Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

XXV

However brief the silence was, it still managed to drown out the sounds of the ensuing battle around them. At least, it seemed that way to Tori as he stood there, staring into Scinthia's eyes in disbelief of the words he let slip out in his anger as well as the response he got in return. He was relieved, frustrated, happy, remorseful, and so many other emotions he just wasn't used to feeling all at once. He had no time to sort out himself or his emotions as the next thing he knew was the blaring pain on the left side of his face from the back of the king's gilded gauntlet striking Scinthia. Tori's knees nearly gave out under him as his eye and cheek swelled up and turned a reddish purple, however after a moment, he finally processed what exactly just happened in front of him. Despite barely being able to remain standing, Tori still couldn't keep himself from lividly glaring at Drewell as blood ran down the turgid side of his face.

The king stared back, but with a much colder and calmer look in his eyes before he spoke.

"So it's true then... You two really do share physical ware. Although it seems the damage you took was not as harsh since you're still conscious while Dame Woodreel is out cold." He began, unsheathing a large two-handed sword from across his back. "No matter... I imagine that the severity of your wounds won't matter if her life ends though, yes?" He continued, pointing the tip of his long, gilded blade at Scinthia's unmoving body.

"I have no idea why I'm not unconscious. By all rights, I should be... But I don't have time to think about that right now." Tori thought before quickly darting forward and planting himself between the king and Scinthia with his axes at the ready.

At that time, Tori couldn't feel the pain all that much, nor really notice the limited vision his left eye offered him. He was too angry and the focus of much of his life's rage was standing directly in front of him.

"You will not touch her again... So this is how you treat your knights after they risk their lives for you? With a backhand to the face?" He asked angrily.

"Ms. Woodreel was a good knight and I'll admit it's a shame to lose her, however given your apparent mutual connection, curse or no, there's no way I could trust her now. At least this way, she can still serve as a means of finally plucking this thorn in my side."

With that, Tori had heard more than he could stand to listen to and with his teeth gritted tight, he lunged toward Drewell. With his left axe, Tori batted the long sword away and brought his right axe across the king's chest plate. Since the plate appeared to be made from gold, Tori expected to at least see a small gash in it since gold was a relatively soft metal, however he was surprised to see that his axe had done little more than leave a faint scratch on it. Figuring that the chest and back plates would be the toughest sections of the armor, Tori quickly dodged the king's counter slash and struck the outer thigh of his greaves as he passed behind him. Again, hardly leaving so much as a scratch on the gilded armor, Tori began to suspect that the armor was actually made from some other metal resembling gold in its appearance.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to do this the hard way..." He thought before leaning his top half back to avoid getting his gut split by the king's sudden horizontal strike.

After seeing that Tori had dodged the attack, Drewell immediately lifted his left leg and attempted to stomp on Tori's feet, letting out a heavy grunt. If not for Tori swiftly throwing himself into a horizontal roll through the air, the bones in one of, if not both of his feet would've been crushed under the weight of Drewell's boot. Aside from dodging the attack, Tori had also given himself some space as he choked up his grip on his axes' handles. Now, with his hands gripping his hatchets from directly behind the axe heads' blades, Tori tightened his stance and stood on the bowls of his feet, his arms held up in front him.