Nightsea Outlaw

Sayed landed on the roof and ran down the tiles as he strapped on his gauntlet. When finished, he drew his sword again and turned on the man following him. Tanis now wore a mask but was the same swordsman Sayed had faced before. This time, Sayed would best him, no matter what. That was the appropriate conclusion for this story.

Sayed refused to open the gate that resided within his heart. The blessing of his God would aid him in this battle, but again, he did not think Tanis had access to such power. It would be unfair to burn his heat bright if Tanis could not do the same. No. He would win the fight with his skill as a swordsman because that was how warriors showed their pride.

"Now, we face each other for the final time. Let us dance in battle!"

Sayed took a wide stance, holding his khopesh up high above his head as he held out his gauntlet. He took in a deep breath as he stared down Tanis. Tanis held his sword at his side as he stood at attention on the edge of the roof. All of the man that had been there before seemed gone.

It was the mask, of course. Alex and Erin told him that the mask drove out a person's will. It left them a puppet. With the mask on, was this really even the man he fought earlier any longer, or was he just a phantom of what he had been?

"Speak, demon," Sayed said. "Lest I defeat you without a word uttered."

"Step."

Tack. Shing.

Tanis blurred in a flash of movement, and Sayed only caught a glimpse of the tip of his sword before he could react. He brought down his khopesh beside his face, and his wrist strained against the force of the thrust as he deflected the tip of Tanis' rapier up and away from himself.

"Demon's Claw!" Sayed yelled and slashed up with his gauntlet's claw.

"Step."

Tanis disappeared in a blur of motion before the claw could cut across his face, and Sayed only hit the air. Sayed regained his stance as Tanis reappeared across the rooftop from him. Sayed clenched his legs tight as he pushed against the tiles beneath him.

"Demon's Thrust."

Tick. Clatter. Shing.

He shot forward in a line from where he started, thrusting forward with his sword. Tanis stabbed out with his own blade and directed the trajectory of Sayed's thrust. Up and away, Sayed's blade flew, and he had to grit his teeth to keep the sword in his hands.

At that moment, he was open, and the rapier came down in a slashing arc and cut into his shoulder. Sayed jumped back to avoid the blow, but all that did was save his arm from being slashed through. A rapier wasn't a slashing blade, unlike his khopesh, but even it could do the job in the right situation.

"A fine blow," Sayed said, touching his shoulder with the hand that held the hilt of his sword for a moment.

His knuckles came away bloody. There should have been pain, but the beating in Sayed's heart pushed all that away. This was a fight, a battle to the death. There was no time for pain. There was no time for suffering. There was only the thrill of the fight.

"It seems that mask has not diminished your ability to fight, even if it has taken your ability to speak freely. Fine. I will focus all my efforts on but one thing. I will free you from the demon that controls you. In the name of God and my title as Saint, I will vanquish that demon."

Tanis didn't respond to his words, and the swordsman again took a stance. Sayed did the same, ignoring the blood that drained from his shoulder. Already, he was feeling the effects of the draining blood, but he pushed his vision together and forced his mind to focus.

He was a warrior. He would not fall.

"Demon's Wind."

Ting. Ting. Ting.

He came at Tanis, this time not with a thrust but with a series of flashing slashes. Sayed blurred into motion, and each one of his slashes appeared to hit in the same moment as he clashed against Tanis's blade. Six strikes made up Demon's Wind, but only three found their mark.

"Grah." Tanis fell back from his attempt to deflect, reaching up to touch his shoulder with one hand as he held out his rapier.

Sayed smiled as he appeared on the next rooftop over behind the swordsman. In truth, he only needed one of the strikes to hit for his goal, and that one had accomplished what he desired. He turned to face Tanis across the alley between the rooftops and saw the cracked mask when Tanis turned to face him.

Deep and yellow, an eye stared out from the crack around Tanis's mask. The skin around the cracked mask was pink and veiny but did not bleed. Sayed knew not what corruption the mask visited upon a person, but the skin around it was proof enough that it was evil.

"You must wish yourself to be free of the mask," Sayed said. "Only through your own desire can you free yourself from its power!"

Again, Tanis took his stance and faced Sayed. He appeared to ignore the break in the mask, but Sayed could see the tear flowing down from the freed eye. Sayed took on his wide stance with his khopesh held high.

"We will truly be able to fight when you are free of its control," Sayed said, smiling wide. "Only then will I be able to call you 'brother' as you deserve for your skill."

In truth, Sayed did not know Tanis as a brother, not yet. The position of brother was reserved for people who fought with you in battle. However, if his enemy was truly the mask and not Tanis, as Sayed suspected, then they could only defeat the mask together. That meant that when the mask was defeated, Sayed would call Tanis brother when the fight was over and both Sayed and he had won against the mask.

"Line Reverse."

Tanis disappeared in a blur of movement, and Sayed watched for the tell. He needed to see the moment that Tanis struck that would allow him to guard or parry. Then, he could gain the momentum back and strike again.

Searing pain cut into his side, and he instinctively flinched away as a blade cut across his ribs. Sayed looked down and saw Tanis's blade coming from behind him. He reached down with his gauntlet and grabbed onto the tip of the sword.

"Hah!" Sayed said as he slammed back with his fist, forgoing stabbing with his blade to strike instead with the hilt of his khopesh.

Crack. Clatter.

The sound of cracking porcelain echoed through the night as several shards plummeted to the ground. Sayed reached back as he held onto the sword and slammed down the hilt a second time. A second crack and clatter filled the night before Tanis could pull away from him with a solid kick to his back. Sayed fell forward and would have fallen down the alley to the ground below if he hadn't kicked off from the edge and rolled onto safety on the building's roof on the other side.

"The mask is the true enemy," Sayed said as he came to his feet from the roll and turned to face Tanis.

More of the mask had cracked, and now Sayed could see part of the man's face. A third of the mask still covered him, but now part of his lips were exposed, as well as his cheeks. The skin was cut open and flayed like he had been whipped several times. The lips were moving beneath the smile of the porcelain mask, though Sayed could not make out what they said.

"Fight the mask," Sayed demanded again. "In the name of God, you must if you want to be free, Tanis!"

Tanis took a stance, and Sayed thought he saw the word 'No' struggle across his lips. Sayed smiled. He was right. The mask was the problem. Whoever Tanis was beneath that mask, he first needed to break the mask if he wanted his fight.

"Line Convergence."

Sayed had not taken his stance, but he saw the strike coming. The air around Tanis's sword appeared to blur as he thrust out toward Sayed and cut the space between them. Sayed first thought that the strikes were intended to hit him all over his body at once, and it would be impossible to block. He brought up his khopesh, but it was too late.

Ting.

The sound of the strike rang out through the air. It was not a strike of many but a strike of one. The lines of the rapier converged on one point, right at Sayed's heart. Sayed was thrown back before he could even feel the pain. He was only saved by his gauntlet, which was now pitted on a single point from the force of the strikes.

"Not yet!" Sayed yelled as he slammed down with his clawed gauntlet into the roof, slowing himself from being thrown back. "Demon's Thrust."

He shot forward with his sword and aimed his thrust directly at Tanis's face. He scored his hit with a smile, and the tip of his blade sent more cracks across the swordsman's mask. Tanis jumped back at the last moment, and more porcelain fell to the ground along his path of retreat.

"Kill me."

The words came out from Tanis's lips as Sayed returned to a good position. Sayed raised an eyebrow. The first free words of the swordsman were to beg for death. Sayed had intended to free him from his mask, but the swordsman was begging to die.

"You would rather die?" Sayed asked, holding his khopesh high. "You only get one chance at life. Are you so willing to throw it away?"

"It's inside," Tanis said. "I feel it wriggling inside my mind. The mask is just the shell. You've only freed me for this moment. Kill me while I am still me, Saint. My body may not be my own, but my mind is still here, trapped beneath that mask. Kill me as a man."

Sayed did not like it. To him, the man was giving up any hope of survival, but what did he know? A mask had never taken him. He did not know what happened when one was placed upon a person. Sayed sighed. Who was he to deny the wish of a fellow swordsman?

"Fine, my brother," Sayed said. "I will defeat you with all I am."

Inside his chest, he opened his gate. Heat pumped out from his heart and out through his chest, arms, and legs. The fire inside went through his fingers and into his blade and the claws of his gauntlets. Soon, his weapons glowed bright orange, pushing the fog around him away. With the fire of God active in his heart, Sayed held out his blade and pointed the tips of his claws at Tanis's heart.

"You were holding back on me," Tanis laughed as tears ran down his cheeks. "Even earlier. You were holding back when you were fighting me."

"You did not appear to have a blessing as I do," Sayed said. "If you had, I would have drawn on mine to match your power. Because you did not, I did not. Such is only fair when in a good fight. Only in extreme situations will I not worry about that."

"That's a good philosophy for people like us," Tanis said as his body marionetted into a stance. "I wish I could have fought you under different circumstances, 'Sword Saint' Sayed."

"I wish that were also true, brother," Sayed said. "But we are not the masters of our own fates. Only God above can determine who and where we fight. We are the only ones that can determine why."

"Scions above," Tanis said through gritted teeth. "Let's end this."

"Demon's Thrust!"

"Line Convergence!"