Ranger

Faster

Chapter Seventeen: Faster

The sound of blades clashing had filled the corridor for the last five minutes, sparks filling the air in front of the door as metal scraped against metal over and over. Thomas had thought the reach and length of his sword would give him an advantage against Rico's smaller knife, and it had to some degree. But now that sword was lodged firmly in a crack between two bricks, and it wasn't coming out any time soon. So now the thief had been forced to take up one of the Rangers knives, which Joseph had thrown at him.

Both Rico and Thomas had formed a kind of sequence as they performed their deadly dance, each breaking the pattern on regular intervals, trying to throw the other off. It wasn't working.

'Back slash, uppercut, side sweep... Now! Back slash again! Damn, he dodged it!!'

It continued like that for half a minute longer, one trying to catch the other off guard and failing spectacularly, then the two switching places and the other trying the fruitless change in sequence. Nobody had gotten any closer to winning, and that's when Thomas had an idea.

"Hey Joseph! Pass me your other knife!"

Jospeh frowned slightly, wondering what Thomas could be thinking. He obviously had a plan.

"But the other knife is meant for throwing, it'll be harder to handle as a hand to hand weapon! Can you even deal with double blades? You'll have to be really fast, and it takes a load of hand eye coordination, and-"

"Just do it already!! I'll be fine!"

The dance of knives continued, growing faster and faster until the two suddenly broke apart, jumping back, Rico by the wall and Thomas by the door. Both had several wounds, none too severe, and Joseph inwardly marvelled at Thomas's speed, stamina and skill. He was better with knives than maybe even Halt, and that really was saying something.

So, after his indecision, Jospeh threw Thomas the knife. The blonde caught it by the handle, holding a knife in each hand as he turned back to face Rico. As if a silent command had been given the two leapt forwards again, the sound of clashing blades re-filling the hallway. Thomas swung round with both blades, Rico only stepping back in time to escape having his head sliced off, only receiving a small cut in his cheek. The dark man frowned, wiping away the blood running down his face, swinging his blade down in an arch to stab Thomas.

The boy held the knives up in an X shape in front of him, Rico's knife falling right in the centre of the two blades. The force of the raven's swing caused the blonde to momentarily drop the knives, but they never reached the floor as he caught them in the opposite hands this time, immediately a blur of metal as he swang into action almost instantly.

'Faster...'

The amount of sparks increased as Thomas recreated the downward arc Rico had used earlier, the raven blocking it before Thomas brought his knife down, flicking sideways, hoping to gut the dark man. But Rico only jumped backwards, before springing forwards again, the battle continuing.

'Faster... Even faster...'

Rico's black eyes narrowed to slits as he tried to keep track of the blonde's movements, which were slowly accelerating. He was banking on the boy's stamina dropping at the same rate as his own, so they remained evenly matched, but... Whilst he was tiring Thomas's speed only seemed to be increasing, until he was only a blur of metal and fire.

'Faster! Must go faster!!'

Each attack was swiftly followed by another relentless swing of a blade, until Rico no longer had time to even think. He was now acting on pure instinct alone, not trying to anticipate Thomas's movements before hand as he had before. He no longer had time; the blonde was just too fast. An upper thrust was only just blocked, flowed swiftly by a slice that would have cut his head clean in two if he hadn't blocked in time. He had been reduced to defending, no longer having time to attack, just move his blade every second to block the next ever fatal blow.

'Faster... Faster... Now!!'

Rico had made a mistake, one which would cost him dearly. He had plunged his knife forwards in a last ditch effort to hurt the blonde, maybe give himself the upper hand. But the momentum of his dodged lunge sent him flying forwards to the ground, landing with a loud crack as his head smashed into the floor.

Thomas placed a boot on the man's neck, ready to smash down and kill him at any second. Rico's hood fell back as he landed on the floor, revealing something shocking.

"You- how old are you!?"

The raven panted from the floor, one eye screwed up in pain as the other blood red orb remained open.

"F-fifteen. I'm fifteen."

The three Rangers plus thief looked down at the torturer in shock, horror and most of all pity. How could a fifteen year old much like themselves be so misguided? Had gone down such a horrible path? It was atrocious, appaling. Yet it was the reality of life.

Joseph moved over to look at Rico, who honest to God seemed scared. Terrified. He looked like a child that didn't understand the gravity of what he had done, and now feared the punishment for his mistakes. Originally he had planned to kill Rico, but now... He'd just get nightmares if he killed a child, someone only a little older than him.

"Why did you do it, Rico? Why did you become a torturer? Why did you hurt them?"

"Because... I was scared..."

"Scared of what? What could possibly frighten you so much that you'd do something like this?"

"A while ago, a Ranger came to me, saying that... Saying that he'd kill me if I didn't take up this position. He... He killed my entire family in front of my eyes. I had nothing left to live for and I didn't want to die, so I did as he said. But... He said that when two female Rangers named Alix and Sophie came in -and they would come in, he assured me- I had to make their deaths as painful as absolutely possible. That I had to torture them until they confessed, and I couldn't let them die before they did that. They absolutely had to confess."

"And who was he? Did this man tell you his name?"

Rico nodded, and the other four leaned in, not wanting to miss this. They had to know who did this. They had to know, so they could kill him and take their revenge; Rico was not the one they had to kill here. They wanted to, but it wasn't necessary, and they didn't want to take the life of someone only two years older than them. It simply wouldn't be right. But the words they heard next... It made the Rmagers blood run cold with terror, hate and the desire for revenge.

"His name was Will. Will Treaty."