-Recen-
Recen straightened out, glaring at Kuro. “What is the meaning of this?” She demanded. “You’re here to kill Who even are you?”
Kuro fished his pendant out from under his shirt, and held it out on display to the crowd of shareholders and business partners. “My name is Kuro Tsumi. You made a mistake revealing your hand to me, Recen. As you have admitted to me yourself that you are working with the Mienr of the New Spire Empire, by authority given to the Tsumi Clan by the Guardians, I have come to kill you.”
That was all he needed to say. Recen launched herself at him, drawing a blade made from her special blood magic. He deflected her first swing with ease, confirming that the bloodblade is solid enough to be blocked with a regular sword. He set himself up to be able to dodge it had it been, but he was relieved that traditional blocking worked.
Unlike his battle with Xeron, Kuro had an actual, well thought-out plan for this battle. Here, he found himself in phase one, where he got to focus almost exclusively on defense, while guiding Recen out of the building. He wanted to give her the impression he was on his back foot, and that she had the upper hand. A classic Hunter’s approach to combat. Kuro also wanted to see just how far Recen could go by only using her cursed blood magic, so he’d also be attempting to bait her into pushing herself more and more as the fight went on.
The two combatants burst out of the meeting room and into the hallway. Kuro had done some brief planning of his route on his way up here. He’d identified a series of windows on the front of the building that were on every floor, and he planned to lead her there and jump out.
Kuro sidestepped another lunge, and used that movement to turn down the hall. Recen brought out a second bloodblade as she turned to chase. , he thought to himself,
She swung at him again, and he clumsily blocked the lower two of the blades, while stepping deftly to avoid the other blade. They exchanged blows like these several times until they neared the corner. He was starting to understand her rhythm and getting a feel for the blocking and dodging required of him, barely sidestepping many of her swings. He was mid turn when he fortunately caught a glimpse of a gambit she was attempting. He saw a small drop of blood separate from her hand, before disappearing behind her. It took a long arc around, and he determined it was on track to hit him in the shoulder. He’d thought about using his right arm to wield a second sword himself, but while his feeling was mostly back up to his elbow, he still couldn’t form a fist.
Acknowledging that he’d be hit by it even if he managed to dodge both swords, Kuro knew he had to break out what he’d practised with Oroske extensively the night before. It would be nice once he’d played the card, it meant he’d be able to stop dodging. He gave himself a small Acceleration to assist him with the timing. He let it get within a few inches of hitting him as he casually dodged. he gave the mental command, and a small, nearly transparent white square appeared directly in front of the projectile’s path, blocking it.
It was Ensaru’s idea for him to practice with anur. It was surprisingly easy to pick up, but getting it to appear exactly where he wanted was difficult to master. Oroske was at a point where he could, at a near-subconscious level, get a very small shield up at the last possible moment, just big enough to block whatever attack was coming.
Kuro wasn’t nearly at that level, to block this small drop of blood he ended up using a six-by-six inch square, and the drop hit near the bottom left. He’d still need to practice more, this would be a good opportunity.
Kuro had to step up his Acceleration quite a bit to be able to keep up with the onslaught. Recen, as a Human, could not use Acceleration, and Kuro was impressed at her natural speed. He wondered at the possibility that her adrenaline rush gave her a natural bit of Acceleration, it was one of the only ways he could fathom her being able to keep up so easily.
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As they continued down the hallway, Recen kept upping the intensity, and eventually Kuro was managing her two bloodblades, and her volleys of four projectiles, which she intentionally shot out with no sense of rhythm. That meant he had to stay focused, and could only react to them. He thought about swinging back at her, giving her the illusion that he was doing more than simply leading her away. He decided to stick to his defense-only approach for now, he would have his chance to fight.
As they approached the window, he could tell she was frustrated at his lack of return offense. He smiled slightly as he blocked another two bullets, parrying a swing and casually sidestepping the other sword. Vestiges of natural light - that’s all you truly got on the bottom layer of Quarry - came into view, pooling in through the window. He was close. He took a few more steps backwards toward the glass, and readied a healthy-sized fireball created with a mental fyr’tur command. He launched it with his right hand, which gave a pins-and-needles sensation as the numbness began to fade. He’d still not be able to grip a weapon in it, or use it for any sort of dexterous movement. Using it as the start point for this spell was more a tactic to get into Recen’s head than anything.
The glass shattered a few feet away behind him, and as he blocked the next two bullets, he dodged both swings at once, jumping out the window. He backflipped in the air before glancing to make sure Recen followed him. She wore her annoyance on her face as she prepared to jump out herself. He turned his attention to the quickly approaching ground, and prepared a small burst of sentem to catch him and smooth his landing. How would Recen approach her landing?
He landed, quickly bending one leg and catching himself on his left hand to disperse the force even more. He looked up in time to see that Recen had created a sort of rail that she slid down out of her blood magic, which allowed her to descend quickly but without necessarily falling. She angled the end of it upwards, giving her lift off just before she hit the ground, and launched herself at Kuro. She swung both swords at him from above, and he had to use his still mostly paralyzed arm to assist in holding his blade to block.
“If you surrender,” Kuro said to her as she held herself up, trying to push his limits on how long he could hold the guard. He saw two more bullets launch as he spoke, “And if you talk, and give me the information I want, I will let you live. You don’t have to die here.”
“Like hell I’d sell out the Mienr!” She yelled at him, seeing her blood bullets get blocked yet again as they approached his back. She pushed off, doing an admittedly impressive acrobatic maneuver before landing a few feet away.
“Very well, no mercy then.” Kuro said with a shrug. Finally, he could switch to an offensive approach. He wanted to end the fight quickly, like he had with Xeron. He’d have an easier time of it, as he’d gotten quite familiar with Recen’s capabilities and the way she moves in a fight.
Kuro didn’t need his Acceleration, and he felt his mind getting tired from maintaining it, so he dropped it. He covered his sword in selr, and with a boost of Sentem launched himself at her. She was already making her approach to continue her onslaught as well, and Kuro read her movements, determining how he’d close the gap. She was going for another vertical swing, bringing both swords from the ground up. He got in close before she could make much progress on the swing, as she’d have expected him to be further away, and delivered a punch straight to her ribs. She staggered, her movement interrupted, and Kuro delivered a quick uppercut, cutting off her left arm at the shoulder. A fair move, he thought, taking away her non-dominant arm the way she’d done to him.
She screamed as she pulled away, clutching at her shoulder. She must have used her special magic, as the blood stopped flowing quickly.
“Last chance,” he said, bringing the tip of his sword to her neck, “Surrender, and sell out your friends.”
“Never,” she said, out of breath. Behind her, Yenva and a few of the Guild’s board members exited the building.
Kuro sighed, pulling his sword back slightly as he stepped forward, and bringing it in for a better angle. He flared his Acceleration briefly, swinging as fast as he could in that state to ensure she couldn’t possibly get away. His sword cut cleanly through her neck, and the speed of the cut sent her head into the air a fair height. He undid his Acceleration, and dismissed his blade.
Recen’s face still had the same expression on it, anger mixed with disgust and pain, as it landed on the ground, blood oozing from both ends of the cut as the body also crumpled to the ground. Her sister and coworkers looked on in horror.
Kuro retained a stoic expression, trying to seem confident in his decision, and cold in his emotions. Inside, however, he was conflicted on if he’d made the right choice.
