Chapter 20: Second Match

Lisa and Hanna were still standing on the curb next to the deep puddle. Its depth appeared to be deeper than what would be safe enough to walk in. Meaning Lisa couldn't attempt to confront the gangsters just yet. She first needed to get where Hanna would be able to hide or run away if need be. The small girl's life was to be prioritized in any case.

"You mind if we finish crossing?" Lisa ventured to ask.

Jackson smiled casually, "Not at all. Please feel free to cross. I can see that you have a child with you." He said motioning to the tan little girl behind Lisa's coffin.

The two ladies cautiously continued crossing while keeping an eye on them. The gangsters kept their promise and didn't make any move on the pair. As soon as Lisa finished crossing, she took off her coffin and placed it close to the corner of the brick building nearby.

"Hanna, go behind my coffin for now and remember what I told you before." Lisa spoke quietly to the girl while motioning with her hand to move quickly. Hanna did as she was told and quickly hid; only peaking carefully around the coffins edge to watch.

Lisa turned to face the gangsters. She showed no signs of fear. After the countless battles she had been in the far past, this street scuffle was nothing.

"Again, I'll ask." Jackson said plainly. "What do you want with my boss?"

Lisa wasn't sure how she should answer him just yet. If she outright told him her intentions than he would probably just immediately attack her. She needed to dodge the questioning for now, until she knew his situation more. As she had just explained to Hanna, gathering intel was very important.

"First let me ask you, who are you? Are you even somebody that is close to the Mad Dogs gang's leader?" Lisa replied with a questioning look.

"I am indeed close to him." Jackson replied unperturbed. "I am one of his lieutenants."

"I see. So, I guess I can explain things easier." Lisa nodded slightly. "I want to get the opportunity to fight him. I want to fight the strongest people in town and he is the leader of the strongest gang here. So, he must be strong. Right?"

Lisa had to make up something to sound somewhat convincing. In a way she really was not lying. She did want to fight him, but not just for competitive reasons alone.

"Oh, I see. So, you are a Match Fighter then. How come I haven't heard of you before?" Jackson asked putting on a curious expression.

He then took out of his nice jacket's inside pocket a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He quickly lit one and took a quick drag. This seemingly unimportant action showed that he indeed had some wealth, for both these items were considered very valuable in run down towns and city's such as this one. His nicely dressed appearance now seemed that it indeed wasn't just for show.

"I just came from out of town a few days ago." Lisa replied casually. No need to lie about that.

"Sounds reasonable." Jackson said taking another puff. "Prove to me your worth any more of my time." He then nodded to the two fighters with him. They both stepped forward aggressively and brandished their weapons.

Jackson gestured to the man on his left, "Howard here can be your first opponent."

Lisa looked at the man without giving to much consideration. He was a thick bearded man of average height. He had on a thick sweater that came up high on his neck, almost a turtleneck but not quite. He didn't look all that impressive except for the weapon in his hand, it was a firefighter's axe. It didn't have one axe head, but two instead. The second one was attached to the opposite end of the axe, so he could likely attack in some crazy swirling patters.

Lisa nodded to the other opponent. "Why not him? He looks more like a fighter to me."

The other man was much taller and broad shouldered than Howard. Almost a bit taller than Lisa was. But his most striking feature was his face. The man had a very Neanderthal looking block head, and to top it off he even had a thick black mono brow. His appearance looked rather comical.

"You'd rather fight Bruce? Fine with me." Jackson said with a shrug.

Bruce stepped forward in-front of Howard. His weapon was much more standard, an oversized spiked bat. It actually looked more like a caveman's club with train track nails in it. Lisa held back a chuckle seeing him this way.

"You know what, let's just make this easy on the both of them." Lisa said reaching into her jacket. "I can just fight them both together, it won't make any difference." She could feel the familiar grip of her katana like blade and a slight smile parted on her lips.

Jerry nudged Jackson excitedly, "See, see! I told you she'd fight two guys at once. She's getting cocky."

"Yes, it seems so." Jackson said pushing Jerry away from him and wiping off his sleeve.

Hearing this Hanna thought that Jerry was right. Lisa did seem to be acting cocky. These guys looked very big and scary to her. These Fighters were nothing like the drunken gangsters she had seen from before.

Lisa didn't seem worried one bit though. She then asked a question. "So according to the rules the challenged party gets to pick to weapons?" Jackson nodded yes and Lisa continued. "So, I guess they can use whatever they got and just them two can fight. I don't want any surprise fighters."

Lisa then whipped out from the jacket her collapsible blackened blade katana and with a series of quick soft swishing noises the sword reached its full length. The sudden appearance of the thin three-meter-long metal blade made Jackson raise his eyebrows, but he said nothing outright. Though his facial expression gave it away that such a weapon was defiantly not normally seen around here.

"So be it." Bruce said in a deep slow voice.

Lisa now couldn't resist saying with a chuckle, "Not only do you look like a Neanderthal, but sound like one too. That's just too funny!"

The silly remark definitely triggered Bruce and he growled angrily and charged recklessly at Lisa. His club like weapon was raised over his head ready to pound this foolish littler woman. Howard also moved to attack but hung back to see how Lisa reacted.

Lisa didn't move, she just stood there and calmly waited for the big guy to attack. Then, just as he had come within two steps of her, did she attack with quite the fluid motion. Taking one step towards him and swinging upwards in a silver streak, her blade moved too fast for him to counterattack.

His arm holding the weapon suddenly slipped off his arm and the weapon clattered woodenly on the asphalt road. Bruce reeled back screaming and clutching at his missing arm. Blood sprayed violently about, like a leaking shower head.

Lisa stepped forward again and with a second calm swing, ended his screaming for good. Bruce's limp body thumped to the ground, defeated and dead. Howard stopped his advance but gripped his fireman's axe in careful anticipation.

At the first strike Hanna saw the blood coming from the big guy and ducked behind the coffin to stop watching. The sight of the blood brought up the moment of her parents' death. Her breath sped up and she hugged her shoulders tightly. As soon as Bruce was silenced, did she even dare peak out again. She was frightened and a bit sickened to see that the man was dead at Lisa's feet.

"Well that was disappointing." Lisa said stepping past Bruce's body. "Maybe you can do better?"

Howard started circling Lisa, who followed along by doing the same. The wind was gently blowing, and Lisa tucked a strand of loose black hair behind her ear. Just as she did, Howard struck at her. He used both his hands to spin the two headed axes at her like a helicopter’s rotor blade. Lisa quickly shuffled her feet backwards to avoid the odd rapid whirring attack. He was backing her closer to the wall of the building behind her. His intention was to back her into a disfavor-able position and then kill her while his movements were restricted by the wall. However, Lisa was not going to just let that happen.

As soon as Lisa reached the wall she suddenly jumped backwards, and kick jumped off the wall! While flying over her attacker, Lisa stabbed downward at Howard like her sword was a spear. He was unable to defend from this sudden and awkwardly angled counter strike. Her blade stabbed right through his heart. He fell to his knees with a blank look on his face. Placing a foot on his chest Lisa pulled the blade from his skewered body and it crumpled backwards at her feet.

Lisa then turned to look at Jackson who had a look of surprise on his face. He apparently had never expected her to beat both of them so easily. He quickly hid this expression and tried to smile as if unaffected.

"Well fought. It seems Jerry wasn't lying about your skill after all." Jackson said maintaining his composure.

Jerry and the guard with him, on the other hand, looked very uneasily at Lisa who was coming slowly closer. Lisa only stopped approaching as soon as she was again between them and Hanna. Hanna looked just as surprised as the others.

"Now that I have your attention." Lisa said. "How can I fight your boss?"

Jackson shifted his body weight a bit uneasy as he thought. Then after a moment he replied. "We have a tournament style fight every two weeks at our base. If you prove yourself there, I am sure you'll attract the boss's attention."

"When?" Lisa asked.

"Next week." Jackson replied.

"How do I get into this tournament?" Lisa asked again.

"Jerry here can bring you there the day of the tournament." Jackson replied and Jerry gave him a nervous look but didn't openly refute him. "The event is at night, so you'll have time to meet up with me and I can explain the rest."

Lisa folded her sword back up and tucked it into the pocket inside her jacket. "Sounds good to me. Jerry, same place at the Ragged Flagon?"

Jerry nodded nervously without a word. Then the three men started to back away. They didn't seem to be all that eager to be near this dangerous woman any longer than they needed to be.

"See you then. I look forward to speaking more." Jackson said while quickly turning back down the street the way they had come, along with the others following closely behind.

Lisa sighed and turned back towards the small girl still peaking timidly from behind the coffin. She then knelt down to her and extended out a friendly hand.

Giving a pleasant, calming smile, Lisa then said, "Sorry you had to see all that. Come on, let's get you home."