Tales of a Lost Sword 46

Episode 46 Ugly
A little bit of sunshine peers through the leaves of the large oak tree standing between Fayvard and Rill as the morning is now in full swing. The added light prompts Fayvard to narrow his eyes somewhat, squinting at the lit-up features of Blod, the Fatalist standing before him now.

“Looks like we’re in for our first real fight here,” Fayvard growls under his breath, staring fixedly at Blod. His hand strays towards the hilt of his sheathed sword as he speaks.

Next to Fayvard, Rill also prepares himself for a fight as well, raising both his fists. A soft glow of electric yellow light escapes from his right hand.

Blod turns her attention first towards Rill. She glares at him with much disdain. “Traitor…how dare you use the strength of His Majesty Arai against me! Your filthy hands do not deserve to wield his awesome power!”

With a rapid movement, Blod rushes to strike Rill down. Fayvard grabs Rill at the last moment and pulls him behind the oak. The two of them breathe sighs of relief as they hear one of the oak’s branches tumble to the ground like a dead weight.

“Cowards are not tolerated!”

With another swift stroke, Blod cuts down the entire oak tree this time. The tree, with its bottom slashed out from under it, crashes to the ground with an earsplitting crack.

Fayvard and Rill turn as one as Blod reappears from behind the now-fallen tree, her face aglow with joyful madness. Her blood red katana gleams in the sunlight, flickering like fire.

“Just what I was thinking!” Fayvard howls back, whipping his sword out at last. He lunges forward and makes a move at Blod. He cuts down vertically, but meets only air, as Blod leaps into the air with blinding agility.

“Now, Rill!”

Out of nowhere, Rill appears on the ground just below Blod as she remains in the air. He tosses a Lightning Avenger straight at her. The massive shuriken made of lightning zips through the air, crackling menacingly.

Blindsided, Blod fails to evade the Avenger in time. The shuriken flies right through her, detaching her right arm, still holding her katana, with ease. The Lightning Avenger disappears into thin air just as the arm lands on the ground uselessly.

Screeching, Blod lands on top of the corpse of the oak tree, but no blood at all pours out of her wound. In triumph, Fayvard makes a move to grab Blod’s weapon. “Gotch—”

“Wait, Fayvard!” Rill shouts alarmingly.

Blod’s amputated arm abruptly begins wriggling about vigorously as Fayvard approaches it. Suddenly, it leaps straight into the air and closes tight around Fayvard’s throat. It tightens its grip mercilessly, as Fayvard is forced to his knees. Already, his face begins to turn red, then purple, and then a sickening blue.

Cackling hideously, Blod approaches the downed Fayvard. Rill can only look on in horror. “And you’re the reconnaissance? Don’t you know the basic rule of reconnaissance is to understand the capabilities of your enemy?”

“F-Fayvard!” Rill cries uncertainly, unsure of what to do. But Fayvard merely clenches his teeth in response, unable to even utter a response.

“It’s useless!” Blod roars gleefully. “If you attempt to cut it, it will explode in a plume of dangerous poisons. Well, I suppose it is your choice how you want to die!”

However, Fayvard ignores Blod, turning to Rill and motioning for him to cut the arm. Rill merely looks back at him horrified. “A-Are you sure?!” he gasps.

Impatiently, Fayvard suddenly grabs his own sword himself and punctures the arm with it. Rill immediately leaps back and covers his nose and mouth as a blast of noxious poison envelops the area.

Blod glares as the cloud of poison rises high into the air, turning the leaves of several nearby trees black. With a gasp, Fayvard wrenches the mutilated arm off his neck at last, breathing in the sweet morning air.

“Oh? So the poison did not affect you after all?” Blod cries, narrowing her eyes but nonetheless appearing impressed.

“Tch,” smiles back Fayvard, “as a poison user myself, I’ve developed a natural immunity to most poisons. It’d take some stronger stuff than that to take me out!”

“I see,” says Blod unpleasantly. A nasty squelch sounds. All of a sudden, a new right arm grows out of the empty socket in Blod’s shoulder.

Fayvard grins pleasantly in return. He bends over, moving to pick up Blod’s sword. “You still forg—”

In a flash, Blod steps past Fayvard and retrieves her sword. She brings it back up in one fluid motion as she slides past Fayvard. A glint of red shines near Fayvard’s legs. Dodging just in the nick of time, Fayvard parries a second blow with his sword. The two combatants each take a step back following the exchange to catch their breaths.

“Phew!” Fayvard sighs, that same haughty, amused smile plastered to his face. “You almost cut short the Lunari family lineage there!”

Blod frowns. Fayvard glares at her, still smiling despite the situation.

“Heh. Y’know, you’d be pretty hot if you weren’t such a psychotic bitch.”

“I thank you for the compliment.”

Fayvard grins. “That wasn’t a compliment!”

Without warning, the fight resumes at full speed. Blod takes off first, but Fayvard makes the first strike. He reaches forward with his sword, swiping at Blod as the two of them make contact.

The latter sidesteps and dodges at the last second, swinging her sword devastatingly as she does so. “Power Strike!” The ground explodes around Fayvard as he deflects the brunt of the attack with his sword.

He quickly retaliates by casting a rushed spell. A blast of green fog escapes from Fayvard’s lips. Almost as soon as the gas seeps into the air, Blod bounces backwards onto the branch of an oak tree nearby. She is out of breath as she covers her nose and mouth with her hands, glaring down at Fayvard from above.

“I see,” Fayvard muses, looking back up at his opponent. “I was just testing out of curiosity, but that confirms it. Unlike me, you’re not immune to poisons.”

Rill gazes up at Blod as well. Suddenly he turns to Fayvard. “Hey! I’ve got a plan.”

Fayvard glances at Rill, almost as if he had forgotten he was there. “Huh? I’m all ears, kid.”

Rill creeps towards Fayvard to discuss the plan, but is interrupted as Blod hurls her katana down in the space between the two partners again. With lightning speed, she leaps down from her post on the tree, retrieving her sword and swinging wildly at both Fayvard and Rill at the same time.

The two leap backwards to dodge the attack, quickly re-entering their fighting stances as Blod raises her sword again. This time, she approaches Rill, a haughty look in her eyes.

“Rill, huh…” Blod hisses. “His Majesty may treat you as one of us, but I never trusted you myself…I always knew you were a dirty rat from the false dimension, and now I have proof! For the sake of His Majesty’s honor, I’ll destroy you first!

Clenching his teeth, Rill forms a new Avenger made of lightning. He glares at Blod warningly. “Don’t come any closer!” However, Blod ignores him, and continues to approach at a slow sauntering pace. At last, Rill sends his Avenger flying straight at Blod.

The Fatalist leaps into the air at full speed, catching the Lightning Avenger with her left hand. The lightning explodes upon contact with her skin, but Blod does not even flinch. She crushes the Avenger in her hand, at the cost of the lightning singeing it completely.

With merciless determination, Blod slices the mutilated hand clean off her arm at the wrist. The hand falls to the ground, still burning black. Blod then continues flying straight at Rill, who remains immobilized with shock.

“Damn it,” Fayvard mutters to himself from behind the action, “this is turning into a hell of an ugly fight.”

Blod swings her katana with malicious glee as she reaches Rill. The former merely cringes as he braces himself for the impact, but it never comes.

A clang of metal on metal reveals Fayvard guarding him as Rill opens his eyes. Fayvard has deflected the most devastating part of the attack with his sword, but a thin line of blood running down his right arm betrays where Blod has struck him.

“F-Fayvard!” Rill cries with astonishment.

Fayvard merely glances back at Rill, not even a trace of a smile on his lips now. “Tch. What did you expect? We’re teammates. This is what teammates do for each other!”
—END FORTY-SIX—
Because I’m a douche, no resolution to the previous battle for a while. For now, Team Fayvard/Rill vs. Blod. Who ya got?