I quickly looked to my right and saw the cloaked heroine standing next to me. The cloak she wore was bloodied and in tatters, revealing some of her equipment and armor. The one that stood out the most, though, was her weapon. At first, I mistook it for a rapier, until I noticed that the blade was similar to a longsword in length. Even the guard, which looks to be quite similar to a cutlass, is rather a bit large and less basket-shaped. In truth, the handle and the guard are thin and shaped like a wide ring. The blade vibrated with the colors of indigo and ultramarine and had runes engraved on the blade itself.
“I see you got in quite of a tangle yourself,” I joked as I gazed at her tattered cloak.
“Oh please," Xeo huffed. "You are in no better condition than I am,” she said with a smirk as she bumped my right shoulder. I blushed for a bit, then quickly got back to the task at hand. “Anyway, this guy is no joke. If you're planning on helping me, we need to be careful. Even with the Mastery Arts, he has a lot of stamina. Not only that, with each blow I dealt him, he became more aggressive.”
Taking in the information, Xeo nodded in understanding. “Really? If that's the case, then why don’t we do this?” She grabbed her unusual weapon from its scabbard and continued talking “If we both take him on with high-level Mastery Arts, then that will cause him to stagger. This might leave out an opening for one of us to unleash a final, fatal blow. It’s risky but it may be our only shot at stopping him.”
I nodded. I couldn't help but be worried about her plan. Granted, we might win if we do it, but with rewards, there's a risk, especially the risk of undergoing Stasis. Despite the ability to use Mastery Arts, some of these Arts require huge amounts of Aura. Using too much Aura will cause one to undergo Stasis, an effect where the user is exhausted from using too much Aura and must rest to regain their strength. I don’t want to be caught in something like that, nor is anyone doing it solo. That is why most Heroes go on quests or raids in parties, it allows them to switch with someone who is undergoing the Stasis effect, so they can continue the fight and prevent numerous casualties.
Despite my doubts, two people are better than one, especially what's going down in this fight. I looked down at my shortsword, now battered and chipped from my current fight. Its condition looks bad, but it still contains some of its sharpness. By the looks of it, this sword will only last for the rest of this fight. I took one last breath and opened my eyes.
It is now or never. “Let’s do this.”
“All right,” Xeo said. “I’ll take him on to the right. You take him to the left. When he is about to swing. You perform a Disarm Art, this will cause him to stagger, allowing me to counterattack him. Once that happens, we will switch, and do the same thing.”
“Got it,” I said.
By the time we finish our discussion, the Marauder is already taking a stance. I looked at Xeo and we both made our marks. We both ran at top speed towards Haltongard, all while Xeo was running on the right side and I was running on the left side. As soon as I closed the distance, Haltongard quickly looked towards my direction, proceeded to a mid stance, and started to swing, just as Xeo predicted. I held my sword at mid-level, and it started to glow a silvery gray color and proceeded to stagger his posture with Ol Parry, a low-level disarming Art. Before the Marauder could regain his balance from the parry, Xeo started thrusting straight, leaving a deep cut at his bone armor, revealing some of the flesh hiding behind the armor. Xeo quickly placed her right foot upfront, twisted her hand vertically-her blade glowing a jade green, turned her whole body in a two-hundred seventy-degree turn, and proceeded to slash upward, causing Haltongard’s left shoulder to fall off with a quick shingg!! Black blood spilled all over his left side as he growled in agony. In a fit of rage, the Marauder gives a murderous stare and prepares to lunge at Xeo with a vertical cut, cursing in a language I have never heard. With a violent crash, the vertical cut caused the whole room to shake, causing smoke that engulfed the room.
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I covered my face to prevent the debris from clouding my vision. “Xeo...cough, cough… Xeo! Where are you?!” I yelled through the smoke trying to find my partner. I heard a cool female voice responding in an irritated tone. “Do you have to yell so loud?” I looked to my left and saw her.
The teenage girl has silver and white hair, despite it being short, most of her hair covers her right eye, while her left eye is revealed to have a misty glow of white, and her skin is smooth like pearls. She looks to be around the same age as I am, except her height is about an inch shorter than me. As for equipment, she held her unusual sword on her right, its blade still gleaming its shades of blue and silver. She also wears a short jacket, covering the breastplate that protects her chest. Her waist holds her scabbard, including a few potions and crystals. Behind her waist lies a small hunter’s knife, sheathed in its little scabbard. Her legs are covered with black pant legs and her feet are her traveler boots.
"...."
"...Um...Are you ok?"
I snapped out of my trace and returned to focus, finally noticing that her cloak was nowhere to be found. I looked at her in surprise and asked, “Yeah...Where is your cloak?” She responded by pointing north at the center and casually said. “Over there.” I looked to where she was pointing, and what I saw made my jaw drop. At the center of where the smoke was triggered, a gray cloak, filled with blood and tatters, was smashed and cut to the ground by a machete in a vertical cut. The attacker that smashed the old cloak was an angry creature, soaked by his own blood from all the damage dealt from his opponent. Replacing his angry expression was instead full of shock and a loss for words as he stupidly stared at the cloak.
Haltongard looked up really slowly and saw the two of us, and with a mumble of his words, he said “I...Impossible. How can I, Haltongard the Marauder? Be defeated by you, foul Humans! Damn you….Damn you….DAMN YOU!!!!!!!” He attempts to pull his machete from the ground, but the machete stands still. The bloodied pillager pulls harder, only for him to have his whole arm to torn off from his shoulder. Black blood splattered all over the place as he screamed in agony, cursing in the mysterious language I still don’t understand. He looked at us in rage, blood continuing to spill from his mouth. Xeo’s eyes suddenly turned serious as the bloody Marauder took a stance and, like a bull, he was going to charge. She quickly turned to my direction and yelled, “Xia! Get ready, he is about to charge!”
“!!!” I held my sword and Xeo did the same, both taking our positions and made our attack stances. Haltongard started his charge towards us, his eyes and mouth watered with black blood and yellow malice. I closed my eyes and controlled my heart rate and breath, letting the extra energy the mysterious voice gave me flow throughout my body. Holding my sword with both hands, I began to make a charge of my own. In my mind, it would say, What the hell are you doing? That guy is about to run you over, and you are going to start charging!? Stop charging! STOP IT YOU IDIOT!! At least that’s what logic would say. There is another part that thinks that it could be possible if only I can stop worrying about the logic of this world and this situation if I can bypass it.
As I continued charging, my sword glowed blue It glowed and formed into what I thought looked like a wolf. As the distance closes between us, I held my sword overhead, and spoke as one, “Mastery Art, Astral Strike!!!”
The fight ended a lot quicker than I expected. In a white flash, everything went blank.