Future of Calamity [Under Rewrite]

Chapter 42 - Save Yourself

A single, dry cough; with one hazy, sore eye, staring hard.

"Come on, Shepherd."

Artorias's boot took an inch.

And Sarid dashed off, throwing the kunai outwards to whip with a sudden singing blaze crackling across the verdant rope, kunai aflame to crash into the Shepherd's unflinching blade with a burst of billowing fire and smoke. The steel whipped the cloud away, and from above the Saviour's calous expression did a collection of sparking orbs reign; gold and spitting with lightning. They shot off, a blitz like bullets before the half-malak's run, and still did the man evade with a precise sideways flip: artes cracking into earth with rumbles of dust.

Out he leapt, another twirling sling of this erupting whip soaring past and blasting aside from Artorias's casual deflect. His attacks came merely like a burn-scented breeze. Longsword raised high, and with its berth aloft did the steel hum a deep amber; a spectral blade of earth mana growing high to the temple's very ceiling. Thus, it came crashing down akin to that of a thundering wave or quake, seeking to split the man in two.

Sarid grunted, pulling harsh at the extended roping bundles released from binding his arm, and out flung the kunai end again; redirected to smack the side of the Saviour's unfaltering edge. The attack did not halt, however this strike knocked its vertical slam off-target, leading it to rend the ground with a visceral crack! Rupturing the marred marble and pulling a great slab where the Hunter stood to rise from the force. Nevertheless, Artorias did not yield, and soon after did the same gigantic blade swing horizontal once more, its swipe parting thick and dreadful air.

And, so did the honed arte carve right through flesh. However, soon did the figure it thought to have parted in two dissipate into a fading burst of wind, and beneath the amber wake came a gritted shout and a desperate leap onto safe ground. With the decoy buying brief respite, Sarid's dash started once more, slinging relentless ranged artes as he sprang left and right. Another unveil of the winding gale rope, and he twisted with its heaving swing, the crackling blow blasting against the Shepherd's guard for the third time.

"Hyah!"

Boom...!

He dared not falter, yet the grand Saviour let a wince slip as the erupting flame licked his cheek with its scorching heat.

The powerful Legate huffed, and poised his longsword aside, and soon did its unblemished face become slick with moisture and a light teal. He thrust the blade out, and from its tip did a circling torrent of water blast out, the rushing beam of a roaring sea skirted across the stone; batting right into the body of a sprinting Sarid.

Devastated marble and rubble scratched and scraped, the sheer force flinging his figure to smack and tumble; cracking through rocky remains, until the half-malak crashed into the defaced Throne walls - enshrouded by a sputter of falling dust.

Breaths were held, as roving eyes from watchers behind could not ignore the destructive battle waged between two unlikely foes.

Eventually, the settling smoke cleared, and the veiling cloud grew opaque as it fell from its guise. Behind, knelt a battered Sarid, clothing ripped and desecrated by the dreadful blow he suffered. The left sleeve of his once crisp and valiant haori, was now shredded, and riddled with gaps; while the toned arm it bound upon trembled with painful shudders, the skin rashed red and cut. The rest of the Hunter's figured fared no better, imposed dirt and scratches lashed all over among the worn and scarred vestments.

His chest rose and fell at a harsh pace, rough breaths leaking through tight, sore lips. The weapon he clutched so fierce remained in his right, fingers barely reigning in the wind rope that flickered, the kunai end hanging dainty from the verdant string of mana.