Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24736819-20150308140423/@comment-5583506-20150417013109

Kashmira tried to land a violent blow against Kyrie's head, but the Nord's nimbleness even seemed to surprise the Khajiit and the newly anointed dodged the attack with ease, only to retaliate with a vicious punch to Kashmira's undefended face.

The Khajiit snarled. "You fight dirty!"

"Coming from the one who slaughtered the entire Sanctum", hissed Kyrie and readied herself in a new battle stance.

"I... I didn't want to! I was not myself!" lamented Kashmira. "I was so mad... at all of you..."

"And that made it simply okay to go around butchering innocents?!" roared Kyrie and swung her sword wildly out in front of her, hoping to at least scratch the Khajiit or rip open a wound that would cause her to bleed out. "I don't know what kind of shit you have been going through in your life, and I simply don't care! What you did is no excuse for a lifetime of bad upraising!"

Kashmira really didn't want to have this conversation. She blamed herself probably more than anyone else blamed her. She tried to ignore Kyrie's outbursts to the best of her abilities, as they made her unfocused on the duel. She loved Ra'Danji, now when she finally had a reason to be living and she wouldn't let this... student... take that away from her. She wouldn't give fate that pleasure.

It had seemed that all her life she had simply been a plaything for the Gods. They had created her in order to see how much pain, suffering and humiliation a living being could withstand before they snapped. And she had indeed snapped. Now she refused to accept her role further. She wasn't just some rag the Gods could toss to the side once they realised that their "mortal experiment" had been successful. She would fight them and her fate to her very dying breath... She considered Kyrie to be a test, nothing more... and certainly not her last...

"I have you now!" growled Kyrie and lunged for Kashmira's head.

The Khajiit flinched and pounced straight underneath the blade and into the chest of Kyrie, knocking her on her back, punching the air out of her.

"Dammit!" cursed Kyrie as she had too late realised the trick. "I will cut you for that!"

"I don't want to fight you anymore!" objected Kashmira and raised her stick.

Kyrie replied by grabbing the Khajiit by the neck and pulling her close enough to knock their skulls together forcefully. Kashmira whimpered in pain as she collapsed backwards from the heavy impact. Kyrie got up on unsteady legs and raised the sword to bring it down on Kashmira.

The Khajiit rolled to the side as the blade buried itself deep into the ground where she had been lying, delivering a violent kick to Kyrie's face right afterwards.

"Damn you!" spat Kyrie and slashed blindly after Kashmira as blood trickled down from her nose. "I will get you, you hear?!"

Kashmira danced around the Nord and locked her sword arm between her own, twisting the sword from her hand with a cracking sound. Kyrie screamed in pain and frustration. Kashmira then continued to put her stick straight underneath the Nord's check and pulled it backwards, getting ready to strangle her with it, if necessary.

"Listen to me!" wheezed Kashmira. "Stop fighting!"

Kyrie struggled to be free, trying to grab the Khajiit behind her own back. "Never! Betrayer! You betrayed us all! Ran'Jinro trusted you and you spat in his face!"

Kashmira tightened her grip around the stick. "I don't care what you believe!" she growled. "I still took you down with nothing but this stick, Knight. You are not yet ready to face me!"

"I will... I will..."

Kashmira's grip turned even tighter. "You will nothing! I have someone I love now! I have someone worth living for! And I am not gonna let you or anyone else take that happiness away from me now! Never! I won't accept it, you hear?! So why don't you just turn head and go back to wherever the hell you came from?!"

The Khajiit finally released Kyrie, but not before giving her a forceful kick in the back, sending the Nord flying into the ground. "I... can't", sighed Kyrie. "I made a wov to Ran'Jinro... that I would bring you back..."

Kashmira lowered her eyebrows. "I can't... and neither will I. No matter how much I respect Ran'Jinro, I can't abide his last wish. He knew that it would mean death for me."

"Perhaps death is preferable to the life you have lived?" speculated Kyrie and wiped the blood off her nose.

Kashmira smiled shyly. "At one time perhaps. But that was then. Nevermore will I be that weak and fragile person. I am reborn now and I intend to remain that way." She then looked down at Ran'Jinro's sword dropped on the ground and tossed it to Kyrie. "When the time comes that you are strong enough to take me down... I will... follow... to whatever end awaits me", sighed Kashmira. "But until that day comes. I will remain here, living the life I should have been offered a long time ago."

The Khajiit then turned around and left. Kyrie looked at the disgraced Knight with a mix of confusion, awe and strange respect. Kashmira had been right. She had felt it during their duel. The Khajiit was superior in any possible outcome in a fight. Kyrie was not yet ready to fight her and bring her to justice. She needed... experience...

She took up Ran'Jinro's sword and accepted her defeat, slowly lumbering her way through the forest. She would have to come up with a new plan in order to fulfill the old cat's last wish... and soon...