For Honor

On an empty patch of land near the midpoint of the three campsites, a crowd had formed. The hazy midday sunlight, still sickly with the filter of death, shone down upon three figures standing at the center of the gathering. Around them, dozens of figures stood at a healthy distance, giving the warriors within the circle a wide berth.

"While I cannot claim this is anything but foolish, I prefer structured foolishness, I suppose," Moira griped as she stood between John and Julianna, her eyes flicking between the two overeager brutes.

"There is nothing foolish about the defense of honor." Julianna's eyes remained fixed on John, never wavering, even when Moira gave the berserker her best glare. "State the rules plainly, that we might be on with it."

Moira huffed, but complied despite her better judgment. "The rules are simple, and I hope clear, even to the two of you. Adantia will provide a defensive perimeter in case your battle grows out of hand, since we cannot contain this battle within a Barrier. You will fight until one of you surrenders, loses consciousness, or until either the Lord Protector or Kwang Moon come to believe intervention is necessary. You will accept their judgment regarding the need to save either of you, and the one being saved shall be declared the loser. Is that understood?"

"Clear," John affirmed. His eyes wandered over Julianna, checking her information again.

Julianna Balventia
Level 86 Relentless Commander
<The Forgotten Legion>
8,960 / 8,960 HP
Relationship: -67
Alignment: +7
Status Effects: Vessel of Anguish [0%]

"Understood." Julianna adjusted her stance, which she had not let slip for even a moment since John came to stand opposite her. She held the oversized greatsword in one hand with a grip that did not waver, her other hand rested idly on the pommel. For now.

"John Newman's allies are forbidden from aiding him directly. He may utilize any technique that requires them, however." A few sneers and a low grumbling arose from the Legion, the most undisciplined sound he'd ever heard the lot of them make. Moira lifted a brow in their direction and the murmuring quieted, though it did not stop. "Lady Julianna, this was your stipulation. Is there a problem?"

"You can have as many of your soldiers assist you as you'd like," John offered.

"Use whatever abilities you see fit." Julianna shifted slightly. Her fingers flexed along the hilt, filling the air with the sound of creaking steel. "I do not want to hear any pathetic excuses about being restricted when you surrender... or when you awaken in the medical tents."

The jeering became a more raucous sort of cheer. The uproar died the moment Julianna turned her gaze their direction, the lifted arms and half-steps fading back into near-perfect discipline.

"And I suppose neither of you is willing to rethink this?" Moira stepped backward toward the edge of the circle to join her father near the western edge as she spoke. It was a considerable distance, and the silence stretched the whole way. The frown on her face burrowed deeper lines as the silence became a fixture of the gathering. "Very well. Then on the count of three. One... two... three!"

Julianna was as decisive in her battles as she was in her conversations, a fact John had observed over multiple days. She launched forward while Moira's voice was still ringing in the air, blade hefted and arcing toward John. A sound like a gunshot rang out as her body and blade broke the sound barrier.

John saw the full range of movement. He was as fast as Julianna, if not faster. It still set his heart racing as he slid to the left, allowing her blade to come down on the dirt where he'd just been. Rock, dirt, and grass scattered lightly into the air, kicked up both by the initial blow and the follow-up as Julianna immediately pulled her weapon free with seeming ease.

A horizontal cleave came next, aiming to catch John while he was still shimmying away from the first strike. The Fang of the New World rose from the ground up, slipping its tip beneath her larger sword. John used both hands and a firm throwing gesture to divert the blade, but was only partially successful—he had to duck to fully evade the strike.

Despite the blade's enormous size, Julianna stopped it mid-swing as it passed over him. The blade moved in a swirling motion as she shifted her stance and her arms, and then it was moving in the opposite direction, back toward him with nearly as much force as the prior two strikes.

"It's gigantic, but she wields it like it's a shortsword." John blocked the blow outright this time. The impact resounded up through his arms, rattling his ribcage and tingling every muscle in his arms. Julianna pulled back as soon as her momentum was transferred. The sword whirled in a semi-circle, moving from his left side over his head to come down at his right shoulder. "And since she didn't kill me on the first strike, she's trying to overwhelm me with finesse instead of force!"

Identifying the plan didn't make it entirely easy to outmaneuver her, though. Julianna was ambitious, relentless, and most importantly, skilled. She'd handled herself well enough against Barrier monsters and the resurrected mages, but the rapid exchange was quickly making it clear that Julianna had never neglected her skill at fighting another swordsman either.

Without the momentum from barreling across the dueling ground, Julianna didn't have enough raw strength to break John's guard, but John didn't have the skill to catch the brief windows of openings in her stances, even when he could identify them. Any strike he attempted in their opening exchanges was evaded, countered, or taken with little more to show for it than a nick in her admittedly impressive armor. The jewel on Julianna's chest slowly began to glow as little trickles of crimson poured into it, mere droplets compared to the damage she had sustained during their training or during their defense of the battle lines.

Wordless cries rose up from the Forgotten Legion's side. With their commander too busy with her duel to pay them proper attention and identify voices, they must have felt emboldened enough to cheer her on. Julianna spared them no attention; every bit of her focus remained directed at John, and the results were obvious. John fell back, step by step, pacing backwards in a circle around the edge of the arena to give himself enough room to handle the onslaught. More than once, Adantia's steel cables lifted from the ground, signaling the boundary as John drew too close to the audience. Gamer's Body kept it from showing on his skin, but John counted each gash that was drawn, each brutalizing cleave that might've fully disabled a limb if he wasn't blessed with such restoration.

"You spend too much time slaughtering feral Barrier creatures," Julianna critiqued, blade whirling between each word, punctuating her verbal jabs with physical ones. "You have no idea how to face a real warrior. You've never been taught what real war is like. Or if you have, you had an incompetent teacher."

"You start a duel because you can't handle the insults you give to us every day," John spat, "and now you have the audacity to insult my teacher, too?!"

John struck for Julianna's core as she drew her blade back for a horizontal slash. It was a feint—or perhaps Julianna's reflexes were simply more honed than John gave her credit for. The blade adjusted its angle and swept back in an instant, clashing with the Fang of the New World and sending it skyward. John's arms rebelled against him, vibrating from the force of the collision. Julianna didn't hesitate to draw the massive greatsword back once more, preparing for another strike. John was still reeling from the force of the deflection, and his arms couldn't recover in time to block.

They didn't need to. The Fang of the New World glowed as the Rune of Puppeteering came alive. The sword ripped itself from his hands and flipped in the air with a flash like lightning. Julianna's blade met it and, to John's relief, the free-floating blade held its ground.

John's heel dug in, halting his momentum. A half-breath to regain his balance, and then he was moving again, throwing himself at Julianna bare-handed. His clenched right fist connected with her jaw.

127 DMG!

"My teacher-" John's left followed the right.

119 DMG!

"-was incredible-" John ducked a backhand from Julianna, then drove his elbow into the center of her armor. The skin-tight material was as hard as steel, but the blow still sent Julianna staggering.

108 DMG!

"-and taught me everything she could-"

Julianna pulled her blade away from the levitating sword and spun on the back of her foot, bringing her weapon down in a diagonal arc from the other side. John sent the Fang of the New World whirling over and behind Julianna while he leaned to the side, letting the greatsword pass close enough to his shoulder to feel it rattle his armor.

"-including this!"

A peal of thunder accompanied a blinding flash of light. Behind Julianna, the Fang of the New World had pointed its tip toward her. The Rune of Channeling was glowing, and from the tip of the sword a bolt of lightning emerged. At such close range, Julianna would've been hard-pressed to dodge even if she were watching; with her focus on what lay before her, she never noticed the attack until the lightning was arcing over her bodysuit and coursing through her veins.

582 DMG!

Julianna let a grunt escape her. The gemstone in her chest filled with crimson at a much higher clip, particularly when John followed with a barrage of close-quarters strikes. His unarmed attacks weren't particularly effective, but they were damned satisfying, and he returned the Fang of the New World to his hand just in time to bat away a stab that would've carved through his entire midsection. The force sent him sliding back over the ground, giving them breathing room and bringing an end to that particular exchange.

"Parlor tricks compared to what a real warrior is capable of," Julianna grunted when she had a moment to catch her breath. "You won't best me with that sort of trick."

"You want me to stop going easy on you, then? Fine."

Overflowing Aura Activated: White Lightning [Targets Selected: Julianna Balventia]

4 DMG!
4 DMG!

Sparks of electricity jolted along Julianna's skintight armor. The damage wasn't even enough to elicit a reaction; the aura wasn't going to swing the battle in his favor in an instant. On its own, it would have taken almost a full hour to deplete Julianna's health. But it added pressure and a sense of urgency, and as Julianna came after John once more, there was a crisis behind her blade that had not been there before.

Her first strike cleaved John in half. Before the audience could muster even the faint sound of surprise, the illusion faded. John reappeared at Julianna's right, blade pointed at her chest. She twisted away, spun on her heel, cleaved her blade down. John faded as the sword passed through his body, dissipating into a fine mist. He formed again above her. Julianna's blade twisted at a startling speed, even given her performance in the fight thus far. The Fang of the New World glanced off the flat of her greatsword and missed her right shoulder, leaving a long cut down the length of her upper arm.

"Resorting to illusions now?" Julianna goaded, drawing her blade closer to her chest.

"Vallya taught me a few things, too," John admitted. He landed behind her, pausing for a moment as his passive Observe caught mana flooding through Julianna's body.

"I've dealt with her ilk before. Annoying. Nothing more." Julianna's eyes began to glow, but that was not the extent of it—perhaps not even the source. John felt something pulse over him, over the whole of the battlefield, like a heartbeat traveling through pressurized waves.

Status Effect Gained: Frenzied Focus.

"That can't be good."

John already suspected that it would be fruitless, but his next use of Purifier's Muse confirmed it. Vallya's Greater Illusion didn't fool Julianna for a moment; she plowed through the false John and struck at his core body while it was still meant to be concealed. He parried a downward strike that would've split him shoulder to hip, dodged the follow-up, and then shot his hand toward the ground as Julianna drew her blade back.

The stab missed without John needing to shift. Julianna's right foot gave way as the earth crumbled beneath her. John brought the Fang of the New World to bear against her, and even Julianna's well-honed reflexes could only block the first of the strikes. The other two found their marks, one glancing off the thick armor around her chest, the second biting into her upper thigh.

529 DMG!
1,093 DMG!

John tried to shift the earth again, to drive Julianna upward this time and find an unguarded part of her lower body, but the Forgotten Legion's leader had already begun to adapt. She surged forward of her own will, not by his technique, her feet glimmering with crimson mana. John's efforts to disrupt the earth around her fell flat without fanfare. The red energy spread out from her heels and the balls of her feet wherever they landed, and where the mana lay, John's spells were rendered inert.

"She's developed countermeasures for all the easiest ways to mess with her," John noted. His mind raced between the sways and spins required for him to remain a step ahead of her. "She really is a formidable warrior. Still a bitch, though."

Julianna's skill outmatched him, but John had the edge in raw stats, barring her absurd health pool. And while he lacked the reflexes or skill to capitalize on her openings on his own merits, he wasn't done with his tricks yet.

John made a show of being thrown back by one of her particularly grueling horizontal strikes, his legs stretching out to right his balance, his body unguarded as the blade swept to the side. Julianna took a moment to adjust her angle, aware that the Fang of the New World could protect its wielder even when the wielder had lost his footing. In that moment, while she was shifting her grip across the blade's handle, John activated his Wind Shear.

1,216 DMG!
1,216 Bonus DMG!

John's strike cleaved through Julianna's armor. A scream like an entire building being twisted in half rent the air as his blade tore through it, and a warm spray of crimson coated John's back as he passed the berserker. He kept going until he was safely out of her striking range, evading the counter-strike that she threw after him reflexively.

"Thank god I got it to level one. Recoil on that would have been a real..."

There was no time to pat himself on the back for the blow. John's enhanced strike had nearly filled the gemstone on Julianna's chest—and the fearless woman had decided that it was precisely the right time to utilize it. The ruby on her chest started to glow with such brightness that the pallid grays and blacks of her armor were almost lost to the eye. John could see Julianna's silhouette shift, her muscles bulging as she drew the blade back.

"Shishun!"

John didn't need to say more than that. He had lost track of his direction as the battle wore on, but as soon as he called her name, Shishun made herself known. A fan of lightning traced its way into the sky to his right. He followed the lightning down to its source, and as soon as their eyes met, John's body mirrored Julianna's shift.

Twin Soul Resonance: Body – Form, Shishun.

John planted his feet and kept his mind as steady as he could. He had to focus on each movement, keeping in mind the lessons he had learned from going all out while merged with Lerianna. Julianna was already leaping skyward, body going into a spin, her blade becoming a blurred arc of gray that threatened to cleave apart anything standing before her.

Purifier's Muse – Lightning Jump copied!

"Good to know that works." John wanted the technique ready, but not for this blow.

This one was to make a statement.

As Julianna bore down on him, three things happened. Elemental Infusion solidified the ground below his feet, preparing it for the forces to come, preventing him from being shoved down into the earth. His body tensed, not quite to the point of rigidity, but with enough strength to hold its ground against the forces about to collide.

And Adantia's cables weaved their way out of the ground, forming a thick lattice between the observers and the participants, much as she had done during her duel against Lord Brighton back at the manor.

The collision was loud enough to shatter mundane eardrums and released a wave of force through the ground and air that ripped tall grasses from their roots and sent spiderweb cracks forming as clumps of dirt tore themselves apart from one another. Julianna's body had gone utterly still at the moment of contact. Whatever she was doing was no mere enhanced swing. Her weight was held, her stance maintained, and every muscle in her body was driving its force downward in an attempt to overpower his guard. The weight of her might settled over John like a suffocating blanket; for a brief moment, as every part of his stance and grip was tested, John began to empathize with the plight of Atlas.

Then that moment, the momentum of the blow, and the charge of Julianna's enchanted gemstone all ended in unison.

John's attempts to keep Julianna at bay shifted from a plea to a demand in the space of a heartbeat. He shoved against Julianna's blade and forced it back as the gemstone in her chest started to fade, its accumulated energy spent against a defense it could not strike through.

Julianna Balventia
Level 86 Relentless Commander
<The Forgotten Legion>
3,562 / 8,960 HP
Relationship: -47
Alignment: +7
Status Effects: Vessel of Anguish [0%]

"Like I thought... she didn't heal."

John had hoped that the technique truly was one that drained life from her damaged opponents, but he hadn't been certain until now... because he had never seen Julianna fail to land the strike. Going by Julianna's expression – and those of her followers – it was not something witnessed often.

"You hold all this power," Julianna grunted, "and you refuse to wield it unless you are forced. Yet you wonder why I feel the need to press you to do the intelligent thing, rather than negotiate?"

"You don't know me, my family, or the costs that we pay to accomplish what we set our minds to," John warned. "And you've never as much as asked. We're not here because you were wrong, Julianna. We're here because you think you have a right to control the entire conversation, no matter whose lives you're putting on the line!"

"And what of the lives your inaction puts on the line?" Julianna roared. She let out a warrior's cry and hefted her blade before charging toward John once more. "What of the pain and suffering your hesitation costs?!"

"I traveled across the country to give us this chance!" A bolt of lightning erupted before Julianna's blade could find its home in John's neck. "I risked my life for the sake of peace and happiness for those that I love!" A mirroring bolt landed behind Julianna, and the berserk woman had to take an extra step forward and lunge to avoid having her midsection ripped open. "And I threw myself so recklessly into preparing for this moment that it nearly cost me my own life!"

"Then why do you sit so idly now?!" Julianna's eyes were shining. There was no mana there. Her blade spun and cleaved away each time John's Lightning Jump struck down, always a second too late, while John's cautious strikes cleaved away at her little by little, whittling her dwindling health.

298 DMG!
319 DMG!
511 DMG!

"Because it's not just my life on the line." John side-stepped an overhead slash. It was strong, but slow. Julianna was hemorrhaging blood now, and her crystal was only half-full. She still tried to use it again, but John stayed a step ahead of the blade, letting the ruby drain itself on the empty air. "It's everyone's. I understand that I have no right to ask them to forfeit their lives."

"I am trying to save all of us!"

Julianna drew her blade back for a sweep across John's upper chest. Lightning struck the spot he stood, while a mirrored bolt struck behind her and to her right. Julianna whirled on reflex, blade already adjusting, altering the strike's trajectory—

John wasn't there. It was an ordinary bolt of lightning. Her blade swept through empty space at the same moment that cold steel was pressed to the side of her throat.

"I understand that I have no right to ask anyone else to risk their life for me," John repeated, voice calm. Julianna stood with her blade at her side, still clutched in the follow-through of her final slash. Her face crinkled, her eyes scrunched shut, yet she remained still and silent. "And I am grateful every day for those that make the choice to fight by my side. I have never asked you to commit your forces to what you believe is a fool's errand, Julianna. I never asked the Legion to stand by as fodder to be thrown about as we see fit. I am asking you to extend the same courtesy to those you would call allies."

"If we do nothing," Julianna spat with a fraction of the venom she'd held that morning, "we will all die."

"Live or die, win or lose, whatever comes next, we will choose it for ourselves." John pressed the steel a little tighter to Julianna's neck. A trickle of blood ran along the flat of the Fang of the New World. "That is the only way things can be. The only thing that no one can take from us. Charge ahead and bring the war to the Northern Ashes alone. Stay by our side and fight this war as a united front. Or leave and take your soldiers somewhere safer. Make your choice, Julianna."

The air sat still. The circle had fallen silent. John couldn't know what the others were thinking. His eyes stayed fixed on Julianna, still not quite certain whether she was more likely to shout at him, stomp off and take her mages somewhere far away from this land, or ready her blade for another strike.

Julianna chose none of them.

"...I will hear your discussions. I will evaluate your plans on their merits, and I will not force you to alter them on our behalf," Julianna vowed. The words escaped her like air from a particularly stubborn leak. "But if I ever believe that I am leading my soldiers to the slaughter, I will abandon you without hesitation."

"I never demanded anything else from you."

"...I yield."

The briefest of cheers started to rise. It couldn't have been more than a half-dozen among the ranks of the Order's knights, there and gone in an instant. The GPA murmured quietly, a sound that held neither celebration nor fury. The Legion was utterly silent. Even as John drew his blade back and Julianna stepped toward their ranks, they remained rigid. They waited until Julianna was striding among their numbers before turning to follow, filling the air with the sound of astonished footsteps.

"You really know how to put a shine in a girl's eye, you know that?" Of all those gathered, it was Etriyya that broke the lines first. Her hand clasped onto John's shoulder like it was born there, a grin a mile wide splitting her face. "You might be a nosy gobshite, but you're a real fuckin' savage when you wanna be, ain't ya? And to credit an old girl like me for it? Too sweet, lad, too sweet by half."

"Just paying dues where they're due," John murmured, turning away from Etriyya's bright smile. It felt a bit out of place—and it was a little embarrassing.

"Now, what are you gonna do next, lad?"

"Something I should have done days ago."

John held a hand up. It was unnecessary for the technique, but it drew attention, and he wanted to be sure everyone still gathered there understood what was happening. So the Fang of the New World pointed skyward, its tip directed at the ceiling of the Barrier far overhead.

Then the Barrier began to fall.

The damage that their duel had done faded away. The murky sunlight shifted as the false Barrier replica was replaced by the real and hazier light. The stench of rotting corpses still smoldering filled the air, and startled exclamations rose up from the gathered GPA mages.

"Contact Sevitus, if he's not already among you," John called out, turning to face the Great Plains soldiers. "Contact Gerry. Contact anyone and everyone you know that might be able to raise a voice. The Barrier is gone. Tell them to raise it themselves, if they want to hold the line."

Angry voices rose this time. Shocked and frightened. John stared at the simmering crowd with an exasperated annoyance. Moira and Kim read the fatigue in him and stepped forward as one. Kim gestured with her blade in a way that halted those who had started to stride forward. Moira raised her voice, and the practiced authority of a Warden silenced the unhappy voices.

"Your commanders placed you here at our sides knowing we would be one of the most targeted factions." Moira raised her shield high, keeping the crest of the Order in plain sight. "They have refused to reinforce this territory in spite of that. They would sacrifice us, along with all of you, in the name of conserving the state of things. But the state of things is not salvageable! It is not tenable! And it cannot stand any longer! The Barrier has fallen not to surrender this land, but because the time for hunkering down and waiting for death to march over the horizon is over. These mages have ravaged your lands, desecrated your dead, and killed those we love!"

Kim twirled her blade once, then pointed it skyward, mirroring John's pose.