This was Alex's first near-death experience. His heart threatened to burst out of his chest. His hands and face were dripping sweat. His fate...nearly upon him...two razor-sharp blades, one for each of his eye sockets. 'No. I have to do something...anything.' He reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
"Shield me with gold!"
A pile of gold immediately appeared between him and Galvarino. At that moment, he dove left underneath the aircraft, rolling as far away as he could. Immediately after, two crisscrossing blades slashed the air apart right where his head had been. Galvarino appeared on top of the pile of gold, his powerful legs smashing apart the top half, making golden bricks fly in all directions.
'That was too close...' Alex felt a cold sweat all over his body.
"YYAAAAHHH!" Galvarino howled as he dove face first underneath the aircraft in Alex's direction. His body was nearly parallel to the ground as his legs propelled the slaughter demon forward.
Alex immediately got up and tried to run as far away as he could. Galvarino was not far behind him. They proceeded in this manner with several more close calls, but Alex simply couldn't keep defending. Finally, Galvarino was at his neck.
Alex could see the madness in Galvarino's eyes as he swiped a blade with the intention of bisecting Alex in half. Alex barely managed to raise his sword in time to block it, but he couldn't stop the force from knocking him across the hangar, making him roll several times on the ground, Balisarda falling out of his hand. '...It's over' he thought.
Alex struggled to get up. He managed to raise his head, expecting to get a last glimpse of Galvarino's blade as it pierced into his face. Instead, he saw a fierce grimace of unwillingness. Galvarino turned into numerous light particles and disappeared.
'...I did it.' Alex was heaving in large, desperate breaths as he eventually got up to his feet, walking over to pick up Balisarda.
"Not bad!" Clyde walked over in lazy footsteps from the other end of the hangar.
Alex looked at him, knowing that he had no chance of escaping from here alive unless he took this guy out first.
As Clyde came closer, he put his hands out in front of him. A light ball appeared and materialized into a weapon between his hands. It was a pair of black nunchucks.
"Does this guy think he's Bruce Lee?" Alex sneered.
'Actually, Sir...that is Bruce Lee...those nunchucks are Bruce Lee's soul item,' Scott clarified.
"...So I was right." Alex kept a straight face as he shamelessly changed his statement's intention.
Clyde smiled when his favorite weapon appeared. He warmed up slightly with them, swinging the nunchucks around with his arms.
Alex only saw a blur as Clyde used the nunchucks. '...If I get hit by those, I'm pretty sure the best case scenario is broken bones. How am I supposed to fight with this guy?'
When Clyde finished his warmup, he pressed a button on a high tech device strapped to the center of his chest. At that moment, an extremely thin sheen appeared 3 feet in front of him and formed a globe surrounding him with the device in the center.
'What is that?' Alex asked.
'Sir, that's a force field. It can block physical and energy attacks outside of its perimeter. Even a heavy pile of gold will not penetrate it but merely bounce off.
'Ok gang, good game. We had a good run...' Alex was saying his goodbyes.
'Sir, charge up to him as fast as you can and stab him with Balisarda,' Scott suggested.
'Are you serious? He's going to brain me with those nunchucks!'
'Sir, please trust me,' Scott pleaded with a confident tone.
Sigh. Alex didn't want to die but knew he didn't have any other option anyway so he decided to trust Scott for once. He picked up Balisarda and pointed it at Clyde's heart.
"AAAHHHHH!" He roared and charged as fast as he could at Clyde.
Clyde sneered. 'Fool.'
Clyde was watching Alex's infrared outline through his goggles. 'I can't match his speed. It'll be annoying to try to catch him if he runs around. There's no reason to drag this out any longer than I need to since I'm in an invincible position. He'll never get through my force field with a sword or gold bricks. Since he wants to attack, I'll just let him. After my force field blocks it, he'll be close and unstable enough that I'll instantly crush his head like a watermelon.'
After a few seconds, Alex's sword had nearly reached Clyde's force field. Clyde tightly gripped his nunchucks, preparing for the moment when Alex bounced off and lost his stability. He would instantly dive forward and break his head open.
Clyde watched as Alex's sword touched his field, anticipating the imminent bounce...the bounce...bounce...'Where's the bounce?!?' His eyes bulged open as he watched as the sword cut directly through his field like butter and continued straight towards his chest. He suddenly understood what was happening. 'NO! WHY DOES HE HAVE BALISARDA?!?'
Clyde knew Balisarda. It was one of the artifacts of his family. He hadn't recognized it because he could only see Alex and his belongings as an infrared silhouette. He even heard that their Federal Reserve branch in New York had been robbed. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell him that artifacts were also stolen.
Why wasn't he told? Because chosen ones within an ancient family also compete with each other. In this case, the one that came to clean up the scene in New York completely hates Clyde's guts. It started when they were children. Clyde used to bully him and steal his cookies.
"NOOO!" Clyde tried to react but it was too late. The blade instantly closed the distance and pierced through his heart, only stopping at the hilt. Blood poured out of his mouth as he fell down, gawking at the fatal wound. Only seconds later, all life was gone from his eyes.
Alex was almost as shocked as Clyde. "Did his force field malfunction?"
'It's not that, Sir. Balisarda has the property of cutting through enchanted objects, that includes shields made of energy,' Scott answered.
"This guy sure is unlucky..." Alex said as he shook his head, looking down at Clyde's body. He couldn't be more right. Clyde died because of a cookie!
...
"Scott, are you sure these chosen aren't just wastes?"
Scott really wasn't sure anymore...