Ethan Wright and the Curse of Silence Read Online Free PDF Page A

but avoided the blow. Marcus, however, was not impressed. He started to toy with her. He lunged forward a bit with his sword, missing on purpose to try and get a rise from the crowd. As soon as he took his eyes off her, Availia stepped forward, tapped his sword down with hers, and smacked the side of his face with her sword while giving out a yell. Crack!
    “ Two points! Fatal blow .”
    Marcus bent over holding his ear, but quickly recovered and stood tall again. He seemed enraged and spat on the ground.
    “Stupid girl, you should’ve stayed home with your dollies,” he sneered, trying to get a reaction out of Availia, who remained silent.
    Availia was studying Marcus’ every move. Ethan guessed she was looking for a weakness, or simply hoping to get through the match without getting pummeled. And because Marcus was the returning champion, Ethan knew Availia had to perform her sword techniques perfectly in order to stand a chance.
    “ To the line … begin! ”
    Availia waited for Marcus to make the first move, and he did. He used his reach and lunged forward, hitting Availia square in the chest. Crack!
    “ Fatal blow, two points! ” As the judge yelled, Ethan noticed a couple standing beside the ring, watching intently. One looked like a much taller version of Availia, whom Ethan recognized as her mother. The parents looked very concerned for their daughter. After Availia absorbed the strike to the chest, her mother covered her face to avoid watching the display of brutality, whereupon she was comforted by her husband.
    Availia regained her position and stepped forward to the line. She looked determined to beat Marcus and steadied her hands on the sword handle. The match was now drawing a fairly large crowd. Marcus, noticing the people gathering around the ring, stopped his barrage of insults in favor of concentrating on winning the match. He took a new stance and held the sword behind his back. He held it with his right hand so the blade ran up the middle of his back, but was hidden from Availia’s view. Availia did not know what to make of the new stance and appeared to be ready to attack this time.
    “ To the line … begin! ”
    Availia immediately hopped forward and drove her sword straight toward Marcus’ undefended face. It was too late. Marcus stepped to the side, spun around, whipped his sword around and engraved Availia’s back, making a loud thumping sound.
    Availia let out a gasp of air as she was hit, and fell to her knees. Marcus walked by her and paused. “Stupid little girl,” he spat.
    “ Fatal blow, two points — winner, Marcus Grenwise ,” bellowed the judge.
    Auren began to move toward Marcus to give him a piece of his mind, but Ethan grabbed his arm and held him in place as Availia’s parents went into the ring to help up their now-crying daughter.
    “What a jerk ! Can you believe that guy? I mean really ,” Auren started yelling, which was drawing attention to himself.
    “Yeah, he is a piece of work alright. I see why you entered,” said Ethan.
    “Yeah, but I may have to wait all day to get a chance to fight him — hope I can last that long, there are some pretty big thirteen-year-olds here. Almost like they keep getting’ bigger every year,” replied Auren as a much larger boy walked by wearing a leather vest and cap.
    “Oy — you there!” yelled Auren. The boy turned around and stared Auren in the face. “Are you in this competition? You can’t be thirteen.”
    “Only twelve,” replied the enormous boy as he turned and began to walk away.
    “You see what I mean?” asked Auren, now looking at Ethan again. “I mean, what are they feeding these kids?”
    “Don’t know — probably best to focus on one match at a time though,” replied Ethan.
    “Good idea, hey — you should be my coach!” exclaimed Auren.
    “Yeah, I can do that,” replied Ethan, smiling. “You’d best be ready for them to call you up again — looks like they are trying to get these matches