Tar made a last, desperate lunge for the red-haired woman. The damned grin never left her face though, and as before, at the last moment, she twirled her halberd and brought the blade down hard on his shoulder at the base of his neck. Tar felt the blade bite into him, felt bone snap, and felt his world slip away as the ground rushed up to meet him.<br/><br/>* * *<br/><br/>The red-haired woman stared down at the felled warrior. She paused a moment, bloody halberd in hand, to make sure he wasn't playing possum. Judging from the prodigious amount of blood flowing from him, though, there was no faking involved.<br/><br/>She knelt down and pulled his helmet off, tossing it aside. She wanted to at least get a good look at his face. With a sigh, she stood. He was too far gone to humiliate. She looked up at the forest around her, raising her halberd in a salute of victory. "I have won, Kiraxis! This fight is over!"<br/><br/>For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a brief instance of impending power, and in a flash, the woman and Tar vanished.<br/><br/>* * *<br/><br/>Tar opened his eyes to see a portly man gazing down at him. "There we are. Someone is home, after all," the man said, standing up. "I'm done."<br/><br/>With pain throbbing throughout his body, Tar sat up to find himself back in his cell, wearing the armor from his combat, the front awash with his own blood. Bardus stood aside the cell door to let the other man out, then slammed the door shut. Through the bars he looked down at Tar.<br/><br/>"Kiraxis spends a lot of coin to recruit fighters, and he's loath to just let them die for no good reason," he said with contempt. "Markly healed you, just enough, at least. Your body can do the rest, give you some time to stew in your own pain and think about doing a little better next time."  With that, Bardus walked away.<br/><br/>Despite the magical healing, Tar still felt a great deal of pain in his shoulder and chest from the two deep puncture wounds. His jaw also ached, his mouth tasting of blood. It was difficult to even sit up. However, from experience, Tar knew it would be about a week before he would be back in fighting shape.<br/><br/>Maybe, he would meet up with Red again for a rematch.