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275. Strike the Shadow
🕑 Added 2025-01-10 15:00:08 +0000 UTCIke lashed out as a dark form leapt at him from the wall’s hollow. His sword struck at Vi, even as she slashed at him. At the last second, Vi lowered her blade to meet his rather than go for his throat.
And the Hungry Sword chewed right through her blade and carved toward her gut all the same.
Vi’s eyes widened. She kicked out. Her feet pressed against Ike’s hips for a moment, and then she flew back toward the hollow again. Her back hit the stone, and Ike’s sword went short.
But that meant she was cornered. Ike darted in, lifting his sword again.
Vi threw powder from his pocket. Bright light flashed out, blinding Ike, but he kept swinging. The sword arced through stone. He felt Vi’s hands brush against his shoulders as she flipped over him, and then she shrieked.
“Haha, get bit, loser,” Wisp sang, dancing a little victory dance on Ike’s shoulder.
“I’m immune to poison,” Vi hissed back.
Ike struck toward her voice. “We’ve already had this conversation.”
His sword struck air again. Vi danced back. With his aether, Ike could sense her heat, and he could hear her footsteps. Between the two, it was almost meaningless that she’d blinded him. The only downside was that he couldn’t see her attacks. Her hands blurred. Ike swept his sword in a big arc, trying to block the general area of her attack. Blades tinged off his sword and dug into his flesh. Blood ran from his shoulder and leg. All her attacks had targeted vital areas, from his neck to his femoral artery. If he hadn’t turned and blocked, he would have been seriously injured. She meant to kill.
At that, Ike’s rage only grew. She was trying to kill him. She’d skipped all the hard work, hidden from the battle, refused to contribute anything and made everyone’s job harder, and now she was trying to kill him? A part of him knew it was only logical. That this was the only route she had left. But the rest of him didn’t care. Yanking the blade out of his shoulder, he threw it at Vi. She shrieked and jumped back.
His vision came back in splotches and dots. Plucking the blade out of her side, Vi reached to her hip, desperately scrabbling out a slender vial that held a pale liquid. She went to tip it back.
Ike pointed. “Wisp, grab that.”
White thread shot from his shoulder and snatched the vial away. Vi startled and lunged after it, but too slow. Coldness spread from his wounds where the blades had hit, quickly spreading through his body. There was no time to hesitate. If this was a double-back, he was dead. He had to believe it was the antidote. He put the vial to his lips and sucked it down.
The cold sensation diminished. Sensation returned to his limbs.
“Even poison. You gods-damned coward,” Ike snarled. He darted toward Vi.
A net of light filled the hallway between them. Vi turned and fled.
Ike slammed the net with his Hammer Sword. Not only did the blow knock the net down, but the Hungry Sword also slurped up the mana construct, swallowing it down. He closed in on Vi. She raced away from him with all her strength, but Ike was still faster. Lightning shot over the stones. Thunder echoed down the hallway. He caught up to her in a flash. His blade struck toward the back of her neck.
She ducked, only for Ike to sweep her legs with a low kick. He hammered her into the ground with a Shockwave Punch and borrowed Shawn’s weight to pin her there. Her face twisted in pain, but she said nothing.
“I thought you were immune to poisons? But you didn’t seem so immune to that blade I threw at you. Don’t tell me. Is it a poison that cuts through the immunity you and your men develop?” Ike scoffed. “How sad, how lonely. You can’t even trust your own men, so you carry blades to kill them.”
For a second, he paused and looked at her. Was she that different from him, Mag, Wisp? She was lonely. She’d never been somewhere people didn’t see her as a threat.
But when she’d been given the chance to cooperate, she’d bitten the hand that fed her. Rather than taking a chance and trusting him, she’d turned the opposite direction and rejected any chance at building anything like a relationship between them. There was no hope for redemption. She could no longer see other humans as anything but a threat.
Ike sighed. He lifted his sword, keeping her pinned with his other hand. Wisp shot some web at her, helping him tie her down. “You know, under other circumstances, we might have been friends. We share much in common, you and me.”
Vi stopped struggling. She stared up at him, braced for the end. “Do it. Kill me.”
“This didn’t need to happen. If you’d only helped us…”
Her eyes were dead. She wasn’t listening. The only one he was talking to was himself.
Ike cursed under his breath. He slammed the sword home. Too far gone. There was no such thing as saving her. Whatever life she’d lived until now, it was one that precluded hope, trust, and belief. If he didn’t kill her, she would kill him. And yet, he could see himself in her. He could see Wisp and Mag in her. One little nudge in the wrong direction, and any of them could have so easily grown into someone like Vi.
“Ike?” Wisp asked.
“Nothing. I was just getting a little sentimental.” Ike stood. He went to shake the blood off his blade, only to find the Hungry Sword had already absorbed it.
“Mourning the loss of beauty?” Wisp teased him.
“As if.” Ike walked away, speeding into a run. “Come on. Let’s go help the people who actually care with finishing off this trial.”
Behind him, Vi’s body laid still. For a long time, nothing moved.
And then Vi twitched. A gem in her left ear cracked. Blood flowed backward, re-entering her body, and her flesh mended. She gasped, sitting up with a jolt. One hand went to her throat. When she felt smooth flesh, she lowered it slowly.
If only you’d helped us. His words lingered in her heart. She touched her chest and gazed after him. Unreadable expressions flashed across her face, one after another, and then Vi vanished.
