Tactical Slash

"About time you came and released me." Gaurav said as he stepped out of the prison he was being kept in, "What, were you not feeling well?"

The questing beast growled contently as it rubbed its head against Gaurav's shoulder.

"Well, it's fine." Gaurav sighed as he rubbed the top of the creature's head, "At least you're here now. Now what I don't understand is you."

Gaurav turned to look at Amathea who was standing there next to the questing beast with no Nyinx in sight, "What, are you here to stop me?"

"Where are you going to go?" Amathea asked.

"Does it matter? The first matter is escaping from this hellhole."

"Will you take me with you?"

Gaurav regarded the princess with a look of shock and intrigue. Of all the things he expected her to say, this was not one of them. He wasn't sure what she was thinking or if she had some sort of plan...but from what he knew, she wasn't the duplicitous type.

"Whatever." Gaurav said as he walked past the princess and got on top of the questing beast, "I need to escape. The school should be connected to the Paramnesia Wildwoods right now right? We'll escape through there."

Gaurav reached out and offered his hand to the princess. Amathea timidly took the knights hand as she got on top of the questing beast as well.

"Where's Gaurav?!" Helena cried as they arrived at the scene of the breakout.

"He's long gone now." Edea called as school staff looked over the place for clues, "Seems the questing beast busted him out of prison."

"And he took Amathea?" Roland frowned, "What was she doing here?"

"Maybe she was here to pick him up. Maybe she was here to say goodbye." Edea sighed, "The point is we have to save her."

"So the questing beast broke out of containment and then broke its owner out of prison?" Momo said, "That's one intelligent beast."

"From the look of things, someone broke the questing beast out." Kaguya reported as she joined them at the prison, "From there, the beast broke Gaurav out. With how quickly it happened, it must have been planning to do it for a while with only the poison holding it back."

"We can discuss the details later." Roko said as he also joined them after having gone to pick up a sword, "We need to chase him ASAP."

"Well, I can tell you they made a quick stop to pick up Gaurav's equipment again." Edea reported, "After that, they were headed in the direction of the forest."

"The forest again." Kaguya sighed, "Seems like we're destined to battle in there one last time."

"We'll need some horses to catch up with them." Helena said, "And someway to track him down."

"Akagami can sniff him out." Momo nodded, "He's already picked up his scent from his cell."

"And I always have a few pet horses ready to go." Kaguya added.

"Then let's start the hunt." Roko said as he tied the sword to his waist.

The questing beast trotted leisurely through the lifeless forest, bearing its human companions on its back. Gaurav and Amathea rode the creature in complete silence, the princess' presence nagging at Gaurav's mind. He kept trying to read into what she could possibly be thinking coming with him but everything he knew about her told him that if she did have something in mind it was probably something stupid. He tried to push it out of his mind until they were fully in the clear but before he knew it, the question slipped out,

"What are you doing here?"

Amathea looked up, not surprised by his question but a bit impassive, "You promised me."

"Promised?" Gaurav turned to look at her, confused.

"You'd teach me how to be more confident."

"..." Gaurav turned back to the front. He remained silent but his thoughts were mixed. As he expected, her reason was something stupid. But to think she would remember a promise like that. Not just remember but abandon her family and country for. And what has he been doing in return? A rising dissatisfaction rocked his mind and spreading throughout his body until the sound of galloping horses broke him out of his emotions. Looking back, he could see that damn Roko and his friends chasing him on horseback. There were three horses with two people on them each heading towards them.

"...Quess."

The questing beast turned around and roared before it whipped its tail around to level a few dozen trees to the ground to bar the way behind them. Seeing them stopped there, the horses slowed down and their riders dismounted, Gaurav stepping down from his beast as well.

"Kidnapping your own princess is beneath you, Gaurav." Helena called, "But I suppose that's evidently not true now is it?"

"Kidnapping huh?" Gaurav smirked, "Well, I can't say you're not persistent. But really, does Zadkiel not have anybody better to send? Why is it always you guys?"

"We're the only ones that are needed to stop you." Momo smiled.

"Please, I can take all of you on." Gaurav sneered.

"Tough talk for someone who was having trouble fighting me." Roland said as he stood next to Helena.

"Tough talk for someone who was on the ropes until they pulled a second sword out of their ass." Gaurav retorted, "Why don't you try having a fair, one on one match against me? See how far you'll get."

"And if we beat you one on one, will you kindly give yourself up and return Amathea?" Roko asked.

"Sure." Gaurav said as he drew his sword, "If you beat me."

…

Roko took a step forward.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Roko?" Helena stopped him, "We have actual knights here. We have Mikado, we have Roland, hell, we have Momo. You really don't need to step up here."

"That's true." Roko said as he gently pushed Helena's hand aside, "That said-"

"We have a score to settle don't we?" Gaurav called, "You're free to send someone else but I feel like we should decide which of us can back up the kind of nonsense we spew."

"Well that's a problem because only one of us seems to be doing that." Roko said as he stepped up and drew his sword, "But I guess we're going to find out which one of us that is."

Gaurav and Roko sized each other up as everyone watched in anticipation. Wordlessly, the two took their stances and in a flash, their blades descended on each other.

Gaurav struck first, aiming to lodge his blade into Roko's skull with a downward strike. Roko blocked it and shifted his sword vertically and pushed upwards, stopping his opponent's blade with his guard and pushing it upwards to move their blades over their heads. Using the round guard on his sword to his advantage, Roko aligned his blade down towards Gaurav and swung, aiming to attack along the length of the knight's blade as it lacked the circular guard to stop Roko's own sword. But all Gaurav had to do was twist his wrist around to place the linear guard of his sword in front of Roko's blade, blocking it. However, Gaurav twisted his wrist inward so as to keep the blade side pointed at Roko, meaning his hand was at an awkward position to respond as Roko pulled the handle of his blade up, rotating past Gaurav's guard, keeping his sword in position to continue blocking Gaurav as he aimed to attack Gaurav's head. Gaurav ducked, squatting down as the butt of Roko's sword soared overhead. The movement of Roko's sword also pushed Gaurav's sword back towards him giving him prime opportunity to draw it back and try to stab Roko in the stomach. Roko spun his body around, dodging the jab as he wound his sword around him and swung for Gaurav's head from behind. Gaurav lunged forward, Roko's blade sailing over his body by inches as the knight tumbled around to face Roko again.

"Looks like you weren't all talk." Gaurav scowled.

"And it looks like you were." Roko replied, "Honestly, I expected more from the strongest knight of the Fallor Kingdom."

"Oh trust me. I have barely begun to fight."

"Oh, I know. I've scanned you, I'm fully aware of what you're capable of. But you know, you can only say that so many times before everyone thinks you're just posturing. How about you actually try for once in your life? You haven't even protect your princess at all. I'm surprised you still have any sense of self-worth after how worthless you've proven yourself."

"..."

Roko expected Gaurav to get angry at him and charge at him with his sword but Gaurav seemed to control his anger quite well. Or rather...it seemed like Roko's words didn't have any visible effect on the knight. This reaction was quite different from what Roko knew of Gaurav. If he had any sort of objections, he would have voiced it. So the only explanation was that Gaurav...couldn't bring himself to refute his statements? But then that meant-

Before Roko could continue thinking, Gaurav stood up and charged at Roko. Roko raised his sword in defense but Gaurav's stance had changed into a conservative one. Sword held in front of his body with both hands. Perfectly centered with no hints of making any large swings or complex attacks. This was going to be a battle of inches. No fancy footwork or swordplay.

Roko's sword clashed against Gaurav's as the knight stopped in front of him, each of their sword out of reach of the other. Roko gripped his sword with both hands as he solidified his stance and met Gaurav's duel with equal conviction. The air between them became a storm of blade strikes, each trying to outreach the other. Roko was hanging on by mimicking a few movements he remembered seeing in a kendo match online but he honestly wasn't making good headway. If he couldn't think of a way to win this exchange, it would come down to a test of endurance which he was pretty sure he was going to lose given Gaurav's notable constitution stat. So what was his play? Try to outmaneuver and overpower the more more conservative tactics that Gaurav was employing or make one big move out of nowhere to land a solid hit?

When next their blades clashed, Roko turned his blade over the top of Gaurav's, pushing it down as Roko stepped forward, sneaking the tip of his blade underneath the guard of Gaurav's s sword. Slashing upward with all his strength, Roko threw Gaurav's sword up into the air...but not disarming him. His attempt to remove Gaurav's sword only managed to throw Gaurav back a few steps as his arms were flung up as far as they could go. He had managed to get the knight to remove one hand from his sword but his other arm managed to keep its grip on the sword. Gaurav scowled at Roko's attempt at a trick and brought both of his hands back onto the handle of his sword. With his arms now in position to made a large swing, Gaurav slashed down at Roko's exposed body. In response, Roko swung his leg around and kicked upward, slamming his foot right into the butt of Gaurav's sword as it came down, the combating forces wrenching the sword out of Gaurav's hands, spinning into the air before it fell and stabbed into the ground a few paces behind him.

"Satisfied now?" Roko asked as he pointed his sword at Gaurav's neck, "Or do you have any other tricks you want to employ?"

"..."

Clapping erupted around them from Roko's side as the princesses looked onto the conclusion of their matches with brimming approval.

"Man, it's always so entertaining to see you in action, Roko!" Helena grinned.

"I can't say it felt like we did much for this arc but I'm glad we're here." Kaguya giggled.

"I could have done that." Roland muttered a bit begrudgingly.

"Yay, Roko!" Momo cheered.

"Now." Kaguya turned to Gaurav, "I believe we had a deal here."

Gaurav stared at everyone around him, outnumbered and outplayed. There was no way out for him. Struggling now would be pointless and dishonorable. Still, Gaurav looked at his situation with this uncharacteristic calm that he's been exhibiting for a while before he sighed.

"Quess."

The questing beast stood up, having watched his owner's match docilely. Gaurav looked at the partner he raised for close to a week now. And he said,

"Take Amathea and run."

"What?!" Everyone cried.

The questing beast nodded in complete understanding and jumped over the debris blockage it had created, escaping deeper into the forest.

"You rat bastard!" Helena cried as she and Roland began to give chase, "I knew we couldn't trust you!"

Roko turned to give chase as well.

"Wind."

The rattling of steel alerted Roko to a small whirlwind that pulled Gaurav's sword out of the ground, holding it up in the air before it pointed itself at Roko and launched towards him. Roko jumped back to avoid getting skewered but Gaurav simply grabbed his sword from midair as he charged towards Roko as well.

"Round three. This time, I won't hold anything back."

Roko planted his feet again to face Gaurav again as he closed in on him.

"Konchu Kyouen." Gaurav said as he began to swing his sword, "Kuwagata Twin Fang."

Roko readied his sword to block Gaurav's attack but in the corner of his eye, Roko could swear that another blade was there, swinging in the opposite direction as Gaurav aiming for his neck. Even if Roko had time to process what was going on in this split second, he didn't know what he could possibly do to block both attacks. So his body froze up as this phantom blade edged closer to this throat.

"Ichininkami Gari. Mamorigami."

Out of nowhere, Momo suddenly appeared, blocking Gaurav's sword. The phantom blade that Roko thought he saw dissipated into wind before it could reach him.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Momo frowned as he pushed Gaurav back, "First you go back on your word, now you decide to use a sword technique on someone who doesn't have a swordstyle? Don't you have any pride?"

Gaurav didn't answer as he scowled at Momo.

"Roko!" Momo called, "You go after the questing beast. I'll hold him off. Sad to say but he is out of your league."

"What?" Roko replied, still unsure of what quite happened. The strange attack that seemed to come out of nowhere. Momo appearing to protect him. Neither of which seemed to be any form of magic he was familiar with and Roko was still trying to process what happened.

"You go on ahead Roko!" Kaguya called, backing up Momo's orders, "Me and Mikado will support Momo and make sure this knight gets captured. Go rescue the princess."

Kaguya's orders brought Roko back down from his stunned confusion as he nodded and turned to join the chase for the mythical beast. Momo pushed Gaurav away from her and pointed her sword at him, "You've been acting strangely. What are you trying to do?"

"...My job."

"...I see. ...Ichininkami Gari. Royal Blade of the God Beast. Hereby challenges you to a duel."

"...Konchu Kyouen. Break Horn, First Soldier. I accept this challenge."

The two took a moment to ready themselves before they charged at each other.

It took a bit of effort to climb around the blockage that the questing beast had created. That same blockage meant they couldn't bring their horses along so Roko was left to catch up to the animal on foot, something that seemed pretty impossible given how quickly the questing beast was moving. There wasn't anyway that he could track the beast with now either but he could see Helena's Aves in the sky, flying over the forest. Hopefully by following him, Roko could find either Helena or the questing beast. After running for a bit, Roko could see himself closing in on Aves' location and through the thicket of trees, he could see Helena and Roland resting against some trees, clearly tired from exerting themselves.

"You okay?" Roko gasped as he ran up to them.

"Well..." Helena gulped, "We lost the questing beast. It's pretty slippery for a giant snake beast."

"We thought we could find it's footprints or something but..." Roland sighed, "It's fled into the thicker parts of the woods. Earth's hard as rock and there's more roots than grass. Maybe if we had a professional hunter or tracker we could pick something up but we don't really have anything handy like that."

"Woof!"

"Wait...Akagami?!" Helena cried as Momo's wolf ran over to them, "Are you here to help?!"

Akagami woofed affirmatively.

"Can you pick up Amathea or the questing beast's tracks boy?!"

Akagami sniffed the ground a bit before he barked again and began running off into the forest.

"We don't deserve dogs!" Helena cried gleefully as she followed the wolf.

"Wait. Hang on." Roland gasped as he staggered after Helena, "Do you know how hard it is to run in full armor?!"

Roko followed the two, having had less of a break than either of them. The three of them followed Akagami for a good while, squeezing through giant trees all competing for room and climbing overgrown boulders for a good while before they heard the cry of Aves overhead as he soared down to land on Helena's arm.

"Aves says we're pretty close." Helena reported.

"He can see them?" Roko asked as everyone stopped to catch their breath.

"They seemed to be resting near the entrance of a cave." Helena explained, "If we approach them from the front, they're going to just dash into the cave."

"Do we know where that cave leads to?" Roko asked.

"We do." Helena nodded, "It seems to lead out to the other side of the mountain."

"So we split up, circle around them and trap them from both side?"

"That's the idea." Helena nodded, "What do you think? Shall we split up?"

"You and Roland go around the mountain and wait for them to show up. Once you're in position, I'll chase them into the cave."

"Are you sure you don't want us to do the chasing?" Helena asked, "We've got Roland, he can take a hit or three. And I can use ice magic."

"If you can use ice magic, save it for blocking the exit when it tries to escape." Roko replied, "Stopping an incoming train is more trouble than starting it."

"Yeah but you're going to be facing an entire questing beast. I don't think it's going to just run away like that."

"With any luck, I can get Amathea to help calm it down." Roko replied, "But first we have to retrieve her."

"Alright." Helena nodded as if she completely expected this, "We'll see you on the other side then."