Tales of a Lost Sword 82

Episode 82 Diametric Opposition
At the last moment, a flash of green flies past both Kunai and Recelo’s eyes. Another burst of golden light follows the green flash, as the ball of energy from Kunai’s Soul Combustion is cut cleanly in half. The energy from the attack dissipates into the air in a haze of steam.

Kunai’s jaw drops slightly at the sight. “No way…” he mutters. But in the next second, he flinches, forced to dodge as another wild beam of light flies at him. Fayvard intercepts the attack, using the metal blade of his sword to parry the ray of golden light.

As the dust clears, Midori appears in between the two allies and Recelo, her arms still raised from the follow-through. The golden bow shines menacingly in her hands, glowing brightly even against the light of the setting sun. It hums shrilly, as if eagerly anticipating more prey.

A tiny dent the size of a small coin has formed in the blade of Fayvard’s sword. He glances at the still-smoking dent, smirking somewhat to himself. “Not bad,” he growls. “You’re a fast little thing, aren’t ya? Even with my speed, I could barely follow you with my eyes.”

Kunai’s eyes dart towards Fayvard, who is standing still calmly watching Midori. “Why are you even so fast, Fayvard? You’re not a Thief hybrid… I can only just keep up with your movements sometimes.”

“Practice makes perfect, Kunai!” retorts Fayvard, still not taking his eyes off Midori. He clutches his sword tighter in both hands. “All I have to do is figure out our opponents’ weaknesses and we’ll win!”

“Hmm?” Midori hums, narrowing her eyes arrogantly. She channels more energy into her bow, showing off as the arrow turns into a massive sword of white light. “Aren’t you a little bit too confident? You should know your place, you filthy vermin!”

Without hesitation, Midori fires the arrow from her bow. The sword-arrow escapes into the air with a shriek like a bird of prey, slashing at everything in its path. Fayvard steps out of the way, knocking Kunai out of harm’s way at the same time; the arrow pierces the ground with a shudder, sending the stone from the bridge underneath scuttling into the air. A crater appears quickly underneath.

Fayvard brandishes his own sword, grinning. “It’ll take something better than—damn!” He turns at the last minute, barely blocking a blow from Midori as she hurls into him with a light sword nearly her size.

Hopping backward, she lets go of the sword as it disappears into thin air. In another second, she gathers energy to create another bow. Before Fayvard can react, she releases a hurricane-like stream of arrows at Fayvard. Like a typhoon, the arrows come quickly, at a rate of hundreds per second.

Undeterred, Fayvard uses his own sword as a shield, easily blocking the majority of the most dangerous arrows with surprising grace. Several of them escape his reach and pierce him on the side and the shoulders before evaporating. Yet still unrelenting, Fayvard skips out of sight for a moment, vanishing into thin air.

Within the next second, Fayvard appears in the air just directly in front of Midori and thrusts his sword forward with a shout. He swings downward vertically; Midori quickly shifts from her bow back to her light sword, parrying the attack. She sprints out of the way as Fayvard lands, allowing him to crash into the ground with a thud.

Quickly returning to his feet, Fayvard glares at Midori is now standing feet away from him, her bow trained onto him.

Meanwhile, Kunai watches the flurry of attacks from both sides with slight awe. However, he turns warily as he hears a thud of footsteps behind him. Recelo sneers in Kunai’s face.

“Midori has always been the impatient type. She likes for her attacks to be fast, because she likes to end things fast. But I’m more of the grind-it-out type. Ugly and gory is my preferred style!”

“Too bad,” Kunai deadpans, “because I prefer to fight fast too!” Disappearing with a blur, Kunai hurriedly reappears behind Recelo with his sword raised. It gleams with an angry red color. “Power Strike!”

But Recelo is prepared for Kunai; he swings his Avenger like a sword, parrying Kunai’s attack with expertise. Taking a big step back to gain separation, Recelo fires the Doom Avenger after Kunai.

Kunai merely steps out of the way of the Avenger as it loops past him like a boomerang; it sails out of sight, crashing into a tree in the distance. Turning and tracking Kunai with his eyes, Recelo bares his teeth. “Don’t think you can fool me with that speed!”

“Fayvard!” Kunai cries, exchanging a high-five with Fayvard in midair.

Recelo growls, recalling his Doombringer with a flick of his wrist and forming another set of three throwing swords. Before he has a chance to react, however, Recelo suddenly spots Fayvard standing directly in front of him instead of Kunai. “What the—?!”

Kunai has now traded places with Fayvard as he engages Midori. He cuts the air with his sword swiftly as Midori agilely leaps away, landing lightly upon the narrow stone barrier running the length of the bridge. The Fatalist flips over in the air from the very edge; Kunai’s sword strikes the stone barrier as Midori vanishes.

He spins, just in time to block a purring arrow from Midori’s bow.

On the other end of the bridge, Fayvard slashes upward with his sword; Recelo jerks back in reaction, blood dripping down from a cut on his nose. He winces, as the blood greets his lips. Licking the blood away, Recelo bursts into a cackle.

“Haha! Not bad, switching places like that!” he howls. “You guys must be pretty experienced fighting together to pull something like that off!”

“Not really,” both Kunai and Fayvard reply at the same time.

“Oh?” Recelo frowns.

“Yeah, if you’re in the Joukai, then pulling stuff like this off comes as naturally as breathing!” Fayvard replies with a grinning snarl. He teleports to Recelo’s side, his sword a mere blur of silver in the air.

Recelo throws the first of his three Doombringers at the same time, but misses widely due to Fayvard’s quick movement. With a jerk, he pulls the Doombringer back by its chain; the chain wraps around Fayvard’s ankles, but the latter simply skips out of the way again, this time reappearing directly behind Recelo.

“Then why—?!” Recelo shouts between gritted teeth, breathlessly and barely parrying another quick sneaky stab by Fayvard.

“We’re fighting together…” begins Fayvard.

“For the sake of convenience!” Kunai finishes. He swings his sword. “Soul Combustion!”

“An alliance born out of convenience, huh…?” Midori wonders. She frowns as the blast comes her way. “That shall not work on me!”

She summons her massive golden sword, cutting the attack in half. But just as the dust clears from the blast, Kunai dashes directly within point-blank range. “Soul Synthesis!”

Midori’s eyes widen as the second attack begins. “Damn, I’ve been caught!” she hisses to herself.

The explosion erupts directly on target around Midori. She clenches her eyes shut, covering her face with her arms as the overwhelming blast tumbles over her.

Recelo turns with a hint of apprehension as the explosion knocks out a large section of the bridge. “Midori!”

“Keeping your eyes on your opponent comes first, you bastard!” Fayvard says from Recelo’s side. He leans forward and lands a calculating cut across Recelo’s shoulder. The Fatalilst falls to the ground, his shoulder brutally torn open from the attack. Blood splatters out of the fresh wound.

“Damn it…” mutters Recelo as he drops to the ground.

As the dust finally begins to settle from Kunai’s Soul Synthesis attack, he glances over towards Fayvard and Recelo with satisfaction. “All right. We can do this, we can beat them!”

Crying out loud, Kunai raises his sword as he changes direction and dashes to strike the final blow upon Recelo. However, as Fayvard notices Kunai sprinting towards him, he suddenly widens his eyes. “Kunai! Behind you!”

A blur of green flashes past Kunai’s shoulder. Too slowly, he turns, barely catching a gleam of golden light as Midori dashes behind him and loosens an arrow of golden light. ‘She managed to evade my attack?!’

The arrow strikes Kunai directly between the shoulder blades. He skids to a halt and falls with a crunching thud on his side. Myou lands with a clatter on the ground just out of reach. Grimacing, Kunai struggles to return to his feet, even as the arrow dissipates into mana particles.

Fayvard watches with awe. “That was fast even for me…” he mutters wonderingly to himself.

“You’re next!” Midori sings, moving without hesitance now towards Fayvard. He quickly gathers himself, aware of the lightning danger now bulleting towards him.

He sidesteps Midori’s attack, as a massive wave of golden light soars past him. A shocking breath of wind ruffles Fayvard’s hair. But Midori rapidly pivots in space and lands a second blow, this time accurately across Fayvard. He is thrown off his feet, landing on the ground just like Kunai.

The necklace containing the Fatalists’ Anti-Paradox falls to the ground nearby, just out of reach of Fayvard’s hands. His eyes widen as he notices the necklace lying innocently in the middle of the bridge, as does Midori. They both scramble to recover it.

At the last second, Fayvard manages to secure the necklace in his hands. He hurriedly tosses it towards Kunai as Midori digs at his heels, crying, “Kunai! Catch!”

Midori slides onto the ground, having failed to grab the necklace. She frantically jumps back to her feet, frowning. “Give that back!” She sprints recklessly towards Kunai.

Meanwhile, with some difficulty owing to his injuries, Kunai manages to catch the necklace in his hands. He cups it in both his palms, staring at the faded sapphire stone that once belonged to Ayame.

At the same time, Midori continues flying towards Kunai, her eyes aflame. “Damn it!” Fayvard shouts. He grabs his sword and with supreme speed and accuracy, hurls it straight at Midori’s retreating back. The blade pierces her from behind just seconds before she reaches Kunai.

A sharp intake of breath sounds from Kunai as he watches Midori fall to the ground just in front of him, her long fronds of green hair a mess in the air. The sword pierces straight through her body from behind. Blood splatters from Midori’s body onto Kunai’s face. She falls to the ground in slow motion and does not move.

At the same time, a bright white light suddenly emanates from the Anti-Paradox. Kunai watches with astonishment as the blinding light engulfs him, wiping out all the surroundings with its brightness. “Wh-what the—?!”

All remains silent. Kunai remains lying on the ground, but the wound on his back and the pain associated with it has disappeared. The bridge as well as its vicinity has disappeared. Kunai slowly scrambles into a sitting position upon a smooth, white floor, a faint humming in his ears. He stares at the blank white walls all around him. “Where…am I?”

He turns breathlessly as he hears footsteps behind him.

“Welcome, Kunai,” a voice says from behind, “you are in a special space.”
—END EIGHTY-TWO—
Here’s the Friday chapter super early.