Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

XXI

The two rangers stared each other down, both with bow strings drawn taught and serrated arrows pinched between their fingers. The air in the room, charged with an almost palpable tension, began to reek of decay as the crowd of undead settled down and stood idle. Both paying the miasma little mind and watching the other for the slightest movement, they held their arrows, waiting to see who would make the first move. Despite his excitement, Tori remained an ample degree of calm and methodically planned how he would handle his former spymaster.

"It will begin with us both firing and dodging... then, considering the limited space we're in and the fact that Hailer is better known for his swordplay, he'll move in with his rapier..." Tori thought.

"I'd figured we were up against a former ranger since your objectives were the gate children; something only a ranger would know of, but now I'm sure of it. Only a ranger would know to hold his arrow in a standoff... I'll admit, Tori, things haven't turned out too bad for you so far, but I'm afraid you're done now..." Hailer said in a somewhat condescending tone.

Ordinarily, the victor of a standoff would be the first to fire, but in a standoff where rangers were involved, more often than not, whoever fired first would usually lose. Between two common people, firing first held the advantages of catching the other person by surprise and not giving them the opportunity to dodge since there was no way of knowing where the arrow would actually be going. However, in a rangers' standoff, where it was obvious that the arrow would hit its mark if you didn't move, dodging was not only the best and simplest option, it gave the person dodging an opportunity to react and counter-attack. Which usually was something a ranger's fighting style thrived on.

Knowing that, Tori held his arrow firm, remaining quiet and not allowing Hailer to distract him with words. He kept his eyes trained on the older ranger's fingers holding the arrow, planning to wait for them to let go first so he could react and counter-attack. However, a sudden shock of pain exploding in his right hand caused him to accidentally let go of his arrow instead.

As expected, Hailer easily dodged the arrow while letting his own loose at Tori. Despite his surprise and the pain blaring in his hand, Tori had barely managed to dodge Hailer's arrow as it flew past him, slicing the fabric of his shirt over the ribs on his left side, and tearing straight through his black cloak to dig into the holding cells' door again.

"The hell just happened? Did Scinthia just break our damn hands?" Tori wondered angrily, regaining his balance and looking back up in time to see the tip of Hailer's blade thrusting toward his face.

Tori quickly bent his neck to the side while being able to slightly redirect the blade's path with his bow before pushing off and backing away. Hailer closed the distance almost immediately and continued his assault, this time, with a rapid flurry of shallow, but precise jabs. Tori, now beginning to get into a better rhythm of motion, leapt back, hooking a nearby thrall's wrist with his bow before pulling it in front of him and throwing it at Hailer. As the spymaster promptly decapitated the cadaver and stepped past it, Tori slipped behind a few of the idle undead standing nearby to give himself some cover while swiftly slinging his bow across his torso and attempting to draw both of his axes. His right hand screamed in pain when he put strength into his grip, convincing him that it'd be more of a liability to try using it and that he'd be better off fighting with one axe in this condition.

Brandishing a single hatchet in his left hand, Tori slunk through the crowd of thralls, looking for an opportunity to ambush Hailer, but before he could even get an eye on him through his cover, he suddenly noticed the tip of a blade peeking through the back of the undead in front of him. Tori swiftly cocked his head to one side, letting the blade barely run past the cheek of his visor and poking a small hole in the side of his cowl before shoving the undead forward. This time, since Hailer's blade was sticking through the thrall's gut, it actually managed to succeed in stalling the spymaster for a moment while he freed his rapier and pushed it aside. Tori took the opportunity to go on the offensive now that he wasn't focusing on dodging anymore and sprang from the crowd of undead, his axe at the ready.