Triumph or Death (Part 1)

Standing before him, shrouded in moonlight was a feminine silhouette. In one hand she held a rapier, in the other a spiked whip. He was facing the leader of the bandit group, and his eyes went wide at this realization. Of all the people that he considered having to fight he had not in his wildest dreams thought that the leader of the bandits would choose to attack an eight-year-old child.

"Hello young man." The bandit leader spoke these words in her melodic voice as a smile spread across her lips. "I don't know why they would bring someone so young out here into the midst of a fight, but I will make sure that you are an example to teach them not to make such mistakes in the future. Not that there will be anyone to tell the story when we finish with you all." With those words she began to walk toward Jien at a casual pace. She treated the battles around her as if it was nothing more than air. She didn't even mind how several of the guards, though they were fighting with the various bandits turned their sharp gazes toward her, warning her that they would be willing to take an injury to remove the danger to their young lord.

The attention only made her smile grow more vicious. This would be a lesson for everyone that came after them in the future. After she was about ten feet from Jien she raised her arm, the spiked whip reacting to her movement and arching into the air. That movement forced Jien to focus his everything on where the whip would go. He wasn't sure he would be fast enough to face that weapon. Her rapier was one thing, but a whip was a flexible weapon and if used correctly could accelerate to a large degree with little effort. The fact that the weapon was spiked made it all that more dangerous. If he was stuck by it there was no knowing if it would just be pain he would be experiencing or if he would be severely wounded.

The movement of the arching whip seemed to take an eternity in Jien's eyes. He saw every movement, and then it suddenly vanished, a blur left in its place. Almost immediately a crack like a rolling thunder ran through the clearing. Jien knew that he had failed to even track the whips movement. He was waiting for pain, a sign of injury or perhaps even the feeling of death if his opponent had managed to strike him fatally. He waited one moment, and then another but no pain came. It was only after a few more moments that he looked up to see a long sword held above his head.

Jien wanted to look behind himself to see who had seemingly protected him, but he didn't dare to take his eyes off of the bandit leader. He didn't have to wait long to know however as Lord Losler stepped around from behind him. "I'm glad you are alright." he stated without looking back from his opponent. Earl of course wanted to check more on his son, but he had to make sure that he took care of the threat first.

"Seems you have some attachment to the boy." the bandit leader said with an amused glint in her eyes. "I guess I will keep you alive long enough to see me take his life then." With that said another crack rang out in the area and this time Jien could clearly seen the result. The whip had moved incredibly fast, but Earl had moved with a swift and graceful action to deflect the whip off course with his blade, beginning to walk closer to his opponent.

The bandit leader didn't seem intimidated by the fact that her blows had been deflected not once but twice in a row. She took steps forward as well, flick her wrist quickly in an off-beat rhythm resulting in numerous gunshot like sounds ringing out in succession. For each of these sounds a lash of her whip would fly at Lord Losler from different angles. He continued to block them rather easily, knocking them off course to make sure that as they were getting closer that the reach of the whip wouldn't reach Jien behind him. 

The trend continued until they were only a few feet from each other. At that time the leader flicked her wrist with a widening smile. Lord Losler went to deflect the whip once more but at the moment he began to move he was forced to forcefully adjust his stance to avoid the rapier that had struck out like a viper from the leaders' other hand.

The forced adjustment in stance created a slight deviation in Lord Losler's deflection of the whip. Its' spiked leather arched just past the defending blade, but it didn't seem to be aiming at him in the first place. It was aiming to where his back was now facing, the place where a calm looking Jien was now standing.

Jien had watched the short fight between his father and leader, keeping his eyes on the movements of the whip until he started being able to keep decent track of its movements. He couldn't see every movement, but he felt confident enough to at least dodge them by focusing on the leaders' wrist. By keeping track of the moments that the leader flicked her wrist and the angle at which she held the whip he could estimate the angle and location that would be struck. This was yet another skill that Emily and Mark were trying to burn into his muscle memory.

After getting used to the movement of the whip Jien had wanted to use the cover his father was purposely providing to find an opening in their opponent's defenses. He wanted to at least make it easier for his father to subdue her. Even if he was nothing but a distraction, if he could do so well enough for Earl to finish the fight he would be satisfied.

Seeing the whip heading his way didn't seem to faze Jien at this time. He had been circulating the use of the simple wind spell even as the whip was about to reach his shoulder. Right as one of the spikes was about to pierce into the leather of his armor he pushed off with his left leg. A ball of compressed air appeared below his heel as he pressed down, shattering and sending a powerful force up his leg. He used that momentum to spin on his right heel, avoiding the blow from the whip, before continuing to move as if skating around his father and striking out with his own rapier from beneath his father's armpit toward the leaders' chest.

It wasn't optimal or ideal to attack in this way but with his shorter legs and lack of arm reach he wasn't able to shift all the way around his fathers' stance to strike out at their opponent. He did what he could, but his attack was easily parried by the leaders' rapier before she struck out again with the whip after taking a short step back. The whip was aiming at the same shoulder that it had been last time, forcing Earl to shift his stance and blade in to the left to defend.

This movement left Jien in the opening and the bandit leader didn't hesitate to take advantage, stepping forward once again toward Jien, her rapier aiming for his throat and the kill.