Moon Speaker made a mess of her face by wiping dirt out of her eyes with bloody hands, but glared at Victoria once she ripped a piece of leather from her sleeve and tied a makeshift tourniquet around her thigh.
“I’ll take that knife back, weak little pig,” Moon Speaker said. She stomped over with her arms raised in a cautious attempt to look like a boxer.
Victoria looked up with wide eyes and her mouth gaped. She hobbled away and almost turned her back on her opponent.
“I’m going to break every bone in your fragile little body.” Moon Speaker fell for the ruse and increased her lumbering charge.
Victoria spun around and leapt between her opponent’s legs in a crouched state. She slammed into firm knees that would never buckle from any hit she could deliver, even with the full force her her body as a weapon. But her intent hadn’t been the fake takedown rush. Instead, she stabbed and twisted the knife with two hasty motions, shredding the back of her opponent’s knees where plentiful tendons and arteries were waiting with less protection. She spiraled aside in time to only take part of the heavy woman’s fall on her back. She slid out and gasped for air through the blinding pain of her ribs and pelvis being shocked in the impact.
Moon Speaker howled with the volume of a dying animal.
“Enough of your pitiful voice,” Victoria said. She crouched over her opponent’s head for only a few seconds, but it was long enough to carve out the woman’s tongue. Her precision and speed was evidence she had performed the procedure many times in the past. Her maniacal smile and the way she stood with the tongue held up as a trophy was evidence she enjoyed herself far more than any rational person should.
Moon Speaker rolled on the ground and blurted wails from her blood-streaked mouth. She pounded the ground with one of her fists between thrashes.
“She has surrendered,” Gift Bringer announced.
“You cannot make that declaration,” Victoria said. She threw the severed tongue into High Voice’s face. “She has to surrender, pass out, or die.” She rubbed the knife’s edge on each of her cheeks to leave bloody stripes like war paint. “I will permit only the option I am interested in.”
Moon Speaker rolled to all fours to get up in anticipation of Victoria’s strike. She moaned in defiance but could do nothing to prevent a solid kick to her throat. She stun was enough to knock her off balance and slam into the ground. She was defenseless against the series of stomps delivered to her skull.
“I am not done with you,” Victoria said. She spun the knife in her hand to demonstrate her proficiency with melee weapons. “You are my rabbit now. And there is only one thing I ever do with rabbits.”
Victoria took Moon Speaker’s scalp into her hand and pulled the woman up by her hair. She tapped her blade against her victim’s throat near the collar bones.
“Enough!” High Voice pointed to a pair of guards with shotguns.
The guards moved in with their weapons trained on the combatants, but were unable to get a clear aim on Victoria as she used Moon Speaker as a human shield.
“Let her go, you’ve won,” High Voice ordered.
“I only win when this rabbit dies.” Victoria rattled the woman around by her scalp and smiled at the moans of protest. “She thought she was a bear fighting a pig. I need to show this rabbit how seriously in error she was.”
“Let her go,” Cooper ordered from the sidelines.
Victoria’s maniacal expression softened and her face went slack. Her eyes drooped as she nodded.
“Okay boss, I will put the rabbit down.” Victoria stabbed her foe through the back and threw her to the ground. “This bunny can go back in the dirt where she belongs.”
The guards stared at Victoria with a mixture of fury and horror. One of them was the young man whose rifle she stole.
“I am done,” Victoria said. She motioned her hands down to the knife in Moon Speaker’s back. “Unless you two want to go for a round in the ring with me.”
“You claimed to uphold the value of life,” High Voice said.
“We went through with your duel as you directed,” Cooper said. “We’ve earned our release.”
The two guards near Victoria kept their attention locked on her. Everyone else looked to the porch.
An additional tentacle came out of Enlightened One and wrapped around High Voice’s throat. The man’s eyes lost focus before they swayed and rolled endlessly as if following a phantom.
“Stand down,” High Voice said to the guards.
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