Chapter 110 - Winning the Battle, Losing the War
“Watch out for this one. Hyaa!”
“Woa! Close one!”
Skyle whistled softly as he recovered after ducking under that last chop. His feet slid over soft grass as he lunged forward, but his opponent had already closed up her guard. His probing attack was only met with a solid answering clang as she easily blocked the blow.
True to her word, Elena took this fight seriously. Skyle could see the results of years of arduous training in the way she smoothly shifted stances even while wielding that giant axe of hers. She made it look effortless, but Skyle knew just how difficult it was.
He had come to bear a grudging sort of respect toward axes after his training bout with Talon last night. Whereas before, he would have easily dismissed the lumbering weapon as a useless block of coarse steel and wasted wood, Skyle had now gained a much better understanding of the weaknesses and strengths of the two-handed axe.
Having spent one whole hour desperately attempting to fend off Talon’s devious attacks, which descended upon him like the father of all storms, Skyle had become intimately acquainted with many of the subtler points of axe-fighting. On the surface, a sword and an axe seemed like similar weapons, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
An appreciate smile blossomed on Elena’s lips as she shifted her feet, turning to keep Skyle in front of her at all times. It was the same thing Skyle had learned to do after being accosted by Talon’s attacks from his blind side time and time again. That was one big difference. Both the mass and size of a double-headed axe created much bigger blindspots for axemen than it did for swordsmen.
This had nothing to do with strength, as he had already found, much to his dismay, that Elena had no problem twirling her axe as though it were a toothpick. Instead, it had to do with the momentum based attacks of an axe. The center of balance for an axe was placed near its head, just below where its blades lay. This created a completely different mechanic from a sword, where the point of balance would be placed near the hilt of the sword.
This meant that an axeman could send much more powerful attacks, but they came at the cost of maneuverability and speed. Once launched, it was very difficult to stop or even modify the course of an attack. Too much power and speed had already been invested into the blow, meaning each one had to count.
The swordsman was a much more versatile fighter, as Skyle aptly demonstrated as he lithely circled around his opponent. His footwork had always been superb. After all, mobility had always been his forte. His sword flashed under the morning sun as he sent out a steady stream of probing attacks. He was mindful to always ensure they remained just that, probing. He never committed to any one attack. He had no need to. That was not his game today.
It was Elena who must gamble big on every decision she made. The burden was on her to upend the table and change the rules of the game if she wanted to win. The only thing was, Skyle knew she was more than capable of doing so.
The calm his opponent exhibited under his constant harassment was impressive. She carefully regulated her stamina, never using a wide sweep when a simpler thrust would do. She bid her time patiently, refusing to bite the bait Skyle dangled before her eyes. It was as though she knew most of his sword strokes were only feints.
As the fight progressed, Skyle was able to evade her broad, sweeping blows using his footwork and flexibility. He knew part of the reason was also because she was still feeling him out. She wanted to know how fast and skilled he was with the sword.
“Well, let’s see how patient you are after you see this!”
Skyle sent out a quick series of three attacks, each striking the same left side of her body. The quick succession of blows numbed Skyle’s fingers from the feedback that ran up the hilt of his sword. There was no denying that brute forcing this would only work to his detriment. The axe was simply too massive for him batter it down under his blows. However, such strikes still served his current purpose just fine.
The axe had been shifting just a little lower with every attack, and after he finished his third strike, Skyle jumped at the tiniest of openings in his opponent’s guard. He dashed forward while extending his arm in a lightning quick thrust to Elena’s unguarded right side.
Surprise lit up her eyes as Elena saw the move, but it only lasted for the blink of an eye before she reacted. She didn’t make Skyle’s mistake from last night of trying to shift the axe to a guard position on his right side. Momentum simply doesn’t work that way, no matter how strong you are. Instead, she did what Skyle only learned after suffering countless stinging blows, using the weight of her axe to anchor her weight and thus assist her in shifting her own body away from the incoming blow.
The technique was executed beautifully, far better than Skyle ever could have. The sword missed her by a narrow margin, and Elena let out an animated cry as she continued her motion, turning it into a horizontal sweep of her axe. Given Skyle’s forward momentum, such a blow would bring the fight to an abrupt end. Her delight at the sudden opening and her skillful manipulation of it was obvious.
What she didn’t know, however, was that Skyle had expected as much from her, given how skilled his opponent was. On the other hand, she would not be expecting what was coming next.
Immediately upon seeing his opponent finally commit to an attack, Skyle also reacted, though instead of turning away or raising his sword, he accelerated while lowering its tip. His entire body dropped to the ground as he turned his dash into a sliding kick. Elena saw the move and tried to adjust the course of her attack, but it was too late and the edge of her axe swept by a few inches above his face.
Then his kick connected solidly with its target, Elena’s right foot. It had been her pivot foot as she shifted her body away from Skyle’s thrust. Though her strength greatly exceeded Skyle’s, there was nothing she could do against gravity. Her foot was swept cleanly away by Skyle, and she was brought to the ground with an alarmed cry.
It was not over yet! Skyle dug into the grass with his free hand, using it to stop his slide and pull himself up to his feet. Not even a heartbeat later, his sword was already descending toward Elena. He had been meaning to aim for her chest and end this fight with a sound blow that could be considered fatal with an edged weapon. However, his True Sight showed him that he had been too naive in underestimating his opponent.
Elena lay sprawled upon the ground, apparently stunned by the fall and with her axe-bearing arm stretched out over her head. Her aura, however, gave her away immediately. A fierce tide of red was lurking there, like a blood-thirsty predator waiting to pounce upon her prey.
Skyle immediately switched tactics, shifting his aim toward one of her legs instead. It struck soundly, but Skyle didn’t have time to care for that. He was too busy running for his life. Right after his blow struck home, he had flung himself sideways, and not a moment too soon, either.
Only an instant later, Elena’s axe swept through the space that had just been vacated by Skyle’s figure. Chills ran up his spine as he rolled to his feet, aware that had he not spotted her intentions with the True Sight and switched his target, he would have been too close to her to avoid the formidable blow.
Wiping away the perspiration from his face, Skyle panted harshly as he squared up against Elena. She had used the momentum of her swing to help her in rolling backwards and was already back on her feet, facing Skyle.
“Nice move, that was a close call. Too close for comfort,” Skyle said.
“Eh, not close enough for my tastes.”
“That blow would have shattered every bone in my body and sent me flying all the way back to my farm.”
“Meh, woulda shoulda coulda.” Elena shrugged noncommittally, then winced as she placed her weight on her right leg. “On the other hand, you nailed me good with that last hit.”
“Apparently, it wasn’t good enough,” Skyle said, shaking his head with a rueful grin as he watched her advancing toward him. “No wonder you left yourself open and were willing to let me land that hit.”
“No, you really got me back there. I thought I had you when you finally overextended after that 3-stroke combo. A thing of beauty, that was. Shifted my guard just low enough to create an opening for the thrust that followed.”
“You still read it like an open book,” Skyle said with a smile, circling around her and watching for openings.
“You mean I fell for your feint. Swallowed your bait - hook, line, and sinker.” Elena chuckled to herself with a wry twist to her lips. Her eyes were crystal clear, however, all of her attention keenly focused around Skyle’s movements. “How could I not fall for it? It was such a pretty little maneuver, I thought for sure it was the real thing.”
“Live and learn, I guess. You seem to have weathered it just fine.”
“Tell that to my right leg. It’s still aching like all hell’s bells, near the bone.”
Skyle sent a probing thrust toward that very leg, which was easily deflected by Elena. He used the time she needed to recover to reposition himself, but she tracked his movement around with ease.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
“Liar, you’re still moving it just fine!”
“I said it hurts, not that I’m a cripple. At least, not quite yet,” Elena said gruffly, then chuckled good-naturedly as she shifted the grip on her axe. “Tell me something. Why did you go for the leg? How did you know I was preparing a counter-attack?”
It was Skyle’s turn to bite back a curse. “Uh, gut instinct?”
Elena must have caught his hesitation, because she didn’t hesitate at all in launching her attack the moment Skyle was too busy trying to come up with a plausible explanation in his head. After all, that had been the main purpose behind all this seemingly casual banter. Obviously, Skyle had come away as the loser in this match of wits, and he cursed himself as a fool for it.
The moment he was distracted, even for an instant, she seized upon it and charged forward with a great roar, leading the way with the tip of her axe. Her legs carried her forward with unstoppable momentum, and by the time he had enough time to try to decide whether to thrust his sword forward in a counter-attack or block her attack with his blade, she was already right on top of him.
Caught completely flat-footed, Skyle had no choice but invoke his cheat card.
The Far Sight gave the impression of dilated time as it showed his battered body flying in one direction while his sword bounced the other way. He sailed six feet through the air before crashing face-first against the ground with a wet splat. That definitely counted out option B, blocking that monstrous axe with his toothpick of a sword.
Blue shadows flickered around him as he changed his intent. This time, he saw his sword almost make it to Elena’s ribs, before its forward movement was interrupted with a violent jerk. On the other end of the sword, nerveless fingers released the hilt. Instead, they reached convulsively towards the hideous wound where half a foot of steel dug into his chest. It was the inevitable consequence of forgetting a tiny, yet somewhat important detail called difference in weapons’ reach. That was a huge freaking axe, after all.
Shadows flickered across his eyes as the prophetic vision of a series of decisions and their respective outcomes blazed a trail within his mind. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and so Skyle had to settle for the most effective, yet also the most desperate maneuver he was able to salvage from it all.
Astonishment flared in Elena’s eyes as she stared at the flashing blade flipping end over end as it hurtled straight for her head. The unconventional move of a swordsman throwing away his only weapon was so shocking that it nearly froze her in her tracks. As it was, it delayed her reaction for a precious fraction of a second, forcing her to tilt her head sideways while she shifted her axe in order to deflect the blade away.
It wasn’t easy to react to a deadly threat, especially when one was caught completely by surprise. Skyle knew the feeling all too well. To her credit, Elena’s reaction after she recovered from her shock was near perfect. The edge of Skyle’s sword struck her axe and bounced away while she also kept her vulnerable face a safe distance away from the twirling blade.
Unfortunately for her, it also created a small blindspot, right where the great twin blades of the axe blocked her vision. So far, she had been meticulous in her stance, always attempting to maintain her opponent in her sights, and away from the blindspot her axe might create as she wielded it to strike out or block an attack.
It was only the tiniest of chinks in her iron-clad defense, but under the unforgiving scrutiny of the Infinite Sight and the Far Sight, it was one too many.
Twisting his upper body to maximize the amount of time he could stay inside the blindspot, he launched himself toward her left side. With one hand, Skyle drew the dagger his father had given him from where it lay sheathed by his belt, while the other reached blindly far to his right, fingers wide open.
All the while, his eyes stared ahead. As he drew closer, the axe was gradually lowered into its former thrusting position. That left the field of view clear for Skyle to stare right into Elena’s thunderstruck eyes. Her mouth gaped open for an instant before she saw the flash of steel from the dagger in his fist. She frantically reversed the movement of her axe, trying to modify the thrusting maneuver into a sweeping slash that would both deflect the dagger and sending her opponent flying along with it.
It was at this moment that victory was decided, not through superior strength or peerless skill. Instead, it all came to rest upon the simple concept of momentum. The same mass and speed that would render the thrust impervious to Skyle’s attempts to block it, also made it near impossible for Elena to redirect its course. At least, not in time to block her opponent’s surprise attack.
Elena gritted her teeth, refusing to lose. The moment she realized her axe would be unable to stop the incoming attack, she did not hesitate at all and released the handle. Instead, her lips let out a sharp cry as she lowered her head and raised her shoulder in front of it, concentrating as much of the fire essence in her body into that one arm as she could.
“Elena, no!” Roland cried out in the background.
Heedless, she dove toward Skyle’s incoming dagger instead of attempting to avoid it. Skyle took it all in stride, striking out without hesitation. The dagger skidded along the skin of her arm as though it were weapons-grade steel. If either party was shocked at these results, there was no time for them to react.
Elena’s shoulder charge drove past the useless dagger and struck Skyle like a bull rush, expelling all the breath from his lungs. She drove them both forward in a blind rush until Skyle’s back collided against the gazebo’s side. The ornately carved wall collapsed into splinters, driving both fighters into the ground in a flurry of limbs and shattered wood. Skyle crashed on his back and heard the distinct crack of broken bone as Elena’s shoulder slammed against his chest, blasting away a ring of dust and splinters upon impact.
“Stop, both of you!”
Panting harshly, Elena stopped when she heard the tone of Roland’s words. Like Skyle, she probably heard the raw urgency in his voice. It was only then that she realized she had her hand curled around Skyle’s neck. She released the pressure with a start.
“Thank goodness she stopped. I thought she was going to kill me!”
“Are you alright?”
“Oh, now she asks me if I’m alright, after breaking all my ribs and nearly crushing my throat.”
Wondering why the hell he had thought this was a good idea in the first place, Skyle finally got back enough air in his lungs to let out a miserable groan. Looking up at Elena’s eyes, he was surprised to find that the first emotion he saw there was concern.
“I’ll be better as soon as you let go of my throat, thank you very much,” he managed hoarsely.
Only when she confirmed that he seemed shaken, but otherwise fine, did she flash a victorious smile. Relaxing her fingers from where they were curled around his neck, she patted his cheek.
“Looks like I win this one, Skyle.”
“Looks like it,” Skyle said in a neutral tone, secretly focusing his attention on his right hand.
Her delighted grin faltered, then crumpled altogether when she heard Roland’s next words.
“Too late to let go of the sword now, Skyle. You’ve won, fair and square. Own up to it. You certainly won’t be doing her any favors by letting her win.”
Elena frowned as she looked questioningly at Skyle. A guilty flush was the only answer he could manage, as he didn’t know what to say. Once again, it was Roland who stuck his nose in.
“Look at his right hand, you dummy.”
Elena finally pushed herself up, straddling his hips between her legs as she sat up and turned her head to look at his right hand. It was empty at the moment, but that didn’t stop her from furrowing her brow in suspicion. She peeled away a flat panel of wood that had fallen next to his arm at an odd angle. Lying underneath it, she found the short sword Skyle had been trying to hide.
It lay lone and forlorn on the ground, and Elena’s face echoed the emotion as she stared at it for a long moment, before slowly swiveling her gaze back toward Skyle. Her eyes asked a question of him, but watching the flux of emotions swirling in her aura, Skyle couldn’t find the words to answer.
“Right until the very end, he tricked you. I don’t know how he managed it, but he read you like an open book. The moment you lowered your head and charged at him like a stubborn bull, he snatched his sword right out of the air and had it poised to stick you in the back of the neck like a side of beef.”
Shock widened Elena’s eyes, her chest heaving up and down as she stared the boy who had beaten her again. For a strange reason he didn’t understand, far from giving him a sense of satisfaction, he felt an unreasonable urge to comfort and soothe away the pain in girl before him. It was a ridiculous notion, since she had gotten away with barely a scratch while his ribs were busted and his back bleeding.
He had to work his lips more than once before he could speak properly. “I, ah, I kind of cheated. I panicked and brought out my dagger witho-”
No sooner had he spoken, than a loud snort cut him off from Roland’s direction.
“You wore it openly on your waist, so it can’t be considered a hidden weapon. Also, you did not use the edge against her, which is what is forbidden by the rules. And don’t bother to deny it, Skyle. You think I’m as blind as that poor, deluded girl is? You only needed the distraction provided by the dagger, so that she would think your attack was over, lowering her guard. I saw it clearly the moment you turned the edge away and struck her with the back of the knife. Fat chance she could turn away sharpened steel with her level of training. Next time she tries it, it could get her killed. Do you realize what her parents would do to me? I don’t need that kind of grief.”
Skyle closed his mouth, the protest dying before it could even reach his lips. He looked up at Elena with an apologetic smile, feeling increasingly bad about the situation. Elene’s neutral eyes as she watched him in eerie silence only made it worse.
“It was a close victory. You don’t have to-”
“Don’t bother trying to comfort her. The more try, the worse you make her feel. It shows that you don’t respect her as a warrior, which is the one thing she truly craves at the moment. Well, other than a victory, that is.”
Skyle’s heart thumped in his chest, a guilty flush rising to his cheeks. He didn’t know what to say to make things better. He should have realized all the things Roland was telling him, but for some reason his brain felt like mush and his tongue leaden.
“H-How about a rematch? Um, let’s fight again.. tomorrow?”
The moment he said the words, Skyle nearly wanted to slap himself. After all that he had gone through to barely snatch a victory from this vicious little warrior and her demonic axe, here he had gone and voluntarily walked right back into the maws of hell. Worse still, tomorrow his ribs would be swollen twice their size and he’d be lucky if he could walk without a limp.
But then, he noticed the corner of Elena’s lips twitching, if only for a moment. Still, just that hint of a smile was like a balm that made him feel all warm and fuzzy in his chest, busted ribs or not. His own lips began to ease their nervous line into the gentle curve of a smile. Almost as though by magic, Elena’s own answering smile slowly blossomed across her lips.
“If you two lovebirds are going to grin like a pair of idiots while gazing into each other’s eyes all day, you should at least get a room. On the other hand, if you’re ready to plant both feet on the ground, I think there are bigger things to worry about than a second date.”
Both Elena and Skyle’s eyes broke off contact at that, blushing furiously. It was only then that Skyle realized what kind of situation he was in.
“Neck deep? No, let’s make that eyeball deep in shit.”
As Elena skittered away from him, Skyle rose unsteadily to his feet, wincing as he did so. It wasn’t the pain from his strained leg or cracked ribs that pained him, however.
No, that would be too easy.
Instead, he took one good look around himself and sunk into the darkest pits of despair.
His eyes took in the two giant craters on the once seamless carpet of verdant grass, where ruptured earth and crushed flower petals were all that remained of an artfully constructed garden. Then he shifted his attention to the collapsed wall of the gazebo they had crashed their way through. At his feet lay the shattered pieces of what had once been an ornately carved scene of fantastical creatures and breathtaking vistas.
All the while, a single figure kept blinking in his head with sadistic insistence.
“Skyle, are you alright? Why do you keep repeating that?” Elena asked, her eyebrows bunching up in confusion. “What about 450,000 golds?”