After diverting Laurence's first swing, Gawayen took a step forward and flicked his blade towards Laurence's eyes. He expected Laurence to blink, or pull back, in which case he would gain possession of the momentum of the battle, but Laurence defied his expectations. Rather than dodge backwards, Laurence chose to let his body fall to the side slightly as he forced his swing from vertical to horizontal. His muscles screamed in the process, but as the blade dug into his cheek the head of his hammer connected with Gawayen’s ribs. There was a crack as the man was flung across the small room, smashing into the far wall.
As Gawayen flew he raised his blade once more and pointed to Laurence, “Drain!” he cried. Red light shot out of the tip of his blade and crashed into Laurence’s face. For a moment, Laurence felt nothing, but he soon saw drips of blood from the cut collect in a stream in front of him, travelling back towards Gawayen’s outstretched blade-tip. The Avalonian smiled, but before he could bask in his success Laurence released a concentrated burst of mana following the path of the red light, turning the connection between him and Gawyen to salt.
“Do you think this is the first time I’ve dealt with Kimbramancers?”
Gawayen laughed, “I had some hope you might panic." He raised his blade once more, catching the congealed clot of blood on its tip. The blood spread across the edge of the blade, staining it pink, as Gawayen shifted his stance. His left foot slipped back, shoulders square to his feet, and blade held at his waist. He was like a nocked bow, ready to attack the moment he saw an opening.
Laurence began to tread forward, and as he did he began rotating his hammer. The blue light corona that surrounded him flickered and warped with each rotation, growing brighter in unison with his attempt to wrestle momentum from the dead space it had fallen into after the first strike landed. The mana in the air churned with him, sending shockwaves through the air that buffeted everything in the surroundings. In response, the wave of bones that had made his blade reappeared and formed into a series of barbed arrows that shot out, crashing into the shockwaves of mana and rending all to salt. Volley after volley fired off as Laurence moved forwards, neither gaining an edge on the other, but the distance between them continued to shrink.
Both men were supremely focused on each other, even as explosions of dust and poison rocked the room around them. It was as if they were in an entirely different world to everyone but them, each step and movement by the both of them was made with the meticulous awareness of every potential opening or subject of interference as they slowly worked their way around the room. But still they continued. Laurence would make three steps of progress while Gawayen would take two of retreat, neither willing to show their hand unless they were reasonably sure they would have an impact on the fight.
Finally Laurence reached ten steps from Gawayen and he grinned. "Hod!" He cried out, the mana condensing around him in a curved shield. He pushed out and surged forwards, even as the shield disappeared under the barrage of bone arrows at Gawayen's call. Laurence reached three steps from Gawayen and shifted his grip. His hands sank to the bottom quarter of the staff and continuing with the motion of his previous swings he growled through gritted teeth, "Netzach." The first strike came down and a spike of bone shot out of the ground, deflecting the blow. As his hammer traveled back above his head, Laurence shifted his grip. The hammer span in his hand and he struck at Gawayen's left side.
Gawayen swung his sword again, and diverted the hammer-blow away from him, but as he glanced back to Laurence he felt the air stir behind him. Ducking and twisting his wrist, he smashed the pommel of his sword into the disturbance behind him, only to be confronted by a shadowy doppelganger of Laurence.
Before Gawayen could react, Laurence followed through with his hammer-blow, letting it peak and travel back down smoothly. Gawayen growled as he saw Laurence move. Rather than take the blow head on he sank to his knees and struck the ground with the flat of his hand. Bone spikes shot out in cardinal directions and Laurence had to completely shift his stance to avoid being skewered. Skittering backwards, he raised his hammer and cried out, "Tiphereth!" Before splitting into ten identical figures that slowly advance towards Gawayen in unison.
Gawayen grimaced, but pulled a femur the size of his torso out from behind him and pointed it at Laurence, "Bone to break and will for free, your life forsake and Gi for me!" As he finished talking the bone in his hand shattered, turning to ash, and a sickly red light enveloped them both. The light that came out of Laurence's body was quashed by this new force. It wrapped around him and locked him in place, finally allowing Gawayen to breathe. The man stood up and stretched, his rib bones popping back into shape as he began circling Laurence. "You may have fought Kimbramancers before, boy, but you obviously have not fought many competent ones."
"Oh? What makes you say that?" Laurence replied, his shadows echoing him quietly as they turned their heads in unison, following the avalonian even as they were unable to move from their location.
"You know of the interaction between mana and Gi, which means you fought someone who could form their bone weapon and perform small hexes. If you had fought a true Kimbramancer then you would recognise when someone has stolen your potential to move." Gawayen took a step forward and raised his empty hand. Like before, bone after bone flew from the void behind him, compacting together and forming a giant arrow, "and now it's time for you to die."
He pulled his arm back and waited for Yveth's bone spikes to quell for a moment before throwing the arrow towards the blurred figure before him. With the red light still sealing Laurence, Gawayen was sure that he would either be dead or mortally wounded. Gawayen was sure that a bone arrow this large was lethal even to him. Leaving nothing to chance, he leapt forwards, chasing the arrow in order to behead whatever was left of Laurence after the grievous blow. The arrow tore through the air, but as it reached the halfway point between its origin and its target, the ten Laurences all cried out in unison, "Geburah!"
There was a flash of light and Laurence appeared behind Gawayen, the red light that had sealed him shattering like glass in the location he was standing at an instant before. The ten blurred figures surrounded Gawayen and swung their hammers in unison. They were like smiths, performing precision strikes in order to form the shape they wanted in the material that was before them, but Gawayen was unwilling to be that material. He swung his blade once to knock back the strikes of the figures before him, before retaliating with a second at near instantaneous speeds, severing their heads from their bodies. The four figures turned to motes of dust as their heads hit the floor and he broke out from Laurence's encirclement before turning to face the six blurry figures as his giant arrow exploded against the far wall.
"My potential is not something someone like you could ever steal, let alone pause for any small amount of time," Laurence said, the blue light returning to radiate from him and his doppelgangers, dimmer than it had been even mere moments ago. The six Laurences rubbed their face in unison before clasping the shaft of their hammers to their waist and aiming at Gawayen. Sliding his foot back, Laurence yelled "Samael!" before leaping towards his nemesis, piercing him with six beams of light.
No comments:
Post a Comment