Chapter

If you were alive in the past five years, it’s hard not to know of the mysterious hero that led the single most successful war campaign in all of history. Or at least, it what it would have been known as had the Kaldros invasion been successful. Many people believed that the hero had died during the initial charge, causing the offensive to completely fall apart afterwards without leadership.

I hold the sword up lateral to my shoulders, watching as four black metal blades surge towards me in erratic patterns, one of the swords in Rainel’s hand for defense. Despite everything, even I couldn’t track each one individually with my eyes without excessively diverting Anku away from the rest of my body.

Rainel is a genius, his execution is flawless, he reads the state of battle like none other, when to strike and when to back down, not locked down to a single style. He can take space aggressively and unpredictably, or he can put up an impenetrable wall of defense, both extremes learned with equal mastery.

I put one arm behind my back and curl my fingers tightly; I wrap my sword arm around the front of my face, bringing the sword backwards, my eyes slightly peeking over my forearm; I tuck my head in, bringing my chin to my collarbone. This way I was protecting my three vulnerable areas. The throat, the fingers, and the ears.

The swords make contact, the first slashes across my stomach, the second across my forehead, the third straight to my heart, and the last one, heading for the neck trying to wedge itself underneath my chin.

I transition all my Anku towards my eyes, quickly calculating the trajectory and speed. Then lash out and clench the fourth one between my fingers with the burned hand, stopping it dead in its tracks.

Every single sword glances off my skin and only gives shallow cuts, even the one directed at my heart barely makes it an inch through my skin before falling off.

“Got another one!” I smile crazily, but frown as Rainel rips it out between my fingers in the next instant, oh, guess that hand is more damaged than I thought.

Rainel, silent as ever, pulls all the swords back, trying to get me on the return trip. I sweep around instantly and drop down my arm, my swordhand now in perfect position to slash upwards at my full strength.

Black-metal is a bitch to smash, but I have a feeling it’ll be easier using another black-metal sword.

I relax my forearm and wrist, while tensing up my stabilizing muscles, a precursor to an explosive movement, and hone in.

Unsurprisingly, the direction of all the swords change in the last second, flying out back to Rainel without making contact.

“Did I scare you? That stance seem familiar?” I lower my shoulders and look back.

… Rainel looks down at the back of his hand, reminiscing about something.

“No, it does not, because my sword isn’t broken right now, and frankly…” Rainel extends his sword out into the air, inviting me to try to take a slash at it. “I don’t think you’ll be able to break it.”

I grin and step forward, twisting all my might upwards, from a relaxed position to an explosion of tension. The blades make contact and… An ear piercing ring runs through the air as both blades oscillate violently, neither of them broken.

“Wha-!?” I recoil as every single one of Rainel’s blades comes at me at once, including the one in his hand.

I slash another time; however, make contact at a poor angle, causing each one to only slide off one another.

I spot another blade and swing again, full speed and power, yet the position is off. I only manage to hit the end of the sword instead of the base and the sword spirals away unharmed.

I parry a series of strikes in a wide cone, but the last strike slips through and grazes me on my arm, completely unintentionally, a genuine misstep in skill.

I look around and realize I just allowed Rainel’s swords to surround me without any opposition, I suddenly explode in Rainel’s direction, brute forcing past one of his swords and break through the ring, there being absolutely no way for him to defend himself if I get close enough.

Rainel takes a step back, caught off guard by my sudden burst of speed and tries to recall all of his swords, but I was already in front of him, ready to end the battle.

I suddenly pause moments before striking forward.

Did I give up on breaking his swords? That’s why I’m attacking him directly?

Sparks fly as Rainel’s swords catch up with him and the two of us go through a quick exchange of blows. Rainel manages to jump back and create a sizable distance between us once again.

I…

I stare at the sword in my hand, it felt awkward and did not rest comfortably. I then close my eyes and think deeply.

I suck?

I mean, that was the only conclusion I could come to. Most of my weapon experience came from observing my opponents and my mom. Didn’t look too difficult, but I guess I wasn’t going to beat someone like Rainel without any practice.

“Bah.” I throw Rainel’s sword back at him. “Take it back. I should have done this from the beginning.”

I watch Rainel as he cautiously picks it up from the ground and reapplies his blood on the handle.

In the meantime I focus on closing up my cuts, while bringing back as much function to my burned hand as possible.

Wow, my skin and meat actually got cooked, I don’t think I’ll be able to move it without Anku, much less grab anything with it.

Whatever, I wrestle the fingers into a balled fist and look back at Rainel who was observing my face closely.

“Hey don’t stare.” I remark playfully.

“Are you…?” Rainel words trail off and he doesn’t finish his sentence.

…

“Don’t get distracted.” I’d rather not talk right now, we can just fight.

“I agree.” Rainel then replies after some thought, then launches his swords at high speeds.

I hold my hand out and focus. It comes from the hands, doesn't require blood, if it can control Tetsu, then naturally…

Rainel

I suddenly feel a strong aversion towards attacking Celestia as my swords fly forward. It’s that again, that phantom feeling of something that’s not there. I scrunch my eyebrows confused, I felt that exact same thing right before fighting Ponca.

The similarities were getting way too common to keep ignoring.

I shake my head and push through the feeling, causing Celestia to tumble out of the way as my swords converge on her location.

“Guess that didn’t work.” I could hear her mumble.

What the hell is she even doing? She isn’t taking this seriously at all. I flick my swords to aggressively follow her roll, but I knew I wasn’t fast enough to follow her movements. I then recall half the sword in midair as Celestia pounces forward, cutting her off before she gets close enough to strike.

She immediately ducks underneath and slides into an upwards stomp, dodging the swords masterfully. I bring up my arm to block Celestia’s kick and focus all my control on a single sword, bringing it into my hands as we enter close-range combat.

Celestia

Shit, why didn’t that work? My foot comes in contact with Rainel’s elbow, deflecting off each other. It was well blocked, so I didn’t expect to sneak in another attack before Rainel counter-attacked, so I restrain myself and let him take control of the tempo.

Rainel speeds up significantly as collects all his Anku back to his body with a breathtakingly swift horizontal stroke, causing me to skip backwards, narrowingly avoiding the slash.

Whoa, that’s way more dangerous than the floating swords. Must have figured out he didn’t have the speed or power to be a threat against me, if he split his Anku across six swords.

I let Rainel continue attacking, getting a feeling for his rhythm as I sway from side to side dodging. Despite only using one sword his trickery and dexterity with the blade was still dizzying, and to think that this is with paralyzed arms, his control of Anku was probably even better than Taiga.

The sword suddenly jumps out of Rainel’s hand unexpectedly and comes uncomfortably close to my throat. Shit, I’m too focused on reading his body language, he’s using his arms and legs to mislead my instincts, when the real power is coming from his Anku.

I follow his blade with my eyes closely, my pupils flicking from side to side, up and down. Rainel shifts stances and lifts his leg, trying to punish me for tunnel visioning onto his blade with a kick. I instantly step forward aggressively, bringing my arms wide to throw him to the ground.

Rainel drops his leg and stabs forward with even more viciousness than before. I narrowly dodge and smack the blade to the side. He knew I was trying to bait the kick, so he set a trap for me.

“I thought you were the weakest link by far, but you’ve been hiding your strength haven’t you?” I comment.

Of course he was strong, else how would he have survived a battle against her?

But… I contort wildly and deliver a kick from behind my back and over my head, an ultimate display of flexibility.

Rainel, completely unprepared for the move, raises his arm too late and gets his shoulder crushed into his clavicle.

I quickly recover my balance and strike forward again, my feet only hitting the ground for a split second, it was as if my previous maneuver was a simple jab I decided to throw out.

Rainel wisely steps back and tries to disengage; however, I don’t let up the pressure, engaging in a series of safe, but aggressive kicks and swings, matching my movement with his.

His slipperiness was certainly annoying, but I knew not to get impatient and go for something dangerous.

Rainel backs up into a tree, which is split in half as my foot tears through the space right above his head.

But eventually…

I lift my shoulder and bend my knee forward a little, feinting a jab before tucking down and driving myself inches away from Rainel’s face. For a quick instant in time the two of us stare at each other. I couldn’t really read what Rainel was thinking, but it was obvious he was distracted by my presentation.

For a moment the two of us share in the breath we take, bracing for two very different reasons.

Breaking weapons with a single strike wasn’t really my thing I figured. what I’m best at, I discovered, was ending battles with one strike.

Whoops, got too excited. Rainel’s not my enemy, so I shouldn’t be trying to seriously hurt him.

I uncurl my fist and push my middle finger against my thumb,

and flick.

A loud pop comes off the tip of my finger, breaking the sound barrier very momentarily.

I don’t even make contact, just the air pressure alone is enough to send Rainel off balance and tumbling across the dirt.

Rainel quickly regains his balance while tumbling and creates a sizable distance between us again.

Then…

Rainel’s swords fly from behind me, I quickly turn around to dodge around them but…

“That’s it.” I hear Rainel say, he lets the swords return to his scabbard one by one, completely passing me by.

“Oh fuck off.” I curse underneath my breath as soon as I realize what he was doing.

“I’ve seen enough, I know for certain who you are now.” Rainel says.

“Nope, we are not talking about this, fight me or I might really consider killing you.” I snap at him.

“Well, if I do happen to die, at least everyone will finally know that you cannot be trusted.” Rainel says, calling my bluff.

“Do you think I care about what they think? I only used you guys to get a fight against Cain.”

Rainel turns. “Really? You don’t care a single bit about the country and man that caused your mother’s death?”

“… No, I do not.”

“Oh, you two have a bad relationship or something?” Rainel asks sardonically.

“No, I’d rather just let some things go than have it consume the rest of my life.” I say, the words coming out of my mouth sounding remarkably hollow compared to how it felt in my mind.

Rainel’s eyes glaze over for a couple seconds, then he refocuses on me. He opens his mouth, but no words come out and a long silence hangs between us.

A smoldering branch cracks and falls down next to my foot.

.

.

.

Both Rainel and I look in the same direction, the wind rushes past our faces violently whipping up blackened branches and debris. The morning sunlight peaks across the horizon, casting individual details across the withered trees and burnt shrubbery.

The fire, all consuming and inescapable as it was, had left without a trace, the transition was so discreet that neither of us even noticed it at first. I rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, and then spot a figure walking in from the distance.

Cain, dried up blood covering half of his face, with one eye closed and blackened. He slowly makes his way across the wasteland, the two of us simply watch silently for the next couple of minutes.

Finally he arrives at the clearing where we were finding and comes to a stop.

He looks at the two of us for a couple moments and then turns his gaze towards me.

“No survivors, the entire army has been wiped out.” He says clearly, looking at me directly.

I immediately look back to the forest and narrow my eyes, desperately scanning every corner of the forest, but… It was empty, no hint of life remaining.

“After I gave you such a good chance…” For some reason, this possibility never crossed my mind, the possibility that I had failed. That I had failed to push Cain in the right direction.

…

“Well, let’s get going back then.” I drop my arms and walk away.

“Hold on, wait—“ Rainel reaches out.

“The city is no longer in any danger, no point in staying any longer, did you want to have a celebration feast or something?” I say, hiding my face from the two of them.

“Do you expect everything to return to normal after everything you just did?”

“No. I just don’t want to talk anymore.” I turn my head and bore my eyes into Rainel, who immediately raises his swords defensively. Cain also instinctively tenses as I unknowingly begin releasing a crushing aura.

I look from side to side. “If you two think you can kill me, you are fully welcome to try.”

“No, no, I don’t think we need to go that far. I just need to ask you one thing.” Rainel tries to reason with me. “Out of respect for your mother, I won’t report you and we can pretend this never happened. However, on the condition that you don’t go against orders again, if not then you aren’t going to be coming back with us.”

“Rainel, what the fuck are you saying?” Cain unexpectedly interrupts. “Just kill her, she’s an enemy now.”