Awakened

Alliance

"Alright then, if it's a fight you want..." Apollyon began before his eyes flashed a blaze orange light while he got himself into a fighting position, "Then it's a fight you're going to get!" He growled. Apollyon had no idea what sort of warrior Koa was, he could tell he seemed to know how to use a sword but he felt that wouldn't be an issue, he was much stronger than anyone around, if this samurai wanted to fight than he was going to be sorry-

...

It happened so fast, before Apollyon knew it, there was a sudden slash right across his cheek and Koa was now behind him, emanating what looked like lighting around him. Koa turned his head to Apollyon, not showing any sort of emotion in his expression, "What's wrong? Didn't see that coming?" He spoke with a calm, collected tone of voice. Apollyon gritted his teeth before he suddenly threw a fist right at the warrior. "Bastard!" Apollyon growled in anger.

Lighting flashed around Koa before he quickly stepped out of the way of the fist, pulling his sword out of his holster and bringing a downward slash right down onto Apollyon. The purple-haired Apollyon quickly stepped back from the strike, being able to dodge it this time. As he dodged, Apollyon swiftly brought his hand up and grabbed Koa's shoulder, a grin on his face, "This has been fun but... Goodbye." Apollyon grinned darkly, waiting to see Koa explode.

Yet he didn't, nothing happened.

"What?" Apollyon blinked. Due to the distraction, he didn't notice the sudden kick to the face he received from the blindfolded Koa. "Were you expecting something from that?" Koa asked calmly before slashing his sword right across Apollyon's chest, causing a gash right through his shirt and across his shirt, making Apollyon stumble back. Apollyon brought his hand up to his bleeding chest, looking at the blood now on his hand and glaring at it. "What is up with this guy? He's fucking fast and he didn't explode when I touched him... He obviously isn't a normal human, if he even is human." Apollyon thought to himself as he clenched his fist tightly, summoning a blaze of fire in it.

"Burn!" Apollyon growled, sending a blast of fire right in Apollyon's direction. Koa just about jumped out of the way of the flames, some of his coat being burnt from the heat. After dodging, Koa then charged at Apollyon with his sword ready, aiming to try and slash off Apollyon's head and end this fight. When Koa went for the strike, Apollyon dodged the attack this time, countering it as well by throwing a hard punch right into Koa's stomach, completely winding the warrior and causing him to fall onto his knees. "Got to admit... Didn't think a human would be able to hold up in a fight with me for so long, I think it's time we ended this, I have places to be." Apollyon cracked his knuckles before clenching his fist, causing a lot of purple energy to form around it to power up a powerful strike. With a swift movement, he brought his fist down and aimed to take off Koa's head with it.

"You talk too much."

As those words were spoken by Koa, Koa suddenly brought his sword up and slashed right through Apollyon's arm, severing it from his body before jumping back out of the way. Apollyon blinked, looking at his severed arm and wincing, "That hurt you asshole." He growled. Koa coughed into his fist, some blood coming onto his hand. "Payback for that punch... However I do agree with you, it is time we ended this." Koa spoke simply.

After saying those words, Koa holstered his blade, bent his knees in a fashion that looked like he was about to start running, and held one hand on his sword sheath on his hip, with the other hand on his sword's hilt. All of a sudden, white lightning started appearing around Koa, seemingly charging up some sort of attack. Apollyon growled, clenching his other fist as purple energy formed around himself, charging up his own attack.

Both men stood there staring at each other in their fighting stances before both charging at each other at a fast pace. The trees shook from the force of the pair charging at each other, and the ground broke from the force both men used when they pushed off of the ground. Koa had his sword ready to slash Apollyon's head off, meanwhile, Apollyon had his fist ready to skewer Koa right through the chest. Within what felt like a split second, both fighters were inches away from killing each other.

"STOP!"

A light, soft voice spoke. All of a sudden, both Apollyon and Koa had suddenly stopped in their tracks. The trees and ground stopped shaking. Even the wind around them seemed to stand completely still. Apollyon hadn't spoken, Koa hadn't spoken... So who did? Both fighters looked at each other, Koa's sword was right at Apollyon's neck and Apollyon's fist was right at Koa's chest. They then slowly turned to the only other person at the scene.

Violet, who had been watching the fight happen in front of her, was now standing from where she had been hiding, gripping tightly onto her dress as tears ran down her face and she shook from nervousness. A little bit of blood was dripping down her nose as well but she had been covered so she couldn't have been injured by the fight. "Violet... Did you... Say that?" Apollyon blinked, lowering his fist. Violet frowned before nodding shakily.

"What was that? It felt like my body was forced to stop moving no matter what, I had no control over my own movements for a second." Koa murmured, looking at his hand and then back to Violet. The little girl was just standing there with a nervous expression on her face. "Is she scared since we were fighting?" Apollyon asked quietly. "I don't think so, I think she was afraid that we were going to kill each other, which I guess we were," Koa responded.

Violet shakily nodded to Koa's words, looking at both him and Apollyon. She didn't want either of them to kill each other, she didn't see any need for unneeded bloodshed, or for bloodshed at all. Apollyon sighed before he walked over to where his severed arm was, picking it up and placing the cut end towards the remainder of his arm. The injury flashed with a purple light before the arm had been completely reattached, "This isn't going to work right for a few days, you didn't need to cut my arm off you dick." Apollyon groaned to Koa.

"And you didn't need to try and blow my guts out." Koa responded instantly as he brought his hand up to his stomach, letting out a small sigh, "The battle has ended. The girl is right, there is no need for us to be killing each other over an argument. We're only scaring her and spilling blood when we don't need to." He added on as he holstered his sword and looked to Apollyon, holding out his hand to him, "My apologies for causing your injuries."

"Yeah, sure." Apollyon rolled his eyes, not taking Koa's hand and just looking at Violet, "Come on, Violet. We completed the quest, let's get back to the town so we can cash in the quest reward." Apollyon spoke before he began to make his way out towards the exit of the forest. Violet quickly ran up to Apollyon and grabbed his hand, stopping him where he was walking. She then turned to Koa and pointed at him before pointing to herself and Apollyon. "Huh?" Apollyon murmured.

"I think, forgive me if I am wrong, she wants me to come with you both," Koa explained slowly, looking down to Violet who nodded in confirmation of what Koa had said. Apollyon blinked slowly, looking to Koa before looking down at Violet, then back to Koa. "Oh for fuck sak- Fine! I guess you did take out some goblins and save her, you do deserve a cut of the reward." Apollyon sighed, holding tightly onto Violet's hand, "Let's go."

Koa nodded as he then proceeded to follow behind Violet and Apollyon. While the three were walking down the path back out of the forest, Apollyon looked down at Violet with a curious look in his eyes. "Hey... What happened back there, with me and Koa suddenly stopping... Did you have something to do with that?" Apollyon asked quietly to the little girl.

Violet didn't answer his question, she was quiet the entire way back to the City of Wale.

-

It wasn't long before the trio had returned to the city, they had made their way to the adventurer's guild and cashed in their quest, splitting the reward fifty-fifty which wasn't much considering it was only a low-level quest. As well as that, due to the Apollyon and Koa's unneeded duel, the pair were likely going to be spending most of their money on getting patched up. Apollyon seemed to have been able to use his magic to reattach his arm but even that was still going to need medically checked out.

That's what they did after they had cashed in their reward, they made their way to the nearest medical centre and got their wounds patched up- The doctors sounded disappointed when they heard that their injuries were caused by a simple squabble. Apollyon and Koa were sitting out in the lobby of the medical centre, some bandages around their injuries. Apollyon had just some bandages from the deep cuts caused by Koa's blades, meanwhile, Koa had a bandage around his waist as some of his ribs were broken from the strike Apollyon inflicted on him before then. Violet was sitting nearby, just watching people curiously.

After a moment of silence, Koa let out a small groan and then placed a hand over some of his injured ribs, "You pack quite a punch Mr Zalvedir, not many humans can cause such damage to a person with a single punch. I'd even begin to think you weren't much of a human, huh?" Koa asked, looking to Apollyon who was sitting with his eyes closed. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. Plus that's my business. What I'm more curious about is how a blindfolded samurai can fight so well, going to tell me how you're able to see with that thing on?" Apollyon asked, pointing to Koa's blindfold.

Koa looked away for a moment and shook his head, "My business. You don't ask me for my business, I won't ask you for yours then." Koa murmured before looking away and causing there to be silence between the group for a few minutes. Violet looked over to the pair after a second, watching them before getting up and walking to Apollyon, gently tugging his leg to get his attention before pointing to Koa. Apollyon frowned when he saw what Violet had done before looking to Koa and clearing his throat, "So... Mr Aiken was it? What are you doing once your injuries are healed?" Apollyon asked curiously.

"Koa. Just call me Koa. And I am not sure, I will probably be taking on a few more quests within the city to gain some more money before I then move on to the next city." Koa responded as he shook his head, "However, these solo quests are going to be difficult if I want to get money, if I want to take on some of the higher-levelled quests right now, I'd need to set up a party. That would probably do you some good as well, Mr Zalvedir." Koa explained.

"No thanks. I don't do well with people- Huh? What?" Apollyon blinked down to Violet who had just tugged him again. She pointed to Koa and then to Apollyon and herself again. "You're kidding, right? For god's sake." Apollyon thought to himself before groaning and looking at Koa with a groan. "Say, Mr Ai- Koa. If you're looking for a team, and I'm looking for a team, why don't we set up an alliance? Create a party ourselves so we can take on the bigger quests together as well as give us a chance to travel the land easier. Besides, I'm sure with your swordsmanship, and my awesomeness, we'd make a rather good team." Apollyon grinned semi-cockily, crossing his arms.

"You sure that would be a good idea? We did just try and kill each other." Koa replied with a tilt of his head. Apollyon shrugged and put his hands behind his head, "It's your choice, I'm not going to make you do what you don't want to." He spoke. Koa looked down for a minute, then to Violet who seemed really interested in the idea of Koa joining the group, "I guess... Creating a temporary alliance would be beneficial to us." He murmured in thought before turning to Apollyon and nodding. "Alright, I accept your invitation for an alliance, Mr Zalvedir."

"Just call me Apollyon, I already have one person refer to me like that constantly and I can't stand it." Apollyon groaned before nodding and looking up to Koa, "Looks like we now have an alliance." Apollyon smirked.

Koa nodded quietly with a calm expression, "Yes, it looks like we do Apollyon."

What they did not know, was that this alliance would be the beginning of something greater than what either of them could ever imagine...