The hero’s bde fshed into Henry’s view, aiming for his head. If this was anyone else, Henry would have just reached out and caught the bde. However, his opponent was the hero, a being of hope and miracles. Layers and yers of plot armour protect him. Therefore, Henry chose to dodge the bde. The swing did not seem or feel powerful but it was better to be overly cautious than to risk getting himself chopped apart.
Immediately after that missed swing, the hero brought his sword around and went in for another kill. Henry easily sidestepped the strike but the hero persisted and changed the trajectory of his bde in the most unnatural way, defying even the most basic of science and physics. Henry narrowly avoided the bde.
“Stop dodging, coward!” the hero snarled. “Face me and meet my bde properly!”
“You mean I should just stand my ground and let myself be cut down?” Henry scoffed.
“As you should, foul beast. It’s the least you can do to make amends for your wicked deeds.”
Henry rolled his eyes and sighed. “If only I could just kill you.”
“Dream on. The hero will not fall that easily to the grasp and edge of evil.”
Henry felt his insides squirming and writhing from the hero’s unabashed nature of his abashed nature. “Do you ever hear yourself?”
“Your tricks would not work on me.” The hero stepped back and repositioned himself, changing his stance. “You are not the first dark fiend that I have fought.”
Henry frowned. “What even is a dark fiend?”
The hero did not answer and simply lunged at Henry with renewed vigour.
Henry was not as versatile and skilled as Vishara in terms of martial arts but even he could see the fws in the hero’s movements. If anything, the hero was very much like him, reliant on their innate talents and gifts instead of vigorous training. There were traces of hard work in the hero’s prowess but his talent did most of the work.
“This is unsettling,” Henry muttered. Seeing the hero was like witnessing his reflection.
There was full of openings and vulnerabilities in the hero’s offence, very much unlike Vishara. Perhaps it was because of his experience in fighting Vishara, he could clearly tell what the hero was doing wrong. In turn, he could tell what he himself had done wrong.
The hero relied on his luck and miracle to survive through all sorts of predicaments, much like how Henry himself relied on his natural impenetrable defence of a dragon to survive all sorts of would-be fatal situations.
Henry moved in and aimed for one of the many openings of the hero. As befitting of a hero’s providence, Henry’s cws bounced right off his shoulder. There was an ethereal armour of light, seemingly overid on the hero’s entire body, only manifesting into physical perception when struck.
The hero smirked and retaliated with a thrust. The bde itself was only as thick and long as any other bde of a longsword. However, a strange glow was swirling around it. No doubt it was some kind of enchantment that enhances the sword’s reach and destructive capabilities. There was no room for Henry to dodge. He threw an Aura Bde in quick response to deflect the thrust. A seemingly simple csh turned out to be a massive storm of shockwaves.
“Gd I didn’t use my hand.”
The resulting shockwave threw the two back. Henry regained his bearings first by pnting his cws into the ground. After having his feet pnted firmly on the ground, he charged at the hero. The hero found his bearings somehow and regained his stance just in time to see Henry approaching at the speed of an arrow.
Panic wrought the hero’s face and his actions. He shed out his sword in a hurry, sending aura projectiles flying everywhere.
“What the fuck!?” Henry blurted out as he dodged three of the projectiles that would have otherwise taken his head. “What kind of bullshit luck is this?”
“You won’t get me this easy!” the hero shouted, gripping his sword tighter than ever.
Henry was amazed by how unfazed the hero was by his own ungraceful actions just seconds before. He wondered if being dense was part of the requirement of being a hero.
“If his luck is this insane, then it should be no problem for me to up the ante.”
Henry conjured lightning in his hand, something he hadn’t done in a long while. His fmes were stronger than the puny lightning he could conjure. There was no reason for him to use other forms of magic until now.
The hero struck first this time, twirling his sword around as he charged. The glitters of the holy light danced around him as if cheering him on in his reckless offence.
Henry flicked his finger, unleashing a bolt of lightning that was no bigger than his palm.
The hero easily cut the lightning bolt down as expected but Henry didn’t stop at just one. He flicked his fingers repeatedly and a stream of lightning bolts rushed at the hero.
There was no technique behind the hero’s swing. It was just him swinging his sword around as fast as he could, repelling all the lightning bolts that came for him.
“Weak…” that was Henry’s impression of the hero. If he wanted to, the hero would have been dead in a single move, provided that luck wasn’t on the hero’s side.
After the flurry of lightning attacks ended, the hero continued in his charge.
Henry used Gravity again but no directly on the hero. He used it on himself in an inverse manner, creating an outward force that pushed everything around him away. The hero included.
Gravity was no simple force. It was a force of nature and not one to be easily trifled with. Struck by inverse gravity, the hero flew and bounced across the ground. His sword left his grip and spun away. The hero flew a good few yards away before he came to a stop. He was not spared of any injuries this time. The force had practically struck him square in the face. No armour of light manifested and protected him.
“I see. It was no automatic activation.”
Henry felt good about that. As long as he could catch the hero unaware, incapacitating him would be simple.
“Damn it!” The hero screamed and punched the ground in frustration.
“It’s truly a wonder that you made it this far in your journey.”
“Silence,” the hero growled.
“Come with me quietly and you’ll be spared of pain. How about that?”
The hero tutted. Though unintentional, blood came out with that gesture. Wiping his lips, he spyed his hand open. In the next moment, his sword came flying back into his grip— but Henry didn’t stand around idly to let it happen.
Henry swooped in and kicked the sword away. The hero uttered a curse and went after his sword, leaving his back wide open. Henry pced his hand on the hero’s back and channelled lightning into the kid. The hero’s body shimmered and the holy light amour manifested, protecting him from getting electrocuted.
The sword flew once again and returned rightfully to its owner this time. The hero spun around and hacked away, but Henry had already distanced himself. The hero grimaced and chased after him. Henry snorted and was about to just lunge with a punch, he held himself back at the st minute. His instincts bred like an air raid siren when he thought of getting close to the hero. He couldn’t see anything wrong with that move nor did perceive any immediate danger. Still, he abided by his instinct and opted for a ranged attack.
Henry threw a fireball and the bzing sphere went out in a puff of smoke as it got within two feet away from the hero. “Damn. That was close.” Whatever that was, Henry was gd he then went for a melee.
“Bloody good instincts,” the hero spat. “However, that won’t save you for long.”
“Can the hero even be incapacitated?” Such a thought hit Henry. It was either kill or be killed as things stood. With all the blessings the hero seemed to have, it was hard to achieve a middle-ground result.
The hero came at Henry with newfound strength and spirit. It was his turn to unleash a flurry of attacks. Even now, the hero was wide open. A single Jetstream Breath would cut him in half but Henry didn’t come here to kill the hero.
“Since you’re tougher than you look, I suppose I won’t have to hold back so much.”
“Big words for a small-minded vilin!” The hero bellowed.
Henry sighed. “My mind will rot before I can incapacitate you.” Glowing tattoos appeared on Henry’s body and he transformed into a humanoid dragon.
“A Drakyn?” the hero gasped upon seeing Henry’s form shift.
Henry heard a new word but he paid it no mind.
The hero froze at Henry’s current form. His bde stopped. That hesitation allowed Henry to sm his tail into him. The hero went flying through trees. Henry flew after him and stopped him from flying further by smacking him into the ground. Dirt and dust exploded, and smoke engulfed the pce. Before it cleared, a shining sword broke through the clouds and darted for Henry.
Henry caught the bde and veered it away from his head. The edges were sharp enough to draw blood but not enough to be grave.
The hero tried to tug his sword loose but Henry yanked it away from the hero and kicked him to the ground. Protected by his holy light armour, the hero suffered no wounds but only humiliation. The hero tried to get up but Henry’s foot was on him. The hero called for his sword but Henry had a firm grip on it.
“Let my sword go!” the hero yawped. “It is the Evil Cleanser. You are not fit to wield or hold it!”
Henry scoffed silently and stabbed the sword deep into the ground beside the hero. He then nicked a small cut on the hero’s right shoulder before tossing him a few feet away from the sword.
The hero tumbled to his feet skillfully yet without any grace. It was clearly an act of luck. The hero immediately summoned his sword back to him. The sword budged a little but stayed lodged in the dirt. “Damn it! Damn you!” The hero yelled and tried harder to recall his sword but it failed.
“Wow. I can’t believe this works,” Henry ughed.
“Fine. I have more swords than one anyway.”
Henry raised an eyebrow. “Say what now?”
Light glowed radiantly in the hero’s palm and he pulled a sword of the dazzling brilliance. “You will rue this very day.”
“At least it didn’t come out of your arse.”
“You have mocked me enough! Die!”
In response, Henry unleashed a breath of fire, in the form of a bzing bolt.
All the colours shed off the hero’s face when he witnessed the inferno. Still, he managed to swing his sword but failed to cut it down. The bolt struck the hero and the ensuing explosion unched the hero at least a mile away.
Henry crossed his fingers. “That won’t kill him, will it?” he mused worryingly. He flew over to the hero and checked on him. Sure enough, the hero lived. The holy light armour protected him from the majority of the bst and explosion but he wasn’t completely unharmed.
“I’m done yet,” the hero said, struggling to stand even with the help of his sword as a crutch.
“If I knew you were this resilient, I wouldn’t have held back so much. Would have saved me a lot of hassle. Now, I reckon even a full-on Fire Breath will not kill you.”
“Save your hogwash. You will not trick me with your cptrap.”
“I won’t and I don’t need to.” Henry sighed in relief. “This fight is over.”
“Bollocks. This fight is just— urgh?” The hero groaned before colpsing to the ground, unmoving. “W-what have you done to me?”
Henry showed his cw, the one he used to nick a cut on the hero’s shoulder. “I am venomous, do you know that?”
The hero widened his eyes. “W-what?”
“It’s okay. I sometimes forget that myself. And my venom is very potent, or so I believe. I’m very hesitant to use it in case it ever… spreads. However, you are the hero, a very durable one. Seeing as how you break free of the gravity hold, I reckon the venom won’t kill you but will do enough damage to incapacitate you.”
The hero gred. “Coward! Y-you don’t fight with honour.”
“Aye, I don’t. You certainly did and look at you now.” Henry smiled and shrugged. “Anywho, let’s get you back to the pace.”
