For months after my father and brother died at the hands of the Kaizer, I dedicated my life in avenging their deaths even if I have to trade my own. I know that it is impossible, that I will surely die even before I get close enough for the chance to spit on the face of that bastard. Even so, I gladly accept my fate and die with sword in hand and pride in my heart that even in my last moment, I lived and I die as a Creighton.
When I heard that the Elves are going to help us hijack Kaizer's Void Teleport, a form of teleportation in which we have no ways to counter, and make him come to us instead of his original destination, I knew it was fate that gave us this chance for a final showdown with the man. At that point I was ready to surrender my own life for this one last chance to topple the tyrant.
But the chance didn't come for he was killed by some random nobody in the middle of the void.
At first I was furious at the man. I thought the man had robbed me of my destiny to avenge my family. He stole away from me the chance to get even with Kaizer and with my own hands put the souls of my dead family in peace. It was after a few days when my outrage has faded that I realized that I was in fact not angry at the man. I was angry at myself.
Deep inside I wasn't angry because Cloud has killed Kaizer rather than killing him myself. I was angry at myself for when I heard that Kaizer has died, I felt relieved. I was relieved that I will not face the monster who has wiped an entire army by himself. I was angry at my cowardice, the very trait that my family stood against. Courage and pride, those are the virtues that symbolizes the Creighton's and I lacked in both.
I always believed that my I will share the same fate with my departed family. That I will die in the hands of Kaizer and if I die, I will at least die with courage and pride and stand my ground even at face with death. That way I can stand before my family that I died as a Creighton. But in reality, I wanted to die in battle rather than the loyal men that my father left realize that I am not cut out for leading and if I am an incompetent leader of twenty men, just imagine how incompetent I will be overseeing our vast demesne. I thought that it would be better to die than lose face in front of the loyal men of my father. I thought I have already accepted my fate. The strong crushes the weak that is the way of the world. That is what I believe.
That is until he came. A man who was not only appears weaker, he is also devoid of mana. In front of him was a man who everyone fears, the man whose magic power dwarfs even all of the mages combined. But the stranger didn't falter. With every ounce of his strength, even when his body is at the edge of destruction, there he stood hope never disappeared in his heart. Then with what could only be described as a miracle, defied fate itself and defeated the one who could destroy all of us who are awaiting to ambush him with just a flick of his wrist.
At first, I never thought much of it. It was just a fluke, a miracle of miracles where the stars all aligned to give him the victory. But the more I thought of it, it became clear to me. Him not giving up hope and always in the lookout for a way to win allowed him to defy fate and paved the way to his miraculous victory. That realization made me think of what I can do to better myself instead of believing that I am a failure and give up.
Lo and behold, the man is teaching me the lesson once more. At the beginning I thought that the match has already been decided so I tried to take his place in order to save him from his fate. When the Prince refused, I thought that it would be his fate to die especially when I heard who the one he is facing is. On and on they clashed and every time he is found lacking. The only thing that is keeping him alive is the armor and with every damage it receive it loses more and more precious energy. When he fell to his knees and dropped his weapon, I knew that it was over.
But here he is, proving me wrong once more. Not only was he able to wound the infamous "Reaper" by pretending to give up and use an underhanded tactic, right now he is standing toe to toe against a wounded and tired Vash. It looks like he is even about to win.
"It's like he's a completely different person." Romulus' voice was filled with awe as we watch Cloud dodge Vash's attack by a paper thin margin before landing a few punches and jumping back just in time to avoid a revenge slash from the infuriated "Reaper".
I just kept silent since agreeing with the old general will just earn me the ire of the Prince who right now is clearly displeased with the current turn of events in the battle. I am confused on why he is unhappy that the "Hero" is winning against the "Traitor" Vash. But I will put that mystery behind and focus on what is in front of me right now.
Who knows? I might learn something more about fighting and about myself by watching the fight.
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Half-step to the left to dodge a downward chop. Fake a step-in to bait him to swing his sword and once it passes quickly step right back in, deliver a jab to the face and back out again. Before he calms down and regain his composure, deliver a low kick to the wounded foot to infuriate him once more.
Getting my ass beat up earlier taught me something surprising. Who knew that getting used to his attacks by being smacked around senseless and almost got myself crushed by my own armor would allow me to learn his attack tendencies, sword reach and attack speed.
All of the knowledge of his tendencies and the countless years I spent in the void to train and control my body really paid off. I even start to wonder why I didn't thought of fighting with just my fist sooner. Well, I kind of know the exact answer to my question. I was afraid.
People tend to say that they work better under pressure. Well let me just tell you that they are wrong. People tend to forget what they have trained when faced with a stressful situation. Amateurs forgetting their training when they first enter the ring. Practiced for countless of hours in front of the mirror to confess to your crush only to fumble when your opportunity came. Not performing well in video games when someone is watching. All of these are examples of how stress can affect your performance, and that is what happened to me earlier.
Being suddenly tossed inside an arena to battle someone I grew kind of close with to a battle to the death really did a number to my mind. The humiliation of missing all of my attacks earlier followed by a whole can of whoop ass made my mind forget all of the years I dedicated to training inside the Void.
Although my body hasn't become stronger after all the years I spent trapped in the Void, what I gained far surpassed simple body strength. I learned to master my body. I am able to dodge Vash's attacks now, not because I got faster or that he was wounded, no, it was because my mind is finally clear and my body have no wasted movement. For god's sake, even when I wounded him earlier he was still able to beat me up so hard I almost lost my will to fight numerous time so at least let me be a bit proud of myself that I am able to stand toe to toe against a man of his caliber.
"Hey Vash. How about we end it here? Just surrender and we pretend this has never happened? What do you say?" even when I know that I have the advantage here, I would be a fool to ignore the fact that he can still kill me in a split second once he uses his mana. I may be used to his speed. But that is just his normal speed. If he used his mana to amplify his speed when I least expect it, I will find myself become a head shorter all of a sudden.
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"I will murder you! You bastard!" Yikes, I guess I finally driven him mad from pain after kicking his wounded foot too much.
Once more he dashes and only because I was able to feel the sudden burst of mana coming out of his body that I jumped aside rather than back stepping to make him miss in just a hair's breadth allowing me to counter because at that moment his charge was so fast that even if I dodge the blade, I would still take damage after having an adult size man crashing at me at high speed.
Failing his gamble, Vash fell to the ground as he can't stop his momentum properly with an injured leg. I took the opportunity to quickly stomp on his sword hand and kicked his sword away.
"Surrender. You can't win. I don't want Anna to lose a father but if you push me I will kill you. This I swear." Stand down Vash. I don't have the courage to face your family if you die by my hands.
"Then kill me! He promised that as long as I fight you seriously to the death, he will free my family even if I live or die today. The only difference is that if I kill you, I get to be free with them." He said as he can barely stand. His skin is pale from all the blood that he lost that I am amazed that he is still conscious and still fighting.
"I didn't want it to be this way." Damn that Prince. Playing with our lives just because I killed his evil brother.
He smiled as he pull out a hidden knife from his leg. "I know. Let's end this Cloud. My family is waiting." He took a pose. His determination pouring out of him as he summons the last of his strength. I know that this will be our final clash. We both readied ourselves and stood there still, as if waiting for the signal to end this bloody fight.
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Cheers once again sounded in the courtyard. Either one of them has already died or their battle is a lot more interesting than what I thought it would be. Well, it doesn't matter. Whoever of the two dies, I will have someone to dissect.
I knew that once the prince thinks of something, he will try everything he can to make it happen. I should've put that in mind then this could've been all avoided and I wouldn't possibly lose an important specimen.
It started before the break of dawn when I found that some of the devices in my lab went missing. First that I discovered was that the gems on some of my apparatus I was using for months and were needing for new ones were replaced with fully charged gems after I used them and noticed the change in its output. I then proceeded to check all of my other equipment to see if they are also tampered with or missing.
What I found out was that 6 used Mananite gems are missing, and the anti-magic collar that I was tinkering in my spare time for my own amusement was replaced with a normal one.
The original effect of the collar was to seal the mana of the wearer, I was amused at the thought of tinkering with the design to allow the one who was wearing to fool people that his ability was sealed only for them to be able to use just a fraction of their mana in short bursts before the collar works again and seal it. At that moment I deduced that the prince was planning something, I just couldn't put my finger on what exactly, but when I heard that they took out the enchanted armor gifted to us by the dwarves from the armory, I was able to put the pieces together.
The Prince was planning to cause an "accident" where the "Hero" will be unfortunately killed by the "Reaper" in single combat after his armor malfunction having its energy drained. After all, the armor is just a normal steel if the runes are not active, and since Vash could use his mana even for a short moment with the modified collar, he will be able to cut through steel like knife to butter. I then rushed to try and convince the Prince to stop what he was planning I found that the battle between Cloud and Vash has already started.
Downhearted since I knew I won't be able to stop it now, I went for a stroll around the battlements ruminating with everything I was able to find out from my earlier experiments on Cloud. Although I will still be able to learn more about the mysteries of the void once I dissect his corpse, having a live specimen for observation far outweighs a dead one and that is the cause of my grief.
As I continued my stroll, I suddenly found myself in the prison where the family of Vash and Alfaro the amnesiac was being held. Since I am already here, might as well check on the runes inside the cells. First I checked on the runes inside the empty cell that Cloud used to occupy. I traced the runes I carved in the floors and the bars. The runes on the floor inhibits a person from using mana unless it is directly connected to his life force while the runes on the bars protects the person inside from attacks from people outside and with my own alteration is also able to protect the ones outside from the magic attacks from the inside the cell just in case a prisoner was able to use spells that tap on his or her life force directly, but that is impossible.
Only top tier mages knows how to use magic that taps into the life force of the users not only because it is extremely exhausting, but also because it is dangerous. If used by a non-top tier mage, a user might have to sleep for about 20 hours or even days depending on the strength of the spell used and when there are no more life force to be used, the user might even die.
I then checked on the cell where the mother and child are being detained, the child asked what I was doing and I answered her. She also asked when Cloud and his father will be back and as force of habit I was about to answer the kid truthfully when I saw the mother shake her head. Therefore I just lied and said the two will be back soon.
The mother clearly knows what is happening between Cloud and her husband right now and chose to keep it a secret to the child. I understand her sentiment but if it was me, it is better she knows what happen and let her heart be broken right now rather than later. Oh the clash of logic and emotion, quite fascinating indeed.
Once I finished checking on the runes of their cell, I then went to the last cell in the prison, the cell of the amnesiac Alfaro. When I entered, he was still deep in his sleep, how unfortunate since I wanted to check if there are changes in the status of his mind. When I asked if he is usually asleep during this hour, the guard informs me that apparently he is asleep most hours of the day and only wakes up to either eat or go to the bathroom.
Hmmm… how odd... As far as I knew amnesia doesn't affect the sleep pattern of an individual. Better check up on him when he wakes up so I can ask him questions. I proceeded to check on the runes inside his cell and was quite surprised when I saw that some of the runes I etched are damaged. It looks like the rune letters have faded due to being scratched and then soaked in blood which is quite suspicious since in order to erase the rune letters, it must be soaked with mana rich blood for a few days. This just made questioning the man more imperative. I went and check the runes in the cell bars and found there are no problems with it. A few moments after, Alfaro finally woke up from his slumber.
"I see you're awake now Mr. Alfaro. I apologize disturbing you when you just woke up, but I have a few questions that you may know the answers to." I slowly stood up and brushed my robes free from dust.
When he saw me he became nervous at first, then he smiled. "So… you finally figured out do you?" the way he spoke was kind of eerie.
I have a bad feeling about this. "I don't know what you're talking about. Would you mind tell me what I have figured out?" I replied.
"Don't play coy you monster. Are you here to mind read me again now that you know I regained my memories? Well, tough luck. Even if you do, it will change nothing. They are already here and you're all dead men walking!" he exclaimed.
They are here? What is he--- then it came to me. He went to the forest where they suspect we were hiding and deliberately erased his memory so that if we catch him, we won't be able to know his secrets. In regards to his memory returning, he must've used a timed spell to recover them after some time has passed. While inside the cell he then started using spell to make the surges of mana, and he is using it to signal his whereabouts to someone else. No… they found us! I must inform the Prince!
"You're coming with me!" I shouted and rushed towards him.
"You're not taking me anywhere you monster. If I am going to die, I will take you with me!" I felt his mana and even his life force converge to one point. He is going to make himself explode! I don't have time to chant an anti-magic spell. I have to get out and close the cell doors for the rune of the cell to work and hopefully it can contain the explosion within.
I pushed him towards the floor and made a mad dash towards the cell's exit. I can feel his energy about to reach dangerous levels. Just a step away from the cell door, exit and close the door quickly. Oh gods, please let me make it in time.
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As if a signal was shot, we both charged at each other. Me, only equipped with my gloves and him with a knife. We are only a few meters from each other when we heard a loud explosion coming from the prison.
What the hell just happened? Smoke began to rise up from the prison. When I heard Vash scream in anguish, realization dawned upon me.
Oh no! Anna! Neera! Please be alright.