Black Market Merchant

Chapter 140: Dodge or Die
Queen looked the triplets over quickly before the referee readied himself. Their physical appearances were seemingly in top condition. The triplet’s muscles were cut and toned, countenances looked to be in good spirits, and they clearly knew how to fight based their readied stances and stature. They were undoubtably among the top members of the Mad Dog gang in terms of fighting capabilities.

Queens dull black blade was ready at half length, while waiting so eagerly for the contact of their double-sided axes. The axes were splendidly polished and stage lighting glinted brightly off them. As the triplets twirled the axes in anticipation of the fight to come, the light occasionally shined into her eyes like a disco ball. Likely that was the intentional effect.

Shouting vehemently, the referee broke the standoff. ”Begin!”

Queen had taken a standing side-on stance with the katana pointed upwards ready to deal with any angle of attack, but it was the triplets that took the initiative and moved first. Splitting into three directions they covered the distance on stage quickly, as the triplets tried to surround her. Queen saw this and instinctively half stepped backwards closer to the chain link fence, preventing them from getting directly behind her.

”Hmph, looks like you guys aren’t complete idiots.” Queen thought looking swiftly between the three Clover Clippers.

Sean was waiting on Queen’s right, Patrick on the left, while Connor was already coming straight at her head on. Connor wasted no time and swung down at her in a chopping motion, aiming to rip her in two. Queen saw the blatant killing attempt and effortlessly dodged to the right. Right to where Sean was expecting her to go.

He too swung his readied axe horizontally, aimed at her middle to chop her in half. Queens’s dodging momentum had already carried her right towards him and couldn’t change her path of motion in time. Raising her katana, Queen blocked the heavy blow. In turn, the strike forced her to stay still for just a moment, and in that moment, Patrick saw his chance. Queens’s back was open as he was already approaching from around Connor, then giving a victorious grin, he slashed at her exposed behind.

The crowd saw this all happening with bated breath, and they could tell Queen was sorely in trouble. Half the crowd was chanting eagerly in favor of the triplets, while the rest waited breathlessly. Wayne too held his breath along with them and he nearly looked away, but the expected hit never happened! Queen pushed off Sean’s axe with her katana and Patrick’s own axe ended up hitting nothing but air.

Connor had by now already recovered from his miss and Queen was once again exposed and off balance. The push had sent her careening backwards from Patrick’s angle of attack. Though he was unable to swing his axe at her effectively from such a close range, and knowing this, Connor stuck out his foot and tripped Queen. She fell back heavily on her back, only to see that all three axes were following down right after her!

”Pa-Ting!”

The vibration of metal on metal reverberated sharply into the Arena. Queen had blocked all three axes at once! However, only two of them were being blocked by her katana. The third axe was being blocked by the blade hidden in Queens red laced boot bottom! She had kicked outwards and caught an axe with such speed and precision that it took everyone by surprise.

”Advanced Armament: Stage One!” Queen whispered. Once again that restless energy filled her cybernetic limbs.

Then giving an unexpected heave, she pressed upward on the back of her own katana with her free hand and sent the axes soaring off her. In doing so, she also pushed off the third axe with her foot and rolled, head-over-heels, to get back up and out of the triplet’s encirclement. They were taken by surprise by her sudden power surge and this let Queen regain her standing side-on stance.

”Oh! Looks like this won’t be over as quick as we thought!” Patrick called out while resting his axe confidently on one shoulder.

”Indeed.” Connor replied watching Queen carefully.

Queen now saw that Sean was behind his two brothers and that this was a chance to counterattack. Flashing a quick smile, Queen spoke. ”I’m not going to go and die to a simple attack like that. Now watch!”

Queen shot forward and stabbed outwards in a blur of motion at Connors chest. Connor, however, was prepared to deal with a straightforward attack. He raised his axe like a shield and Queens blade glanced harmlessly off it. Just as she planned!

The blade flicked off towards the right at Patrick without a loss in momentum. The glancing blade sliced cleanly through the back of Patrick’s axe holding arm, slicing off a layer of his flesh. If he hadn’t been resting his axe on his shoulder this attack wouldn’t have been possible. He let out a yelp in pain and Queen jumped backwards as he reached reactively out at her. Queen landed at a stop just under a meter away from the chain link fence at her back.

Connor growled and gave a quick swing at her, but Queen simply jumped backwards to create some distance between them, forcing her to lean against the fence. Sean saw that his brother was hurt and quickly took his place instead. Patrick clutched his arm and took a few steps back. Blood dropped in several large globs as he did.

”Patrick, wrap that up. It’s just a flesh wound.” Connor shouted.

”Let’s get her!” Sean snarled glaring at Queen. ”Scissor attack brother?”

”Yes. Let’s go!” Connor replied.

The two brothers grabbed their axes with both hands and held them angled sideways next to them. Then they charged at the waiting Queen. They sprinted at her towards each side of her, yet Queen remained unmoved on the fence. The two brothers then swung their axes simultaneously right at her chest and middle, like scissors cutting at a straw.

The simple but dangerous attack would have felled any other person in that unable to retreat position. The fence was too close and either side was blocked by the attackers. Yet Queen was not any other person.

”Pa-ting!”

Once again defying the odds, Queen blocked Connors axe with her own blade and Sean’s axe was being blocked by the blade hidden in her red laced knee boots. Queen now stood locked into a Crane stance as the two brothers pressed heavily onto her still pressing unrelentingly from both sides.

”Well, you two sure are strong. I’ll give you that much.” Queen grunted holding them at bay.

”We are just getting started!” Connor replied with a maniacal grin.

Then he suddenly pulled back from her throwing off her balance as all the pressure was coming from Sean now. Queen stumbled and hopped on one foot across the stage as Sean continued to press onto her foots blade. Connor quickly ran alongside them and jabbed repeatedly at her with the pointed end of his axes handle. Queen tried grabbing at it with her free hand to push it aside, but the axe end found its mark and hit her left shoulder. The blow left a bloodied smear in her shoulder as Queen was knocked over yet again onto the stages middle.

The blow also freed Sean’s axe from her boot blade, but as the axe slid off Queen’s boot, he almost accidentally hit Connor. This was extremely lucky for Queen. Connor already was rearing back to chop down at her as she fell. However, he was instead forced to phase backwards or be hit by Sean.

”Watch it!” Connor shouted angrily. ”I was just about to finish her!”

”My bad bro!” Sean replied regaining control of his axe.

”Hurry, she is getting up.” Connor called looking past Sean.

Queen could feel that her shoulder was hurt as she scrambled up, but the damage was not too deep. When she fell to the ground she had clutched at the wound and feeling it carefully, she found it had been easily stopped by her military grade skin suit. The damage to her seemed to have only broke her skin.

However, the energy sources in the cores of her prosthetics only needed a few moments to get going properly. Stage One was always the slowest to active and all she had been doing before was stalling for time. Now she was powered up!

”Lucky shot, but can you do that again?” Queen called out as she jumped up from the stage.

Suddenly she charged again right at Connor, like a bolt from an arrow. Her movements appeared to have doubled! This time Connor was not expecting her to move this fast and he couldn’t react in time. Queen slashed him across the chest sending a splash of red onto the stage. Sean tried to hit her in response, but his axe whooshed right over her head as she dodged low to slide on stage on her knees.

Already at the ground level, Queen made a sweeping kick at Connors leg as he was still reeling back from being slashed. This time it was him who fell to the ground.

”Hold still you b****!” Sean yelled swinging down at her. His blade was useless as it then sunk into to stage, but at least it forced Queen to move away from Connor. Stopping any shot of her attacking him again for the moment.

Queen jumped up from dodging Sean’s swing and flew forward at Sean to perform a front kick right into his chest. Sean lost grip of his axe and staggered backwards at the impact. He smashed into the chain link fence and flopped onto the ground with his arms up to defend himself.

As soon as she landed from front kicking Sean, Queen returned her attack towards Connor. This time she stabbed downward at him in an attempt to skewer him. He hadn’t recovered from the slash or trip yet and was helplessly watching the blade coming for him!

”Pa-ting, thunk!”

Queens blade burrowed into the stage just beside Connors chest. Patrick had rejoined the fray at just the last second, saving his brother. Abandoning her katana, Queen jumped back as Patrick swung a right hook at her. He was outraged at her now after being wounded so soon in the fight.

Though in pain, Connor too attacked at Queen with both feet kicking up at her. The kicks forced her to take another step back and let Patrick have time to prep for another axe swing. He charged at her and threw a series of slashes and swings aiming every shot to kill.

Queen, now unarmed, could only move backwards, duck, dodge and sidestep the onslaught. In the meantime, Sean had already gotten up from the front kick. Patting off his chest he let out a laugh and spoke to Connor.

”Ha-ha, that didn’t hurt one bit. Let’s have another go! Right bro?”

”Shut up! Let’s make her suffer for cutting me. I’ll have every limb chopped off before she dies!” Connor snarled with a painful expression.

”Chill bro, we’ll get her. Look Patrick is beating her good.” Sean replied wrenching his axe out from the dusty stage floor.

Indeed, Patrick was seemingly beating her back, but he had yet to land a single blow. Queen nimbly dodged a chop aimed for her head, however, this time she stepped forward, rather than back. Grabbing his right arm, Queen twisted it and kicked the back of Patrick’s knee, knocking him down onto it. Then she wrenched that same arm behind his back and pulled sharply up!

”Pop!”

The sound of his shoulder dislocating was heard over the crowd’s commotion by his brothers. Patrick yelled and tried grabbing at her with his other hand. Yet Queen reacted next by kicking him hard into his ribs. The kick was so unnaturally strong that it sent him tumbling toward his brothers.

”Come on boys! That the best you got?” Queen taunted. “Playing with you guys is not very fun.”

Then some of the crowd started chanting, ”Queen, Queen, Queen!”

Connor looked down at his groaning brother Patrick and then at Sean. ”I have had it! I am tired of looking like a fool. Let’s use our new product now for a test run.”

”Are you sure?” Sean replied making sure Queen wasn’t coming for a follow up attack. ”I thought we were going to save it for when we challenged the Boss?”

”Ah, screw that! He won’t be able to stop us anyway, even if he knows.” Connor retorted. He then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a black, palm sized metal case.

Queen saw it and felt curious. ”What’s he up too?”

Rather than try to stop him, she promptly looked for her sword. Unfortunately, her katana was behind the three men, still planted into the stage.

Patrick still somehow held onto his axe after being kicked and he struggled to get up, but a twinge of pain from his dislocated arm sent collapsing again. Sean saw this and lifted him upward and the two moved behind Connor to recover.

”Let’s see how you handle this!” Connor shouted at Queen while opening the lid of the black case to reveal a blue looking gel pill.

”Queen, don’t stand there! Stop him before he eats that!” Sadie shouted. ”That’s their Inducement!”

Queen then realized too late that her curiosity had now gotten her into trouble. Connor was already ingesting the mysterious blue gel pill!