Dark Crow Rising

"Before! Before, you rush headlong against Atarifuge!" Inerish calls out, putting a stop to Segaansallis' charge. Shaking my head with a groan, a barrage of thoughts assail me, cracking a harsh headache over my mind.

"What...!? WHY!?" I roar, waving my perpetual sword gripping hand at the giant. Not mine, Segaansallis' hand. But I'm controlling it and see through...? Gragh!

"Again, I will offer what help I can but, given the situation. I do not believe I can give you advice on every swing. You have too much going on in your head right now," she explains and I shake my head as more thoughts make the headache worse.

"KEEP YOUR DAMN MOUTH OPEN AND TALKING! I CAN FOCUS MORE WITH ONE CONSTANT THAN HUNDREDS MORE!" I scream out, explaining my situation to her thoroughly and forcing her hand. Atarifuge's blade meets Segaansallis' and somehow, despite both of us being made of rock. Metal sings. Its longsword slides away almost magnetically, dragging my motion with it.

A ball-like guard-end jabs at my face, knocking me away and opening me up to another attack. With a hiss on my jaw, I try to breathe my gut in and put up an awkward block. Atarifuge pushes my lack of balance, thrusting and jabbing. I need to get off this back foot!

"Stop letting him push you back!" Inerish squawks.

"I KNOW!" I snap, smashing aside the next thrust and going after Atarifuge as it spins around. Stabbing my blade in an attempt to get it, it finishes its motion. A cleaving blow comes straight for my head.

Reeling back to the sound of thundering metal, the dunes explode underfoot. I'm upright in time to meet his thrust with a punch. Thoughts scream out at me in shock, the recoil shaking so many in my right arm. They're blind, they can't see and can only feel two titans at work!

"INERISH!" I snap again, her lack of words so blatantly clear and missed. Speak again, speak. Damn you, speak!

"Atarifuge seems to favour his left side right now, keep pushing him from that way. Your right, go in at him from there!" she explains and, noting the familiar principles, I pursue. I've tried this before with Smiling Jhurack. Keep the controlling arm restricted. Keep it trapped, leave no wiggle room. Not. One. Inch.

Mile...?

Growling the focus back into my head, instinct instead drives me to punch the giant. It barely feels the blow and hops away into a back-stepping jog. Not letting up, I chase it down with my head lowered. Something locks against my head, two hard lines.

The sands pile up around me, and the force goes away. Only the sound of a returning sword-grip. Pushing up with all Segaansallis can muster, I rise with my bladed horn swinging wildly. Our blades meet again and I sort out my footing.

My free hand flexes and curls, the problems of new fingers not being all that much. Compared to having one hand locked into perpetual wielding, anyway. Darkness, needles. I'm scared, someone hel-

"RRRRRAAAAAHHH!" I howl, taking my thoughts back from the horde. Atarifuge meets my wild swings with careful knocks and misdirection. It's not toying with me. I know what that is. But that doesn't help when I can't get past this guard of its!

"Try to lock blades with the giant, Nin. Force yours to the guard and wrestle that sword out of its grip." Inerish tells me, offering a goal that should make this easier.

Doing as asked, I make my swings harsher and harsher to force an action out of it. The air explodes and my blades slides to the guard. Metal sings with hissing slides. Noting the imbalance, I throw my free hand onto its grip.

Atarifuge drops its blade suddenly, a spring in its steps. I fall forwards, right into its rebounding knee and bend back. The flash of the giant gripping its sword does not escape me. One aimless swing seems to keep it back.

Moving into my momentum, I smash out two more blows. Atarifuge's sword tip carves two quickly buried canyons. Going for its left side again, I knock the sword down to slip in my gripping hand. The free one latches onto the guard.

Locking myself against the face of the blade, I put all my weight into pulling it away. Slipping back with it a moment later and releasing it in the tumble. Getting back up just in time, I smash it aside to put even more distance between it and its means of attack. Atarifuge's backhand parries my next thrust.

"That's it, Nin, keep going!" Inerish almost cheers with a scream and I try again. Atarifuge palm strikes me down, knocking me off balance. Kicking up great waves, I charge my lowered head forward and meet some resistance. Bone-like fingers flex into sight, covering one of my eyes.

Darkness. The dark. Darkness! The dark!

"SILENCE!" I roar, slicing my sword towards the weight of arms. Something makes contact with the edge and Atarifuge backs off. Noting the dark boulder in the sand. I make a point of picking it up.

Squeezing tight, I try to see if I can crack it down further. The goal is somewhat met and I throw it at the giant, peppering it with its own body. Atarifuge sprints right for me and it tilts into a leap. A pair of bone feet meet my chest and knock me down.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"DAMMIT! THAT BLOODY HURT!"

"WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"WE JUST GOT KNO-"

"INERISH!" I snap again, rolling onto my front with a penta-group of valleys following me. Tearing them up, I rise into a rush.

"Atarifuge's getting its sword again, stop it!" Inerish orders and I chase after the giant. Throwing my sword arm ahead after it, I come tantalisingly close to scraping away at its spine. Atarifuge makes the final distance through a roll, blade returning to form. Sliding to a stop, I put up a guard and wait the second I need for my next direction.

Close the gap-

"Close the gap," Inerish speaks in time with my thoughts. Nodding in place of an amused smirk, I charge. Atarifuge moves to take an upright guard. It can't possibly protect its lower half like that!?

Reaching the minimum distance, I thrust again and meet a ground-stabbing throw. Pommel now in hand, the giant slides the sword across my stone muscles. What is most certainly a machine blares its alarms. Another noise to add to the mania.

Taking advantage of the dangerous position I left Atarifuge in, I try to immobilise the sword grip. The black skeleton does the same, leaving us in a tense, locked-up push off. Stone creaks, the noises of cracking and my focus wavers. Which one of us is...?

"Nin, you have a free weapon, use it!" Inerish reminds me and my head suddenly feels weightier. Head-butting forward with a vicious snarl, I miss a proper hack into its skull. Trying again, I fail to get anything but a knock aside. Atarifuge reinforces the blow with an escaped fist.

Going into a spin, I get my sword up in time to take the full brunt of an overhead. My stone forearm and bicep clash together, bringing all kinds of buzzards from the hive. Roaring at the pain of such torrential noise, I back away. Atarifuge almost manages to gut m- gut us all.

"Nin, are you alright!? Nin!" Inerish cries, the sound of her hands of the headset all too clear.

"DAMN THIS LOCKED HAND!" Segaansallis lets out with all it has, disturbing the winds and blowing up a dust storm. Taking the inspiration, I try to test an age old theory. Atarifuge disproves it immediately by moving through and thrusting cleanly at me. Moving us out of the way, I adjust a punch into a down-going swing.

Atarifuge pulls away from us and twirls into another overhead grip. Segaansallis twists the sword to a rightward tilt and we begin to circle. My opponents grips switches about, his feet dash. Not so green as that, I press down on my half of the radius.

It thrusts forward and I twist aside to put more force into mine. Atarifuge's grip slips off its blade...!? The thing goes wayward. I press the attack.

Atarifuge snaps a fist onto the cross guard and pulls it back the other way. It jumps back a slight distance and grips the wrong part of the blade. All that force, all that power, Atarifuge redirects it to... The now-behind cross guard rises like a cata-

"NIN! MOVE, IT'S HALF-SWORDING! ATARIFUGE IS-" Inerish screams. Her voice drowns in the blunt-edged blow hitting my left collar. Segaansallis' body bends to Atarifuge's desires. It pulls us in, the guard now a hook.

Right into a reared back fist.

"GRAAAH!" I let out in pain as the head rocks back and forth. My body squeezing up against the locks and back against the chair. Unyielding, god-made stone with no edges. I shake without end, my shell cracking in the tight case.

"We're going to die..." one thought whimpers.

"Of course I'm going to be killed because of this incompetent bug!" a male student hisses in his.

"Give the Sword-Faced Giant's control to a fist fighter, great plan Grandguard!" a soldier moans with his thoughts carrying the sound of grit teeth.

"GIVE CONTROL TO SOMEONE WHO'S NOT DONE YET!" I roar back in answer at all the disheartened voices. All these thoughts. They need to go. Get out... Get out!

With a throbbing head, I switch up my footing and get back into it. I blink harshly as more pain strikes through me. There's a deep-rooted pain in my right eye. The needles have widened their holes and have adjusted as such.

I shake and stumble, tearing up the sandy earth in the process.

"Nin, talk to me, you're falling and you haven't taken a blow!" Inerish points out, her anxiety hearable even to the deaf.

"This thing... It's taking too much." I try to explain. At least, this is what I can fathom right now. It hurts too much to think.

"Then finish this before it takes everything! Before Segaansallis and Atarifuge do!" she encourages, and I nod my sword-dressed head. Barber gave me one fine haircut and I intend to use it.

"G-Getting... Back up." I pointlessly say, as I am already on my feet. Running forward and Atarifuge meets me. More light thrusts and deflections, it keeps moving back. Finding an angle, I pick up with the ferocity and strike harder and harder.

Atarifuge drops its guard and lets me knock the blade down. It starts to run back, sword trailing a path to follow on top of its footprints. Leaping for his armed side, I kick it further away and hug it. Letting Segaansallis' horn roar, I thrust the sword and hear that lovely puncture.

The black-boned giant howls with what I so easily believe is pain, and a hand grips my face. He pushes it around and my neck twists the force back. We all howl with all we have and I pick up with the thrusting. My feet slip back into the sand and they push with each earthquake-inducing step.

Atarifuge's cross guard finds my sword's back end and it tugs. Slicing apart its own side further to free itself from that trap. Its sword rises for my right pit and finds slipping purchase. Feeling the cold danger, I back away too late and slide along that sword's edge.

Though I feel no pain, this height Segaansallis gives me, it lets my actual body feel the wind. The empty, shallow winds left in Atarifuge's wake. My opponent checks its wound and pulls off the loose stonework. Flexing my right arm, I hear growing cracks, but nothing too severe.

We both ready up and go back at it, slashing and clanging to no end. Inerish slips in more tips to counter all this new noise and some aptitude makes it into my muscles. A proper display of fencing skills is quickly engrained into my psyche and I push forward. Atarifuge backs away from my next thrust with limited movement on its left torso. Its eyes locked on my sword arm.

My right arm extends well and true, finding a quick nick and stone cracks more!