Bow Shock

An awkward silence settled between the two men, a silence that was heightened by dozens of dead bodies, hidden in the darkness. "Before we begin this I would like to know your name?" It surprised Reinhardt to hear the shifter ask for his opponent’s name. Before the war it was considered honorable to give your name and know the name of an enemy elementalist, if for nothing more than to make a note of his rank and title. Soon after the war had started it often became more of a nuisance and it didn't take long before it was considered old fashioned. Asking someone their name would often be met with insults and laughter.

“My name is Briccio Donovan. I'm a simple pub owner and enthusiast of some particularly strong brews. I hold no position and hold no allegiances. To be honest I have never considered myself much of an elementalist either." His accent was much less defined now and Reinhardt was curious if the accent was real or if this was how he truly spoke.

"Well Briccio, I am Sherwyn Zephyrus."

"Zephyrus? You mean the west wind?"

"Yes that is the name I was given upon accepting my position under Master Astraeus. I am transporting a prisoner of interest to Nivged and since I am probably behind schedule now, I apologize for having to hurry this fight along." Gusts of wind swirled around Zephyrus, who was clearly ready to finish the fight and move on. 

"To be honest I wasn't expecting to run into one of you here, but no matter how long the day, the evening comes." With a whip of his stave a large slab of rock hurled through the air towards Zephyrus which he clearly hadn't been expecting. The spiraling wind around his body condensed just enough to push the attack away brushing inches past his face.

Returning with a flurry of his own, the Duzee fighter danced forwards, slashing into the tornado that surrounded him. Each strike launched a thick gust of air towards Briccio which he easily flicked away with his stave or just dodged away from. Keeping his momentum moving towards Zephyrus, the bartender used his control over the earth around him strategically. Never moving more than needed, he was able to block the strongest of the attacks with a rock barrier and then move on.

Reinhardt was impressed by Briccio’s abilities. With his gift he could tell Briccio was outmatched by the wind shifter, but he fought smart and never wasted needless energy. All of his attacks were able to get dangerously close to Zephyrus, sliding in between cuts, and moving in from below his constantly changing line of sight.

Briccio’s efforts were paying off; Zephyrus had begun losing control of his shifts, each attack growing erratic and gradually losing power. Knowing the fight was not progressing in his favor the man drew as much power as he could towards himself and gained full control over the wind he had gathered. Watching as it started to concentrate itself into a blade, Reinhardt could see that this was a last resort move.

A large visible blade of air wrapped around Zephyrus and shot forward, destroying everything in its path. Briccio slammed the end of his stave into the ground and caused the earth around him to ripple like a wave. Quickly raising the weapon into the air he dragged a large stone pillar up from the ground. With a quick turn, Briccio struck the pillar with the other end of the stave, sending it towards the mass of air. As the two attacks collided the boulder was torn apart, pieces thrown aside by the power of the wind. 

Seeing that it wasn't going to be as easy to block as the previous attacks Briccio continued his pattern of striking the ground and throwing boulders. Reinhardt could feel the attack falter as one last strike caused it to crack and dissipate into a heavy, but safe, gust of wind.

Zephyrus collapsed to his knees with exhaustion and didn't bother raising his sword to defend himself. He had been beaten and wasn't going to shame himself any more. Moving in Briccio didn't waste any time bringing his stave down onto his opponents head for the kill. From his seat Reinhardt could see the entire clearing, but it wasn’t the clearing he was looking at. Deep within the trees a blade of wind came tearing towards them

Before Reinhardt could warn the man, a blade of wind ripped into the side of Briccio’s arm, removing his right hand completely. The stave fell to the ground a few feet away and clunked to a stop. Zephyrus looked around shocked. Nearby three men stood watching, each of them dressed similarly to Zephyrus himself. Though these men looked nothing like him it was clear that these were his 'brothers'.

"What are you doing here?" The impact had thrown Briccio away from the West Wind and onto his face. Reinhardt couldn't tell if he was conscious but he didn’t seem to be moving around much.

"You were late Zephyrus, so we came to look for you. It seems that it was a good thing we did." The first of the three new men was shorter than Zephyrus but clearly the oldest of the group. His short, stalky build would have been intimidating if he carried a weapon that wasn't a knife. As comical as he found the short man, Reinhardt didn't think he was the strongest of the brothers.

The other two were fairly tall men, though both were thin. Reinhardt could see a bow in one of their hands, a well picked weapon for a wind elementalist. A strong shifter could control the wind around an arrow and make it fly precisely where he wanted it to go. The added control also made the distances an arrow could fly grow exponentially, sometimes striking a target almost a mile away. Many of the best assassins were wind elementalists.

Oddly the other man had a whip, and Reinhardt found that strange. Of all the weapons he had seen used by Duzee a whip was never considered. Every weapon wielded within the army had a blade of some kind. Whips were not even used on carriage hounds since they are so docile. A person may have to travel to the nomadic peoples of Rornin to find such a weapon.

"We saw too killing the rest of the soldiers who attacked your camp." Carelessly making a gesture towards the woods, the man with the bow showed how little regard he had for killing.

“Thank you Eurus, they caught us off guard. We have grown too relaxed since being assigned to the western cities. Notus feel like doing the honors and killing the last of these spies for us?" So the man with the bow was Eurus, the East Wind. Speaking to the tallest of the four, Eurus pointed towards Briccio. The earth elementalist hadn’t moved since he’d fallen and most likely wouldn’t be moving for a good while.

Notus walked up to Briccio and looked down on him. His blood started to heat up when he recognized the look of disgust on the man’s face. Obviously the most pompous of the group, Notus looked at Briccio like he was nothing but an infected animal. Wind gathered around his whip and Reinhardt could feel how dangerous this man was. His speed and efficiency when collecting nearby gusts of wind was like nothing Reinhardt had felt before. Within seconds he had enough condensed onto his whip to cut flesh. 

"I think it's time we end this. You have had enough fun at our expense, peasant." Notus lifted his whip high into the air, ready for the kill. Seeing his chance to interfere Reinhardt released the lock on his wrist. During the fight nobody had noticed that many of the wind attacks had been taken and used to cut Reinhardt free from his cell.

As the whip began to fall, a rope wrapped around Notus' whip and pulled it away from Briccio. Startled, everyone's eyes followed the long cable that was attached to the blade back to where Reinhardt stood. The moonlight shone brilliantly off the armor covering his arm. Pulling back sharply on the rope, steel blade sliced the whip in half. Free of the whip it returned to its resting place, a place uniquely crafted into his armor. 

Although the weapon was impractical for fighting it had its advantages. The cable ran down his arm, protected by a thick leather tube. The device’s the primary downfall is that it was so heavy, to get the blade to fly forward it has to be thrown with more force than what’s holding the line in. He preferred not having to use it but the range it gave him was invaluable.

Having created an opening Reinhardt sprinted forward and picked Briccio up under his arm. As he reached the tree line he felt something flying towards him. His eyes met Eurus' and he recognized the shock in them when his powers were released; tearing the man’s powers from his control. The arrow dug into the thick barked tree next to Reinhardt and didn't waste time as disappeared into the shadows.

The fear that had risen inside Boreas had begun to dissipate once his enemy was out of sight. Deciding to pursue, he drew his knife and moved forward, but Eurus grabbed his arm and held him back. "Leave him for the shadows, we have a job to do back in Nivged."

"You're just pissed because you missed! I want him!" Boreas struggled against his brother but Notus moved closer and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Eurus is right; there is something strange about him. I assume you felt it Eurus?" Still staring into the darkness Eurus only nodded his agreement.

"I think we should get back to the capital, Master Astraeus is waiting for us." Zephyrus said, sullen and defeated. It was supposed to have been a simple journey, but now all of his men lay slain under the Duzee sky. Helping Zephyrus back up to his feat they all looked back towards the tree line and cursed the Icileian.

Author's Note

How was the first real fight? Is the use of Reinhardt's weapon understandable? Thirdly there are a lot of words here that non-medieval lovers might not know, would it be better to explain what these objects, such as the armor, are?