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A Battle Interrupted

Not one to be beaten so easily, you grit your teeth and get to your feet. Kazaki grins. "You're tougher than I expected, girl," he growls as you glare at him, "but it doesn't matter. I'm still gonna bring you in." He swings at you, but you dodge easily, stepping aside and grabbing his arm, intending to use the momentum of his punch to throw him to the ground. But the instant you grab his wrist, he grabs yours and hauls you in close. Holding your right arm away from your body with his left hand, he reaches and grips the collar of your dress with his right hand. Instinctively, your free hand instantaneously flies up to pry his away. You glare at him for a split second before you raise your leg and kick him in the chest, causing him to release you and knocking him back several feet.

Kazaki snarls. "You're really starting to get on my nerves, girl!" he growls. He grabs his helmet from one of the other knights and puts it on, lowering the visor. "I'm going to break you." he says in a low, threatening tone, drawing his sword. He slashes at you, just barely missing as you jump back. He slashes at you again and again, forcing you to the defensive as you dodge his attacks. Finally, you manage to dodge a vertical strike by darting to the side, getting you close enough to grasp the sword hilt in his hand, hoping to steal his weapon like you did in the courtyard to the guard. Kazaki reacts quickly, though, grabbing the collar of your dress with his free hand, pulling you in front of him and shoving you to your knees. Holding you down with his hand despite your attempts to pry his hand off, he readies his sword to strike you.

No... you think as Kazaki prepares to attack. I can't believe...I'm going to die here......a girl......... You're strong enough to not look away or close your eyes, though, and fix your enemy with a fierce glare. He makes to strike forward...... but before he can, the hand holding the sword is swallowed in ice! Kazaki stops short and stares at his frozen hand, his grip on your dress collar slackening enough for you to shove him off and back away. You glance back and forth between Kazaki and the wizard, who seems just as confused as you.

"How pathetic," The new voice is cold and hard. You, the wizard, and the knights all look to where it came from, to see a strange man walking towards you. He is dressed mostly in white - a white shirt and white pants, loose at the ankles. He has a black belt, and gray bracers on his forearms. His hair is stark white, shoulder-length, and unkempt. A giant sword is slung across his back, appearing as though it were made of crystal - or ice. His right hand is raised in front of him, a bluish aura around it. He focuses an icy glare on Kazaki. "You're fighting an opponent of superior skill so you decide to cheat, drawing a weapon on an unarmed foe." You and the wizard glance at each other, then back to the stranger. Is he...helping you? "I, however," the stranger continues, taking out the icy sword on his back, "am far from unarmed."

The wizard stares at the stranger. "Icemaster..." he says softly, barely a whisper, but it still catches his attention.

"Icemaster?" The stranger asks, "Why the titles, why the nicknames? My name is Kohiro, you should use it."

You stare at the stranger - Kohiro - for a second before your attention is caught by the shattering sound of Kazaki breaking the ice off his frozen hand. You yelp out a warning as Kazaki charges, but Kohiro expertly catches Kazaki's sword strike with his own icy blade. "Too slow, Kazaki," he states coolly.

The knight growls, shoving his blade against Kohiro's. "Get them!" he roars to the other knights under his command. The rest of the knights move forward, but stop at the feral snarl from Kohiro.

The blue aura glows around both of Kohiro's hands. "I cannot fail," he growls, his words barely understandable beneath his feral snarling. Pushing hard on his blade, he shoves Kazaki back a few feet. His free left hand shoots up and a furious icy wind blasts from his palm at Kazaki and the knights. "Move! Now!" Kohiro roars back at you, and you and the wizard make good use of Kohiro's distraction by running away along the cliff face, the knights unable to see where you're going through Kohiro's attack. You reflexively glance back to see that Kohiro is following after you, still blasting the icy wind to keep the knights blinded.

Eventually, you, Kohiro, and the wizard manage to escape to safety by slipping through a narrow pass in the cliff-face, a crack in the rock just large enough for you to slip through to the other side of the large ridge that made up the cliff. The three of you pause to rest, and you and the wizard look at Kohiro in a mix of awe, gratitude, and curiosity.


Written by Paradox

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