Episode 27 Duke versus Cowboy
Sunlight streams into the narrow forest clearing where Cynthia is training. Several floating bull’s eyes twist around in the air around her, as Cynthia gazes at them intently, her breathing strained. She raises her Kandine again, preparing to launch at the targets.
Cynthia narrows her eyes. ‘One day I’ll catch up to you, Ayame…’
All of a sudden, a set of pounding footsteps against the grass sounds behind her. Cynthia lowers her guard, turning around as Zaram comes sprinting into the clearing.
“Boss!” he cries breathlessly, skidding to a halt and doubling over to catch his breath. “Big news!”
Cynthia looks at Zaram with a puzzled expression. “What’s the matter, Zaram? You look flustered.”
“Word is that some of those Joukai guys are fighting a Fatalist outside the Ellinia Academy!”
Cynthia’s eyes widen upon hearing this news. She lowers her Kandine even more. “Are you sure?! They weren’t supposed to have come yet!”
“Yeah,” Zaram howls, “that’s what all the scouts are sayin’!”
Cynthia bites her lip in hesitation. Finally, she nods. “Okay. In that case I better join up with the others immediately. They’re going to need help.”
Fayvard raises an eyebrow, a large frown on his face as he stares down Flynn. He lowers his sword, still glaring at his opponent. “Come on, pretty boy, you’re a Fatalist. Is that really all you got?”
Flynn huffs and puffs, a purely ecstatic grin on his face, marking a stark contrast to Fayvard’s frown. He raises his double-edged dagger, holding it out in front of him. “Merely teasing you, False Aristocrat from Orbis.”
Fayvard’s eye twitches in annoyance. “Hey, stop calling me that!”
“Only victors deserve to issue commands!” Flynn cries, disappearing and reappearing in a flash right next to Fayvard.
Flynn swings his dagger; Fayvard deflects the hit with his sword. The two weapons scrape against each other, before Flynn retreats and reappears on Fayvard’s other side.
Fayvard blocks Flynn’s second attack as well; in fact, he grabs Flynn’s wrist, neutralizing his weapon. Fayvard stabs at Flynn with his sword; Flynn wrenches his wrist free from Fayvard’s grip and flips over in the air.
Flynn lands, and immediately sprints straight back at Fayvard, landing several blows at once on Fayvard. In turn, Fayvard parries every single hit, and finishes the exchange by throwing in an attack of his own.
Flynn blocks the attack and pushes against Fayvard’s sword to leap backwards, landing gently on the grass as he takes a moment to catch his breath.
“You seriously call yourself a Fatalist?!” Fayvard growls unpleasantly. “You’re slow as hell, your attacks don’t pack any punch, why am I wasting my time with you?!”
Zack watches the exchange between Fayvard and Flynn, eyes widened. “You kiddin’ me…? Those attacks are so fast I can barely keep up with my eyes. Forget about me even participatin’ in the battle. This might be a battle only Fayvard can fight after all…”
Next to Zack, Mira watches the battle unfold with equal interest. Her breath is held with every change of blows between the two combatants. “I can’t believe how fast they’re going…!”
“Come on, Fatalist!” Fayvard cries tauntingly. “I’ve heard Fatalists have special skills they can use. Where’s your special power?! Or are you just a rich boy with no real skill?”
“Hmph,” Flynn smirks, “it would appear you have no sense of appreciation for my refined battle technique, False Aristocrat from Orbis. Unlike my fellow comrades, I do not taint myself with the borrowed strength of other classes. My unique power is that I am a Double Shadower!”
“Double, huh?” Fayvard replies. “I have no idea what the hell that is so you’ll have to pardon me for being a lowly hybrid then. But those who have a taste of my poison usually give it pretty rave reviews!”
Fayvard raises his sword, as it begins to glow a sickening green color. He charges at Flynn, swinging his sword through the air wildly. “A lot of people don’t know it, but Ryuu and I both got our fire and poison abilities from Grendel the one and only! So don’t underestimate our abilities!”
Flynn leaps high into the air, avoiding Fayvard’s attack easily. He lands behind Fayvard, swiping at the latter before he lands. Fayvard swings his sword over his own shoulder, deflecting Flynn’s attack with expert precision and completing the exchange.
“Grendel, eh?” Flynn grins as he lands gracefully. “I see…you got your powers from him. That will certainly give me extra motivation to defeat you then!”
“Hm, you know Grendel as well?” Fayvard replies plainly.
“Of course, False Aristocrat from Orbis!” Flynn shoots back. “The Four are well known in our dimension as well as yours. They were the ones responsible for splitting the dimensions in half after all! But the fact that you received your powers from Grendel makes me want to kill you even more!”
“Oh?” Fayvard smirks, raising an eyebrow. “I’d like to see you try!”
“I would kindly advise you not to underestimate the strength of a Double Shadower either!” Flynn cries, brandishing his dagger. He swings it through the air in a circular motion, an intricate dance that generates a steady thudding sound as the dagger swings round and round.
Flynn comes straight at Fayvard this time, bringing his dagger crashing violently into Fayvard’s sword. The two weapons connect, competing against each other for dominance.
Fayvard’s eyes widen as Flynn pushes harder; he jumps backward as his sword gives way. Flynn’s dagger is carried into the ground by its momentum, punching a crater into the ground.
Eying the impact of the attack, Fayvard breathes a slight sigh of relief. “What gives, that was stronger than before! See, you can go harder after all!”
Flynn flashes Fayvard a smirk. “As a Double Shadower, I possess twice the power and twice the precision of a normal Shadower! Do not take me lightly!”
“Oh, so that’s what a Double Shadower is, eh?” Fayvard sneers. “I’m pretty impressed. But it’ll still take more than that to take me down!”
“Then try this!” Flynn emerges from nowhere, swinging his dagger with lightning speed. Fayvard raises his sword only just in time to block the attack, the edge of Flynn’s blade stops just inches from Fayvard’s nose. In the next second, Fayvard’s eyes widen as the blade of his sword is sliced clean in half.
Fayvard takes a step backward as Flynn’s dagger carries him forward. The top half of Fayvard’s blade falls uselessly to the ground with a deafening clang.
Giving his broken sword a quick glance, Fayvard kicks the fragmented piece of the blade on the ground aside, still clutching the hilt of his broken sword in his right hand. “Tch, I didn’t really need that sword anyway.”
“One cannot fight without a blade!” Flynn taunts confidently. He moves his dagger to strike at Fayvard again, but Fayvard reacts quickly, reaching forward and grabbing Flynn’s wrist out of the air in a vice-like grip.
Flynn glares at Fayvard. “What are you doing?” he snarls.
Merely smiling grimly in return, Fayvard shouts, “Poison Bubble!”
A large green bubble suddenly forms around both Fayvard and Flynn. The bubble swells ominously, surrounding the two in its greenish cage. Flynn watches with widened eyes as the bubble grows larger and larger.
“Everyone, get down!” Zack suddenly shouts, turning to Mira and Ophelia next to him. He drags them both them to the ground, covering their mouths and noses with his hands. Zack himself buries his face in the grass. Around him, the students gathered at the scene do the same as well, digging their faces into the ground and grabbing their faces with their palms.
With a thunderous explosion, the bubble around Fayvard and Flynn suddenly collapses, torn apart by its own size. A thick, gaseous green vapor envelops the area in its place.
Flynn doubles over, coughing heavily from breathing in the poison. Fayvard stands still, grinning triumphantly at his opponent. He points at himself. “The strongest poison user west of Ossyria, that’s me!”
At last, Flynn stops coughing. He wipes his mouth with his sleeve, and rises to glare at Fayvard once again. “Petty fool, do you think that pathetic poison of yours will slay one such as myself?”
Fayvard looks at Flynn with amazement. He waves his broken sword in the air wildly. “The hell’s going on here?! That poison should’ve killed you immediately.”
In response, Flynn merely narrows his eyes. He reaches for something on his back. Out of thin air, a massive shield of silver materializes. Those around the scene watch in wonder, as the shield fully emerges, gleaming brightly in the soft sunlight.
“A shield?” Ophelia asks, rising with Zack and Mira back to her feet.
Zack watches the scene unfold gravely. “It…can’t be…” he mutters.
“Yes,” Flynn says to the stunned silence suddenly falling around the clearing, “this is the Shield of Wizet, one of the two legendary weapons said to have been wielded by the creators of the universe. I daresay even the name rings familiar in your inferior dimension. It has been passed down in the safe care of the emperors of our dimension for centuries, while its counterpart, the Sword of Nexon, has resided in your dimension, hidden away within the souls of the Three Phonemes. Yes. This is indeed the Shield of Wizet, the weapon said to possess the power to create anything in the world.”
“The Shield of Wizet…?” Fayvard whispers. “I thought it was just a legend…to think it actually existed. Why the hell do you have it?!”
Flynn suddenly reaches into his pocket, withdrawing from it a nearly empty bottle. He opens it, and holds it over his mouth, taking in the very last drop of the purplish liquid within. “I imagine His Highness would forgive me for using it in this instance to create an antidote for your poison. I only needed the Shield to create a link between our otherwise separate dimensions, but I believe he would understand.”
Zack bares his teeth, his hands clenched into fists. “So it is, after all! The Shield of Wizet…”
Fayvard shifts uneasily, facing Flynn. “Are you gonna use that thing to defeat me now? If it can indeed create anything, then we’re at your mercy.”
“Of course not,” Flynn replies, drawing amazed looks from the others. “I am a nobleman that knows his place. It is far too advanced for my hands to riddle it with filth, and for my own honor, I do not intend to use this weapon with undue liberty. I fight my own battles, to put it another way!”
Without another word, Flynn raises the Shield of Wizet in the air, and it vanishes completely.
“But using it to selfishly save your own life is all right,” Fayvard points out.
“Of course,” Flynn answers, his aqua eyes glimmering brightly. “His Highness would be even more upset with me if I were to die unnecessarily.”
“Then I’ll just make ya die!” Fayvard’s voice sounds from Flynn’s side.
Flynn turns just as Fayvard stabs at Flynn with his broken sword; a gush of greenish gas emerges from Fayvard’s sword once again.
“I do not fall for the same trick twice!” Flynn growls, charging at Fayvard with his dagger. An explosion sounds. “Meso Explosion!”
—END TWENTY-SEVEN—
Flynn doesn’t speak in contractions. I don’t know why.