Six Warriors

Under The Moonshine - (Ethan)

So here he was, on a white-sanded beach at night, under the light of moonlight and stars, the weather was mild and the sound of the waves breaking brought a smell of sea air, and there she was, a beautiful missy waiting for him to meet him. All this background would look perfect if it was a romantic date, but it wasn't quite like that, no, that meeting was for a fight and maybe it was deadly.

Her name was Aretha Artume and she still wore that kind of black overcoat that was a uniform of the Interdimensional Guardians, at her waist she still wore the belt with the sword.

"There you are" she said in a cold voice.

"Yes, but still hoping you'll give up on this fighting thing and want to enjoy this beautiful night for a kiss."

"Not if you weren't a little orb thief, not even if we were in opposite places and I was the thief, not even if..."

"Okay, okay, I get it!"

She gave a smile that Ethan couldn't decipher, then showed some kind of waterskin embroidered with weird symbols. The next moment, she threw the object up and, unsheathing her sword, gave a quick cut that split it in two. A flash of light emerged from there and for milliseconds everything around Ethan seemed to go into a negative effect image, but everything passed very quickly and all that remained in the boy was a simple impression. Then the boy was elsewhere.

He was now in what appeared to be the ruins of a castle. There was little left of the building apart from the floor, some walls with banners and some stairs leading to upper floors that also seemed about to collapse. The castle ruins stood on a vast plain of meadows under the sky of two moons and the vastly starry sky.

"Welcome to Kadrak Castle Ruins," Aretha said, still with that indecipherable expression. "Once it was the foundation of an ancient order of paladin warriors, benevolent guardians of the order" she raised her sword in front of her face, "just like us, the Interdimensional Guardians, that's why foolish boy, you must understand that your life will not be taken for dark purposes, but to maintain order."

"Okay then, but you can call me Ethan, my dear lady, or even the love of your life, if you prefer."

The girl's expression changed, she looked annoyed.

"Is that how you think a leader behaves? No wonder you and yours are just a bunch of fools. Enough talking, it's time to prove you came here for more than just silly attempts to court me." She moved towards Ethan, slowly, step by step, sword raised.

Ethan got the message, he should stop acting like an i***t just for being in front of a pretty girl and take it seriously. After all, she had a sword at the ready. No wonder it was a battle to the death.

Artume made the first move, an attack with his sword that Ethan managed to dodge and then counterattack with a punch. The Guardian dodged the attack by moving her head to the side and then making another move with her sword. Ethan jumped back to escape the razor's edge. The girl continued to attack relentlessly until she hit Ethan's back with the sword button, making the boy stagger, then she tried a lunge, but Ethan ended up kicking the flat part of the sword, preventing the attack. He took advantage of the girl's staggering and, without any pity, hit her with a punch in the face, making her fall to the ground.

"Finally, it seems to be taking this seriously." Said the girl with her hand where it was hit.

"I'm serious when I need to be."

"Good" She said, getting up again. She went into combat mode again and attacked. Ethan jumped out of sword range, Aretha seemed to look at something behind the boy. "HALF MOON CUT!!" she roared as she summoned magic from the edge of her sword, shooting a crescent-shaped beam of light. Ethan dodged once more, but with much more difficulty and the attack scraped his leg causing a stinging cut that made the boy clench his teeth. Aretha cracked a smile when she saw him dodge and only then did the chosen one realize that the purpose of the cut was not to hit him, but what was behind him, a stone pillar that had been cut in two by the girl's magic. The pillar and part of the old roof it was holding started to fall over Ethan. He knelt and put his arms in front of him, as if to create a defense, but the arms were overlapping in the shape of a cross. He focused his magic on this movement. Everything seemed to pass slowly...

"LIGHT ATTACK CROSS!!" And a light erupted from his crossed arms, creating a cross-shaped attack that crashed into the falling stones and shattered them to smithereens.

"You used your magic power, which is totally focused on offense, to create a defense". Aretha seemed to smile for a second "not bad". However, Ethan had little time to breathe, so when Aretha Artume finished speaking she rushed forward in a violent rush against him, a thrust with her sword that hit the boy's shoulder, piercing him and causing a searing pain. It was the first time the chosen one felt something like this, something tearing his skin, penetrating his flesh, making blood pour from his body. It was terrifying. In desperation, he grabbed the girl's neck with the opposite hand, squeezed Aretha's windpipe and tried to pull her back as far as he could, which worked, but caused more pain when the sword was violently withdrawn from her shoulder. Aretha didn't want to stop just because of that and at the next move she spun in an attack with her magic:

"HALF MOON CUT!!" And in his movement with the sword a shimmering light was fired at Ethan, who this time barely managed to dodge, having part of his forearm hit by the blow, causing once more a stinging cut. Ethan now dropped to his knees, he was bleeding from his shoulder, part of his right leg and part of his left forearm.

"You had been a gentleman before by not attacking me when I was down, now it's my turn to repay, get up again and keep fighting. Unless you finally want to surrender."