Chapter 7: The Storm

A small mob accompanied the Hero from Oakvale as he marched through the Gibbet Woods. He and Thunder had agreed to wait one day. Thunder had claimed it was to give Saber plenty of time to prepare, but the younger Hero was positive that the delay was more to give news of the duel ample time to spread. After all, the Hero from the South Isles was certainly expecting victory, and he would be wanting to ensure that his rival's defeat was as public – and as humiliating – as possible.

Hence, the crowd.

And yet their cheers were again being drowned out by the noise of his thoughts. As before, Saber was quite confident of his own ability to defeat his opponent. The question before him was, once more, "Why fight him?" Saber was himself undecided in what his feelings were regarding Lady Grey. Why, then, not simply step aside for Thunder?

Because he was undecided. If he should choose to ignore his intuition and marry her, Thunder would continue to be an impediment. But, if he chose to consider her a threat, that danger was as great for Thunder as for himself.

One would think that giving a rational explanation of all this to Thunder would be simple. After, all many people claimed he could be quite reasonable. However, there were factors complicating this process. First, the warning was about Lady Grey, about whom Thunder would tolerate no ill word. Secondly, it was from Saber, his rival. Either of these alone would have caused the older Hero to unjustly dismiss the charge. The two together made convincing him a lost cause.

And that answered why they must fight. Either way Saber proceeded, Thunder would have to be driven off.

The Oakvale warrior began to stretch his shoulders as he neared the top of the hill. A moment later, the executioner's block appeared as he approached. Of course, even in the fading light, he knew he'd not have had a problem finding his destination. All he needed to do was close his eyes and follow the sound of Thunder's boasting.

The Hero from the South Isles stood facing many of his fans. A second group was loudly booing his every word. They would likely be the "Saber" fans present. A couple of them noticed his arrival and started to cheer loudly. As the rest of the group took up the call, Thunder turned to face the commotion, then to the object of their attention. His face hardened as Saber stepped closer.

"So, you have come to your own execution, then." He said as he drew down his helmet and cinched the strap tight. "The winner gets the Lady."

Saber pulled his sword. "Agreed."

Thunder took up his own sword and a large shield. The two Heroes began to circle, each trying to find a hole in the other's defense while blocking off their own weak spots.

A few experimental thrusts and swings later, Thunder sneered. "Give it up, farmboy. You cannot possibly defeat me."

Saber smirked back at him. "Is this how you win all your battles, Thunder? By talking your enemies to death instead of fighting them?"

Thunder's sneer turned to a snarl, and he drove in. But if he was flailing rashly and providing many of the hoped-for openings, the sheer number and brute force of his blows kept his opponent from being able to take advantage of them. The onslaught continued for several minutes, as Thunder attacked and Saber parried, with occasional switching of their roles.

At last, Thunder stepped back and stabbed his blade into the air. As Saber watched, lightning charged up the Island Warrior's gauntlet, through his weapon to the tip, where it split and raced down in several tendrils to the ground, just barely missing his rival.

Thunder smirked. With a flick of his wrist, the ring of electricity began spinning rapidly. Saber tried to dodge, but one of the bolts caught his foot, lancing through his plate armor to the warrior within. The Oakvale Hero felt the lightning course throughout his body, leaving him stunned and momentarily paralyzed.

Thunder seized the opportunity and whipped his sword about in an attempt to separate Saber's head from the rest of him. Saber managed to drop to the ground, gladly accepting the bruises and scrapes from the rocks there as the cost of his life.

His opponent raised his blade to strike again. Saber looked up and saw his chance.

Sorry, Thunder, but this is an all-out fight to survive. With that thought in mind, he drove his boot up into Thunder's groin.

He felt armor there, but the force still travelled through, staggering the older warrior. Saber pulled a knife from a hidden sheath in his gauntlet and scythed it out in an arc that caught part of Thunder's chest and the strap of his helmet.

He was able to stand while the other dealt with his wounds, then jabbed his elbow down against the back of Thunder's head. The islander dropped to the ground.

Saber raised his arms to celebrate his victory as his fans cheered all the harder. A gasp from an onlooker was his only warning before Thunder slammed into him, clearly intending to push him over the cliff. As they broke through the fence, Saber grasped for anything that could keep him from falling.

Unfortunately, the only such thing within reach was Thunder. The pair teetered for a moment, then plummeted over the cliff.

He felt a brief sense of weightlessness, and then the world flared as blinding pain surged through his body. For a minute, that pain was his reality; then, it ebbed off a bit, and he was finally able to open his eyes.

He'd landed on a small, rocky spit of land. Nearby, his sword sat in a shallow pool. He tried to push himself up, but a sharp pain shot up his arm. He stood with the help of the other hand, then gasped as more injuries to his legs and ribs made their presence known. He stretched painfully, stumbled over to his sword, then looked about for his opponent.

Thunder was rising from the ground a short distance away, amid a series of painful hisses, bruised groans, and fiery curses. He removed his damaged helmet to reveal a matching cut that crossed from his forehead back into his hairline toward his temple. As he turned to face Saber, fury began to burn in his eyes as his hand found his blade.

"The Lady is mine!" he hissed, and charged again.

The Heroes clashed, dodged, charged. Saber found a hole in Thunder's defense and added a cut to his arm. Thunder, in turn, backfisted his rival. Saber staggered before backing against the cliffside.

Thunder was pressing his attack almost immediately. There was just enough time for Saber to draw his knees to his chin and kick the older Hero fiercely in the gut.

As Thunder lurched backward, he tripped over a rock and fell back to the ground. Saber was upon him then, grabbing his sword hand and trying to bring his own weapon to bear. Thunder locked the Oakvale warrior's wrist in a similar manner, and the men grappled on the ground. Both fought on tenaciously, each trying to gain the upper hand as they rolled about.

In this fashion, they rolled into a small cave nearby. As they passed the threshold of the cave, Thunder drew his head back, then catapulted forward into Saber's brow, stunning him. This new advantage allowed the older man to risk releasing his foe to bring a powerful blow to Saber's already wounded ribs.

Saber rolled off with a grunt. He turned back toward Thunder to find him already standing. The glare in his eye was more than half-mad as he bellowed, "If I cannot have her, no one will!"

He attacked again, this time with the lightning wheel. In the tight confines of the cave, there was no way to avoid being struck.

Saber knew what to expect, however; though the potent charge still made even breathing difficult, he was ready for Thunder's follow-up tactic. When the brute tried to slice through him, he rolled under the attack, slicing across the back of Thunder's right leg.

Thunder jerked at the wound, then responded by clubbing at Saber with a rock he'd grabbed at some point. One blow connected with Saber's hand knocking his sword away. Saber stepped back and pulled his longbow loose. With his on arm so brutally mauled by the fall, he could not possibly hope to fire it. But he was behind Thunder, who was now clearly feeling the toll taken by the severity and number of his wounds.

And Ebony was a notoriously hard material.

Saber whipped the bow against the back of Thunder's head. Its sleek, graceful lines were destroyed as the weapon shattered. Thunder dropped to the ground on his hands and knees, not yet able to retaliate.

Saber, tired himself, looked about the cave, eventually locating his sword atop a pile of rubble nearby. He drew it up and walked to Thunder, taking care to appear ready for further battle as he stepped into his adversary's field of vision. He placed the edge of the blade-tip just against Thunder's throat. "Do you yield?"

For a moment, his only answer was the older warrior's heavy, pain-filled breathing. Then, Thunder gave a reluctant sigh. "Yes."

He began to rise, stopping as some of his injuries flared with the action. He opened his eyes to see Saber offering a hand to help. Reluctantly, he took it.

He glared at the Hero from Oakvale for a moment, then sighed once more. "The Lady is yours, then."

He turned and silently limped away.

Saber shivered. He'd won. So why then did Thunder's words seem as much a sentence as a concession?

He stepped out into the cooling air of the gathering night. The last rays of sunlight splashed serenely over the sea. The Hero dropped wearily onto a large flat rock near the water's edge. A nearby glint proved to be Thunder's helmet, now looking much abused for their duel.

As he looked at the object in hand, he couldn't help but feel as though this was all wrong. How had it come to this for him? No power or wealth was worth needlessly slaying a good Hero. Lady Grey's demands for such revealed a rather dark and disturbing nature, The question was no longer whether or not she was evil, but rather just how evil she just might actually be.

"I don't know," Saber answered himself aloud, "but I think it time I found out."