Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24736819-20141208164428/@comment-5583506-20150106035742

(REALLY LONG POST!)

Kashmira slided back two steps to avoid getting hit by Ran'Jinro's powerful blow. The Khajiit looked perhaps old and weathered, but underneath that appearance his true self emerged... with techniques unlike anything she had ever seen.

"Impressive", he said when he saw that she evaded his attack. "Few would have been able to notice what I was trying to accomplish there."

"The Vul have given me the strength to see through all your dirty Jun tricks", she snarled. "Hit me with your worst, old man!"

He nodded. "So be it."

He danced around at the speed of light, spinning halway through the air before he reached out his sword arm in a vicious attempt to skewer her. He came soaring down like a spear from above. He almost penetrated her skull with the tip of his blade, hadn't she been fast enough to deflect the blow. And her way to so seemed to surprise even him, judging by his expression.

She had simply held out her sword in a perfect steady angle and awaited for him to land, until she cut straight upwards with flat side, blocking his blade just as effectively as if though he had tried to stab a mountain wall.

As he staggered back through the air he quickly swung his sword upwards to make sure to riposte any incoming attack when he was the most vulnerable.

"I am... truly impressed", he said. "I can't recall that I ever teached you defensive techniques like that."

"You didn't", she spat. "While you were busy dragging your cloth behind you, just like the rest of those other Masters, I was getting beaten up by the other Apprentices! Had to learn techniques like those in order to survive in this hell-hole!"

"Kashmira, I..."

"Enough talk!" she growled. She didn't want to hear him say anything that might cause her to lower her guard out of sympathy for the old man. "Fight me! You said you would destroy me, well here I am!"

He swallowed hard and took a steady grip around his handle. He was ready for the next round. "That I did", he sighed.

Kashmira swung her sword through the air, urging him to come closer. She was too infuriated to see where his gaze was headed.

Without as much as an alarm, Ran'Jinro sprinted sideways to the wall without loosing eyecontact with his foe and positioned himself with one foot against the wall and the other in a sprint-ready position on the floor.

Kashmira cocked her head. Has he always been that flexible?

Ran'Jinro took a deep breath and pushed himself away from the wall with one strong motion of his feet. He came soaring at her, carving his sword around through the air in the shape of an eight, his robes flowing as if they were wings carrying him several inches from the ground.

Kashmira had no clue of what to do in that moment. It all went too fast and his attack was too confusing for her to figure out where she would try and counter-attack. But her newly aquired strength from the Vul allowed her to see through his attack by pure instincts. She reflected on memories of her training in the past years and before the old man had reached her, she positioned her blade just in the right angle for him to cut off his own head.

He noticed the stance in time and quickly repositioned his blade so that the two weapons were interwined and locked together in one single stroke. He then continued to position his available arm right on top of her hand.

''Her hand? By the Light, that's not her hand! What has she done?!''

He was distracted out of sentimentality for a brief moment, only coming to grip when Kashmira's head came rushing in towards his forehead, banging the two skulls together violently.

His vision went blurry for a couple of seconds and all the world seemed to be spinning and made out of pain and confusion. Just when he regained consciousness he noticed too late her strange mechanical hand charging against his face. It struck a terrible blow to him, cracking several bones within his weak, old head.

He groaned and collapsed to his knees. He spat blood. It hurt. But it wasn't the pain of the wounds that hurt, it was the fact that it had finally come to this moment were the girl he loved would be his ultimate demise.

"Do... do your job, Kashmira", he wheezed.

She towered up over him like a dark revenant in the ancient tales. "Something on your mind before I end your misery, old man?"

He coughed. More blood came out. ''I guess I strained myself a little too much... It doesn't matter... I fought bravely... No man could have done less...''

Kashmira looked upon the blood seeping out of the old cat's mouth. She recognised immediately that the blood wasn't her doing. "Are you... are you ill or something?"

He coughed and wheezed. ''Have I lost my ability to speak as well? ''He merely nodded. "That's right", he said with a voice as vague and weak as a whisper. "Have been for quite some time now, but don't let that stop your blade, Kashmira. A warrior must do what she has been ordered to do, whether it's fighting sick old men, or untrained students..."

"Well then", she said and placed her hand on her sword. "Are those your final words?"

He shook his head. "No. I don't plan to utter my last words kneeling like a coward."

To her astonishment, the old man slowly rose from the ground on unsteady legs. He then grabbed his sword again, seemingly ready for the next round.

''Is this fool never gonna stop? ''she reflected. If it isn't my blade that will kill him, it will surely be his own heart.

He coughed, but tried to contain it as best as he could. "I am ready, Kashmira. But know this: no matter which one of us who falls here today, know that I have and always will love you."

Her jaw dropped. Her hands trembled as he said the words. ''No, dammit! Don't let him sway you.''

"I love you, Kashmira, my girl", he smiled assuringly. "I always have. You always brought light into my life no matter what was going on the Sanctum. And I remember everything. I remember the day you won your first trial against another Apprentice, the smile on your face that day... I can't remember that you ever smiled as much as you did in that moment."

She tried to hold back her tears and steadied her blade again in a new attempt to charge straight in and finish her former Master once and for all. But her legs wouldn't move and her arms felt as if though the were filled with lead.

"I remember the day I scolded you for hiding one of my scrolls, when in fact it was just my forgetfulness that played tricks on me and that I had it stuck in my belt all along. But you had run off crying and when no one else payed any attention, I ordered the search party myself. We finally found you hiding in a small crawlspace underneath the training area", he chuckled. "You had fallen asleep there and so I carried you into my chambers and repayed you for my harsh scolding by buying you treats."

''I don't want to remember this! ''She couldn't hide the fact that tears were streaming down her eyes and that her sword had found its way to the ground.

"You may not remember that there were happy moments, Kashmira. But I do. And I treasure each memory I have of them. When the time was right you could be such a cheerful little fellow, oblivious of all the problems you had in the world. And when things were bad you showed your temper." He shrugged. "Your mother's temper. You are the very spitting image of her, you know?"

''How could I know? I never knew her? But I know you did... and you loved her as well... just not in the same way...''

"Cutting me down wouldn't be cruel, Kashmira. But to rob me of all the happy memories I have of you, that is cruel."

"Ran'Jinro", she blubbered.

He dropped his sword to the ground and held out his arms to her. She walked with heavy and sloppy steps all the way up to him until she collapsed with her face buried deep into his shoulder where she began to cry out loudly.

He embraced her and held her tight. ''Somehow she is still that child so eager to prove herself... and still so lost...''

"Wh-What should I d-do?" she snivelled. "I... I have ruined everything! I have shamed my... my father... my parents... I have... killed all the students... I have destroyed everything I used to believe in... I have betrayed you... You who always loved me and cared for me no matter who I was... and I... I have betrayed myself... What should I do?"

"Repent, dear child", he said. "Accept the fact that you will be accused and apprehended for your crimes. I cannot save you from this, but I could soften the punishment."

She swallowed. There really was no other way out from this. She knew however that if she were to surrender then the other Masters would surely crave her head, and then there would be nothing Ran'Jinro could do. Her life was forfeit...

"Now", he said. "You really should..."

"MASTER! GET AWAY FROM HER!" shouted a voice.

Kashmira shot open her eyes and threw herself away from the old man as a sword landed where she had stood.

Kyrie came charging in, swingin her sword wildly around. "Master, are you alright?!"

"Kyrie", he said. "Stop, you don't under..."

"How dare you go between me and Ran'Jinro?!" growled Kashmira as she plucked up her sword. "I will gut you were you stand for your insolence!"

"I am ready when you are, you..." Kyrie looked further away in the hallway and noticed Belinda's dead gaze staring back at her. "You... you killed Belinda?"

"Oh, so that was what she was called?" said Kashmira mockingly and tried to sound as if it didn't matter her none. "It's hard to remember an insignificent kill."

"YOU DIRTY TRAITOR!" shouted Kyrie and lunged at her. "I WILL KILL YOU!"

As the pair engaged in a violent dance of lunges, ripostes and attacks, Ran'Jinro tried to intercept them as the couple fought their way further and further down the hallway.

"Girls", he pleaded, "please stop... Please stop fighting..."

His voice failed him. ''No... not again... ''"Girls..."