Darkline

{Overwhelming Force}

Sora and Gierfreed stood proudly in a long distance away from each other. They both acknowledged one another to be strong opponents, even though not a punch was thrown yet. Gierfreed was rather calm about the fight, while Sora was on the verge of losing his cool. It was because of his previous two battles that made him feel nervous. He kept wondering if he had enough energy in his body to go on.

"Damn, I'm not recovered enough to give this guy a run for his money," Sora thought to himself.

He takes a quick look over to the side and sees Elizabeth still unable to get back to her feet.

"And she's not even conscious enough to heal me either..."

"What's the matter? Are you not going to make the first move?"

Sora redirects his eyes back to Gierfreed, who was standing in an unorthodox battle stance. It was some sort of form of Krav Maga mixed with Muay Thai. And by Sora's analysis, he knew a hand-to-hand battle would do him no good.

He keeps a tight grip on his sword, then starts running through the rubble on the ground, dragging his blade which sparked across the floor to swing at Gierfreed's head. Gierfreed has no intention of moving a muscle to defend himself just yet. His focus was unbreakable and his eyes were locked onto Sora's like a snake.

"I'll end this in one blow!" Sora screams out.

"Not quite,"

Within just a moment, Gierfreed parries the blade to the side using his hand that grips the sword. Sora is left flustered by Gierfreed's remarkable speed and suffers a devastating kick of Gierfreed's foot that connects into his jaw.

"You've left yourself wide open,"

Energy begins to channel throughout Gierfreed's body and into his fists. He unleashes an assault of brutal punches to Sora's face, knocking his head around in multiple directions. Sora is unable to fight back, his ruthless power that he gained from fighting Amadeus had left him almost immediately.

Meanwhile, back at Evanem Bay, Daro could do nothing but sit at home and pray in his mind that Sora came back safe. He felt that he should've gone with Sora to take them on together, but his pride in honoring things he gets himself into has always stopped him dead in his tracks. So once again, the only thing he can do now is hope for the best.

The best had yet come to though for the beaten-down warrior. Sora had taken quite a pummeling from Gierfreed. His face leaked tremendously with blood. More than he could clear off with one wipe of his hands. Gierfreed eventually grew weary of throwing tiresome punches at Sora and ended his combo with an uppercut.

Sora had gone airborne lifelessly. He manages to gather the strength to roll through the air and land on his feet. Although, the pain stops him from standing tall, bringing him down to his knees in the next moment where he coughs up his own blood at.

"Damn, he's tougher than I thought! He didn't even have to use anything but his fists to beat me this bad! How am I gonna wing it out of this one..."

With victory assured in his mind, Gierfreed takes an unperturbed walk to Sora.

"Your powers have failed you, Kage, and your dear ol' Uncle isn't anywhere in sight for him to help you. If you want, I'll let you take the time to pray to the Lord himself before you die,"

"Screw that, I'm not done fighting until I'm dead and even then I'll still fight!"

"Such childish arrogance, then die you shall!"

Gierfreed arches his side back, then with nothing but Sora's death in mind, he throws down a fist packed full of enough energy to break a man's bones. Unexpectedly, however, his eyes become struck by dust and debris that temporarily blinded him.