Chapter 6

  Seamus flew forward, his two-handed ax flying with the speed and force of a freight train. The Baron stepped to the side and raised his saber at an angle to slash Seamus’s exposed flank, but before he could unleash the strike Seamus's own stopped on a dime, lunging forward and thrusting with the eye of the ax-head. The Baron threw himself back, feeling the wind whip against his face as the strike missed his head by less than an inch, such was the sheer force Seamus could muster in his attacks.

  The Baron took a few steps back before lunging forward and dropping his blade on Seamus's head. Seamus stepped forward and swung his back hand upwards, deflecting the strike with the middle of the haft before chambering a thrust over the blade, maintaining downard pressure to prevent the Baron from raising his saber to defend himself while he angled the iron pommel at the Baron's face. Seamus unleashed his strike and the Baron crouched as he stepped back and flicked his wrist and twisted his elbow upward as he withdrew his saber, freeing himself, dodging the thrust, and dragging the blade across the length of Seamus's forearm in one clean movement.

  Blood splattered on the pavement, and Seamus took a moment to inspect his wound.

  "'S deeper than I thought it'd be. That bad boy's enchanted, eh?"

  The Baron smiled and saluted with the saber.

  "It is, it was made by master Bczerci swordsmiths and enchanted by an Hofmagier to be supernaturally strong and sharp. It will cut through anything unenchanted, and it will never dull."

  Seamus whistled.

  "Sound's real impressive, but's gonna take a bit more than that to put me down."

  He smirked, expression overflowing with complete confidence, and beat his heat with his fist.

  "I ain't fated to die on this day."

  The Baron raised his saber above his head.

  "We'll see about that."

  He dashed forward, swiftly shuffling his feet and lunging as he thrusted at Seamus's stomach, elbow twisted outward so that the blade faced the sky. Seamus moved to deflect the thrust with the haft of his ax when the Baron flicked his wrist and dropped his elbow down and inwards, slashing to Seamus's shoulder from the opposite angle of his thrust. Seamus's back hand rose and the entire ax pivoted as he swung the pommel up in a wide arc, knocking the slash aside before dropping the same hand and swinging his lead up and down in a tight arc, delivering a lightning fast chop to the Baron's head.

  The Baron used the momentum from the swing and the angle Seamus faced him in to pull his body forwards and step through with his rear leg, sliding on his left knee and bracing himself with the right foot to get his exchange his back and lead legs and take a massive step past, coming up behind and to his left. The Baron dug his left heel and the side of his right foot into the brick to brace and maintain his balance as he twisted his wrist to face the blade upwards. He used his legs like springs to push himself back and up as hard as he could. He threw his right shoulder back and raised his elbow before bringing his lead hand down diagonally in short arc, flinging himself behind the massive man, turning his body the opposite direction and slashing dowards across the man's chest in less than a second.

  He slid on his chest, feeling the coarse red brick and gray mortar grind and crumble against the enchanted plate before he slammed his palms down in front of him and wrenched his back upwards, using his arms to push himself up and tucked in his legs to pull his feet through and in front of him while maintaining momentum, continuing to slide on his back a few feet. He dug in his heels to further slow his momentum before throwing his left shoulder across his body and forcing his torso up just high enough with his right knee to get his hands in front of his core on the ground. He pushed himself onto his feet and took a few more steps back before he finally stopped and settled into his fighting stance, right side and saber forward, left hand at his back hip, weight evenly distributed across his legs.

  Seamus traced the trail of blood across his chest and nodded appreciatively.

  "Looks like you still got some tricks in you, auldjin."

  Suddenly, Seamus looked somewhat pensive.

  "Hold on, I've seen yer ugly mug somewhere before..."

  The Baron's eyes widended in surprise. He completely forgot to introduce himself.

  "I am the Baron von Bickenstadt, Herr Berzerkeri. I overheard your name was Seamus, may I ask for your surname?"

  Realization dawned on Seamus's face, then he smiled brightly.

  "Craubheinn, from Clan Craubheinn. So you're tha Baron, eh?"

  He slapped his chest, covering his hand in blood.

  "Looks leik the stories ain't exagerated, yer a real beast, auldjin."

  The Baron was very happy with this chance to clear his head. Sometimes, he could tell exactly what someone was about to do before they did it, and react to it as soon as they began to act as well. But sometimes he couldn’t, it just came and went. He needed to figure out why this happens and how to make it more consistent.

  "Oh, well, I'm flattered, really."

  He shuffled forward and swung at Seamus's head from the right, somewhat slow and with little force. As soon as the Berzerkeri batted his blade back with the haft, the Baron used the backwards momentum to swiftly raise his saber over and behind his head. He raised his arm and twisted his elbow outward as he extended his arm, slashing Seamus from the bottom left to top right of his face and forcing his head back and up. Before Seamus could recover the Baron shuffled forward before chambering his back leg and push-kicking Seamus in the stomach, sending him tumbling backwards.

  He hit the ground hard and skidded back a foot or two before laying motionless on the ground. The Baron smirked and walked over to him, saber resting on his shoulder.

  "It was a good fight, bu-"

  Suddenly Seamus's body shot up and lurched forwards, completely abandoning his ax on the ground next to him and spearing the Baron with his shoulder. The two men tumbled to the ground and immediately began to wrestle for control, punching, elbowing, grabbing at wrists, interlocking legs, and rolling each other over as they fought to get on top. Seamus rolled on top and punched the Baron so hard that a spray of blood involuntarily came out of hus mouth, and he immedietly punched back, his fist landing with a devastating crack!

  Seamus opened his mouth, leaned in, and bit the Baron on the neck, sinking his teeth in deep and filling his mouth with blood, causing him to cry out in pain and begin to pummel the Orknier's exposed flank. Seamus let go and and unleashed a devastating elbow to the Baron's face, which left his dizzy and seeing black dots coming and going in his vision. Seamus got off the Baron and ran to retrieve his ax, and the moment he stood up the Baron hooked Seamus's ankle with the top of his foot and dragged it out from under him, causing him to smash his face into the cold brick below.

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  The Baron scrambled to grab his saber, slipping on the pebbles and bits of mortar kicked up by their fighting, but finally managed to get a hold of his saber. The moment he turned around Seamus lunged at the Baron, thrusting his ax forward to strike with eye. The Baron bobbed his head to the side and Seamus stopped the momentum entirely before he shoved his axe further forward and down, the Baron's soft, pink flesh now firmly within the beard of the ax. Seamus threw his shoulders back and pulled with all his might, ripping a gorey path through the Baron's left trapezius, as well as stumbling and yanking him forward. Seamus chambered, adjusted his angle, and thrust his ax into the top of the Baron’s groin in a single lightning fast movement, forcing him to bend forwards and crouch involuntarily.

  Seamus pulled back his axe before lifting it up to his shoulder and slamming down onto the Baron’s head, but at the last second the Baron used every ounce of strength in his core and shot up straight, the axe only slicing through the tip of his nose. The momentum of Seamus's missed strike pulled him forward, making him stumble slightly. The Baron didn't let this opportunity go and stabbed at Seamus’s neck, but Seamus managed to jerk slightly to the right, avoiding a killing blow but still taking a severe injury, the saber impaling his right shoulder. They both stared at each other for a moment, almost in shock that the Baron’s stab connected, and then with a roar Seamus pushed forward, impaling himself deeper into the saber and again tackling the Baron, taking him to the ground.

  Seamus straddled him and began punching him in the face wildly, foam forming on his lips as he roared. He was entering a berserker state, probably induced by the pain of being stabbed through the shoulder. The Baron put his arms in front of his face and shook back and forth to make it harder to hit him in the face and deflect the straight downward blows with the forearms. Seamus's wild strikes were slow and easy to block, at least compared to his attacks earlier, but blocking straight on them could easily break the Baron's arms, and he didn’t want to try anything unless he was absolutely sure he could do something to stop Seamus's onslaught. Then, a plan entered his head.

  After deflecting a few more strikes he could feel that Seamus was about to unleashing his final, devastating blow. He reeled back and the Baron simultaneously parried his strike and returned with one of his own, hitting Seamus squarely in the jaw and knocking him back a bit. The Baron's torso sat up and he grabbed Seamus by his boulder sized shoulder, pulling him into his elbow, which broke his nose and knocked out a few teeth. Seamus fell back just enough for the Baron to raise his thighs enough to push him off and get to his feet. Seamus rolled to his feet and dashed at the Baron, wildly swinging his arms, each strike carrying with it enough force to crush bone into dust.

  The Baron dodged and weaved around his blows, attempting to dislodge his sword from Seamus’s shoulder, but he was having no luck. Seamus was simply moving too erratically.

  The Baron sthrew himself backwards as he dodged another wild haymaker and slammed his back into a lamppost, bending the poor quality wrought iron at a forty five degree angle. Seamus interlaced his fingers and lifted his arms above his head, intending to crack the Baron’s skull. The Baron tucked into a ball and rolled under his legs, grabbing his ankle on the way through and pulling as hard as he could, making him again fall on his face. This got Seamus on the ground, but he was likely better at grappling than the Baron, and it did nothing to dislodge his sword, as it was stuck in the front of his shoulder, the pommel was currently cracking the bricks underneath his weight.

  The Baron noticed a light glimmer out of the corner of his eye and looked over at it. Seamus’s axe! The Baron began to run over to it but Seamus caught him in a bear hug and lifted him up. Seamus turned his body and threw the Baron over his shoulder, but as he was being thrown the Baron managed to catch his foot on his sword’s guard, pulling it out as he tumbled through the air. The sword clanged loudly as it landed next to him, and he rolled sideways to recover from his fall before pushing himself back up. He looked over at Seamus, and he was rushing to grab his axe.

  Good idea, thought the Baron.

  He rushed over and picked up his saber, turning around just in time to see Seamus’s axe flashing at him and duck under the wild swing, slashing his thigh in the same motion, cutting deeper than ever before, dark red blood pooling on the dull red stones below. The injury didn’t slow Seamus down at all, he recovered from his whiffed attack almost instantly and swung again, shaving off some of the Baron’s hair as his ax balde flew overhead, barely half an inch away from shaving off the top of his skull.

  Some of the blood from the Baron’s split nose was trickling down into his mouth. It tasted metallic, and the Baron didn’t like it very much, so he fruitlessly spit it out, blood entering his mouth yet again much to his displeaure. Seamus took the spitting as a sign of disrespect and roared before charging at him yet again, two-handed ax chambered on his shoulder.

  The Baron pulled back to dodge another of Seamus’s wild slashes and then, suddenly, an idea appeared in his head.

  Seamus thrusted the eye of the axe at him and the Baron stepped in to grab the haft, getting in his face and spitting the blood into his eyes, blinding him. Seamus screamed in rage and the Baron swung at his head, but Seamus managed to get a hold of the Baron’s wrist and intensified his grip, attempting to crush the Baron’s bones using just his brute strength. The Baron screamed and started punching him as hard as he could, trying to get him to let go, but he would not. The Baron grabbed his head and stuck his thumb into Seamus’s eye, digging in with his nail to try and do as much damage as possible, feeling his thumb pierce the soft eyeball and tear it apart before it become warm and wet with blood.

  Even in his berserker state Seamus couldn’t ignore the pain of having his eye gouged, dropping the Baron and his axe to both wipe the blood from his one good eye and grab his newly destroyed eye in anger.

  The Baron’s sword clambered away as he was released, just out of reach, he needed to do something fast or Seamus would regain his bearings, and he wasn’t sure he could actually beat him if the fight went on any longer.

  The Baron lunged for the closest thing he could find, Seamus’s axe, and went for a wild swing, spinning on his heel and abandoning any semblance of technique. He was rusty on axe forms anyways so he doubted he could wield it with any amount of real skill anyway. The axe connected and ripped right through the tough sinew of Seamus's neck, parting his head from it’s shoulders, thudding onto the ground and rolling a a few inches before coming to a stop. The weight of the axe almost took the Baron with it, forcing him to let go and allow it to fly into the crowd of men behind him.

  The Baron was glad it was over and breathed a sigh of relief. He was completely drained, and his ribs hurt a lot.

  The Baron began to move over to his fallen sword when he felt something move behind him. Suddenly, like some unstoppable monster, Seamus’s headless body stumbled forwards and swung at the Baron with a fist the size of a dinner roast. The Baron was not expecting anything else from Seamus and barely had time to dodge the strike when he noticed it. He moved just enough to avoid getting his head caved in, the fist just barely catching the side of his head. It felt almost like he had been grazed by a cannonball. The force of the strike sent the Baron tumbing back, and as he landed his head hit the pavement with an audible CRACK!