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began.
    The half elf with the overextended punch
struck first. Zanden sidestepped and let the man’s momentum carry
him into the wall, with the help of a well timed spin and kick to
the back. The man fell to a heap on the ground. That left four.
    The other men weren’t as rash. They circled
him slowly, waiting for an opening. Zanden turned so the fires were
behind him. He watched the shadows of those fighters out of his
field of vision, keeping his eyes on the other ones. The human in
front of him looked to the side and gave a slight nod. A shadow
moved. It was the other half elf. The human jabbed. He dodged the
jab from the human and a kick from the half elf, grabbing his leg
and swinging him into the human. The half-elf’s face connected hard
with the human’s uppercut. Quick to exploit the distraction, the
full elf dropped and tried to take out Zanden’s legs. Meanwhile,
the human recovered from his confusion and tried another punch.
Zanden jumped over the elf’s legs and did a mid-air round kick to
the human, catching his face with the ball of his foot. He landed
and brought his heel down on the elf’s bad leg. He was knocked down
a second later by a surprise overhand punch from the dwarf. Zanden
rolled out of the way of another attack and jumped back up. He
rushed forward and dropped low under the dwarf’s blocking punch,
striking up at dwarf’s side, just under his bad arm. Catching the
elf, who was in the process of standing, with a kick to the chest,
he sent him reeling into the prone human. They both grunted from
the impact.
    Then the fight was on between Zanden and the
dwarf. Zanden bobbed and jabbed, blocked and kicked. He was careful
to stay on the dwarf’s bad side, throwing a three punch combo that
should have ended the fight. The dwarf countered with two blocks
and an uppercut from his bad arm. That sent Zanden to the floor.
There was a collective gasp in the room. The dwarf rolled his
shoulder and stretched his arm, pulling it back to the ready
without a hint of pain. Zanden rubbed his jaw and stood. “You were
faking,” he said, impressed. The dwarf nodded. “Now that’s more
like it.”
    The two men began their fight anew, neither
holding back. There were few things as dangerous as a skilled
dwarven fighter. One who could move quickly was a triple threat of
skill, speed and raw strength. Normally such a dwarf could make
quick work of an elf, but Zanden trained for over a hundred years
to overcome such limitations. His build was sleek, but solid. He
could take a hit, and he could deliver one. He watched the dwarf’s
new fighting style and noticed a brief opening whenever he did a
cross punch, but getting around to exploit it would be tricky. The
window was too short to get a hit in. He needed to distract his
opponent and widen the window. Allowing himself to get hit on the
next cross, he stumbled back a step and retaliated with a kick. He
needed to make this look believable, so he threw in a frustrated
grunt for good show. Zanden barely missed the next cross. The dwarf
grinned with an excited gleam in his eyes. This was working. He
thought he had Zanden’s weakness. When he tried the cross punch a
third time Zanden spun out of the way and threw a back kick up
under the dwarf’s extended arm, landing a blow square on his chest.
Not giving him a moment to recover Zanden spun the other way and
took him out with a strong forward punch to the head. The room
cheered. Zanden accepted a towel to wipe the sweat from his face
and neck. “Who’s next?”
     

Chapter 2
     
    “Your Majesty, the preparations for the
Summer Solstice celebrations are underway. All the foreign
dignitaries expected for tomorrow’s ball and banquet have arrived
and are being taken care of.” Svanteese made a notation on his
scroll and rolled it up, putting it away. He was an unassuming man
of medium stature. A full elf, and one of the few to make the
transition from King Veritan to Queen Maerishka’s court, he was