Eos had expected as much of his stubbornness and approached Arminius with an open guard, inviting him to strike first again as he did before his counter-attack but the boy did not seem to have learned from his mistake when he lunged forward and charged at the colonel. When he came into distance, he swung his sword and their blades met for the first time. Alternating between targets, Arminius’s attacks were precise and though Eos was able to catch his every move out of instinct, he could not predict the next. It was surprising, to say the least, that he was being worked by a half-dead foe who was expending the last of his energy that kept the colonel on his toes. He became more fluid in his movements and his strikes were becoming stronger, flicking his blade to and fro as if it weighed nothing in his hands. It slashed and stabbed at Eos whose bones felt each clash. Both desired to use their eifers to end their duel but after they had spent it all in their opening moves, they had to rest and recharge, and knowing that neither of their eifers were yet available, Arminius was desperate to keep his enemy’s mind busy. The lieutenant leapt back and threw the Rus off his rhythm before charging towards him again. Eos’s eyes were focused on his sword, trying to break the code that would allow him to predict his next move but the lieutenant simply hid his weapon behind his back as he ran towards him. No matter how veteran a fighter he was, not even Eos could have run through every possibility that could happen in time and certainly, could not have predicted that Arminius would resort to bashing his shoulder into him. Eos stumbled back as the unexpectedness of the bluntish attack stunned him but he was too late to realize that he was in the shadow of Arminius’s sword. The blade caught the brief shine of light that came from sun behind the clouds before it swung downward and completed its strike, cutting through the colonel’s armor and gashing his body. A dash of blood showered the ground and Eos staggered back, launching his glaive into the cobblestone to halt himself but despite the liquid of his life cascading out of him, he did not waver. Whether or not it was out of pure will, Arminius could not have known, but the same trick would not work twice so he could only pray that it was enough to fell his opponent. Heaving, glaring at the enemy, he drew his sword over his face and stayed on the defense in case the threat of retaliation returned.
Impressed, Eos felt his wound and peered at Arminius. “Your spirit is alight even if you say otherwise.” The Rus stood up, untroubled by what would have been a fatal wound if he was a regular human. “But the spirit is nothing without the body.”
His blood became sentient and began to heal himself with thread-like arms. Arminius could only look on with a frown of sickening confusion as he was soon guaranteed a fate that would not see him cheat death in the face of an immortal being however, it did not mean that he could not try. Before the inhuman creature could regenerate, the boy sprinted at Eos, hoping to deal one more strike but when he swung his sword at him, Eos’s blood bubbled and suddenly exploded out of his chest like whips. The mist turned red again and Arminius was launched across the promenade, crashing and tumbling until he found his ground. His back struck a lamp post and it felt as though his spine had been split apart but still, he rose in an instant and fueled by the delusion that he could defeat this monster, he dug his feet into the ground that grinded at his broken ankle as his reserve of eifer surfaced. In a last gamble, he leapt with a force that bent the post leaving a reflection of where his body was that radiated with compressed heat. A light with a crackle of thunder shot at Eos who stood his feet apart in a guarding stance, gripping his glaive with both his hands, that he never thought he would have to use. The streak of lightning masked the boy whose sword aimed for the colonel’s heart but his body moved before it could think. Intuitively, he leapt up and spun, extending out his leg with the power of a storm that was driven into Arminius’s undefended body. His attack was halted and he was kicked back. As the lieutenant stumbled, feeling that his heart had skipped a beat, dazed and unable to stand straight, he saw Eos driving the shoe of his glaive upward that was reinforced with the blade of a dagger before he felt a part of his flesh being ripped from his face. Arminius did not know yet what it was but there was a stream flowing down his cheek. His body suddenly lost its strength and half of his vision had disappeared into the abyss. The sword slipped out of his hand that was brought onto his face for his fingers to follow the flow to its source where he felt flesh that was exposed and explored the cavern that had been carved out of his head when he realized that his hand had been poking into his skull. The green pupil of his eye was on the tip of the glaive’s shoe, staring at Eos, and when he turned to it, the blood that surrounded the eye slowly crystallized until it was bound to the steel as he noticed that Arminius’s will had finally shattered. The boy removed his hand from his face and stood breathlessly, heaving, his face discolored and he understood that the battle was already over yet he refused to fall.
His flesh and skin had healed and all that remained was a scar, visible between the gash in his armor, a memory of their duel. Eos lowered his glaive and his blood was liquid again, dripping from his palm, but even though the battle had been won, he did not approach. They stared at each other from afar as if time had become a forgotten concept when a volley of rifle fire crackled in the distance. Whoever discharged the barrage had quite terrible aim but the sudden threat of noise was enough to make Eos stumble. He stepped back and saw a sloop fast nearing the pier that dropped her anchor and made a hard turn to port side before she slammed into the sea wall. A corporal leapt from the ship and landed on the pavement as the engines were kickstarted again and ushering a cry, he swung his sword across the width of the promenade and out of his blade that widened Arminius’s eye in surprise erupted a wall of ice as if it was summoned out of the ground. He could not control it well however and his almost miraculous eifer sprinted along the wall of the townhouse that shattered its foundations and caused it to waver and crumble. Eos’s sight was masked by a glacier and stunned by the entry of another, he stepped back as the house started to collapse. Julien wrapped his arm around Arminius, keeping a wary eye on the enemy, and led him towards the sloop where their comrades were standing on, waving and calling for them to hurry. The gap between the land and deck widened and with what remaining strength he had, the corporal launched himself and his friend onto the vessel with a heavy landing. They collapsed and it seemed his past injuries had finally caught up quicker than anticipated with the advent of his new power, an eifer, when he could not even rise but before he fainted, Julien noticed Arminius’s bloodied face and missing eye, not knowing whether he was awake or not. As the corporal’s vision drew its curtains, his wall of ice shattered from the swing of a glaive that sent rubble and shards flying into the crowd, indiscriminately crushing those who thought they were far enough to not be hurt by the duelists, but the sloop had already sailed away. Civilians who were abandoned were being rounded up by the Confederate infantry and officers of the defending militia were executed on the spot and thrown into the sea. In the foreground of thousands becoming enslaved by his troops, Eos stepped out of the bluish mist without a mind for the atrocities unfolding behind him.
Distraught with a touch of fury that he had not felt in years, the colonel looked on at his fleeing enemy. “Regen, would you leave your honor here to be trampled on by the shame of abandoning your word?!” Stared at by the eye on the shoe of his glaive, Eos yelled, his tensed fists squeezing the blood out of his palm.
A gunshot rang out and the capture of Haven was over. It was loud with its echo crackling through the air. Eos felt something hot that was embedded in his flesh and when he lowered his gaze, he saw blood pouring out of his stomach and embedded in there was the last bullet Arminius had in the chamber of his pistol. Its barrel smoked, pointed at the colonel, who returned his focus to the lieutenant who had managed to sit upright despite all the wounds he had suffered. His face was blank but filled with embers but that was the last of his strength. Arminius’s eye finally closed and he fell on his back, his comrades crying out for him as Arnau knelt beside the two to assess their injuries. As the despicable sloop sailed farther away from land, Eos burrowed his finger in his wound and dug out the bullet, clinking as it struck the ground, but his regeneration seemed to have slowed. He gazed outward at the empty sea with muted screams filling the air, his face wet with the warming rain that came when winter had gone and the march of war renewed.86Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQwKdSbYjje
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