The Chosen vs The Warden

Iro was the one who made the first move. Activating her sky boots, she charged forwards with her sword ahead of her, slashing down on the warden’s shoulder when she reached him. the warden managed to raise both swords to block the strike, but Iro caught him by surprise by following the slash up with a blast of teal energy, a sky blast, from her hand.

The blast hit the warden in the face and sent him reeling back. Iro then tried to capitalize on his disorientation by dropping low and thrusting her sword at his stomach, but the warden deflected the stab to the side with one of his swords as if he was expecting it. Undeterred, Iro instead followed the momentum of the deflect, crouching and spinning around to kick the warden. Her kick landed cleanly, and at the same time the warden’s other sword slashed out towards where her chest would have been had she been standing, but instead it swung well above her.

The warden’s back hit the wall as he was knocked back from the force of the kick, and Iro tried to again catch him off guard by sending a sky blast at him while charging in for another overhead slash. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way.

“Astrapi Rogmi!”

His swords became coated in electricity, and while one sword deflected the sky blast, the other blocked Iro’s own sword. The electricity traveled down Iro’s sword and into her armored hand.

“AHHHH!” Iro screamed in pain as the shock hit her, forcing her to drop her sword and stumble back from the warden.

“Fascinating. You fight very similarly to that of the city guard, though with a bit of your own flair.” The warden remarked. “Tell me, were you once training to become a member of the guard?”

“I was, until your puppet king had my father KILLED!” Iro screamed in anger at him, and the warden frowned.

“Interesting. Well this certainly complicates things, you have a genuine reason to have a grudge against the kingdom.” The warden remarked.

“I have nothing against the kingdom; the only ones I have a grudge against are you people who are trying to use my kingdom as a playground!” Iro shouted, and the warden just sighed.

“Yes, this will be complicated. However, why don’t we talk after I’ve brought you to a cell, away from those who are corrupting your mind.” The warden said as he reached down to grab Iro’s sword.

*Twang*

*Thunk*

The warden was caught by surprise as an invisible blast suddenly hit him in the chest, knocking him back away from the sword. Iro didn’t waste this chance, diving in and reclaiming her sword while he was off balance. The warden didn’t pay attention to this though, instead focusing on where the blasts were coming from, and saw Mina staring him down.

“I won’t let you take her! Taste Yotin!” Mina yelled as she fired another arrow.

The warden was confused by her actions, only to be caught off guard again as another invisible blast hit him, followed by another and another. At this point Iro also jumped back into the fray, slashing at him with her sword.

“I’d forgotten about the younger one.” The warden muttered to himself. “I hadn’t assumed her capable of any form of combat. But still, invisible blasts? How is that even possible.”

From there Iro and Mina had the warden on the back foot. The warden could deal with Iro alone relatively easily, familiar with her style of swordsmanship even with her little personalizations. But what he couldn’t deal with was Mina’s invisible arrows. He couldn’t see them nor predict where they were going from Mina’s movements, thus he was unable to either block or dodge them. Additionally, Iro’s assault was relentless, constantly keeping his attention on her, which left him even more open for Mina.

Iro would go in for an overhead slash, and he would dodge to the side only to get hit by an arrow which made him stumble back enough for Iro’s slash to do a glancing blow. If he blocked, Mina would instead hit his hand and weaken his block, allowing Iro to go for an even heavier blow. He would go in for an offensive, and Iro would counter by gliding back just out of his range and shoot a sky blast, where again the same game would play out where both blocking and dodging was a useless endeavor. He tried to figure out a way around it, target Mina instead, but Iro was relentless in her attacks on him and Mina was smart enough to retreat any time he even tried to go towards her. All in all, while none of their attacks did much damage, it was impossible for him to get in a hit of his own in his current state. So, he decided to start getting serious.

“I’ll admit, I underestimated you two. You clearly don’t have much experience working together, but you both have impressive skills and are able to work with each other well.” The warden remarked as he jumped back. “But now, it’s time I actually ended this. Fylaxte Olous Astrapi Rogmi!”

Iro tried not to let him get the opening, but he got out the spell before she could stop him. Suddenly, the warden was covered in a thin layer of electricity, and so the moment Iro’s sword hit him, a shock ran up her blade and into her hand.

“GAH.” Iro winced, and she backed off immediately, just managing to keep a hold of her blade as she did. Still, she smirked through the pain as she saw her slash did manage to make a dent in his armor, something the warden noticed as well.

“Impressive, you managed to actually harm me with that slash through my lightning defense. Your power is even greater than I thought.” The warden complimented, sounding genuinely impressed. “But it won’t be enough.”

In a flash of lighting, the warden charged forwards towards Iro it was almost as if he teleported, and he slashed at Iro’s chest with both swords. Iro cried out in pain as both slashes hit and she was knocked back. Mina’s eyes widened, and she shot another arrow at him, but to no avail. The arrow clearly hit, but it only made the aura of lightning buzz slightly around the area it hit. The warden looked like he didn’t even notice.

From there the fight changed dramatically. Iro may have been fast, but the warden was faster, zipping around with the speed of lightning, slashing at her from all directions. Iro did her best to block and counter, actually managing to even block a handful of strikes, but even that was a futile effort as the electricity still traveled up her sword and hurt her. Any attacks she did make were easily blocked too.

Meanwhile, Mina tried her best to help out by shooting more arrows, but it was completely useless. The warden was moving around so fast that Mina struggled to get a shot, and even when she did land a shot it did literally nothing. The warden was completely ignoring her because she could do literally nothing.

‘Come on come on, why aren’t my shots doing anything. I don’t even know how to make my shots stronger, and my shots right now are just being blocked by that stupid lightni-WAIT!’ Mina thought as she had a realization. ‘Lightning! I can do that now too! I’m pretty sure pulling out my tomahawk and throwing it at him will be useless right now, but maybe I can turn my arrows into lightning. Let’s see here, lightning is just really strong sky static, right?’

So, Mina did her best to remember everything she could about lighting and static, envisioning the air rubbing against itself and gaining a static charge. To her amazement, the arrow in her hands actually began to transform into lightning.

Once it was fully formed, she didn’t hesitate to line up a shot. Luckily for her, the warden was still ignoring her in favor of sipping around Iro and attacking her from all sides, and this gave her all the time she needed to line up the perfect shot.

*twang*

*BOOM*

The arrow connected right as the warden was going for a slash on Iro’s back, the lightning from Mina’s arrow reacting with the warden’s own lightning and making it even more powerful. The hit created an explosion of lightning sending him shooting into a wall so hard it cracked. Without the warden keeping up his assault, Iro fell to one knee as she had no choice but to rest and recover for a moment.

“Huh? wha-”

*BOOM*

Before the warden could process what was going on, Mina shot him with another arrow, exploding him right against the wall and cracking it even further. This time though, the warden was able to brace himself, and that allowed him to actually register what was going on. His eyes landed on Mina, seeing her draw back her bow for another shot, and his eyes narrowed at her.

*twang*

*boom*

This time when Mina let her shot fly, the warden managed to dodge out of the way just in time. He then dodged away from the next one even easier. The one weakness of these lightning arrows compared to Mina’s normal arrows was that these arrows were visible. That meant that a person could see where they were going, and that made them much easier to dodge.

Now confident in his ability to dodge Mina’s attacked, the warden went back on the offensive. He used his lightning speed to charge forwards towards Mina. Mina tried to hit him while he was coming up, but the warden skilfully managed to weave out of the way of her arrows. He came up to her right as she was reloading, lighting covered swords held up high ready to swing down on her. Knowing she couldn’t hit him before he hit her, and knowing she wouldn’t be able to take more than one hit, Mina desperately dodged out of the way, instinctively using her power to try and push herself out of the way.

*Fwoosh*

The warden took a step back more in surprise than anything as a sudden burst of air erupted from Mina’s location, and the wind quite literally threw her to the side. Mina hit the ground and rolled with her momentum the best she could, having not expected the wind either, and she quickly pulled herself to her feet to try and face him.

“Interesting, it seems I underestimated you.” The warden remarked as he turned to face her. “You both are fully capable combatants, and it makes me all the more angry at those that would manipulate you and use your talents for evil. Now, I apologize, but I will end this quick.”

The warden then charged Mina once again, and Mina threw herself to the side with her wind once again, just barely managing to get out of the way of the strikes. This time the warden didn’t falter from the wind though, and quickly turned and followed her dodge, forcing Mina to blast herself away again. This time the warden took a moment to properly aim his charge before motioning to charge again, and Mina once again tried to dodge to the side, but this was a mistake. The initial movements were a feint, and instead he watched her trajectory and aimed himself to go where she would land. Mina was helpless for real this time, unable to turn her blast mid jump, meaning she was flying right where the warden wanted her. zmeaning she could only brace herself for the inevitable hits.

“Oran Sfyri!”

*BOOM*

Before the blades could land, a blast of teal energy hit the warden in the head, knocking him away from Mina.

“STAY AWAY FROM HER!” Iro shouted as she sent blast after blast against the warden.

Again, the warden was relatively quick to adapt to the assault, but this time there was no turning the tides for him as Mina also recovered and joined Iro’s assault.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM*

Mina and Iro sent sky blasts and lightning arrows at the warden as fast as they could, the attacks raining down on him to fast for him to react. Within only a few shots the warden once again hit the wall that he’d crashed into earlier, and each hit after that made the crack bigger and bigger until it was finally ready to shatter.

“TASTE YOTIN!!!” Mina roared as she sent one last arrow, her most powerful arrow, right into the warden’s chest. The explosion managed to break through the wall behind him, sending the warden flying outside and down onto the ground. Mina and Iro quickly ran up to see where he landed, and were greeted by the sight of Athan and Lefteris’s battle. Just past the wall, a crowd of people had gathered to see what was going on, and Athan took one look up at Mina and Iro before turning to the crowd.

“Citizens of Chamiloran, hear me well!” Athan shouted over the crowd. “What you see here is not a tragedy, not an act of fear as our corrupt leaders might claim, but an act of hope and freedom! Our new king may have created this prison as a place to proudly show of his ability to imprison whoever he likes without cause, but we have shown today that this prison is far from impenetrable. This prison is weak, just like the will of the corrupt king and his followers, and the goddess Uraina has removed her favor from them. BEHOLD!”

Athan then gestured up towards Mina and Iro.

“This young woman is the chosen one of Uraina, the one who carries her will, and who will free us from the shackles forced on us by the false king and his followers. We, the Anaktites, swear to free this land from his cruel tyranny and take back our homeland in the name of Uraina and Uraina alone! So do not be afraid to take up arms against this corrupt regime, do not be afraid to fight back against the cruel weakness of our corrupt king! For anyone who is a true follower of Uraina and a true citizen of Charmiloran is strong in ways he could never imagine to be! FOR CHARMILORAN!”

A noise erupted from the crowd. It was mostly sounds of confusion, frankly, but a good chunk of the people in the crowd cheered. Clearly, even if they were uncertain about exactly what he was saying, Athan’s words had gotten through to the people and inspired them.

As the crowd cheered, Iro turned to Mina, a smile on her face that Mina could see even through her mask.

“Good work today, Mina.” She said.

“Yeah, you too Iro.”