“I am Omurai Failyn of Altem Tier,” the wind adept said with pride.
“Asher Vasquez of Vandekha, here,” Asher declared.
Everyone turned their attention towards the silent Voyse, who merely avoided their stares.
“That man is the assassin Voyse En’Dir,” Omurai answered for him.
“I see…well I suspect we’re all adepts here, yes?” Thalys asked.
“Yes. I am wind, Asher is fire, Voyse is dark…what about you?” Omurai asked.
“Kara is light, Faux is water, and I am omni,” Thalys replied.
“Oh…we have ourselves a rare case here, then?” Voyse said with an intrigued expression. “Our magic means nothing right now, don’t you understand?”
“Indeed…a dead zone has been set around this place. Who knows how long it will last,” Kara clarified.
“Then if we don’t have magic, we’ll just beat him with our weapons. Simple as that,” Thalys said, walking towards the stairs. As he got closer he remembered the stones that blocked their way. “Right…but we’ll have to find another way to get to Draven..”
“If we had our magic we could just blast through the stone,” Asher suggested.
“That seems to be our only option…but the dead zone even eliminates that one…” Faux added.
“Well, everything went black and white when Voyse held up some strange necklace. I’d say he started it,” Asher said.
“Isn’t that obvious? The weapons you bare are sharper than all of you,” Voyse grumbled. He held up the necklace and mumbled something. Everything instantly turned back to normal. Faux nearly fell over in surprise as the pain in his eye returned.
“Alright then…let’s go!” Thalys shouted.
Asher quickly blew away the stone, and everyone poured into the room. Draven, now sitting on his throne, laughed as he watched them.
“So? The disgruntled group of adventurers all decided to work together? How cute,” Draven said as he stood up. “More for the killing!” He suddenly shouted, an insane look on his face.
“For Altem Tier…you shall parish!” Omurai screamed, dashing ahead of everyone else with his wakizashi and tanto at his sides.
Draven stepped up to the charge, putting the two in a frenzy of slashing and dodging. Draven proved the swifter, moving around Omurai’s wakizashi to land a jab at the wind adept’s shoulder. A hungry grin filled Draven’s visage as he activated his dagger, literally sucking the soul out of Omurai and throwing it back at him. Omurai’s body shuddered and was launched across the room. He slammed against the wall and slumped to the ground motionless. Asher screamed his name and rushed to his friend’s side. He checked Omurai’s pulse to find that it was slow, but still steady. He put his hand in front of Omurai’s nose to check his breathing. The wind adept was alive, but unconscious.
“Didn’t die, eh? Stronger than I thought. Oh well, he’ll be dead soon enough,” Draven said with a shrug.
Asher rose to his feet and turned towards Draven with a cold glare. The fire adept exploded into a charge, moving faster than his heavy sword should allow. The blade smashed against the ground, giving off a burst of fire from the impact. Draven avoided the attack and lunged at the fire adept. Asher dropped the sword and jumped at the void adept, grabbing his wrists to stop the knives and shoving him against the wall. Asher slammed his head against Draven’s, dazing the void adept, and then let go of his wrists to punch him. Draven regained enough sense about himself to fall to the ground and roll between Asher’s legs. He returned to his feet and stumbled around. Asher spun around and landed a blow that knocked Draven to the ground. Draven rolled out of the way as Asher stomped down at him and rose to his feet. He could feel that his cheek was slightly burnt merely from the impact of Asher’s fist. Asher drew out his falchion and began his attack anew. Draven avoided the blade, knowing that parrying it would be futile.
Voyse dashed towards Draven, trying to get a strike on him while he was distracted. Draven side-stepped a slash from Asher and kicked the advancing Voyse in the stomach to stop him. He spun completely around and kicked the assassin in the face with his second foot. Voyse spun to the ground and rolled out of the way. Draven, merely on instinct, spun low and around Asher as he finished his kick. A giant shuriken-like katar sped past him and crashed into the throne. Asher stepped back in surprise and turned to keep up with Draven, who was already moving around the fire adept to head towards the source of the katar.
“So, you actually killed Lyx…no easy task!” Draven said as he leaped at Faux, who planted his feet wide and held up his remaining katar. Draven’s knives met Faux’s katar in a clang of metal. Faux shoved Draven back and dove forward.
As soon as Draven touched the ground he sprung into a flip, clearing straight over Asher. As he landed on his feet again, he threw one arm wide, his knife locking with Voyse’s hooked dagger. He spun to parry Voyse’s scimitar, kicking backwards to land a foot right in Faux’s face.The water adept stumbled backwards and moved away to retrieve his other katar.
Draven and Voyse shared strikes, both of them parrying each other over and over. Suddenly, Draven threw both of his arms upward, punching Voyse in the jaw, and brought them behind him to block a saber from Thalys. He crossed his knives around Thalys’ saber and leaped up, kicking Voyse in the side. He spun all the way around Thalys and planted his feet. With a quick heave, he threw the nobleman over his shoulder. A burst of neutral energy sent Thalys slamming against the wall near the unconscious Omurai. Thalys landed on one knee and quickly dashed towards Draven again. Draven swiftly turned sideways and flattened himself as a full blade crashed into the ground behind him and a spear jabbed across his stomach, leaving a small cut across his shirt. Kara pulled her spear inward on Draven, pinning him against the flat of the full blade behind him. Draven squirmed around to get free. He saw Thalys coming at him from behind Kara, and Faux moving towards him from behind Asher. He slashed in opposite directions, coming nowhere close to hitting either of them, but the burst of neutral energy he let out from each blade easily shoved them both away. He pulled both of his arms close to his chest and then threw them out again, giving off a burst of neutral energy that shoved both Kara and Asher away from him. He spun around and slammed both of his knives into Voyse’s scimitar and dagger, literally shoving the assassin back from the power of the blow and knocking his weapons out of his hands.
Draven licked his lips as he held back one knife, neutral energy growing around it. He plunged the knife towards the now defenseless Voyse, who began to jump back but knew it to be useless. A clash of what looked like lightning crossed between Voyse and Draven, knocking Draven’s knife out of his hand. Both turned to see Omurai standing in a striking position nearby, his katana drawn. Neither of them noticed that the blade was broken until the top half of the sword fell from the air to plant itself near Draven’s foot.