The Spiritguard

Chapter 20: fight me



"For the next match, we'll have Sigmund and Kael. Step on up, boys," Ms. Borden announces. Apparently, Mr. Copper had 'something come up' today and he's not officiating the matches.

I step into the arena and stretch out my shoulders before looking to my opponent. I clear my throat. He and I didn't talk at all last night. By the time he returned to the room, I was already asleep. It had been a long day.

Kael withdraws his sword and adopts a low, defensive stance. "Ready when you are, Sig." He smiles at me with confidence. 

I don't want to fight Kael, but I also don't want to disappoint him. He seemed pretty insistent on this yesterday. No matter. I draw my sword as well.

"Begin!" Ms. Borden announces, and she flits away to the sidelines. The moment she speaks, Kael uses an Animus technique to propel himself forward several feet in an instant, and he swings his wooden sword at me.

I deflect the blow easily, parrying it away and moving to strike Kael. He's quick on his feet, though, just like me - he's able to just barely dodge my sword from striking him on the back as he re-centers himself. He moves in to strike again, holding his sword with a fierce grip as he tries to tear through my defenses with a multi-hit combo. I'm faster at swordplay than he is, so I can block all of his attacks deftly. I move my weight onto my back foot, awaiting his next move.

Realizing he can't win with swords alone, he readies an Animus technique. Kael knows so many that I'm not sure what to expect. Whether I'll be dodging, blocking, or using Shatterpoint depends on what I can read from his technique before he uses it. If I wait until after, I'll already be too late.

"I've been saving this technique for a moment just like this one," Kael says as he narrows his eyes. He holds his free hand out toward the ground, all five fingers outstretched. Whatever he's doing, it's not a technique I've seen before. An aura of frothing water appears at the ground, encasing Kael in a halo of magical waves. He swings his arm and the waves expand, shooting out in every direction. There's nowhere I can do to dodge, so I just have to block it. I plant my feet into the dirt and hold my sword up defensively as the wave blows through me.

I tense my body but nothing really happens. A harmless splash of water blasts my body and face, but I haven't taken any damage. Did he just want to douse me? Is he setting up some other attack?

I look over to Kael, but he's no longer there. I whip my head around. He's not behind me, either. He's not anywhere. Did his technique...make him invisible?

I sense a sword swinging at me from the left. He's there! I swing back in the nick of time, clashing my sword with his. In that moment, the illusion is dispelled, and I can see Kael again, struggling against me as I press my sword into his, putting most of my power into it. 

I break through and he jumps back before I can land a hit. He's gotten a lot more agile. He must have learned a few moves from Natalia.

I brace myself for his next attack, but it doesn't come. Kael just stares at me, and he looks angry.

"Why won't you fight me!?" he grimaces. "You're just going to stand there and guard every attack!?" 

I feel a jolt inside me. That's not what I'm doing. I'm prepping myself for a counterattack. Letting him come to me first, so that he lets his guard down. Aren't I?

"I have multiple ranged attacks, you know that!" He's getting flustered, and his face is turning red. "You can't just wait me out!"

The crowd is getting silent. Kael looks embarrassed. Angry. He screams something unintelligible and shoots a barrage of magical missiles at me. I cut the first three out of the air, but the next two are both coming in at the same time. I won't be able to hit them both. Not unless I use my new secret move, that is. 

I cleave one of the missiles in the air and unleash my Shatterpoint immediately after. Though my blade isn't near the final missile, the shockwave blast of Shatterpoint is enough to blow it off course. The final missile fizzles and fades out harmlessly in the air somewhere behind me.

"Attack me!" He's yelling at the top of his lungs. The crowd is dead silent. 

I make no move toward Kael. I'm only exacerbating the situation.

"Do you really think so little of me?"

I look to my friend, and tears are starting to well up in his eyes. "Is this really the same person who ended his match yesterday in fifteen seconds?" Kael shakes his head. "You're more serious about a fight with someone you don't even know than you are about one with your best friend?"

He's emotional right now, and I don't know what to say. Of course I don't want to fight him. But am I really holding back that much? He's got a lot of excellent techniques. One of them even surprised me. But I...

I haven't made a single move toward him, have I? Am I not standing in the exact same spot I was when we started?

"Sigmund..."

He's right. I'm not taking him seriously. I've been defending this whole time, testing him. As if we were sparring and I was trying to help him learn a new technique. I'm not trying to win right now.

And the reason is because I don't want to win. I want him to get a good hit on me and end this match. If he loses, that will be his second loss. We don't know who he'll be up against tomorrow. If it's a tough opponent, and he loses a third time, he'll be kicked out of the Spiritguard. I don't think I can handle that. I can't do any of this, not without him. 

It's selfish, isn't it? I'm not holding back for him. I'm holding back for myself. Because I can't bear to lose him. And in doing so, I'm standing here making a fool out of him in front of our entire class. Because I can't take him seriously enough to fight him for real.

I close my eyes for a moment and take a deep breath. The cool morning air fills my lungs. I hear the faint shuffling of a quiet crowd. Hear the sound of Kael's exasperated breathing as he waits for me to do something. Say something.

"You're right."

Kael looks stunned as I finally decide to speak. 

"I care about you too much to want to win this match," I say. He looks heartbroken at my words, but I'm not finished yet. "But...you want to face me at my best. That's what you need from me, right?"

No answer, but I know it's true.

"I always said I'd do anything for you, Kael. And so if you want me to win this match so bad, then so be it. Get ready, Kael!"

I leap through the air at him, swinging my blade in a savage arc. If he doesn't dodge or block this, he's going to be in big trouble. 

He uses a fast Animus technique to generate a shield in midair. I land on the shield as I strike it with my blade, hitting it with enough of an impact to crack it but not fully break it. I slither off the shield and throw a kick in the air toward Kael, and I connect, the sole of my boot catching him square in the chest. He stumbles backward but stays on his feet. Not bad. 

I wind up and ready myself to rush into him again. I've hit him once, so by the rules of the match, one more strike and he's out. I make my move as he readies another Animus technique. I see him make a fist and he throws a punch toward me, just as his hand flashes red. I've seen this technique before. He could kill me with this, what's he thinking!?

I swing my sword up and unleash Shatterpoint just as a whirling ball of fire shoots out of Kael's fist. It passes through the fireball and begins to unleash its energy, but not before Kael intercepts with another technique of his own. 

"Exploda!" he shouts. It happens before my Shatterpoint can dissipate the burning fireball fully, and it erupts in my face. I am knocked way back as I yell out in pain and grab my face. I feel traces of magical cinders burning me. I look through my fingers at Kael. He's already getting another technique ready.

So we're hit each other once each, huh? It'll come down to this next moment. 

Kael throws his sword aside and uses both of his hands to generate a final Animus technique. He's trying to end this too, with the biggest attack he has. I recognize the form. I was with him as he was learning this one. If I let him finish, a barrage of rocks is about to shoot out of the ground and pummel me. I won't be able to dodge or block them all. Not from Kael.

So I do the one thing I can do that will take him by surprise. Locked into his Animus stance, he won't be able to dodge me. His feet need to be firmly planted on the ground to use the technique he's mustering. 

I throw my sword through the air. His eyes widen. He wasn't expecting it. Nobody that fights against me is ever expecting a ranged attack. 

He ducks. My sword flies right over his head. But he's distracted by it. He barely even noticed that I was charging toward him myself. I don't know for sure if what I'm doing is going to work, I really had hoped my sword would hit him. But now, it's my only choice. 

I hear the rocks bursting out of the ground. At least thirty of them, stones the size of my head. Getting hit by even one would be a problem. I can't reach him. Not with my bare fists. If I dive through the air, I'd be totally defenseless against the onslaught of rocks that's about to come. If only I had a sword, I could reach him. And so...

I swing my arm as if I were holding my sword. I imagine the tip of the blade, pulsing with energy. "Shatterpoint!"

I didn't have an object of focus. I was just imagining a ball of energy three feet away from me exploding. But it works. I remotely detonate my Shatterpoint, and it knocks Kael up into the air. He levitates for a moment, then crashes into the ground, crumpling into a ball. I did it. I won the match.

But the onslaught of rocks was already set to go. It's the last thing I remember before one smacks me at full force in the stomach and sends me flying back. My head hits the ground and everything goes black.


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