Lanius readied himself as Titus approached him, resuming the fight once more. The two weapons collided with each other as the two opponents clashed.
"Tear him apart! Skin him alive!" the bandits roared.
Titus seemed to enjoy the fight, smiling whilst he fought against the Winter. Lanius on the other side, kept his face straight, not intending to allow his opponent to read it.
"Not bad for a filthy Vastaya." Titus exclaimed after he struck his voulge towards Lanius, with the second avoiding it at the last moment. Lanius flung his kusarigama forward in response, sending the sharp kama towards the bandit.
"But...all it takes for you is one small mistake." Titus said, slamming the voulge's staff towards the chain of the kusarigama, causing the chain to fold around the bandits weapon. Lanius tried to pull his weapon back, when the bandit gripped the chain with one hand. The moment he did that, Lanius felt a sharp pain pass through him, with the hand that held the chain going numb. He yelled, alarming the village's guards. Titus had somehow electrocuted him.
The young man's legs began to give up on him. Then, out of nowhere, the bandits voulge flew from his hands and landed a meter away away from him with the tip stabbing the ground, seemingly looking like Lanius had tugged the chain along with ripping Titus's weapon. The Winter could have sworn that he saw a transparent hand next to his pull the chain, tho it might have been his imagination.
Lanius slammed the kusarigama's chain like a whip, unravelling it and freeing the kusarigama.
"Let's see how you did that petty move. Uugham Vor'naem!" he though, activating the Sovereign's Dominance. His vision turned dark and shifted to the energy trail vision.
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"What a smart Noxian. He indeed waited for me to make a small mistake." Lanius muttered inside his head. He could now see Titus's crimson outline that resembled his body. The two rune tattoos that he had previously seen on the bandits arms were now glowing blue. Two spiky trails begun from them and passed all the way through the arms and into the Noxian fingertips. The same spiky trails were all lined up on both his voulge and the young mans kusarigama, even into Lanius's arms. Additionally, the kusarigama also had a crystal blue palm just above the piece of chain that the Winter held.
"Freida....as expected of you, you assisted me yet again. I'm glad this time, yet I wish to rely on myself more.". Lanius though and as the spirit did not reply, he shifted his vision back to normal. The whole thing lasted less that two seconds in reality, allowing Lanius to have a small advantage. He could now see at least a move ahead.
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" Electomancy, huh? Not bad, it did quite a punch on me for a few seconds." Lanius exclaimed, causing a smile to form into his opponents face.
"You figured it out, eh?" he said whilst he picked up his voulge. "Not bad for a Vastaya. For that and only that, I'll ignore the fact that you wounded me, and I'll give you a clean cut, ending you quickly and with minimal pain." Titus grinned, before he unleashed a stream of lightning towards the young man.
"Smart move..." Lanius said as he dashed back and out of the lightning bolts range. "...but you forget something." Lanius swirled his weapon with one hand and punched the air with the other, sending an ice ball the size of a cabbage towards Titus, who stopped the lightning and held his weapon with both hands, before he slammed his voulge's blade into it at the last second and blocked it. At that moment, Lanius dashed forward, flung the kusarigama at his opponent, catching the voulge again, and reeled back the same fist that he used to send the ice ball.
"Us, Ionians..."
He clenched said fist, forming a frostfire gauntlet and then slammed it into the bandits guts. The ice collided with the Noxian armour, that along with a creak made a dent into the metal, seemingly having sustained too much pressure during the years of combat to handle the packed punch. Titus huffed as all of the air escaped his lungs and flew back. He landed on the ground,slamming his head on the dirt. The left pauldron got detached during the landing, giving Lanius a vital point to strike.
Lanius did not stop. He flinged at his opponent and at the same time, picked the voulge up. He raised it above his head and slammed it down onto the fallen Noxian. Titus's expression had a mixture of feelings in it. Anger, surprise and confusion...but not fear. This man embraced death, as he understood that it was his time to leave this world, the moment he saw the voulge in the young mans
hands. The voulge's blade collided with his shoulder, making a loud splat along with his manly yelp of pain.
The whole area went silent in an instant. The bandits stood in shock, their eyes widened as they watched Titus part his body, losing the duel. Lanius looked at him. A large trail of blood flowed from his lips into his chin, indicating that he had bit his tongue during either the collision with the ground or the stabbing. Titus looked at the young man...and then smiled.
"Nhot bahd kid....I enjohed it. I ghesz your a gfhd fighter." He said and his expression froze forever into that smile. Lanius kneeled and closed the dead mans eyes. Then, just as he got up, the bandits hopped off their horses and began to yell, looking enraged. Lanius swiftly stood upright and looked at their leader, whose gaze was filled with killing intent.
"We had a deal, accept the outcome and leave." the Winter said.
"I know...but after all...what bandits would we be by keeping our promises? We'll start by killing you and all those petty warriors. Then we'll see." the leader said with a smug look.
The villages warriors rushed behind Lanius with their weapons ready.
"You had your fun fella. You gave them a clear message, but it seems that you'll need us after all." one of them said.
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The swordsman dressed in blue still sat down with his eyes closed. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and got up, swiftly moving towards the Inn's door.
" Esteemed traveler, where are you go- " the owner asked him, but before she could finish her sentence, the young man had already disappeared like the wind. Her ears moved around as she catched his footsteps fainting away.
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"RAAAAAAAA!" Both sides charged to each other with a scream, as another fierce battle commenced. Lanius either gave himself to his instincts or was so hyped during the clash, that up until a certain point, he remembered quite a few things.
Blood splattered everywhere. From his weapon, from himself, from the enemies themselves. The sound of the metal and wood hitting with each other. A female bandit letting a blood curdling scream after Lanius slit her stomach open with his kusarigama. The bandits, despite having their numbers greatly decreased, seemed to get the upper hand, and pressured the villagers along with the young man towards the torii. Lanius felt like his lungs would burst, as Titus had weakened him with the bolt.
"Freida...can you hear me?" Lanius asked. No response.
"Freida? Freida!" why couldn't she answer him.
Just as he began to lose hope a man yelled something in an Ionian dialect from his right.
"Ige ton!"