The Angaran Chronicles: The Ritual

Chapter 7: The Battle Begins

He fell with a yell, along with bits of hardwood floor, white concrete wall and ceiling. For some reason, the dummies and weapons were in shards, too.

It all rained through a featureless white nothingness.

Alathis screamed but only dropped for a few seconds before his feet found a large chunk of floor and somehow his balance.

Silette flew at him, still with that smile. He threw himself aside a split second before she landed, embedding the sword to the hilt in the wood.

Alathis stood as Silette pulled it out and spun, slicing for his throat. He leaned back, and its edge missed by a hair's width.

'You are holding back,' Silette said as she cut for his knee with the back-swing a stroke he parried away. 'Good, it will allow me to dispense judgement sooner. You were always a fool.'

Alathis swallowed, a war waged through him.

She leapt into a downward vertical slash he slid aside. Then like lightning, she pivoted into a horizontal cut. He ducked.

'Please,' he said while stepping to gain some space. 'I-'

'You do not wish to fight?' said Silette. 'But you do not wish to face justice, either.'

Alathis frowned. 'Justice for what? Killing you?'

'Don't be such a fool.'

And still, the slab of floor fell. Alathis knew it was falling despite standing on it despite how it dropped through the white nothingness. The huge balling within his stomach screamed it.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw a smaller shard of wall a few metres away and half a metre up.

'Keep your eyes on your enemy, fool,' Silette growled and charged.

Alathis, turned and jumped. As he did, he felt the rush of air as the strike missed his back by a millimetre. With surprising ease, he made the distance and spun just in time to see her flying after him.

He threw himself off the edge and plummeted as Silette's sword cleaved through the concrete. Alathis dropped a good five metres onto a piece of ceiling and rolled to negate the impact.

Silette landed a second after, but by then, Alathis had already leapt backwards.

'Stop running, coward,' she screamed.

Alathis slid across the piece of floor for a metre more before Silette landed. He couldn't help feel a grin creep across his face as he smashed aside her stab.

'I'm not running, I'm jumping,' he said while back-stepping a swipe aimed for his arms, then he launched himself into the air again.

But Silette was ready and in less than a split second was after him. Alathis was forced to block her arcing blade, and the impact sent him wheeling and writhing off course. Silette landed on a piece of a dummy and jumped up to follow him.

Alathis ducked her horizontal slice as she flew past. He spun to see her push herself off a small shard of glass and, like a comet, came at him again, stabbing.

He'd taken in his surroundings by then and, with a bellow, threw around a block, pushing with all his strength and weight into it. It didn't send Silette flying or wheeling but allowed Alathis to shove himself onto her side. In a millisecond, his feet kicked against her ribs. It caused her to cry out and fling away, spinning, cursing through the nothingness.

Alathis came at a small piece of floor that must've been at least fifteen metres down, and as it came closer, it seemed to grow larger and larger.

He flipped to be feet first and pounced into another roll.