Another light gash appeared on Axel’s arm, healing almost instantly as the blade withdrew. The Goddess’s blessing worked as fast as always. Axel, holding his halberd, swung in a short sweeping arc to gain room. Fighting someone who outsped him by a large degree, in such close quarters that he could smell Cade’s breakfast, was, as his father would say, ‘a terrible tactical position.’
Dodging Axel’s swing, Cade gave his friend some space, likely to avoid overstressing his newly acquired novice core. With this moment to think and heal a bit, Axel briefly swept Cade’s side of the Chamber of Rights to see if there was anything he could use. The chamber was a large circular room built to withstand fights between members of the Master tier. Six reinforced pillars in the room held light gems. In the ceiling, there was a larger light gem illuminating the room, bathing it in a sterile white light.
Standing straight in front of Axel, Cade stood tall at over six feet. He had the long black hair that most of the tribe sported, a slim muscular build, and well-tanned skin. His long sword dripped with rivulets of Axel’s blood, held in a downward guard. He clade in basic hunting clothes in shifting browns and greys. There was sheen of sweat covering him, evidence of his exertion and there was a bruise forming from taking the shaft of Axel’s halberd on his forarm.
While Axel's halberd was great for when he was hunting beasts, it was not a weapon suited for this kind of dueling platform. Finishing he quick visual sweep ended just like the last time, all he saw were the gems holding light on the two pillars in that half of the room that matched the ones he could feel on his back, well out of easy reach to not interfere in this very type of situation. The chamber was made in a way that didn’t allow too much to interfere with a duel.
Cade, likely noticing his distracted gaze, started shifting left drawing Axel's attention fully back to him—a bad habit that Axel knew from their training days Cade fell into when he thought he had an advantage. Axel honestly agreed with that assessment, though, as he was having a hard time in this fight with someone who had trained right beside him for most of his life. Axel was also tiring and sweating heavily at this point in the fight, with his proto core running low having to power his body’s need for energy to accelerate his blessings healing. Cade having a new Novice core was not helping this situation as it was very likely having more energy than his by a large margin.
With Cade also being so much faster after completing his Novice trial gaining some type of speed ability in the physical branch, it was all Axel could do to keep his vital points covered. While Axel knew that he had sustained worse injuries from sparring with his father and hunting with the village hunters during training. He had also not landed more than a glancing blow in the fight as it was Axel who was losing this. If not for how strange this all was and what was at stake to Axel, he would have just surrendered already but a deep sense of pride just would not let him do it.
Axel was also perplexed by Cade’s new more aggressive fighting style; this was not the way they had trained together before. His friend’s style seemed to have changed, with Cade now aiming for lethal areas with every one of his strikes, like when he went for a major artery in Axel's inner thigh. From the force Axel was receiving, these were not for show or feints to gain an advantageous position. Why was Cade going so intensely in a duel for the Rite of Mating? While Axel knew Cade was attracted to Lyra—most males who liked females in the village were—until today, they had never even had an argument about her between them. This was not meant to be a duel to the death! The laws even highlighted that if you killed your rival, there were heavy punishments, win or lose. Why was Cade pushing this to this kind of point? Why, Goddess, damn it!
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Axel's downfall in this fight came swiftly when several drops of sweat entered his eye. As he blinked the sweat out of his left eye in just the wrong way, he accidentally brought up the Journal with its display of his body’s condition. The display showed multiple healing gashes on his right upper leg, left inner thigh, and a very bad deeper one from shoulder to elbow on his left arm. None of these wounds were beyond skin deep, as his Goddess-enhanced muscles were strong and stopped Cade’s light, fast strikes from biting deeper and hitting any arteries but he could see that he was losing by a thousand cuts.
Alas, these distracting thoughts and slightly obscured vision from the journal were a bit too much for Axel’s awareness to keep the near-complete focus he needed to keep track of Cade. This allowed for the one instant that his friend needed to find the critical opening on a vital spot that appeared. The moment it happened; Axel knew he had messed up. The pain in his chest blossomed where the blade bit deep, sliding between his ribs, seeking his heart.
As his friend’s sword was seeking his death, everything seemed to move in slow motion, a phenomenon that often occurs in near-death moments, and a overwhelming rage overtook Axel as he had rarely known before. The mental limiters he had placed on his strength were all released, and with muscles that could shatter the armor and bones of even the moderately powerful Kragen beasts, which were known for their ability to withstand blows from even powerful Adept-level hunters. Strength at this level without good control begot a swing speed most terrible—not very accurately, but terrible. However, accuracy in this situation was not an issue as Cade was committed to his strike.
When the blinding rage cleared, all Axel could see for a moment was red—not the red vision from rage, but the red of a friend’s blood covering his vision. Axel, in a detached way, looked around to see Cade very much cleaved in twain, with his torso sent into the wall, leaving an indentation in the reinforced chamber and blood filled the chamber leaving much of it splashed in red.
Memories flooded Axel unwanted at this time of the smiling youth who would take Axel and Lyra to the river against their parent’s wishes to spearfish. Times playing and training together, promises of taking a Flame Seekers journey, the time they snuck out into the jungle to hunt Snars only to be chased by an upset Kragen beast, and swearing a blood brother oath.
When the flash of memories ended Axel looked at the scene of his creation, he felt in a very detached way that his arms were hanging uselessly, pain shooting through them. He also seemed to have fallen to his knees, and he could see the axe head of his halberd sunk into one of the pillars. He then heard the chamber doors open and others entering. In his vision, he saw many hunters and Enforcers enter in what his mind perceived as a wave-like manner through the chamber doors.
Axel, still in shock and in a very much out-of-body experience, saw the hunters tying his arms. Correction, a part of Axel’s mind said his broken arms. That part went on to say, of course, he broke his arms again. He used his full strength, which always leaves many bones in his body broken. The pain was a distant echo, overshadowed by the horror of what he had done. He could hear the murmurs of the hunters, their voices a mix of fear and anger.
“What have you done, Axel?” one of them whispered, his voice trembling. Axel could also hear a few people reaching out about whatever they ate or drank.
Axel’s vision blurred and grayed out from pain somewhat as he was hauled to his feet, only vaguely realizing he had not been on his feet at the time, while the weight of his actions pressed down on him like a physical force. He glanced back at Cade’s lifeless body, a wave of nausea washing over him. How had it come to this? Why had it come to this? The chamber doors opened further, and the faces of the villagers twisted in shock and grief, met his gaze. Among them, Fin Quake’s anguished scream pierced the air, a sound that would haunt Axel for the rest of his life.
As these strange thoughts floated through his head, Axel could feel his shock wearing off as he was being hauled away. The last thing his eyes saw was a man that Axel saw as a second father, Cade’s dad, Fin Quake, screaming and holding his dead son’s shattered torso in his hands. Then the shock wore off, letting the pain take thoughts, fears, sadness, and loss temporarily from Axel’s mind as everything went black.