A Duel of Spirits

Wendy scanned the men surrounding the tree house. Seven men, military rifles, the odds don't look great.

"Hello ladies," a silky smooth female voice greeted them as they came down the tree.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" Sarah demanded, though there was a slight quiver in her voice.

"You may call me... Kitsune," the blue haired woman answered, "I believe I sensed the... Amulet of Fire."

Wendy's face darkened as two of the agents trained the rifles on her.

"I believe you have it, please hand it to me," Kitsune smiled.

"Wendy, they have guns!" Sophie whispered.

"I think we should just give it to her, we can let the government handle his one," Ashley added.

Wendy tightened her fists. She wasn't going to let some Cryptid get away with evil. If the Fire Amulet was capable of stopping Cryptids, then who knows what Kitsune could do with that power.

"You can have it..." Wendy began, "If you can defeat me in a duel!"

"Wendy no!" the girls cried.

"Interesting... you have a warrior's spirit," Kitsune spoke, "Very well then, I will honor your spirit."

The guards moved aside to grant Wendy access to face Kitsune. Wendy approached the Cryptid, preparing to fight with her fists.

"One more thing," Kitsune added, "I only fight with swords..."

She raised her hands, and two swords materialized in her hands. She handed one to Carlyle, who approached Wendy with the sheathed sword and offered it to her.

"Hmph," Wendy grunted, accepting the sword and unsheathing the blade. It was a single-edged sword that Wendy recognized as a katana from movies she had watched before. Wendy had never fought with swords before, but she figured that strength and willpower should transfer into any sort of melee combat.

"What is your name, brave warrior?" Kitsune inquired.

"Wendy Winter," Wendy responded.

"That's a pretty name. Are you ready Wendy?" Kitsune said, holding the sword, still sheathed, at her hip.

Wendy inspected the sword a bit more, before nodding at Kitsune, "I am."

"Very well," Kitsune smiled, "Come at me whenever you'd like."

Wendy analyzed Kitsune's stance. Something was off. Why didn't she unsheathe her blade? She would be defenseless if Wendy charged her right now... unless this Cryptid woman had some sort of power she was hiding.

"Do you promise to not use any tricks or magic?" Wendy asked, to make sure.

"You have my word," Kitsune bowed slightly, "you will only face my swordsmanship."

"Very well," Wendy replied. She raised her blade, and charged at Kitsune with a loud battle cry.

"YAAAAA!" Wendy screamed as she charged at Kitsune, the fox-eared lady stood calm and still even as Wendy close the distance and was about to strike her with the blade. She swung down at the woman with all her might, even though she was worried she might kill the woman, she had to fight with her life on the line to protect her friends.

CLANG!

Wendy stood in front of Kitsune. Her hands clutched her sword tightly in front of her, but her blade had been broken,. The other half of Wendy's sword laid in the dirt floor of the forest. Kitsune clicked her sword back into her sheath, but Wendy had never even seen her draw the blade. What the hell just happened? Thoughts raced in Wendy's mind as both her and Kitsune's swords began to de-materialize back into nothing. Just as they appeared magically, they disappeared.

"I hope you will honor your word, Wendy Winter," Kitsune spoke, "And hand over the amulet."

Wendy clenched her fists. She realized that despite her mind hoping that the Cryptid had used some sort of magic, it was clear to her that she lost fair and square. She simply was outclassed. However, she still couldn't just let the Cryptid take this powerful artifact. Wendy's word meant a lot to her, but even she knew that words wouldn't matter in the face of good and evil.

"I did give you my word..." Wendy said, bringing the Amulet out. Her mind raced with options of how she was going to defeat this Kitsune and her army of mind controlled agents, when all of a sudden-

"Hiyaaaa!" Sophie had taken an agent by surprise, and kicked him onto the ground.

"Shit! I guess we're doing this!" Sarah cried as she tackled another agent.

"I'm so sorry!" Ashley cried as she knocked two agents onto the ground with a series of kicks.

"You guys..." Wendy smiled as she turned to see that the training she had given her friends wasn't for nothing.

She turned back to Kitsune, "I gave you my word, but I can't let you have this power, you may still try to take it from me by ****... I did say you'd have to defeat me. I'm still standing."

Kitsune's eyebrows furrowed into anger, "Disappointing."

She raised her hand to point at Wendy, "Get her. Don't use your guns I don't want to risk the amulet being damaged."

Perfect. Wendy thought, as she quickly dodged an agent and knocked him down with a punch. Without guns this was a fair fight for her. The last two standing agents charged at her, but she found it easy dodging their attacks and using their weight and momentum against them to flip them over her shoulder one by one.

She turned to look at Kitsune with a confident grin. Only the old man left, she thought to herself. She felt bad fighting old man Carlyle, who was just the neighborhood pervert, but this Kitsune needed to be stopped.

Wendy charged at Carlyle, and for the second time today, she was surprised as the man moved as if he was as light as a feather. He dodged Wendy's punch with ease, before coming around and sweeping her legs with his leg. She fell to the ground and he immediately was on top of her.

"Ah, that's right, you didn't get any fun earlier," Kitsune said to the old man, "As a reward for taking her down, you may enjoy her for a bit. That'll teach her to be more honorable next time."

"Shit!" Wendy breathed as old man Carlyle looked at her with glazed eyes.

Wendy raised her head back as much as she could while pinned down by Carlyle, to see how her friends were doing. Bad. They may have gotten a few punches and kicks off with the element of surprise, but the trained agents had gotten back up and now they were all physically restrained.