Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 15: Start of the Battle - part 3

The large man turned around, having just picked his sword back up. He answered with a voice deep enough to match his giant stature. "We're nobody important. Just some Humans enjoying the fact that they get to take revenge on some of the Elven scum here." The man pointed his weapon at Itzal. "That includes you guys, but we just finished off these guys, and we still got a guy left to slowly torture to death, so maybe we'll allow you to run for now, if you get out of here fast enough."

Itzal grimaced. It was true that the Elves didn't exactly treat the Humans right, having taken most of their land and forcing them into being nothing more than a small vassal state in infertile lands, but didn't these Humans realize that provoking the Empire would only make things worse? Itzal figured he'd see what would happen if he'd tell them just that. "You're entitled to hold a grudge towards the Empire, but there is a fair chance these particular Elves have next to nothing to do with it, and you're only going to make Humans more hated by acting like this, especially when the tales of this event start spreading."

The tall Human laughed, before speaking up. "Good. That's exactly what we need."

One of the other two Humans spoke up. "We're the descendants of a proud noble house of some of the strongest warriors Humanity has ever seen. This city used to be the home of our ancestors. That's why there's nothing better than being able avenge them on their own ground, so welcome any repercussions, even if that may lead us to our deaths!"

Itzal gritted his teeth. "Just like you are taking your rage out on random people, so will the Empire and its citizens. You're endangering more than just yourselves with these actions."

The tall Human stretched out his arms, showing off how we was capable of hoisting the large two-handed sword up into the air using only a single hand while at it. "We know, and we don't care." The armoured Human was getting ready to charge at them. "By the way, the time to run is up. Prepare to die."

Itzal could feel as if time was slowing down around him when the large man lunged at him, although it was likelier that he himself was speeding up, the effect was all the same. He'd be able to handle this... but how? He looked at the man, scanning for vulnerable spots within the armour, but it was like a single massive hunk of metal was throwing itself at him. That's when the came up with a plan. "Dodge him!" He shouted towards The Alchemist and Luna. He himself used his ability to dodge straight past the large two-handed sword. For as strong as its force was, it was still slow compared most other weapons.

Itzal didn't give the man any time to turn around and try to slash at his back, as he rushed on towards the man's two allies. In the blink of an eye, Itzal had managed to discern which one of them was the least prepared for his attack, and went straight after the man's throat. As expected, the man tried to hoist up his shield, which would've been fast enough to block a normal slash. Sadly enough for that man, Itzal wasn't slashing, but throwing. The dagger reached them man's throat before he could hoist up his shield. Itzal quickly turned towards the second man while drawing his other dagger. The first man was still standing, having dropped his shield to hold his hand against his neck to stop the bleeding. It seemed like Itzal had been slightly off, but it wouldn't matter. The man wouldn't be able to attack him while bleeding, and he'd soon enough experience the effects of the poison that was already starting to flow through his veins.

Meanwhile, the heavily armoured man did what Itzal expected he'd do. Rather than stopping in his tracks to turn around and attack Itzal, he rushed on in an attempt to take out the Alchemist and Luna. He'd be too late. Thanks to Itzal's earlier warning, the two had already backed up enough to dodge the initial attack. The giant two-handed sword hit only air, as the man had to reposition himself to face the Alchemist, thereby displaying his back towards Luna. She wasn't going to let that opportunity go, so she took a big risk by jumping at him. She succeeded at finding a weak spot in the armour, where the arm piece was connect to the torso piece, as there was a slight opening to allow for better movement in the armour. It was just big enough to jam dagger into from up close, which is exactly what Luna did. As the man cried out in pain and anger, he was quick to turn around and managed to hit Luna in the head with the painfully brutal force of his armoured elbow. She fell to ground as a result, temporarily seeing everything around her spin from the impact and almost feeling like she was about to faint. She knew she had to get away quickly, but she didn't manage to get up fast enough...