And here we are with Allen. I had a crazy muse moment, abandoned my newest chapter on Be Ready, and dove into Rutilus like a mad woman.
It was reeeeally fun! This - unfortunately short - chapter has been dutifully edited by my good friend Nanari and inspired by pins from pinterest given to me by Fairyvixenmaiden. THANK YOU! YOU BOTH ROCK!
Also, thank you always to those who constantly review every chapter and continually give me love: Arienhod, Itachiforever342, origami zombie, kerapal bubbles, Inda, magentastyle, Missing White Wings 15, MidnightReader1, Nanari, and Fairyvixenmaiden (you guys get credit here as well). To whoever I forgot to add to this list, I'm sorry. I am completely brain fried. Thank you everyone for the comments, concerns, predictions, and all around love for this story.
So, with further thank yous from me just for clicking and reading this chapter, enjoy! :)
She attacked first.
Racing forward off her spot with sand flying behind her, she instantly swung her sword back and brought up her trident to cover her front. Allen, dancing several steps backward, lifted his large blue blade to catch one of the spokes of her trident and she felt the iridescent pole jerk in her fingers. An odd hiss erupted from her shimmering weapon as his sword tangled further. Golden eyes wide, Hitomi let out a small gasp as Allen twisted his wrist with an impossible force and wrenched the trident out of her grasp. Flinging the weapon away with his blue blade, it disappeared in the air with crystal sheen.
She leapt to the left on reflex as he swung around for another attack. He had disarmed her within a few seconds of the fight!
Tossing up her only weapon to block him, the blunt force of his sword caught against hers and she felt her wrist give a shiver of pain. He hammered at her, using both hands on the pommel to force heavy blows at her. Balgus had said his power wasn't from the vox, but from his training. Pushing her golden vox forward, she was forced to block with both Mindwave and sword. Trying to push him back with violently strong Mindwave, he hardly stumbled before his blue blade returned to brush dangerously by the side of her face.
And still the attacks kept coming. His sword slicing the air in frightening whistling swishes. Her frantic mind tried to find the pattern of his strikes. Millerna had a set course with her short daggers; a sequence she'd practiced over and over. Dryden also had a rhythm of sorts with his lance.
Allen… She never thought she'd admit it, but he was a lot like Gadeth.
He was completely unpredictable.
His long hair flowing perfectly with his movements, he struck from the top only to follow through a dangerous swipe to the right. Her stamina was slowly depleting with only defense. Her right wrist was beginning to throb with a painful spike every block she made with the blade. Her golden sword flicked to touch his left blue gauntlet and he met her instantly.
Hitomi couldn't find an offense with this guy!
Growling through her pants, she didn't want to do it. She had wanted to save it for Van. It was her new trump card. But she saw no other choice.
There wasn't any other option.
Blocking another hit, she flipped her vox from Mindwaves to inject into her armor. Though she couldn't see it herself without taking her eyes off the attacking man, she saw from Allen's wide blue eyes as a blast of gold glinted from her entire body. The crowd picked up their noise as she felt her mind connecting vaguely with the armor. It let out a strange splashing rumble – like a raging river interrupted by large rocks in its stream. Pressing forward with another wrist shattering block, she released more vox into the golden armor and felt the magic curling around her weaponless arm.
And then he got her.
His blade finally bypassed her distracted reflexes to ram deeply into her right forearm and break her hold on her sword. Though it was blunted, she let out a scream of agony as an audible crack and twirls of pain laced up her arm to her shoulder and neck. Her dropped sword vanished from sight with an electric crackle. Backing away with stumbling steps, her golden armor swirled dangerously off her leather as he followed her swiftly for yet another strike, his blue eyes concentrated almost dreamlike on her footsteps. Trying to move her fingers on the arm that now hung uselessly by her side, her heart hammered in her ears. She let out a small cry from the flickering waves of sharp pain followed her attempts. And the realization hit like a ton of bricks.
Allen had broken her arm. Her weapon arm was useless.
The panic was all-engulfing, covering most of her senses. The swirls in her armor all but forgotten in the haze of pain that dove into her stomach and almost made her physically ill, in slow motion with her mind hardly comprehending Allen came at her, his vibrant blue sword raised for an overhead strike that would end her Trial once and for all. The weapon he held tightly in his two large hands was the same color as the sky above her head.
The same color sky she used to look up at in her home in Praeter. The home she'd had before she was moved to live with Amano in Castra. The home she'd grown up at. The trees and flowering plants she knew by name and scent.
Though Fanelia was a completely different world than the one she knew, it still held the same sky.
Allen's sword was coming.
The same sky that had seen her father telling her stories of her own destiny.
A destiny she didn't even know was hers.
The blue weapon was reaching the final track of its arc.
The same sky that had seen her trip with Amano to Castra, and at the same time, saw Van's through the desert to come get her. The same one that had ran with them through the darkened streets.
The same sky that had seen her trainings, her fights, her triumphs, her exhaustion.
And now it had seen her Trials.
The shadow of the blue sword was falling closer and closer. She was raised to meet it. Completely defenseless. Allen's blond hair streaming behind his head in the wind; the azure blue of his armor glinting. A golden something caught her eye and she saw the swirls of her armor frothing with her vox. Ready and willing.
Well, if there was a time for unleashing a secret weapon, she couldn't think of better one.
Focusing the haze of pain away from her mind, it transformed into a full, unthinking throb as another type of strength enveloped her muscles and pushed her stamina to new heights. A ferocious scream erupted from her throat as she instantly willed her vox forward and the armor's swirls went with it. Allen's sword stopped within a half an inch above her head and was pushed away so fiercely, he almost lost his grip. A golden stream had caught the blade, tossing it so easily; it was as if being swept away by a rapid. The blue-eyed man froze as more rivers released from their places on her leather and began their quick protective dance around her body. His pale face was one of calculated awe. The crowd's gasping shouts had grown into a thick fog in her mind.
The blond man turned on foot as she lashed out with a swirl and she hit sand.
He'd transported.
Turning swiftly around, she gave a little scream as the air around his blade sliced and she instantly threw up her left hand. Four rivers conjoined together rapidly to shield her. Another blue wisp and Allen disappeared again.
You want to play the attack and disappear game, Allen? She thought with a growl, her golden eyes trying to figure where he'd appear to next. Balgus can tell you what happens when you try to play that with me.
The test she'd taken to get her name back before entering Fanelia had been one of the toughest she'd ever endured. Mostly because of all the damage that nasty old goat had done to her body. Now, with a broken arm and a new weapon she really had no proper training in controlling, Hitomi knew she couldn't focus on listening to where Allen would appear next. Balgus had been on rock gravel, which had proven to be quite useful. With the roaring crowd and the soft sand, that tactic was out of the question. She gasped as a flick of blond and blue attacked her right. Brushing up a swirl, Allen was gone soon after.
Okay, okay, okay, think, Hitomi. Think. How can you take him out… How can you outsmart him?
One thing she loved more than anything else was the slow warming revelation of a plan. She let out a slow breath.
That could possibly work…
But could she pull it off?
As Allen erupted right in front of her with a roaring battle cry intended to shock her, she reacted without thought. She plunged a golden stream into the sand at her feet and – as three other swirls blocked his attacks – she tried to distract him from the one in the sand. It traveled slowly, bleeding through the thicker than normal sand; making its way closer and closer like a snake underground towards Allen.
And he disappeared. With a frustrated inward curse, she spun around just in time to catch his sword in another flurry of attacks. His hits were getting stronger, but less focused than before. He let out grunts with each of his heavy swings.
Was his stamina running out?
She left the swirl in the ground where it was. Waiting.
She backed away further from it. Pushing the glinting streams into constant motion for distraction, they tangled and untangled together around her. Waiting for him to land on it. She'd take his legs out from underneath.
He appeared again. Behind her. She deflected him. He disappeared.
He appeared again. Too far left. She was getting further frustrated. There was no way she could hold onto the swirls long enough for him to finally step in this specific spot. Or maybe she was just impatient. Or in pain.
Probably a combination of all of it, really.
"Alright, enough!" she yelled. "I'm done with this game already!"
"Me, too." Allen agreed with a voice almost too quiet for her to hear. Blocked by her swirl, he disappeared instantly and immediately reappeared right in front of her with sword pointed out.
Her golden water wasn't fast enough. He was too close…
Her leather caught most of the blunted blade, but the tip broke through the protective fabric and struck painfully into her shoulder. With a gasping breath, Hitomi staggered away, her right arm still dangling useless at her hip and her left pressing into the wound that was beginning to drip blood down her chest.
His blue eyes were unclear, fogged. He was in another world. In another time.
"A-Allen…" she stuttered, tripping on her feet. He followed her, his sword waving with plums of blue vapor. Her knees trembled, her feet ached for her to stop. Her stamina drained further and further as more crashes of pain washed through her. "You… you stabbed me…" She forced herself to keep standing.
She could not fall.
She would not fall!
"I did." He answered simply still taking steps with her.
Her golden eyes flicked to his feet and she knew she had one shot. Groaning with the sharp pain, she glanced back up at him just as he mirrored his pose from before.
The overhead swing. With his strength, he could knock her head off.
Not today. Not ever!
Pumping the rest of her strength into the swirl still buried in the ground at his feet, she forced the water stream up and it emerged from the sand, a titan; ferocious, large, and unyielding. Hitomi jumped back even further, but Allen could only watch in horror as the massive swirl covered over his head, a shadow flecked with gold, and fell forward like a tsunami; slamming him to the ground with all the power she had left.
The silence had fallen. She was gasping for breath with lungs painfully tight.
Her vox was spent.
She couldn't stand anymore.
She was falling.
"Rederic…" she whispered and the shimmering horse instantly sparkled into view. The beautiful animal fell forward, his knees sliding on the sand to catch her back with his large head.
This might be cheating, but she didn't care. She didn't care about anything. As her swirls wearily flipped back to their positions on her leather and she drew her vox from it, she finally saw the crater Allen was lying in.
He was smashed into the sand, his blond head buried to his ears in the sand. His sword had vanished from his fingertips and they lay still. His black cloak was a rumbled mess.
As nurses came forth from their various places, Hitomi turned to grab hold of her horse's strong neck with her only useable hand and tangled her fingers in his thick mane. The horse whickered worriedly and his golden eyes rolled to focus on her right arm and shoulder.
"Don't worry so much, silly. I'll pull through this."
The horse flipped his lips, obviously condescendingly reprimanding her.
"I'll take the lecture later, just… don't move." She smiled weakly. "I will already have to deal with Balgus. And Rutilus… that's going to be a nightmare conversation…"
"Are you alright? Can you walk?" Van's voice was behind her and she just wanted to fall into his arms.
Unfortunately she wasn't sure the king would catch her if she did.
"Turn me, Rederic," she commanded softly and the horse obligingly made a small semi-circle in the sand, so that she faced the black-haired man with her arm still tightly clamped on the glittering neck. Sad enough, now she had a large horse body between them.
"Sorry if summoning my horse isn't allowed. I… I… just didn't want to fall."
Van took another step closer, his mahogany eyes flicking from her useless right arm to her bloody shoulder. Then he turned back to Allen, who was being lifted on a stretcher by numerous white nurses, an unreadable expression on his face.
"He stabbed you." He stated quietly.
"I'm alright, it is fine," she brushed his comment away with a small toss of her pounding head. "Hardly anything compared to what I did to Dryden earlier."
"Unsummon your horse. I'll help you back to the under-cove."
Her breath caught and she couldn't help shooting the unnaturally silent crowd a worried look. "But, Van… you have to be neutral. You can't help me back. Balgus told me you can't show any favoritism before our fight…"
The black-haired man gave her a look. The same one that had been on his face when he barged in on the under-cove after she'd discovered her armor's ability. Seriousness, worry, fear… as she stared into his eyes, she realized she didn't like that look on him.
He needed a smile. Always a smile.
"Well, I guess it can't be helped." She sighed deeply with compliance, feeling the sides of her mouth tug up. "Here! Catch!" As she forced Rederic away, she stumbled forward and his rose instantly to catch her with strong arms. Reaching around, he scooped up her legs. Unthinkingly, probably due to fatigue, she turned and buried her nose into the soft leather bit that showed around his neck.
His smell was always the same. Always like the wind in a field. Hitomi remembered the smell. The same one from the field they had met in during his battle at the Trimane. The day he'd shown up wounded and… shirtless… Maybe she was losing her mind, but she fought a laugh at that thought.
She was so tired.
The smoldering scales of his armor shinned a little brighter as it came in contact with her golden swirls.
They seemed to dance together.
"I'll transport you." Van said and she finally abandoned his comforting scent to lift her eyes to his face. Her heart gave an excited pulse. He was so close. She could see the finer details of his skin. The small cleft in his chin, the thick eyelashes that covered his vibrant eyes that were slowly growing redder with each passing second.
She looked to the blue sky briefly. It had seen him do this twice to her. Pick her up and transport her to the place she needed to be. And just like at the gate in Hospesland when he had smuggled her out, she faded out of the sandy arena and the world turned into the familiar shaded cove.
As he set her down in the small chair and Balgus' lumbering form came rushing forward, she realized something.
One thing the sky hadn't seen yet – was her defeat.
So, here we go.
The beginning of the end. Van's Trial... pray I survive the mental brutality of this next update.
But it's almost over. Thank God for that.
blue...