Souls That Rest Within Blades

A large thump came straight into Zesiro's gut, throwing him back as Shigoro launched into an attack. His armor of flowing water had once again proven itself to be an incredibly tough thing to break. Unlike Al's armor-like skin, Shigoro's flowing armor was not only tough, but also redirected nearly all of Zesiro's force to the side. It made it difficult and the only thing that made it worse was that Shigoro hit just as hard as Al did.

Shigoro stepped forward and shot like a rocket doing an immediately quickly burst of a side-kick right at his opponent. It locked onto Zesiro's head and met it squarely. Zesiro's head and entire body was rolled to the side simultaneously. Zesiro stumbled, twisting his swords around and using them as an extra pair of legs to structure himself. Zesiro took a deep breath as he pushed himself into the air and twisted his blades around to prepare for combat.

Out of nowhere Shigoro rushed right at his opponent. Zesiro brought his swords around and began to charge. One sword on each of his opponent's side before suddenly snapping them together and right on his opponent. Shigoro brought his two hands out and caught the incoming blades, catching them both and stopping them before rapidly rotating and launching into a rising kick right at Zesiro's jaw.

It hit like a rock. Zesiro's jaw was knocked right back and the genius monster of Shigoro was completely unafraid and rushed right in, despite knowing Zesiro would definitely be looking for a way to counter his opponent's charge. A large risk would, of course, be taken. But that definitely didn't make Shigoro to back up. If anything it made Shigoro redouble his effort. And right in Zesiro went.

A twirling of Zesiro's blades brought a rain of slashes down. Despite a lack of good footing, he still had a good sense of direction and power. The two blades came down, but without a doubt Shigoro dodged to the side. His entire body shook to the side, except for a single arm, which snaked through Zesiro's cuts, as if predicting exactly where Zesiro's cuts would go. That is right until when Shigoro's fist smashed into Zesiro's head and blew him back another few feet. Once more Zesiro was barely managing to stay standing, but it was still not enough.

Shigoro flipped into the air, he made a complete twist throughout the air. Shigoro's flicking whip-like leg suddenly began to aim right at Zesiro's shoulder. Zesiro crossed his blades and brough them up, if Shigoro chose to go through with the kick he would be cutting off his own leg. But Shigoro seemed to have precise controls of his own body. He rotated around, twisting himself around into his own kick, right at his opponent's chest instead. It was quite a well placed kick, which nearly brought Zesiro right down in that method. It was a good-placed kick.

And that was what did Zesiro in.

This was their third fight since Zesiro and the crew docked on the ship. He really didn't have many other goals on this island. He really didn't care to have Victoria on his side, he just wanted to mess around and watch. He believed the same thing that Victoria did. This would be a definite change in the world, no matter how much people wanted to ignore it. A new world was appearing on the horizon.

The only question would be who would leave it? Would the pirates be waving the magnificent flag of freedom? Or will the Marines be capable of leading a new wave of oppression? There was also the Revolutionaries who had thrown their hats in.

However, in the end Shigoro didn't believe this. No matter who won the world wouldn't change. Thieves, liars, and murderers would grow just the same. People were evil and they would always grow and become more and more powerful. Nobody would win. Just chaos and anarchy. That's just humanity though.

"Come on, buddy," stated Ridley as he came out from around the corner. After the first two fights Ridley started to tag along just to give Zesiro an extra hand in order to get him back to the ship. He picked Zesiro up and let him lean himself on his shoulder as the two of them dragged each other off and to the ship.

"I almost got him," Zesiro groaned, "because of him my brothers got massively punished. They were screwed throughout everything because of the evil actions of that bastard. If he had only decided to aid them rather than screw them over in the end then they would've been off and free."

"Does Shigoro even now that the whole reason you are choosing to fight him again and again is because of those three?"

"Like he would probably even remember them," Zesiro moaned, spitting a bit to the side. "To him they were just stepping stones for no reason. He probably doesn't recall them at all. When I finally get my sword to his neck then I will tell him and I will let his face fill with dread."

"Its just that I think you should probably hear his story out rather than not," explained Ridley as he continued to shuffle down the path towards their ship. "I don't mean I think the guy is innocent, but I think we should look into why he betrayed them. There may have been a moment when he thought of them as brothers too."

"Nobody would betray their family like that."

"I should probably point out my father."

Zesiro growled at Ridley, however, he wound up sighing and shaking his head. "Its no surprise really. I didn't have any family when I was growing up. The only family I ever really had would've been the villagers who continuously tried to chase me out. After that it would probably be Garneth who taught me how to fight."

"I suppose its just saying that the grass is always greener on the other side," Ridley muttered as he didn't really care about what Zesiro stated. Ridley after all, ran away from his father after he killed his mother so it was obvious that Ridley wasn't a big fan of family. Zesiro was fairly right that family can be a good thing, but Ridley never really experienced that.

Zesiro sighed, his head hanging down between his shoulder as he thought back to the days when he was younger. The very few moments when he was with Garneth and learning of his old fashioned swordsplay. It was pretty old style fighting, but it was very decent fighting style. It lacked a lot of good fighting, but it wasn't great.

(-Years ago-)

There was a quite muttering with Garneth as he watched Zesiro's maddening stroke carry himself forward a few feet. Zesiro obviously had very skills, but he was getting carried away. The swords were obviously not made for him, they were about twice his size, but once he grew up and became a regular-sized person he would become completely talented in terms of sword play. He would without a doubt become a great fighter.

And thus he let Zesiro train even with the much larger swords. These would without a doubt be the only connection the young kid could even have with his parents. It was a said tale, but it was something Garneth felt was necessary. It gave his sword play a certain wild style as he began to learn with these much larger swords, but he was still obviously learning.

It was weird to see the fighting style flow through all of his attacks. It was nice, but it wasn't nearly good enough. Garneth sighed as he stood up, grabbing his own wooden sword and strode forward. Zesiro's fighting style suddenly stopped and watched Garneth step forward. Garneth very well learned about the two sword style Zesiro was learning, but he still preferred one sword style.

"Come at me," offered Garneth lifting his hand up and encouraging Zesiro to charge at him. Zesiro took a small step forward, but he paused as he looked at Garneth's blade. It was clearly just a wooden sword, not like Zesiro's twin steel blades rather than it was just a wooden stick.

"Garneth, shouldn't you get a real sword?" asked Zesiro as he looked at the long wooden sword. It was longer than Zesiro's blades, it was much, much longer, but still Zesiro could just chop it down.

"Consider it my handicap," Garneth offered as he brought his sword up. He knew very well had he used a real sword he would have to limit his own fighting style, which would mean Zesiro would develop a poor sense of the fighting styles that the real world would work. He would push Zesiro to the true limits using his real fighting style. He would teach him the real world of swords.

Garneth's sword fired out of his hands right at Zesiro. Zesiro brought his swords together to block it, it was a bit shallow, but it wasn't enough as Zesiro was pushed back by the speed and the force. As Zesiro was beginning to be pushed back he was surprised as Garneth whipped his entire body around like a massive buzz saw to the side. Once again Zesiro had to bring his swords up to block, but it wasn't enough.

In this instant Zesiro realized that had the roles been reversed had Zesiro been given wooden swords Garneth's steel swords would've sliced him through. However, for the time being Zesiro had the advantage he had the steel swords. He pushed the blade off of it and charged in. Zesiro would chop up Garneth's sword as he charged in.

It was definitely not enough either. Zesiro's rapid sword swings managed to connect each time as Garneth tried to recover from his own attack, but it never cut the wooden stick. It was never enough to actually damage the blade or destroy it. As a matter of fact with his small slight of hands Garneth almost always protected his blades.

"You are going to have make a decision along this path," Garneth stated as he stepped in and kicked at the blade to send it flying forward with a new and increased speed right at his opponent. The nice swooping motion cut through the air openly aiming to cut Zesiro down. "You must decide instantly which one you treasure more, your life or your blades."

Out of instinct Zesiro brought his two swords up and twisted them around to better absorb the impact of the thrust of the weapon. It was deadly attack which was easily enough to push Zesiro away. Of course, Garneth was far from done. Garneth flipped himself around and continued an attack on his opponent to continuously push his opponent back again and again. Garneth was doing a very good job to take his opponent down. They were good and talented in fighting, but there was a huge valley between them. Zesiro seemed talented at fighting, but it was evident there was a huge difference. The monstrous Garneth was clearly a superior.

"Remember," Garneth stated as he walked over to one of the blades he knocked out of Zesiro's hands, "to me my blades are my friends and my family. To you, your parent's souls rest in each of the blades. To me, my dearest friend embodies my blade. Letting someone scratch or tarnish my blades due to my own carelessness isn't the right way to honor them."

Skills Do Not Discriminate