Chapter 78: A Fiery Finale! (Part 5!)

“One minute huh? Well boy, you think you can last that long against me?” Runtaii bumped his two fists together, making a loud thud between them.

“...can ya do it… for me Skaldi?” Vega asked. And to be fully honest, Skaldi didn’t have an answer. He wasn’t sure if he was strong enough.

“...alright. Get started… right now!” Skaldi ordered and Vega immediately went over to the guitar. Runtaii rushed towards her but Skaldi intercepted and gave Runtaii another punch to his chest.

However his punch did nothing but to hurt himself, seeing a blue bruise form on his wrist. Skaldi knew he couldn’t fight conventually, knowing that Runtaii’s physical power outclassed his, and he felt scared.

“Son of a, you’ll pay!” Skaldi wrestled with Runtaii but he was being pushed back, not able to match his strength. They binded together, with their hands clenched together and Runtaii squeezing his hands hard, making Skaldi’s bones and joints ache.

“You are barely even a man, let alone a boy!” Runtaii swung his fist into Skaldi’s side, knocking the air out of him. “You’re short! You’re weak!”

Getting her hands into place, Vega tried to get into the rhythm of a song, but the literal hole in her head was making it hard to focus. Memories blended and blurred together and it was a whirl pool of events. Vega wasn’t even sure she could get her fingers to strum the guitar, let alone play a song.

“That isn’t true, I’ll show you!” Skaldi broke out of the bind and went to sweep Runtaii with a kick to his ankle. Runtaii pressed forward, making Skaldi miss his kick and causing him to trip backward.

“What is this? Was your punch luck!? Did you hurt me with blind fucking luck?!” Just before he hit the ground, Runtaii grabbed Skaldi by his face and lifted him an inch off the ground, then after slamming his knee into his stomach.

Not missing a beat, Runtaii struck at Skaldi’s face and his blow tore off his eyepatch, revealing his lost eye. For some reason, that gave Runtaii pause, that there was more than what he thought of this elf.

Swinging his whole body up, Skaldi sent both of his heels and drove them in Runtaii’s stomach. Having broken his grip, Skaldi backed up to build distance needing space to come up with a plan. He felt his body getting lighter, his hands held at the sides of his face.

Runtaii held up his stomach, feeling the bruises that had and were forming. But he saw Skaldi’s skin and saw how big a difference this fight was. All over his knuckles and his face were thin cuts and purple and blue wounds. Runtaii could keep going at this pace when Skaldi’s body could not.

“Skaldi… come on! Come Vega. Please, something!”

“An effeminate mess, that’s what you are. Less than a woman, that’s what you are… You’re nothing but a waste of space. A waste of manhood…”

There. Right there. That is when Runtaii made a mistake. A mistake that would cost him dearly. A mistake that would cost him his future.

“...I am… a man.” Skaldi announced. Not to Runtaii, not to Vega, but to himself. All his life, Skaldi had been ridiculed and talked down upon, for his body being too weak, too fragile, too puny to succeed. That he was was a waste, a failure for being born this way.

Right there, Skaldi’s motive and his heart, that’s what Vega needed to focus. The raw emotion.

He wouldn’t have it anymore. He was going to be who he was. Who he needed to be, for others and himself.

“What?” Runtaii questioned, wondering what Skaldi was getting at.

“...I am a man. I may be small, I may be short. And yeah… I’m girly. I paint my nails, I like dresses. And gods curse me, I’m a good person for it. This is my choice, and I won’t feel bad for it. I won’t let anyone talk down on me for being who I am!”

Enhancing his sight, Skaldi focused on signs that Runtaii was giving. The telegraphing of his attacks, the step forward on his right foot, the pulling back of his shoulder. Each of these signs, he used it to duck and dodge just as Vega had. He didn’t try to deal damage, but to simply buy time.

When Runtaii swung, Skaldi ducked underneath and twirled around, making Runtaii even more mad that none of his punches were landing.

“You’re nothing! This is nothing!” Roaring out, Runtaii went to strike at Skaldi’s lost eye. Just then, Skaldi hooked his foot behind Runtaii’s leg and pulled, causing his strike to fly off target.

“You think strength is just muscle and vigor! Don’t make me laugh!” Skaldi jumped up and drove his shin into Runtaii’s arm, feeling a snap as it hit. As the redhead was falling back, he went to his bag of hands and searched for anything else that could give him an advantage.

“Gah! How are you-” Runtaii raced after Skaldi but not before he took a round orb with gray gas flowing out. Throwing it at the ground, a great cloud erupted out and surrounded Runtaii, making him cough and unable to see.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“You see me and Vega as just fools. When really we are the strongest ones here!” From out of the smoke, Skaldi gave Runtaii a kick to his back, and he tried to return a strike but found nothing there.

“Strong? HA! You?!” Runtaii wrenched his arm behind and threw it wherever he could see Skaldi’s shadow, but he never could hit the mark.

Using his senses, Skaldi deprived himself of the detail of color and smell, focusing it all on generating a depth perception. He was nearly as blind as Runtaii was in the smoke, but with this he could distinguish how far he really was. This, his cunning, that was his strength.

Finally able to capture a memory, Vega played a heroic theme, cheering Skaldi on. She thought of the memory of Skaldi and her fighting on the ship, defending their lives in their own manner.

“You think strength is just violence and hatred! When really, it's the bonds you make with people!” Skaldi impacted with Runtaii’s chest, driving his shoulder into it. “It’s not how hard you hit, it's how hard you push!” Lifting his fist skyward, Skaldi uppercut Runtaii, sending him into a pure daze.

“No…way!” Runtaii couldn’t believe it, that Skaldi was actually making ground against him. That this effeminate elf was actually damaging him. Runtaii felt humiliated. No… Runtaii was humiliated.

Smiling through the pain, Skaldi saw how much of a dent he was making. Laughing with pride in his heart, he knew now that he was more than what Runtaii and all the others could realize.

“I and Vega were born like this. Look at how far we’ve come! We have something to prove, something to be! And that’s why I guarantee you'll never win. You’re the disgrace!” Pointing at Runtaii, Skaldi felt how close Vega was to healing and needed a little more time for her.

“Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!” Holding his fist over head, Runtaii prepared to send Skaldi to the ground dead. But he had nothing blocking his face and Skaldi went for it, coming out of the smoke like a bat out of hell. Runtaii’s fist grazed Skaldi's face, while his elbow impacted directly into his bleeding eye wound, sending a splatter of blood and matter.

Clutching his face in utter rage, Runtaii had to back away, giving Vega the time to finish the end of her song. Her wounds sewed together once more, with the tears on her head glowing like glass in sunshine. Looking up towards Skaldi, Vega saw how truly brave he was. His cunning, his will, and his beauty.

His red hair messy yet blowing elegantly in the wind, his lost eye with a purple canyon around, and his remaining eye full of strength and determination.

“I am Skaldi! And I’m the strongest man you’ll ever face!” Using the last bit of his stamina, he called out Runtaii and fell down to one knee. He proved it, finally. He wasn’t the failure his family, his mother and father claimed him to be. He was strong, in his own way.

Crushing his hands into angry fists, Runtaii could not believe how he had even been pushed back, much less mortally wounded. Blood flowed down from his eye and he knew it wasn't going to last like this. Skaldi had given everything he got, but it still infuriated Runtaii that someone like him did all of that. All of that for Vega’s sake.

Just then, a marching of troops came out from behind. From behind Runtaii. Spear points gleaming, four dozen troops appeared and Runtaii glowed with joy. And Vega held her eyes open in shock.

“Yes! Finally, some help!” Runtaii wandered over and his troops recoiled in horror. Seeing their leader in such a state had taken their breath.

“Lord Runtaii, is that the scarecrow you speak of?” An officer joined his side along with two doctors who went to fix up his wounds. He brushed them aside, knowing that it would all be pointless. Unless he took something from Vega.

“...maybe… maybe if I get your Soul Gem.” Backing up to where his horse had been, Runtaii searched for his spear but only found his sword only used as a backup. It was now or nothing , he had to get healed and healed fast.

“Like… hell I’ll let you do that.” Vega stanced up, holding her pickaxe in one hand and her guitar on her back.

“You’re assuming you’ll be able to stop me. I'll tear your head to ribbons!” He mounted atop his horse, ready to end this fight once and for all. Surrounded by fire and flames, Vega felt how close to death she really was.

Congratulations Vega. Your life is truly yours. Now you’re going to die here.

“...I’m not finished… there’s… still more-more to do…”

You know… I was sort of hoping you’d prove me wrong. That… you’d be more than what I valued you as.

“...I did. I did prove ya wrong…”

Ah. And how’s that? Surrounded by fire and an army, who exactly is that?

“Because this… was my-my choice. I fulfilled my purpose.”

The scarecrow was ready to die, to die in order to protect this place.

“~Men, attack!~”

“Vega! Duck-duck!” Kaliba croaked out, just a horde of mercenaries appeared, launching out from the sewer hole!

“Come on boys, show them why you’re worth the big bucks!” A tall lady ordered out, as nearly a hundred men clad in iron and red gear poured out. Vega recognized her, feeling like she had met her a couple months ago.

Flying onto her shoulder, Kaliba nestled into her neck and Vega held her mouth agape, glad to see her friend and the mercenaries taking care of work. The tall woman stepped to Vega, with a very tired man beside her. Then, she understood who they were.

“Wait… Lai-Lai?! The big tall lady? What are ya-ya doing here!?”

“Your crow helped us to find you. Now, shut up, plan now!” Lai asked, just as they heard the clopping of hooves past the battling soldiers. Mounted on his horse, Runtaii decided to finally run away. Vega knew that she couldn’t let Runtaii get away, but didn’t know how to catch up. Her head turned to Skaldi, and then an idea came to her.

“Umm… can ya get-get me on the roof!?”

“I have no clue how that helps, but fine. Chakrit, get this idiot up!” Lady Lai demanded and joined her mercenaries in the battle.

“Aye aye Lady Lai! Let’s-”

“Wait!” Skaldi held onto Chakrit’s back, his voice urgent and tired. “...I’m going with her.”

“Hmph. Alright then, up we go!” Carrying Vega on his shoulders, Chakrit launched from whatever platforms he could. Skaldi followed close behind, narrowly avoiding the hazards The fires Runtaii and his men set were choking, bleaching black smoke all around. From pillars to scaffolding, over ledges and onto pipes, Chakrit went as high up as he could go.

“Thanks dude!” Vega cheered and leapt on the edge of the roof. Pulling herself up, she held out her arm for Skaldi.

Heaving up, the two rested a second on the rooftop and opened their eyes to the great destruction. Entire neighbors and and alleyways flooded, shops and restaurants became battlefields for the armies and sewer choked up with blood. Whole streets ablaze, infernos and hellish storms were all over. Even from so high up they were illuminated in vibrant orange light.

“Where did that bastard go!?” Skaldi yelled, unable to discern shadow from a person in the flames.

“Look-look, over there!” Pointing with her axe, they found that Runtaii was using dangerous burning routes. Not sparing any more chance of combat, it seemed like he was not heeding a vague survival instinct. An instinct to escape as fast as he could.

He couldn’t be allowed to escape. Vega and Skaldi needed to change his fate.