What Lies Between ✔

Lidia Vs Pyralis

40.

Lidia

My message had been sent to Galen. I could only hope his sense of honor would win over his sense of duty. For now, all I could do was buy them some time.

Something moved in the corner of my vison. Thorne was sneaking up next to me. "No!" Pyralis shouted to him, "I've got her, you go stop the others from escaping!" Thorne nodded once and began sprinting off after Kairos and the others.

"No!" I cried, and attempted to chase after him to tackle him to the ground, but a blaze of pain ran up my arm, burning the sleeve off my uniform through to my bicep. I yelped and stumbled to the gorund.

Pyralis had caught me with his burning energy. "I will be your opponent," he said, almost regretfully.

I wished it could be anyone other than Pyralis, but I couldn't let him go after them too, I had to fight him. I rolled to my feet in seconds, glaring. I was no stranger to burning. It did not faze me.

Of two things I knew about facing Pyralis: one – He was remarkably strong, a real force. He was skilled in hand to hand combat. If he got his hands on me, it was over; two – When facing him, you could not allow yourself to remain still for too long. He would focus that burning energy on you, and you would crumble to ash. He had held back when burning my arm, but when I persisted in fighting him, he would have no other choice than to come at me seriously.

Luckily, I was the master of speed. I would not stay still, and he would not get the chance to grab me.

"Lidia," he said, beginning to stalk around me, "It does not need to be this way. You can surrender, and you will be shown a lot more mercy when brought before the Lord. We know the affect the Demon has over you, the charm they can possess."

"Pyralis," I answered, "Ben could not charm even the most naive of minds, I assure you."

I sprinted directly at him, vibrating the air with my speed. I knew he would not expect me to attack head on, so I used the element of surprise to my advantage. I kicked off of the ground, becoming airborne, and landed a lofty toe right under his chin, knocking him over. My momentum carried me over his sprawling body so that I was now behind him. I dug the toe of my boots into the earth as I landed, kicking off again to greet him with a sidekick. He was anticipating it this time, and brought his legs up from where he was laying to ram his feet up into my ribs, sending me up and over into the air, landing heavily onto the ground in front of him.

Breathless as I was, I sprang back to my feet, pulling at my energy to enhance my strength. He too had leapt up from the ground, and whipped out his throwing knives, sending one soaring my way. I was still faster than his throw, and caught the knife by its hilt, flying around him and shuttling it at him one way as I charged the other.

He had to think fast, either allowing himself to be stabbed by the knife, or to endure another blow from me. He was not fast enough to catch the speed of the knife I threw or with enough time to think of a counter attack to stop my strike.

Which one? I thought as I spun myself around mid-air to deliver a bone crunching kick to his sternum.

He chose the knife, dodging my foot, and directing himself in such a way that the knife only sunk into his shoulder. It tore through his flesh easily with the force that I had thrown it at, the bloody blade sticking out of his back.