Tales of a Lost Sword 74

Combo breaker?
Episode 74 The Lust for Victory
The fire long since extinguished, Kunai gazes wearily at the campsite around him. Dawn has broken, as sunlight slowly streams into the clearing, lighting up the dark forest around. Dark bags hang under Kunai’s eyes from a sleepless night.

Zack and Cynthia are asleep in their sleeping bags, slumbering away peacefully. Kunai frowns at Cynthia’s dozing face, watching her intently. ‘I’ll never let you be sacrificed for the Sheath, Cynthia…’

Tiredly, Kunai rises to his feet and embarks down a narrow trail heading towards a tiny stream. He bends over the water, splashing some of it onto his face in an effort to revitalize himself. Kunai frowns at his reflection in the clear blue water. A small fish shoots past him and disappears behind a clump of reeds.

In the meantime, a soft rustling sounds from the shrubbery near the campsite. Unable to hear it, Cynthia continues sleeping, her chest rising up and down with each breath. However, next to her, Zack pops open an eye, his eyes darting about suspiciously.

All of a sudden, Fayvard emerges from the bushes nearby, his sword unsheathed as he pounces upon Cynthia. Zack slips out of his sleeping bag, his staff quickly in his hands. But before even Zack can react, Kunai has appeared in between Fayvard and Cynthia, his sword drawn as he stands guard over Cynthia, stopping Fayvard in his tracks.

Stirred by the unexpected clashing of swords, Cynthia opens her eyes. She suppresses a cry of surprise as she jumps back, watching the conflict between Kunai and Fayvard unfold.

“What do you think you’re doing, Fayvard?” Kunai hisses in a low voice.

“Just get out of the way, Kunai,” Fayvard responds in an equally icy manner. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“You bastard,” Kunai growls back, “of course it does. I know exactly what you’re here for!” He looks over in the bushes, where a shroud of purple hair pokes out from behind them. “Is that Mira?!”

“So what if it is?” Fayvard retorts bluntly. “You’re not getting past me.”

“Well, you’re not getting past me either!”

Fayvard suddenly bursts out laughing, a grating and unpleasant sound. “Hahaha! Even Ryuu never once could beat me in a sword fight. What makes you think you can?”

“How dare you say Ryuu’s name with your dirty tongue?!” roars Kunai. He takes a step back, and then in a flash fires a vicious blast of energy at Fayvard. “Soul Combustion!”

With amazing speed, Fayvard sidesteps the attack. The blast barrels past him and crashes straight into a couple of nearby trees, slicing them cleanly in half.

“Not a bad move!” Fayvard compliments as he retaliates this time, swing his sword down at Kunai. Leaping out of the way, Kunai prepares to fire another blast. But Fayvard intercepts him, cutting the air with his sword dangerously close to Kunai, forcing him to parry.

“I know your weaknesses, Kunai! That move won’t work more than once on me! You’re not even supposed to do it more than once at a time!”

“All right, then! Power Assaulter!” Kunai rockets past Fayvard with a blur and a rush of wind. A few leaves scuttle into the air from the breeze. Barely getting out of the way in time, Fayvard manages to deflect Kunai’s attack with his sword enough to avoid injury.

Still, blood soaks Fayvard’s hands from having clenched his sword too tightly. He shakes the flecks of blood off his hands gruffly. “There’s that attack again!” Fayvard growls, narrowing his eyes. “I wanna know what’s up with those weird attacks, Kunai!”

Reacting at last, Cynthia hurriedly grabs her Kandine, slipping on her battle goggles. “Kunai! Let me help you!”

Kunai turns to look at Cynthia, his eyes blazing with fury. “STAY OUT OF THIS!” Kunai snarls at Cynthia. “I will never forgive you if you allow yourself to be captured and killed the way Ivy was!”

Cynthia hesitates, momentarily struck dumb by these words. Zack quickly rushes to her side, teleporting her out of the way as Fayvard turns his attention towards her. Holding Cynthia back with his arms, Zack guards her, his staff still in his hands.

“Stay back, Hyacinth! This ain’t our battle!”

“Hmph!” Fayvard snorts. “Come on, Kunai. Even you have to realize that obtaining the Sheath is the only way we’ll win this war. Do you honestly think that the lives of three people compare to the lives of our entire dimension?!”

“Yes!” Kunai answers firmly, to Fayvard’s immense surprise. “I’m tired of losing people, of sacrificing people! I’m not about to let anybody else lose their lives because of this war! If I can’t even save one life, how can I expect to save an entire dimension?!”

“By getting the Sheath, you idiot!” howls Fayvard. He raises his sword angrily, a poisonous green light blazing forth from the blade. “If I have to kill you too to get to the Anti-Phonemes…I’ll do it!”

“It’s not ‘Anti-Phoneme!’ She has a name!” Kunai barks angrily. “Her name is—”

“DO YOU THINK I GIVE A DAMN RIGHT NOW WHAT HER NAME IS?!” Fayvard booms, descending upon Kunai. A violent haze of green light flashes through the air.

Kunai dodges, leaping out of the way just in time has Fayvard hammers a crushing blow into the ground. An entire tree is uprooted from the chaos. The tree topples over, falling in between Kunai and Fayvard with a thunderous screech.

Cynthia screams as the tree falls over Zack and herself. Kunai leaps into the air, using his sword to cut the tree into several smaller pieces. They land on the ground with earsplitting booms, but as the dust clears, both Zack and Cynthia are safe.

Kunai lands roughly on the ground, his breathing heavy from the effort of cutting the tree apart. “Fayvard…just how far have you fallen if you actually think that you can just sacrifice three people’s lives without their permission?!”

“Like I said,” growls Fayvard, his eyes bulging maddeningly, “I’ll do anything to win this war! I can’t say the same about you!”

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Kunai nods with resignation. His black eyes glitter with resoluteness. “All right. Then I guess there’s no convincing you. The only way I’ll stop you is by force!”

A knock sounds at the door of the hospital room. Arai looks up from the bedside of Lillia, his blond hair ruffled messily from running his hands through it. Recelo comes into the room, a slightly anxious look on his face as he glances from Arai to Lillia.

“Is Lillia gonna be all right?” Recelo asks quietly.

Quickly composing himself, Arai issues Recelo a tiny smile. “Perhaps,” he answers gently, “Seraphe has tended to her, so I am confident she will survive. In what capacity though, even I cannot imagine.”

Recelo stalks over to Arai’s side near the window, folding his arms as he leans against the smoothly painted white wall. He frowns at Lillia’s unconscious body on the bed. “Lillia may be a runt, but she’s no pushover. To think that the enemy had something up their sleeve that could do this much damage… We might’ve underestimated them.”

Rising to his feet silently, Arai strides past Recelo, and comes to a stop at the very foot of Lillia’s bed. “The fury of war causes people to do terrible things, Recelo. However, if we are prepared to win by doing even more terrible things, then we shall be victorious. We will win, Recelo. Kunai and the others have nothing left that can defeat us.”

“That’s easy for you to say, Your Majesty. But unlike you, the rest of us Fatalists aren’t immune to getting our souls blasted to shreds. We aren’t prepared to fight a trump card like that.”

“In the end, you may not need to,” murmurs Arai softly.

“What?”

Arai turns back slightly, just enough to catch sight of Recelo over his shoulder. The soft sunlight coming in from the window falls upon his pale face. “Without their leader, without Ryuu, the enemy will fall apart. Things may already be over for them.”

Kunai and Fayvard stand several feet apart from each other, their swords pointed at one another. A grim breeze drifts by, ruffling their clothes and hair. Their eyes glitter with mutual malice, the light of enmity showing through even in the increasingly bright day. From afar, both Zack and Cynthia watch nervously, unable to do anything to prevent the impending conflict.

“Fayvard, I’ll say this one last time,” Kunai warns Fayvard sternly. “Stay away from the Anti-Phonemes.”

“Or what?” Fayvard taunts, sneering at Kunai even as the two of them tighten their grips upon their swords.

“I’ll kill you!” Kunai roars. In a flash, he teleports right next to Fayvard, his sword singing venomously through the air. Fayvard raises his own sword as well. With a clang, their two swords meet in battle.
—END SEVENTY-FOUR—