Warwielder - Book 1 of The Evernoth Odyssey

Chapter 4 - Two Warriors

Kollo diverted the momentum of the axe swing with his blade. The war elf followed up the attack with several more swings of his mighty axe only to strike empty air as the bandit nimbly sidestepped and evaded the mortal blows. Marschal couldn't help but halt his approach at the sight of Kollo's dance of speed and swordsmanship. He really did remind him of his brother. Using his smaller stature to his advantage, Marschal could see Kollo visibly struggling to strike the large war elf's blind spots. The hulk was deceptively quick. He either swiveled away from Kollo's blade or defended himself with a parry. Even when the bandit was able to cut the elf, the monster would simply muscle through the pain if it felt any. Whether or not the wound was deep enough to hinder the large warrior in any discernable way, it was anybody's guess.

The Paravellan lost track of time spectating the mesmerizing performance between the two blood-born warriors. When he did look away, he found the rest of Kollo's surviving men surrounding a single wounded war elf showered in blood. Most of it probably didn't belong to him but Marschal figured that enough of it had to be his own considering the way he limped in the centre of the human circle. One of the bandits ventured too closely to the war elf, no doubt believing it to be an easy kill. Marschal knew better. So, he wasn't all too shocked when the elf suddenly lashed out, slashing the man's face decorating it with several deep lines of red blood. The Paravellan thought it a miracle that the man was still alive, an indication of the extensive damage dealt to the war elf. Marschal decided to himself that Kollo's rabble were pretty decent fighters for non-Paravellan humans. They were still idiots. But they were idiots who knew how to fight and kill.

Marschal tore his attention away from the ugly fight, opting to view a battle with a little more...panache. That and one of the contenders held something that didn't belong to him.

Kollo weaved his way around the muscled mass of an elf, who only grunted and snarled louder the longer his axe remained unstained with human blood. That was when Marschal witnessed the bandit's face light up at the chance of victory. Kollo sidestepped another axe swing before thrusting his sword at the split-second opening. For a brief moment, Marschal believed he would see the war elf collapse in defeat. However, that vision died when the elf caught the blade with his bare hand, abruptly halting the thrust.

The Paravellan shared the same wide-eyed face as the bandit captain. Kollo looked up to see red eyes and two rows of serrated teeth smiling down at him. The bandit pulled at his sword with the hope of slicing off the elf's hand. But the blade didn't budge. The elf's blood trailed down the bandit's weapon as he fought to release his sword from the brute's grip. Suddenly, the war elf pulled Kollo's sword from the bandit's own hands and hurled it aside with a scoff. Kollo seemed to have been stunned.

However, that paralyzed moment didn't last very long before the large war elf lunged at him, grabbing for his throat. The bandit shifted to the side, avoiding the clawed hand before maneuvering gracefully around his foe until he seized the opportunity to jump up and climb onto the beast's back. He was close to being thrown off the writhing elf until Kollo hooked his forearm underneath his enemy's chin, locking him into a chokehold. The whole ordeal reminded Marschal of a man trying to tame a wild horse.

The bandit proved to be difficult to shake off as the elf's face gradually grew a shade of red that rivalled the colour of his eyes and the blood painting his razors. In a last-ditch effort to save himself from a fainting oblivion, the war elf's arm suddenly lashed out and managed to rake his claws across Kollo's face. The bandit suddenly yelped in agony before visibly stifling his pain and retaliating in kind by digging his own fingers into the sword wound that Marschal recognized was dealt from the torchbearer earlier. A reciprocal roar of pain ripped the night air as the elf continued struggling to rid himself of the pesky human rodent. Kollo's grip on the beast must have loosened because the elf's claws eventually managed to clasp around the bandit's arm and, with a single hefting motion, hurled the human off of him. The bandit landed on the ground and didn't get a chance to stand back up before the elf booted his foot up against Kollo's ribs sending him flying across the rocky terrain.