Age of Strife Book 0: The Path of War

Chapter 18: Avatar of War

Hiryu in rapid speed charges at Alyxanders and dodges his attacks with little to no effort, Alyxanders swinging wildly in hopes to land a hit on Hiryu yells out "Yes! Finally a worth adversary among these whelps and fools! Come now adversary; let us duel to our hearts content!" Hiryu lunging horizontally slashes at Alyxander's chest but is blocked by the sword and axe, countering the attack Alyxander attempts to cut at Hiryu but is surprisingly blocked by Hiryu with additions of two swords being drawn now. Hiryu leveraging his body to place his feet on the blade of the axe motions to slices off the head before jumping off it and landing before Alyxander. Raising his axe to examine for a moment in an impressed tone he says "Hah! Truly you are something else adversary, one who could cut the head of my axe? I will enjoy defeating you!" Alyxander says while readying his sword. Hiryu jumps high and begins to rapidly slashing at Alyxanders who initially held strong against the attacks, but over the course of the barrage and in tandem of Hiryu utilizing all six blades to his advantage Alyxander's guard began to falter. Eventually Hiryu would bounce off the face of Alyxander's sword and pushed himself toward a wall, from there Hiryu would ricochet himself off the wall and shoot himself toward Alyxander who tries to catch him mid-air but fails. In but a second Hiryu cuts off Alyxander's sword arm causing him to roar in pain and grab the stump to stop the surge of blood oozing out of him, Hiryu capitalizing dashes around Alyxander while slashing at him until he falls to his knees and bled from every wound that was inflicted on him. Finally stopping again before Alyxander, Hiryu began walking toward him ready to execute him. Yet despite his execution being at hand Alyxander could on let out a painful laugh and utter out "You fight well adversary. I see it surrounding you like an aura you cannot get rid of, that you've accepted a part of you that you've denied for so long. You've embraced the fighting spirit that dwells within you and have harnessed it to its fullest potential, unlike these... 'Grhk' whelps. Come then Avatar of War, come and give me the warrior's death I deserve and lay claim to ushering the new age!" Without hesitation Hiryu uses two of the six swords to stab Alyxander first at the side his side, and second at his shoulder. Drawing another one of the six swords Hiryu cuts the off the other arm Alyxander had and left the sword sticking to floor where it stopped, and drawing a fourth sword to slash against Alyxander's chest and impaling it into his upper left pectoral. With the fifth sword Hiryu drives the sword into Alyxander's head before decapitating it with the sixth sword. In spectacular gory fashion, Hiryu had finished off Alyxander while utilizing the six swords of war.Kazuma reaching the audience section of the coliseum emerges to see the Lion Beast-Kin Siege Captain dead, and before his dead body is his disciple Hiryu. Kasumi and the other monastic masters arrive to see the sight and Kasumi utters "Gods... Hiryu." Kazuma uncertainwhat to do nor feel calls out to Hiryu "Hiryu! Did... Did you do that?" "Yes... yes, he did." JeYel's voice weakly says. Seeing the injured vanguard Kasumi, Zeryas, and Kazuma gather to help him but sees his arm broken though at least mended to stop bleeding. "Stay away from him;he's... he's not right. Something is different about him, an aura... cold and dreadful." Je-Yel utters out before groaning in pain. "Save your strength Vanguard, we're getting you out of here after we gather everyone else. The battle is over now that the siege captain is dead." Zeryas says assuredly. Kazuma looks at Hiryu once more and calls out "Hiryu! Gather the rest of the contestants so we can finally leave the coliseum and get treatment for you and everyone else!" Hiryu looks at Kazuma but his gaze is cold and unfeeling as while looking at Kazuma, Hiryu with a swift motion removes Alyxander's head from his sword and the five swords re-align into their sheath ready for combat once more. Kazuma seeing this once more calls out to Hiryu "Hiryu? It's over... the battle is done; the captain lies dead by your hand. There's no need to -" Before Kazuma can finish his sentence Hiryu in a quick motion slashes at him, but is immediately blocked by Kazuma's cane. "The hells is wrong with your disciple!?" Zeryas yells. "Hiryu..." Kasumi utters as her voice wavers. Hiryu readies himself in the six-sword stance before unleashing another torrent of slashes at the monastic masters; in response to this all of them dodge the attacks and counters with their own attacks. Ikumi launches firebolts toward Hiryu, Kassan fires a volley of magic spears, Musashi a series of energy-slashes, Zeryas and Kazuma closing the distance to follow up the magical attack. However the attacks failed to land as Hiryu evaded each of them without flaw, in response Hiryu began attacking each of them individually as to potentially down one of them but much like before they had managed to guard themselves. Now surrounding Hiryu, they prepare to kill Hiryu if necessary as Kazuma once more calling out to Hiryu says "Hiryu, stand down please! We don't want to fight you but will kill you if you continue this path!" Hiryu prepares to use all six-swords now as violent winds begin to surround him, and the monastic masters prepare to retaliate at their fullest until "Hajime! Please stand down!" Kasumi yells. Hiryu's expression shows signs of acknowledgement but shakes himself to ignore the call, Kasumi seeing this approaches him and calls out again "Hajime, please stand down the battle is over! You won and don't need to fight anymore!" Hiryu now Hajime begins to move his hands away from the swords and being clawing at his head almost desperately trying to remove something. With a loud draconic roar, lightning strike down where Hajime stands as he soon falls to his knees and weakly look at Kasumi saying "Ka-... sumi?" before falling face forward unconscious. Kasumi immediately rushes to Hajime's side as he falls unconscious and checks to see if he is alive, hearing him breath even if faintly at least calmed Kasumi enough to confirm he's alive. 'Good, at least he isn't going out just yet.' the voice in Kasumi's head says with relief. "What in hells was that!?" Zeryas yells out. "Your student nearly killed us! I mean he pushed each of us to be on the fence, what exactly are you teaching those students Kazuma!?" "None of my teachings Zeryas, but it would seem something else entirely compelled him to attack us." Turning Hajime's head face her, Kasumi sees the mask that is donned on his face begins to disappear and dissolve. However a change Kasumi sees is that Hajime's hair slowly fade from black to grey to slight traces of silver in certain instances, Kasumi worried for Hajime's life begins to panic a little but the voice in her head says 'Settle down... take a breath, he's here and he's alive. The only thing that's changing is his hair so far, that we know but we can examine him extensively later. Right now just stabilize him in what ways you can and get him ready to leave.' Taking a deep breath Kasumi begins tending to any of Hajime's wounds that would potentially put him at risk, and afterwards as the other contestants were gathered by Ikumi begin working on them as well. "Zeryas, we don't have time argue with semantics now we have to get the four we have here and leave now!" Musashi barks as he sees more beast-kin soldiers coming their way for a retreat. "Ikumi can you teleport us out of here?" Kassan asks readying to assist if she could. "I can but you all have to be nearby by as I can only get within fifteen feet of me." Ikumi says as she begins reciting an incantation. Zeryas looks at Kazuma with distrust in his eyes before saying "Fine! We will discuss this when we have found safe harbor!" and carries Je-Yel by his shoulder. Kasumi carries Hajime with Kazuma whilst Kassan carries Irene and Musashi carries Tervar, before Ikumi finishing her incantation teleports them away.