The masked man raised his sword and thrusted right at Violet’s back. Violet was well trained though and sensed their presence just a split second before it was too late. She limboed under the blade and swept her feet to try and topple her masked attacker. The man saw this coming though and dodged backwards. There was now some distance between the two. Kenrich and Violet simultaneously and correctly realized that there was no chance that this masked man was alone. On cue, three more masked men came from the brush as if they teleported there. There had only ever been rumors of magic stones that could teleport people, but the same was true about the Ring of Life. Seeing that she was outnumbered, Violet focused on dodging and defending in order to formulate a plan. Kenrich saw her deflecting and dodging the many rapiers coming towards her body and knew he had to do something. He gripped the speed stone that he had just successfully used for the first time and bolted right to where Violet was. He was still unsteady on his feet, but he knew of something he could do regardless of his precision. He crashed right into one of the attackers who was propelled around ten feet away from the battlefield, dazed. Kenrich was dazed too, but he knew there was no time for that and got up almost immediately and put his back against Violet’s. The three masked men surrounded them, and shortly after, the fourth joined them as they made a diamond around both Kenrich and Violet.
“You ready for the final exam, village boy?”
“Let’s do this,” Kenrich said, trying to appear confident.
Violet thrust her sword at the nearest attacker, who dodged, and then slapped away a rapier coming from her left side. Kenrich thought about trying to shoot a fireball with his new crystal sword but decided against it after he remembered one of Violet’s teachings: “Never do your strongest attack first, unless you’re severely undermatched.” He knew they were outnumbered and that the masked men were skilled, but somehow, he felt like they had a shot at winning this fight. Whether it was the blind confidence his sword gave him, his belief in Violet’s skills, or his belief in his own, it did not matter, Kenrich was always someone who operated off of improvisation more often than he should. Still gripping the speed stone, he gave a lightning quick slash at one of the masked men, who was barely able to deflect the blade. Seeing that the man was now off balance from Kenrich’s blow, Violet stopped her grudge match with the other three attackers and flew across the battlefield straight at them with her sword held in front of her. It pierced the attacker right through their chest and they hit the ground immediately. One down. The other attackers saw this, and one tried to thrust another rapier at Violet whose back was turned, but Kenrich was in the right place to smack the blade upwards. Violet turned around quickly and did a quick horizontal slash at the man’s stomach, but he dodged just in time to only receive a flesh wound.
The three remaining masked men were lined up side-by-side at one end of the battlefield, while Kenrich and Violet stood side-by-side on the other about fifteen feet away. The three men stood for a second, and then suddenly the one in the middle held up a stone and started shooting mist out that immediately started taking away Kenrich and Violet’s visibility just like back in their first run in with the masked men. At the last possible second, Violet was able to witness the two other attacks dart in different directions.
“They’re coming! Get ready to defend!” Violet yelled.
Kenrich was sweating bullets and was terrified not knowing where the blade was going to come from. The buildup is always the worst part. The mist had taken up a majority of the field at this point, so trying to run out of it would spell death as you would no doubt be cut down before you made it close…At least if you did not have a speed stone. Kenrich gripped the stone once again and darted through the mist. All he could hope for was that he would not trip on something. It was a gamble, but one that paid off. Finally, being able to see across the field once again, he marveled at just how large the cloud of mist was. He realized that he had come out of the left side of the cloud and knew that the creator of the cloud must be at the very start. He sprinted along the side of the cloud and sure enough, saw a masked man who was continuing to spray mist out, adding to the cloud. Their back was turned. Kenrich thought that this was as good of a time as any and shot a massive fireball from his sword straight at the back of the masked man. The man’s limbs were separated from their body and the explosion thrust away the mist cloud with the sheer force of it. The masked man lay in several pieces opposite to the trajectory of the fireball which created a bloody and burnt mess of what used to be a human. Kenrich did not know how to feel, but buried the feeling deep inside him for later since the job was not finished yet.
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With the mist gone, the two remaining masked men and Violet were uncovered. They had both found Violet, who was injured in the blind fight. A rapier had made its way into her side. She gripped the wound with one hand while defending their blows with the other, but the sweat beading on her forehead and shallow breathing showed that she would not be able to keep up for long. Seeing this, Kenrich once again used the power of the speed stone and tackled a masked man using his momentum. Pushing them to the ground, Kenrich had made the man drop their blade, but he dropped his as well. Not knowing what to do, Kenrich, who was on top of the man, decided to start throwing his fist into their mask.The man took a few punches, but then managed to turn the tide on Kenrich, flipping him over and changing their dynamic. Now the man was throwing his fists into Kenrich’s face. Kenrich was a strong man, but it was clear that this man was just as strong, if not stronger, and had much more hand-to-hand combat experience than himself. After a few moments, Kenrich’s vision started to go dark, and he felt like he was going to black out.
Violet was still in immense pain from her wound, which had punctured one of her kidneys, but knew that she had to do something so she fumbled in her pocket for the freeze stone which she knew could turn the tide of this battle. She found the stone and gripped it tightly and desperately. The masked man was still thrusting his rapier at Violet who was only able to smack it away lightly. The masked man seemed to be playing with her. They were not fighting to kill anymore. They got enjoyment out of seeing Violet struggle. Violet could sense this and knew that it gave her a chance to use the freeze stone if she played her cards right. She continued batting away the rapier thrusts lightly, but after a few similar light thrusts, she used all of her remaining strength to smack away the rapier with all of her might and power. She tensed her muscles so hard that blood shot out of her wound and started dripping from the corner of her mouth. The masked man was not expecting such strength and let go of the rapier which flew out of his hand. Using the moment of confusion to her advantage, Violet once again used the jump stone to shoot herself across the battlefield. She managed to get a finger on the masked man, and he was now stuck in place. Violet had immobilized the man, but she had little strength left. She was bleeding out on the ground now after her harsh landing. She looked over and saw Kenrich continue to take punches to the face and could tell he was not going to be able to stay conscious much longer. She did her best to try and get his attention while the masked man was busy pummeling him.
Kenrich looked over and saw Violet holding up the black stone. He knew that she wanted to toss it to him, but he could not think of a way to catch it without it being intercepted by his attacker. He then had an idea.
The masked man gave Kenrich one final punch, and Kenrich’s eyes shut, and he stopped moving. Violet looked over in horror thinking that they lost. She screamed internally, thinking that it was about to be the end of their lives and the lives of many once Admia got the ring under their control. Who knows how many soldiers they would revive to host an infinite army, or how many times they would revive themselves to hold Admia under the same gruesome leadership for the rest of time, she was not sure if the ring could prevent death of old age, but she knew if anything could, it would be the Ring of Life. The masked man sat up and stared at Kenrich’s unmoving body. Satisfied, the man got up and went to retrieve his weapon. Once the man walked towards his weapon, Kenrich’s eyes shot open, and he looked over at Violet. She took a second to feel immense relief, then tossed the stone perfectly onto Kenrich’s chest. He gripped the stone and thrust his arm at the masked man and grabbed his leg. The man froze in place.
Kenrich let go of the man’s leg and just sat up looking at the sky. His entire face was on fire. He could not see out of his left eye. His nose was broken. A few of his teeth were broken. His mouth was filled with blood. He just felt like total and utter shit. Remembering Violet’s condition though, he got to his feet with a stumble and shuffled towards her pack which was on the other side of the battlefield. He got to the pack and put his hand in the bag, which got blood all over the inside of it from his bloody knuckles. He took out a healing stone and shuffled back to where Violet was. He kneeled next to her and put the stone into her weak hand. She gripped it lightly as a light green light enveloped her.
“There’s…” Cough! Cough! “...two healing stones…dumbass. Go grab one for yourself,” Violet said, weakly. Kenrich nodded and went back towards Violet’s pack.
He knew that there were two stones, but all he could think about was getting her one. He did not think about healing his own wounds for even a second, even though it had become something that he was accustomed to over the past week. She was in much rougher shape than he was after all. He secured a healing stone of his own and made his way back towards Violet. Low on strength, he laid down right next to her and gripped the healing stone. It felt good. The effects of the healing stone warmed his body. Violet and Kenrich laid together side-by-side, peacefully. The battle had been won, even if it was not pretty.