Emerald Edge didn’t need to wait long before she was told of her next fight. It was in a different arena, so she had to relocate herself and proceed down a different tunnel to her fight.
She pondered how the humans knew which fights to watch. Was there perhaps a list of combatants somewhere that she’d fail to notice? Or perhaps they were just watching whichever fight was going on in their particular stands?
“RIGHT NOW, WE HAVE EMERALD EDGE AGAINST CHERRY BLOSSOM OF THE EAST!”
Emerald didn’t come up with a concrete answer as she entered the new arena. This one had a rocky and jagged flooring, but was otherwise the same shape and size as the previous one, though Emerald was glad she didn’t have to worry about sand in her armor with this one.
This time, her opponent was a woman, at least, it looked like a woman to Emerald from the shape and the name sound rather feminine. She had long blue hair sticking out from a weirdly shaped helmet, with thin slits running down the length of the face for her to see out. As for her armor, instead of the regular full plate the knights had, this woman had squarish plates on her shoulders, chest, back and thighs resting above thick white clothes; a lot less protection comparing to the knights, but Emerald figured it was a lot lighter, which meant her opponent prefered speed.
Attached to her left side were two swords, one longer than the other, both slightly curved.
This is going to be an interesting one…
Cherry Blossom straightened herself and bowed, almost at a ninety-degree angle. Emerald mumbled something to herself and gave the human a bow as well, though not as elegant or fluid as hers.
Without waiting any further, the blue haired human whipped out her shorter blade at such a quick speed, Emerald couldn’t even follow it with her eyes.
She was already beside the spymaster before she could draw her sword, forcing her to get out of the way as fast as she could. Emerald Edge had leapt back and kicked away, pulling out her sword in the air before her greaves returned to the rocky ground. The spymaster quickly retaliated, lunging forward with her blade, aimed for the woman’s chest.
With the same speed she had demonstrated with earlier, the Eastern woman rolled under Emerald’s stab and cut across the spymaster’s thigh, clean through her clothes and her skin, drawing blood.
Emerald followed her attack and hobbled forward, reaching a hand for her bleeding leg. She had anticipated the attack, but she still wasn’t fast enough to pull her leg out of the sword’s reach. It hadn’t cut too deep, but it had wounded her.
Strange enough, Cherry Blossom waited, unmoving, watching Emerald through her helmet, her sword held out in front of her in both hands, allowing the spymaster to right herself in a comfortable pose.
Steeling herself from the pain, Emerald did the same, readying her weapon and her stance. As soon as she had done that, the woman attacked again, going for a strike above, then below. Emerald could see her attacks coming, being trained to learn enemy attack patterns, but her strikes were so quick, almost invisible to the eye, cutting Emerald along the upper arm and the shoulder, which thankfully, had been protected by her armor.
“You’re very fast for a knight,” Emerald complimented as she blocked a high slash.
“I am no knight, Emerald-san,” she replied with a quiet voice. “Do you not know of the East?”
Emerald knew the name from her reports and studies, but she had never actually been there. “Besides the name, I’m afraid not.”
“Very well,” Cherry Blossom nodded her head as circled Emerald. “In the East, we are known as samurai.”
Suddenly, she vanished from Emerald’s sight, and it wasn’t until the spymaster felt a sharp pain at the back of her head that she knew where the samurai had gone.
The crowds had gone silent as Emerald fell to the ground, her vision going hazy, waiting to see if she would get up again.
The spymaster clenched her fists, one around her sword, fighting to steady her view. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Cherry Blossom was clearly much faster than she was. If Emerald was going to win, she would have to win by intellect. She was a spymaster, an expert at deception and subterfuge.
Speed was Cherry Blossom’s weapon. That could mean that she didn’t rely on her strength. Emerald felt she could use that to her advantage, along with her secret weapons.
The crowd started cheering again as Emerald got to her feet, facing the samurai once more. Running forward as best as she could with a wounded leg, Emerald feinted right, and then at the last minute, dropped her sword down into her other hand and attacked from the left.
The sudden change had caught Cherry Blossom off guard, just how Emerald had wanted, but she still reacted quickly, blocking at the new direction. Emerald turned and attacked her back with a hand, extending her hidden blade out at the same time.
The samurai tried to dodge it, but the blade caught on to her helmet as Emerald pulled down, knocking her to the hard ground. Emerald was about to point her sword tip at Cherry Blossom’s head, but she quickly wriggled out of the helmet and sliding back, at the same time, pulling out her longer blade, holding it in her other hand.
“Good move, Emerald-san,” she smiled with a very pleasant face. Her blue hair was tied into a high ponytail, just like Emerald’s, but dropped all the way down to her legs, spreading out like octopus tentacles near the bottom. “I am afraid our match has gone on for too long. Let’s end this in the next minute.”
“If you insist,” Emerald readied her weapon again, sheathing her hidden blade.
Cherry Blossom attacked like a whirling tornado, cutting out with both hands faster than Emerald could block. The samurai wasn’t cutting too deep, just barely breaking her skin, but countless cuts had began forming along Emerald’s arms, legs, and face as she did her best to counter the samurai’s attacks.
Unable to fight effectively with just her sword, Emerald dropped it and extended both hidden blades. Now able to block Cherry Blossom’s attacks more effectively, Emerald quickly formulated a plan in her mind to take her opponent down. The spymaster parried up with her left blade, then sideways with her right. Seeing her opening, she jumped forward, both blades pointing for the samurai’s chest. Cherry Blossom moved fast, spinning in a circle and away from Emerald before her swords flashed forward again.
Emerald flicked both arms out, blocking both blades, but this time, quickly slashed out twice more, cutting Cherry Blossom’s arms, just above the elbow.
She fell back and dropped both swords, her arms going numb. Emerald stood over her and pointed a blade down at her head, smiling to herself at the sudden victory. Cherry Blossom was fast, but her durability wasn’t there as well.
The crowd suddenly burst out with a louder cheer as Emerald stowed her hidden blades.
“You have won, Emerald-san,” she bowed her head, resting her arms on her thighs as she knelt down. “I… I have lost. I have shamed my family.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong,” Emerald bent down on her good leg and helped her up. “We both simply want the same thing.”
“Yes, but I didn’t get it,” she sighed and winced as she tried to keep her arms straight. Emerald noticed her pain and began directing her back to the dens, hobbling on her good leg. With her adrenaline gone, the pain was starting to seep through, even from the smaller wounds all over her body. “I’m a failure. I have dishonored my name and my people.”
“You’re no failure,” Emerald tried to console her. Apparently, Eastern humans took honor very seriously. “Look at it this way. You helped me get closer to obtaining the shield. You don’t know this, but I need it to save my kingdom.”
“Your kingdom? Where are you from, Emerald-san? I realize the announcer did not mention your town or home.”
Emerald didn’t know how much she should be telling this stranger, but she seemed nice enough. “I’m from the Crystal Empire. Royal spymaster for Princess Amore.”
“Crystal Empire?” Cherry Blossom wore a skeptical face. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s… from another world,” Emerald broke to her slowly as they reentered the tunnels, proceeding back to the dens. “I know, it’s a little hard to take in.”
“Oh, not at all, Emerald-san,” the samurai shook her head as she sat down on a bench in the waiting den. “In the East, we believe of portals to other dimensions and demons from the astral plane. Yours seems no different, but to actually meet someone from a different world… I’m honored to speak to you.”
“Yes, honor, very good,” Emerald chuckled. “So you see, there is no… uh, dishonor in losing. You’re helping me get closer to saving my kingdom from a dark king.”
“Now that you put it that way…” the pink-skinned samurai pondered. “Maybe I won’t have to kill myself.”
“Yeah… Wait, what?”
Their conversation was interrupted when Moon Tide and another mage, one Emerald didn’t recognize, stepped down into the den, carrying vials of potions with them.
The other mage tended to Cherry Blossom, while Moon Tide pulled Emerald aside and had her sit on a different bench where she could spread out her array of potions.
“Maybe I’ll see you later, Emerald-san,” the samurai nodded her farewell, unable to lift her hands high.
“You take care, Cherry Blossom,” Emerald waved. “And thank you.”
“Good fight, Emerald, but all these wounds. Don’t worry, we’ll have them healed in no time,” Moon Tide smiled and unstoppered the first vial and pouring it into a clay bowl.
“That… was a tough fight, Moon Tide,” Emerald leaned her back against the wall and groaned. “I’m glad that’s done with. Cherry Blossom was a good fighter. The East… Have you ever been to the East, Moon Tide? Seems to me they like honor. A lot.”
“I haven’t been there, no,” Moon Tide said as she added another vial to the bowl and began stirring it with a spoon. “Perhaps, queen willing, I will be able to make a pilgrimage there one day. I hear their herblore is vastly different from ours here in Canterlot.”
“Oh, sounds interesting. They seem like very much different humans. Ah, speaking of that. I wanted to ask you, Moon Tide. Do different humans heal differently?”
Moon Tide daubed some ointment onto Emerald’s wounds, brushing them as gently as she could.
“How do you mean?”
“Well…” Emerald looked to the ceiling as she thought of how to word it. “Take your son for example. I’m sure you’ve heard of his wound the last match and how it healed? I mean, being his mother and all.”
“I was watching, yes,” Moon Tide glanced at Emerald, the expression in her eyes inscrutable. “He fought well, though I would have preferred that he not take unnecessary risks. Where are you going with this?”
“Yes, me too… Umm… I mean, his wound had healed by the time I found him. Sir Morn also mentioned he’s never healed this quickly. So do humans have, uh, different methods of healing? Am I making sense?”
Moon Tide was very quiet for a moment, her finger half immersed in the bowl of ointment. Then she shook herself and gave Emerald a small, close-mouthed smile.
“As far as I know,” she said softly, as if to a young child. “Humans don’t have any special methods of self healing. And as for my son, the blood of a sorceress runs in his veins. It’s only natural that some… oddities surface every now and then. Tell me though, were you thinking particularly hard about him prior to this, unusual feat?”
“Umm… particularly hard about him?” Emerald repeated, blushing slightly from that. “Wh-what do you mean, Moon Tide?”
“Were you keeping my son in your thoughts, before this quick healing of his occurred. Don’t worry,” Moon Tide said with a reassuring smile. “This is strictly between us.”
“Well…” Emerald’s cheeks began to grow in brightness. “I suppose I was, Moon Tide. I-I don’t know what to think of it… He occupies my mind a lot of the day, but-but I have a mission to accomplish… I… I can’t stay.”
“Then all is well,” Moon Tide said, finishing smearing ointment on the last of Emerald’s injuries. “Nothing to be worried about.”
“Wait, I don’t get it…” Emerald protested.
Moon Tide waved to Emerald, picking up the bowl and straightening her robes. “Don’t think too much of it. There are many avenues of magic that are yet to be explored. Leave the sorcery to me, and focus instead on your next match. I hear you have quite the challenger for your next fight.”
Emerald tested her limbs, noticing most of the pain had already faded. “Thank you, Moon Tide. I will. And, uh, you w-won’t tell anypo- anyone what I said about Sir Morn, right? At least, not yet?”
Moon Tide gave her a mysterious smile. “My lips are sealed.”
Emerald stood and stretched her arms. “Guess I better get ready. Thank you for the healing, Moon Tide. I’ll be sure to do really well.”