Legacies of light

I try to move but as I do the dagger within my body causes an extreme surge of pain to flow within my body, so I just shout, “MOVE!”

The sword continues towards Laeg, but then Craig gets in the way and the sword hits him right in the throat.

Seeing this I manage to rip the dagger out and head towards my sister. As I hold her, I look at Craig and ask, “Why did you do that?”

“I simply pity you. You’re young and you don’t understand what you're doing, so I simply wish to reduce the strife you would feel when you finally understand the meaning of your and others' lives, like your sister has.”

His face soon goes lifeless, and other enemies, ignoring his sacrifice head straight towards us with the intent to kill us.

“Laeg we got to move.”

My sister tries to move but as she does the panic she is facing intensifies and we are in the same position. Then she mutters, “They were alive, they had blood, a pulse, and families.”

Seeing as she can’t bring herself to move I get up, and with the wound still open I cry, and say, “You won’t touch my sister!”

Φ Ferdiad continues to move around me again, and again, but as he does his pattern of attack becomes far sloppier and more straight forward each time, and I say, “You’ve become easy to read.”

Finally pierced one of his arms, and then I hit him in the stomach with my fist knocking him backwards, it is over.

On the floor, he cries Setanta, with tears falling down his eyes. Looking at him right now he looks like the very definition of a little child, it makes me feel sorry for him, but nevertheless, he still cut down hundreds.

As he cries Setanta, I peer my head towards Setanta’s body and it isn’t where I was before. Shocked, I start to look everywhere for his body.

Φ I am overpowered and knocked over towards my sister, and the human men swing their swords down at us. As they do my sister covers my body, and I scream, “NO YOU IDIOT!”

But she just stares at my face with a smile and says, “Love you.”

I stare into my sister's face and I notice that she looks beaten up. There are so many wounds and marks on her face, she is also utterly exhausted, right now my sister is in such a state that it makes me feel like all I want to do is pick her up and run away from the battlefield.

So I hold her tight hoping that my arms on her back might protect her even if it is just a little bit. Though to my surprise I don’t ever feel them, all I end up feeling is a little splash on my face.

I open my eyes and look up and there we see all of the men with blood spurting from their throats and Setanta standing in front of us.

With his tails, he wipes the blood off our face and says, “I promised you guys, didn’t I? Never worry about your lives for the rest of your existence.”

Me and my sister just cry like the time we found out our mom had died. In this moment we have never felt happier, and hopeful.

Φ Seeing Setanta in front of his men, I am utterly shocked and then instantly move to kill Ferdiad, but Setanta manages to knock my spear away, and then kick me in my stomach.

Φ I see something that looks like Setanta in front of me, and I just mutter his name as I know I am about to move to the other side, but then this image crouches beside me and says, “I got your sister pregnant.”

I sit up and say, “WHAT!?” While grabbing his collar.

“I am just kidding that will be after we return.”

I prepare to hit him in the face but then I notice he is alive, and start to tear up a bit. Jumping up he says, “We can talk about this when I finish her, for now just rest princess.”

Φ Falling back, I look at his body I notice that not a single wound he had is still on him, so I ask, “HOW!?”

“I don’t know, I guess death was simply too scared to meet me.”

Setanta moves forward and with the energy of someone who has just slept for an entire day he comes at me, and says, “Let’s finish this Aoife!”

Not waiting anytime I use Sonic thrust, but Setanta doesn’t dodge instead he runs head first into my spear, and as I pierce his body and I see something that shocks me, he regenerates then pierces my leg.

He pulls his spear out and I attack him again, but he doesn’t wait and just moves into it and counterattacks me yet again. Shocked, I use Red branch battle arts to move around at high speed and then use star flower to strike him seven times.

But all those blows heal, so I say, “Red branch battle arts; Clover.”

As my attack comes towards him, Setanta disappears and strikes me in my back saying, “I think I finally got that Camellia japonica thing down.”

Φ The most famous feat of Lugh was the slaying of the wonderbeast Vánagandr, a behemoth wonderbeast which regenerated nearly infinitely. I fought a piece of its flesh before I came here, and it was a struggle.

When a beastkin eats an animal of any kind there is always a chance that their kids will inherit a specific animal's traits or even a mix of different animal traits. I had always thought Setanta was just a wolf, or some mixture of other wonderbeasts and a wolf, but could Setanta really have inherited the characteristics of a behemoth wonderbeast?

Φ Setanta and I continue to clash again and again but no matter how many times I hit him he keeps regenerating and pushing forward.

If Setanta has the abilities of Vánagandr then that would mean no matter how much a stab him he will always regenerate. Still, if I remember correctly, Lugh managed to kill the beast by piercing through its brain.

It regenerated the thick skin on its head so fast that Lugh had to fight it for hours to break down its ability, but Setanta shouldn’t have such a benefit so I should be able to move forward and win.

Seeing a path forward, I knock Setanta’s spear away and then thrust directly at his head. But then Setanta for the first time since he got up dodges, and then says, “I have figured you out.”

He moves towards me and as he does he effortlessly dodges all of my thrust while saying, “It took me a little bit of time, but I know everything about you physically, the movement of your muscles, the number of times you breathe, even your unconscious attack patterns it is visible to me.

“What!?”

Moving as fast as possible I launch a flurry of thrusts towards him, and he uses Camellia japonica to effortlessly get behind me and attack.

Dodging backwards I hold my wound. This can’t be, both his technique and spirit energy have improved, so much so that he can’t even be compared to who he was when we started

Φ Thanks to my newfound ability I was able to forgo defence, and just purely focus on learning her movements in regards to both the flowy energy and Red branch battle arts.

And now I can recreate all I have seen. “The time you were above me has come to an end Aoife, thanks for the lesson.”

“DON’ T GET COCKY!” She says with a very stressed expression.

From her horn light radiates, but I close my eyes in time so I'm not blinded by it.

Focusing on my hearing I listen in for the direction she is coming from and then block her spear's attack, and after this, I lay on a barrage of thrusts which she tries her best to parry.

But then from her horn a singular beam of light shoots towards my neck, and suddenly a fire starts causing my flesh to be born.

Using my claws, I rip the burning area out and wait for it to regenerate, but it takes a little longer than usual. Seeing this she points her ray of light at her spear setting it on fire and then comes at me far more aggressive than every before.

Right now every single one of her hits will burn my flesh, and she is being far more liberal with her uses of her horn. She is no longer holding back and is just trying to kill me as fast as possible.

She happens to be aiming for my head time and time again, I can only imagine this switch up in her fighting style means that to her my head must be a critical target. I should do some research into this when I return home.

But for now, I will simply put an end to all of this.

We move at high speed barely dodging each other's blows as we move around, she consistently throws in flashes from her horn to throw me off, but I manage to react to them in time by focusing on my hearing rather than my sight.

I use Star flower, sonic thrust, sky flower, clover, and Camellia Japonica over and over again, and each time I reuse them I feel like my brain is starting to solve a puzzle.

I kick her in the stomach knocking her backwards, and then I see her take a stance that sets my sense of danger off. Right now what she is about to hit me with isn’t something I can dodge, and will kill me if it lands.

Though I feel like whatever the attack will be, it is something that I already know.

Within Setanta’s mind words he heard from Scáthach rush to the forefront of his consciousness.

“Master you’re hiding something from me. No way Red branch battle arts would be as infamous among everyone in the empire if this is all it can do.”

“Setanta you already have everything you need to see the true power of my fighting style. Just continue repeating what you have been taught.”

“No, I don’t, because if I did I would be stronger. I really am bored with you speaking like your tongue is knotted.”

Bringing her cloaked body next to mine, she says, “I do no such thing. Understand this Setanta that all of the forms I have taught you are building blocks which when mastered shall reveal the pinnacle of the style, the ultimate art so to speak.

But to achieve such a peak you must be patient and focus day by day, because if you do just like a morning glory all your enemies will fall within the day.”

Inside my mind, all of the forms overlap and I take a stance similar to Aoife. The ability to recognize your surroundings from Star Flower, the ability to understand your opponent’s body from Clover, the ability to exert the full power of your legs with Sky Flower, the ability to release instantaneous force from sonic thrust and the ability to be unseen with Camellia japonica, when all of these forms overlap I can bring out the full potential within myself.

Both of us say, “Red branch battle arts ultimate art; Morning glory.”

We both blitz forward at full speed leaving sound completely behind, and then meeting each other in the middle both of our spears clash with mine shattering hers and leaving a hole in her body.

Φ Falling to the ground, I use the remainder of my strength to look back and see a shining figure standing gallantly and screaming his heart out.

I am sure if this boy was to join up with that human a new era for all the living beings on this planet would come.

With tears falling from my eyes, I say, “Why would we rob all those to come from such a happy world?”

Falling to the ground, Aoife dies.