Darkline

{The Apathetic Knight}

The ray of the morning light shined down into Sora's eyes, waking him from his deep slumber. He felt the pain from yesterday that he received from his short fight against Vlad. The pain of knowing he couldn't help Alister hurt his pride, as if he had failed at saving someone.

"God damn it..." he'd mutter.

He would stand up and dust himself down. His mindset became clear to him that the only way he could save his town now was to defeat Vlad himself. Before he went back home, he made a quick stop at Evangeline's broken down home. She was sweeping the broken glass into a hole the destruction made. Even though she didn't hear his footsteps, Evangeline was still able to notice who approached her.

"So, you're alive. I'm glad," she noted.

"What do you know about Vlad Kassius?"

She stopped sweeping as soon as she heard his name.

"I'm guessing you two didn't have much of a friendly meeting."

"No, now who the hell is he?"

"He's just a boy who's lost in mind, body, and soul whose heart was corrupted by that trio of mongrels!"

"You know the Three Kings?"

"What I know is they're a group of men who're seeking to claim the world as theirs under the pretense that every town they come across is demon-infested. Just look at the landscape they've left me in..."

"That's all I needed to hear!"

Sora, with a head full of rage, ran for his town. The travel was long, but he sure made it back in time to see a group of knights moving their supplies into random buildings. Sora with much haste would secretly take them down one-by-one, slamming the butt of his sword into the back of their heads.

He hid behind a shed, seeing one other group of knights led by Vlad's ransack through Daro's shop.

"No way in Hell!" He'd shout as he ran to the group.

Vlad heard him coming and stepped out of the way to see Sora ram his shoulder into one of the knights in front of him. Another knight tries to grab Sora from behind but was hit with an elbow to the face, knocking them out.

"I expected as much for a runt like you to come strolling back to battle again," Vlad exclaimed.

"Like I care!" Sora yelled back at him.

Sora reached for the handle of his sword and drew it out, but was suddenly seeing the tip of Vlad's sword.

"You're becoming a pest," Vlad tiredly says.

Not caring for his words, Sora attempted to stab his sword into Vlad. It was parried by Vlad grabbing the blade and leading it along with Sora in another direction.

Vlad then attempted to copy the same attack and stab Sora in the back. As the blade came within inches of his spine, Sora stabbed his blade into the floor and then uses it to lunge forward to avoid Vlad's attack. After lunging himself, Sora performed a tactical roll across the floor then does a quick helicopter spin back onto his feet to face Vlad.

The townsfolk that were watching quickly ran into their homes but peeked out of their windows to watch the action unfold while the rest of the knights remained at bay and watched Vlad take on Sora.

It was clear to Vlad that Sora had improved in their short interaction, although, that wasn't going to halt him from attacking. Vlad raced forward and slashes his sword at Sora with force. Sora blocks the strike by using the flat side of the Masamune, keeping a hand on the other end of it to prevent Vlad from overpowering him.