Disclaimer: ….I don't own Soul Calibur, they are a property of Namco and all of that good stuff.
Hello, everyone. It's been what, nearly a year since the last chapter? Sorry about the long wait, but here we are. Now, without further ado…
Tsurugi no Kirokusuru
Chapter 10: The Burning Moon
Hours after the battle had ended, Abelia let out a small moan as she slowly opened her eyes. She didn't remember what had happened, except that Roin had knocked her out in her attempt to keep him from killing Sarieth. After getting her eyes adjusted to the night sky, she noticed that they were far from the Whelsdat Bridge; now the unit was camping out at a forested area. It was late, and everyone was sleeping. Abelia saw her sword and shield lying next to her, along with her armor. She was merely in her plainclothes outfit that she wore under all of that stuff.
"W-where in the world am I?" Her voice came out weaker than it should be.
"In the middle of the forest, silly." Sarieth answered from right behind her. Most of his armor was gone as well; he was dressed in the causal outfit she often saw him in when he was off-duty.
"More particularly, we're officially in Dalkian territory, a few hours away from the bridge." He continued as he sat next to her, "I don't really have a clue where we are going right now, but I think we're on the path to the capital."
"How long was I out for?"
"Quite a while, actually. I had to carry your ass all this way, so you should be grateful. You don't really have much damage, but Riese wrapped your ribs up, just to be safe. That was a pretty bad blow you took."
Abelia noticed the slight pain in her midsection as she tried to sit up, but it was barely noticeable anymore. The memory of the incident with Roin slowly started to come back to her, and her mood darkened. "I can't believe I made such a terrible mistake."
"What are you talking about? You didn't…"
"I nearly got myself killed because I got too careless." She said, "As a soldier of my caliber, I'm expected to act more tactfully than what I did."
"'Your caliber'? So I'm guessing that you're going to say that was the type of irrational decision that I usually make?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. "I don't know…I just feel so embarrassed. I should have been helping you fight him, not taking him on by myself so I can look like a hero..."
"It's okay. To be honest, it's my own fault for getting in that situation in the first place. You just did what you felt you had to do in order to protect me. There's no reason for you to be ashamed. I think we both underestimated him a little bit. Don't let it get to you."
Abelia nodded. "Thank you, Sarieth. I sincerely owe you…."
"No need for that, Abelia. You helped me, I helped you, and now we're even. Just because you and I are 'rivals' in a way doesn't mean I wouldn't hesitate to kill anybody that even thinks of hurting you." Sarieth got up and stretched. "It's pretty late, so get some sleep. We're going to be doing some serious traveling tomorrow."
Abelia sighed a bit and laid back down, slowly drifted off back to sleep. Sarieth couldn't help but look at her a few seconds before he went back to his post. Something in the back of his mind was eating at him, but Sarieth didn't pay it no mind. All that mattered to him was finding Kalent.
Luna sighed contently for the first time in days as she sat in her bath. Her body was sore after who knows how many hours of intense training, and she needed to relax before she ended up hurting herself. The other girls were busy going through the motions of day to day life: Lupi and Elua argued, Heal-Do was either reading or playing chess with Aege, and Kalent either was with them or in his quarters sleeping the day away, as usual. Luna had chosen to separate herself from her friends for the moment, as she needed some time to think.
There was still a part of her that was still bitter about her loss to Sarieth, but as time passed, she slowly started to realize that maybe it was a bit of her own fault. She was one of Dalkia's best soldiers, and ever since she was paired up with the other girls that made up her group, she found that the challenge she faced from her enemies were paltry at best. Luna had let herself be complacent with the stream of weak opponents, and severely underestimated Sarieth, which ended up being her undoing.
"I should have remembered what they taught me about being too overconfident…" She mumbled as she sank further into the tub. She could almost hear the voices of the officers yelling at her; Her teachers were never tolerant of failure, and she had paid the price for that many, many times. Luna refused to let those thoughts consume her, and made an effort to focus her mind on other things. Like Kalent.
When she heard about his little 'incident' a few weeks ago, she couldn't help but be impressed. He had quite the mean streak in him, and that's exactly what he hoped for. Lately, she's been helping him get accustomed to his new sword. While he seemed to have a basic grasp of swordplay, Kalent didn't really have much of a grasp of proper technique. So she tried to assist him…
"Do you mind telling me why we're doing this again?" Kalent asked as Luna dragged him out into the training area.
"Because you need to work on your performance! It's sloppy and crude; you'll never be able to last long in the heat of battle with those types of skills."
"Unrefined? Are you kidding me? This is the style I was trained to use, and it's worked out for me so far. Why wouldn't it do anything now?"
"Because you were facing weaklings who could barely swing a stick properly. The forces you're facing now are people with skill and intelligence. Since I doubt you have much of the latter, I have to make sure you're ready and prepared for battle." Luna shoved him to the battle area. "I know that you are somewhat good with this, but I want more than just 'good' out of you. But before I can tell what needs working on, I'll need to fight you for a bit."
"….what?"
"Fight. Me. Is that so hard for you to understand?"
Kalent could see nothing good coming out of this, but since he wasn't in a position to refuse her, there was really anything that he could do.
"Fine." He took out his brand new sword and made sure his dagger was at his side if he needed it. "But don't assume that this will be easy."
Five minutes later…
"That was actually pretty easy." Luna dusted off her clothes while Kalent lay on the ground, too exhausted to come up with a proper reply. Luna was a bit faster than he expected, but the problem wasn't that, it was Luna and her annoying ability to block or counter any attack he tried to do, all of which usually left him open for some of her own. That and her annoying habit of leaping around the place, sometimes even landing on his head. Needless to say, it was a very one-sided match.
"You're pretty good for someone who uses such a sloppy technique." Luna leaned over to get a better look at her beaten opponent. "But still, it needs a bit of work if you're going to face these soldiers."
"What makes them any different from the Halteese losers that I've been fighting before?"
"For one thing, the Grandall soldiers are said to have been taught by Girardot himself," Luna stated ominously, as if his name alone would strike Kalent with unimaginable terror. When it was obvious that Kalent wasn't reacting as such, she continued, "He's one of the best tacticians in that country, it's obvious that Grandall has a far better understanding of how to approach us than Halteese does. And much more importantly, their soldiers are way more aggressive."
"Aggressive, huh? Is that why they beat you?" Kalent remarked, and was rewarded with a hard kick to the ribs. "Gah!"
"As I was saying, you're going to have to make some serious changes to your fighting style before you think of going into a battlefield again." She said firmly, "It's my responsibility to make sure you don't get yourself killed."
"So what are you suggesting, Luna? That I start learning your fighting style? I'm sorry if I don't look or act enthusiastic, but I don't think that I have the stamina to jump around all over the place like you do."
"You don't have to do all of that, idiot. Just follow my instructions and you'll before you know it, you'll almost be as good as me."
"Or I'll be dead."
"Well, that is a risk I'm willing to take. Now get up." Luna kicked him again, Kalent groaned as he finally got to his feet.
"I think we have time for one more fight. Why don't you try and hit me this time, Star of Heaven? En Garde!"
"It all turned out for the better, thankfully." Luna said as she sank further into the tub. With her teachings, Kalent seemed to have a better grasp on his skills than he did before, and he was a pretty quick learner at that, since now he could stand his own against her for a good while before she completely wrecked him and left him lying unconscious on the ground.
On the whole, she couldn't help but admit that she was starting to like his presence in the group. When she initially heard that they were adding another member to her unit, she was apprehensive at the idea of someone disrupting the dynamic of the team she worked hard to achieve. When Luna found out it was a guy joining a group, she was even more apprehensive at the thought of some sleazebag going around making passes at her and her friends. But Kalent seemed to fit in quite well, thankfully. Lupi and the others seemed to be very fond of him, and he was respectful and still have enough aggression as to not hold the unit back. To be very honest, Luna herself was warming up to him, though she'd never admit it to anyone.
The sound of knocking startled Luna out of her blissful state. "Damn it all, what do they want?" The rule usually was that no one was allowed to bother her during this time unless it was absolutely important, so she was assuming that this was some significant news.
"Luna, are you in here?" Kalent's slightly sleepy voice came from the other side of the door. "Someone's here to see you."
"Yeah, alright. Just give me a second!" Luna said a bit louder than she had intended. She could almost hear Kalent backing away from the door in fear. She quickly got out of the tub and dried herself off.
Kalent was waiting impatiently outside the door for Luna to answer. At the moment, Roin had arrived in the main room and he didn't look very happy. Kalent had heard about the failed attempt at capturing the Whelsdat Bridge, and once again, he suspected that his brother had gotten involved. At this point, their meeting would be inevitable and Kalent couldn't help but feel wary about that fact, but he tried to keep his mind off that for the time being and focused on the situation at hand right now.
Luna opened the door slowly. "What was so important that you had to bother me, Kalent?"
"Well, Captain Roin is…uh…" It took Kalent a while to notice the rather 'stripped down' appearance of Luna. "Um…"
Thankfully, Luna was more interested about her captain than why her officer was stuttering. "What is it? Roin is down there doing what to my squad?"
You moron, get yourself together before she thinks you're leering at her! Kalent quickly regained his composure. "Captain Roin is downstairs with the others. He wants all of us to get there before he starts speaking."
Luna started to snicker, "I can't believe he chose to show his face around here…" "Just give me a second; I'll be down there to laugh in his face shortly." She closed the door.
Kalent held his face in his hands and let out a long breath. Being the only boy in an house full of girls could be a pain sometimes.
Five minutes later, Luna bounced down the stairs into a room thick with tension. The other girls seemed to go on with their regular routine, but Roin's presence seemed to make them uncomfortable and irritated. She could see Lupi glaring at him whenever Roin wasn't looking while she watched the others play chess. Nobody really liked him around, but they usually let Luna air their grievances for the rest of them.
"It's been a long time, Luna." Roin noted the rather disheveled look, "And I see you're just as arrogant as ever, even after your loss."
"Yeah, yeah, it's nice to see you too, loser." Luna gave him a lazy salute, "It's too bad too, I was hoping that you would have had some of that pompousness knocked out of you by now." She
"That was only a minor setback. I suppose it's my punishment for relying on third-rate soldiers for important assignments like that one." Roin knew that Luna was going to mock him about his failure till the cows came home, so he decided to change the subject. "Anyway, the reason I'm here is because our queen has been doing some planning lately, and is requesting that Kalent accompany her to Halteese Republic, along with myself."
"You want Kalent to come with you? Why?"
"While it's not exactly anything you and your unit need to be concern about, I will say that we are in talks with a newly formed nation. If this plan works out, then there's the chance that our battle with Halteese could soon be at an end."
"Really?" Kalent couldn't help but be confused. A newly formed nation? Who would do such a thing in the middle of a war? "I suppose that could be a benefit, especially if it will give us time to focus on Grandall."
"That's right. End the conflict with one nation so we can put more resources into fighting the other." Roin stated, "But before we can do that, the Queen must meet with the King to agree to the terms. Unfortunately, the new country is requires us to travel through Halteese, it is imperative that she be protected from any would be assassins. And that's why you have been asked to come along with us."
"Okay…" Kalent scratched his head. Obviously as someone "So basically it's a body guard mission, right? That shouldn't be an issue, especially if it'll put an end to this war."
"Hey, what about us?" Luna was started to get frustrated. "You can't just take him away like that!"
"You don't seem to understand your position, but that will be overlooked, seeing as there's something you're probably interested in, Luna." Roin continued, "We've been getting reports about a Grandall unit headed towards the old barricade that blocks one of the paths to Revless, and I have an idea of who's leading that group."
The very thought about who Roin was implying made her heart leap. If it was who she thought it was, she could finally repay him for humiliating her. Kalent, on the other hand, couldn't decide if him not being there was a blessing or another missed opportunity.
"If you want a chance to redeem yourself, you may have your chance." Roin continued, "Try not and disappoint Aurelia again by losing." He smirked as he watched Luna resist the urge to smack him. "Kalent, be outside in about thirty minutes, got that?"
"Yes sir." Kalent saluted as Roin left the house. The other members of the Klessirpemdo looked at him inquisitively and he just shrugged. "Well, I can't argue with Roin's reasoning, so it looks like I'll be going along with his plan." He walked upstairs to get his stuff.
"This really sucks." Elua was the first to speak, "A unit is coming towards us and we're one person short. What are we going to do about that?"
"We'll just have to make due. We don't have time to be concerned about stuff like that." Luna couldn't help but be upset a bit, despite the excitement of getting a second shot at Sarieth. "I'm not happy with this decision, but this is Roin's order, and I don't really feel like causing much of a fuss right now."
"But I have a bad feeling about this…" Lupi really didn't want to see Kalent leave, but she knew that none of them had any say in the matter, especially if Queen Aurelia was involved.
"Don't be so paranoid. Kalent will be fine on his own." Luna continued, "He'll probably be more in danger of being bored to death, if anything."
Kalent came back down a while later, his new sword in hand. "I should be back shortly if all goes without a hitch. It's something I need to do, unfortunately."
"Just make sure you get back quickly, alright?" Luna blurted out. "We need someone to cook for us, of course."
"What about my food?" Heal-do said.
"We all like Kalent's cooking better. You can barely make soup properly, much less feed us for more thana week without making us ill!"
Kalent shook his head and smiled a bit as he left the house, leaving the girls to argue amongst themselves.
Things continued to move forward. As Roin predicted, Sarieth's unit headed towards the barrier that separated them from Revless, in fact, they got there even faster than expected with the arrival of several horses for them to ride on. Soon, they found themselves on the outskirts of a border that separated them from the Dalkian capital. The sun was starting to go down, giving everything a nice hue of reddish-orange throughout.
"Ugh, I thought we'd never get there." Rhiona grunted as she got off her horse. "That trip was unreasonably long, even with the new horses."
"I didn't have much of a problem. It was actually a pretty short trip." Aeneas answered, though Rhiona knew that it was probably because Eurydice got to ride with him throughout the entire journey. "So there, is this the place that the Dalkians are planning their next move in?"
"Yeah. Whoever is stationed in there is still getting things planned out." Sarieth turned to his crew. "But I assume that it'll be dark before we start fighting."
"So we'll be fighting in the middle of the night AGAIN? Do you know how annoying it is?" Riese complained, but Sarieth didn't seem to be too concerned.
"That's something we'll just have to deal with. I'm sure you'd be able to handle it." The captain turned to Abelia, "Since you're supposed to be helping us along with all of this, do you think you can assist me with the process of coming up with a plan?"
Abelia walked up to him, "Are you sure? You seem to be doing fine on your own, so far."
"I know, I know, but it would be easier with you here. Just help me with this for a bit, will you?"
As the two captains started to talk, the others started work on pitching up the tent that would be their stronghold.
Meanwhile, Luna and her unit were checking out the enemy territory. Actually, her unit was the one doing the scoping; Luna herself was lying casually on the ground, taking a nap.
"Lupi, what are you seeing out there?"
"Well, all I'm seeing is a bunch of people sitting around. It's certainly not a lot of them, that's for sure." She tried to get a decent sight of them from her view scope. "There's this one guy talking to this girl with funny looking hair, though, and I think they're scoping us out."
Aege grabbed the scope out of her hand. "What do you know; her hairstyle does look pretty silly." She laughed, "I wonder if that guy is the one who beat Luna?" She received a punch in the arm for her trouble.
"Quiet!" Elua hissed, "She's still smarting from that defeat, and she doesn't need you to remind her from that."
"Hey, I was just stating facts. If this is the right person, then we'll have to be careful with him." Aege returned to her scope. "Hey, is it just me, or does that guy look a bit like Kalent?"
"I don't see it."
"Me neither. I think Kalent is much cuter." Lupi said off-handedly. Elua snorted.
"Of course you would think that, you are so crushing on him." She said.
"What, of course not! I don't have to have a crush on him to think he's cute. If I liked him, I would just say so. I certainly wouldn't lie about it like you do with Marta…"
"So you wanna go down that route, huh?"
The ruckus was enough to wake Luna up. Seeing two of her friends and loyal soldiers at each other's throats, she calmly defused the situation before it came to blows. "What are you guys doing?" She questioned, causing the both of them to quickly regain their composure.
"Nothing, nothing…" Lupi gently cleared her throat. "Just having a little discussion."
"Right...Either way, calm down, we have work to do." Luna went over to the lookout area and took the scope from Aege. Upon seeing Sarieth, the feeling of anticipation welled up in her stomach again.
"Okay, one thing. You see the brown haired guy in the armor?" She told her unit, "That one is mine. No one else is allowed to beat him but ME, got that?" The unit responded with nods of affirmation.
"So what do you think we should do?"
"Spread out in those for strongholds that surrounds this place. Assuming that the others fail—and they most certainly will—you'll be the ones to try and make a dent in the forces." Luna went to the corner where her Dystopia was resting. "Be prepared to head out on my call."
And with that, both people waited till the sun set. Amongst the light of the moon, soldiers were starting to make their way towards the Grandall forces.
"They're launching their assault now!" Sarieth shouted, "Remember the plan we discussed and get moving!"
In an instant, everybody ran off to their specific point on the field. The plan was to try and split the Dalkians up and take them out one or two at a time. Sarieth himself went down to the front of the line to his nearest stronghold, Abelia following behind him..
"I think someone's already trying to break in the stronghold…" Abelia said quietly. "I think we should surprise them and avoid any prolonged fighting, got that?" Sarieth nodded and snuck around the outside of the base. Two men were busy doing their best to get in the stronghold. He crouched down a little before jumping out of the shadows and attacking one of them.
"Where the hell did you come from?" The other soldier backed away, but Abelia, who had crept around the other side, knocked him out with the hilt of her sword.
"These guys were pathetically weak." Sarieth said after quickly dealing with his opponent. "I think that they're here just as a way to tire us out so we wouldn't be able to take on the real threat just up ahead. I think we should take as much time to rest up between bouts as we can."
"Good idea." Abelia felt better about fighting with Sarieth this time around. "Do you think the others will be all right?"
"I'm sure they're probably just as bored as I am right now."
"That's not the answer I was looking for, Sarieth."
The initial wave of troops did an absolutely pitiful job. While they weren't as weak as earlier ones (they seemed to actually use a bit more tact when it came to fighting), it didn't change the fact that they were outclassed by soldiers that had less experience as them. So it was up for the Klessirpemdo to do their part, which meant that Heal-Do, Lupi, Elua and Aege had to be the ones to face them.
Elua leaned against the wall outside of her stronghold, waiting for someone to come. She was slowly losing interest in her task, however, and her thoughts slowly turned to Marta. had always liked fighting, but a small part of her wanted this whole war to just to end so she could spend more time with him.
He's probably bored to death, sitting there in that shop all by himself. She scrapped her kunai together for a bit and small sparks appeared for a brief second before fading into the night. Maybe if we win this battle, Luna will gain enough influence to get Roin to put Marta back on active duty. Or maybe it's best that he doesn't get put in such a dangerous situation again after what happened last time….
Memories of Marta's body lying in that medical tent still terrified her. As much as she wanted to see him back fighting along side her and the other Dalkian soldiers, she didn't want to see him in such a state ever again.
Despite her daydreaming, Elua was alert enough to hear the sounds of rapid footsteps coming her way. Finally. I was starting to get irritated. She quickly raised her arm and used one of her kunai to deflect the attack that had aimed right at her.
"What's this?" Riese's eyes focused on the dim view of her new adversary. "How did you know that I was going to attack you?"
"Lucky guess." Elua couldn't help but notice that Riese looked a lot like Heal-Do if she cut her hair short and stopped wearing such formal outfits. "Ah, you know, you kinda look like a friend of mine."
"Really?"
"Yeah, she even uses the exact type swords that you do, though I would say that the ones she has look a lot better than that trash you're wielding." The flash of anger on Riese's face told Elua that she was getting her angry.
"Alright then, since you want to be a smartass, we'll see how you look after this 'trash' cuts you into pieces."
"I will not allow you to pass!" Aege shouted as soon as Rhiona and Meiga came within distance of her stronghold. "If you want to get through, you will have to defeat me first."
"Really, and what's a small girl like you gonna do with that oversized sword of yours?"
"I'll be more than happy to give you a demonstration if you want." Aege pointed her sword at Meiga, who didn't look more unimpressed than threatened.
"With something that size, I wouldn't be surprised if you did that to yourself first."
"Antagonizing our opponents isn't going to help us win this battle, Meiga." Rhiona said calmly. "We need to just beat her quickly and be on our way. Let me handle her."
"If you insist," Meiga hesitantly stepped aside. "But I wouldn't let my guard down against her if I was you. If it looks like you're in trouble, I'm jumping in."
"How cute. Such a lovely weapon like that is wasted on someone like you."
"Fine…" Riona took out her sword and slowly inched her way towards Aege, "This won't take long, anyway."
"Ugh…I'm exhausted.
"Don't worry, I'm right behind you." Aeneas ran across the door to the stronghold. "We're here. Give me a hand with this, will you?"
"Okay." Setting her sword on the ground, she took hold of a lower part of Aeneas' lance.
"On the count of three, we are going to use my lance to knock down the wall, we'll get in faster that way." Aeneas said, and when Eurydice nodded in understanding, they took a step back before running straight towards the door. As planned, the wood gave way and both of them crashed through inside.
"EEK!" Heal-Do jumped a bit when that happened. She wasn't expecting anyone to arrive in such a loud, violent fashion. "What are you doing?"
"We're here to take over your stronghold, of course." Aeneas planted his lance on the ground.
"I know that, but I was expecting you to use a less…aggressive method. Oh well…" She picked up her swords, which Aeneas instantly recognized as wave swords.
I didn't know other people knew how to wield them too! This is unexpected… Aeneas had sparred with Riese enough times to know how to defend against the odd-looking weapon, but Eurydice on the other hand…
"I'm ready to go!" The newest member of the team bounded back into the stronghold after she retrieved her sword that she had left outside, but Aeneas quickly held her back. "Hey, Aeneas…"
"Hold your horses. This girl looks like she could be pretty dangerous. Let's not act to rashly." He warned. Eurydice was a graduate, but he was starting to realize that she still was a bit naive when it came to real-life battling.
"She kinda looks like Riese." Eurydice said. Aeneas quickly noticed the similarity.
"Now that you mention it, she does look a lot like Riese with longer hair and less hostile attitude." He concurred. "She's actually pretty cute at that."
Heal-Do resisted the urge to turn red at the comment; she didn't want to lose her focus before the fight actually began. "Please don't joke around. I'm not evil by any means, but for the sake of my country, I will not hesitate to end both of your lives."
"It looks like we're in for a long battle. Eurydice, you'll back me up on this right?" Aeneas asked his partner, and she nodded in affirmation.
Abelia and Sarieth stood in front of the last stronghold before the main one, and both of them were pretty worn out. The lack of light, while helpful in ambush attacks, was awful when it came to actual fights. The end result was that both of them were a bit tired, but they could see the main stronghold just up ahead from the one they were at now, so it gave them a bit of a second wind. It didn't take long before they were inside.
"Good lord, we have to fight another lance user?" Was all that they could think of the moment they saw their opponent.
Lupi came out of the shadows, Blazecleaver in her clutches. "Good timing, I was starting to get bored in here." She noticed Sarieth's face. "Uh-oh…"
"Uh-oh? What do you mean by-"
"You!" Lupi pointed her lance at Sarieth. "My commander ordered me to let you pass."
"What?"
"She wants to fight you personally, I suppose."
'She'? This could prove to be interesting. Sarieth thought to himself. But he had concerns about leaving Abelia by herself. What if this was some kind of trap.
As if hearing his thoughts, Abelia gave him a nudge. "I'm sure this girl is telling the truth. You go on ahead and I'll catch up when I get done with her."
"Alright then, be careful Abelia. I won't be here to bail you out this time." Sarieth exited the stronghold immediately.
"Ah…so then, are you two dating?" Lupi asked casually as soon as she was sure they were alone.
Abelia was caught off guard. "Wha…N-No! That's not it at all! He's the head of the unit."
"Really? I'm very good at reading people's faces, and by the way you looked at him, I can tell you're infatuated."
Abelia's face flushed with irritation. "Why you…No, I will not allow your words to distract me." She pointed her sword at Lupi. "Or are you trying to stall for time because you know you're too weak to do anything?"
"WEAK?" Lupi';s mood quickly turned from nonchalant to anger. "We'll see who's weak when I ram my lance right through your chest!"
"Let's see you try then." Abelia stood her ground as Lupi started to charge straight at her.
"Looks like I'm on my own for this one."
The massive structure that was being used for the main stronghold stood before Sarieth as the one thing that stood between him and Revless. While this battle hadn't been particularly difficult (at least compared to the incident at the Whelsdat Bridge, of which he was still a bit sore from), but he could not ignore the feeling of dread that coursed through him the closer he got to the gigantic structure.
Calm down. It'll be fine; you made it this far without dying, right? His conscience reassured him. The quicker we get to the capital, the quicker the war can end and Kalent can come back home. Just one more opponent.
With that, Sarieth pushed opened the door. It was a simple structure; both sides were surrounded with by water and there wasn't a lot of space for them to move around in. Despite the few torches, the full moon was the main thing that lit up the area.
Well, that's nice. At least I'll be able to see somewhat this time. Sarieth thought as he looked for the woman that was supposedly waiting for him. A second later, he found himself suddenly falling face first into the hard ground.
"…It's so good to see you as well, Sarieth. Did you miss me?"
It took a moment for Sarieth to get his thoughts back in order, but the familiarity of that voice registered quickly. He lifted his head and saw the girl that gave him so much trouble during his first real battle. "Luna?"
"Didn't I tell you that I would be back to finish this?" Dystopia glimmered in the moonlight as she approached. "It's time to collect on your debt."
"I've should have known..." Sarieth got to his feet and quickly put his sword in a defensive position. "I beat you pretty badly the last time; sure you wanna go at it again?"
"Do you even have to ask me that? Of course I want to fight you again."
"You might have caught me off guard last time, but I definitely know what to expect from you now." His confidence didn't waver in the face of his opponent. "Come on. I'll kick your ass one more time and show you how weak you truly are."
"If you insist..." In a blink, Luna was right in front of him. He could see the malice in her eyes as she attacked.
"How dull." Kalent muttered as he strolled along the grounds in Maletta. After quite a long trip, they had finally made it to the new kingdom, and while Aurelia and Roin were busy going over whatever strategy they had with the king of this new country, Kalent walked around the castle area, bored out of his mind. It had grown dark, and he was considering going to bed, but opted to stay outside for a few more moments.
I wonder how everyone's doing? Kalent was thinking both about his brother's unit and the Klessirpemdo. Knowing that they were probably fighting each other at this moment gave him a bad feeling in his chest. If he knew Luna, she was probably tearing him to shreds right now. Despite that, part of him knew that his presence would probably have made things even more complicated.
"Feh, looks like I'll have to wait a little longer…" He sighed, reminded "By the looks of it, I should be back in time to meet up with Luna and the other girls."
Kalent heard something strange somewhere behind him. Looking around, he didn't see a thing at first, but then his eyes caught something glimmering in the night.
Uh-oh…Not a good sign. Kalent couldn't afford to have anything that could be perceived as a threat to the queen sulking around the threshold of the castle. Grabbing his new sword, he slowly stalked towards the glimmering light. It was only a matter of seconds before he saw the image of swordsman, standing on the ledge of the castle. Even as he got closer, the mysterious sword wielder didn't attack; and Kalent didn't know exactly what to say.
"There's no need to raise your sword. I've have no intention to fight." A female voice replied as she turned to him. Despite her face being hidden by the hood she wore, he could still tell it was a woman under there.
"What are you doing here? Are you on our side?" Kalent chose his words carefully; he didn't want to sound accusing and end up making a enemy if he didn't need to.
"….in a way. I was here to see someone I'm working with, and I thought I'd just take a glance at the scenery before I departed."
Kalent felt embarrassed at his mistake. "Oh. Please forgive my imprudence." He said with remorse.
"It's not a problem. I can understand your suspicion, but I can assure you that your queen is safe."
Kalent glanced saw her strange sword. It was sharp, but it had a curve in the middle of it. It looked very odd. "That's a pretty….unique sword you have there."
"You mean this?" She held up her sword and looked at it. "It's something I had made for me; a sword designed particularly for assassination."
Kalent felt himself tense up. "Assassination?"
"Like I said before, I'm here to assist in the plan your country is working with Maletta on. To be honest though…" Her voice trailed off as she stared back up into the sky. "There's something else I'm fighting for…" She said forlornly.
"And what would that be?" Kalent asked out of curiosity, but she just l shook her head.
"It's nothing important." She turned around. "It's getting late, and there's a long trip to Halteese ahead of me the next day, so I need a bit of sleep."
"Wait, if we're going to be allies, as you say we will be, you can at least tell me your name."
"My name? Already? Such a bold person, we've only just met." She smirked under her hood. "But if you insist on placing a name to this facade, then you may call me Mooncalf."
"Alright then, Mooncalf. My name is Kalent. Kalent Spada."
"Kalent Spada….the one that was enlisted into the Klessirpemdo, I believe?" Kalent nodded in confirmation, and the girl hummed with amusement. "So tell me, how is Luna treating you?"
Kalent was startled by the abruptness of that question. "She's been treating me good, I suppose. She hasn't killed me yet, at least."
"Hmm, Then I'll impart you a little advice before I depart. I know her reputation, but be a little sympathetic for what Luna has gone, and for that matter, is still going through. She didn't a very pleasant childhood, and she is missing something important in her life, but she has yet to either find or even figure out what it is..." She climbed up on the ledge.
"Er…okay, I'll try to remember that the next time she beats me up." He gave her a shy smile. Mooncalf smiled a bit under her hood.
"If our plan comes into fruition, you can expect to see me again very soon. Until we meet again," She gave a small salute before leaping off the balcony. Kalent walked to the spot and looked over the edge, but she was long gone. Kalent was left confounded with questions by that woman's presence, but he knew there was no point in keeping himself up tonight with even more questions; heneeded to get some sleep.
Everything seemed so simple at first. Luna was someone that Sarieth had faced before. She thrashed him for most of the battle the last time, so he already had a good understanding of the ins and outs of her fighting style, and she currently wasn't performing too different from her last encounter.
Yes, Sarieth had everything accounted for. In that case….
"What's wrong with you? You certainly aren't the same person that I fought with the last time." Luna looked at her opponent with a disappointed frown as he clutched his arm, bleeding from a fresh wound she had just inflicted.
…Why was he losing?
Sarieth grit his teeth as he charged forward for another attack, but Luna ducked it effortlessly. Her sword, on the other hand, found his way into his exposed ribcage, leaving yet another wound.
"How slow." Luna used her momentum to knock him to the ground "And how dull. You used to be a more commendable opponent, but now you're just like all of the rest. So sad indeed."
"Shut up!" Sarieth rose up and slammed his head into her stomach, putting her off guard enough for him to smack her away with the wide end of his sword. "Don't get cocky just because you have the advantage!"
"So now you want to get serious…" She spun her sword around a few times. "Thank goodness. I was worried that all of the animosity I felt towards you was for nothing."
Luna leapt into action and clashed swords with her rival once again. Sarieth was desperately trying to regain his focus and not get too frustrated, but every time it looked as if he was starting to gain the advantage, Luna landed another blow. Even with all of his armor, the girl's sword seemed to always find a way to slip between the spaces and hit him. Sarieth, in the meanwhile, was having a hard time hitting Luna with his sword, except for the occasional glancing blow, but even those weren't enough to phase her long enough to mount a comeback. It was the first time that his sword's weight was starting to become a disadvantage.
"Hah!" Luna deflected another swing and swung one of her own. Sarieth decided to gain some space, and he used the sword to knock her to the ground.
"Shit…." Staggering to his feet, Sarieth felt a wave of dizziness go through his head, causing him to shake his head. What the hell is happening to me? I've faced her before, why am I having so much trouble this time! No, this isn't the time to think about that. Focus all of your energy to defeating the person before you! Questions can come later!
But as he looked down, he noticed the splatters of blood all over the ground. Only then did he become aware how much damage Luna had inflicting on him.
"You're thinking to yourself, 'How can this girl be besting me so easily', right?" Luna must have thought that her victory was a sure thing, because instead of capitalizing on her opponent's inactivity, she just stood there and yawned. "Did you really think I spent all of this time brooding and didn't learn anything from my last fight?"
"You seem like the kind of girl who thinks she knows everything, so no, I don't."
"Well, that's where you are wrong. You swing around that big sword too carelessly; Every time you miss an attack, you are open for a brief period of time, so I've made sure that you did that more often. My sword can go through chainmail pretty well, don't you think?"
Sarieth looked at his bleeding arm. She was right; Dystopia had cut through his metal like it was made of cotton. He had never had a problem with his sword's size before, but he assumed that Luna was the first one to effectively take advantage of that.
"I do have a confession to make though. To be honest, I'm not really concerned about whether we beat your unit or not."
"You don't care? Then what's the point of this whole thing?"
"…My only reason in participating in this is so I can fight you. At this point, the outcome of this battle is the same no matter what happens here. As talented as my unit is, there will still be a few of your soldiers that will make it past them and come roaring through and we would be at a disadvantage. So I just put you through the motions, as you might say."
"This is all about your petty vendetta? Are you that childish? No, on the other hand, I don't really care. I have something that I have to do and you….are…in…my…way!"
Luna's gloating was getting under Sarieth's skin, and he wasn't going to stand there and listen to her talk down to him like he was still a student
"So you want to do a standoff? Okay, I'll oblige you."
Sarieth blinked once and Luna was already in front of him. Sarieth got ready to defend against any attack she could throw at him. He raised his sword and delivered a hard swipe that he hoped would end this fight the same way it did last time…and missed.
Not only did he miss, but his sword got lodged in a crack on the ground, which gave him little chance to avoid Luna's blade. Sarieth let a strangled sound as he felt the blade pierce him yet again; this has to be the worst beating he had ever received.
Luna watched as blood dripped on the floor. This was the result she had been seeing in her mind ever since the day Sarieth first defeated her. All of the pain and embarrassment she had suffered only made this moment all that sweeter.
"Hopeless fool. You're letting yourself get too overconfident in your own abilities." Luna sent him to the floor with a good kick in the chest. "Where's the aggression? You're not taking this seriously enough. You're just another bright young student who doesn't realize the full gravity of the situation your unit has been put into. You don't have a clue what's really going on around you."
Luna stomped on a wound she left on Sarieth's arm as he hissed in pain. "What, not going to give me to satisfaction of hearing you scream? I certainly hope your friends come soon, or else there won't be enough of you left for them to send to that old bastard Girardot."
"You are…merciless…Luna…" Sarieth found himself saying unexpectedly.
"Naturally. Mercy is a meaningless concept. I'm not going to let such silly things get in the way of victory." She gave him a stiff kick to the ribs. "Think about it, if you had killed me after you won our first battle, this battle probably wouldn't even be taking place right now. But you didn't, and it is, and now you are going to die."
Sarieth didn't care for her flippant attitude, but he couldn't help but wonder if Luna was right. If he could, he could have easily finished her off back at the garrison, but he barely beat her, and even after he did, he was too hurt and tired to do anything, much less finish her off. He never considered how it could have come back to bite him.
"You're not talking; Have you run out of clever things to say now that you're losing? Or maybe you just want me to kill you already? I wanted to make it long and painful, but I suppose I'll be nice for the first time in my life and put you down for good." Luna's sword seemed to shine even brighter during that line. Sarieth growled as he tried to get up, but she stomped on him hard enough to send him back to the hard ground.
His plan was crumbling, and now he was going to pay dearly for it. This situation was extremely different than what happened with Roin; he only thought of Sarieth as just another soldier to defeat. Luna, on the other hand, truly wanted to see him suffer, willing to put a whole squad of soldiers on the line just for that one opportunity.
And here he was, weaponless, lying helplessly on the ground, looking up into the eyes of a girl who had murderous intent seeping from her very soul.
"When I think about it, you look a bit like…Kalent..." Luna said offhandedly, but it was enough to shock Sarieth in the midst of his slowly fading consciousness. How did she know about his brother? And did she say his name with a sense of…familiarity?
"Something I'll have to mention to him when I return. Or even better yet, I'll bring him your head and let him decide for himself." Luna lifted the tip of the blade to Sarieth's throat…
"LUNA! LOOK OUT!"
That was Elua's voice! Luna felt a presence coming down on her, and she quickly jumped out of the way. As she moved, she saw another flash of light. As she thought, someone had tried to attack her from above.
"Sarieth!" The girl crouched next to him. "I won't let you hurt him anymore."
"So you're the girl from last time. Come to protect your cowardly leader?" Luna was willing to fight her as well, and by the look Riese had on her face, she wouldn't have to wait long.
"I'm going to kill you…" Riese was so choked up with rage that she couldn't even think of any way to fight Luna effectively, but that was the last thing on her mind right now.
"I certainly hope you'd do a better job than he did, then." Luna casually nudged Sarieth with her foot. "But I highly doubt it."
Riese shot straight towards her, but before one of her swords could even land a blow, Elua appeared out of nowhere and deflected it.
"Luna….This is bad…" Elua looked a bit worse for wear. "Heal-Do and Aege have been defeated, and Lupi retreated when she found about the others. It looks like we're going to have to withdraw."
"Already? How disappointing." Luna saw the other members of her unit emerge from the darkness. "Then again, it's not that big of a deal. I've already got what I wanted, if only a little bit."
"Your orders?"
"We return to Dalkia. Even if they do make it to the capital, I doubt their leader will be in any condition to do anything other than languish about how weak he is.…" The leader casually waved them off and turned to leave.
"No…."
Luna turned back around and was amazed to see Sarieth staggering to his feet. With everything that she done to him, it was obvious that he was running on sheer will alone.
"…I will not let it end like this." He slowly reached for his sword and picked it up. "If you're still willing to fight, then fight me. I'll prove to you that I'm not weak."
"Not willing to give up? You're bleeding half to death and can barely hold your sword steady, yet you still won't quit?" Luna shook her head in pity. She turned around and started to walk away. "Forget it. I take no satisfaction from killing those in such a pathetic state. I'll let you go this time, in hopes that you'll actually be worth the effort the next time I see you." And with those words, Luna leapt into the darkness.
"Damn her…" Riese's concern for Sarieth outweighed her need to chaise after Luna, especially after she saw Sarieth collapse to his knees as his body succumbed to injuries and exhaustion. "Sarieth…are you alright?" She hurried to his side and helped him up.
The captain let out a weak laugh, his body was starting to give out from stress. "Don't worry…just need….a little rest…." Was all Sarieth could manage said right before he fell to the ground in exhaustion.
He could hear Riese's panic and the voices of Abelia and the others as they rushed over to see what was wrong with their captain. Despite the situation, he could only let out a short laugh as everything slowly faded to black. Sarieth may have (technically) successfully defeated the unit, but he felt like he lost something else…
"Our mission was a failure. We're never going to hear the end of it now…"
Lupi complained. They had been running for a good while before they reached a clearing next to an old stone house, and everybody had (vocally) opted to stay there for the rest of the night. None of the girls were in the mood to do anything but sleep; Lupi and Luna were the only ones still awake. She was probably the only one beside's Luna that was still very fresh from her battle, mostly due to the fact that it had become a total stalemate when they were forced to retreat. Heal-Do and Aege were both battered and Elua had makeshift gauzes on her arm from her bout.
"Don't worry about it. The fact that I nearly killed him should be satisfactory enough for them at the moment." Luna answered coolly. "Anyway, we have something else to focus on now. We need to get back to the capital and meet up with Kalent."
"Yeah, we've haven't seen him in a while, but why not just wait for him back home?"
"We're not going back home, Lupi. Before we left, I was informed by someone regardless of the outcome, we were to go to Revless and wait for our new orders there."
Lupi slumped in exhaustion. "It never ends, does it?"
"Don't act like you wouldn't be the first one rushing out there with Blazecleaver the moment someone gave you the order to fight."
Her friend instantly lightened up, "Haha, Okay, You got me there." She noticed the blank expression on her leader's face. "You don't seem very pleased, Luna. Are you upset about something?"
"No, no…I'm just still a bit tense to go to sleep at the moment." Luna replied as if there was nothing wrong. "You should get some rest; I'll join the others later after I make sure the area's secure."
Lupi shrugged and went back inside. Luna grumbled a bit as she got up off of the uncomfortable rock she was sitting on. While indeed she had regained her pride and lifted the weight of defeat off of her, she was a bit upset that it was so one-sided.
"All of that anger being used for such a worthless cause. Maybe I wasn't the only one that got complacent in my abilities." She mulled, walking around the area making sure no one had followed her in an attempt to avenge their worthless leader. If she wanted to, she could have killed him even after Riese had decided to interfere, so why did she let him live? Luna wanted to say it was out of pity, but that would be so unlike her it would have been insulting.
There's no time for me to be entertaining such silly thoughts. Luna shut out any other questions that came up in her mind. Sarieth, I expect better from you the next, and hopefully last, time we meet. Don't disappoint me again.
Shikkoku: Nothing much to say here. It's been a while, but things been complicated the past few months, so I'm not going to bother explaining my absence because it would just be me repeating the same thing I give you every time. But this chapter was tough to work on. Writing and re-writing and editing some of the more empty parts took its toll on me. It's not perfect, but if I have to revise this thing any longer I'm going to go insane. I'll make a note to go back on this in the future.
Notes:
-This is where the story starts to deviate from the actual plot. Again, not dramatically, but I seriously find it hard to believe that Luna can lose against the same person so many times. So it's going to be more of a bitter feud for both of them.
-I finally got me a PS3 this past Christmas, and SC4 along with it. Despite that, I haven't made Sarieth, Kalent and Rhiona yet, especially since a good portion of the items from SC3 didn't transfer to this one, making recreating them a little iffy.
-It's been a long while since I started this story, and while I know that most people don't really care about COTS or this particular story anymore, I'm going to keep this going for as long as I can.
-Expect a few more OCs in the next chapter as well. I'm going to try to focus a bit more on Riese and Rhiona next chapter as well.
As for when I'm gonna update, to be fair, I'm not sure. I'm trying my best to put time in on this, but I am busy a lot of the time, and I still have a lot of other things to work on at the moment, so we'll have to see.
Next Chapter: After his defeat, questions on his motivation to fight are whirling around in his head. He had wanted to save Kalent, but now that he knows that his brother is perfectly fine, what is it that he wants to protect?
If there's anything you like to point out about this chapter, feel free to tell me. As always, read and review if you can. Until next time.