The Final Time

Arthur and Kara walked hand in hand on the crude footpath towards the Meadow of Reeds, where he knew his Mentor would be waiting for him.

The first few moments were travelled with only the gentle breeze between them, dancing amidst the tall trees on either side of them, but eventually, Arthur's guilt caught up with him "Wait a moment." He paused on the path and Kara looked at him with her eyes; shining like sapphires, flooded with subtle fear and admiration.

"What's wrong?" She spoke with the voice of a small and frightening doe in the face of a hungry wolf, hidden behind fickle courage.

He felt shame unlike any other at that moment, despite the suspicions of Lee and Crow lingering in his mind, the love he felt for the Girl in the woods that had saved his life and showed him adoration was still strong "What I did to Markin. It scared you."

Kara huddled into herself uncomfortably "Yes." she huffed out the word.

"He was a Blighter, a Child-killer. I trusted him and he betrayed us."

"I know, Arthur." She shot back hardly "I am not some milk-drinking soft-girl who is unaware of when wrong is wrong-"

"God no, you're not, otherwise you wouldn't stomach me." He smiled with the intention to raise her own, but Kara remained forlorn.

"All these years, you have refused to shed even a drop of blood, and now, You kill as easy as a deep breath. It is... Frightening."

He took her by her shoulders "But I would never harm you. The Path ahead will be difficult, and we will be betrayed again. Britannia is a land of espionage-"

"I don't know what that means..." She spat "And I feel like I do not know you, or what you will do. I tried to stop you but, you were something else at that moment, more beast than man. Not the man I love" She reached up desperately, her warm hands caressing his cheek "It is not the boy that you were, not the man you are."

Arthur took her into his arms and held her tightly "The Man and the Boy I was are gone. the stories I told of the Regis and their ferocity runs in my veins, but Cruel or not, I will always hold you close to my heart."

They parted slightly, looking into one another's eyes. Kara was enamored by his bronze orbs "Promise me that You will be with me, always. Tell me that you love me. Please."

"I swear by the Goddess, you will not leave my side, I love you." He carved the words into reality so that neither would forget as they closed the space, their lips meeting.

He put everything he felt for her in that Kiss, the butterflies thundering his stomach as his lips burned in the cold. Kara felt into him, groaning deeply as her small hands clawed at his back, an eternity passed... or at least it felt like that. Arthur was almost lost in this moment, if not the cool breeze tickling his ears, it would have become an eternity.

As he pulled away, Arthur saw the stars in her eyes, a deep adoration that he did not expect after her short-lasted fear. "Hmmm, I need you." She whispered.

The Dragonslayer raised his dark brow but resisted the urge to drag her into the woods "Come, I cannot waste time."

She took his arm "Waste of time am I?"

"Quit while your ahead, cave-girl" He chuckled.

It was a fairly long path, certainly isolated, Lee didn't want people getting to her valued crops, and wanted to torture Arthur with more cardiovascular activity.

"I do not understand, You killed a Dragon, isn't that what Lee has been working you to the bone for? Why another test?" She asked.

Arthur spoke with the knowledge he had been taught by his governess as a child, the memory of her sent chills down his spine and yet he did miss his studies "In the Scaled Aeon, there were many slayers of Dragons, although their numbers quickly narrowed due to disorganization. And so the best of them, gathered together under the Banner of my Ancestor-"

"George the Dragonslayer." Kara announced excitedly, she had been swayed many a night on stories of the Regis' founding member.

"...exactly, he united fallen knights, bloody cut-throats and criminals, foreign missionaries of all creeds and colours, forging them into one unit, an Academic army of warrior-monks who alone were weak, but under George's mighty banner were purified; Rust made Iron. Of course eventually George overthrew the Tyrant Vortiger, My house's mortal enemy and unite the whole Ninefold, while the Dragonslayers were disbanded, becoming the Iron Legion -- But that's irrelevant.

The point is, the Corp had their own rules and traditions. The Iron Code guided them along the Iron Path, and the Iron Path decrees that a Master Slayer take a Pupil, that said pupil spill no blood during his training, adhere to the Iron Code and..." He looked down at her solemnly "Prove his worthiness to his Master, by defeating them in a duel to the death."

Kara paused as she grimaced. "By one-eye, You cannot be serious. So you live together for eight years only to kill one another!?"

The Slayer scoffed "If we followed every tradition to the letter, then Lee would hardly be the perfect choice having never actually slain a dragon considering that they were extinct before the Atrocity. We have discussed it before, whether to truly honour the old ways and go at it... and we agreed, that while we would not hold back, it's the first to yield."

Kara stopped him and clutched his arm "You are injured, You'll get hurt."

He reassured her with his eyes and smiled "All my life I have fought, I have fallen and I have risen again, but nothing has stopped me. and this will not stop me either."

"You could die." her mutter was worrisome.

He lent down and pecked the edge of her lips, her face orbiting to his momentarily before he drew back and bowed lowly "Shadows never die. I must go on alone. meet me in town with Black-Crow, I will not be long."

And with one last wink, he turned on his hill and made his way.

The Cobbled path led to archway of gnarled trees, Arthur stepped through the Archway into a wide circular grove guarded by the ring of forest around it. Here a blanket of soft cotton buds waved at the crest of the tall grass in the breeze, crowned by a layer of thicker and older stalks, much more developed than the grass; White reeds.

Each were easily as tall as a man with a hard but mailable shell, with each layer growing stronger and harder with age, although no less flexible, many of the tallest Arthur had known as a boy, the very sight of them made his arms and shoulders sting, even now some of the scars refused to vanish completely.

But all the pain in the world could not remove the beauty of this grove, The Slayer had accomplished many wonders here; dueling Crow and Lee where the clack of wooden swords would echo for miles, practicing his Joust with Mystery: so swift and so fast that he was more often unhorsed than met his mark.

These memories and the sight before him deepened his smile.

The figure sat cross legged in the tall grass, spark flying in the air as she worked her long and curved, heavy eastern blade on a whetstone. Some settled and died in the air, but the few that remained settled on the iron grey of the heavy segmented plates that hung from each of her shoulders. The Breastplate was made of segmented plates of wood and steel, light and flexible, held together by cast iron rivets that dotted the shining abyss that was its beauty. Eastern style armour "Dō" she called it.

The Daylight made Lee-fu a shadow in the white field, a hulking mass of shadow draped in a cloak emblazoned with the image of a start night crowned with the crescent moon; black streaks like waves of the river stream which all Daughters of the Jade called their birthright. This was her coat of arms, Aunt Lee was gone, this was the legendary Black Iron Bitch.

All it took was the lightest of steps on that young fluffy grass to make her head cock, the wide plates of her Helm glinting in the afternoon as the snow kissed her mask, fixed with the visage of a sharp beak amidst the Raven's Caw.

Two emerald bright as fields of spring blazed with passion, more alive and more alert than He had ever seen them before.

Arthur took eleven steps forward as Lee took three, holding her long Odachi tightly in one hand, decorated and worn, but cared for like no other, it almost glowed it had been oiled so well.

The Two stood head to head, in a sea of white, wordless; they had practiced this moment a thousand times, and now the time had come for their final duel.

Grimstorm screamed out of its sheath and Arthur took to his stance, rooted to the ground like a tree, ready to fly at the smallest stimuli.

General Ector, took the long handle of her blade in-hand and held it it high above her head, He pivoted his form in response, she held her odachi closer to her shoulder, and He pointed the edge of his storm to the earth as a wicked smile crossed his face.

It came like the flash of a lightning bolt, a brilliant flash of steel that clapped in that grove and flew up into the heavens.

Lee slashed in perfect arcs in every direction, met with the sharp weaving of Grimstorm, its ivory body streaking through the air, disturbing the flakes around them.

She tried to cut at his heel, but he was simply to quick, jumping and skipping back, as the two danced in opposition, slashing so cleanly and so elegantly, that it would move even the most legendary of knights to tears.

Lee was an incredible combatant, He had seen her battle but never like this, she had to be even more skilled than even his Uncle, who could fell a dozen men unarmed, but there were weak spots-

"Ah." cold and sharp pain screamed from his arm, as she weaved slightly faster than he anticipated, drawing her blade across his left bicep. He growled, taking the equal advantage to grasp her throat and smashed the heel of his boot into her knee, making her gasp and stumble.

Shambling backward, Arthur clutched his arm and Lee tipped her weight on her good leg... but her stance was damaged and Arthur took the opportunity.

Joy, exhilaration, rage, all burned within him in that moment as He pushed beyond his limits, spitting in the face of his pain and his hatred to find the heart of his power: his rage. Arthur grasped the body of his blade and swung in an ark, smashing his crossguard hard into Lee's roaring mask, her head whipping back with an terrible crack.

But his Mentor did not stop, she twisted around thrusting her curved blade, which bowed in favor of capturing him in the side. Things were different now, where before there was doubt, Arthur felt only certainty.

Grimstorm became a silver blur, as Arthur countered quickly; thrusting down and grasping the tip of her odachi in his crossguard. Less than a moment of silence passed, where the Dark Gold of Arthur's orbs connected with the Emerald of Lee's: he had her, the footing was broken and the General was wide open.

The White blooms of the tall grass scattered throughout the air as the Dragonslayer slashed into a half-sword, spinning around to hammer at Lee's blade, only just caught as He pressed the attack, cutting her back as He danced cyclones around her, denying her any relief, his eyes flashing with the clash of their blades which shot embers into the whipping gale.

Forcing himself upon her, Arthur flew into a flurry of attacks, scarcely blocked by Lee's weakening defense, pushed back by his progressive attacks.

Pushing his Mentor back into the tall ivory reeds, he twisted and turned like a typhoon unable to stop the course of battle until Lee-fu Ector lie braced back on her knees in the grass, even so her blade remained high, she would never willingly yield.

And so he raised his blade high and struck down with a blow which had severed ice-pines at the root, and cleaved into dragon's scales. The Odachi screamed as its narrow body shattered like glass, Grimstorm's blade halted at Arthur's behest, just kissing the poorly armored space, between collar and jaw.

She dropped her mangled blade and bowed her head "The day, is yours, as is my fate."

The Dragonslayer lifted his blade and allowed it to fall back into it's sheath, it had tasted enough blood today.

Leaning down he took her in his arms and pulled Lee to her feet. She looked on not with the eyes of a master, but an equal. Arthur smiled a little, reaching over to untie the rope that held on her Kabuto, removing it alongside with her cracked mask which hung from her ears.

The beautiful face of his Teacher, despite her brushed cheek and split lip dazzled his senses, although she looked a little angry "My father gave me that blade, I've had it since I was a child." She grumbled.

He raised an eyebrow "On the bright side, Your father did try and sell you off, so-"

Her lips curled. A ringing pain shot through Arthur as her shin smashed between his legs, He was ready to topple over, if he didn't throw his forehead into Lees nose first. The pait of them fell into the grass, wincing... and laughing hysterically, rolling around as their shared joy echoed in this sacred place, even as his balls ached and her nose stained her lips with red.

Laying across from one another, lee reached over to touch the soft fabric of her black and white scarf around his neck, a small but sad smile flickering on the edge of her lips "I am going to miss you, idiot boy."

His fingers closed softly around her armored fingers "I will write you, as much as I can, whenever I can. I swear it to the saints."

She did smile then, her eyes misting as she shuffled closer on the soft glass, he could not help but touch her lean body. "The saints are fickle things, why don't you swear to this instead." Moving in, He halted her with a gesture, wiping her bloody nose with his thumb before nodding in confirmation.

They kissed then, fiercely and passionately, for the Final time.