This story is part of the Wanderer series.
Taking a step out of the brush and into the moonlight, the man revealed his face. Gasping, Rin recognized him, but flinched as she saw him raise his arm out of the brush and reveal a long, broad sword, bladed on both ends with a large flat face.
Rin instinctively raised her sword to cross in front of her, joining both her hands to grip it, but didn’t move from her position, staring at the man in disbelief. The red band on his left arm told her all she needed to know.
Taking a giant step towards her, the man swung his sword forward in a horizontal plane. Eyes widening from his sudden advance, Rin ducked her head into her shoulders and drew in her arms, her body resonating and growing brighter. The upper end of his sword crashed against hers in a screaming fit of scraping metal. Although she braced, she was still knocked off balance, needing to take a step to the side. She winced from the impact, shutting an eye and expelling a gasp.
Their swords remained in contact for a few contentious seconds, jerking as they pushed against one another. Although the man remained the full length of his sword away, he was able to dramatically strengthen the force pushing against her sword, making her struggle to hold on. The man did not move and kept pushing instead, as if he was taunting her to make the next move.
Rin glanced forward through squinted eyes, landing on the front-facing chest armor of her opponent. Realizing the tenuous position she was in, she made the rash and sudden decision to push forward against the sword, springing off the ground with her back foot, creating sparks as her blade slid along his. Once closer, she tilted her sword forward and lunged with all her weight, aiming to the side a little. However, by then, the man had already stepped to the side with his back leg, letting the tip of her sword sail by. In the split second she flew in the air, weightless without the contact she was expecting, her eyes widened, realizing her moves were read and she was in terrible trouble.
Free to move again, the man fluently swung his sword up in an arc, but then weakly dropped it down, smacking the wide, flat end of the sword against her rump with a front handed swing as she lunged past. The extra push almost knocked her off balance, falling several steps before she caught herself. Crouching, she pivoted a foot to stop dead and spin around to face the man, glaring with large, alarmed eyes. She lifted her free hand to feel her rear, realizing she was unharmed. However, she recognized she exposed her back to a decisive blow that could have ended the fight.
The man stepped forward to face her head-on once more, slightly tilting his sword in front of him. Rin flinched backwards, shifting weight to her back foot, ready to leap away. Her heart rate was elevating, realizing this was serious. She crossed her sword defensively in front of her, keeping her glare locked on the man’s silhouette. Yet, for a moment, he did not move, almost as if he was waiting.
After several seconds of silence, his face wrinkled into a frown as he opened his mouth.
“I have a greatsword, Rin. You have a shortsword!” he boomed.
Rin flinched at the sound of his first words, his voice definitively familiar, but particularly violent.
“I have the longer reach! Don’t wait for me to approach you… Approach me!”
She expelled a breath of annoyance through her teeth. “What are you doing…?” she muttered under her breath.
Lowering the tip of her blade a little, she stayed crouched, her eyes darting around the background. She saw no other opponents hiding in the brush, but she also saw no easy escape from the clearing, other than falling back from where she came from.
The man began to step forward, waiting no longer, and took an exaggerated swing at Rin. With such a long wind-up, she easily saw where the blade was going and dodged to the side this time, trying to get around the man. However, he deftly pivoted his sword in the air and swung it back, forcing her to back away to avoid the second strike. The man repositioned himself to keep himself in front of her, not allowing her the opportunity to slip past.
He swung at her again and again, slowly pushing her back. Though his attacks were belabored, Rin still felt like she didn’t have a good opportunity to step in and counterattack, feeling like she was out of reach. Frustrated, she finally slipped her right hand off the hilt of her sword and drew it to her side, opening her palm as she rapidly gathered energy. In a split second, the glowing ball in her hand flared up, and she threw it towards the man. However, he reached out with his free hand and swung it in front of him, swatting the fireball into the sky. Rin watched in surprise as the fireball flew high above them and dissipated. Looking closely, the man’s hand was slightly glowing through his metal glove, suggesting to Rin he had insulated himself with his own energy.
Without wasting a moment, the man swung again. Unprepared this time, Rin let their swords clash, but without both hands gripping the hilt, she easily lost control of her blade as the man followed through with his swing. Her blade collapsed inward, wrenching her wrist, but she managed to maintain grip on her sword, drawing it towards her chest as she took a giant leap backwards, distancing herself.
The man did not quicken his pace, affording her some time to think. But he did not stop either, eventually marching into range to strike her again. Gripping her sword tightly and scowling, Rin resolved to stand her ground this time, readying herself to parry the next attack.
Predictably, the man raised his sword to his side and swept it in an arc towards her. She angled her blade to let her opponent make contact and deflect his swing into the air. However, as their swords clashed again, she felt a lesser impact than she was expecting, the blades coming into a bind instead. Wrenching his wrist, the man twisted his blade under Rin’s before abruptly following through with a heavy flick, flinging her blade upwards. Since her hands gripped the hilt tightly, her arms flung up with the sword, hampering her balance. Her opponent, on the other hand, in the same motion brought his blade above his head and swung at her again. Eyes widening, Rin collapsed her knees and dropped down to try and dodge the strike, but the blade swung down with her. Twisting his wrist once again, the man landed the broad, flat face of his sword squarely against Rin’s left arm with a loud smack, following through and sending her flying to the side. Her eyes crossed as the breath was knocked out of her, dropping her sword as she flew.
She crashed on the ground, rolling over once, twice, before stopping in a heap on her right side. She groaned in pain, reaching up to her left shoulder and drawing in her legs. Her head spun, distressed from her tumble. As she recovered her senses, she felt the ground vibrate as heavy footsteps approached her. Wrestling through her pain, she hastily wedged her right elbow under her torso and looked over her shoulder, a shadow looming over her body. Making out the silhouette, she saw a glint of moonlight along the blade as the man lifted his sword above his head.
Heart flying, without thinking twice, Rin raised her left arm and rapidly resonated her energy, pouring every single ounce she could to her gloved hand. She commanded it to form a seal shield as the blade dropped, but she could grasp it wasn’t going to happen, the energy staying pooled in her fingers instead of expanding out and solidifying. Immediately regretting her decision to stand her ground, she panicked. She shut her eyes, bracing her entire body for the blow. The entire left side of her torso went numb as she expected this strike.
It stayed numb. Briefly. But feeling quickly returned. Every muscle in her body tensed, but nothing arrived. No sudden force knocked her out of position. Peering through her eyes, she saw her arm, still outstretched with a glowing orb of red-orange energy in her fingers, and the long, shiny edge of the blade hovering a hand’s width above it, lined up with her arm. The chipped edge glowed bright orange with light coming out of her arm.
Widening her eyes, she saw the man’s eyes staring down. He wasn’t struggling. Her pooling energy didn’t stop the blade. There was no force against her arm. He simply stopped the blade in the air.
Drawing back her arm and reabsorbing the energy, Rin scrambled her legs underneath her to shakily kick off the ground, leaping a good distance away. Landing in a crouch, she gasped, short on air from her held breath. She felt a cold sweat down her back, her mind reeling with disbelief she was still alive.
Her opponent followed her with his eyes, not moving his body. Eventually, he sighed, tilting the blade to cross in front of him.
“Still playing defensively, I see…”
Rin glared, gripping her left bicep, still aching. “Shut up…”
The two silently faced each other as a breeze blew by, rustling the leaves around them. Rin glanced at her blade on the ground several meters behind the man. Disarmed, she was clearly in the weaker position now, having nothing but her magic to defend herself. However, she knew the man was a flame mage himself, and could easily block any fireball she threw at him now. He should be expecting it. She had no element of surprise.
In the distance ahead of her, there was a high-pitched whistle. It caught both of their attention. With a light gasp, Rin glanced out over the treetops, wondering what to make of it.
The man lowered his blade to his side, catching Rin’s attention once again. He stared down at her with a blank face for a moment longer.
“You disappoint me.”
The words surprised her, lightening her brows. Just as quickly, her frown returns, greater than before.
“Speak for yourself…!” she uttered a low growl. “Why did you join them?”
Turning his shoulder to her, he began to walk away without a word. Uttering a closed-mouth gasp, Rin stuck her head forward, shaking as she yelled after him.
“Tell me…! Why did you join them?!”
The man stopped. He slowly turned his head, just barely peering over his shoulder, before he turned his head away once more.
“To fulfill a promise,” he replied with a low, emotionless voice.
With that, he walked away, back to the trees and into the brush. Rin watched him disappear into the darkness, her frustration slowly easing into confusion. Sitting back on her heels, she stared off into the forest, all alone, gripping her arm, her sword laying in the grass far from her.