Ryo lowers his sword to his side. A hush quiet washes over the crowd around them, individuals wait with bated breath for someone to make the first move. Only the crackle of wood burning echoes around them. Raull sneers raising his ax upwards then brings it down onto the ground. A dust field kicks up, spreading out across the ground. In his defense position, Axel raises his sword vertically, gripping it with both hands, ready for a counter. Around him the objects distort into blurs then fading into shadows. The dust field grows thicker and Raull’s shadow melts away.
Axel glances to his left and right, his feet slide against the dirt. Loud footsteps stomp in every direction. Behind him Ryo’s shadow disappears, leaving him alone.
“Think you can win against me? I’ll show you the difference in our strength.” Raull mocks him.
To his left side, his eyes catch the faint glimmer of steel falling towards his face. With two sidesteps Axel moves his body to dodge the attack. Raull’s blade misses by inches, however, the miss causes dust to kick up into Axel’s eyes.
“Ahhhh!” He screams out in pain. In a panic, Axel tries to use his sleeve to wipe the dust away. The sting in his eyes worsen, some dust also gets up into his nose too.
Unable to see, the littlest noise causes Axel to swing his blade wildly in every direction. The ax comes down, slamming the ground in front of Axel’s feet, knocking him off balance with small tremors. His erratic swings keep hitting empty space. From behind, a hot wind gust slam into him, sending pain straight up his spine. His body screams in agony with the sensation of blood dripping down his back and legs.
Finn watches closely, his eyes narrow. "Could it be? But how?"
“That was barely a hit.” Raull says.
Axel falls to his knees, his palms hitting the ground. Tears stream down the corner of his eyes, creating a sharper pain cycle.
Outside the dust field, murmers rise between the villagers watching and the surviving bandits, both unsure of the scene in front of them. Finn approaches Ryo. “Are you sure you don’t want to interfere? Nothing about this is normal, he could die.”
“It’s his fight. If he loses here, it means that his
will wasn’t strong enough.” Ryo says back to him, his eyes still focused on the
battle.
Axel sticks his blade into the ground, using it as a splint to help him to his feet. His body slumps over the swords hilt. “What do I do!? What do I do?!” Axel screams to himself.
A calmness washes over Axel’s body, a heartbeat steadies itself in his ears. A low whistling crescendo to Axel’s right side. Both hands lift the sword, swinging it directly to his right with full strength. The sword connects to Raull’s ax attack, while also slicing through the dust field.
“What?!” Raull’s shout of surprise rings out.
Raull clicks his tongue, raises his ax into the air into a downward swing. The wind in front of Axel grows heavy, so he brings his sword upward once again connecting to Raull’s attack. Breaking through the wind, a counter force pushes back against Raull's wind. yA metallic sound echoes, with a shockwave of wind exploding outwards across the village. Both Raull and Axel slide backwards from the impact. Raull regains his footing but falls to one knee.
“What’s going on? What is this? The damn brat can’t even see!” Raull’s shouts.
He moves back to hide in the dust cloud. Moving clockwise, Raull pin points his next attack location. However, stepping hard, he catches Axel's head moving in his direction. A quick moment, he sees the dull haze of green pupils staring back at him.
"No. Impossible." A momentary thought crosses Raull's mind.
Following his voice, Axel lunges at Raull with repeated forward strikes. On the defensive, Raull blocks each attack but each hit sends pain up his arms. Both attackers match each other blow for blow, until Axel changes his into an underhand swing. The full force drives the attack into the center of Raull’s ax blade, sending him backwards onto his back. The wave of outward wind results in the dust cloud dispersing.
Around them both the villagers and the bandits remain silent and in shock at the turn of events. Axel takes a step forward but collapses onto his knees. A few raindrops pelt his face from above. He turns his face upwards; the rain grows heavier. All the dust washes away from his eyes and nose. Axel opens his eyes but the world remains blurry. Behind him Finn kneels next to him.
“Axel? How are you doing?” Finn asks him.
“I can’t move. What happened?” Confusion fills Axel’s voice. His eyes returning to their normal color.
Finn falls silent and positions himself upright to get Axel to his feet. Momentum helps Axel up halfway into a crouch. A short distance away Raull stirs from his down position.
“Why, you…” Raull snarls in between his clench teeth. He rises to his feet with assistance from his ax. “I will not let a brat, a lowly insect, make a fool out of me!” He shouts. His whole being exerts a immense pressure.
The wind picks up around them, several wind gusts become visible like silver streaks cutting through then air. Each streak circles Raull’s weapon when he raises his above his head. Nearby tree limbs come down and isolated structure fires spread, unable to be contained by the heavy rain.
“This wind…!’ A villager shouts.A bandit runs to Raull. “Boss! You can’t use that!”
A huge wind gust slashes the bandit across his chest. “Gah!” The bandit gasps, crumbling to the ground.
“You don’t give me orders. He is going to pay for everything, then I’m going to level this whole village until there is nothing left!” Raull roars, a craze look takes over his eyes.
Blood stains appear all over Raull’s body, the wind also rips away at his clothing. His bloodshot eyes jitter back and forth having trouble focusing on their target. Cuts spread up his arms when he swings his ax in front of him. Water collecting at his feet turns murky. A strong metallic scent flows through the air.
” Mayor, what’s going on?” Axel asks, his eyes finally clearing up.
“You fool.” Finn mutters under his breath.
Axel struggles to turn his head, catching the glimpse of a dark expression washing over Finn’s face. His attention turns back to Raull. Pain shoots from his feet up to his head when he tries to stand up. Each muscle screams out for relief but tighten under the heavy strain. Through sheer willpower Axel gets to his feet.
“My boy…you can’t win against this.” Finn grabs his arm.
“He’s coming.” Unable to form sentences, Axel’s heavy breathing catches in his throat.
“This farce ends here!” Raull shouts. He digs his feels into the ground, push off into a full charge. The ground trembles beneath him, his arms raise the ax above his head. Screams escape from the villagers. He brings the ax downwards.
“Mayor!” Someone shouts.
“Axel!” Theresa’s shouts.
Clang!
A defending metallic sound echoes outward. Excess energy erupts upwards into the clouds above. Able to focus his full vision, Axel stares at Ryo’s backside. A small smile appears on Finn’s face. Raull’s eyes widen.
Ryo interrupts Raull’s attack, defecting the energy into a different direction with his blade. He switches the blade from left hand to right. With the opening, Ryo uses his full body to tackle Raull squarely in the chest, knocking him back again.
“Arh!” Raull regains his footing, swinging wildly at Ryo. Each swing emits high wind energy aimed at him. With swift movement, Ryo dodges the attacks and parries the ax blade, like he can predict Raull’s attacks. The cuts on Raull’s arms grow deeper and longer each swing he takes. Blow for blow, their strikes match up but Raull’s movements slow faltering from over exertion. Each attack Ryo cuts right though the wind with his own blade.
He jumps back, his appearance now reflects a savage animal ready to go in for then kill. Ryo steadies himself again pointing the sword towards him. Rain pours around them. Raull kicks off from the ground into another charge. Axel’s attention gets drawn to the tip of Ryo’s blade. A very faint purplish mist forms, spiraling down the sword to its hilt. The unknown mist grows larger, mixing into the rain around him. Ryo lowers his stance.
Raull jumps at Ryo, bringing the sword down in a strong swing. Right in front of his eyes, Ryo disappears in an instant. From below Ryo’s sword connects to Raull’s midsection, creating a large diagonal gash across it. Behind him, Ryo reappears with his sword back in its sheath. Blood trickles down the side of Raull’s mouth.
“You won’t see the last of me…you will pay.” Raull wheezes. “This…village…is…done for.” He collapses onto the ground.
Many villages remain where they stand unable to comprehend the scene that unfolded. The remaining bandits disperse, recovering their leader and disappear into the heavy rain. All eyes remain on Ryo. Axel stares at his eyes, a lonely hollow darkness crosses them for a moment. Through the rain Ryo glances upwards. Each droplet of rain helps to soften an unknown tightness in his chest.
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