Hearts & Spells

1 - Weight in Your Hips

Rennia tussled in the mud as her hands rummaged through Ophelia's hair. She was not a pig, she could assure you. The wet dirt being flung in her eye she could take, but the whore below her just had to bring up her level.

"Get off me, Rennia!" Her shout was for naught, and it didn't help that her hand was halfway stuck in Rennia's mouth.

"You started this mess!"

Rennia pressed Ophelia chest down on the wet dirt, her feet kicking all the way, refusing to accept submission.

The feeling of something slender with a long nail poking her eye had caused Rennia to start lashing out with her fists. Her knuckles slammed into the mage's face, causing her to yelp out in pain. Little arcs of electricity shot out from Ophelia's fingertips, zapping a muddied Rennia across her neck, the only place Ophelia could reach.

She was using magic, the bitch. It was unfair and it was illegal, but it wasn't going to stop her.

A voice cried out from the middle of the crowd, a few dozen having formed a ring around them. "Rennia! Ophelia! Just stop this bullshit immediately."

Rennia ignored her. How could she. She insulted her, flung mud into her face, laughed at her in front of her friends. She would be taught a lesson if it was the last thing she did today. And she meant that, because she was bringing her fists down.

She was a [tenth-level silver ranker], yes. Bite her, but it wasn't her fault the Living System didn't favor her the same way it favored them.

"She needs to be taught a lesson!"

"And you think pummeling your peer is going to net you extra points in the guild? Please stop it immediately. You'll both get suspended if this goes on."

"In hell!" Ophelia screamed, held her hands out with palms facing forward, and chanted. Rennia's eyes went wide and her options got thinner. A gust of wind slammed into her, sending her flying backwards.

She looked up, dizzy. Ophelia got up with a smirk on her face. "You need to know your place, Rennia, and it's beneath my boots!"

She was not done retaliating. Rennia's gaze swept to the crowd standing watch from a distance, almost all staring in surprise or excitement at the brawl that had ensued. Lyanna was there, cheering for her from the back of the crowd.

"Rennia, just bite her tits off!" That was certainly an inapt thing to do. Rennia bit her lip. What was the fault in that, really. Ophelia was going to blast her with magic and she was without her weapon. It was an incredibly ridiculous thing to do. It might just get the point across.

If she was going to use magic, then she was going to even the odds. [Swift Foot]. A fighter's maneuver tactic.

Rennia rolled, jumped and crawled like a hunted jackrabbit with superhuman speed, trying to avoid Ophelia's hands from obliterating her. She did roll in the mud, like the pig she knew she wasn't, and then jumped the mage from below, causing her to stumble backwards.

She leapt to stand and the tackle sent a shocked Ophelia onto the dry grass. Her hands restrained her sniveling opponent's arms. The fight was over. She did it. She proved her mettle. She proved to everyone here that despite being a few levels behind, she pulled her weight. At least, that was what she wanted them to think.

"Get off me, you wench! You're a disgrace to our company. If you want to roll with the animals, then maybe you should have taken a job in farming!" Despite the vile words coming out of Ophelia's mouth, there were tears in her eyes. Of course there were. A mage could never brawl with a fighter on equal terms.