Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 67: Razor’s Edge

The leading edge of her left wing thrusted toward Leon’s chest like a blade.

’I can’t let it touch me... need to time this perfectly,’ he thought as he ducked, the wind of its passage ruffling his hair.

She pivoted, the right wing scything horizontally. He dropped into a roll, coming up several feet away.

Before he could reset his stance, she went airborne again and then threw a third attack. Both of her wings extended forward, while her body spun into a deadly, bladed wheel that screamed toward him.

’Keep your distance... don’t get cornered... think, think!’

ShrrrRRRRR – kreee

A wave of noise rose from the crowd as they saw him seemingly trapped, backpedaling toward the barrier.

"You’re a lady! I can’t fight you!" Leon shouted. The words burst out from him more in a tactical confusion than gallantry.

As the spinning death closed in, Leon didn’t dodge sideways. Instead, he propelled himself straight up with a force that cracked the stone beneath his feet, tucking his knees to his chest.

He passed over the whirlwind of feathers, ’Steady... aim for the landing... don’t slip,’ his boots dropping down squarely on her head as she passed beneath him.

Crunch.

Leon landed lightly behind her.

’She is a lady, so what. Death in the arena doesn’t play nice. No gender, only consequence.’

A chorus of the old woman’s gravel, the lizard-lady’s synthetic hum, and Mr. Lee’s grim instruction all layered into one chilling command.

Grace staggered, then turned.

Leon shook his head, trying to dislodge them. But then, he saw the lady’s next attack slower, weaker. The voices rose again in his head when he saw an opening.

"No," he whispered and ducked under her wide, unbalanced stance as she lunged, placed a hand on her back, and pushed.

Although the push wasn’t a powerful shove, it threw her forward as if launched from a catapult.

She crossed the twenty-foot platform in an instant and crashed back-first into the shimmering barrier.

CRUSH.

The barrier held, but spiderweb lines of fractured light streaked out from the point of impact.

She slumped to her knees, then pushed herself up and turned. A bloody, grim grin plastered across her face, while her eyes gleamed with a feral light.

The feathers on her wings began to change, hardening, taking on a metallic glint that shimmered.

"YOU!" she screamed, then coiled to a spring.

"TIME OUT. VICTORY: STORM, L."

The proctor’s voice came in abruptly. The barrier dissolved. The metallic sheen faded from Grace’s wings, leaving them ragged.

She spat blood onto the stone, her grin not wavering as her eyes locked on Leon with a promise of unfinished business.

Leon walked off the platform. The crowd’s reaction came in a mix of roar of disappointment and shock.

As he reached the edge of the combatant’s walkway, a figure crossed his path, forcing him to stop.

’Tiger!’ Leon screamed in his thought while his jaw tightened.

Tiger stood there, still streaked with the blood of his last opponent. He didn’t look at the departing Grace. His blue eyes remained fixed solely on Leon.

"Hey, Rat," Tiger said in a voice that echoed in a low, pleasant rumble. A wide smile tore on his face. "I can’t wait to meet you again."

He clapped a heavy, blood-sticky hand on Leon’s shoulder, made it linger for a second, then moved past him toward the platform.

Leon stood still, the ghost of the touch burning through his shirt. His heart heaved as he turned and watched.

Surprisingly, Tiger’s opponent was the same winged lady, Grace. She looked battered but defiant, wings flaring once more.

Tiger moved with a casual, terrifying stance. He didn’t evade her bladed feathers; he caught one mid-air and snapped it.

He let her dive at him, then sidestepped and, with a wrenching twist, he ripped the primary joint of her right wing.

HRRSSHH – CRACK

She screamed in a raw, animal sound. "A – A – AAAGH –! "

Through it all, even as he brutalized her, Tiger kept his gaze lifted, searching for Leon in the crowd. He smiled as blood oozed out from Grace’s wing.

He loomed over her, grabbed her by the neck, and hauled her upright. Her good wing flapped uselessly.

With Tiger’s free hand, he pressed his index finger and thumb together into a hard point and drove it with surgical precision between her legs.

Her body convulsed, a guttural choke escaping her.

"Hngh – khhh –!"

Then, bizarrely, Tiger’s head lolled forward, his tongue extended, licking a streak of grime from his knuckles as he withdrew his hand.

He opened his hand. Grace’s body collapsed to the stone with a final limp heap. He didn’t look at her.

He turned, found Leon in the sea of faces, and gave a slow, deliberate nod before the mechanical claws descended to clear his victory.

The cheering roars of the arena echoed loudly in Leon’s ears.

Tiger walked off the platform with the chilling grace of a predator who had just marked his next kill. The blood on his hands felt like a message painted just for Leon.

Leon didn’t move; he just sat there remembering the stare Tiger had given him after he fought and survived against him.

The crowd’s noise swelled again, but Leon felt utterly isolated, lost in the smiling grin he saw on Tiger’s face before the door shut behind him.

Leon’s legs carried him back toward the changing room Tiger had just entered. The air inside struck his lungs with the scent of old sweat and something utterly out of place.

He sat, elbows on his knees, and stared at the floor between his boots. The image of Grace’s broken wing, the casual cruelty in Tiger’s eyes, and the vicious tone of Vera’s friend’s voice replayed on a loop.

’I can’t wait to meet any of them.’

A sharp chime cut through his daydream and got amplified by the room’s acoustics. The proctor’s voice boomed from the hidden speakers at the corners, stripping him of all emotion.

"NEXT MATCH: STORM, L. VS QING, Z."

Leon’s head snapped upward, the blood flowing in the veins on his face getting drained, leaving a cold, hollow sensation behind.

For a second, he thought he’d misheard. He pulled his datapad from the pocket of his trousers and flipped through the notifications.

"ZOE!"

Breeze exited from his mouth as he stood up abruptly, his face tensed, while his heart turned into a frantic drum in his ribcage.