A Grand Finale

Footstep by footstep your body closes the distance to Rixx. You ready your stance, holding your dagger closer to your body while your short sword goes out forward, holding at an angle across your body to properly defend yourself, "Ahhhhh!!!" you scream out as you glare at the armored foe before you. As you charge into him, he doesn't move, just like the last time you fought against this man he sat there on the defensive, waiting for you to get to him.

The last time, back in Nillix when you faced off against Rixx in the finals you did the same thing but you know this is the best course of action. His armor will deflect and hold off many blades and therefore unless you get a forceful jab or make contact with the very few places across his body where there isn't armor or it's thinner, you knew he could take blow after blow and come out unscathed.

With your leather armor and being smaller than Rixx, you need to stay on the offensive and use that speed, quickness and agility to dodge his greatsword and hopefully get some attacks into him. Now, with your beautifully crafted weapons which are much more fine pointed and sharp, you have high hopes that if you can get the right angle with your attack, you could puncture into his armor and defeat the eagle.

At the last few steps before getting close to him, he pivots in his stance and raises his greatsword up and swings with all his might in a horizontal arc. It was a very easy attack to see coming but he was most likely hoping to catch you off guard and end the fight before it even began. Without taking half a second to think, you tumble forward, rolling across the ground and dodging under his blade before you complete that roll and push up with your legs, slashing your sword across his side.

He spins to the side as you jump passed him, your short sword grazing across his armor, the sound of steel cutting steel pierces into your body. "Ahhh!" you scream out as you realize there is not time to stall. You attack into the man, keeping your body extremely close to him which makes it very difficult for him to use his greatsword.

You're slashing left and right with your weapons and between him only having to use one hand on his sword to block some of your attacks, he uses his forearm, almost as if it was a shield to deflect and block more of your attacks. You imagine his armor is thicker and sturdier on his arms for this very purpose, so when foes do get in close to him, his entire arms act as shields which he can use to block or he'll use them as blunt force objects to take the wind out of you.

And as you knew it was coming, right after he deflects yet another dagger strike from your assault his left forearm goes forward, and as if he's backhanding you across the face, that heavy section of armor catches you across the face, "Ugh!" you grunt out as you tumble backwards and roll across the soil.

Pushing yourself up to your feet you have to stay moving because for how giant of a man Rixx is, he is surprisingly quick footed. Before you even have time to ready yourself his sword is swinging into your body again from all angles. To the left it swings down, forcing you to dodge out of the way and then just as quick, his blade is now swinging from the right, making you pivot that way as well.

His assault on you was continuing and even though you were able to dodge his blows easily enough, he wasn't letting up and honestly all it would take is one blow from his sword to end your life. Lucky though, he had to stop his assault because as he was about to attack into you once more, he pulls his greatsword up to block an incoming attack from one of your Sunriders. As he blocks the incoming assault with his weapon, his left hand forms a fist and with all his might he swings that hand of his into the attacking Sunrider.

You felt bad for the random warrior because as the knuckles of his armor connected with the face of that poor warrior, you heard the most devastating grunt, but also a loud cracking sound as most likely their entire cheekbone got smashed in. Exactly like what happened to Ashe when she had to attack an assaulting warrior, Rixx did the same, as he turned his whole body to the side to finish off your warrior, it left his side at you and his guard down.

Taking the opportunity you lunge into him, putting all your power and force into the blow. You swing your short sword in a downward arc right by his shoulder, throwing as much of yourself into this blow as you can. He knows it's coming though and with a step back, he lifts his left arm back, using it as the shield it was designed for to block your upcoming attack.

The grunt he releases from his mouth tells you that your blade must have punctured into his armor or at least dented it extremely hard because you can see him snarling at you through clenched teeth under his helmet. As you pull the sword short back, you step right, twirl your dagger to reverse grip and then jab it in to the left, bringing it into where his side would be.

He's able to backpedal slightly but you still make contact with him. Your dagger, the tip of it actually pierces into his armor and gauges into him from the side. You were aiming to go in just underneath his armpit where you assume the armor wouldn't be as plated but with his movement, it's farther down and a little more forward. Once your well-made dagger broke the shell of his steel armor, it sunk into his flesh with ease. The stab itself, because of his movement wasn't going to be anything fatal as you assume it only grazed across his abdomen just barely, but still, his armor was broken and your dagger was inside him.

As the blow connects with him, most likely one of the only blows he's ever taken, he stumbles backwards, pulling the dagger from your grasp as it's still stuck within his armor. He grunts and moans out a few times as he puts some paces between the two of you. Now down one weapon, you stand there, looking at the monster but keeping your short sword ready to attack or defend if needed.

His hand moves down to the dagger sticking out of his side and with clenched teeth, his fingers wrap around the handle and he pulls the blade out with ease. As he does, you see a spurt of blood pulse from his body, something you've never seen before, that this monster does actually bleed. He tosses that dagger off to the side, bouncing off the soil a few meters and away from him. Your eyes follow the weapon, making sure to remember where it lands so you can retrieve that beautifully crafted dagger when this is all over.

It felt glorious to you to draw first blood against the man and even though you know the attack itself wasn't going to be fatal or even slow him down much, the fact that you were able to penetrate into his armor and puncture into his body has got to be in his mind now. The bad part is now you are down a weapon unless you can somehow make your way behind the monster and get the dagger back.

Not wanting to give him any more down time, you charge into him again, slashing your short sword towards him almost recklessly but forcing him to stay on the defensive for the time being. As you thought, the wound in his side didn't slow him down much at all and instead more than likely pissed him off even more. He was still expertly defending your singular weapon now and it made it a lot tougher as you didn't have any type of shield to help you out at all. You had to get your dagger back, or potentially pick up some other weapon off the ground.

Thinking about getting another weapon causes you to drop your focus on the battle only slightly and it's at that point, Rixx takes a hefty swing into you with his greatsword. You screwed up and as you watch his blade fly through the air towards you, you know there is no way you'll be able to dodge this in time. Instead, you'll have to bring your short sword up and do what you can to block the force.

As you do, the weight and assault from his giant weapon makes contact with your short sword and even though you do keep his blade from cutting you in two, the blow itself forces the sword out of your grasp as it deflects his blade away from your body. "Ughh..." you grunt out as your short sword flies away from your body, leaving you now completely weaponless.

This was bad, it was really bad. You were lucky enough to draw first blood against this monster of a man but now he's got you without any weapons and before you know it, just like what he did with the Sunrider that caught him off guard, his hand is formed into a fist and it's coming crashing down right at your face.

You've been punched before, many times actually, but the amount of power, weight and anger behind that hand that just connected with your jaw was as if the entire weight of the world was dropped on your face. Your body flies backwards and you almost lose consciousness briefly as you tumble backwards into the stained soil.

Eventually you push yourself up from the soil, but for a few moments are you so stunned you don't want to bring yourself up to your feet. You stay kneeling down with one fist into the ground to keep yourself steady. Your left eye, where his fist connected with your face is basically already swollen shut and blood was seeping out of the corner of your lip already. Little black dots were forming in your vision as the blow was still pulsing through your body. You couldn't help but breath in and out softly, trying to regain your composure and allow the pain in your face to leave.

There you were, on your knees without any weapons with the left side of your face seeping blood, swollen shut and already numb. Commander Rixx was only ten or so paces away from you, holding his greatsword and appears to only be moments away from continuing his assault on you. With the wind knocked out of you, this fight between you and him was reaching the end.

He doesn't give you much time at all as he's now the one charging forward towards your location. As he readies his attack, he brings his greatsword back behind his body and with an overhead arc he swings down with all his might, trying to completely decimate your body. You inhale one final gulp of air and then at the last second you tumble yourself forward, rolling away from his attack and then pushing yourself up to your feet behind him. Feeling still quite dizzy and light headed you almost fall back to the ground immediately as you stumble forward away from the Commander. You need to get back to your short sword and if you could get your dagger too, that would be great.

He moves with such elegance though because as you roll out of his attack, he immediately spins his weapon, trailing his blade across the battlefield as he slashes across horizontally. The length of his blade and the reach of his body makes his sword cover an unworldly amount of ground. So much ground, that when you got back to your feet and were trying to get back to your blade, the tip of his sword makes contact with the middle of your back. Just like what happened to Ashe across her torso, it happened the same way on your back. The pristine and sharp tip of his greatsword as well as about an inch of the blade cut deep within your lower back and slicing right across your left hip.

Grunting out in pain you push through it as you feel the wetness of your blood seeping out into your armor. You couldn't even feel the pain of the slice though as so much adrenaline was pulsing through your body right now. You were on the verge of passing out from the blow you took to your head and now you will be bleeding pretty bad, who knows how long you'll manage to keep your eyes open. But there was no backing down now so you push through your weakening body and dive towards your short sword, easily grabbing the handle of it before jumping to your feet and turning around quickly only to see Rixx right on your heels.

Slash after slash this behemoth of a man continues his assault, not letting you get even a moment of rest. The power from his attacks aren't as heavy as they once were and you are able to deflect his sword from making contact with you but still, one wrong move and that would be it. You were grunting and moaning consistently now as you had to keep your body moving because anytime you were standing still you were in danger of getting hit. Bobbing, weaving, blocking and dodging, it was as if Rixx got a sudden burst of energy because he was attacking into you with a renewed sense of vigor, causing you to shuffle backwards over and over again to try to gain some distance between him.

Once more, one of your warriors attacks into Rixx from the side forcing the monster to stop his attacks on you. He plants his back foot and shoves his greatsword in a forward jab and that greatsword went straight through the stomach of this warrior. It only gave you about three seconds before two random Rathkin warriors were charging into you from the side. As Rixx pulls his greatsword out of the sternum of your warrior causing all the insides of your poor ally to pour out below, you quickly finish off one warrior with a slash across the throat before three quick stabs in the gut to the other one, causing him to drop.

But as you turn back towards Rixx, his sword once again is swinging right at you. You drop to your knees to duck under the blade but then before you can retaliate, his right leg is swinging forward, using his entire body to kick you. Once more, the air was knocked out of your body as you flew backwards and crashed into the soil below. The pain coursing through you was pinging extremely bad but you clench your teeth hard through it to force it back. His sword swings down, slashing into the ground forcing you to roll and to continue to roll as he swipes his blade over and over at you.

It blew your mind because how big this man is, how large his sword is and how heavy his gear is, the fact that he has this much energy and keeps his fight going at over one hundred percent was absolutely mind blowing. It's like he never ran out of steam even though he's been moving just as fast as you and swinging that large blade around effortlessly.

You have to give it to your allies because once more, another Sunrider charges into Rixx, allowing you to push yourself backwards away from him to gain some distance from him again. As you stay kneeling on the ground, catching your breath you watch Rixx grip the Sunrider that jumped onto him with his right hand, wrapping his fingers around the poor girls throat as he completely lifts her body up in the air. With his greatsword down by his waist being held by his left hand, his right is slowly suffocating your ally up in the air.

His head turns to you as you see him growl in your direction. The way he's holding his red stained sword in one hand and effortlessly holding a Sunrider around her neck with his right hand, slowly crushing the warrior's throat. The anger he was showing out of his face, the monster was growing within, the pure look of rage. Then just as easily as he picked up that poor girl, once she stopped struggling in his grasp, he tosses her lifeless body off to the side as it rag-dolls across the soiled battlegrounds.

You stay there kneeling with one hand on your sword and the other resting on the ground to keep yourself steady. You are running out of steam and breathing heavily, panting over and over again and it's now that you can really start to feel the pain in your face where you got punched, the ache in your chest where you got kicked and the stinging sensation in your lower back as you only barely dodged the attack from Rixx. All the while, the monster ahead of you doesn't even look phased at all. You knew Rixx was a masterclass of a warrior but did you potentially underestimate him? You are feeling terrible and your body is wearing down from the ongoing battle that was waging on but he didn't seem to be bothered by anything, almost like he was possessed on the battlefield.

Clenching your eyes shut for a few seconds you continue to huff and puff through the pain and with every breath you take in, your chest hurts, most likely from a potential broken or bruised rib. Trying to calm yourself, trying to push the pain out and do what you can to continue this glorious fight against Rixx. "Come on, Darien!" you grumble to yourself as your body is slowly starting to succumb to all the aches and pains. "Come on, Darien..."

A soft breeze flows over your body and then all of a sudden words whisper into your ear and the feeling of a hand is placed on your shoulder, "Stand up, Darien." the quiet, yet peaceful voice causes you to immediately open your eyes and look to the side to see who was next to you, "You have so much more to accomplish..." the voice soothes you, "Stand up little brother..."