A Sword For Gold

Chapter 27 - The Star Sword

Maraxus knew he had little to no chance of winning.

"Try me, Alyria Desolas," he taunted, doing his damndest to sound as confident as can be, all while shoving his fear of death to the very back of his mind where it could never be dug up again. He knew full well what he had gotten himself into. He knew that there was almost no chance that he would make it out of the island alive, but he also knew that he needed to do something, to buy time for the Master Key to do its work, to buy time for Cora, Velenya, and the others to recover.

He took full notes of the situation. Cora and Vaelia were fully exhausted, having expended too much energy in trying to hold back Alyria Desolas and her forces. Kaleb was still knocked out from earlier. Baros had collapsed in his fight against his father, and Velenya, for the time being, was heavily incapacitated by some kind of odd, unseen spell that seemed to overwhelm her mind. At least, that was what Maraxus himself could comprehend.

"Ugh," Alyria sighed, exasperated, "Come at me. Why don't we see for ourselves what you can do, you good for nothing Starfall Hunter? I don't even need sorcery to beat you."

Maraxus gripped his two swords tightly, almost to the point of trembling from exerting too much force in gripping the hilts, his hands being overly affected by the anxiety of fighting someone who was clearly out of his league.

Maraxus knew full well, though, that he was not fighting to kill Alyria Desolas. That would have been an insane thing to attempt. He just needed to buy time, and he needed to fight intelligently, just like how he would fight any other monster. In this case, Alyria was also a monster in a different regard. He just had to do it right.

He darted forward, lunging at Alyria as he swung his sword with his right hand sideways, aiming directly for her throat, but the cocky sorceress simply ducked under, and before Maraxus could even swing his other sword at her with his off-hand, she managed to grab him by the wrist, quickly twisting it, causing him to let go of his sword, lest his hand would be broken, disarming him, before knocking him backwards a notable distance with a kick to his chest.

Having the wind taken out of him, though, and crashing to the floor, Maraxus was quick to jump back on his feet and regain his breath, maintaining his steeled, firm stance, albeit now with a deficit in his current weaponry, now holding only one sword instead of two, having been disarmed just prior.

Alyria Desolas immediately picked up the sword that she had made Maraxus drop, before pointing it suggestively at Maraxus, winking at him as a taunt.

"You ready to dance?" she asked smugly, raising an eyebrow and giving him the widest of smirks.

"Heh," Maraxus chuckled, before Flicker Stepping towards Alyria, much to her surprise. Caught off guard, Maraxus' main-hand sword came an inch close towards her torso, before she finally parried it away at the last second and then disengaged with a Flicker Step backwards, cursing under her breath, knowing full well that that was indeed a close call.

"Flicker Step, huh," remarked Alyria, impressed, "I didn't think that a mere hunter like you would—"

Maraxus, relentlessly, did not let her finish speaking, and instead, he Flicker Stepped towards her once again, thrusting his sword towards her abdomen, but this time, Alyria was playing close attention, as they both initiated a blow-for-blow swordfight, with steel clanging loudly in the chamber as their swords met for every second that passed.

As much as Alyria was an indomitable fighter, she honorably stayed true to what she had established beforehand: that she did not need sorcery to defeat Maraxus, but in these grounds of swordplay, they seemed to have a pretty even fight, with the both of them keeping up the relentless pace in their clash of steel, refusing to let the other take the upper hand in their duel.