Black Eyes To Blue

- 6 -

The horror building in Mardston's chest was suffocating. An overwhelming pressure of emotion that refused to be suppressed. The image of watching the person he was starting to care for more than life itself, cut down by a monster. A monster that he abandoned her to. To fight all alone while he did nothing. While he was busy dancing with those pathetic corpses, he abandoned his princess to fight and die all alone. He wasn't fast enough. He wasn't strong enough. Was he as weak as the Ranger in the woods said he was?

"NO!" He bellowed!

"I will not accept this!" Mardston thought to himself. "I will not let everything be taken away again!" His suffocating terror exploding into a burning fury. He tore his gaze away from his fallen companion and back towards the poor unfortunate souls that stood in front of him. His bloodlust boiling over into a ferocious battle cry, he took a step forward and slammed the point of the farming scythe downwards directly on top of the head of the nearest undead. The force of the blow easily passed through the man's broken skull and buried the entirety of the two foot blade in the top of his chest, with the force of impact slamming the lifeless body to the ground. Stomping on the dead man's chest to keep him pinned on the ground, the Mardston roared as he brutally tore the scythe straight out of the front of his chest. With the poorly sharpened blade not cutting, but tearing through the man's rib cage, ripping it in twain. Using the momentum of his upward pull, he deftly swung the improvised weapon over and around his head. Driving the point straight into the chest of the final undead, knocking him backwards into the wooden wall of the storeroom. Pulling the scythe out one last time, Mardston took a mighty swing that would have made the former owner of the tool proud, and drove it straight through the corpse's chest and into the wall behind him. Pinning the last up onto the wall as a grim warning.

Letting go of the scythe, Mardston turned around to look at the armored slayer that now stood as the last enemy standing. When he looked into those growing purple eyes, he saw amusement, a perfect match to his mildly impressed smirk. The boiling blood in Mardston's veins turned to ice.

The barbaric bloodlust giving way to a cold and empty fury. As he gazed upon the face of evil, the world began to slow down, as the adrenaline flooded into his system. Leaping forward without a word or war cry, he charged at Soris's killer. His thundering feet dodged around the table in the center of the room, as his hand flew to the dagger at his hip, a dagger that just now being brought to play for the first time this combat.

"Lets see what he is going to do with that sword, thrust, stab, or dodge?" Flashed through the warriors mind just as fast as he could process. "I'm ready for you Monster!"

The Knight in reaction to the sudden rush took a single step back, locking his footwork into a powerful holding stance. Lifting his blade up he prepared for a thrust right between the eyes of the charging colossus. Just a few heartbeats too early.

"Gotcha!" Flashed through Mardstons subconscious, "Die monster!" As he saw the incoming trust come up to point at his face, he raised his left arm up to intercept the awaiting blade. Feeling the tip of the sword pierce through the underside of his forearm, he yanked his arm to the left taking the sword with it, and away from his face. Away from danger. A hint of a smile began to form on Mardstons face as he witnessed the nearly imperceptible ripple of fear cross over his opponent's face, as he saw his blade miss its target and fail to stop the charging man in his tracks. There wasn't much time for him to process his blunder, for less than a quarter of a heartbeat later Mardston was in the knight's face, bringing down the large dagger straight into the young knight's left eye. Shattering the eye socket of the young man, with the point passing all the way through the skull to pierce out the other side. A perfectly executed plan.