The Ancients

by Adam-Clay Webb

  But would their spiritual training and powerful weapons make their endurance limitless? Even they, like most everyone else who was still alive and fighting, had a breaking point. In a near telepathic moment after slicing through enemies, the two regrouped, standing beside each other. Blade’s right hand was vibrating manically. Kyle’s shirt was torn and sliced to thin threads that ran across his steel chest. His muscles were hard as bone. His biceps were bulging with power that made his sword a feather. His dark brown hair rested on his shoulders, wild strands passing over his face. Blade looked over at him. It had struck him quite abruptly how strong Kyle had become. Even while Blade’s body vibrated under an excited exhaustion, Kyle was completely still. His breathing was almost as if he had just woken from a mild dream. Blade smirked through his heavy breathing. He saw that Kyle was nowhere near his limit.

  Blade narrowed his eyes and peered out into the distant skies. “A dragon,” he said. Indeed, a wind dragon was fast approaching. Still looking up at the approaching beast, they slew the soldiers who rushed on to them easily. But even the possessed soldiers stopped and cleared away as the dragon came near. It was around twice the size of a horse.

  “I knew he would come,” Kyle said. “I have been waiting for him.”

  Zakashi jumped down from his dragon, landing from a twenty-foot fall. He crouched slightly, a wild grin on his face. The dragon stirred up a wind as it took off, quickly leaving their vision.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Zakashi said. “I was held up dealing with a few small armies. Sometimes even a few hundred thousand men can be a handful.” Then he snickered. Blade readied his stance. The handle of Zakashi’s legendary sword jutted out from his long black coat which hadn’t even a single splatter of blood or wear on it. Zakashi grabbed it quickly and made a quick short tug, seeming to pull it out only a few centimetres.

  The next moment, as Zakashi stood there, holding is sword in its scabbard still, blood spewed from every soldier within half a mile as their sliced bodies hit the ground. Similarly, the few elemental giants that were around crumbled, being cut down by an unseen force, by a speed that left no room for escape, or even calculation.

  Blade’s shaking became more pronounced now. He glanced over at Kyle again, who after witnessing such incredibleness, focused his eyes on the enemy with no sign of fear. Is this really…

  “I’d hate for any of them to get in our way,” Zakashi said. There was the graceful, refined, glassy sound as Zakashi pulled his blade from the scabbard slowly. Blade clenched his teeth. That sound, he thought, belonged to him, and none else. Watching Zakashi hold the sacred blade given to him by the First Elder was like a man watching his wife thrashed by his enemy. “My small piece of the cake is to wipe Libson clean of every breathing thing,” Zakashi said. “I figure if I start with anything but you too, I might be humbugged along the way. Get ready, here I--”

  Zakashi raised his sword in a defence almost swifter than he had ever needed. Blade might have been willing to stand about and wait for speeches, but Kyle certainly was not. Zakashi’s wrist vibrated almost visibly under the weight of Kyle’s attack. The Sword Sage felt a waving pain hit every cell in his body at once. It was like being stabled infinitely in an infinitely small moment. Zakashi stared into the hard, dirt eyes of Kyle.

  Huh?

  Zakashi seemed to disappear in a burst of speed as Blade somehow snaked up behind him to attack.

  Kyle spotted Zakashi a few meters off in another direction. So he is able to move so swiftly even after bearing the effect of this sword, Kyle contemplated. I had expected as much from him. Kyle noticed that Zakashi was inspecting his and Blade’s swords from a distance.

  Finally, the sage spoke again. “How under heaven did you two get your hands on those weapons?” His curiosity was sincere. “I had planned on enjoying a game with you two. But those swords made my Oga are too dangerous to play around with. I will kill you too with haste and confiscate those swords.”

  Again, he appeared to spaceshift. But Kyle’s eyes could follow his inhuman speed. Kyle clenched his teeth as tightly as he did his sword, as he warded off Zakashi’s full swing. Three more super-rapid swings came in far less than a second’s tenth, from wide angles of each other, but Kyle managed to block each one perfectly. By then, Blade was again upon Zakashi, forcing him to pull another retreat.

  That blade is especially dangerous, Zakashi considered, eying the Lightning Cobra. A single hit is sure paralysis, even for a sage. These swords are imbued with eighth grade magic after all… For these two to be able to wield them in the first place…

  Blade and Kyle rushed at Zakashi, who seemed to be momentarily lost in thought. Zakashi was forced into a series of swift dodges, then, the moment there was an opening, he landed a decisive kick upon Kyle’s chest. The force from Zakashi’s kick was nothing even the monstrous attacks of Kizer’s giants could compare to. The force sent his body flying like it was hit with powerful magic. Even so, Kyle managed to reach a decent landing and recover to a ready stance, though fifty meters away from Zakashi.

  Blade would not allow him to follow up with another attack on Kyle. He pressured Zakashi with overly fast swings that severely limited the sage’s options. Zakashi was already admitting to himself that these two had become far stronger since when he had first battled them. He kept his peripheral attention on the distanced Kyle as he engaged in rapid swordplay with Blade. But not giving Blade full attention might have been more dangerous than the sage had anticipated. Blade found, through the web of swift swings, a place to land a daring kick that almost got his foot sliced off. Zakashi slid back, but Blade was already upon him. In an outcry of limit-breaking speed, Blade made a final-swing kind of attack. The Cobra went straight through Zakashi’s neck – straight through, without slicing through flesh or bone or drawing blood.

  Blade’s body numbed as he felt the presence of a deadly coldness at his own throat. Zakashi was behind him, the legendary sword in position to behead Blade.

  “A speed clone,” Zakashi explained. “Infinite speed is the ability to be everywhere at once – omnipresence. This cannot be attained, but as one approaches the unreachable precipice of infinite speed, speed clones are created, an evidence that not even light itself is infinitely fast.”

  “Are you saying that your speed is comparable to the speed of light?” Blade asked.

  Zakashi laughed. “Your throat is a hair’s breadth from being slit, yet you’re capable of asking intelligent questions so calmly.” The sage pulled back his sword against Blade’s neck, but sliced through nothing but a tense air frightened by the speed of Blade’s movement. Blade was sliding back from his speed burst a few meters away. Kyle by now had walked up to Blade and Zakashi.

  Zakashi smirked, then even laughed in excitement. “You, wielder of the Steel Rebel, your movement shows no talent or finesse. Your swings are frighteningly powerful, but your technique is wild and unfocused. And you, my own descendant,” he said, looking at Blade. “Your technique is full of talent. Your speed is commendable. But this is exactly why you cannot prevail. Our styles are quite similar, but my speed and strength are superior. This means that I will always be able to predict your movements.”

  “Do all of the sages babble this much? I thought you were here to fight,” Kyle said, then swifted off at Zakashi like a wind. By the time Blade reached up to the firing duel, tens of exchanges were already made. The pain caused from the Steel Rebel did not hinder Zakashi enough to allow Kyle a decisive strike. Zakashi became more careful and his swings much swifter when Blade appeared. But this time, the sage did not retreat. Kyle and Blade attacked him from opposite sides, but he defended against them both. The trio of unseeable swings swifter than wind was nothing like any other swordfight history had seen.

  ***

  Azar appeared to Viknor. “Viknor, I need you at—” The king’s command was made silent by the growingly visible flight of a strange white beast in the sky. This was not a dragon. It appeared to be a horse running on air wit
h the swiftness almost of a wind dragon. “What the hell…”

  “Azar, your command is my wish in the end, but I advise you leave this place. This sorcerer that approaches is…”

  The Pegasus swooped down gracefully with a landing that was so serene that Viknor nor Azar felt the need to put up a shield. The man who sat on the Pegasus had a staff in his right hand. His mana was not yet roused, but Viknor was already almost stifled by it.

  “…An arcanine,” Viknor whispered to Azar. “Azar, please go. I must stop him. You have other battles to deal with.”

  “This man must be—”

  “Sage Lukia,” the man greeted proudly and dismounted his Pegasus. He tapped it with his staff and it vanished in a massive black cloud that engulfed even Viknor and Azar, making them more uneasy.

  “There’s no ‘dealing with’ this one,” Azar said. “I’ll call for the other Elders. Only they can—”

  “Azar!” Azar was frightened. “The Elders all have their hands full. If they leave their battles, millions more will die on that count. Besides…” He gave Azar a glare of disappointment. “Do not underestimate me. You still have no idea how strong I am.”

  Azar almost bowed in apology. “Very well. Even still, I will keep an eye out for you.” Viknor nodded, and Azar shifted off.

  Lukia laughed. “Quite a wizard you are, Viknor. See, I even know your name.”

  “Lukia, the immortal wizard with unlimited mana, hailed as the most powerful sorcerer after the Oga’s own children… Why would someone like you be sent to fight a lowly pre-arcane sorcerer like me?”

  “Oh, don’t feign modesty, Viknor. I hear you have been making waves on the battlefield. Oga has decided to take you seriously. You seem to be confident in your power, refusing to be helped by the Elders. You are powerful in respect to your era, Viknor, but do you really believe that you can stand in the wake of The Elders?” With that, Lukia roused his mana, creating a rigid tension and humidity that stretched to cover probably a hundred miles in every direction. Viknor made no retreating step. He stood his ground and roused up his own power in readiness.

  “To be honest, I do not expect to defeat you, Sage Lukia, but if I put up a good fight against you and make it easier for a more powerful ally to destroy you, then that is enough honour in itself, and is good enough an ending for me.”

  “Oga speaks highly of you, so defeating you will be my honour as well.”

  ***

  With many bursts of speed, the three swordsmen had already exchanged thousands of attacks, and had invited tens of miles into the battle. Still, a decisive swing was not yet made. No attack had successfully landed, and Zakashi began to grow impatient. After all, he had an entire continent to wipe clean.

  The three were now on a hill. Kyle and Blade were on opposite sides of Zakashi. The Sword Sage uttered a sigh, like he had grown tired of the fight entirely. Then he did something quite unexpected. In quite an unthreatening manner, he tossed his sword at Blade. Blade raised his hand to grip the handle of the sword that was him home. Blood suddenly spewed from Blade’s mouth through a strainful cry of agony as Zakashi’s knee was sunk down within his ribcage from an impossible upward angle.

  Kyle’s eyes bulged and the calm on his face he had managed to maintain thus far suddenly collapsed. As Blade’s body plunged into the ground, Zakashi, still in flight, grabbed the sword that had baited Blade out to his ruin, and descended unto the floored swordsman with a downward stab. Kyle took off toward the descending sage in a speed that sent cracks deep into the ground. Zakashi had to turn mid-descent to block Kyle’s flying swing. In a second, Kyle and Zakashi were rolling down the hill, knotted together in a dusty squabble.

  Zakashi somehow let go of his sword in all of the madness, and when they both finally stood up, only Kyle was armed.

  “It’s over,” Kyle said, and bolted at him with a swing to behead. Zakashi’s frantic dodging began. Kyle’s swings became swifter and stronger, pushing Zakashi to use levels of speed that would prove consequential if forced into continuous use. Kyle’s movements became so swift that he started to leave dazzling, ill-formed afterimages all over the place.

  When the hell did he become this fast?! Zakashi struggled for tense seconds until he finally succeeded in a potent attack. Through Kyle’s lightning-fast flurry of attacks, he managed to grab boy’s dominant wrist and land a punch in the boy’s right side. Zakashi then twisted Kyle’s wrist. Kyle uttered a painful screech and jumped back, pulling his wrist away from the sage who had almost torn it apart. The Lightning Cobra had by then fallen at Zakashi’s feet, but Zakashi knew well that if he tried to grapple the sword, Kyle would have defeated him that same moment.

  Back at the top of the hill, blood still oozed from Blade’s mouth. He knew what had happened inside him. The force from Zakashi’s kick had broken and bent his ribs so that they had punctured something – he wasn’t sure what, but he knew it was something he would rather not have a hole in.

  “Let’s see just how much of Loki’s strength is in you,” Zakashi said. With that, he zoomed off at Kyle, landing a punch that was too quick for Kyle to even see. The force of the attack was ridiculous. The boy’s body flew back at a malignant speed over many meters.

  What?!

  Before Kyle landed, Zakashi appeared to spaceshift right in front of him, reaching with a kick that sent him hurling more dangerously. Everything around him blurred and his senses felt twisted as he finally managed to land, skating back for a few seconds. He couldn’t have known that he was now several miles from where Blade lay dying. His muscles tensed as he felt the enemy reach behind him somehow.

  His mind, with the suddenness of a waking escape from a nightmare, reached a new clarity, and he regained his senses. He turned quickly, blocking another of Zakashi’s kicks with his lower arm. Still, his body was pushed back to slide for a few meters. Kyle had expected Zakashi’s attacks to be powerful, but the reality of them still exceeded his expectation.

  Zakashi rushed up to Kyle again, stirring a breeze. There was a loud snap as Kyle’s body moved back only about a meter this time. Zakashi was in disbelief. Kyle was quick and strong enough to catch the incoming fist with his left hand, but that wasn’t all. In a hero’s cry, Kyle channelled the force of Zakashi’s attack through his (Kyle’s) own body and fed it back to Zakashi threefold, landing a punch in the sage’s chest. Zakashi’s body rocketed off. He landed badly and rolled for many meters, then quickly stood, eyes wide, a brand new cautiousness in him.

  Zakashi bolted off at Kyle another time. Kyle held his ground and kept his defensive stance. As Zakashi hurled punches and kicks of detrimental force at Kyle, the boy dodged half and blocked the rest with even faster movements, all the while storing and accumulating the forces of the sage’s attacks. Then he finally struck back, but not with a raging punch or a flying kick. Kyle almost gently touched the sage’s chest. A terrible pulse of force erupted a wild wind for many miles as Zakashi’s body flew back with a force that could not be negated. With nothing solid enough to seriously break his momentum, Zakashi landed numerous times, like it was a pebble flicked skilfully to skim the surface of a pond – except this pond was solid ground. He stirred up dust and busted through scattered trees, even tearing threw a few elemental giants, killing them.

  Finally, he managed to come to a halt. He struggled to a stance. He was certain that no bone was left unbroken inside him. “Im…possible…” he muttered. He looked around. His grand entrance, it seemed, had caused the recess of a raging battle. He was in the midst of elemental giants, sorcerers and soldiers. He didn’t care to figure out which fighters were on which side, nor did he care to do anything except kill Kyle. “Carry on now,” he said, breaking the strange silence. Then he bent and picked up a sword out of the hand of a headless soldier, and moved off to where he thought Kyle was. Kyle’s attack had disoriented him somewhat.

  Whatever the tax on my body, I’ll resort to using my highest speed, Zakashi decided. Kyle met him half way, and Zakashi
narrowly avoided his oncoming fist. The peripheral force of Kyle’s attack cost Zakashi’s his balance, but he scurried to his feet quickly, swinging maniacally at Kyle.

  Blade watched from a distance. He had managed, even in his wrecked state, to move from what had almost become his second grave. Still, he knew he could not manage to land another useful attack. He leaned against his weapon, as standing upright was just too painful.

  Zakashi’s attacks suddenly became even faster, and more menacingly strong. Kyle, no longer having any openings in which to land attacks, had to focus all of his energy on constant dodging. Blade watched in breathless awe as the two fighters became a blur his eyes could no longer follow. Speed clones overlapped and intersected.

  “Is this really you, Kyle?” Blade mused. “You have…”

  Blade’s sweat beaded in larger clusters as he noticed, even though he could not quite follow the singular movements of the fight, that Zakashi was now on the upper hand. Blood flashed in every direction as Kyle suffered many thin slices; his speed was no longer quite enough to keep up with dodging Zakashi’s slashes.

  But then suddenly, as soon as the battle had shifted in favour of Zakashi, the Sword Sage stood frozen. His body could only vibrate. His eyes were wide. His fists weakened, and the sword he wielded fell.

  What the hell is happening?! Zakashi panicked. Is this sudden immobility the effect of breaking my body’s speed limit?! No… No, I have used this kind of speed in the first war without such dire consequence. Then this must be… No… But when?! The frightened Zakashi looked over at Blade, who stood leaning against his sword, smirking.