Raige swung, missed, stumbled, regained his balance, spun, and gave chase to the fair haired boy all in less time than it takes to tell. They were magically enhanced somehow, that much was obvious. Raige hadn't made a sound as he came from the boy from behind, had swung with all haste, and still the boy had dodged away, drawing his own sword as he did so. The boy bounded away a short distance, then spun and leaned on his sword. Apparently, he intended to say something to Raige.
Raige, however, had other plans. Charging ahead like the proverbial bull, he sped towards the boy at top speed, sword poised to plunge through the guardian's chest. The boy frowned as he saw that Raige wasn't stopping, then sidestepped, spun away from Raige altered course, and gave Raige a light nick on the arm for his efforts. Raige came to a stop, glancing down at his arm, then back at the boy.
"Come now, surely that isn't your best? You're a Nightblade! Supposed to be the best at martial combat, a master strategist! Surely, charging ahead like a brainless brute hasn't won countless battles for you?"
Raige gritted his teeth against the taunting. He held his sword low, tip pointed away from his side. The cut in his arm was shallow, a mere graze. That the boy had only grazed him instead of taking his arm off when Raige let himself be so exposed only served to irritate him even further; the boy was starting this battle by toying with him.
Raige brought his sword up, gripped it in both hands, brought it in close to his body, keen edge out.
"It worked for other fools, I figured it would work for you as well."
The boy visibly stiffened from the insult. He brought his own sword about, crouching into his fighter's stance. The two warriors stood there for a moment, trying to judge one another, gauging distances between themselves and (in Raige's case) quickly glancing about to see if there were anything he could use to his advantage; there wasn't, it was a completely flat, empty room, probably for this very reason.
"Well, let's have it, then, the boy said, and leapt at Raige.
The boy was unnaturally fast, and Raige barely had time to roll away from the blow before the boy was coming at him again, sword flashing crimson silver in the torchlight, seemingly waiting for Raige to parry before coming at him from a different angle. Raige was hardpressed to keep the boy's blade from him, being extremely unaccustomed to having to be on the defensive. He soon found himself back against the wall, panting for breath, the boy just out of striking distance, seemingly unfazed by the exchange.
"Look," he said, pointing at Raige with his blade."You're bleeding."
Raige didn't have to look to know he was speaking the truth. The cut on his arm was stinging from his sweat, and he could feel a few other cuts stinging as well, the worst on the side of his neck. Blood was running freely from it, although he wasn't sure how deep the wound was. Had it pierced the great artery that ran through the neck?
Raige grunted, and stood up straight. Obviously, he wasn't going to injure the boy from the distance a longsword requires, so he switched tactics. With his left hand, he pulled both of his shortswords free from their sheaths, his eyes never leaving the boy. The boy looked puzzled for a moment, then he smiled a cruel smile, nodding in satisfaction. Raige sheathed his longsword, and gripped a short sword in each hand. He took a step forward, but stopped when the boy raised his hand, palm out, towards Raige.
"One moment," he said. He closed his eyes, and Raige was about to leap forward when something stopped him in his track. A ripple went through the boy's muscles, spreading from his chest outward to his fingertips and toes, then going back. Raige watched in fascination as the ripples got larger and faster, and was startled when the boy screamed and a loud series of pops could be heard. The boy was changing! His slight form grew larger, bulkier, taller. Soon, he was a head taller than Raige, with a hulking body that radiated nothing less than pure power. The boy opened his eyes, looking at Raige, grinning menacingly. "Impressed? I'm done now...you can try to kill me if you like."
Raige narrowed his eyes, snarled, and rushed the montrosity in front of him. His twin swords flashed, and were parried with almost arm-numbing force. Raige kept going at the boy, and kept being parried aside or dodged all together. Now, the boy wasn't even trying to attack Raige, and when he did connect with Raige's body, it was with the flat of his blade! Each shot landed with an audible thump, and Raige's breath would shoot out in a gasp of pain or surprise.
They went on like this for some time, probably not longer than a few minutes, but to Raige, it seemed an eternity. Finally, Raige lost his temper completely, throwing himself bodily at the boy. The boy wasn't expecting this and was caught off guard. Raige threw his shoulder into the boy's stomach, wrapped his arms about him, and charged him backwards until he slammed the boy into the wall. It was the boy's turn to grunt in pain and surprise. Raige, still clutching his short sword in his hand, drew his fist back and through a wild haymaker straight into the boy's face, putting every bit of force he could behind the blow. The boy's head rocked back, slammed into the wall again, and his body went limp. He fell to the floor and Raige stood over him, swords pointed toward the ground, breathing heavily, aching all over. He was like this for only a moment when the sound of blades whipping through air and occasionally meeting other blades met his ears. He spun and saw Iseide and her opponent engaged in combat, a whirlwind of dodges, swings, missed, parries, thrusts, and curses. He took a step forward when his opponent's hand grasped his ankle. Raige barely had time to look down when his leg was yanked out from under him and he hit the ground, hard.
Raige rolled onto his back, swords held at the ready, but the boy was too fast, too angry. Raige cut him twice, once with each sword, but the boy simply ignored the wounds, grasped Raige by both of his wrists, and with a roar, picked Raige up off the floor and hurled him into the wall. Raige hit, heard several vertebrae crack in protest, and fell to the floor. He was seeing stars, completely dazed, when the boy grabbed him again, picked him up, shook him until he was completely aware of his surroundings, then launched him again, this time completely across the room, and no sooner had the boy let him go than he was chasing after his flying form. Raige twisted in air, hit the wall awkwardly with his feet with wrenched his knee painfully, and was about to launch himself back at the boy when suddenly the boy was there, right in front of him, and Raige's eyes widened in surprise as he could do nothing but wait for the impact. The boy crashed his shoulder into Raige's chest, slamming Raige back into the wall and snapping several ribs audibly and quite painfully.
For the first time in longer than he could remember, Raige screamed in pain. The boy held Raige there with one hand, and grasped Raige's injured knee with the other, slowing applying pressure in a steel-like grip. Raige's vision exploded into stars again.
"You...hurt..me!" the boy snarled viciously. "Before, I was just going to kill you. Now, I'm going to kill you very painfully, very slowly."
Raige couldn't breathe, and knew he'd have to get air into his overworked body soon or he'd pass out. Passing out, with this monster beating on him, was not an option. Raige's eyes darted around, trying to find anything to get the boy off of him. Unfortunately, his vision was blurry, and getting worse by the second. Raige felt the dagger in his wrist sheath. fumbled it out, and almost dropped it. He used his rapidly fading strength to drive the blade into the boy's shoulder, who roared in pain, letting Raige's knee go and dropping him at the same time. Raige landed in a heap, gasping for air, while the boy thrashed in pain.
"Oh, by the gods, woman, if I have to save you I'll kill you myself," he muttered, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. Then, a booted foot connected with his ribs, which, already broken, plunged into his internal organs before Raige was sent off his feet again and again crashed into the wall. Raige went crosseyed from the pain. A hand wrapped about his neck and lifted him off the wall. This time, there was only one hand holding him. Raige closed his eyes, grimacing in pain, determined not to waste his remaining air with a scream. When he opened them, the boy's hatred-filled, pain-racked face came into focus. His right arm dangled uselessly; apparently, Raige had managed to stick the dagger's blade directly into the shoulder joint, disabling the arm. While Raige quickly assessed his opponent, the boy brought his face close to Raige's.
"Nightblade training aside...tell me, Raige...do you internally bleed much?"
Indeed, Raige had tears of blood streaming from his eyes, his mouth was full of blood, blood drained from one side of his nose. Raige's right hand reached out to the side, groping for anything to use against the boy. He found something he could use, and wrapped his hand about it.
"You know what I'm going to do to your little bitch friend? After I kill you, I'm going to-"
Raige spit out a mouthful of blood directly in the boy's eyes. The boy closed his eyes in pain, roaring in anger, and Raige ripped the torch from its bracket, and stabbed it into the boys closed eyes. Eyelids were instantly burned away by the magic fire, eyeballs burst in a small shower of blood and fluid, and Raige found himself once again dropped to the floor. He dropped the torch, pulled his longsword free again, managed to gain his feet, all while the boy stomped about, screaming in a mixture of pain, hatred, and fear. Raige heard him and grinned evilly. For the first time since this battle had started, he heard in the boy's screams fear. Like a tiger closing in on his prey, Raige slowly circled about the boy, letting the boy writhe in pain before closing in for the kill. His own wounds temporarily forgotten, his entire world focused in on this one strike, this one kill. The boy turned his back to Raige, and he leapt forward, blade tip pointed towards the boy's back. The tip entered the heavily-muscled back like a hot knife through butter, easily slicing through muscles, bones, and organs, protruding through the otherside of the boy, like an awkward metal appendage leaping from the boy's chest. The boy stopped flailing and brought his hands down to the blade, unseeing eyes wide open in shock.
"You're..."Raige grunted, "Dead!" As he spoke his last word, Raige twisted the sword once, ripping the boy's organs into nothing more than meat. Raige let go of the haft, limping back, and watched the boy slowly fall first to his knees, then slumped to his side on the ground. Raige watched the boy for the next few seconds as the boy's body slowly emptied itself of blood, forming a large crimson pool on the ground. Raige leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, coughing, and occassionally spitting blood onto the ground. He held his ribs with his left hand, and finally turned to watch Iseide as she finished her battle.