Lord of War chapter 1, a short story by Clash. Date added: 2012-07-12. Times viewed: 433.
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- Intro: For those of you who read A fight to the death I am back with the sequel. For those who havnt feel free to start here.
Vidar examined his opponents cautiously. Each was a sword-master in his own right, each had been training extensively to make it this far. He knew against any one of them he could win without much thought. Even their leader Darren wouldn't be much competition against him, Vidar had after all once donned the title of “greatest swordsman”. However, against five of them at once he needed to fight smart. Even amidst his years of honed fighting instinct he needed time to think and they gave him none. Despite his attempts to outmaneuver them he found himself surrounded. He dodged, sidestepped, parried, and blocked the barrage of attacks that were slowly overwhelming him. He knew their movements, could easily see through their attacks but it did him no good. As a team they were unmatched. Rather then them all striking out at him, each of them would silently attack a different location, one attacking where he was and four attacking where he might be should he dodge the first blow.
Their perfect coordination was not unbeatable though. He had fought them before and knew their defense wasn't nearly as good as their attack. If he could take the offensive he would stand a chance. Slowing down only slightly he noticed their immediate response, they sped up accordingly. They would take this as their chance to rush him and focus more on speed than strength. It earned him several nicks and small cuts but nothing lethal, at least not yet. He needed to hold out until the perfect moment. Withdrawing slightly to maintain a better defense he blocked and parried more often than dodging. Missing one strike a gash cut into his side but it only resulted in a shallow wound. He would be fine for now.
Turning around quickly to block the next blow he saw his chance. The current strike would hit hard but the owner, Jason, had sacrificed his form. Vidar bushed against his block using his full speed and strength and Jason stumbled back falling off balance. Another two, Theissen and Arimas moved to protect him but Vidar was faster moving for the killing blow. As a result the back of his tunic was cut but he avoided any wound from Darren who had been behind him.
One down, four to go. Keeping to the offensive he moved fluidly through the whole Jason had left and engaged and engaged the other four no longer surrounded. Forcing his may to one side then the other he worked to maintain this orientation letting none of his opponents get behind him. He pushed his advantage further slashing one across the side and stabbing another in the gut. Only the second would be fatal but both would be out of the fight. Blocking both other blows that followed he followed through to strike the fourth down but felt pain rush through him as Darren's blade pierced his flesh. It was over he had lost.
It had been six months training with the five of them and this was the third time they had defeated him, and twice this week. They were originally assembled to fight members of a group called the immortal assassins. The extremely skilled killers with an even more skilled leader known only as the legendary Lady Death had been hired to assassinate the entire royal family and six months ago had almost killed the new king Cole Elarith who had succeeded his murdered father on the thrown. Vidar and the original five he had trained with stopped them but only Vidar and Darren had survived. Since then he had been tasked with training the new group to fight any remaining immortal assassins.
He called the match and signaled for Isabella to join him. Isabella was Vidar's wife and the only person he would ever willingly give his life for. For her he would do it without hesitation or reward and had in fact on several occasions. She had already been on her feet probably since he got stabbed but she had done good at not rushing in before he called the fight.
They had been using real swords all week. With the exception being Vidar's which remained blunted. Vidar had argued that the real swords would motivate him to fight better, and it had been decided under one condition, that Isabella would witness each practice session.
“How bad is it?” she asked immediately upon reaching him.
He looked her in the eyes and was drawn in once more by her simple elegant, and innocent beauty. It was times like these that he had the urge to kiss her but he would never do so in front of others, their wedding day being the exception. Instead he answered her question “It's not very deep but deep enough to stop me in a fight” then he smiled and whispered in her ear “Although if you would like to make me feel better you could do so tonight.”
To his surprise she didn't blush at his comment as she usually did but she did smile which boded well for him. “Here let me heal that.” She stated returning to the original matter at hand.
He turned away from her and felt her press her hands to the wound on his back. After half a second they started heating up. To someone not used to the sensation it was an intense almost scalding heat. Vidar considered himself lucky to be used to it. It reminded him of how many times in the past she had saved him with her talent as she was the only he knew of that possessed. What followed the heat though was nothing short of miraculous. He wound disappeared completely healed under her touch, but she didn’t stop there she continued in a similar fashion to the other nicks and cuts he had received during this latest spar, leaving nothing hurting and nothing to scar. He knew it drained on her personal reserve of strength but he didn’t feel guilty for it. This was easy for her and the whole process took less than a few minutes. He had seen her bring people back from the brink of death or heal wounds years old, fresh little cuts came as easy to her as breathing.
“Thank you”
“Are you planning on fighting once more?” She asked with a hint of concern. There was no real danger to him but he suspected she didn't like the very thought of him getting hurt. He could relate. If anybody ever did anything again to hurt Isabella...
He shook his head. “No. We're done for today.” He raised his hand and signaled that they were indeed finished then turned back to her. “I'll give Cole my reports then see you back at home.”
“Actually I wanted to see Rachel so I'll come as well.” She explained and he nodded taking her hand. Rachel was the princess and Cole's sister. Isabella had healed her from a lameness she had since birth, which was what had gotten them involved with the royal family to begin with but with what had happened since then that was a long time ago.
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