Sleeping Next to the Pirate King

I clicked my tongue in annoyance as the two remaining soldiers started to gang up on me. To be honest, this was as troublesome as hell. I do not want to fight these two stellar soldiers together. There goes my plan of dividing and conquering. 

I don't even have a single free second to catch my breath as the two continued to reign their attacks on me. If the golden soldier wasn't shooting at me with his bow and arrows, then the silver soldier was trying to bash the side of my head with his rifle. In order to fend them off I would use the two swords in my hands in order to put some distance in between myself and them. 

My heartbeat quickened as my legs burned from my continuous movement. Breathing was no longer involuntary but laborious. These sacks of metal were sure pushing my physical limits. As I suffered in such a way Maldonius sat up high eating grapes, while Armon and Serafina watched me with trepidation. their emerald and dark eyes never ceasing to follow my every movement. 

Shit!

I only looked away for one second, yet I managed to get myself nicked with one of golden soldier's arrows. I quickly dodged one of the silver soldier's bullets. I hopped from one leg to the other as I ripped a piece of cloth from the short-ass skirt which I wore. The crowd went wild with their cheering, a couple of men whistled as my bare thigh exposed itself. 

Lord above, I felt my cheeks flush as I wrapped the fabric around the scratch on my shoulder. My hands burned from the newly formed callouses caused by my swordsmanship. 

Did I know what I was doing? 

No. 

Did I look like I did?

Yes. 

How so? 

I'm the best faker that has ever walked on the earth ladies and gentlemen. Despite randomly swinging the swords in some synced looking way, I was actually shaking on the inside. Internally I was hoping that the crowd and that fucker Maldonius were actually buying this shit, thinking that I was some trained gladiator. A truly trained swordsman would have already rolled around in the ground laughing and shedding tears at my bullshit technique. 

My cheeks flushed once more in embarrassment. The only thing driving me at this point was the feeling of embarrassment that I would feel if the tin man and King Midas (the individual in folklore who has the ability to make anything turn into gold with a single touch) shoot me dead. I felt my body tire out as my lungs burned from the sand entering my mouth with every breath. 

I need to end this quickly or else I'm about to fucking faint from a heatstroke. 

The golden soldier seemed to have a coordinated approach to how he attacks me. Instead of firing blindly at me with his arrows, he instead watches my foot movement. Whenever my right foot slanted slightly to the left I would usually duck or be distracted by swinging my swords at the silver soldier. The golden soldier uses this small window of space where I am completely open to shoot an arrow at me. Instead of feeling giddy at the realization I was pissed.

Now I have to fucking watch the way that I move my feet if I want to avoid his arrows. 

On the other hand, the silver soldier mimics my moves and watches the way that my shoulders rise and fall with every sword swing. With this in mind he is able to maneuver around my actions and counter them despite simply holding a rifle. 

Despite their different ways of combat the two of them seem to be in perfect sync once they attack me. Thus I am now driven to the corner and sweating like a pig as I struggle to keep up with them. 

The best strategy is to take them out together and cause them to turn on each other. In that way I could achieve getting rid of them while getting back my energy. 

In order to turn them on one another I should get in the middle of them and attack in circular motions while ducking. In that way the golden soldier's arrows will hit the silver soldier, and the silver soldier's bullets will strike the golden soldier. 

My eyes quickly skimmed over their bodies in order to find the locations of the riddles. The golden soldier's riddle was placed on his head armor, whereas the silver soldier held the riddle on his shoulder. I smiled the locations of the riddles matched exactly with my plan. 

Now it was time to enact it!

I sprung forward from my location on the wall where I was cornered and stood in the middle of the golden soldier and the silver soldier. Anyone looking from afar would notice that the arrangement resembled that of a "monkey-in-the-middle" game*. 

I then systematically bent over and swung the bronze soldier's thin sword, in order to trip the silver soldier. The silver soldier foretold my plan so he jumped in the air slightly as my sword swiftly cut through the sand on the ground. At the same time I swung Maldonius's saber back so that I could get a hit on the golden soldier. The golden soldier then dodged and shot an arrow forward. 

Time seemed to slow as I ducked and slid to the side, away from the location of the middle of the golden and silver soldiers. They tried to move out of the way of each others' weapons but it was already too late. While the silver soldier was descending from his jump, the golden soldier's arrow hit his shoulder. During the golden soldier's trial at ducking, the bullet from the silver soldier's rifle struck him in the middle of the head armor. Both soldiers had their riddles hit and as a result the two of them were reduced to ashes. 

I smiled. Well, well I guess that all that's left for this round is solving the riddles. despite my exhaustion I felt giddy inside. Maybe these trials would prove to be more fun than I had expected! 

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*monkey-in-the-middle game: This game involves three individuals. Two individuals facing each other with some distance between them and an individual stands in the middle. The two individuals on the outside throw a ball to each other while the individual in the middle tries to intercept their throws and steal the ball. Once the individual in the middle holds the ball, he takes the place of the individual from the outside who threw it. The game continues with the individuals constantly changing their positions. 

Thank you so much for reading my luvs! Stay safe and be careful!