"Ha. Ha. *Well then.*"
Jorthan let out a long breath. His grip on the axe loosened. He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and stood up straight.
*Whoosh.*
Steam rose from his skin. His muscles tightened, filled out, the kind of slow swell that comes just before a man decides he's done holding back. A faint white light crept along the edge of his axe — unsteady at first, then locking in. Behind him his men did the same — stances dropped, weapons brightened, the clearing going quiet in that particular way it does when everyone in it has made a decision.
He spun his axe and swung at the helmeted knight.
*Slash.*
The knight stepped aside without urgency. "*Still leading with the axe. Some things don't change.*"
*Dhap. BOOM.*
The axe hit the ground instead. The earth didn't just crack — it cratered, a deep gouge splitting open like the ground itself had flinched.
"*He he he.*" The knight tilted his head. "*Now show me your real power.*"
Jorthan pulled the axe free and rolled his shoulder. He came again — faster, less form, more force. The knight caught it on his sword. The blade cracked crossguard to tip but held, and the knight absorbed the weight without shifting his feet.
He moved like none of it touched him. Like this was something to pass the time.
That bothered Jorthan more than the crack didn't bother the knight.
---
On the other side of the clearing, three of them hit Jorald at once.
Coordinated. One pulling his attention left, two pressing right, overlapping their timing just enough to make clean blocks difficult. Jorald answered with blue aura — meeting each strike, turning it, spending energy steadily.
He was holding. But only just.
Then —
*Slash.*
A scratch across his armor. Small. It landed.
Jorald went still.
"*Huu.*" One slow breath out. "*Playtime's over.*"
A pause.
"*Dual Blade.*"
His blue aura didn't surge — it shifted. Bled toward white at the edges, then white all the way through, both swords rising together.
The three attackers saw the shift and read it wrong. They thought it was a window. They lunged.
*Slash. Thud.*
"*AHHHHH — MY HAND —*"
One man's arm hit the ground before the rest of him understood what had happened.
Jorald was already turning. Pivot, plant, kick —
*BAM.*
"*Kugh —*"
The second man cleared the ground entirely. He hit the treeline and stayed there. Jorald stood in the stillness that followed, white aura burning steady around him.
---
Back across the clearing, Jorthan and the knight were still going.
Jorthan swung. The knight slipped it — kicked, punched — every counter smooth, every exchange followed by that same quiet laugh. "*He he he.*"
*Tch. Who is this guy? None of my strikes are landing. I've pushed aura through my whole body — speed, power, everything I have — and he's countering like it costs him nothing.*
*Back there Jorald got his opening only because his men gave it to him — they pushed him, cornered him, made him use Dual Blade. But this one — he's not giving me anything. Not a single gap.*
*I can't wait for a chance that isn't coming. I have to make one.*
He leaped. Every last drop of aura pulled inward, compressed into his arms, his axe, this one moment.
*CLUNG. TUCK. CLUNG.*
The knight's sword shattered.
The axe bit into the knight's shoulder — and stopped. Like it had struck solid iron buried under flesh. The impact rattled up Jorthan's arms all the way to his spine.
"*Hm. You actually made me feel that.*" A pause. "*I'll give you that much — bastard.*"
Jorthan's eyes went wide. Not from the words — from what he *felt* underneath that impact. A piece of the knight's helmet cracked and fell away.
He stepped back.
*This energy...*
"*Say that again.*"
"*What — bastard?*"
"*Bastard. Bastard.* Keep saying it. What are you going to do?"
Jorthan's eyes flared yellow. His whole body lit up.
"*HAHHHHH —*"
He spun his axe so fast the trees around him splintered at the roots. Vibrations rippled off the blade. He charged.
"*YAHHH —*"
*BOOM.*
The axe tore through the knight's armor. Pieces scattered everywhere.
Jorthan grinned. "*Now talk.*"
Then he stopped.
*This energy... and this black...*
His breathing went heavy. His eyes dropped to the knight's body — from the neck down, it had changed. Darkness had taken it. Not shadow. Not aura. Something that didn't belong to a living thing at all. Black so complete it looked like a hole cut into the shape of a man.
"*Huh. You were always weak,*" the knight said.
From his open hand, darkness gathered. Slow. Patient. It thickened, lengthened, hardened into shape.
A blade. Built from nothing.
The Void Sword.
"*You —*" Jorthan's voice came out wrong. "*You're alive?*"
"*What's the matter?*" The knight smiled. Crooked. Easy. The worst kind. "*Scared?*"
Jorthan's eyes blazed.
He screamed and charged — everything, every drop, every year behind the axe.
"*You monster — I'm not scared — it's YOU — hiding all this time — you coward — you crazy —*"
*SLASH. CRACK. BOOM.*
One swing of the black blade.
Half of Jorthan was gone. Shredded apart like the blow had decided what remained wasn't worth keeping together.
But he didn't fall.
He stood. One second. Two. A strange smile on his bloody face.
"*Uh... fuck...*"
Then he dropped. Hit the dirt. Didn't move again.
---
Jorald had finished his side too.
He turned toward the knight. "*My Lord.*" His twin blades joined into one at his side. Around him the bodies lay in pieces — some missing heads, some missing limbs, none of them matching.
"*Huu...*" Jorald let a slow breath out, a grin settling on his face. "*Been a long time since I actually enjoyed myself.*"
The knight surveyed the wreckage. "*You're not wrong.*"
A beat of quiet between them. The kind that belongs to men who've stood in worse silences together.
Then — both of them felt it at the same time.
Footsteps. Calm. Deliberate. Someone who wasn't hiding and wasn't hurrying.
A voice came from the tree line.
"*How are you, Master Rudious?*"
Both men turned.
---
**[Chapter 41— End]**