Chapter 9: Willard Battles Bruno

The beginning of Talon's Tale concludes with an epic battle between Willard and Bruno. How will the two mercenaries escape the situation they have found themselves in?

“I knew if I followed you all the way from Silverthorne you’d lead me to Talon.” Willard spoke as he pointed his steel lance at Bruno.  “I didn’t know there would be a beautiful woman here too…”

“You’ve come here to save your friend…” Bruno replied, “That’s sweet…leave now, and I won’t kill you.  Killing two weaklings like Talon and this sorceress is enough to satisfy my appetite, but there’s always room for more…if you catch my drift, knight.”

“Don’t even act like you could come close to being as skilled as I in combat.” Willard responded with a cocky smile, “Don’t let these rugged good looks fool you…I’m very dangerous, and love the thrill of a good fight.”

“Great,” Oceana thought, as she rolled her eyes, “This man is just as arrogant as Talon.  And unfortunately, that Axe wielding Berserker has been well informed of the nature of my power.  In my current condition, I am by no means able to defend myself.”

“So you like strong opponents eh?” Bruno asked, as he stood into combat position and readied his massive and heavy battle axe.  “I won’t disappoint you…but you should know, knight…I used to be in the business of going into countries and slaying tried castle warriors such as yourself…There is nothing that your regal training has taught you that will be useful against me…I am the perfect knight killer!”

Willard chuckled as he spun his lance around and assumed a battle position of his own.  “Please note I am not a knight but a mercenary…I put that life behind me a long time ago, and you’ll soon find out I’ve learned much about the art of combat since I was a knight of Laos.  Scum like you that only attack opponents when they can’t fight back and are no match for me…I’ll beat while holding my lance in my right hand, the less dominant one!”

“It’s your grave!” Bruno growled at his opponent, as he ran towards Willard.

The two clashed their weapons together.  Willard could tell that Bruno was strong, much stronger than the average axe wielding warrior.  His axe must have weighed well over two hundred pounds.  The blue knight knew that one hard hit with that axe would cut straight through his heavy armor.  Luckily, the axe had its limits, as it made Bruno very slow.

Willard knew that he could not afford to attack in vein, as one mistake would give the Berserker an opening to swing his massive axe.  He waited for Bruno to attack every time, and would lunge with his lance accordingly.

The size of Bruno’s axe and body was not the only intimidating aspect of the warrior.  Willard stabbed his lance into his opponents at least three times, but Bruno showed no sign of pain, injury, or limitation.  Despite the blood coming from his body, the axe wielding ruffian still ran at Willard with a look of anger and excitement regarding the present battle.

There came a point in the battle when Bruno stopped and lowered his axe.  Willard examined his opponent’s body.  Bruno had three bloody pierce marks in his body, one in the right shoulder, one on his left leg, and a large one on the far right of his stomach.  He stood completely unalarmed at his present condition.  The former knight was expecting his opponent to forfeit the fight, or fall to the ground as a result of blood loss.  Instead, Bruno started laughing hysterically.

“What’s so funny?”  Willard demanded, “Are your wounds making you delusional?  Look at yourself!  You’ve lost, you can’t touch me!  I expected more of a fight from someone who considers himself a knight killer!  You didn’t even land one blow on me!”

“I’m laughing because you are so convinced that you can beat me.” Bruno said.  After this statement, his loud bellowing laughter subsided, and he glared at Willard with deadly seriousness. “I was just getting warmed up…the real battle’s about to start!”

At this, Bruno’s large right hand moved to the middle of the hilt of his axe.  With great strength he pulled at the hilt and it broke into two.  Willard watched as Bruno pulled his two axe pieces apart, and noticed that they were being held together by a large chain.  Bruno’s hands moved onto the bottom hilt and chain of his weapon, and he started to spin the axe at incredible speeds.

“I don’t like telling my enemies how to fight,” Bruno spoke maliciously as he twirled his axe around, “but you may want to switch to your left hand now!”

Willard quickly threw his lance into his dominant hand and prepared for battle.  He had fought against many axe-wielding foes before, but never had they used the axe in a manner such as this.  Suddenly, Bruno threw his axe towards the handsome warrior at great speed, as he held on to the extending chain.  Willard breathed loudly as swiftly jumped to the left side to just barely dodge the axe.  This was a very strenuous process as his armor was exceptionally heavy.  After moving, Willard smiled with satisfaction.

“I can do it!” Willard thought, “I’m just fast enough to not get hit by that thing!”

Bruno smiled as he saw Willard’s look of relief.  The ex-knight then realized why Bruno was grinning, but it was too late…Bruno yanked the chain back, and the battle axe came flying back at Willard.  He tried to move again, but this time he was to slow.  The battle axe hit him in the right side, creating a massive dent into his armor and drawing blood.  The mercenary’s knees hit the ground, as he clenched his side in pain.

“Hey there buddy,” Bruno said sarcastically, “I couldn’t tell, but did I hit you on that last one?  You talked a big game about how I couldn’t hit you…so you can imagine my surprise when I heard the sound of my axe hitting your armor!  Pathetic knights!  You’re all the same!”

Bruno then remembered about the reason he had come out to this forest.  He turned around to set his sights on the sleeping Talon, and Oceana.  Bruno figured it would be a good idea to eliminate the sorceress first, since he had no idea how long she would be powerless.  She also seemed to have a nasty habit of escaping death.  Bruno knew that as an Ancient, with Oceana's powers, even his massive axe stood no chance for victory.

“I don’t like turning my back in a battle,” Bruno said as he turned his head back to Willard who was trying to make his way back to his feet, “But I didn’t come here to kill you…eliminating these two nuisances is my main course…killing you will serve as a wonderful dessert afterward!”

Bruno started to walk towards Oceana and Talon.  Oceana stared at Bruno defenselessly…If Oceana was honest with herself, she welcomed death…those among the Ancients considered murder to an immortal almost as a personal favor, but she knew that there was still much for her to do in this life. She gave a depressing sigh as she knew what she had to do.

Bruno started to swing his axe with the intention of killing Oceana and Talon in one motion.  Oceana prepared herself to use her ultimate hidden power as the axe came flying her way…but before she could, as the large axe soared towards Talon, Willard’s massive body jumped in the way and took another blow, this time to his right arm.  As the axe was retracted back to Bruno, the blue armored warrior gasped for air, as he was in much pain.

“Listen here you dog,” Willard struggled to speak.  “You seem to have it in your head that you’re going to attack my injured friend and the defenseless lady…You’re fight is with me…if you forget that again, it could be your downfall!”

“Fascinating,” Oceana thought, “This knight seems as arrogant and prideful as Shinon.  He boasts of his own skill as if his whole world revolves around himself…and at the same time, he ran after this Berserker to save Talon…and here he is, a battered and bloody pulp, still defending the archer.  I would have never guessed that someone as self-centered, rude, and angry as Shinon would have such a trustworthy companion such as this!  Perhaps there is hope for this blue haired individual yet…with a friend such as this, perhaps his dark heart will find light...Try as I might, and even with all my years of wisdom, it seems that I will never understand humans.”

“You’re hurting!” Bruno said to Willard, “I can tell, what fight can you possibly have in you?  You should have let me killed your friends as you ran off to fight another day!  Perhaps then you could have extracted revenge…but no, you had to go and be the hero.  Just like Talon!  Had he done things Morphus’s way he could live another day as well!  Both of you had your chance to do the smart thing, but both are you are going to die the death that comes with trying to be one of the good guys!”

Willard’s hurting face managed to shine another one of his magnificent smiles, as he struggled to speak again.  “You got me and Talon all wrong…We don’t do the hero thing.  We survive!  We take what we can and we do what needs to be done to win the fight, at all costs!  I’ve watched you and your little whirling axe long enough…I don’t plan on losing this fight!”

Bruno was trying to comprehend what Willard was saying, when the blue knight sudden jumped up and ran towards the Berserker.  In order to use his swinging axe, Bruno needed to swing it in full rotation for three times to pick up maximum speed, however the surprise of Willard’s massive body coming towards him took him by complete surprise…He tried to pick up his axe, but could not do it in time.  the large Mercenary tackled Bruno and started to shove him backwards until the two massive men collided into a large oak tree.

Because of the force of the large Willard pushing backwards the even larger Bruno, the tree fell, and Bruno was pushed over the tree, and onto his back.  As his opponent was temporarily stunned, Willard ran over to the unconscious Talon and reached into his quiver and took three of his silver arrows, the sharpest of his weapons.  After strapping the arrows into his belt, the mercenary moved as quickly as his injured body could to pick up his steel lance.  He started hearing the whirling of the massive axe from behind him.

“You idiot!” Bruno shouted as he approached Willard, “You should have killed me when you had the element of surprise…a tackle like that was just child’s play!  Nice try, moron, but now I’m really going to enjoy cutting your head off!”

The axe again left Bruno’s hand and came soaring towards his enemy.  With all his might, Willard threw his massive steel lance into the axe's extension.  The lance powerfully stuck into the ground, and pinned down one of the chains.  Bruno tried ferociously to pull his axe back, but was unable to.  Willard moved as quickly as he could towards Bruno and while wearing his massive metal gauntlet, punched him in the face.  It was against any knight’s code to use his fists in combat, like a commoner.  Willard cared nothing of this code, as he gave it away when he left his regal title.  He continued to smack Bruno around until the large man dropped the axe.  Then the mercenary in blue withdrew two silver arrows and stuck one in each of the wrists of Bruno.

“You may have an incredible pain tolerance, my friend,” Willard said as Bruno fell to the ground, “But you’re not inhuman…those arrows have gone straight through your wrists!  You’ll never be able to wield an axe again!  It appears you are the one who is defenseless, Bruno.  As I predicted from the beginning, I won…I’m sorry to have given you the impression that you stood a chance.”

Bruno’s head hung low in defeat.  Willard started to walk towards Talon and Oceana.  The large man paused as the axe wielder he had just defeated struggled to free himself from the tree his wrists were stuck to with the heavy arrows.  Blood gushed from Bruno as he pulled his arm off the tree and grabbed Willard's hand pathetically..  Willard stopped and looked at the defeated warrior.

Please,” Bruno begged, “You have to kill me…I can’t return to Morphus defeated…if I do, he’ll subject me to truly draconian things…things I can’t speak of.  You don’t understand people like him and that witch over there are more monster then human…I can’t return to him…Please, if there is any honor left in you, former knight, kill me now and save me from the misery that awaits.”

“Please do it.” Oceana spoke softly and calmly to Willard, who was strongly considering making the defeated warrior live just to spite him.  “If you don’t kill him, Morphus will make him an object of one of his evil experiments…we can’t have one more of his abominations wandering the world…Morphus has done enough evil to you humans, please don’t give him another victim to turn into a monstrous weapon.”

Willard nodded as he withdrew the third silver arrow and shoved it into Bruno’s neck, killing the massive Berserker. 

“During your battle I was able to completely heal Talon.” Oceana spoke, breaking the long and awkward pause of silence, “He’ll wake up shortly.  You are in critical condition.  I’d advise you to carry your friend away from here and make your way to the nearest town, in the opposite direction of Silverthrone, to get your own wounds taken care of…Unfortunately I am to drained to heal you.  But before we part ways, brave knight…please tell me your name.”

“I am Willard,” the warrior responded, “and while you look absolutely stunning by all practical human standards…something tells me you are not the kind of woman I should be trying to get involved with.  For a man like me to say that is a definite sign that it’s serious…I haven't had the best luck with the ladies today anyway.”

“You are very correct in that notion, Willard.” Oceana said, unable to hide a smile at the lustful knight.  She had met so many knights just like Willard in her time, they were all the same…but this one was slightly different.  “I am definitely far from the average female you try to woo…You know that…but what you don’t know is that you’re friend Talon is very different then you’re average human.”

“What do you mean sorceress?” Willard demanded, unsure as to what this lady was implying of his friend.

“It's obvious that Talon has a darker nature.” Oceana said, very seriously, “You know this…perhaps you credit it to his personality, perhaps you see him as a greedy man who is very selfish…I tell you, in Talon’s case, there is much more beneath the surface…Very soon now he will come into contact with an evil within himself far beyond anything he has ever experienced.  Oh how I pity the fact that a man such as he was born into existence…when that time comes, Willard…you may have to fulfill your duty as a friend to do what needs to be done to contain that evil…by any means necessary.”

Willard picked Talon up, threw the archer over his massive shoulders, looked into the emerald eyes of Oceana.  “Talon is the best friend I have ever had...We are the perfect team, I watch his back, and he watches mine.  Whatever this mystical evil you speak of is it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

"You speak of what you do not yet know." Oceana spoke as she softly put her hand on Willard's shoulder.  The mercenary thought he noticed a faint glow of blue that surged through her eyes for a brief second as she removed her hand from his body.  "I hope for your sake that you are correct."

Oceana watched as Willard walked down the hill to a nearby path, leading the town of Pelmridge.  The sun was shining that day, but Oceana could sense that for Talon and Willard, there were going to be many dark nights in the immediate future.

Reviews

[Shep]

Please tell me you are not ending the novel here when it has just begun? Your writing is so full of life that leaves me speechless. I am pounding the table for more. Dang I hate short stories. I love long think novels and even better when they are series. To ma this adventure has just begun. Neeeeeeed, want more of it.

[DarkCrono15]

Oh goodness yes the story has just begun. This book is the introduction but its going to eventually be one story of four in the series. I'll start adding the second one later today probably, if I have some spare time.

It really makes me feel good that you enjoy it! I look forward to hearing more from you, Shep. Thanks for the encouragement and the constructive tips to make it better. Both are always wanted.

[Cheshire]

Careful of your use of ellipsis, they are great and have a place but you tend to use them a bit too much. Also, not sure if you mean it or not, but your characters tend to go on large rants during their conversations :P Break em up a bit! An example is Oceana's thoughts, and Bruno's talk with Willard immediately following.