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roseleaf320 -> RE: =EC 2023= Spike Arena (8/13/2023 20:53:08)
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The Traitor’s axe failed to find its mark. Eruth’s opponent knocked it aside, and shadows clanged against metal armor instead of slicing flesh. Friction pierced Eruth’s burned hand like needles.
burning,
No. Eruth pursed her lips, pushing the poem away from her thoughts once more. She would face that one on her own terms.
Perhaps what it takes
In the same breath as his block, her opponent leaped for another attack, slashing towards her tome arm once again. Same rhythm as before. Eruth swung her axe around to stop it, and the enemy blade clashed against her hilt. Eruth spared no further thought for the blade; she would be ready, this time, for its twin.It was upon her in a breath, her opponent thrusting its deadly point towards her chest. Eruth stepped aside quickly, and the blade was swept up in her cloths as they crested beside her. Eruth smiled as she watched their elaborate, swirling waves.
to win
Eruth swung the axe in a sideways arc, echoing the Traitor’s ferocity. But her victim caught on quickly and, in one fluid motion, thrust his weapon in between the axe’s blade and handle. Moon-aligned arm curved around to yank the axe away, and Eruth stifled a laugh. You can’t pull what was never there. Her fingers sprang outward, letting axe’s handle release. The weapon disintegrated between them, last whispers of shadow swirling to echo her opponent’s movement as he yanked on empty air. For a moment, their eyes met. Eruth’s vibrant gold shown through the dim reflection of her opponent’s sun and moon.
is not staff, axe, or tome,
Eruth needed more than just a blade to trade blows. She had no qualms with this man; she knew nothing about him, frankly. But he was blocking her path to the Darkness Lord. And he was trying to kill her.
Eruth took a deep breath and conjured a death.
Three stars above to light their way;
Three mighty gods to which they pray.
A flash--
A breath--
And death is bound,
As three gods crash into their ground.
Her opponent backed away, eyes flicking towards the tome as another page crumpled into ash. Eruth’s dark lips curled into a slight smile. Got you. Shadow amassed behind her opponent, forming a void-filled sun. The light from above gleamed through it as it solidified and shot into her opponent’s back.
not wound nor death,
It no longer mattered to Eruth what her opponent saw within the shadows. She ripped a yellowed page from her tome; she had to strike now, while he was distracted. Perhaps a sword, now, there were plenty of those—
“WHY!”
Her opponent’s jarring yell cut through Eruth’s search. His voice was harsh; she’d heard little of it during their fight. But what was he… no, it hardly mattered. Eruth closed her eyes to keep her focused as she intoned a weapon.
Blinded—
Eruth howled as a burning snake snapped around her injured arm. Panicked eyes flicked open to see an iridescent cord stretching through the air as if tethered to an invisible pole. Agony seared through Eruth’s arm as she tried and failed to yank herself free. The cord held firm as her grip on her tome loosened.
Twine once, twice, thrice, unraveled like a fleeing serpent.
Keeper!
Tears stung Eruth’s eyes as she desperately tried to keep fingers tense behind the tome of the lost.
Keeper, our stories--
Leather-inlaid patterns, carved by Eruth’s own hand as a child, slid down her grasp. She knew each curve by heart: a sweeping scythe of moon and stars. Symbols for the Darkness that held the lost so dearly; the Darkness that gave her family their names.
Keeper, please,
The lost screamed, begged her to hold on, for without the tome she could not share their stories. Without the tome, their stories ended with her.
We want--
I don’t care what you want. Eruth released her grip, and leather-bound pages collapsed to the ground.
but a simple,
She did not need to tell their stories. Eruth wanted to start telling her own.
Eruth did not spare the fallen tome a glance as she slipped her hand beneath her cloth and gripped the handle of her only dagger. Cloths flaring behind her, Eruth charged forwards, spinning to her opponent’s side and cutting off his path with the very cord he’d bound her with. She slammed her heel hard into the ground and pivoted towards him. Her arm snaked out of her cloth to reveal the shining silver blade. Death after bloody death tried to grip her focus, but Eruth would not break under their cries. I will be your Keeper no longer! I will win Darkness’s favor and finally live!
stirring truth,
As her opponent charged towards her, Eruth drove the silver dagger towards her opponent’s neck and let out a piercing yell that drowned out the lost and the crowds alike.
“I am Eruth!”
”I am Eruth!’
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