Tales of Avanturia 1

Chapter 22: Leaves In The Wind

*creepy flute plays silently*

The Blood Roses were all standing in the small yard of their house. Around the entire area a strange fog had formed. It was very thick..

Also there was this strange, eerie flute that played. The thing is, there was no house nearby...

All four were a bit sleepy, since it was still quite early, or late, depending on how you see it, but something felt really strange about this situation.

Fenrock and Bella stood on the roof of their residence, trying to figure out, where that music was coming from, while Brynjolf and Lucia stayed alerted inside the house.

Suddenly there was a clashing sound, like something had fallen on the floor, maybe a plate. Lucia went looking for it in the kitchen... carefully.. alerted and ready for anything..

When she peaked into it, however, she didn't see anything. Only the shards of one of the plates on the floor.

Fenrock felt a chill down his spine and as he turned around, his look met Bella's who had just the same expression.. Something really bad was going to happen..

Brynjolf sat on the stairs to the courtyard, looking at the small pond. The water was completely still but there was a slight wind in the air..

He grabbed a leave out of the air.

As he looked past it, he took a glimpse of a blue and white mask..

Sword clashing in the courtyard, echoing through the area.

All the remaining Blood Roses rushed to their friend, who was doing his best to fight off the insanely fast attacks of the strange attacker.

They were interrupted by a wild storm, that seemed to came out of nowhere. It cleared bits of the thick fog, but also threw them off their feet. Fenrock and Bella were holding on to the roof, while Lucia, who was still inside, was pushed against a wall. On the opposite roof stood another man with a conical hat, that shrouded almost his whole face. Was he the one responsible for the storm..?!

Fenrock saw a flute in his hands, so it was him that played the music...

The stranger just stood there... he didn't move, he only put his flute away and put one hand on his nodachi.

„Bella... Inside." Fenrock ordered focused.

The tailor nodded and rushed inside to Lucia. The two of them would go and aid Brynjolf. The echoing of the two swords clashing could still be heard and it was the only sound anywhere. Fenrock and the stranger just stood there, looking at each other, both gripping their swords. With his left hand, Fenrock took his eyepatch off and put it in his pocket.

Just a brief second later, the two men rushed towards each other, clashing in mid air and pushing each their opponent away again. The stranger rushed towards Fenrock again at an immense speed, that the Blood rose could barely even see, let alone block. But just at the last possible second, he managed to deflect a swift strike, turning to the side an thrusting the pommel into his opponents stomach.

Fenrock quickly threw a sidecut at him, but the attacker dodged, summoning a gigantic blast of air, that pushed Fenrock away.

„This blade..." Fenrock mumbled, „The Arashi brothers..?!"

In the yard Brynjolf was still doing his best to fight off the insanely fast blows, he could hardly even see his opponent, even with his powers active. However, he seemed to be using two blades at once, which made it even harder to block or parry.