Chapter 7: Defeated and Rescued

Talon is in bad condition during his fight with the Sword Master, Kilvren. How will the mercenary escape this battle alive?

Talon's knees hit the ground, as he coughed up blood.  His entire body ached.  He had slashes on his arms, making him unable to shoot an arrow effectively, and a large gash in his stomach, making it hard for him to breathe.  The worst part was, Talon, an expert sniper, could not trace Kilvren’s movements.  He was so quick with the sword, and as the archer struggled to stand to his feet; Talon had the cruel realization that he never really stood a chance.

“You keep on getting up.” Kilvren said calmly, “It’s as if you think that if you keep getting up, you’ll eventually be able to defeat me.  Why not die honorably?  Lie on the ground, reflect on your life, and right the wrongs you have done.  The only man who dies with regrets is the one who dies suddenly.  I wanted to kill you slowly, so you had enough time to reflect on your life, before you passed on to the next existence.”

“I can’t believe I am going to go like this.” Talon thought, “What a wretched place to die! I came here to kill one woman, decided not to, took on a band of mercenaries…and now this bozo with a sword is going to do me in!  Where the heck is that sorceress anyway?  I wonder if the other mercenaries got her…It’d make sense, without her spell book, she’s powerless!  There is no glory to this death at all…what a pity!”

“It’s time.” Kilvren said coldly, as he raised his companion’s poorly crafted short sword and pointed it towards Talon .  “In another life, perhaps we could have been allies Talon…it’s truly ill fate that made our paths cross like this.  You are a very gifted warrior, and how I hate to kill the truly gifted warriors in this world…But, such is the fate of those such as me that are even more gifted.”

Talon lowered his head in defeat as the pain of his wounds overtook him.  How he hated that a cocky lowlife such as Kilvren, who’s only advantage over Talon, was his especially powerful and talented teacher, Atticus, was going to be the one to put an end to the crimson archer’s life.  Kilvren was one of those warriors who lived by a code of honor, a system of self imposed rules that limited even great swordsmen like himself.  By Talon’s standards, the only rules are those that dictates who lives and who dies.  There are no moral codes, there is no honor…There are those who can cut it, and those who can’t.  The worst part of Talon’s philosophy was that it was at this point, he realized that in this particular case, he would be considered among those who can’t cut it.  How disgusting!

It was as Kilvren lifted his sword with the intention for an instant kill, that the atmosphere around the two warriors became surrounded and enveloped in deep fog.  Talon was amazed when he could instantly see nothing but his adversary’s shadow.  Had he been in a better condition, he could have used this time to escape, or to deal a lethal surprise blow to Kilvren.  However, Talon felt his body giving out, as he hit the ground unable to move as his blood was leaving his body.

Kilvren looked around as the fog embraced him and his enemy.  He knew at once what this meant, as fog naturally did not appear this quickly.  It made sense, she was a crafty sorceress, and since the mercenaries had been completely concentrated on Talon, the woman had plenty of time to roam the camp freely to find her spell book.

“You mean to tell me that you wish to save this man’s life?” Kilvren called out loudly, not sure where Oceana was but knowing that she was near.  “You should know that the kind of warrior he is would just assume die by the hands of a warrior such as myself then be rescued by a woman like you.  You’ll receive no gratitude from this one…do you still wish to carry on such as this?”

In response to this question, Kilvren heard no verbal reply.  He did however hear clouds gathering together, and loud booming thunder.  He knew that if he were to step with the intention of killing Talon, a lightning bolt would surely come down and strike him dead.  Kilvren hated to back down from his oath to kill, but he knew at this moment he stood no chance against Oceana.  Powers such as hers deemed the way of the sword powerless.  It was without hesitation or regrets that Kilvren decided to leave the battlefield and returned to his mercenaries.  His destiny was not to die in the Valor Forest in a battle with an archer without a cause.

Before he left, Kilvren’s thoughts went back to that one day.  He had thought he’d be free that day that it was going to be the end of his days of being the second best sword master.  Of course, in order for him to become the best, it meant destroying the one in his way that currently was known for being the greatest with the sword across all the land, Atticus.  When he was first training under his teacher, Kilvren didn’t know then that he would eventually want to kill him.  It was only after he got to know the legendary sword fighter, did Kilvren make up his mind that Atticus didn’t deserve to be the best with the sword, and thus...He needed to die.

The more Kilvren got to know his teacher, the more he realized that while his skill with the blade was flawless, his heart was not that of a warrior.  Atticus didn’t live for the thrill of swordplay and killing equal opponents as Kilvren did.  No, Atticus was obsessed with the relations between sub-humans (or Metamorphs, as sub-human lovers like Atticus called them) and humans.

Tyseria was not home to just humans, but creatures that were somewhere between animal and human.  There were many clans of the Metamorphs.  Some could take the form of beasts at will, other the form of birds, or more aquatic beings as well.  Most Metamorphs stayed in their own region, but sometimes they would try to live among humans and conceal their true nature in their human forms.  It had been this way for countless generations.  Some Metamorphs were able to live normal human lives, fall in love, and breed offspring that would be a hybrid of Human and Metamorph.

Hybrids often would lose the ability to transform into whatever creature their ancestors could change into.  They would often have superior senses, strength, and other abilities.  While Hybrids almost always appeared as Human there was one slight difference all had in common.  Each Hybrid would be born with Mark somewhere on their body.  This Mark was often viewed by humans as a curse that would remind the world of the individual's disgusting heritage.  Metamorphs often were hated by the majority of humans, and so were Hybrids.

Kilvren and Atticus both had human and "sub human" ancestors, allowing them to have slightly superior abilities to that of normal humans, but the two had very different opinions about it.  Atticus viewed being a Hybrid as a chance to unite the two species whereas Kilvren viewed being a Hybrid as more of a curse.  Since he was a boy, he was never able to fit in with humans, once they discovered the Mark on his neck.  As a result,  years ago Atticus took the wandering run-away child in, and taught him the art of the sword.

The more Kilvren noticed Atticus's weakness, the more he tried to outdo his teacher in the art of the sword.  But the more he tried, the more Kilvren was bested by his master.  Five years ago, Kilvren ran away from Atticus to train on his own, by defeating the best opponents he could find.  Finally, three years later, when the wielder of the Black Blade was confident in his skills, winning 5000 sword fights, he returned to Desecrated Desert to challenge his master.

Kilvren had improved dramatically, but he was still no match for his former teacher.  Rage burned in the warrior with the black blade, as he tried to stab Atticus only to have his attacks deflected.  The battle raged on for two days, but the legendary warrior sensed the presence of another person approaching.  It was one of the sub-humans, one resembling a giant orange cat.  Atticus knocked Kilvren to the ground, and disappeared into the desert to find the Metamorph.  As Kilvren laid on the sand, he realized was not yet ready to defeat his former master and finally be the best swordsman in the world, but he made an oath that one day his black sword would slay Atticus.

Kilvren later learned that the sub-human Atticus met  served under Lucian of the Valor Mercenaries and since then Atticus has been traveling with the Valor Mercenaries.  Kilvren retreated far that day from the Desecrated Desert to start his own mercenary group, the Unforgiving Sword, with hopes of one day meeting up with Atticus and fulfilling his destiny of finally defeating his former teacher, and now arch-nemesis.

Kilvren listened carefully to the loud booming thunder that the sorceress, Oceana was creating.  He knew that his fate was not to die at the hands of a power magic user such as her.  Kilvren threw the short ragged sword on the ground and turned around to return to his mercenaries.

“What are you doing?” Talon cried out painfully, as the words barely made it out of his mouth.  At every word that the defeated archer said, it felt like a knife was being jabbed into his stomach.  “Finish me off, sword master…you have won…Do me in.”

“Consider this lucky day, archer.” Kilvren said coldly and without emotion, “The magician you came here to rescue has in fact returned to rescue you…Personally I can’t think of anything more humiliating then that…if you have any honor left in you, Talon, I think you should end your own pathetic existence.  Our battle is over.”

Kilvren disappeared in the fog, and Talon’s head again fell, as he became unconscious.  Oceana appeared from behind him and drug his body to a small hill outside of the forest overlooking the rising sun, and began to chant the spell to heal his wounds.  Oceana sighed as her powers temporarily left her body to create the healing energies around Talon.  Unknown to her, the axe wielding Berserker, Bruno was not far from the hill on which she and Talon were residing.

Reviews

[Shep]

Awesome so far, and found the the history a little dry but it did serve its need to be there to gives more details knowing that we will meet this charcater again in the following chapters so keep it, but lighten it up bit. Ok Moving on.

[DarkCrono15]

I have a question about your review...when you say lighten it up do you mean as far as length or do you mean as far as...I don't know, gloominess haha?

[Shep]

I mean it reads like a text book history lesson. Add some personality to it. Give us somthing like a brain teaser that makes us go ok I have to see how that works out leaving us to question the character motives. Shortening it will help so it let's us find out on our own. But you now how I feel about short chapters. I expect novels to have long chapters after all I am not reading short story. I like my novels long and beefy. To be honest I won't read novel on the shelf that has least 400 pages or more. Considering anything lower I would blow through them less than a day. So i pick them based on size considering the price if its worth my time. Yours is really really good the kind I like most, but needs to be longer. If equals 400 pages in microsoft word. It will be just right when they print it back into book form from manuscript which would proxment. 6 to 7 hundred pages almost double. Something to think about.

[DarkCrono15]

I'm more of a short chapter writer but i have been glancing over the next book I'll be publishing in the Talon Saga and you may be happy to know that there are longer chapters. Perhaps I'll jump back to this chapter and work on the history a little bit, I don't like the idea of boring people =)

Speaking of books and chapters, I'm going to go read another one of yours before I call it a night!