As mentioned, this chapter was moved from its place as the ninth chapter to the tenth chapter due to organizational concerns. The new chapter is now the ninth chapter, so it's in the previous chapter.
"So yeah… I think we're lost." A boy spoke to his companion as they traveled down an eerily empty street in what they'd both assumed was supposed to be a bustling city.
The boy was around average height for his people, measuring in at one-hundred seventy-three centimeters at sixteen years old, and he looked fairly normal for his age, with his soft-rounded facial features and slightly larger than normal Emerald-eyes that adorned his face, which looked around with a sense of cautious curiosity at the emptiness of the city they were traveling through. In addition, there was one fairly strange detail about his appearance that made him stand out like a sore thumb in any crowd, and that would be his hair. His brown hair was long, possibly half as long as he was tall, but it was held upright in a series of large, sharp spikes, by an almost inhuman amount of hair spray and spiking glue that gave it the texture and feel of a hard carapace.
His attire was, for the most part, also nothing out of the ordinary for a person his age as well, consisting of denim jeans, and a blue cotton shirt with a polyester jacket over it. Though there was one strange addition to his outfit, which was made doubly strange by the fact that they were currently going through a heat wave. It was a bright-red tattered scarf, which hugged his neck tightly. The scarf had certainly seen better days, and would have been better left at home due to the absurdly high temperature, but it was something that held immense sentimental value to the boy, so it was rare that he'd ever be seen without it. The jacket, on the other hand, held no such value, and if one were to ask the boy why he was wearing it despite the heat he'd likely respond with "Well, I mean I look good in it!"
"That's a bit of an understatement, Kiri, I don't actually even remember entering this city…" The boy's, Kirisaki's, companion replied as he scratched the back of his head, staring up at the buildings that surrounded them.
His companion was of a similar age, but this most definitely wasn't something one would think upon first glance. He came in at one-hundred ninety-five centimeters, well above the average height of his age of seventeen years old, and had a build that would make a Kodiak bear squeal with jealousy. It wouldn't be unfair to say that puberty had hit him like a freight train… That fell from orbit.
Other than his absurdly stacked build, he had short, light-brown hair that measured in at less than three inches at the longest, and sharp, solid facial features which were ornamented by his soft eyes that matched his hair in color. Much like Kirisaki, he was also wearing plain clothing, a simple white cotton t-shirt and a pair of khaki cargo-shorts with mostly empty pockets.
"Now that you mention it, neither do I, Felix." Kirisaki responded to his companion, Felix, as they turned a corner onto what appeared to be a main road, though this road too, was abandoned of all people, save for the two strange looking teenagers.
"Ahh, wait, I think I see a fountain in the distance, that's probably the town square!" Felix said, pointing down the road. "Maybe we'll find someone there."
With that, the two sped up their pace toward the square, but what they saw when they arrived surprised them greatly. Yes, there were people, but these people were clad in armor, and were armed with swords, shields, maces, and several other types of melee weapons that the two boys had only seen on T.V. or in video games with any regularity.
It seemed that these strange people were all embroiled in combat with a lone combatant, who was more than capable of handling them all simultaneously. Most of the heavily armored people that'd caught the two boy's attention initially were either just barely holding themselves up, or had their faces planted firmly in the cobblestone beneath them. Every single combatant, save for the lone warrior that had beaten them down, had scorch marks covering their armor, and every bit of exposed skin they had gleamed brightly with sweat.
"How boring." The lone combatant spoke with disinterest at her opponents. "Is there not a single strong person in this entire city!?"
Upon closer inspection, there was something odd about the warrior. She was a fierce combatant to be sure, but her armor barely covered her at all, and in fact, she appeared to be naked everywhere else. At first, the two boys had thought that the pale greens and yellows covering her bare limbs came from whatever garb she happened to be wearing, but that wasn't the case. It wasn't that her skin was colored strangely either.
"Are those… Scales?" Kirisaki asked with some confusion as he strained his eyes to get a better look.
"Y-yeah, I think so…" Felix replied.
The swordswoman definitely had scales, but that wasn't her only odd feature. There was a strange webbed crest coming out from around the back of her head, just underneath her red hair, and while she had ears, they certainly didn't look like a human's, but instead had an appearance similar to small jointless wings. In addition, her fingers were much longer than any human's of a similar size, ending in sharp claws, and she had a tail hanging down from the top of her buttocks.
All in all, she gave off the appearance of some sort of humanoid lizard, or possibly-
"Ahh! She's a dragon!" Kirisaki let out a small squeal as he shook Felix's arm.
"A dragon?" Felix asked.
"Yeah, she's a dragon-girl, like something you'd find in an RPG!" Kirisaki responded with glee, but looked a little worried after the initial wave of excitement left him.
"Really? I always imagined they'd be… Scarier, I guess." Felix responded.
Kirisaki sighed to himself. The two boys were close friends, but Felix wasn't into video games like he was, and was a pretty pure-minded person in general, so explaining the reason why a dragon-girl looked more girl than dragon wasn't something he felt would be a good idea, as it would likely lead to needless misunderstandings.
Several of the fully armored soldiers in the square, all of which were likely human, began to voice their disbelief at just how strong the swordswoman was as they tried to regain their breath. They were all either incapacitated or exhausted after having fought her and a few that were still standing when the two boys arrived at the square finally gave in to their exhaustion and crumbled onto the scorched ground.
"You three…" The swordswoman called out to the last soldiers standing. "Are you going to fight, or not?"
It appeared that she hadn't noticed Kirisaki or Felix yet, or at least, didn't consider them as combatants.
"Only you three are left… Are you just going to watch while I take control of this city?" She called out again. "Or is one of you going to be a Hero and try to face me!? Well… Hurry up and decide!"
Two of the three remaining soldiers responded to her provocation, while the third cowered in fear behind his charging allies.
"That's the spirit. But even if you have the spirit, it's meaningless!" She called out to her charging opponents as flames enveloped her large sword. The heat of which could be felt all the way across the square, where the two boys had been watching.
Kirisaki immediately winced, though not because of the intense wave of heat that struck him on an already hot day...
"WAS THAT MAGIC!" Felix yelled, his deep voice cracking due to his uncontainable excitement.
"WAS! THAT! MA! GIC!" He exclaimed again as he turned to Kirisaki at his side, clasping his shoulders tightly with his enormous hands.
"WAS THAT MAGIC!" Again he yelled, this time directly into Kirisaki's face as he lifted his lifelong friend off the ground by his shoulders.
Kirisaki knew it was coming as soon as he realized the swordswoman was a dragon-girl, but he sincerely hoped it wouldn't have come that fast. Felix was, by all accounts, a fairly level-headed person, who spent more time training his body or mind than playing in fantasy worlds, but that all changed when magic was involved. For reasons that were a mystery to Kirisaki, Felix absolutely loved magic.
Luckily, the swordswoman hadn't taken notice of Felix's sudden outburst, due to her intense focus on her charging opponents. With no discernible effort the swordswoman knocked out her two opponents in only a few seconds time, leaving their third, cowering ally as the last man standing.
"Well then… What are you going to do?" The swordswoman called out to the cowering soldier, who, after hesitating for a moment, turned and ran, abandoning his allies and the town square.
"That's a wise choice. But in the future, you can't call yourself a Soldier or a Hero." She called to the retreating soldier while making no effort to chase him.
At this point, Kirisaki had succeeded in calming Felix down by reminding him that there were people in trouble, and the two were now watching as the fleeing soldier escaped from the square.
"So, uhh, should we do something?" Kirisaki spoke without looking away from the swordswoman. Given the performance the swordswoman had shown, it was understandable that he'd be unsure of if they could match her. "Can we do anything…?"
"…" Felix's expression grew darker as he watched with his friend.
"Is that it!? Having your city taken over by a monster… There's no complaints!?" The swordswoman's voice echoed throughout the square, but no one came out from any nearby buildings, and none of the soldiers could get back up even if they wanted too.
"Well then, I've taken control of this city. Next I'll…" The swordswoman spoke, but trailed off after she took notice of the two boys approaching.
"I'll be your opponent." Felix spoke as he approached her with Kirisaki at his side.
"What was that?" The swordswoman called out to him with some indifference, but when she got a better look at him irritation began to seep into her tone. "You're challenging me? Without a weapon? Are you so confident in your skills that you could beat me bare handed!?"
"No I am not." Felix spoke as he approached a fallen soldier, and apologized as he borrowed their sword. "Nor would I ever presume to disrespect such a skilled warrior by implying I was."
With that, the swordswoman seemed slightly less irate, but still stared daggers at him with her bright amber eyes.
"Kirisaki, if she beats me, I'll leave the protection of this town in your hands." Felix spoke to his best friend with absolute confidence.
"What the fuuuu-n do you mean!?" Kirisaki, on the other hand, definitely didn't share that sentiment. "Felix, what makes you think I could do anything to her if you lose!? I'm not a fighter!" He exclaimed, barely capable of keeping his voice from squeaking.
Out of the two boys, only one received any sort of stringent combat training, and that was clearly Felix. Kirisaki, while no slouch in gym class, was more of a "sit at home and play videogames" kind of guy, rather than the honorable warrior his friend was, so of course he'd be surprised by his friend's confidence in him. Though considering this wasn't the first time Felix had said something like that to him over the course of their friendship, he wasn't entirely sure why he didn't see such a comment coming.
"My name is Felix Björn, and I will be your opponent!" He called out to the swordswoman, completely ignoring Kirisaki's reasonable skepticism.
"…" Something in the way the swordswoman eyed Felix changed in that moment, and she silently raised her sword before calling out to him. "My name is Granberia, the Swordswoman of Fire, and one of the Monster Lord's Four Heavenly Knights! I will be your opponent! Now… Give me your best shot!"
"Did she say Monster Lord? Does she work for a Monster Lord!?" Kirisaki's surprised exclamation went ignored as the two combatants charged at each other, and a loud smashing sound rang out through the square as the two clashed.
Immediately, the sword in Felix's hands chipped along its edge and cracks could be seen forming over its surface just from that single exchange. The sword in his hand, much like most of the other swords littering the ground by the soldiers that'd used them, was a double-edged straight blade, which only began to taper an inch or two from its tip. Given the design of the sword and its length, it was likely meant primarily for thrusting and chopping attacks, which wasn't something Felix was used too.
He had much more experience with blades that were meant for cutting, rather than piercing or chopping, and while he had some experience with that kind of weapon, it was comparatively insignificant to the experience he had with his weapon of choice. The uncertainty that came from that inexperience made him subconsciously use much more force than was necessary to match her attack, and it damaged his sword because of it.
His opponent, Granberia, was able to read his movements and understand all of this, so she brought her attack down to something he could manage instead of shattering his sword outright. Her own sword, which was a hulking mass of heavy metal, was completely unscathed by the exchange.
Felix stepped back to brace himself as another strike came from his opponent, then another, and another. With each strike he carefully moderated his strength and the angle of the blade as he blocked her attacks, having realized his earlier mistake, but the sword was too damaged to even take those strikes, and the cracks grew over the surface of the blade with each attack until it shattered in his hands.
He quickly rolled backwards with catlike reflexes and picked up another sword as he avoided her follow-up attack, and for a second, he thought he could see a smile appear on her lips, before she charged in to strike again.
This time, his sword fared much better, and he saw an opening in her defenses. Without taking his eyes off her neck he slid past her, letting her sword come down where he was just standing. As he stood behind her, he knew she would be too fast to strike with his sword, so he waited for her to turn, and when she moved to strike him he slid underneath her arms and grabbed her wrist, then, as he moved his hips into her side he used what leverage he could get on her and threw her down onto the ground in front of him.
However, instead of crashing into the ground she turned mid-throw and tucked into a roll, creating a short distance between the two. She charged back in and struck at the base of his sword, just above the hand guard, and knocked the blade to the side with surprising force, cracking the blade in the process. It seemed that she was beginning to hold back less than she had earlier, and if Felix was to stand any chance at all, he'd need to adapt quickly.
Again a flurry of blows came, and again, his sword shattered in his hands, but Granberia refused to let up, and Felix could do nothing but dodge her aggressive swings as he tried to look for an opening to arm himself of something better than a broken hilt.
This went on for over an hour, and eventually, they'd exhausted the supply of weapons left in the square, leaving Felix seemingly unarmed, save for the various shards of metal and broken hilts that littered the area.
Both combatants were breathing heavily now, and there was something off about Granberia, the way she eyed her opponent now was completely different than it was earlier, but in a way that Felix, being a pure-minded individual, couldn't possibly understand.
Through heavy breaths Granberia called out to her opponent. "Haa… Haa… What'll you do now? There're no more weapons left for you to use… If you submit to me now, I'll spare your life, but…" Given her previous fights with the soldiers, and the way her face twisted uncomfortably, it would seem that she disliked needless killing, and she clearly didn't want to finish that last sentence.
"I'm not done yet… I've still got at least one weapon left!" Felix yelled out with determination. "Kiri!" He called out to his friend who was sitting a few feet away now, by the fountain at the center of the square.
"Wha- !? Uhh… What?" Kirisaki responded, seemingly dazed and sleepy. In the same way Felix had absolute confidence in Kirisaki's abilities to carry on the fight without him, Kirisaki had absolute confidence that he wouldn't be able to do anything at all, should Felix have lost, so instead of watching the fight, he occupied himself with other things, like dragging the fallen soldiers out of the square, counting the stones that made up the fountain, and reading things he'd previously downloaded to his phone, since there was no signal in whatever world they'd ended up in. It also helped that, despite his initial concerns, he had difficulty believing anything, even a dragon-girl, could fell Felix in a fight.
"What the-!?" Kirisaki exclaimed as Felix grabbed him by the ankles and held him out in front of him. With his free hand, Felix drew his index and middle fingers up from the base of Kirisaki's spine, causing the smaller of the two boys to straighten rigidly. "What the he-! H-heck are you doing, Felix!?"
Felix flicked his best friend on the forehead. "Stop almost cursing." He said simply as he held Kirisaki in front of him like a sword. "I let the first one slide." He continued, leaving the latter half of the statement, "but not this one", to go unsaid.
"OH NO! YOU ARE NOT USING ME AS A SWORD AGAIN!" Kirisaki screamed out, but was unable to move his body, almost as if there was some subconscious imperative mechanic in play, preventing his body from objecting like his mouth did.
"… Again?" Granberia spoke with confusion, the starry eyed look she was giving Felix replaced with one of bewilderment. "They've done this before…?"
"Prepare yourself!" Felix shouted as he lowered his center of gravity, then, taking a completely different stance than any he'd shown before, charged in. "Sworisaki Technique Number 1: Storm, the Sky Torn in Two!"
The distance between the two was closed almost instantly, and Felix swung Kirisaki upwards. Granberia just barely had enough time to register what was going on and block with the flat of her blade, which was struck violently by Kirisaki's hair. As the blade met with his hardened hair, a strange noise, like a foghorn could be heard over the strike, emanating from the fountain.
The force of the impact was far greater than anything Felix had demonstrated before, and was strong enough to lift Granberia off her feet, knocking her back several paces. The sudden ferocity of his attacks, coupled with his peculiar weapon was enough to throw her off-guard for a moment, but that strike told her that if she didn't take them seriously she'd be in danger.
Felix didn't let up, and continued to charge in. "Sworisaki Technique Number 2: Descendant of the Wild!" When he'd reached Granberia, he came in with a feinted pommel strike, using Kirisaki's heels as the pommel, and when she moved to parry her attempt was met with empty air as Felix jumped above her.
At the height of his jump he redirected Kirisaki downward, and, almost as if the gravitational force pulling him back to the ground increased tenfold, his falling speed increased until he was moving faster than when he'd jumped up. Granberia rolled backwards, just barely evading Kirisaki's piercing hair. As it tore into the ground below, the same strange foghorn-like sound could be heard again, this time it sounded three times in a row.
Unfortunately, this sudden downward attack had caused Kirisaki's hair to get stuck in the ground, leaving the two teenage boys open to retaliation by the powerful swordswoman. As she moved in to strike it seemed that her sword was heating up with every step she took, until she was upon them. As she struck a heavy blow aimed at Felix's back, it burst into flames. Felix finally managed to pull Kirisaki out of the ground, taking a large portion of the stone and dirt with him, but he wasn't fast enough to block her strike.
Granberia's mighty swing cleaved into his back, both creating and burning closed a wound all at once, and he swung Kirisaki in response, who's hair now resembled a stone afro with brown spikes sticking out of it, intent on bashing her with what could only be described now as Stone-Hammer Kirisaki. The retaliation managed to strike her arm as she attempted to block it, and pushed her away from the two boys, her sword still ablaze.
Now that the two were separated again, they both took stock of their injuries.
"H-hey! Felix, are you alright?" Kirisaki asked after spitting out some dirt and tiny rocks from his mouth. His concern for his friend clearly shown on his face, despite his current inability to move his body.
Felix's shirt had been almost completely destroyed by the strike and lingering fire, so he took this opportunity to rip off his badly damaged shirt, exposing his powerful muscles and sweating torso to the open air. With what he could salvage of his shirt, he tied it tightly around his torso in an attempt to cover up his wound, and then redirected his attention toward his opponent.
"I'm fine, Kiri, but we should probably finish this…" He said as he readied himself once more.
"I agree." Granberia interjected, readying herself as well.
"Sworisaki Technique Number 17: Ancestral Scale, Wurm!" Felix shouted at the top of his lungs as he burst into a sprint, matching Granberia in speed, and as the two met, he thrust Kirisaki foreward with a small spin, intent on parrying Granberia's own flaming strike and striking her in the gut with the blunt of Stone-Hammer Kirisaki. As the two combatants exchanged blows the strange foghorn-like sound blared out again, far louder than before. Accompanying it this time was a strange voice, that seemed to have been welling up from everywhere and nowhere all at once, which shouted "W-W-W-WOMBOOOOOOOO COMBOOOOOOOO!"
To Be Continued…?
Author's Ramble's: If you haven't realized it yet... April Fools!
So to explain this, Kirisaki Segawa and Felix Björn are two characters that a friend and I made for a DnD-esq game based on a certain anime/game series that I won't be naming as of yet. Thing is, our group never ended up starting the campaign for various reasons, so these two, as well as the rest of the characters from the campaign have become a sort of in-joke within the group, and like most in-jokes, it's evolved well past the original confines of the campaign over time, including random Felisaki (Felix & Kirisaki) Versus match ups, strange developments with character backstory, and... However it'd be possible to describe Shinji Agate (another campaign character), who wasn't a part of this story in any official way.
And for anyone who doesn't know who they're fighting in this story, it's Granberia from the game Monmusu Quest (Monster Girl Quest). If you also don't know what that is and would like to goggle it, please be advised that it's an NSFW visual novel.
Anyhoo, this was only a rough draft of the fight I typed out for April Fools Day a few days ago, so hopefully you all enjoyed it despite it not being an actual part of "A Hollowed Bond". If you guys liked this chapter and would like to see more of Kirisaki and Felix's odd adventures, let me know and I'll upload some more stories about them in their own work, as to avoid having any more unrelated chapters inhabiting this story. For now, whenever I upload the next chapter I'll be replacing this one with it, and moving this chapter to the chapter 10 slot, for organizational purposes.
Oh right! I almost forgot, but in the last chapter's [Author's Rambles] I made a blunder. I said I'd finished all the parts for the first part/arc (Trip to Gallia) of the story when I meant to say that I finished planning out the parts for the first arc. My bad!
Also, if anyone is interested, I'm still looking for Beta Readers.
Review Responses:
Rook115: To be honest, if Guiche didn't explain he meant to duel him the following day, that would probably have been what happened, "sucker punch" and all.
xbox432: Yeah, and depending on the source (anime or light novel) they're either made of bronze or brass. It being one or the other for the purposes of this story won't make a big difference for the outcome of the fight, but it will affect a few aspects of it, depending on which I decide to go with. I like what I can do with Bronze, personally.
Quelthias: I never saw Guiche as a particularly bad guy, but I don't think he's all that great either. Still, the way Saito and him got into a fight seemed pretty childish in canon, so I figured I'd try to give them a better reason to fight, even if it is just a misunderstanding.
Guest: Kirche did just sort of Sherlock the everlasting life out of that clearing. I meant to make it seem like she had a decent enough memory and was using that to work her way through the fight in the clearing, as Charlotte had described it, but I can see how odd her incredible deductive reasoning is, all things considered.
Kirche and Charlotte had a rocky relationship at first in canon as well. If you ever take a look at the Tabitha side stories there's one that explains it. Basically (Spoiler warning for ZnT), Kirche saw Tabitha as an easy target to bully because of her demure nature and started messing with her, this was exacerbated by their jealous peers (several girls were jealous of Kirche for romantic reasons, and one boy was jealous and insecure because of Tabitha's prowess as a Wind Mage), who eventually orchestrated a duel between the two girls. This however resulted in their peers getting caught, which indirectly started the friendship we now know in canon.
I never specified whether Guiche was a Line or Dot-class mage in the story, just that Malicorne was making it seem like Roland was working his way up the rankings, so to speak. Though to be honest, I did write that bit under the assumption that Guiche was a Line-Class Magician. I didn't remember if he started the story at Line or Dot-Class in canon, and I haven't been able to find a point in the light novels that mentions him ranking up (or maybe I've forgotten where that bit was), so I was trying to leave it vague, despite my assumption (but looking back on it, my assumption definitely colored my writing, so I can see how it was implied that Guiche is a Line-Class mage with the way the scene progressed). Still, Guiche's a fairly competent magician in my opinion, even if he does start at Dot-Class, so I think the fight'll be interesting regardless.
Also, are you the Guest from before? Well I'm glad to have retained your readership, if that's the case! If you end up sticking around for a while longer I'd be happy to see you make an account on the site, should you choose to!