The Lost Swordsmen

A large crowd of people cheered on into the underground arena that was hidden illegally under the towns Tavern. Two men were inside the arena, the main show for the night, and all of the crowd placed bets on the man they knew has Barenga, the local fighting champion who had never lost a fight. This fight had been going on a few hours and Barenga didn’t have a single scratch on him, hec he didn’t even feel out of breath, he was brimming with confidence that he would win this fight with ease and get a nice chunk of jewel from it. His opponent was trying for certain, however all of his attacks were doing nothing to brute known as Barenga, every swing from his sword didn’t leave a single scratch on the veteran fighter.

This swordsmen had taken a few blows and was standing on one side of the arena with his opponent on the other, he was wearing a swordsmen getup, with a tan overcoat with a white undershirt, on his right hip was a sheathed sword that had yet to be pulled, and on the other a sheathe whose sword was in the swordsmen’s hand. The most striking feature of this mage however, was his eyes, pale grey, his iris’s barely visible in comparison. He had only one spectator cheering for him, a short stout man, wearing a red shirt and black pants, he had black hair and a black overcoat, “Go on and get him Akeos, you can do it!” At this the swordsmen evidentally known as Akeos dashed forward and dodged a  right hook from Barenga swinging his sword across his mid section, yet again not leaving a single scratch on the man. The crowd cheered and roared in laughter at this failed attempt, Akeos’s only supporter however, started to form a grin on his face.

On a balcony sheltered up high and away from the audience of this event a man strode proudly out to watch this match with a wide grin across his face, and jewelry so exuberant and expensive it spoke miles about his personality. He escorted a young lady, a girl who was not at all interested in the match or it's outcome and was actually somewhat disgusted by its existence. She clenched the railing anxiously, she wanted to drop in and stop them from fighting, but she didn't feel very confident she could. The man beside her lit up a cigar and took a long drag, blowing the smoke near her face and she coughed up a lung. "Get used to it kid, with me around as your friend your going to be inhaling that alot." This man claimed to be a friend of hers but he didn't treat her like she meant anything to him. In truth, he wasn't a friend at all, but he was only seeking wealth by any means possible. "Look at them fight down there. My man down there, taking down another challenger in my area. He brings in quite the revenue..." He commented as the two fought it out down there.

Seria frowned and forced herself to look, and felt immediately bad for the swordsman who looked to have taken quite a beating. She held her hand over her heart, she couldn't help him from here and it pained her to be a bystander. She turned to make her way down the stairs, she couldn't hold herself down anymore. The man side-stepped in front of her. "Where do you think your going little lady?" reaching down he wrenched her arm until she obeyed, bringing her back to the edge. "Sit pretty, and enjoy the match."

Raven was staring down at a piece of jewel an old merchant was selling in the market of River village. The village was quite peaceful, surprisingly, after all the rumor she has heard about the place. The market was quite nice, buzzing with life and energy. Children and women formed a major part of the crowd while men in all size called out for the customers enthusiastically that it was enough to put everyone else in a better mood. And the violet haired crow demon was in one of her travels again, leaving Sabertooth in the capable hands of her aces. She had wanted to take some time off her work and she finally did.

"You sure you can't give this to me for half its price?" Raven asked, poking the beautiful jewel once again, twisting and turning it in her hands in deep thought.

"It's 100,000 Jewels, Miss. There is no way I can lower that price," the plump looking old man said, smoking from a hookah. He looked at her with soft, kind eyes that for a second, Raven did consider buying the thing. She was about to say yes when she caught sight of something from the corner of her eyes.

"Seria?" she whispered, catching sight ofSeria's blonde hair and small figure following a bigger man who, to Raven, looked far less than nice. 'Did she get in some sort of trouble? What is she even doing in here,' she wondered and muttered a quick apology to the old man before starting down the path she saw Seria and the man going.

Raven wore a rather simple white dress shirt and a pair of black jeans along with black shoes. On her right wrist glowed a simple bracelet with beautiful amethyst stones and on her left was a silver watch.. Her long violet hair was braided that day, making her small face and violet eyes stand out. She also carried a satchel with her, containing the ring and item along with some money and a few books.

Seria was led into a rather shady looking place as Raven followed her. She could hear people cheering at someone or something. And as she got closer, Raven realized they were rooting for the two people fighting in an arena. 'Oh great...so the rumors are true. This village actually has an underground fighting area,' Raven frowned, quickly hiding in the shadows. She wasn't dressed to be in a place like this. If she acted rashly, she would stand out a lot more than she desired. For now, she would stay quiet and watch.

Akeos stood there waiting for something he didn’t know what though, his mind was empty as it normally was, his eyes stared at what was going on and something far beyond that, he felt the presence of Borquise, an aid assigned to him by some charity organization. Borquise had recommended him to enter into this fight so they can get some money to live off of, Akeos didn’t mind, and didn’t understand fully why he was currently fighting. Barenga then taunted at him, “Come on boy, have a few free shots before I knock your lights out.” Akeos cocked his head a little not understanding the comment in the slightest.

Borquise however grinned and called over the organizer and bet collector, “Hey bud, I want to wager the amount every one of these guys has bet on that Barenga to win, actually double it.” The clerk laughed so hard he couldn't respond but nodded in agreement, at this Borquise smiled and walked back over to the edge of the ring, “Hey Akeos,” At this Akeos turned his head while dodging a sucker punch from Barenga, “Yes Borquise?” “Why don’t you take up the man with his offer and then call it a fight eh?” Akeos stood there for a long moment dodging punches uncannily, then nodded. He then turned back to Barenga as a punch came straight for his face, to which Akeos leaned back and started to spin around swinging his sword upward it passing through the arm, and the followed through with the moment with three quick strikes against Barenga’s stomach, side and torso.

At this point the crowd was roaring in a mixture of laughter and yells from annoyance, annoyance that this fight lasted this long, however, then the Swordsmen did something no one understood.

He went to sheath his sword,

As the sword slid into its sheath Barenga came up right behind him about to swing a massive fist down onto Akeos’s head. "May Peace find you... old foe that will no longer be one..." That’s when the sword got completely sheathed,

Shink….

In that second, the two seemed frozen in time, when suddenly Barenga’s face contorted in agony as numerous, nearly 100 lacerations appeared and his arm was sliced off, with the spray of blood covering a wide area around the now severely hurt man the entire crowd had gone silent, completely shocked from what just happened. That’s when Barenga and his arm fell to the floor of the arena, a high pitched scream came from the crowd followed by numerous yells of fear and disdain, even a few angry yells, however Borquise turned to the bet keeper grinning and held out his hand to be paid.

The man kept his confidence about him as the match ensued, and also kept a hand on Seria's shoulder to monitor her movement. "I'm certain that you're curious as to why you received a letter from me little one." His sickly grin spread across his face, as she stared with deep conviction at the match as Barenga batter the swordsman relentlessly beginning to get cocky. "Your parents, may they rest in peace, have taken a considerable sum away from me in their parting moments. I know you don't remember them fondly, dear, however-" He froze for a moment after Barenga, letting his success go to his head was utterly annihilated by the unseen force of destruction that was Akeos's sword.

"WHAT! THE! HELL! GET DOCTORS DOWN THERE, RIGHT DAMN NOW!" The big burly smoker watches in frustration as all of the crowd makes for the exit, and the place clears out except for one shorter looking man expecting money from the organizer. Within an instant, he was there intercepting this after jumping down from the balcony lifting this man off the ground by his shirt becasue he clearly knew about whatever the hell just happened. "Your name, what is it?" He said with a grimace.

Seria entirely astonished by the sudden extreme in violence can't be held down anymore not to mention that her friend was no longer actually holding on to her. Her wings simultaneously appeared and stretched from her back as she glided down over the high fence walls of the arena. She landed just in front of the dying man, knowing well her magic wasn't strong enough to save the poor guy. Paramedics rushed to his aid while Seria pointed her mechanical arm at Akeos as it transformed into arm mounted cannon.


Her piercing red eyes stared into his, and it was clear she wasn't intent to tolerate this any further.

Everything was still for a moment until the crowd screamed in horror at the bloodchilling display in the arena. The muscular one of the two fighters had dropped to the ground with one of his arms being cut off. Blood was quickly covering the floor of the arena as a few people yelled for paramedics and a few others just screamed in fear. Some of them started running past Raven and out of the arena while some of them stayed with curious eyes to see what would happen next. Some of them, the more adventurous type, were looking down at the scene with excitement.  

Raven, however, was staring at the swordsman with red eyes, having seen everything much clearly thanks to her better vision. It was quite weird from the beginning. She had clearly seen him striking at the right places. In fact, he had gotten more hits in than his opponent. It was strange, even for Raven, when none of them actually dealt damage to Barenga. Well, it didn't make sense at all till the last minute where he placed his sword back in its sheath. And then, she wanted to take a closer look at his opponent's body.  

When Seria flew down to the arena and stood in front of Barenga, Raven raised one of her eyebrows at the blonde girl. She was happy that Seria was standing up for justice but she wondered if her justice was right. The suspicion only grew the longer she stared into the confused and dazed eyes of the swordsman.

"That's enough!"

Deciding it's time she made her presence known, the nineteen year old woman walked out of the shadows, drawing attention to herself as she slowly started down to the arena, completely ignoring all pairs of eyes on her. The walk down to her destination seemed longer to the girl who had her eyes fixed on the man with three swords on him. Something just wasn't right.

"Calm down, Seria. The weak as you call him asked for it, if you have been listening," Raven said, putting a hand on Seria's shoulder when she reached them. She only had very little knowledge about the rules in these type of underground fighting arenas and from what she knew, this wasn't very unusual. However, it was quite brutal. "You shouldn't jump into conclusions. First thing first. That man needs help," she reasoned, turning away from her guild member to look at the blood covered man. She didn't think he would last too long. It was quite obvious with the type of wound all over his body. But she did manage to figure out the answer to her suspicion. Each mark that was now on the dying man's body was made on the exact place that the other man had hit him on before withdrawing his sword completely. 'Well, that answers a few questions.' she thought, sighing as a few paramedics came rushing down to take the man away.

"Now," she turned to face the cause of everything with a frown. "Please do explain.....and explain fast" She told him, taking note of the angry glares the group received from the rest of the crowd.

Akeos had been staring with a blank expression at the man who was lying in a bloody mess on the ground he had already completely forgotten who he was or why he was severely hurt. Akeos cocked his head to the side in confusion, when suddenly he heard something that broke through his mental state. Borquise had been picked up by someone and seemed to be threatening him. A second later a short young girl with blond hair and a metal arm dropped down between him and Barenga, that’s when her arm suddenly turned into a giant gun and was aimed right at him. In a split second Akeos had instinctively drew both of his swords, he trained one on the man threatening Borquise, this one being the one that he has used against Barenga, and the other sword trained on the girl with a small bubble forming on the tip, however, Akeos was staring into empty space, his pale eyes showed no real sign of awareness.

Borquise on the other hand had found some enjoyment of his situation, and was infact smiling while being held, “You better listen up for I am only saying it once, I am Borquise, and I don’t need your attitude bub.” Borquise then let out a small chuckle and then pressed two of his fingers against the other mans chest and exhaled. Suddenly the man lost his grip on Borquise and went flying back crashing into the wall. “I take it your Barenga’s sponsor, you should have known this could have happened in these fights.” He then turned to the organizer who finally pulled out every jewel he owed Borquise, which was every single jewel his arena ever earned. Borquise patted the sack and smiled, when suddenly a young woman jumped into the arena and ordered everyone to stop.

Borquise looked at the young woman in mild annoyance however Akeos was unresponsive, still lost in whatever state he may be in, not even noticing that his sword was now pointing at Borquise who was no longer being threatened. When the lady said to explain Borquise had noticed this and started to sweat as he quietly said, “Listen to the Woman Akeos, stand down, there is no reason to fight here anymore,” Akeos was snapped back to semi awareness of the present, he then turned and looked at Borquise not moving his swords. “Aren’t you apart of…?” At these words Akeos’s eye color started to slowly darken which caused Borquise to get suddenly pale.

Then suddenly Akeos dropped both of his swords which hit the ground, he then grabbed his head as if he was having a massive headache and closed his eyes. He moaned for a few seconds swaying back and forth until he finally fell still, his arms then fell to his sides and he opened his eyes, that were once again pale grey in color with his iris’s barely visible. He looked down and saw both his swords on the ground and picked them up and sheathed them, he then saw Borquise getting his breathing under control, “Borquise…? What troubles you? What is going on…? Who are these people…?” He then went silent for a second and then asked one last question, directed to the two before him, “Am I to follow your advice too now?” Borquise then let out a sigh of both annoyance at his own folly and relief, "Look Miss, all you need to know about what all happened is this, the fight was fair and square, it isn't Akeos's fault that man didn't think a sword phasing through him wasn't doing anything,"

Thrown with such ease, the man slammed into the walls of this underground area, and a slight echoing vibration traveled up to the surface as the force of the impact resounded. The air knocked out of him and caught off guard he fell to his hands and knees desperate to reclaim his breath. The men taking Barenga to get help passed by him and couldn’t presently assist him as they had much more important things to tend to. Not really wanting to get directly involved, he got to his feet coughing a bit and disappeared down a hallway and around a corner to do something or find something unforeseen.

Immediately chastised by her guild master to whom she was entirely surprised to have even seen down here in a place caused Seria to subsequently deflate in mood. She bothered herself with the question as to why she even attempted to help. Lowering her armament slightly she just looked passively at Akeos which permitted her to watch something all the more confusing. He took orders from the short portly looking man who had easily disposed of her acquaintance which she was moderately disposed to and thankful for simultaneously. Akeos seemed to forget himself twice and entirely changed his direction a few times, and at one point didn’t even appear to fully recognize his friend beside him. Seria tilted her head to the left as if viewing him from an angle would possibly give her a better understanding as reasonably it didn’t.

She frowned and braced herself for pain as her wings receded into her back and became fully disclosed as if they had never existed. She tried to pretend like that didn’t just happen, and changed her arm back to normal seeing as the situation was slightly more… calm than before? Not really sure that’s an apt description.