Chapter 7

Maria tried to ignore the sight of Tirr’s charred body and the squeamishness that came with it. The sight of a child’s body so maimed, even after what she saw at the grove, left her feeling nauseous. Worse was Tirr himself who continued to walk forward as if nothing had happened. He was even angrier than he had been at the grove and seemed determined to deal with the Captain himself.

She glanced at the Guardian, it’s giant form swiftly moving around the other knights, ignoring their attacks as it soon struck another one, leaving behind a twisted lump of metal and meat. The knights had abandoned their positions around the villagers to fight the Beast. But the villagers were still locked in place, unable to look away from what they were seeing.

Maria ran towards her grandmother, who was smiling happily as she gazed at Tirr. “To think I would live to see God awake…” Nora murmured to herself.

Maria started to help her up, “Granny we have to go, we can’t stay here.” Flames from the Captains previous attack had spread, catching onto some of the nearby buildings.

Doron, who was nearby, nodded. He signaled the other men and got up quietly, pushing the villagers to run. Roan got up as well, giving orders to help the wounded move before helping his own son. The villagers finally moved, dragging along those that still couldn’t look away.

The Captain noticed the villagers escaping out of the corner of his eye. “Stay where you are!” He started to yell, raising his hand as fire circled and roared. Before he could do anything though Tirr sprung forward. Fast, powerful steps carried him towards the Captain and in an instant, he was only a few steps away.

The Captain cursed, launching the building fire at Tirr instead. Tirr’s left arm rose and swiped in front of himself, swatting the fireball away and causing its destruction to spill to the side. The Villagers took the chance to escape as Tirr jumped in front of the Captain, raising his remaining fist as the other hung uselessly.

The Captain knew he couldn’t get away from the boy’s speed. Instead he stood his ground, grabbing his sword with both hands. In his mind the boy’s attack was pointless, fist against solid plate armor. The Captain believed he could take one strike and lifted his blade, causing flames to rise as he prepared to finish Tirr with a counterattack.

Tirr’s fist came straight towards his chest and the Captain started to bring down his sword, confident in his armor and strength.

The fist connected with the armor as the sword was coming down. There was a sickening crunch and the Captain was sent flying. Tumbling against the ground, he finally came to a halt some distance away.

The Captain dragged himself up staring at the small fist sized imprint in his Armor. He could feel his broken Ribs as he forced himself to stand. He noticed Tirr walking towards him once again and felt terror fill him. “Attack him! Attack the Boy!” He yelled as he looked to his knights for help. What he found was the last man standing, futilely running away before being grabbed by the beast’s jaws, which threw him into the air before swallowing him whole.

“Are you ready to tell me where you got my blessing?” The Captain looked back at Tirr, whose arm had already healed. “None of my followers would give it to scum like you.”

The Captain screamed, letting out his frustrations. “What are you? How can you use the Shard so well?”

“I’m the one asking the questions.” Tirr replied as he approached once again.

The Captain screamed again as he summoned his flame once more, he could feel the drain on his energy the Shard was causing but could only ignore it. Flames rose around his sword once more as he charged forward. Aiming a large swing at Tirr. The Flames flew out, sweeping through the air as they reached Tirr who grunted as he shielded himself with his arms. The constant recovery was starting to wear on Tirr, and he looked pale as his arms healed once more.

This time it was the captain who ran forward ignoring the pain and exhaustion he was feeling he swung repeatedly. Tirr was forced on the defensive as he tried to avoid the worst of the blows. Healing any more bad wounds would leave him with too little strength. The Captain pushed harder, sensing a weakness. The Boy had strength but didn’t have that much combat experience. His attacks were as clumsy as they were fast. If the Captain could stay on the offensive the boy wouldn’t be able to strike back.

The fight continued as the knight attacked as fiercely as he could. The fire from his earlier attacks had spread further and lit the village center with an eerie light in the twilight of the evening. Damage slowly started to accumulate on Tirr as the burning blade caused his skin to blister even when it missed. He had started to slow down, taking more and more hits. The Knight felt victory was within his grasp and tried to go for one final swing.

As the Sword came hurtling towards him Tirr dropped, his speed as fast as ever. The miss caused the Captain to overswing and he gasped in pain as his ribs protested. Tirr took the opportunity to jump, launching his head into the knight’s guts. There was another crash and the captain forced out a mouthful of blood as he stumbled back. Tirr moved forward and kicked at the man’s knee, causing it to snap and buckle, forcing the Captain to the ground.

Tirr climbed over him. Tearing the sword out of his grip and forcing him to stay down. He stared down at the broken man and reached for the crystal embedded hand. The hand was now a pale white, covered in fiery veins that had spread up the Captain’s arm. “Tell me where you got my…” As Tirr grabbed the hand he stopped.

His eyes went vacant as visions forced their way through his mind. Burning buildings, screaming, pain. He was lying on something in the middle of burning city, and a figure in a red robe stood over him, its face a blur. “I’m sorry” the figure said to him.

Tirr felt his hand rising… “Why?” He whispered with all his strength as he tried to grab the figures robes.

“Goodbye Tirr” As the figure disappeared into the flames, Tirr felt his strength leaving him.

The Captain stared at the boy frozen above him before smiling. He laughed as he focused all his remaining energy into the Shard. The Shard started to crack as fire poured out across the Captains body burning them both. “Die together with me Boy!” Tirr regained his senses just in time to see the crystal break, shattering as the energy inside exploded. He raised his arms to protect himself but was caught by the full force of the impact.

A short way away, Maria was running along with Doron and some of the other village men. After getting her grandmother settled, she had felt a chill, and grown worried about Tirr. She decided she needed to return toward the village center and Doron had joined her.

As they approached, they heard the loud explosion before being struck by a wall of air, forcing them to stumble back. Fire and smoke filled the area of the village center and Maria felt a sense of dread. She started to run forward again, reaching the flaming pit of smoke and fire that was once the village center.

Maria tried to run forward, yelling for Tirr, but was grabbed and held back by Doron. “Look!” He shouted at her. As they watched, the figure of the Guardian became clear, and dangling from its mouth was Tirr. The Guardian dropped Tirr into Maria’s arms and she held him. He looked no different than a normal young boy and she sobbed as guilt overwhelmed her. She cried out to him, asking if he was okay.

Tirr could feel her warmth as she held him and heard her cries. He tried to speak, to reassure her in his arrogant tone, but had no strength. As he slowly slipped away, her voice was drowned out and he was soon in the burning city once again, with the red robed figure looking down at him… “Goodbye Tirr.”