Healing Mishap -18-
By LanzaQ

She smiled at Darrius, masking her own apprehension. "C'mon then," she said as she lunged at him with the sword, only to watch his terrible daggers easily deflect the rapier. "Or perhaps I need a little more weight?" She twirled the sword as it grew into a large flat-bladed gladius.

Everyone watched as the two fought in the crowded hallway. Their flowing movements and extended swings grazed the rough hewn wood of the walls around them, leaving deep gashes in the weathered surface. The eyepatched vigilante took the offensive, gliding around Ash's blade like a snake, the two daggers in his hands his fangs.

"You can't beat me," he huffed. "I have trained." He paused to parry Ashley's swing, easily deflecting it into a nearby wall. "As a magician."

"Magician," Raleigh said, watching the man move. "Does that mean he is using magic to amplify his abilities?"

"Possibly." Cael said, looking on as the man twirled around. "I don't think he is amplifying anything, yet." She turned a wary eye on Ash as she tested the man's defenses with a short lunge. "But with Ash's luck this fight is going to go from bad to worse, and fast."

'This amateur thinks she can best me? I fought in the civil war, and battled for my life in the Arena against Grimrawr the Lionheart,' Darrius thought to himself as he easily maneuvered past Ash's defenses. 'No upstart with a chip on her shoulder stands a chance.'

“You cannot win, Madam," he said to her, his face inches away from her own. "However, you are worth more to me alive than dead. What do you say? Beg for your life, and I may just spare you."

"Beg for my life?" Ash scoffed. "You expect a former noble to grovel at your feet, like some kind of dog?" Using her two-handed sword as a shield she attempted a strike at the man with her family's rapier, only to be carelessly turned aside.

'This isn't good. He's obviously an experienced killer,' she thought as she adjusted her footing, keeping an eye on his dancing blades, 'and with how he is using those daggers I'll never be able to score a decent hit.'

"Don't worry Ash!" Kate screamed over the sound of their clashing blades. "I can heal almost any would you receive! I can even revive you once of twice!"

“We have to help her. We can’t just sit here and watch as that maniac attacks her!” Verris stepped forward, gripping his staff tightly. “Prismatic Spr-”

“No!” Cael snapped, kicking Verris in the back of the knee and sending him to the floor. “I didn’t realize my apprentice was so impulsive. Did you even think about what you were about to cast?”

“No,” Verris said, pulling himself up and away from the fight raging mere feet from where he had fallen. “It was the first spell I thought of that could have possibly helped.”

“That spell would have cast a cone of colour that would have blinded EVERYONE in front of you for the next few minutes. Both of the people over there are using real swords and are swinging to kill. Two blind fighters swinging sharp weapons in a small hallway? Think. Before. You. Cast. A. Spell!” Cail hissed, punctuating her reprimand with smacks to the back of Verris's head.

At Cael's words Arric cast the young elf a strange look before turning back to the fight at hand. He fingered his own small throwing dagger wearily, waiting for an opportunity to aid Ash in any way possible.

“How did we get ourselves into this mess exactly?” Erin rolled up his sleeves, showing off his plethora of magical tattoos. “I think we should be on our way, while they are distracted.”

“Idiot, this is Fate. I wouldn’t just hand wicked spike over to someone traveling with my niece, no matter how much faith she has for the person. I think this is working in our favor,” Etoile said, smiling. “She can fight her way out of this, I can see it in her eyes. Once she has proven herself worthy of Wicked Spike, then we can leave.”

Erin reluctantly rolled his sleeves back down, and joined his lady in watching the battle continue.

Derrik lowered his heavy burden to the ground, wiping the sweat from his brow. His own pack had been heavy enough, but combined with Lanzerus' stolen goods the load was nearly unbearable.

'I could always summon a golem to serve as a pack mule, but then I just wear out what power I have, and there is only so far my piety can go.' With a sigh, he sat down on a nearby rock, his various acoutrements clanging as they hit the rough surface.

A flash of inspiration hit him. 'I know! I can leave something for the naked bastard in case he travels this direction,' Derrik thought to himself as he sank the blade of one of his many daggers into the ground. 'The Lord will favour me for my generosity. Who else but a man of faith would part with such a fine dagger, leaving it in the middle of nowhere for a lone, lost traveler to find?'

He laughed to himself as he reshouldered his burdens with renewed vigor. Before him lay the path to Reion, The World's Cradle, and the largest trade city in the world.

Lanzerus awoke, unsure of how long he had been out. He knew it would be impossible even unburdened to catch up with Derrik; however, that wasn't about to stop him from trying.

He ran through the wilderness, the wind whipping at his bare skin. Bites and bruises covered every inch of his body, and his head felt like it was almost ready to split open from sheer exhaustion, yet still he pushed on.

"My Lord, I have been your devout follower since I was old enough to read. Why do you not keep me safe? It is not my time! I refuse to die and let the wilderness claim my body," he said, pushing his way through the overgrowth that surrounded him as the plains he had been crossing met with a dark forest.

Lanzerus steamed as he trudged on. Never before had his god failed him, but now, in his time of greatest need, he had been abandoned. He would renounce his god if he must, break every holy tenet he had held close to his heart for so long, if it meant his survival.

And he would find his apprentice, oh yes. And when he did....

Lanzerus collapsed, his overworked legs willing to carry him no further. As darkness descended upon him, he heard a the sound of a village and speaking in a foreign language in the distance that set his blood boiling.

"This has been most fun. I am impressed you have managed to stay alive this long," Darrius said, his cruel leer morphing into a cold , expressionless stare. "But enough toying with you."

"Φωτιά," he said, stepping back beyond the range of Ash's rapier as his blades began to flicker with mystic flame. "Second stage. Blackening." He spun his daggers, the flame shifting from orange to green to blue, before finally darkening into an inky blackness, swallowing the light around them.

"These blades will easily penetrate any defense you put up," he said, his blades leaving eddies in the air as he wove them back and forth. "And roast your flesh from your bones."

Ash cursed when she saw the blades, knowing her own weapons certainly stood no chance against that kind of magic. Realizing it was her only option, she dropped her two handed sword and drew Wicked Spike from its sheath.

The rust cleared from the blade, its metal surface twisting and folding until it became an exact copy of the rapier she held in her other hand in every way but the sickly glow it cast.

She smiled at Darrius, masking her own apprehension. "C'mon then," she said as she lunged at him with the sword, only to watch his terrible daggers easily deflect the rapier. "Or perhaps I need a little more weight?" She twirled the sword as it grew into a large flat-bladed gladius.

"So you have a magic sword. And some skill in many different types of blades," Darrius said, impressed. "But that won't save you from my soulfire." He swung too quickly for Ash to dodge or block, catching her chestplate and searing a gash straight through, revealing the padded underarmor.

"Aha! I knew it was padded!" Raleigh interjected, only to be glared at by Cael and Kate.

"Hmm, a magic sword, but no magic armor? A pity. You must be a very bad adventurer if you can't even afford to get your armor enchanted."

Ash stumbled back, dismayed at her ruined armor. "Why are you doing this?" she yelled, whipping the gladius around and catching the side of his head with the flat of the blade. "Why me? There are plenty of higher ranking officers you could be attacking. All I did was command some of the lesser rabble!"

Darrius reeled backward from the blow and glared at her, hatred seething behind his eyes. "Your 'lesser rabble' killed someone very important to me. Another three weeks and she was to become my wife. But you, and your people, killed her." He swung one of his daggers into the wall next to him, slicing through the wood like butter. "And for that, I will have your head!"

As he charged Ash, screaming in rage, flames began to creep up the wall from the charred gash his blade had left in the wood.

And with that draws a close on Part 18 of Healing Mishap.

I would like to put a sincere thank you out to my proof-reader, Melanie E, who with out her, you all would have read a part 18 that would have been as sloppy and a punctuational mess as the previous.