The Sword of a Predator Versus the Sword of a Killer!
Makada glared down upon Nito and then looked over at the monster running amok in the forge. "You're lucky I actually considered this man to be one of the better of the URA contestants, because if he wasn't…I wouldn't be saving your asses." Makada strode forward, his intention was far from good. He saw this as a way to vent his frustration. Kill some random passerby and he'd calm down eventually. And this one actually seemed like a worthy swordsman.
Zesiro roared forward, charging like a beast towards Makada. Makada's sliver of a sword snaked its way out and blocked Zesiro's simultaneous chop with his dual swords. Makada then stepped forward and pushed Zesiro off of him, quickly rotating around the human brought his sword back around only for one of the Fishman's sword to block and have the other sword come rocketing forward in a thrust. Makada slid the blade back, jamming his sword's hilt into Zesiro's wrist and throwing his arm back and away from the action.
"Who are we supposed to vote for, Nito?" asked Ichi as he looked on the fight with an already stellar appreciation. They may have been fighting off Zesiro already for the first few minutes, but he could already tell that this fight was another level. He and Nito were undoubtedly about to lose, however, there was already a welling horrible sensation that Makada could kill Zesiro…and that Zesiro could kill Makada.
"We…uh, we cheer for Zesiro!" shouted Nito, "we cheer that Zesiro comes back to his senses and takes down this URA staff member! That's what we wanted! Ze-Shi-Ro!"
Makada zoomed forward, eager to draw blood already. He brought his sword up into the air and brought it crashing down. The speed of his sword was greatly exaggerated due to its length, regardless of this speed, Zesiro already managed to bring his two swords in and forming an X to catch the blade. He stepped forward, rushing down the blade with momentum. Makada brought his sword swooping inwards, using the place where Zesiro had caught the blade as a pivot and moving in as close as he could. In an instant they were face-to-face with both of them, trying their best to hold off the other from slashing their heads off in one-fell swing.
Zesiro brought his knee forward, aiming for staff member's gut. A rising knee strike to Makada's gut and it almost made contact. Makada swung to the side, avoiding the knee strike and breaking off their stand-off, he quickly moved to Zesiro's side. Makada left his sword out of this fight for awhile, swinging his elbow in and aiming for Zesiro's head. Zesiro ducked beneath it, and rotated around bringing his two swords in for Makada's waist.
Makada's sword blocked it again, neither side was wasting a second at trying to kill each other, but both sides wanted to stay alive. Their intention was on blocking their opponent's killing swing and then trying to land their own. Ichi and Nito were going to be the only two to ever see this fight and they intended on doing it justice when they retold it again and again.
Zesiro, still in his blood-induced rage, brought his swords down with a swing, forcing Makada to back up. He didn't stop there, Zesiro stepped forward firing a quick thrust for Makada's waist. Makada parried the first thrust with his own sword, but when Zesiro fired the second, he had to think quickly. He stepped forward, swinging his head forward and down into Zesiro's. The head butt caused damage and forced the Fishman to halt to his attack. Makada immediately stepped back, the rush of the fight came swarming to him.
Makada's next swing was wider, covering a large arc as it cut through the air. There was an audible whoosh as the sword moved through the air, it didn't slow. The blade was incredibly thin, barely displacing, it was small, but if it hit you the thin blade would tear through flesh and bone. The thin blade was actual better for cutting, all of the power of his swings would be concentrated onto the thin strip of metal. Even though they were sharp, Zesiro's blades were like blocks of wood compared to Makada's. The thin blade had other advantages to it as well.
Makada leapt back, the extra distance worked to his advantage. The length of his blade being longer was another distinct advantage of his weapon. Once he took his distance, once he had that distance he lunged forward with a thrust. The thin sword wavered as it moved through the space, it danced about covering the distance quickly towards Zesiro. Zesiro brought his two swords up to block, but the thin blade was impossible to catch. It swerved through the guard and pierced Zesiro straight through the brave warrior's side. Zesiro grunted as he felt the warm sensation of blood spilling from his wound.
Zesiro stumbled forward, making several fruitless slashes into the air, each one with enough power to behead Makada, but none of them landing close enough. Makada dodged backwards again, just to be safe. While he wasn't quite skilled or seeing clearly enough to land a hit, a blind man could hit by luck. And in a lot of battles, that's what it wound down to…luck.
Zesiro charged forward, an already blood curdling slash beginning behind him. He spun forward, sending a tremendous hurricane of a cut forward and for the poor fighter. Makada knew better than try to block the horrible swing, he ducked beneath it, letting the swing blow past his head. He stepped forward and swung his own blade forward, aiming for the poor Fishman's shoulder. Zesiro instinctively brought his own sword crashing down on top of Makada's, deflecting it to the side.
Zesiro brought his second sword around and for Makada's head. Makada grunted, the dual sword-wielding was the biggest problem, even more annoying than his monstrous strength. One of Makada's hands left his sword and caught Zesiro's wrist, holding it and the killing slash off. Zesiro brought his other sword, the one still being parried by Makada's own sword up; smashing it into Makada's handle and forcing him back another inch.
Neither side was willing to back down, nor could they. If Makada loosened his grip on Zesiro's wrist, Zesiro would bring his sword slicing in for Makada's neck. If Zesiro weakened the pressure on Makada's sword, Makada would mow him down without a second thought. They were at what seemed to be an impossible-to -escape stalemate. If a mutual decision to back-down was the only way out of this, neither side would ever break free.
Luckily it wasn't. Another cannon ball burst into the room, squashing the ceiling and bringing debris, wood, and dust swirling around the two swordsmen. Both sides simultaneously decided to continue the attack, Makada loosened his grip on Zesiro's wrist and brought his own fist forward for Zesiro's jaw. Zesiro let the pressure off of Makada's sword and brought his blade swinging in. The two clashed, Zesiro's sword had just dug into Makada's skin when his fist snapped into his jaw, throwing the two apart and worse than ever before.
Zesiro blinked for a few seconds, the swift hit to his jaw had brought him to back to his senses. The smell of blood had dissipated and now the room smelled like hot iron and burning wood. He felt the world spinning around him and he was even slightly disorientated from, what he dared to call, the high of his life.
That was the best way for Zesiro to describe that frenzied state for sharks. They don't black out and go on killing sprees, they aren't taken over by some other personality buried deep inside, it is just…your inhibitions go away. You think about killing someone for just a second and your body does it, there are no second thoughts or second guessing yourself. You just do the first thought that pops into your mind and you do it as quickly as you can. On top of that everything is distorted voices, faces, memories, you lose yourself in that state. Even now Zesiro was desperately trying to figure out what was happening.
He was on the staircase, watching poor people get trampled, small flashes of him fighting with Nito and Ichi, and now he's stuck in dust cloud bleeding and a horrible pain in his jaw. He didn't have any more time to think about it, though. Makada came soaring out of the cloud and at him. Zesiro barely had time to react; he brought his swords out and blocked the heavy-handed stroke of Makada.
"What's the matter?" questioned Makada as he applied more pressure to the blade and leaned in closer to Zesiro, "what happened?" Makada continued to test Zesiro's strength, while it remained unchanged there was a definite difference in his demeanor. Suddenly it hit Makada like a flash of lightning, "oh…I see, Fishman frenzy. Maybe it would help you if I enlightened you on how exactly you got caught up in this little situation."
While Zesiro would appreciate the offer, he highly doubted that Makada was serious. As if to prove Zesiro right Makada stepped up his game, he began to lean onto his sword, putting his body weight as well as strength behind the very tip of blade and force it down onto Zesiro. The extra force was just what Makada needed, it easily broke through Zesiro's strong, and somewhat impromptu guard. Makada then brought his blade swinging back up and slicing through the dual-swordsman's skin. Zesiro groaned and stumbled back. Makada immediately swooped in to take advantage of this mistake.
Makada's long sword swooped in, swinging upwards from the ground as if it had been propelled by a powerful spring. Zesiro brought his two swords down, slamming both of them into the arcing blade of Makada and he tried to force the blade to a halt, but it was too late. Makada had put enough force onto his rising blade to lift Zesiro and his blades up and off of the ground. Zesiro was throw into the air, by the powerful slash of Makada.
Zesiro quickly corrected himself in the air and landed safely, but he was barely on his own feet for two seconds before Makada was already upon firing another life-threatening slashes aiming for Zesiro's waist. Zesiro tried to block the slash, tucking his sword closely next to his body to mitigate the damage, but the wide swing of Makada's sword only built up the power and brought the sword slashing into Zesiro's side and throwing him back again.
Zesiro caught himself, skidding about in the forge trying to dig his feet into the ground and gain better footing. Once more Makada rushed him, repeating the same strategy as before he brought his sword swinging in from the side aiming for the waist once more. Zesiro brought his blades up, ignoring the slash and stepping forward. He brought his two swords chopping down each one aiming to behead Makada.
Makada allowed himself a brief smile as he realized it had been awhile since he had had this much trouble with an opponent. The URA was beginning to seem boring in comparison to this fight…all other fights he had been had slowed to a halt, they had been no match for him and his sword, but this Fishman was starting to get the blood flowing in him again. He stepped back, grinding his blade against Zesiro's as he brought it up to block against both slashes.
Zesiro immediately started up again. He applied continually pressure to one of his blades holding down Makada's sword and then he lifted the second sword up and brought is back down again. He continued this performing short and concise slashes while holding Makada down. Makada let out a brief curse as he tried to brace himself, the heavy and continuous strokes from Zesiro were gradually weakening his sword and stance. Luckily, Makada still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He stepped forward, rotating his sword around in a circle, he brought the side of his sword smashing into Zesiro's face and forcing them apart again.
Zesiro stepped in again; he couldn't allow Makada to take the distance again. He pressed forward, instantly moving in and getting as close as he could to Makada. He was right up against him and preparing to mow him down with a powerful thrust. Of course, just because they were at close-range didn't mean Makada had any intention of backing down. He had already swung his sword into the air and was bringing it down Zesiro.
The Final Clash of Two Swordsmen
The end of this chapter. I got some things to do for the rest of the day, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to post this, but here it is!