Sabi 'Granul followed Derek's lead by opening fire with his Carbine, preventing Barbarus from continuing his monologue. Angered, the Chieftain leaped forward and tried to smash the pair, but they had already dodged cleanly away. The Sangheili and the Human were now on opposite sides of the clearing, allowing them to hit Barbarus from both sides. Being a close-range fighter, the Brute could only focus on one enemy at a time, so he tossed a spike grenade at Sabi and focused his attention on the Human.
Charging forward, he slammed his hammer into the ground where Derek was a second before. The ODST completed his roll just in time to duck under the horizontal swing of the hammer, giving him the chance to tackle the Chieftain. Well, he would've if the alien weighed a couple hundred pounds less. It was like tackling a wall. The Brute laughed while creating space between him and the Human before kicking him across the clearing. Barbarus turned around when he heard a roar accompanying the igniting of an Energy Sword.
Sabi was surprised about the agility of the Chieftain. He just barely managed to evade his stab, the Brute's shields flaring from the proximity of the sword. Barbarus completed his turn and smashed the butt of his hammer across the Sangheili's face, sending him to the ground. The Brute raised his hammer for a finishing blow but stopped when his shields began to take a small amount of damage. Derek had lost his rifle, leaving him with just his M6D, which he was using as a distraction. He knew the small arms fire would do nothing against the Chieftain's shields, but he continued firing anyway.
The Human was nothing more than an annoyance to the Brute, so he treated him as such. With a casual flick of the wrist, he tossed a spike grenade towards the pest. It latched onto the tree Derek was using as cover and exploded while he was preoccupied with pulling out a new magazine. The alien gave a predator's smile as he watched the Helljumper fall to his back with a metal spike piercing his blue visor.
Sabi said nothing, but the look in his eyes told everything. Jumping to his feet, he began to swing wildly with his sword. The Chieftain had to exert an impressive amount of effort in order to dodge each attack, but eventually he was able to go on the offensive and take his own swings at the warrior. He eventually had the Elite right where he wanted him: stumbling underneath his dropping hammer.
The Sangheili, however, was full of surprises. Sabi quickly rose up and stabbed at Barbarus' unprotected belly. Unfortunately for the Elite, he had forgotten about the Chieftain's one-use ability to overcharge his shields, an ability the Humans call Invincibility. The Energy Sword simply glanced off the shields, doing absolutely no damage. The Brute grinned and smashed the Gravity Hammer down, just barely missing the Elite, but the gravity displacement broke both of Sabi's legs and threw him backwards until he hit a tree trunk.
In pain, but still conscious, he snatched Derek's magnum from the ground and attempted to shoot the advancing Chieftain, whose Invincibility had worn off, but the M6D didn't have a magazine nor a bullet in the chamber. Accepting his fate, he watched the Brute close in for the killing blow. Barbarus was preparing to take the Sangheili's head as a trophy when he felt something smack against his own. Looking down, he found the Human's helmet at his feet with a spike piercing the visor.
"Forget something, furball?!"
"Derek!" cried out Sabi as he tossed his deactivated Energy Sword. The Jiralhanae Chieftain tracked it through the air until it landed in the hands of the annoying Human. Derek clumsily ignited the sword, for it was designed for someone with much bigger, multi-thumbed, hands. Once activated, he could at least semi-comfortably hold the weapon.
"Foolish Human! You should have stayed down. If it is a duel you want, it is a duel you shall receive. I will feast upon your bones!" challenged Barbarus as he secured his hammer on his back and ignited the Energy Sword he had taken from the Kaidon as a trophy.
"I don't think you'll like my flavor." said Derek, his green eyes unobscured by a visor. Blood was welling and dripping from a fresh wound that went from just under his left eye to the side of his nose where the wound was deepest. It was obvious that the spike had come to a rest there.
The Brute charged forward, snarling, as he took the same wild swings that he took with his hammer. Derek had difficulty blocking the powerful strikes, so most of his defense consisted of dodging and countering. He knew that he couldn't use strength to win the battle, so he would have to use skill. Unfortunately, he was lacking in experience with swordplay. The Chieftain also was not used to swords, so the duel came down to who would get the lucky strike first.
The Energy Swords slashed and crashed with each other, each strike accompanied by a block or a dodge. Each defense accompanied by a counter. The Chieftain's horizontal strikes were met with a block or a duck, the vertical dodged and countered. Derek paused for a brief moment to wipe the sticky blood from his face, and then returned to the fight.
Barbarus was driving him back, until he was almost out of the clearing. The Corporal surprised the Brute by pouring all of his strength into a strike. The double-pronged blades of both combatants intertwined, and were locked up to the point where neither of the fighters could break apart.
That was when the Jiralhanae used his advantage of strength, pushing the swords back towards Derek, but the Human redirected the blades by side-stepping. After the Brute's third attempt, Derek redirected the Energy Swords into an upwards arc that managed to slice through the Chieftain's headdress, causing his shield generator to fail. Angered, Barbarus roared as he lashed out a leg, kicking and snapping Derek's left leg at the knee. He cried out as he fell over and lost his grip on the sword, which deactivated and hit the ground.
The Chieftain chuckled as his opponent fell, but stopped when he began to rise again. Using a tree as support, Derek pulled himself to a standing position. Barbarus noticed sparks and circuitry between the cracks in the leg armor. His leg at a very unnatural angle, the ODST reached into a pouch at his waist and said,
"You chose the wrong limb."
"Then permit me to try again," replied the Brute as he lunged forward. He watched the Human throw a small object at him and laughed as it missed while he swung the Energy Sword through his broken and remaining leg. Barbarus was pleased to see blood spurting from the partially cauterized stump. Derek screamed as he fell to his back in terrible pain. The Jiralhanae was content to just watch the Human bleed out, but was distracted by a scuffling noise behind him. He turned just in time to see the Sangheili pick up the object that was thrown at him by the Human and slide it into the small pistol.
Even though the weapon was far too small to fit comfortably in his large hands, Sabi aimed it at the unshielded head of the Chieftain and pulled the trigger until the gun stopped firing. Without a sound, the Brute fell to the ground with multiple holes in his face.
And there it is, friends. The end to this battle. This isn't the end of the story, though. Everything will be wrapped up next chapter. With Derek bleeding out, how will it end? Stay tuned!
...Corny jokes aside, how did I do on the final battle? Satisfactory? I hope so. Thank you to my reviewers. You're all wonderful people!
... And you better appreciate my dedication to this story! I posted this while a whirling hurricane was raging in my backyard! Just a couple minutes after I posted this chapter, the power died. I hope this is worth it!