I slash downwards.

It was nothing short of perfect. Anku activation to muscle extension with near identical timings. Furthermore my opponent’s sword was far out of position, angled flat side up making it an awkward parry, allowing me to retain advantage even if blocked due to knocking the blade off balance.

Alongside this, in offense, predictability was the difference between a practitioner and a master. The more options you employ, maybe a backhand, a stab, a punch or kick, sometimes even throwing the sword was an option, the harder your opponent has to think. It then all comes down to a battle of experience, who can outthink the other? Who can think faster, think of a new creative move to surprise your opponent, or prepare for that specific move and take advantage of its weaknesses, randomness. This was why I used 6 swords and was so effective at it, options and the ability to utilize all of them, I could never be matched in mental fortitude, I could only be matched in equipment. That’s why one cannot simply describe a swing by the present alone, conditioning and patterns previous to groom your opponent into automatic thinking, and then… A little switch up in timing, an unexpected direction, boom, your opponent is wide open.

The woman viciously throws her iron sword behind her back with such speed that it had to be a prediction rather than reaction, shattering it as it makes contact with mine, she jumps and spins around in the exact same motion as the toss, weaving her leg straight past my sword.

An instant later I feel what could only be described as weight of a thousand pounds crash into my chest. For the split second, where foot met with chest, I could feel my ribs creaking dangerously under pressure before I am launched. I land, crash, and break into a wooden wall.

The woman, already rearmed from a sword off the ground runs at me both arms wound high in the air.

Another one of those heavy slashes again! The one that managed to break one of my swords!

Before I even have a chance to feel pain from the kick I rush forward aggressively, hoping to catch her arm before she swings.

If I can immobilize her for even a tenth of a second my swords will converge and skewer her from multiple directions.

I lunge forward hand outstretched, my sights aimed at her wrist. A grapple situation is the last thing I want with someone as freakishly strong as her, but I don’t see a future where I win this safely. With my other arm I hold a sword, just barely in position to follow up with a stab; however, if this sword doesn’t hit its target then the four swords I had perfectly set up for this occasion would surely make their mark.

I get close and firmly close my fingers around her wrist.

And begin falling horizontally.

Before I hit the ground, now completely lost control, I realized that the last time she wound up for a powerful I tried a quick, aggressive, response as well.

Which means that I was too predictable. I had lacked experience in fighting those stronger than I.

The ground beneath me explodes in a cloud of rubble and dust. From the back of my neck and shoulders, I am thrust more than a feet into the ground. Unsure which direction I was being thrown in, pain explodes and ignites up throughout my body despite the heavily adrenaline I had sedated myself under.

Wait a second, I’m… I might die here.

I bring one arm behind my face another to the side, desperate to avoid a fatal organ, then in an otherwise impossible feat I launch off my hands and roll to the side. I knew that many of my injuries were to severe to fix in the field; pain wracked my body, yet with my lifetime of discipline and mental fortitude I could still ignore it, not for long however.

A large gash forms on my cheek as another one of her iron swords just barely misses and smashes across the ground; however, is packed with the filthy dirt off the ground before a single drop of blood is able to fall.

Where is she grabbing all those swords?

A shadow descends. I reach out to the side without looking, grabbing the handle of one of my black-metal swords that I had kept track of and whip it into to the air, placing a hand on both ends for leverage.

Wait shit! I quickly shuffle my right hand to the middle rather than the tip of the sword, accidentally cutting my thumb in the process.

The second blow lands, shockwaves are sent down my arm and into my chest, as another sword shatters. I flinch away from the rain of shards, covering my face, however, unable to stop a cut to my ear.

As she had shown herself capable of shattering black-metal, if I didn’t hold the sword by the middle it, would most likely of shattered as well.

I roll away to another strike. Despite such powerful strokes, she gave no pause.

Parry right! By sheer instinct or pure blind luck, I correctly predict her next move. I wince as more shards of metal spiral across my body.

I somehow stumble onto my feet, only to face a barrage of light, slashes too fast to see, eyes only being able to register the flashes of sunlight glinting off the metal. I am battered down as sword after sword shatters, each and every one grazing me in some way.

Even if when I parry, there’s always too much Anku concentrated in my arms for the parry to properly weather the shards that hit my body. I hate to admit it, but there was simply an impossible genetic barrier of Anku control I could not cross.

I trip over my feet, my mind finally beginning to falter, too much pain to focus.

Shit! That’s too big of an opening!

By muscle memory I try to regain my balance but it all seemed hopeless. This momentary lapse in thought and I was caught completely unprepared for the next attack.

I can’t think fast enough! Everything I do…

I stop trying to regain my balance and whip my torso back, letting gravity overtake me and fall to the ground.

The sky sparks, our blades meet, and metal, both black and silver, fly into the air.

I grab the ground, digging into the stone with my fingers and thrust upwards. My feet finally making contact with the unmistakable feeling of flesh and bone.

I flip back onto my feet, laser focused, and look at my opponent for the very first time.

“I can see why they needed me to kill you.” The woman says, a broken sword in hand, and a bruised forearm. She had stopped her brutal assault because… Well to be frank, it would no longer work against me, and it looks like she’s close to running out of swords.

One… Two… Three… Six swords left in her scabbard, one very similar to mine, a giant roll containing multiple swords but far greater in quantity; it was as if they were like arrows in a quiver. Every single one of her slashes consumes a single sword, strength and speed far above anything I’d ever encountered before.

She looked old, around the age of late motherhood, maybe in her late forties or young fifties, and she was… Quite thin, not the body of one who had fought recently, yet it was clear she far surpassed the average warrior.

“You’ve been brought out retirement recently?” I ask out of curiosity.

The woman closes her eyes. “Something like that, yea…” She says somewhat reluctantly.

“Voluntarily?”

“To be honest, no.”

“Ah. My condolences.” I reach down into the ground, grabbing a fistful of dust and flinging it into the air. I then point my hand and send my four remaining swords flying at her.

I watch as her hand reaches through the dust as she covers our distance in a tenth of a second, a blitz of speed, designed to catch me off guard without a sword in my hand for defense.

Ahh, how I’ve missed this. Irregardless of all the chemicals I had stimulated in my brain. Adrenaline, endorphins, dopamine, things that would wreak havoc on my body after the battle was over.

Nothing could ever imitate that fear of death. Nothing.

I jump backwards. Not too aggressive, not too tricky, I just step back.

Viola.

I’m lucid; there are perfect moves popping into my head every moment like a game of Ranma. She was too fast and too strong for me to match head to head, yet likewise, I say with confidence that there is no one under the sun that can match my mind.

I watch as her second sword shatters, a thrust blocked with the flat of my blade. I swipe away the fragments with my other sword. She was being a lot more conservative with her slashes now, going lighter as to not shatter the swords, yet each and every one was just as deadly as the last, just as capable of ending me if I were unlucky or careless.

My eyes follow her wrist closely, a feint and a pivot from a vertical slash to a horizontal slash. Giving me an opening…

I swat her sword away with a parry and then step forward on the offensive. The flick of the wrist was tricky but would lose a lot of the momentum, allowing for a strong parry and counterattack if one was prepared.

But there’s a chance for that to be bait. She could be prepared for the shift in balance the parry brought.

I suddenly switch grips, grabbing one of my swords out of midair and creating an X shape with both hands to my right. I block a swift kick, I was too slow, however, to twist my blades to the sharp side, so I was unable to injure her.

I’ll keep that in mind.

I stab a sword into the ground and swing off into the air, using momentum from the kick. In a giant arc I swing my other sword with extreme force, creating a huge half circle.

Could this end it?

The woman swerves to the side, dodging my slash just barely before it hits the ground, but it’s fine, it’s fine. A dodge like that typically doesn’t lead to the greatest position, putting the state of battle to my advantage. That meant she wasn’t ready for it beforehand, else she would have done something more efficient.

…it’s not fine. Damn it, that should have hit. It should have been too fast, too unexpected to dodge, yet she did it off pure reaction.

I grimace and pull my swords toward her in a three pronged attack, similar to the attack I made at the beginning of the fight, but for some reason, no matter how tricky it was I couldn’t help but feel that it wouldn’t do anything.

I feint the sword in my hand and the one floating at her waist, leaving the third one barreling right towards her neck, fatal in every circumstance. Yet, I focus Anku into my eyes and observe her body language carefully, as all good fighters it was very ambiguous, yet no fighter could ever hide their next move completely…

Her eyes dart towards the third sword, she slightly twists her waist and hips, very slightly increasing tension on her grip, the subtle color change as her knuckles turn whiter, the angle between her feet and torso.

She’s trying to break it. I immediately step in and thrust my entire body weight and sword forward, I was extremely off balance from the feint but I was moving anyways.

What if it’s another bait? No, no, no, I have to follow through this time, predictability can come from perfection as well, risks must be taken occasionally.

BANG! The sound of metal clashes.

I hold my sword with both hands, now in deadlock, shaking from exertion. The woman had caught my sword in a ridiculous location, I let out a large grunt of exertion as the tip of my sword buries itself deeper into the grip of her sword, the tiny area on the bottom of her hilt, centimeters away from her fingers. Her sword was broken now, reduced to a shard of metal.

Yet so was mine now.

Three blackmetal swords to two iron swords left.

Suddenly she lets go of the sword. Me, who was putting force on it suddenly stumble forward.

I raise my forearms as she throws a sharp and sudden elbow from the same arm she used to parry me.

Her elbow strikes center mass, quakes run through my bones as I’m lifted into the air. I land on my feet, a fair distance away from her. Shit… I shake off my arms, that hurt pretty badly.

I take position and hold the sword forward, laser focused in preparation of a counter-attack.

“Not good for your heart to be so juiced up on adrenaline you know, it also looks like it’s not so good for your arm as well.” She says casually.

I glance down at my forearm, only now realizing a tiny shard of bone poking out from underneath the skin, didn’t recognize the pain of having a broken arm. It was still functional, I could control the arm by Anku alone. But…

I close my eyes and grimace.

“What is your name!?” I suddenly shout. “It’ll be a shame for this battle to end without my knowing.”

The woman sudden stops. “It is a worthless tradition to ask for names. It reduces battle to a mere sporting occasion.” She takes a deep breath. “I don’t know how many battles you’ve fought, but you should know there is no honor in murder. You, are my obstacle, and I, yours. Treat it as such.”

I take a huge pause, thinking carefully. “Murder is it? All this fighting, in your eyes it’s all murder?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I think.”

“You would have never gotten this strong being a pacifist all your life, what caused the change in heart?” I then ask. She was definitely a killer, no doubt about it, but killers don’t say stuff like this.

Another pause.

“I had children.”

I lower my sword, so she’s a mother huh…

“Is that why you’re being forced to fight?” I then ask.

“If you know why I must fight then you know there’s no point in trying to talk your way out of it.”

“I understand. I just have an idea. I personally haven’t seen my mother for a very long time.” I dig under my shirt, feeling around for something. “See this little gem here.” I take out the amulet stone I had kept with me all these years.

“What is it?”

“It’s a part of an amulet my mother gave to me, it’s missing its chain.” I say. “My mother has the missing piece.”

The woman takes a long quiet look. “Okay.” She stabs her sword into the ground. “Talk to me.”

“I was kidnapped as a child, taken all the way to Zlitia. This would be the first time I’ve returned to Kaldros in a decade.”

“You were kidnapped? ”

“Yes, kids from the poor areas were frequently targeted here, people that nobody would miss if they disappeared.”

“…I’m well aware. I ended the practice actually.” She responds.

“What?”

“It’s a long story, but I destroyed some things and made some threats. It happened seven years ago, so… Just missed you.” She says with a somber note.

“Ah, couldn’t be helped.” I reply.

“…” She doesn’t talk.

“Hm?”

“You’re a polite one aren’t you?” She changes the subject.

“Typically disarms the opponent, I can catch them off guard.” I say with a jagged smile.

“No, I think you’re just a nice kid.” She lightly smiles back; however, I was not smiling on the inside. I need to get back as soon as possible, we were deep in the city and I was leading the charge, without me this entire operation could fail. I’ll play along, and then I’ll get her when she’s let her guard down.

I clench my fist.

No. Stay disciplined.

“Will we continue to fight afterwards?” I say after a while

“You already know the answer to that.” She replies.

I nod. “Let’s make this quick.”

I look around the street, recanting my childhood memories about the street. “If I remember…”

The two of us dart away, leaving the battlefield, both my opponents and my men.

“I can’t do anything too egregious, but I do not care deeply about the outcome of this war. So after our fight, is there a favor you’d like to ask of me concerning your men?” She says as if read my mind.

“Weren’t you saying something about no honor in battle just then?”

“This is not honor, this is common decency.”

I furrow my brow, perplexed. Aren’t those…?

“They’re not the same thing. Honor is a set of rules to follow, decency is simply decency, regardless of rules.”

…

“That is a very scary mindset.” I reply after thinking for a while. A life, bound by no rules. People like these change the world, for better or for worse.

She doesn’t respond.

“Are you two deserting? HEY! GET BAck here~” The voice fades away as we continue to run without wasting a beat. I don’t bother to even look at whoever it was.

I hold my hand up as we eventually make it to the street of my old home, signaling a stop. I start walking,

“How do you know your mother is still even alive? And still has the chain?” She says after a while.

“I guess it’s just blind faith. Otherwise, what am I even fighting here for?” I nervously laugh and look up into the sky. “Whoops, was probably a little too candid there.” My hand twitches involuntarily. I immediately tense up my fingers then press them hard against against my leg in response.

I look around. The chances that she’s still living here after ten years, after the initial invasion of Kaldros…

I look at the woman next to me with an artificial expression. “Sorry, I don’t want to do this right now. I need to get back to my men.”

I step forward, relaxing my entire body, then slice forward in an explosive movement, my peak slashing speed, reckless and wild, one that I deliberately hid during our initial fight.

“I’ll protect your children.” I whisper as blood drips down my sword.