Lightship Chronicles Chapter 10 : Last Horizon, Page 4

good. I really am impressed. Uh-uh-uh, I just had a genius thought." Nayaa suddenly bounces with excitement. "Hey! If I throw lots of berry fruit at you... you think you could chop them up into juice?" Nayaa asks with feigned curiosity and excitement.

  The man gives her a hard look. "You don't amuse me any more. Save yourself some pain and hand over your credits and that staff."

  "Nope. Not giving it." She shakes her head with eyes half closed, waving her thick curly hair back and forth in an exaggerated manner.

  "Then I'll cut it out of your hand."

  "What? Really?" She responds with exaggerated shock. The man takes an aggressive step forward. "Stop!" She yells putting up her left palm. "I like my hand. I don't want you to cut off my hand. Hey! How about we make up and become best friends? Please? And we can have fun. I'll teach you my Fruity Dance. It's awesome! You want to see it?"

  "I don't dance with girls, but I'll take that pretty-boy friend of yours there, after I'm done cutting you here." Nudging towards Andee, who's eyes bug out of his head. Nayaa instantly starts laughing out loud as she turns to Andee.

  "Whoa! Ha-ha-ha, and you just came out of the closet. Now I found you a boyfriend. Yeyyyy!" Nayaa yells with exaggerated excitement, then turns to the man. "You can have him! He's all yours. He'll dance with you." Nayaa rushes to Andee and starts dragging him away from the wall. "Go, he wants you." She nudges towards the man with a big grin on her face.

  Fat Mo is baffled by what's happening, and relaxes out of his fighting stance. The audience is equally confused.

  Andee heads out after Nayaa shoves him. He walks to the spot where she was standing.

  "I'll hurt you too, pretty boy. Tell her to hand me that staff, and all of your credits."

  "How about mine? You don't want my staff?"

  "Who do you think you're fooling with that rope boy." The man snarls at him. Andee looks over his shoulder to Nayaa and both smirk.

  "Hey, what did you mean when you said, vanish?" Andee asks with a penetrating glare at the man.

  "I'm done talking. It's time to start cutting." The man lifts the sword up in his right hand. Andee grabs his staff, snaps it open, then swiftly swings himself with his staff into fight stance, all in one beautiful move. He does it with such grace and ease it looks surreal. For the first time Fat Mo shows an emotion different than anger and cockiness, concern. Not only is Andee's rope, not a rope, but the way he moved, it looks like he might be the real deal. Fat Mo suddenly looks nervous. He turns to the audience. They're still yelling, 'That's Fat Mo! Get him! He's a bastard! He robs us!' The crowd is reacting with a sense that maybe Fat Mo has finally met his match. They are encouraging Andee to destroy him.

  Fat Mo looks back to Andee unsure. He takes a deep breath fueled by his pride. It's clear in his thuggish eyes, he is not going to concede to this kid. He makes two cross slashes with his sword to show his speed, power, and dexterity. Andee does not budge from his fight stance. Left elbow and knee out. Right foot back with the staff behind his right arm and over the back of his shoulder. Andee looks as rigid as a rock, but his eyes are calm, cool, and confident.

  Fat Mo cautiously starts makings small steps towards Andee, his large sword pointing up. Andee is locked in his pose. His face calm but focused. His eyes glued on his target. It's an awesome sight. A giant man, more than twice the size of Andee, with a huge sword in his right hand looks timid and meek, while Andee looks so superb, so strong in his stoic stance, that is seems like no contest. The audience is stunned silent by the anticipation. No more yells. No more shouts.

  Fat Mo bluffs an attack with a weak lunge forward, but Andee stands stoic as steel. Fat Mo's face is dripping with sweat. He is getting more and more nervous by the second, but he is committed. Andee suddenly stomps forward, just once, fencer style. Fat Mo flinches visibly, and freezes.

  Andee casually rises upright, gently swinging his staff into attention stance. He drops one end in front of his feet, and bows gracefully to Fat Mo. Holds it for a couple of seconds then swings his staff up over his shoulder and around his back. Like Nayaa weeks before, Andee is now showing off his skill. He swings and whirls the staff all around his arms, neck, torso, all in between jumps, spins, and flips twirling himself, and his weapon around his body like a hula-hoop. It's an impressive sight of skill and focus. Fat Mo and the audience are enthralled, but the show is short. Andee swings back into fight stance in a final swift move.

  Fat Mo is visibly trembling. He looks around at the crowd concerned. He stares at someone specific, and nudges with his chin towards Andee. Suddenly, five men emerge out of the crowd. All rough, grimy, criminal looking types. Three have thick, but not particularly straight staffs. Old dried branches that have aged into weapons. The other two have long braided leather whips. One has about ten marble sized metal balls, all in a row near the tip. The other has three inch long metal blades. The big guy gives them all a quick glance. The men look like Mo's crew, and have now spread out on either side of Andee. Nayaa, further back, perks up, her hand on her folded staff, but waits it out.

  Before Fat Mo can finish his glances to his crew, Andee swings his right arm out, flinging the tip of his staff at near the speed of sound. It instantly makes contact with the inside of Fat Mo's right hand. It smashes into his finger tips, which are wrapped over the hilt, crushing them and instantaneously pushing the sword hilt through his palm shattering all the rest of the bones in his hand. The staff sweeps through Fat Mo's hand so fast, it launches the sword spinning wildly high into the air. Mo shrieks in shock, but before his brain can register the pain, Andee flips the momentum of his fast swinging staff, and reorients it back, its tip now flying from left to right. The tip smashes into Fat Mo's jaw. His bones shatter like glass from the high speed impact. The fat man falls to his knees, his body half in shock, blood and teeth spurting out of his mouth. The audience gasp from their own shook. It's all over in less than a second. The giant sword finally hits the ground behind Mo's men, just as Andee sweeps back into fight stance. It was so fast no one is exactly sure what happened. Andee gently rises upright with the staff behind his right arm, now pointing vertically

  From Andee's right, the metal-marble tipped whip snaps at him. He leap out of the way. All five attack. The guys with the staffs are useless. They use them two handed, holding them like a bar, near the center, tweaking them back and forth attempting to hit Andee with the ends. The style is slow and lacks power. Andee swiftly defends against all three with his much quicker skills and style, while at the same time nailing each one in legs, arms, torso, not hard, just enough the make them hop and stumble in pain.

  The guys with the whips are a bit more problematic. They stand further back and snap the metal loaded tips towards Andee. He has to physically move out of the way each time, or risk a bad cut. Blocking the whip with is staff would also be useless, since it would simply wrap around it, immobilizing Andee.

  Nayaa is on the tip of her toes, ready to jump in, but Andee is handling it. She holds back. Unlike the fight with the man in blue, this time Andee is in total control. Even with five guys, and two with deadly whips, he's turned the battle into a game. He smashes the staff out the hands of one man. The guy lunges away, heading for Fat Mo's giant sword. He lifts it up but it looks a bit too heavy for him. It doesn't matter. He charges with all his might at Andee, just as the whip with metal blades comes at him. Andee has no choice but to catch the deadly tip with his staff. It wraps around the upper segment of his weapon. Andee immediately cartwheels on the tip of his staff, then yanks it with his momentum as he flips up onto his feet, pulling the whip taught--and the man holding it--towards him, just as the other man comes slashing down with his sword. It misses Andee but severs the whip in two, then the blade slams into the dirt. Andee follows with a swift swing of his staff, nailing the sword-master in the back of his thigh with great power. The man falls forward on his knees, then on top of his sword and face. He's groaning in pain with his mouth in the dirt, his leg badly injured.

&nbs
p; Nayaa can no longer resist the itch. She tumbles forward then with a double somersault, snaps open her staff, just before she lands behind Andee. They're back to back surrounded by the four guys still standing. The duo begin another show of prowess, this time spinning their staffs in complex and fast swats without being able to see each other. Yet they move in absolute unison. As if they are a single machine now with 360 degree range. The four men finally realize they've stepped into something they shouldn't have. They look at each other concerned, but their pride is too strong. They wait out the impressive display, and the minute Andee and Nayaa stop, they attack. With the two of them now playing, the game is over soon. If they thought Andee was a challenge, Nayaa is worse. She is more aggressive and more cruel. There's real anger somewhere deep inside her, and she attacks them hard, smashing hands, feet, knees, and jaws. In seconds all four men are crawling in the dirt, bloodied and with broken bones.

  Fat Mo is still on his knees. Andee folds his staff and rushes to him. Nayaa places her staff in attention stance, and looks at the bloody mess they made. The men that can walk drag their mates away. The audience roars in cheers and applause. Andee squats in front of