As much as I hated to admit it, the Bastard wasn’t a terrible swordsman. He didn’t try using his blade like it was a hammer to get through my guard, kept his feet moving, and maintained his distance. He had managed to avoid the trap of thinking supernatural strength and speed was the same as skill.

Unfortunately for him, not terrible didn’t really cut it with me. And I was used to fighting people faster, stronger, and more skilled than he.

I ducked under a swing that would have taken my head off and lashed out. Kanshou bounced off his knee while Bakuya dragged along the side of his breastplate, his wards managing to stop the blades from cutting through.

For now.

A burning wall of fire made me back off a bit, but I could still see the rents starting to form in his armor.

I was wearing down his protections, and his more liberal use of magic proved he didn’t want me getting close if he could help it.

Once he realized he couldn’t target me directly he switched to more indirect methods of attack.

Forming vacuums to suck the air from my lungs, trying to trap my feet in quicksand, using fireballs and other elemental attacks…he had quite a few tricks up his sleeve that would have been a nightmare for a local magician to deal with.

It was a good thing I wasn’t a local magician. My Knight Armor spell was able to keep up with the destructive attacks, Air Walk was fine for ignoring him changing the terrain now that I had fixed it, and the fact I was just fast enough to close the distance no matter what he did covered for a lot of the rest. He was firmly on the defensive. Something that obviously pissed him off a lot.

“I HAVE THE POWER OF DRAGONS AT MY FINGERTIPS!” He roared as he bolted me with more magic attacks. “HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!”

“Fuck you, that’s how!”

Yes, it was childish. But I was pissed and not feeling particularly eloquent at the moment.

My twin swords cut through the air as I threw them at my opponent. He managed to redirect one with a spell and block the other with a frantic wave of his sword, but all that did was buy me enough time to project my bow and a modified magic sword arrow.

There was a sharp crack as the metal shaft lept of the string followed by three more as I rapidly shot off more of them.

The Bastard flinched as his wards saved him from impalement once again. He waved a hand and I lost him behind a dust cloud. More arrows pierced the cloud but I had no idea if they hit or not.

Time to change that.

The bow faded into particles of light and a sword fell into my hand. Wind enchantment. It wasn’t a Noble Phantasm so even pushing enough mana into it that it nearly broke didn’t produce more than a heavy gust of wind, but that was more than enough to clear away the dust.

Bastard snarled and shoved himself back to his feet.

He was losing. Both of us knew it.

But that didn’t make me relax at all, because all that meant was he would be getting desperate. And desperate people did unpredictable things.

Like summoning three glowing orbs and forcing them into a pile of rocks. Holy shit were those spirits?

As I watched the rocks shift into a vaguely snakelike shape my thoughts were racing. Spirits weren’t something I knew a whole lot about. The elves tended to ignore them in general and the only member of the Varden that used them with any skill was Trianna and I never talked to her about them. The most I knew was that if you lost control they might take over your body and create a Shade, killing the summoner and leaving behind a malicious creature puppeting their body that could only be killed by stabbing it in the heart.

No one ever told me how to kill a rock-snake.

“Kill her!”

The thing lunged forward and I cursed.

No time to think of a plan. I would just have to avoid it if I couldn’t hurt it and see if taking out the summoner made the spirits go away.

I dismissed the enchanted sword and traced Kanshou and Bakuya. Those two would deal with slicing through rock much better than the simple steel, enchantment or not. Something I proved by carving two deep grooves in its rocky body when I dodged its charge.

I don’t think it even noticed.

The snake turned to charge again and I crouched in response, only to fling myself to the side when I saw movement from the side which turned out to be Bastard firing off more spells now that I wasn’t getting close. And when I turned to focus on him, the snake charged again only for the pattern to repeat again and again.

It didn’t take long to understand what he was doing. He wanted to turn this into a stamina game. Wear me down piece by piece by relying on magic and his summons. Not a bad plan considering I had been fighting all day while he was waiting around in the back. But it was a plan I wasn’t going to comply with.

“Trace: Overedge.”

My blades lengthened and warped and this time I charged the snake.

Swords flashed and easily cut through rock and once again didn’t seem to inconvenience the thing more than a moment but that was enough for me to slip past it.

With nothing between me and Bastard my bow made another appearance, something a little more impressive than enchanted swords ready to use as ammunition. A part of me noticed the snake rearing up to body slam me from behind. Another part twisted the swords I had left embedded in its body just a tiny bit more.

*BOOOOM!!!*

Kanshou and Bakuya exploded with enough force to rip the rock-snake in half. Something I only half paid attention to as I took aim.

Of course Bastard wasn’t going to sit there and do nothing. Whether by luck or skill he brought his sword up to block just as I released the string and managed to deflect the ‘arrow’ from hitting him in the heart by the narrowest of margins.

“GAH! YOU BITCH!”

The narrowest of margins wasn’t enough to prevent the modified Benihime from piercing through his wards, armor, and then going clean through his shoulder.

Nice to confirm Zanpakuto cutting through his wards wasn’t a fluke. Too bad they were so mana expensive to make and I didn’t have much to spare at the moment. Kanshou and Bakuya did slightly less damage for only a fraction of the cost.

I needed to wrap this up. No more feeling him out.

Bastard obviously didn’t like the look I was giving him but to my surprise instead of using a spell to keep me away from him, he shot three glowing orbs into the sky. Not more spirits, that much I could tell, but some kind of signal?

Whatever it was, I couldn’t stand around anymore.

I dashed forward, both dodging the rock-snake once more and closing the distance between me and the Bastard. He started cursing me out but I wasn’t really paying the words much attention. I was more interested in hacking him to pieces.

My black and white swords might not be able to cut through his defenses as easily as a literal Soul Cutter, but since the Bastard only had one arm to defend himself they didn’t have to.

“When I get my hands on you, I’ll make you wish I had just killed you!” Bastard screamed as I made another gash in his armor. This one went deep enough to draw blood too.

Maybe that was what caused his next mistake, his injuries piling up, or even just blood loss, either way he overextended his next thrust and I punished him severely for it.

I swayed out of the way of his sword and brought one of mine up on his wrist. Bone cracked and metal bent, but I failed to make a cut.

At least I did until my second sword scissored down less than a tenth of a second later and lopped his hand off.

“Well, I guess I only have to worry about you getting one hand on me.” I quipped, kicking his sword away and preparing to take off his head.

“Ah, I’d rather you didn’t do that.” That was all the warning I got before a wall of wind and pressure washed over me and another red dragon landed nearby. Its Rider on its back.

Unlike Bastard, this one had removed his helmet at some point and not only had a steel longsword sheathed at his hip, but also carried a familiar red blade in his hand. Eragon’s sword. Guess it wasn’t his anymore.

“Hello, Murtagh.” I said simply, though I did shift so my swords pressed up against Bastard’s neck. One swift tug would be enough to take his head off.

“Alexandria.” He nodded back. “You don’t seem surprised to see me. I suppose you heard from Eragon?”

“No actually. I just figured the Twins were traitors when neither their or your body were left behind. The Urgals certainly wouldn’t have needed captives for anything.” Is what I told him, since he probably wouldn’t believe the real reason. Though depending on Bastard maybe he would…

I put the thought aside for later.

“I figured we’d see the both of you again eventually.”

“You will probably be pleased to know they are dead.” That was good to know, yes. I would need to find out how it happened later. “But no outrage for me being on the Empire’s side?”

“Unlike this one,” I tapped Bastard’s cheek with a blade. “I know you didn’t go to the Empire willingly. Hard to get mad at someone for being made a slave.”

Murtagh’s dragon growled at my words but the Rider just laughed bitterly. “You are not wrong, I suppose. Thorn and I never chose this.” He looked at Bastard. “And Samuel! I’m surprised. Weren’t you telling us there was no one in the entire Varden who could defeat you? I had to abandon capturing Eragon thanks to your orders.”

That must have been what the signal earlier was for.

“You would have tried letting him go anyway.” Bast-Samuel snarled weakly.

“Well we will never know now, now will we?”

Personally I doubted Murtagh would have been given the option to try if the Bastar- Samuel, had been in better shape. That thought did bring me back to the current situation.

“Any particular reason why I shouldn’t just kill him now?”

“That would force me to fight you. And while you don’t look injured I would like to think you do not want to fight two Dragon Riders back to back after fighting all day if you can help it.” he frowned.

Well, he was right about me not wanting to fight him being true.

A quick check showed me I was down to somewhere around ten percent of my mana reserves. I could still fight, but a single mistake would be enough for me to lose. And Murtagh didn’t seem all that winded either.

“Fine, but on one condition.”

“Perhaps…” Murtagh temporized.

“You take him, his dragon, and leave the battle.” I demanded. It would mean the Varden would have to deal with them later, but I couldn’t worry about that for now.

“NO! I order you to kill…!” Bastard tried, but he was too late.

A yellow spell circle formed around his head as I finished the calculations and he slumped forward. I had to move my blades so he didn’t slice his own neck open but other than that I just allowed him to fall face first onto the dirt.

“What did you do to him?” Murtagh asked tersely, readying himself to attack.

I waved him off. “Sleeping curse. Unfortunately it will wear off on its own in a few days. Enough time for you to leave.”

“Hm.” He relaxed and seemed to agree. “I have already said as much to Eragon, but try not to allow our paths to cross again. Galbatorix will surely make us swear more oaths to avoid us letting you go without a fight again.”

Murtagh reached out and grabbed the unconscious form of his fellow Rider with magic and floated him to him. He quickly sealed the worst of Samuel’s injuries before securing him to his saddle. Once that was done, he nudged Thorn forward towards the plateau’s edge.

I watched him like a hawk the whole time.

“One more thing.” He said with their backs facing me. “Take care of Eragon for me. I don’t want to see my younger brother wind up like us.” And then Thorn was flying off into the distance, the other dragon eventually appearing and following after them.

Oh yeah, that was a thing wasn’t it?

I sighed at the ‘revelation’. That was going to be something to deal with later.

Things weren’t that bad though. Down on the plains below me, the Varden was routing the Empire’s soldiers, I could now see Eragon and Saphira moving on another plateau, and Murtagh had very ‘conveniently’ left Samuel’s sword behind. Which meant I finally had some of the materials needed to repair the Horizon.

There was just one problem.

“How the fuck am I going to get down from here?”