Fyra and Sword

Author's note: This follows Heart of Steel

Lor'kan thrust his blade forward with such speed and precision Naythan barely whipped his blade to dash it to one side. Lor'kan used the momentum to bring his sword around his head in a slash right and left, right, left, right left battering Naythan as he blocked frantically backing up as he did so. He was losing too much ground too fast. Trying to regain the initiative, Naythan caught Lor'kan's last cut, lifted his elbow to angle the point of his blade towards Lor'kan's face and thrust forward, keeping his blade clashed with Lor'kan to protect himself even as he attacked. It worked, Lor'kan's assault pattern was broken and he backed up a step to avoid Naythan's point and gain distance from him, giving Naythan crucial seconds to regain his composure and go on the offensive.

Naythan came at Lor'kan in low guard, pommel forward, sword pointing back to give Lor'kan trouble judging correct distances between them. It was not a trick Lor'kan would fall for, he was far too experienced, but Naythan didn't have much, so he'd use all he had. He brought his sword up cutting from down low when he felt the distance was right, but Lor'kan had judged it correctly too and caught it down low, not losing a beat, Naythan rotated the blade to go from low over his shoulder and attacking high, not expecting it to land, but attempting to just maintain pressure a while longer. Lor'kan simply lifted the blade upwards and pushed his guard forward to intercept Naythan's own blade near Lor'kan's pommel. Stepping forward and shoving, Naythan's blade was now pushed out of line, taking one more step forward to come in close Lor'kan flicked the back edge of his blade downward from on high while Naythan's sword was still out of line on the outside of the fight, which was now happening at uncomfortably close quarters.

Naythan threw his head to the side trying to avoid taking the high blow straight to his skull and backing up rapidly to stay clear of the blade descending now to his shoulder. He barely cleared it in time, feeling the point of Lor'kan's blade chink against his chainmail hauberk. Naythan was already off balance from his rapid retreat but Lor'kan kept pursuing, his blade, once threatening to cut Naythan's shoulder, stopped with its point still directed at Naythan's chest and he thrust forward forcing Naythan to spin wildly off to the left side, now completely on the retreat.

Naythan tried to regain some breathing room with a wild downward slash to force Lor'kan back before Lor'kan could turn to face him again. It was a move that backfired quickly. Rather than stepping away as he did before, Lor'kan simply stepped backward and retracted his blade raising it to an angle that caught Naythan's wild sword swing. Naythan's own momentum carried his blade down the length of Lor'kan's sword until it ran to the ground, at which point Lor'kan's blade came down on top of it, pinning Naythan's sword down for a crucial moment to step closer and stomp his foot down near Naythan's cross guard, forcing the sword out of Naythan's hand. With his opponent now disarmed, Lor'kan closed the distance and thrust the pommel of his sword into Naythan's face cracking against his skull sending sparks flying in Naythan's vision and sending him sprawling to the ground on his back dazed and confused.

As he came back to himself and focused, he saw the point of Lor'kan's blade disturbingly close to his neck. The fight had lasted less than a minute. He had started standing over Fyra's fallen body protectively, and in a few seconds he was now disarmed, on his back in the snow and a good four meters away from Fyra with Lor'kan now standing between them. He'd just had his ass kicked. Badly.

He had failed. For once in his life he had made a stand of his own and he had been beaten to the ground as casually as a newborn kitten. Guilt and shame flooded him as he realized that his last deed in this world would be a failure. One more added to the pyre that would see his soul burn for eternity. Some soldier he had turned out to be...

To be continued in The Torwyr