Ch. 62: Adrian Vs The Gryphons (2)

"Just start the battle." Honestly, despite all of Adrian's boasting and bluster, his palms were sweaty. Though he even did his best to hide it from Rosy, he was nervous. Adrian wasn't some sword fighting phenom like Rosy. His skills hadn't been sharpened by years of insane battle after battle. He was just someone with a bit more training than the average person. 

But he knew that he needed to do this. If it wasn't him who won this battle, then the gryphons would ignore everything else that they could possibly say. He knew it in his heart. These people would never willingly change, unless their pride was fully broken. 

"Alright. It's your death wish, after all." The Archgryphon shrugged, "Start the battle!"

"BANG!"

"BANG!" Two gunshots immediately sounded the starting call. Anticipating this, Adrian had already guessed the trajectory that the bullets would go by based on the angle of the gun barrels. He instantly ducked, bringing Darkreina in front of him.

"CLANG!"

"Damn!" one of the bullets went over Adrian's head as he'd expected, while the other one ricocheted off of Darkreina with a loud clang. Unfortunately, Adrian had never caught a bullet with a sword before. It was a totally different experience from cutting through one of Jasper's magic bolts, after all. Bullets had mass and inertia. It pushed Darkreina back, twisting his wrist painfully.

It thankfully wasn't enough to make him drop the sword, though, and he quickly pushed a bit of magic through the weapon in order to heal his wrist as he made his next move. Since he was pretty much useless at healing magic, it wouldn't do much, but Rosy could deal with it later so long as he didn't drop the sword.

Sending as much of the pain to Rosy as a nullification measure, Adrian used the gryphon's reloading time to get in close. He jumped Hal first. Hal was the larger, and likely the stronger of his two gryphon enemies, but he wasn't the brightest, and his movements weren't as refined as his partner's, so Adrian figured it'd be easiest to get him out of the way first. 

"CLANG!" The sound echoed as Hal barely managed to parry Adrian's blade. This wasn't entirely due to Hal's skill. Adrian allowed it to happen, to underplay his fighting style. He was scared that, if the gryphons learned that Adrian was using the same style as Rosy, they'd call off the bet that they'd placed on the match. This false mistake cost Adrian quite a bit, though, as he was forced to focus all of his attention on Hal, rather than Bart, who was reloading his gun.

After locking his blade with the bayonet for a short moment, Adrian made his move. He was slightly stronger than the bulky man, thanks to his vampiric strength boost via Rosy. While Hal was forced to put everything that he had into maintaining the blade lock, Adrian had some leeway. So, he used a trick that Rosy had taught him.

Adrian relaxed his dominant arm for a mere moment, just enough to allow Hal to get the upper hand. 

"Weak!" Hal shouted, overpowering Adrian.

"Stop, you idiot!" Bart shouted at his partner, but it was already too late. It was no use. With a single motion, Adrian slipped his sword out of their blade lock, destroying Hal's balance long enough for the young prince to slip through his guard, pushing the pommel of Darkreina directly into Hal's stomach so hard that the older gryphon keeled over a bit in shock. Using Hal's shock as a distraction, Adrian reached his left arm across the older man's back in an instant, grabbing him by the neck and using his momentum to throw him to the ground. The impact was so hard that it cracked the floor, obviously knocking the older gryphon unconscious in the process.

"Damn it!"

"BANG!" Immediately after Adrian finished dealing with Hal, Bart finally managed to finish reloading his gun. Since Adrian was distracted, it was the perfect moment to take a shot, so take it the gryphon general did. 

The bullet went right through Adrian's left shoulder and out the other end, showing a sickening explosion of bone and gore as it passed. Essentially, Adrian's entire left arm was now useless to him. If it weren't for Rosy's healing magic, it was entirely possible that Adrian would end up losing the arm.

Adrian wasn't thinking about that, though. He trusted that Rosy would be capable of healing his arm, but the pain was currently nearly unbearable. "AAGH!" He screamed, dropping to the ground in agony.

After a timeless moment of incredible pain, something pierced through the fog around Adrian's consciousness. 'ADRIAN. GET IT TOGETHER.' Hearing Rosy's command inside his head almost instantly cleared most of the fog. She was taking most of the pain onto herself, so that he could think clearly. Being used to hellish pain, she barely squirmed against the wall that she was leaning on, watching the battle unfold. 

With his mind more clear, Adrian took stock of his surroundings as quickly as possible. Bart hadn't bothered reloading his gun again, opting to end the fight up close while Adrian squirmed on the floor. He likely believed that he had already won, and honestly, without Rosy, that would have been the case.

But Adrian's head was mostly clear now, so as the military head nephew of the Archgryphon approached him, Adrian made a plan. Darkreina was on the ground. He'd dropped it when he'd been shot, and it was now near his feet. Even if he could grab it, standing up would take time that Bart wouldn't allow him, he knew.

"I w-" Bart began to say, but he was interrupted. As he got close, Adrian used his foot to kick Darkreina at the man. It was a feeble attack, easily dodged, but that was exactly what Adrian was going for. Since it was so unexpected, Bart's eyes were immediately drawn to the blade as it flew into the air in a lazy arc toward him. He moved his body out of the way, but the blade's sharpness was not the attack. As the spell that Adrian had pushed into the gem at Darkreina's pommel took effect, a blinding light shone from it.