Accidents Made Right 3: Philophobia

Chapter 12: Overcoming Fear

After a minute, I managed to gain control of the sword's tempting powers, so I turned around, raising the sword into the air as I looked at the corrupted Bob.

I waited for him to notice me, then as the elemental Knumans stepped back from their fight with Bob I announced "Behold Knightmare! This is what will be your end! The power of Pure electricity!"

A single jolt of white electricity connected from the sword to Rowan, causing him to be teleported behind me, with his stamina fully recovered.

The taken-over Bob started intently at me for a while, then, eventually, dozens of Knightmare's fear parasites crawled out of his mouth, and once almost all of them were out of his body Bob dropped to the ground to barf the remaining parasites out.

Then, the parasites crawled forward a couple feet, before eventually combining together to form Knightmare, but without his cloak for the first time, allowing me to get a good look at his body.

It was made of a completely pitch black gas that was darker than a black hole, and with an occasional black lightning bolt jumping between different clusters of gas.

"Wow. You must really be desperate if you think white electricity can stop me," Knightmare said condescendingly.

"You act like you're so much more powerful than us, and yet you hid behind Blood Strength this entire fight."

The conscious elemental Knumans looked at Bob in shock, and then Bob sputtered "P-please, Steve, don't call me that."

"Why?! You're a legend among humanity!"

Knightmare simply smiled patiently as Bob responded "Since when? Humanity's always hated me, now is no different."

...

"So," Knightmare said, clapping his hands together. "Can we start fighting now? I've got things to do, people to manipulate, and puppies to kick."

I sighed, turned to Knightmare, then, holding the sword's hilt with both hands, put the sword in front of me, pointing towards Knightmare.

In response, Knightmare cracked his non-existent neck, then formed a black sword in his grip.

"And, for the record, you have no right to challenge my power. Remember, I kicked your ass without even trying," Knightmare said.

"That's because I got cocky. But this time, I'm staying in control of the fight."

"Heh, sure. That's the funniest you've ever been."

I gave him a blank stare, but he didn't seem to acknowledge it.

Silence filled the air as we both waited for the other to make the first move, but neither of us doing so. Every so often, I had to adjust my grip on the sword so I wouldn't drop it, but Knightmare didn't have to do it once. I fully expected him to attack while I adjusted the grip, but he didn't.

Sweat slowly trickled down my forehead, and as I bit my lip in anticipation which allowed me to taste bacon on my lips, I swear I could hear western duel music in the back of my brain, likely because of Matthew.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fire, now awake again, impatiently shuffling around.

Don't you dare, Fire. Don't you fucking do it, I thought.

Unfortunately, Fire did exactly what I hoped he wouldn't by charging towards Knightmare, yelling a battle cry at the same time.

Seeing this, Knightmare brought his sword up to swing it down onto him, and this caused something to flash inside me.