Natalia Vs Dory

*Clang*

*Clang clang clang*

*CLANG*

Dory and Natalia’s swords crashed against one another in a flurry of strikes and parries, neither quite getting the upper hand. Natalia swung her swords as fast as she could, hoping to slip through her husband’s guard and get a hit in that would hurt just enough that she could make him unable to go after Mina. Meanwhile Dory played defensive, reading his wife’s moves fairly easily, but also refusing to go on the offensive.

“Dear please, stop this, I don’t want to hurt you.” He said as he blocked her swords, holding both of them in a bind. “Just let us take Mina, and we can talk about this and move on.”

“I don’t want to hurt you either Dory, but you’re not giving me any choice!” She exclaimed, pressing down on him with all her weight. “You’re refusing to listen to reason, refusing to even consider my point of view in this, just like always!”

Dory scowled when she said that, and finally decided to go on the offensive. Pushing her back, he swung in with his longer sword overhead, drawing her attention to it and keeping her from noticing him swinging his shorter sword at her hips. Natalia wasn’t caught though, having seen her husband pull that kind of move dozens of times. She weaved out of the way of the downwards swing while using her own short sword to block his, then countered by trying to stab him in the chest with her longer sword. However, he was too quick, able to manoeuvre his long sword to deflect hers.

“I’m the one not listening to reason? You’re the one that’s trying to get rid of our best chance at our revolution working!” He exclaimed as he swung his blades. “We all talked about this, we all agreed that no matter who we summoned, we’d do our best to make them the new goddess of the sky. Without Mina, Anaktités will go back to being practically nothing!”

He with her out of position, he slid his sword down her blade and hit her in the shoulder with the flat of his longsword, making her grunt in pain and making himself wince in guilt. Still, he continued on, swinging his short sword upwards and forcing her to jump back, then following her with a swing with his longsword to her midsection.

His plan was for her to jump back again to avoid the strike, leaving her totally off balance, which he would then capitalize on by hitting her in the knee with the flat of the longsword, meanwhile using his short sword to defend against any counters. However, that’s not what happened. Instead, Natalia took the slash, his sword gouging into her side.

“Wha-!” Dory exclaimed in surprise, only to wince as Natalia swung her own longsword into his shoulder, giving him a deep cut as well. In a brief moment of panic, Dory jumped back, taking his sword out of her wound and accidentally making it worse in the process. Before he could express his worry for her though, Natalia brought a hand to her wound.

“Grigora Anastaino.” Natalia muttered, and the cut was healed. She then glared at him.

“I never wanted to be part of this!” She exclaimed. “I only agreed because you were so passionate about it, and because I would get to take care of a farm again! I miss working on a real farm Dory, our garden back at our house just isn’t enough for me.”

“Really? You never believed in our cause?” Dory exclaimed.

“It’s not that I never believed, it’s just that you were so passionate about it that I didn’t see a reason not to believe.” Natalia explained. “But now, after really thinking about what we’re forcing Mina into? After talking with her, and also after talking with Jordan about how things really? I’m starting to think that maybe this isn’t the right move for us.”

At first, Dory looked like he might be considering what she was saying, like he was actually being possibly swayed. But, the moment she mentioned Jordan, his eyes hardened. Suddenly, he charged in with both swords, and Natalia instinctively brought up her swords to block, but he pressed down against her block in a reversal of what had happened moments earlier.

“You’re seriously listening to the word of another man over me?!” Dory exclaimed.

“Oh boy, here we go.” Natalia muttered, realizing her mistake.

Dory then pushed her back, sending her tumbling to the ground, and she was only just barely able to use her sky boots to fly out of the way of a follow-up ground slam from him.

“That Jordan is the one that turned Mina away from us!” Dory exclaimed, swinging both his swords at her much faster than before.

“Fylaxte Olous!” Natalia quickly chanted, creating a barrier around her body just in time to defend against the strikes. But even with the barrier, and with Dory using the flats of his blades, the strike still hurt.

“On top of that, I’m almost certain he’s the one that destroyed the summoning circle! Thanks to him, we might never be able to save our home!” Dory exclaimed. “Why on earth would you trust someone like that!?”

Natalia attempted to turn things back around by going back on the offensive, swinging both her swords from different directions, but it was useless. Dory dropped one sword, and used his now free hand to catch one of her swings, then used her own sword to deflect her other sword. He then flipped his other sword around and smashed her in the face with the handle.

The force of the strike sent her spinning a full 180, and before she could recover, he kicked her hard in the back sending her to the ground. Natalia took advantage of the kick to roll away from him though, and got back to her feet and glared at him from a few feet away.

“It’s not just Jordan, Dory. Vasilis also spoke sense into me.” Natalia told him.

“Then he is a liar and a traitor as well.” Dory shot back immediately. “We’ll deal with him when we get back, but for right now I’m going to deal with you, then with Mina. I’m sorry for what I’m about to do dear, but you are leaving me no choice.”

He then raised his swords once again, now taking the fight fully seriously, and Natalia knew she was in trouble.