A Criminals Respite, an Officers Solace

Chapter 2 Pyrrhic Victory and Graduation part 3

A/N: Same as before^2, just some minor edits have been made, improvements to grammar as well as slight changes to wordings and progressions. Really just trying to turn this into the chapter it was meant to be.

Shawn recoiled downwards as Darin struck his head with a heavy blow, this provided Darin an even larger lead than the before. Recovering quickly Shawn moved the heater shield to his left blocking the incoming follow up attack, a quick light thrown to continue the offense in Darin's favor. Shawn was having none of it and used the neutral time to begin his own assault. Shawn's body acted on instinct and threw a fast light from his right before either of the two combatants could react. With a semi-hard sounding hit Shawn knew that his attack landed and it was time to plan further ahead. Immediately he began spinning up his flail, challenging Darin to a game of chicken. They both knew that the one to guess right would win the round.

Shawn let loose his attack on Darin's right side and won the round as it blew threw his passive guard, the force shoving Darin's shield out of the way and leaving the momentum of the chained ball to collide with the side of his bucket helmet. Not even a second later and Darin had collapsed to the ground, his physical body ended for the round and leaving Shawn with the victory bringing the score to an even one-to-one. Jonathan watched from the sidelines, impressed by the tenacity of the two. He knew that Shawn and Darin had a deep yet bonding rivalry, as is to be expected of the final two Champions of any Devotions training and schooling, but these two were holding nothing back, both giving it their all as if this duel alone was to decide which of the two would be living to see another day.

In a blinding flash of light the two were both back in opposite corners of the arena, both restored to how they were when they had linked with the Anchor. Jonathan didn't have time to announce the start of the round before the two were already on one another and in a stalemate of waiting for the other to attack first. The stalemate did not last long as Darin threw the first attack, a swift light aimed at Shawns head and hoping to catch him off guard. Something Darin hadn't expected, however, was for his light to get caught and then parried by his opponent, sparks flying as the flail grated against the shield. Darin had brief laps in his movement and thought process as Shawn brought down a heavy blow to his opponent, taking a noticeable chunk of his durability with him. All within the first opening seconds of the duel as well. Darin wasn't going to give up so easily however, he took the hit in stride and in turn startled Shawn with a light parry of his own to immediately halt the aggressors offense. Darin followed in Shawns footsteps with a heavy blow right back at him. Learning from Shawn's mistake he followed his attack with a bash, forcibly off balancing Shawn as he swung his flail upwards knocking him back even further.

Shawn willed himself to refocus on his opponent as quickly as he could. His eyes blurred from the sudden head jossle and saw Darin wind up, preparing for a powerful heavy to blow through his defense. Shawn remained firm and readied himself in order to parry again, but he had a nagging feeling in the back of his head, like this was a trick. Following his gut Shawn threw a shield bash at Darin, effectively beating out his feint into an attempted guard break. Shawn threw his attack in the same manner as Darin had and hit him upside the head before throwing his flail around again and hitting Darin again, who had guessed wrong and guarded to his left, not his right. In order to keep his stamina, Shawn paused his assault, took a step back, and began charging his flail. It was a slow but powerful circular motion in order to have the weapon keep its momentum. Just as Shawn was about to throw his next attack he was engulfed in a blinding white light, a clear indicator that the round had ended, ending in Darin's favor no less.

"That's time!" the two combatants had heard from the side lines. "Darin wins by health lead, bringing the score two-to-one." Jonathan yelled from his position next to the anchor. "This is match-point, fight like you mean it!"

"That was 60 seconds?" Shawn said to no but himself as he tightened his grip on his shield and flail. This wasn't good, there was no room to breathe, one mistake and it would be over for Shawn. He needed to take this match by the reins, and he needed to do it now. With a loose plan of action Shawn knew what he had to do. Like the previous round he waited for Darin to make the first move, hoping, praying to all that is holy it would be a light. Upon seeing an attack Shawn dodged into it, when he heard a satisfying thunk on the other side of his shield he struck, quickly swinging his flail around and completely bypassing Darin's defenses. Sending his thanks to whatever entity was looking after him he followed his attack with a top heavy. Shawn changed the trajectory of his falling flail last second in order to catch Darin in the middle of his sideways dodge, effectively bringing Darin's durability down to half of his starting total. With the lead securely in Shawns hands he took on a more defensive approach, no need to take unnecessary risks when he can do nothing and win the round, he thought.

The remaining 25 seconds of the round passed slowly for Shawn, as he focused on defending himself from Darin's near relentless assault of heavy attack fake outs, shield bashes and charged heavy attacks. Shawn was on his toes the entire time, knowing that if he messed up the round would end with Darin winning by a durability lead, he couldn't let that happen. After blocking a slow heavy and countering Darins guard break attempt they were both engulfed in the same white light that had blinded them the previous four rounds. "Step it up Shawn! Running out the timer may have been a smart play, but it'll cost you later down the line if you make it a habit!" Jonathan had shouted from the side lines as per usual with the passing of a round. "This is the final round, two-to-two!" With nothing else needing to be said Jonathan ushered them off, eager to see which of the two he will be proudly calling a Champion.

Nothing else needed to be said as the two restored Champions began their iconic walk towards each other. The final round was brutal, opening up with both Shawn and Darin trading a heavy hit to one another in an attempt to gain the lead. It only worked so well as the two quickly caught on to the tactics used by one another, and adapted their assault to counteract the others. Shawn switched to a bash heavy offense, slamming his shield and dazing Darin when he got the opportunity. Darin on the other hand took advantage of using Shawns slower reaction time against him, comboing his attacks with some kind of light to great effect, slowly but surely whittling Shawn down quicker than Shawn was wearing down Darin. Eventually however, both participants were in critical health with only ten seconds left in the round. Shawn, acting on his feet, tried to fake out Darin by dodging forward and doing nothing, hoping to catch the other off guard and win the round. Darin was like a rock, unresponsive and unmoving to all of Shawn's desperate attempts to cleanly win the round. He knew that if he did nothing Shawn would make a mistake, one he could capitalize on.

With only five seconds left in the round, Shawn made a last ditch effort. It had worked for him in the past and he knew Darin wouldn't be expecting it, at the very least. Time slowed for the two as Shawn swung his flail over head and went for a slow, unaccompanied heavy. Darin with his slowed sense of time quickly reacted and brought his shield up to parry the incoming attack and win the round with an attack of his own. This didn't pan out however, Darin had reacted wrong and went to parry a quick moving light attack, not a slow, lumbering heavy and didn't have his shield up in time to stop the attack. With the realization both figuratively and literally hitting him in the head time sped back up for the two, and Shawn ripped his flail away, causing Darin to drop to his knees. What happened next Darin couldn't tell as Shawn quickly and brutally swung his flail upwards, breaking his neck and partially tearing his head from his body before the two were engulfed in the white light a final time.

As the two looked at each other ready to continue, they could feel the effects of the Anchor beginning to wear off, as if telling them that they would no longer be protected by its magical properties if they continued. The two looked to Jonathan as he was seen entering the arena, and walking towards Shawn. "Congratulations Shawn," Jonathan reproduced the letter from earlier and held it out for him to grab. Shawn slowly stowed his flail on his body in order to grab ahold of the letter, it all seemed so surreal to him. Once he had a firm grip on the letter Jonathan spoke again. "You'll be leaving first thing in the morning with a relief caravan, headed straight for Fort Harbor. De-link and pack your things, say your goodbyes, chances are you won't be back here for a long time."

Jonathan held his arm out for a hand shake before he let Shawn go. Once Shawn had de-linked from the Anchor, Jonathan turned to Darin, noticing his slack posture and nodded his head. "There's alway next time, Darin, and by then you'll be more skilled and experienced than the class coming after you." Jonathan had tried to lighten the mood for the defeated trainee, knowing full well what it feels like to be defeated in your graduation duel. "There's always next time." Darin echoed as he also left the arena to de-link from the anchor.