Enjoy today’s excerpt from PRODIGY OF RAINBOW TOWER, which is available on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents.

By Kayla Matt

The crowd roars as the half-orc’s fist comes within inches of Luke’s head. A flash of motion deflects the attack and sends the fist sailing past its target. Luke begins sidestepping while pushing the burly, outstretched arm with his left forearm away from him. A gasp of shock fills the crowd as Luke’s right arm lances forward and connects with a palm strike to the half-orc’s bulbous jaw. Teeth shatter and fly out of the brute’s mouth as he stumbles backwards. He manages to catch himself by flailing his arms and grabbing the collar of Luke’s shirt.

“Not that easy,” the half-orc proudly grunts. He is about to yank Luke into a bear hug when the forest tracker effortlessly slips out of his shirt. The last thing the half-orc sees is Luke charge at him and slide between his legs. He can feel Luke grab the back of his knees an instant before a solid impact at the base of his skull sends him crashing to the ground. The half-orc collapses on his face with Luke standing on the back of his head.

“I really hope he wasn’t the strongest of you guys,” Luke taunts, rubbing at his scar in an attempt to intimidate them. “One flipping double-heel kick to the top of his spine and he’s out like a baby.”

“Never doubted you for a second, Luke,” Nyx says, diving shoulder first into the man who grabbed her in the bar. Spit flies out of his mouth as she takes him down and begins repeatedly punching him in the ribs and kneeing him in the gut. The dwarf tackles Nyx before Luke can get to her and tries to strangle her. Luke is about to jump in when a swift kick from behind takes his legs out and a quick fist connects with his stomach.

“Nice scar, kid. Make it yourself?” the half-elf asks, slapping his human friend on the shoulder.

“Hellfire Elf if you must know. Now, get out of my way,” Luke growls with a hungry grin.

“I can’t do that. This is a fight and she is involved. You brought her into this and now she has to suffer,” the sneering half-elf says. “I wonder if you would have done this if you were with your little girlfriend from the academy.”

“What are you talking about?” Luke asks, flipping to his feet.

“Go help the others with the girl. I want to have some fun with the Callindor,” the half-elf demands. His friend grins as he goes to join the fight with Nyx. She has already kicked the dwarf in the groin and gone back to repeatedly slamming the head of her first opponent against the ground. Nyx is about to knock him out when she feels a kick to the back of her head.

Luke makes a move to get to her and is forced to block a flurry of kicks from the sneering half-elf. He glares at the other fighter, as the sounds of Nyx cursing and punching continues. Luke takes some comfort in the fact that he can see the three thugs are having a hard time holding her down without getting hurt. A high-pitched yelp of pain from one of the humans gets a roar of applause and laughter from the crowd.

“I’ve heard of you and your recent adventure. A friend of mine was at the academy when it happened. He also told me some interesting information about your personal life. I barely believed it until I did some scrying of my own,” says the half-elf, who continues throwing easily blocked strikes at Luke. “So, how is Kira Grasdon? Sexually, I mean.”

“Don’t go there,” Luke warns him. “You won’t like what I do to you.”

The half-elf continues stopping Luke from getting to Nyx. “I’m not scared of you, child. Besides, it’s obvious that you were looking for an easy first time. A rich brat in a warrior school makes for a nice target. It probably helped that she is nothing more than an ambitious girl who would see you as an object of potential fame. The wife of a Callindor would increase the amount of times she is mentioned in high society. You two probably duped each other into believing it was love instead of her fame hunting and your lust. Now, you find yourself away from her and wounded because you no longer have her warm body to sleep with.”

Luke struggles to hold back his temper. “You’re trying to get me angry, so I stop using any form of technique. You want me to get sloppy.”

“I speak what I think. Your reaction is not my concern,” the half-elf states.

“That’s a shame,” Luke sighs, a sudden air of calm coming over him. “My reaction should be your biggest concern.”

Luke makes another move toward Nyx. The half-elf attacks with another flurry of kicks. Instead of blocking them, Luke lets all of the kicks hit him before he slowly turns toward his opponent and flashes a crazed smile. The half-elf goes a little pale as the angry eyes of the forest tracker bore into him. He tries for another kick to Luke’s head, which is caught with one hand and used to flip the half-elf onto his stomach. No matter how hard the half-elf yanks at his leg, Luke refuses to let go.

“You’re all speed and no power. Not even enough to break a rib. I’m done with you and your friends,” Luke snaps, violently twisting and shattering the half-elf’s ankle. He flips the half-elf into the air before letting go of the leg. As the half-elf lands, Luke hits him with a solid punch to the chin. The impact spins the half-elf back into the air where Luke grabs him by the face and slams him into the ground. A gurgled cough is the only noise that the half-elf is able to make.

“Are you angry because we’re beating on this wench? She’s nothing more than a high class whore from what we’ve seen,” the dwarf taunts as Luke turns to them. Everyone cheers as Nyx uses both of her legs to launch the man who is beating on her. The three goons look at the angry forest tracker on one side of them and the seething rage of the caster getting to her feet next to them. Both half-elves have their fists clenched and sadistic grins on their faces.

“Would it help if we apologized?” the dwarf whimpers. Luke and Nyx dive into the remaining fighters like a pair of starving wolves. The dwarf is the first to drop as he gets a knee to his kidney from Nyx and flying axe-kick to the top of his head from Luke. One of the humans tries to run past them. He finds himself airborne and helpless after a sliding sweep from Luke. He is brutally finished off by Nyx grabbing his legs and slamming him back first into the waking half-orc.

“I surrender!” the group’s leader cries. He is on his knees and staring up at the furious half-elves with tears in his eyes. They ignore his whimpering as they knock him out with simultaneous punches to his face. The impact knocks him off his knees and sends him rolling a few feet away. They can see him start to get up until he looks over at them and drops back to the ground.

The action continues in
Prodigy of Rainbow Tower!