fist. The upward strike lifted him offthe ground, launching him off his feet half a meter. As his body movedbackward through the air, she dropped down and twisted her hips soshe could lash out with a fierce kick to the abdomen. It connected inmid-air and sent him crashing against the rock wall, and a shower ofdust and loose scree cascaded over his head.

“Ugh!”

Pierro shoved himself back onto his feet and narrowly managed toavoid her second kick, a sweeping one that would have arced in fromhis left and struck him across the jaw. Close, close - she used hermomentum to flip over and kick with her other leg in the same motion.He blocked it with the metal bracer protecting his forearm, but her shinfound the soft, vulnerable spot right at the inner bend of his elbow.Before he could react, she hooked her ankle over the unguarded jointand dragged him off-balance. The first impact had been hard enoughto send him teetering sideways, and this might be enough to put himon the ground - but no such luck. He planted the tip of his sword intothe sand, catching himself, and moved behind it to put more distancebetween them.

It didn't take long for him to pull his weapon back out of the looseearth and point it at her, but he also took several hasty steps back. Sheadvanced and followed, holding her spear out horizontally to guard herprogress. Pierro liked leaping face-first; she had sparred with him toomany times to be taken by surprise with his favorite tricks.

“Relax,” he panted. “Don’t waste your strength. The others are almosthere.”

No, they weren't. If they were, he would have tried to hold out andkeep her distracted so they could ambush her. He was stalling for time.But that didn't mean she had all day to waste on him. She needed tofinish this leg of the training, herd the recruits away - the same recruitsthat were currently trying to sneak away while she and Pierro weredistracted. She went for his legs with a vicious semi-circle sweep of herspear before hurling the weapon at the opposite wall behind her. Thesurprised yelp of the foremost girl answered her, an appropriatereaction to the deadly whizzing that had passed in front of her nose byscant inches. A young desert native child, from what Anzi could tell outfrom her peripheral vision. Was that what she had looked like backthen, too, young and determined? The sheer nostalgia almost made hersmile, if not for Pierro grinning stupidly at her.

“You idiot,” he exclaimed. “You're going to throw away your onlyweapon for that? For the kids?”

She didn’t smile back. “None of you move,” she ordered with her eyesstill fixed on Pierro. “If anyone thinks I can't catch them” - she threw afast, hard glower at the black-eyed girl leading them all- “I can. Don'ttest me.”

“And what about me? I'm the one to worry about.”

She looked Pierro up and down with vague disgust. “Don't be stupid.You're handled.” She didn't give him the chance to take offense. As thelast syllable left her tongue, she lunged forward, this time going underhis extended sword and burying her shoulder into his abdomen. Shefelt and heard the pained breath leave his lungs, but he had takenworse hits from her before. This wouldn't be nearly enough. Quick -before she was done driving him back, she grit her teeth and angledher hips to lift him off the ground, arms wrapping around his thighsand unbalancing him.

His elbow came down hard on her back, but she ignored the pain. If shedidn’t knock him down, he was going to adjust his sword in his grip andswing down next, and she couldn't afford to nurse sliced flesh and stillhope to win the Gauntlet. Behind her, several of the children were stillgoing to make a break for it despite her warning words and spear. Shehad to finish this quickly. Sorry, Pierro, she thought, but not really. Hehad been asking for this.

"Oof!"

She slammed him back into the ground with no mercy. He was stillwheezing out his first curse when she released the back of one thigh,leaned over his supine body, and landed a vicious punch right into hisexposed underarm. Unluckily for him, that was also his sword arm. Ahowl of pain and a whole-body later, she snatched up the droppedweapon drew it edgewise against his throat. But he was a trainedsoldier, so of course he wouldn't go down so easily. His other handdove for the knife sheathed on his outer thigh - and found nothing. Hegrimaced, and Anzi tilted her head as she peered down at him.

“I keep telling you those are easier to reach for me than for you,” shesaid. “Too bad.” Before he could think of a proper retort, she lifted thesword and brought the butt of the haft down directly upon his righttemple. The solid thump of metal meeting bone was loud enough thatit made one of the children gasp behind her, but she was already onher feet before his eyes finished rolling back into his head.

She curled her toes into the sand, adrenaline still coursing through herveins as she counted the recruits. Nine. That meant three had done thesmart thing and run off, refusing to be cowed by her threat. The reststill needed to be broken in, but their time here on the desert fringeswould teach them to be braver. “I didn't look forward to this part,” sheassured them as she advanced. “But getting beaten is the fastest way tolearn.”

And she believed that wholeheartedly as she tossed away Pierro’s knifeand blazed in like a storm, delivering to each young recruit adebilitating blow that either knocked them out cold or had themcrumpling to the ground, unable to move. A few of them weremoaning, but soon, Captain Sanson of the desert garrison would besending forth his soldiers for clean up and collection. Any child that hadfailed to advance in time would be collected so they could be treatedfor their injuries. But that meant her time was running out - now thatthe children were immobile, it was time to get to the real work.Moments later, Anzi stood up after smearing her seal on the last child'sforehead with her assigned color dye, a simple circle with a slashthrough it. All of them, hers. When this was over, she would be standinghead and shoulders above the other candidates. But another worrygnawed at her. That wyrm. It was supposed to be a youngling. Thosecould bruise and slash, but not injure any more grievously than that.And yet the one she had stopped here had been far moredangerous.What in the world had the garrison captain been thinking toallow one of this size to come this far? Was he trying to get the kidskilled? Sure, a few small ones were allowed into the Gauntlet every year,and not every recruit survived this part of their training. But this wasunthinkable. It was simply too big, too dangerous. Without magic, thesechildren had no chance of fighting back.

Anzi returned to the creature's head and prodded its scaly head withher foot. One this large should have been captured for military use, notleft to roam the Gauntlet's course and used to terrorize the kids thatcame to train here. Would she get in trouble for killing it? Probably. Nomatter the threat, any this size were protected under Imperial Law as avital resource, and she couldn't do as she wished to it, not even toensure the safety of the unconscious children nearby. But she had togo, too; she couldn't wait for garrison officers to arrive and take over.She would fail the Gauntlet. But how could she just leave? What if therewere more wyrms? If Captain Sanson and his quartermaster hadoverlooked one of this size, there could be more.

There was one solution. It was questionable an messy, but it was herbest chance at keeping the children safe while also preserving thewyrm'’s life. And the only way she was going to be able to get away andfinish the Gauntlet.

“Sorry,” she apologized into the silence, and she hefted Pierro’s swordin her grasp as she stared down at the creature's serpentine head. Forsome reason, she felt guilty even though it was scarcely more than anunthinking beast. She'd never been as fond of serpent hunting as theothers in her unit, and even now, she wished she could hesitate. But shecouldn't afford to. She had to go. At least she wasn't killing it, shethought. It would survive.

She swung.