Ceric ducked to the side as his assailant's dagger thrusted past the right side of his torso.
Immediately, he locked his surprised opponent's arm by hooking his right arm under and tightening it to his chest.
"Acckkkk!"
The snapping sound of bone sounded out near the enemies shoulder as Ceric twisted his body and lifted the captured arm upwards.
The dagger in his opponents hand slipped from his grasp and clanked on the floor near their feet. In a swift movement, Ceric unsheathed a dagger he noticed on the man's waist with his free hand, after abandoning his shortsword due to its advantage in this close proximity, and embedded it in his enemy's chest.
He could see the life in his enemy's eyes quickly vanish before he collapsed to the ground upon his release.
Ceric took a step back and clutched his shoulder that Amira had injured earlier.
"Damn..." He said as he removed his hand and stared at the blood now coating it.
"This is gonna be a bitch to get out of my clothes!"
Strom sluggishly approached Ceric as the lightning from his sword seared marks into the floor.
"Captain! I do not mean any disrespect but can you please stop doing that! You know how I hate ashes everywhere let alone burn marks! It's even harder to remove than these annoying stains..." Complained Ceric while trying to clean the blood from his wound off his clothes with unfavorable results.
"Ki... Kill..." Murmured Strom as he continued his slow and weary approach.
"Captain? Hey? Hello? What's gotten into you?" Waved Ceric with his unstained hand in front of his leader.
Suddenly, an arcing blade of electricity flashed between them.
"Woah!"
Ceric barely dodged the sudden strike his captain had slashed.
"Hey! Strom! Get it together! Don't we still gotta help that kid of yours out?" Ceric asked as he slid past another sizzling strike.
"Damn! That was close!" He yelled out as the blade he slid under clipped a few strands of his blonde hair. Ceric frantically patted his hair in a failed attempt to get rid of the now burnt crispy smell of hair a top his head.
"What is going on?"
Ceric confusedly studied his strangely acting captain. Besides the man's disheveled hair loosely curled down the sides of his face, the only abnormality he found were the small wisps of flames burning in his captain's eyes.
Quickly glancing over to his other comrade, Ceric noticed the kid was in a similar drunken state. However, what really caught his attention was the glinting sword with similar flames that were now in his captains eyes.
"Wow! Those would be able to burn away this whole disgusting hellhole!" Remarked Ceric as he narrowly dodged another attack from his captain.
"Captain! Wake up! You must be bewitched or something!" Ceric exasperatedly chimed while doing his best to not get zapped by the sword.
He lunged forwards and rolled underneath the next attack before grabbing his captain from behind. Thrusting his hands underneath the man's arms, he snaked them back around his captain's neck, before locking his hands together.
"Don't worry kid! We're all good over here! Finish off that filthy bitch so we can get out of this disgusting room already!" Yelled Ceric towards Kellen's figure as he awkwardly inched backwards and waddled his captain away from the impending battle.
Unfortunately, the sound of support never reached Kellen's ears.
Amira began spinning her curved knives in anticipation as she studied the weird kid.
'Is he even gonna move? What is with all that murderous intent if you aren't gonna even act?' She thought while cocking her head to the side out of confusion and growing boredom.
"Fine. Guess I'll get this show rolling then..." She grumbled in frustration.
As she took her first few steps towards her opponent, she suddenly stopped as a bead of cold sweat dripped down the side of her smooth tan chin.
The previously unmoving kid, burst forth with a heated sinister smile. His teeth becoming pointed like miniature shredders that were as sharp as the blade he currently thrusted forwards.
"Finally! I thought you were just gonna hit on me the way you were only standing and staring!" Screamed Amira in excitement.
She expertly intercepted the burning sword with the dagger in her right hand and curled the blade to deviate its trajectory towards her throat.
The initial onslaught was far from ending. Like an absolute madman drunk on bloodlust and war, Kellen continued to slice away at the annoying obstacle in his path.
"Hahahaha! Blood! I need blood!" He hysterically laughed as the slashing speed of his onslaught increased. He only paused momentarily to flick blood up from a large puddle on the floor beneath them that splattered in his opponents face.
"You dirty little bastard!" Angrily yelled Amira as she tried to wipe the blood from her vision using some of the loose fine silk on her sleeves.
While she was distracted, a sizzling hot blade entered the corner of her semi-clear vision. Quickly, she ducked to the side to avoid her early demise.
Although she narrowly escaped, saving her life, her unlucky long dark black hair, that trailed behind her, was sliced instead.
"You!"
She wildly stared at the kid with nothing but hate and spite.
"You need to-" Her sentence was cutoff as well, but finished by the lunatic.
"Die!" Yelled Kellen with a grin.
If not for the setting and crazy look in his eyes, anyone would believe Kellen was experiencing one of the most joyous moments of his life. The happy picture was further tainted by the splotches of blood beginning to cover his body that resulted from his aggressive and crude form of combat.
Amira was able to mark Kellen's body with her knives but due to his continuous aggression and attacks they remained nonfatal and shallow. Sure he left multiple openings she could capitalize on, but in order to land a fatal strike she would risk a killing blow from the battle crazed lunatic.
"You're not even holding back from the beginning! Crazy psycho!" Crazily laughed and huffed Amira.
Finally, parting from their dangerous dance and exchanges, Amira inspected her dark knives as she was alarmed by a burning sensation in her hands.
The once curved blades were now slightly deformed and even melted at the edges. The smelting metal was beginning to drip down to her hands causing an uncomfortable, irritable, and sweltering pain.
Red marks from the melted metal painted her hands, disrupting her even tan.
Rage welled up inside her as she assessed the amount of damage the kid had cause to her image. While Kellen had lost his mind and gone full berserk straight from the start, Amira could be described as a cat who was caught while toying with a mouse and had its tail latched in a mousetrap.
She realized her current "injuries", more so towards her pride, were caused by her underestimation.
The previously weird and giggling woman no longer portrayed a seductive image. No, it was now that of a transformation from a cat to a tiger.
The hidden and suppressed energy Kellen had sensed in her earlier finally revealed itself. The melted knives in Amira's hands grew in length as a light purple transparent edge protruded from their curved sharp points.
The hate and spite in Amira's eyes were amplified as her pupil's shades slowly turned from their striking violet to a deep purple slit. With her exotic hateful eyes and extended blades, she looked like some wild sharp clawed beast.
Her savage smirk widened further as she suddenly rushed forward towards her enemy with a new blinding speed.
Kellen's viscous visage remained unwavering as bloody claw marks began to amass on his body. Although his opponents speed was far faster than he could handle and the injuries on his body only continued to accumulate, his crazy smile from the taste of battle and his remorseless eyes remained glowing with fervor.
"Why won't this bastard just fall already!" Angrily screeched Amira as she repeatedly carved her enemy with her flashing blades.
Her opponent still fought back but at this point was unable to contend with her current state. However, no matter how many times or deep she slashed away into his darkened flesh, he refused to fall.
"Is he even still human?" She wondered after looking up at his joyous expression as if he was enjoying this repeated torture while blood began to drench his body.
His human image was no longer present and instead was replace by a hysterically grinning demon that fit the hellish landscape around them. It was as if, between the two of them, he was the real monster.
Amira's once confident expression slowly began to fade after realizing her unhuman like target was not backing down a single step.
Right as she was about to retreat from this ridiculous encounter, she paused, as light glinted in her eyes.
'No, just a little more. I think he's showing exhaustion!'
The once blazing dark flames on the demon's sword were now dying out. The now warped sword itself looked to be in worse shape than its wielder. The fiery red glare in his eyes was glowing lesser and lesser while his sluggish movements hinted towards utter exhaustion.
'There must be a backlash! Now's the time to finish this!' Thought Amira as she poured more energy into her blades.
With the long curved blade in her right hand, she slashed down with full force against the demon's tendering sword. The blade shattered like glass as the dying flames surrounding it were finally snuffed out of existence.
The similar blade in Amira's left hand arched above Kellen before whistling down towards the space between his neck and shoulder.
His burning hellfire like eyes faded and no longer radiated its previous splendor. A cold and sorrowfully dead look replaced them as the extended purplish blade raced towards his scarred body.
A gleaming look of victory plastered Amira's smug face as she turned her gaze towards Ceric who was now holding up an unconscious Strom.
"It's over..." Murmured Ceric as he watched the impending fall of his new comrade.
"Die!" Yelled Amira gleefully after seeing her unopposed blade reach her opponent's neck.
---
Hello everyone! It's been awhile, but I have returned with some regular releasing. A lot of crazy shit popped up that I've had to deal with, but I did not forget about the story. During my short hiatus I still continued working on the development for the future of this story. I am extremely excited to be back and what better way than to kick it off with this new arc! I hope you all have enjoyed the story so far! I am still a relatively new author and would appreciate any and all feedback for further development. If you have any concerns or ideas don't be shy and leave a comment or review! Again, thanks for reading and you can expect more future releases every week.