Summoning Woes

Ch 8 - Desperation

The deafening clangs of their blades was music to his ears. Klavier and Ryuuga, locked in a wild dance of sword fighting, their swords coloring the air with a good mix of black and white. But Ryuuga was faster, swinging his sword with nearly unparalleled competence, tearing Klavier up bit by bit with every successful small cut that pierced through his tight defense. Ryuuga's blade stuck with his stubbornly, threatening to overpower Klavier with his unquenchable thirst for his blood. Klavier broke the clash between them, swinging his sword up so much that Ryuuga tipped off from his balance. He grabbed his scabbard, lunging it onto Ryuuga's stomach along with a head splitting smash to the head with the blade.

"Since when did you start fighting like that?" Ryuuga asked, wiping the blood off his mouth.

"When I wielded this sword. I now have the choice that most swordsmen don't," Klavier replied, raising the blade over his shoulders and leaned forward, leveraging the weight of his metal extension against his legs to maximize sprinting efficiency.

"No wonder it doesn't feel the same as compared to the last time."

"I see, so you noticed already. So what if it feels different?" Klavier zoomed past Ryuuga. But he did more than just get past him - there were abrasion cuts on Ryuuga's limbs and at the middle of his torso.

"You, how did you...?"

"Is there any more need to explain the move?" he rested the blade on his shoulder. "I would've chopped your limbs off and cut your chest open if not for this reversed blade."

"Showing mercy to your own opponent. Just how stupid can you get?"

"Would you rather lose your life or lose your pride?" He sheathed his blade, his left hand hovering slightly above the handle in anticipation of Ryuuga's next strike.

"I told you already. It's kill or be killed!" Ryuuga thrust his sword forward.

Klavier wasn't about to fall for another attack under the same kind of stance Ryuuga used that broke his other sword into two. Ryuuga's blade screamed at his ear as it closed in, supposedly trying to invoke fear to shake him up. But this instance of ignorance was bliss - Klavier pulled his sword out so hard and fast that the draw speed out speed his opponent's swing, landing a brutal hit across his body that thrown him high in the air before he could lose his head. Ryuuga touched down onto the floor, the impact of his fall created a small crater around him, his eyes rolled up and his mouth wide open.

Klavier dreaded using that technique - one that guaranteed the death of his opponent regardless of how prepared he was for the attack. Even his armor could not stand against the power exerted from the attack, shattering into bits and pieces of metal before his blade created a deep, wide slash across his body. If it was that potent with a dull edge, it would be even scarier to think about it when Klavier pulled it off with a normal cutting edge.

"Now, to back Michele and Themis up," Klavier mumbled as he sheathed the sword.

**

"Target hostile. Engage," Alice said.

Bursting forth in mid-air at a breakneck speed, she head-butted Michele on the torso, sending her into the air and crashing through the brick floor. Michele smashed her axes down, forcing herself to a grinding stop, blood oozing out from a tiny wound on the head. Alice came down so quickly that the air around her appeared to give way. But Michele was faster, she raised her axes in a fraction of a second just in time to parry Alice's attack. Michele pummeled her foot forward, pushing Alice by the side that sent her crashing onto a hovel.

"Where are you going?" Alice's voice shook Michele to the core.

Horror and amazement bit her neck, her eyes burning as she watched Alice return to her feet. Alice couldn't have been this powerful for a child. Impossible, just impossible that any kid could still be alive from that deathblow.