July 8th, 875
Metirine Castle
Empire of Sedina
“ENOUGH!! Otherworlder, cease your violent and destructive actions! Continuing in this manner will only result in your brutal death. Surrender now and that can be avoided.”
Ichiro shifted his stance so that he could keep an eye on the mage that was yelling at him and keep the remaining three knights in sight. A glance showed that there were two archers on each wall also watching him.
“Surrender? Just so you can enslave me? No chance. I’ll leave this place and find a way home. Any one of you that stands in my way will be cut down.”
“Enslave you? No, we won’t be enslaving you. We will be putting your skills to the best use possible and we will teach you to be better than you are. As for going home, your best chance of finding a way home is with us. With our knowledge and strength, your chances of finding a way will be much higher.”
Ichiro just smiled at the mage and said, “force didn’t work so now you try to stop me with words laden with honey. You offer hope while saying that without you there won’t be any. If I were young, desperate, and confused then I might fall for your words. I am none of those. I will ask you this once and only once. Get out of my way and let me leave, if you do so then I won’t be forced to kill any of you.”
“Bold words for one so old, arrogant even. I offered the easy path and you spit on it. Very well then. I don’t care what it takes but as long as he is alive it doesn’t matter. Take him.”
As Ichiro shifted his weight in response to that statement, one of the archers screamed.
Sildraxic wasn’t sure what exactly caused the change, just that a change had suddenly occurred. One moment Komodo was checking the bodies of the men that she had tricked and then killed, killed with a swiftness that he hadn’t even realized that she was going to do it till she was pulling the dagger out of the first one's head. Then she peeked around the corner to see into the courtyard in response to an explosion and yelling. In the courtyard was a strangely dressed human with a sword facing three knights and a mage. It was that moment that caused it, something she saw in the courtyard caused the change.
It was strange, the only things he could see were the inside of her bag which was now rather crowded and what the Scrying Slate showed him. Nothing visually had changed and he didn’t hear anything change either. He could feel it though, she had changed. She had changed from the spy that strode with confidence through enemy halls, tricking enemies that she encountered to… something more akin to a predator that had sighted her prey.
He wasn’t sure how he could identify the change, perhaps it was because of the Mutual Benefit Spiritual Binding? Did the benefit that he got out of it allow him to notice the change or was it that he could feel it through their bond? Perhaps it was a little of both, he had never established a bond before so this was new to him.
He decided to focus on that feeling and on the bond. To feel more and get a better sense of her. Perhaps by tuning himself to it he could get a better feeling or understanding of the mystery that is The Komodo. As he began to meditate and focus on their bond, he could sense the connection, it was there. It felt... new, fragile, like undeveloped wings. Perhaps if he infused it with mana it would help to reinforce the connection?
He began to infuse the connection by applying the methods he used when he needed to fly faster, by injecting mana into and applying a coating around his wings. He did this to the connection and it seemed to be working at least the connection seemed to feel stronger. He continued to apply his mana to the length of the connection till it seemed to get to her and then he hit a wall. A literal wall. The connection seemed to go into it but he couldn't feel a way through it. Maybe if he put a little bit more force into-
"Sil? Are you doing something?"
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"What? Uh, um, yes?" He responded in a fluster; I didn't realize she would feel that.
"I thought someone or something was trying to mess with my head, good thing it's you. Oh, and you might want to hold on."
He quickly braced himself then while watching the slate, he refocused on the connection and this time he didn't feel the wall. He found Her and she was focused, waiting, like a predator ready to pounce. He could see because of the slate and he could feel what she was doing. Crouching next to the door that was slightly ajar, holding a sword in her left hand in a strange overhand grip1 and something strange in her right hand. Strange to him but to her it seemed natural, like it was a part of her.
She seemed to be watching, listening, and waiting. What she was waiting for he didn’t know. Out in the courtyard he could see three knights and a mage confronting an older swordsman in strange clothing. On the far wall’s rampart, he could see two archers with bows drawn and ready.
He heard a strange noise, the thing in her hand jerked and she lunged for the door. She holstered the thing as she smashed the door open with her shoulder.
She charged forward toward the first of two archers that were revealed to be on the rampart on the other side of the door. As she approached, the archer seemed to be reacting in slow motion. The archer had only just begun to turn his head when she swung her sword horizontally towards his neck. The sword jerked in her hand but didn’t stop and neither did she. She kept moving forward toward the second archer.
She brought the sword hilt towards her chest, with the tip pointed toward the archer. The second archer also seemed to be moving in slow motion as he turned towards her. However, she was too fast. She slammed into the archer, burying the sword into him all the way up to the hilt.
With a slight twist of the hilt and a sidestep, she turned the archer so that his back was to the courtyard. Then she switched hands and then pushed the archer off the wall and off of her sword. As she pulled the sword backward out of the archer while her other hand pushed him forward, she lifted the sword high and threw it like a javelin.
He stared at the screen in wonder as he saw the sword flash through the air and imbed itself in one of the archers on the far rampart with so much force that it knocked him off his feet backward and over the wall. Things were happening so fast he was having trouble keeping up with what was happening. Then he noticed that the second archer that was also on the far rampart, was already down. He also was moving in slow motion but was on his side, clutching the stump that was his left leg. The leg from the knee down seemed to have been cut off or blown off somehow.
Heidi then stepped forward and hopped off the wall, dropping the three meters straight down. As she did so, he got a better look at what was happening in the courtyard. The old swordsman had managed to get past the knights and cut down the mage. Strangely, unlike everything else that seemed to be moving in slow motion, the old swordsman wasn’t.
Heidi landed with a sickening wet crunch sound and then ran toward the gate drawing one of her daggers. As she got to the gate and stopped, the dagger began to make a light and strange buzzing sound. She slashed the dagger down and through the large wooden crossbar that held the gate closed. In a smooth motion, she sheathed the dagger as she sidestepped and a soft growl lifted the left half of the severed crossbar and tossed it aside. Then with a mighty push, she shoved the gate door open
She then turned and yelled towards the old swordsman in her modified male sounding voice, “Time to go!” As she yelled, she also started to pull something out of one of the many pouches on her armor.
Upon seeing him glance at her as he moved to cut down the last knight (the other two were laying in slowly expanding pools of blood). Turning back to the door that she had pushed open, she started to run out towards the tree line. Not before she slapped the thing that she had pulled out against the side of the closed door that was facing outward.
She didn’t stop her fast dash across the one hundred some odd meters of open ground to the tree line till she got to the second tree and slipped behind it. Only then did she look back and Sildraxic saw that the old swordsman was not far behind but more knights were charging after them.
“Don’t stop, keep going!” She called out to the swordsman.
The knights had just reached the gate and started to get past it when the gate exploded. She didn’t wait to see the aftermath, just turned and dashed after the swordsman.
NOTE: For those that might not know, an overhand grip is where you are holding the handle or hilt in your hand and the blade extends downward out of your hand (the pommel would be at the top of your hand, next to index finger and thumb). This is not a common style IRL. It is mainly used/found in movies and by novices/amateurs (at least according to the VERY quick research I did). If I got that fact wrong, please let me know (include sources please!).