The duel

The battle was violent, destructive, and short. Victoria’s heightened reflexes and calculated counters turned Sam’s stone-shattering blows in every direction except at their target. Two walls were all Sam succeeded at breaking, as Victoria’s staff found his body again and again. Sharp strokes at his sides, thrusts into his gut, and concussive blows to his head. In desperation, he did a spinning back kick. His opponent caught the kick, and used the of it to fling him hard against a wall.

Sam felt his whole body react with shock and pain as he fell in a crumpled heap. With a small flash of light his clothing changed from a well tailored suit with flaming red and gold trim to a dirty white tank top and dark blue gym shorts. His magic aura and power vanished as well and he was left with the aches and pains of the battle.

He groaned and tried to roll onto his back. He was halfway through the effort when Victoria’s boot pushed him the rest of the way over. He saw her standing there, unscathed, smug, standing above him. She held a hand out, not to help him up, though.

“A deal’s a deal.” She said.

Sam felt devastated. His painful and humiliating defeat was still fresh in his mind, but it was far from the worst of it. Trying not to let his frustration and sadness bring him to tears, he plucked the small red gem off its cord on his neck and weakly placed it in her hand.

Looking quite pleased with herself, Victoria examined the gem.

“What are you going to do with it?” Sam asked, sounding more than he wanted to.

“I don’t know yet.” Victoria lied. “I might take a cruise, toss it in the ocean.”

Sam felt his stomach turn. He could spend the rest of his life trying to find it, and would still likely fail. Everything he loved about his new life, everything people admired about him, the power to create his own future, all of it was contained in that little ruby.

“I’ll decide tomorrow. Best to sleep on these kind of big decisions.” Victoria said. The words sounded practiced, but Sam was too forlorn to notice. She gave Sam a small smile, spun her staff in the air three times, and then vanished in a flash of starlight.