067 Encounters · 2
Encounters · 2
“I
|
just love the way that name sounds when you
say it Brother. It sounds so majestic as though it was conceived by a most
noble of souls.”
“You flatter me Lute, but let us not forget why we are here.”
“I’d kind of like to know why myself. I know I’m not quite
together in my head, but I haven’t done anything that should be getting
anyone’s attention. Killing off the local bandits shouldn’t have been that big
of a deal, unless you two somehow were making a profit off of them.”
Chain despite her best attempts couldn’t get a read on the
two men and continued to back away. The two men seemed oddly sympathetic and
that only made Chain’s skin crawl as they began crossing the suspended
courtyard.
“It is little surprise that you fail to know who we are, or
why we have an interest in you. Let us begin with introductions then. We
already know that the locals know you as the Chainmaid, an unusual maid who
singlehandedly rid the Athera Mountains of the Skull Leather Bandits and has
since been spotted wandering the ruins that line the mountain roads. We, on the
other hand, are the Mouser Brothers. We are known far and wide as a pair of
Sa·B·ers who always accomplish the jobs we undertake outside of the traditional
responsibilities of Sa·B·ers. I am the older brother Pan, and this is my
younger brother Lute.”
The now introduced older man and brother, Pan Mouser,
motioned towards his red-haired brother as they continued to cross the
courtyard. Chain wanted to keep backing away, but she could sense the eyes of
the monsters waiting for her back inside the castle watching her. Forcing a
smile to offset her unease, Chain attempted to keep them talking while her or
Drop came up with a plan of escape.
“So now I know who you are, but maybe it’s because thinking
is kind of hard for me because my thoughts aren’t all in my head, but I still
don’t see how that tells me what you want with me.”
Chain was failing to come up with any ideas but at least her
attempts to keep the Mouser Brothers talking seemed to be working as Lute
provided her an explanation.
“That is because we would first need to introduce our client,
Chainmaid. He is a troublesome client to. It seemed like our reputation would
be horribly marred should we never find you, so imagine our surprise when we
heard of a maid in these mountains wearing naught but a suit of chainmail so
immodestly distinct. We just had to investigate, and sure enough here you are,
looking no different than when last we saw you, before the Lucifalz
inconveniently appeared and disappeared.”
“Where exactly did you see me?”
Though she already was starting to picture in her head what
the Mouser Brothers were talking about, Chain still asked as she broke into a
cold sweat and tightened her grip on her sword strap. Lute was all too happy to
answer as he and his brother smiled amicably.
“Why where, Chainmaid, but back on the continent of Mergaol?
It was such a surprise after being engulfed in that light to wake here on the
continent of Athecia, but I can assure you that it hasn’t slowed us down. You
on the other hand seem not to be accompanied by the harpy that afforded you
your escape from our client–”
“I’m not going back!”
As Chain suddenly shouted the next few events seemed to almost
happen in an instant. Her cape grew out of her shoulder blades like a raging
black flame that consumed her scabbard and left her sword exposed and dangling
in the air behind her. She did not simply reach for it but jumped straight up
twisting her body so that her feet pointed straight up towards the sky as
Lute’s massive bent blade spun through the air where she had been standing.
Lute’s blade struck Chain’s, but she had been prepared for that and positioned
her hand so that the blow would let the two-handed grip of her simple cruciform
sword fall right into her hand. She was now prepared to engage her opponents
but discovered she was a step behind already.
On the pommel of Lute’s unusual boomerang sword that was
nearly as tall as he was there was a strange gem that matched one on a ring he
wore on his right hand. As he closed his hand into a fist a surge of energy
traveled from the Nectar he summoned into his body through his Ambrosial Gate
down an Ambrosial wire connecting his ring to his sword. Chain saw the spark of
energy following its path for just an instant before it reached its destination
and released a massive explosion. The blast threw her into a flip that was
nothing like the controlled turnover she had planned and she almost missed Pan
pull his rifle butt saber from his shoulder and cock the matchlock mechanism.
Gritting her teeth as she prepared herself to be struck even as she aimed to
avoid the attack, Chain got lucky with her guess of Pan’s attack.
As he pulled the trigger of his weapon, Pan swung gracefully
in Chain’s direction and an arc of energy like a sword blade shot through the
air in Chain’s direction. Having accurately guessed the nature of Pan’s attack
Chain just barely managed to spin her body out of the way to her attacker’s
surprise.
“You’re better than I expected, Chainmaid.”
“I haven’t even gotten started yet!”
Landing under her own control, Chain charged Pan and the two
exchanged a number of sword strikes testing and studying the strength of their
opponent. Chain didn’t like what she learned as much as Pan did and the worried
expression she donned was in stark contrast to the smile he wore. It was not
Pan that Chain needed to be aware of though as Lute could control his blade
even so far detached from it due to the non-corporal wire that connected his
ring to it. Giving a yank on that wire with the monstrous strength he had from
being a Sa·B·er, Lute sent his blade right for Chain, it again spinning like a
saw blade. Leaping up and spinning to her side like a log on the water, Chain
avoided the attack while not relenting in her attacks against Pan. It was an
impressive display to watch, but ultimately ineffective as Pan casually
deflected all of her attacks with his weapon in one hand and promptly kicked
her in the face as she neared the end of her jump. The blow was backed by the
monstrous strength of a Sa·B·er, and with nothing to brace herself against to
take the blow Chain was sent flying through the air in a high arch.
The kick that launched Chain was spectacular in its impossibility
as Pan managed to strike her twice in the same motion. The first blow was with
the top of his foot directly into the lower half of her face causing her head
to roll back as his foot lifted. This exposed the underside of her chin for the
second blow which came from the heel of Pan’s boot as he rolled his foot back
and unleashed the full force of his kick to her chin. Not only was Chain
launched but she blacked out for a moment, only being called back by her voice
calling out to her from Drop.
[We need to get a hold of ourselves. These two are Sa·B·ers
of some experience and neither simple bandits nor monsters. We are not
experienced enough to face them two on one.]
“But we’re not two against one… I’m so broken there are two
of me here right now.”
Gritting her teeth and forcing an eye open, Chain forced her
body to respond and righted herself to land safely. It was not a particularly
safe landing though as the Mouser Brothers were prepared for her to have stayed
in the fight and Chain had to kiss the ground to avoid being split in half from
Lute’s spinning blade coming at her back. She couldn’t stay down for long
though and popped herself up in a T-stance on her left arm to avoid the next
energy blade launched by Pan. Even that pose she wasn’t able to hold for long
as Pan appeared on top of her with his blade running a horizontal slash through
the space she occupied. Falling onto her back, Chain kicked away from him
towards his back and rolled over backward onto her feet. In her new position
she found herself between Lute’s returning blade and Pan. While Lute could
easily surprise her with his flying, spinning blade, Chain made Pan the priority
as at the least his presence controlled the direction of Lute’s attack.
Springing to her feet, Chain brought her sword around in a
downward slash to meet the downward slash of her opponent. Chain and Pan’s
steel rang out as it clashed again and Chain surprised her pursuer as she
conjured up as much strength as she could from the Foreigner infection that
marked her as a Sa·B·er.
“Oh–⁈”
“Hya~~‼”
Rotating downward with as much strength as she could muster
and divide throughout her body, Chain attempted to distract Pan with her raw
strength as she applied a very subtle sword technique. Slightly shifting the angle
of her blade as she brought it down, she turned Pan’s own strength and
direction of attack against him, leading his sword to the ground. She wanted to
reverse the direction of her own sword at the moment to run it back up Pan’s blade
and arms to decapitate him, but Lute’s blade was already on its way. Having
accounted for it, Chain applied her divided strength to launch herself into a
flip over Pan. She could not attack him as she passed over though as he ducked
into a spin using his redirected momentum under Lute’s blade, using his brother’s
attack as a shield. Needing to counter the attack that Pan’s spin was building
momentum for Chain tightened her flip and forced herself into a second rotation.
For a moment Chain and Pan locked eyes and the moment seemed
to last for an eternity as they waited to complete their rotations and for Lute’s
blade to allow them to resume their clash. Then the moment was over and steel
met steel in a flash. The ringing of the clashing blades rang out over the whole
of the Athera Mountains. As Chain had hoped she had been able to meet the attack
of Pan and hold her ground, but as her ground was the air with no footing and
Pan was smiling, she knew she made a mistake. Fortunately for her it was not
fatal though it was far from comfortable either as Pan’s spin allowed him to
catch Chain in a spinning hook kick that caught her in the back and flung her
to the side of the courtyard that the Mouser Brothers had entered from.
Sliding to a stop in a fetal heap, Chain held her ground and
did not immediately return to her feet. She knew she was exposed where she lay
but she did not notice the Mouser Brothers moving and waited to see their next
action. As she lay there, a passing storm cloud began to let fall its contents
onto the nameless mountain castle. As the raindrops hit her she smiled in
relief and finally struggled to her feet using her sword for support.
“Ou~ch, that really hurt. I don’t know why you two decided not
to pursue me while you had the advantage, but I’m grateful.”
Chain failed to notice that the Mouser Brothers had divided
their attention, or she might have discovered the reason for their sudden
caution. Snapping her chainmail skinned fingers and causing a distinctive
ringing sound to fill the air, Chain assured that she returned the Mouser
Brothers full attention to her and the small sphere of light that floated above
her upturned left palm.
“A spell⁈”
Both Mouser Brothers prepared to interrupt an incantation,
with Pan slashing out another energy blade and Lute throwing his unique blade.
But Chain had no incantation in mind and simply called out a command.
“Drop! Now!”
.
Copyright © 2019 Joshua D Tarwater
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