The First Game, The First Night (6)

Going back in time a bit, Cyrus walked through the door and noticed Minerva conveniently following him in. He veered to the left as if he was looking around, allowing Minerva to pass him, then shut the door behind whilst locking it in one deft move.

Minerva looked at him with a questioning look, her body posture automatically tensing up in preparation.

"This outcome should have been obvious to us both, Imran has said we are so similar after all. You are hiding things, I am hiding things, whatever. But, if we wish to be able to work together then we need to…" broke off Cyrus, as a tug from his other half stopped the words 'establish dominance' in its tracks.

"Hmm, perhaps that was not a good way to put it…" thought Cyrus as he continued to stalk toward Minerva, causing her to back up step by step.

He put a hand to his mask, taking it off for a moment before continuing

"If we are to work together then we need to come to have even the smallest ounce of trust. I know very little as to how these affairs work, truthfully, I have never had a peer by my side until I met you and Imran" said Cyrus, his voice now lighter than before.

"So, I thought: How about I do what my mentor had always done for me when words failed. Speech through combat" said Cyrus with a slight smile as he once again put on the mask.

"Trust… ironically I do not trust such a thing. Bonds are fragile oh naïve me, but I will humor you this one time" thought the masked Cyrus.

He drew his sword, his main one, and took the On-Point stance.

"Draw your weapon Minerva. While what my other half said was true, I also personally wish to see your skill first-hand" said Cyrus.

Minerva, with narrowed eyes, contemplated her situation before resolving herself while drawing her sabre.

"Very well. I have also been interested in your prowess as well, especially since you seem to show me up at every avenue. As for trust, we shall see. That is not a thing so easily earned."

With her own weapon drawn, she raised her sabre and pointed it towards Cyrus with the edge facing inwards before turning her hand to cause the length of the sabre to act as more of a shield than sword or spear.

"A sabre user… I have yet to fight a skilled one. While her on the other hand has most likely seen some form of longsword fighting, perhaps even the Legionaries very own that I have adopted for my own purposes" thought Cyrus as he stepped forward with a quick probing thrust.

Minerva easily received the thrust by slightly turning her wrist, making the sabre mimic the spin of a windmill, that caught the thrust and pushed the opposing sword out of harms way. She the continued the motion, using her entire arm this time to strengthen the move, while raising the sword up and over her head and bringing it down in one fluid motion.

Cyrus, who had only sent the thrust halfheartedly to learn how a sabre properly defends, simply made use of the healthy amount of space he left himself to step back out of the sabre's path.

The two continued to sound the other out, slowly learning the ins and out of the displayed amount of skill each side was showing. Learning how the other reacted in certain situations, how they utilized what guard in one situation and how they utilized space and distance to weave in and out of attacks.

These series of attacks would no doubt look quite dangerous and fast to the layman, but to them they were merely going through the motions whilst leaving plenty of strength and space to react to any sudden changes…almost as if they were training off one another.

"How fascinating, with just a different type of sword everything one does changes so drastically. Not to mention this military sabre she is using, what odd movements that seem pointless and flashy but are actually extremely calculated and precise…but… I must win this fight in the end if my plans are to come to fruition" thought Cyrus as he quickly summoned his full strength.

Deflecting a hack from Minerva, he quickly transitioned into Wrath and used his full might to send a blow with the full force of a mountain behind it. In reaction, Minerva made for the same move that Cyrus had done with their opening engagement, a quick backstep making use of the space she allowed herself. What she did not expect, was that the harsh downwards swing would suddenly transition into a mid On Point thrust following her movements completely. Instead of trying to fruitlessly block with her sabre, which would be unable to withstand the force with her messed up footing, she instead used her free hand at her side to quickly wave upwards as if she were trying to stop Cyrus' sword with her hand.

Not bothering to stop, as he reasoned he could just heal her hand after the fact, Cyrus pressed his attack. At the last moment, however, he activated his Mors domain and burned a large portion of his will to create a pool of Liquid death essence at his feet whilst keeping a portion of his sense on it to stop it from corroding himself. Not even a fraction of a second had passed, Cyrus' thrust was still on par to meet with Minerva's defenseless body, when everything changed.

Below Cyrus a small sheet of ice formed, which threatened to trip him and deliver him a quick defeat. In front of him a wall of ice formed causing his thrust to pierce through it and get stuck as his hands hit the ice stopping the sword from continuing its path. Both the ice below and in front were constructed quite hastily, which allowed the death essence at his feet to easily eat through any ice that got close to it and his sword in front to be freed by pulling it up and out which smashed the fragile wall to pieces.

Making use of this small amount of time afforded to her, Minerva recollected herself and took an aggressive stance ready to continue her assault. Her sabre was pointed towards Cyrus, who kicked the rest of the ice wall down and melted any ice he stopped on with his own death essence, with one hand at her side ready to aggress.

"Very good, I can safely say you are deserving of rank 10. You reacted to an impossible situation magnificently and got out so cleanly that it almost looked easy" said Cyrus.

"Thanks for the praise?" said Minerva, unsure of what her opponents plan was.

"You most likely excel me in the sword by more than just a bit, what with your ability to escape that carefully laid trap showing this easily…. But…" said Cyrus with a playful smile, his words slowly stopping short.

Minerva paid extreme attention to whatever her opponent was planning and so she quickly noticed an abnormality behind Cyrus.

"I am no swordsman, it is but a hobby truthfully" said Cyrus, his figure slowly disappearing right before Minerva's very eyes. His shadow behind him grew larger and wider, with Cyrus slowly disappearing into it.

Realizing what was happening she quickly sent a precise cut towards Cyrus to stop him from completing his spell, alas, what greeted her was a volley of projectiles that resembled the way Caliban had thrown not too long ago. Forced to block, less she waste even more time, she continued to advance as waves of projectiles were thrown towards her. By the time she was able to complete her assault on Cyrus, he had been swallowed by the shadow completely and it had merged with the natural shadow cast by the lighting up above on to the benches that surrounded them on all sides.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance at forgetting how she was actually fighting a powerful mage, at least for his age, and not a swordsman she took a defensive stance once more whilst letting her magical sense forth to detect where Cyrus was. Much to her surprise, was the fact that she could not detect the altering of the worlds natural shadow essence that any beginner mage would leave…specifically, she did detect a number of clear manipulations but they were too numerous to all be her opponent.

From within the shadows, making adept use of an inspired spell he witnessed from the Umbral Order, Cyrus thought

"While I cannot hide my traces perfectly, it seems applying what little I could glean from Caligo's barrier spell has hidden enough to make my little trick work."

Continuing his trap, he slowly began diffusing mass amounts of misty death essence around Minerva. Slowly but surely it began to increase in volume and density, as well as to begin constricting thus reducing the amount of area Minerva could move in.

Not being blind to the world around her, Minerva stepped forward and attempted to break through the mist while it was still not large enough in volume to outright force her into submission. While she stepped, she began to look where the mist was being created in order to indirectly trace where Cyrus was.

Not allowing this obvious counter to his plan, Cyrus broke his concealment by throwing one of his last remaining flying knives at Minerva which temporarily stopped her tracks. He then threw his last remaining flash bottle at the ground in front of his opponent, followed by the last of his projectiles. If all went correctly, the bottle would blind her allowing the following projectiles to easily incapacitate his opponent.

The bottle landed and ruptured on the ground, stealing Minerva of her sight as planned. What did not go as planned, however, was the fact that instead of dodging, dropping, or perhaps guessing as Cyrus had thrown the knives for she instead quickly created a wall of ice in front of her once more. The projectiles were all stopped and stuck into the wall, while Minerva had bought herself time to regain her vision.

Alas, while her move saved her from checkmate in the end it was still a delaying move by Cyrus. With enough time secured, the volume and density of the mist had reached a critical mass making it neigh impossible to traverse without death, or something close to it, being the result. Not only that, but the area that was not covered by the mist was slowly decreasing as it constricted the space around her more and more.

Melting her ice wall, Minerva looked at her grim situation while trying to think of a way out.

"An admirable battle from start to finish, but the battle has come to a close. Sub-" said Cyrus, stopping as he once again felt a strong tug from his other half.

"Admit defeat…" finished the masked Cyrus, a little annoyed.

Minerva, however, was silent, as instead of admitting defeat she tensed her leg muscles bringing them fully taut and broke into a desperate and fast sprint into the mist towards the location where Cyrus had revealed himself to be.

Surprised at how his expected scenario did not come to fruition, Cyrus was almost too late to draw his sword to deflect the blow that came out of the shadows. The sword strikes did not stop there, as his deflect turned into a parry which turned into a desperate block as he was being overpowered in sword technique. Not only was his opponent better in general at the task, but he had not the time to properly align his footing nor take a stance which made all his moves inefficient and weaker than normal.

In just a quick three exchanges Cyrus found his quickly constructed defense crumpled, allowing Minerva's sabre to strike at his neck. A move that without a doubt, would have ended in his defeat.

The sabre was destined to not meet its mark.

Right before victory had been achieved, the blade fell from Minerva's grasp as both she and Cyrus watched it fall to the ground.

Looking at her murky black eyes, Cyrus could see an unyielding will mired in self-loathing��alas her body could not match her iron will as she collapsed on the ground finally succumbing to the ghastly wounds she received by charging through the mist.

Looking down upon her, Cyrus noted that her already pale skin had barely a single hint of life contained within it and the skin on her hands and neck broke in several areas causing the floor to taste her blood. While her face itself was thin and pallor with sunken in cheeks, all from the death essence greedily absorbing anything it touched. Her well fitted robe was, surprisingly, in decent shape other than a few holes in which the fabric was devoured by the corrosive essence and slight tears from the last desperate struggle she put up.

Cyrus, recovering from the shock and surprise of the situation that he had perfectly envisioned and planned for blowing up in his face, continued to look down upon her while ignoring the urges from his other half for a moment. Instead, he fully considered as to what just happened.

"Humans…humanity…an unbreaking will, an unyielding spirit…stubbornness and the drive to do the impossible born from a myriad of emotions that allowed one to do what should be impossible…" thought the current Cyrus as he called upon memories of his counter part and comparing it to the current scenario.

A low chuckle resounded from the inner depths of his throat, slowly rolling up and out starting like the rumbling of distant thunder to breaking out in a maddening laughter that most would only expect from an insane individual.

"How interesting, it seems my own instincts keep getting in the way of things. How curious, how fascinating…" thought Cyrus as he leaned down and began to use all of his remaining will to heal Minerva.

Speaking aloud to the seemingly unconscious Minerva, Cyrus said

"You… are simply enthralling. What could possibly motivate you so to willingly take the least likely and most insane path in the face of certain demise… especially when there was no need to almost die for a simple contest between peers...how curious, how enchanting, how enrapturing…"

If one were to see Cyrus' face at this given moment, they would see a wide smile on his face. Not one of sadism, of cruelty, of sarcasm or even of sinister intentions. You would see a pure smile of utter enjoyment, of glee, of a child having discovered a new toy under their bed upon waking in the morning.