The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

Chapter 258 - The Last Time

              Drannor decided to force Zaos to go all out since that would be their last duel as friends. He held his spear with all his might and then disappeared from Zaos's sight. Zaos put the sword in front of him to stop the next attack, and just like expected, Drannor tried to hit him from the front, but the power behind the attack was really low for some reason. Zaos soon learned why the attack was so light… Because Drannor decided to focus on speed.

            The rain of attacks was blocked by Zaos's sword… to some extent. He protected his vitals, but Drannor's thrusts were aimed at his whole body, legs, arms, torso… Zaos blocked direct hits, but he was getting cut quite a lot, and there was nothing we could do aside from waiting for Drannor running out of mana.

"Shit… he is using the effect of the spear to increase his attack speed," Zaos thought.

              Zaos imagined that sooner or later, Drannor would have to stop and let his shoulders rest. That would be his cue to attack, but he wasn't letting up. It was only a matter of time before Zaos messes up, and then a muscle is pierced, and then the fight is decided. After all, he didn't want to use magic. Trying to grab the spear was out of the question with that speed, so Zaos was really in a bind.

          In the end, Zaos didn't have any clever plan in dealing with those lightning-fast attacks, so he decided to rely on something cruder. He jumped backward and then assumed the tail guard since he knew that Drannor would chase him, and so he did it, but before he could attack, Zaos swung his sword upward with all his might, and Drannor was forced to use all his strength to move to the side. In the end, the full swing made Drannor frown, but the surprises didn't end there. Zaos let his sword fly since preparing another attack from that stance would take too much time. So, he just punched Drannor with all his might as soon as he stopped moving.

            The spearman got hit by a clean hit that made him fly backward for several meters and roll on the ground for a few more. Thanks to that, the arena grew silent since no one expected that kind of attack.

"Ah, this was refreshing…" Zaos said and then headed to pick his sword.

          Much to Zaos's surprise, when he recovered his weapon, Drannor was already up. He thought Drannor wasn't that good at taking hits, but it seemed he was wrong. In any case, that made things a bit more even, Zaos's body was covered in cuts since his armor couldn't protect every single piece of skin, but Drannor got hit by a powerful punch, probably the strongest Zaos had thrown so far. He was even having a hard time standing still without trembling. Zaos smiled watching that, but he frowned when he noticed that his vision was getting blurry again and his body was getting kind of cold.

"Oh, shit… I lost too much blood," Zaos thought.

"You seem pretty weak considering that you didn't try to attack me now," Drannor said.

"You imagine things," Zaos said. "As I said, I don't want an easy victory."

              Drannor took a deep breath, and then the air around him changed. He suddenly moved his left hand to his back, and from some part of his armor, he made a short spear appear. Zaos recalled that Zaos trained a dual-wielding style with spears, but it has been quite a while since the last time he saw him with two of those… Regardless, if he was trying to use it now, it certainly wasn't a desperate move. It was a hidden card.

                Drannor's stance changed, and instead of holding a single spear toward the enemy, he was holding two while one was pointing upward and the other downward… it certainly was an instance Zaos never saw before. Drannor charged again and tried to hit Zaos with the long spear, but then the attack was blocked. Despite that, a cut appeared in Zaos's right leg, and he didn't even see what did that.

"What…" Zaos muttered in shock.

          While Zaos was focused on stopping the longer spear, Drannor used the speed of the longer weapon granted, approached Zaos, and then attacked before he could even see how… It was because his sword covered a good part of his field of vision.

          Zaos jumped backward to gain some time and think of a way to deal with both weapons at the same time. But in the end, after fighting so many times in a day and after bleeding so much, Zaos didn't have that much power left.

            Since he knew that stalling for the time was useless in his condition and falling unconscious right now would be too annoying, Zaos decided to all out one last time. He assumed the tail guard and then prepared to use his remaining strength to break Drannor's weapons.

          However, as soon as he charged forward, Drannor advanced as well. Zaos was caught off guard, and Drannor hit him before Zaos could even start his swing. His long spear hit Zaos right shoulder, and the short one pierced his left. Zaos clenched his teeth as he felt the muscles getting pierced. His momentum only increased the damage caused by the spears. Thanks to that, Zaos lost the strength in his arms and let his sword fall. He could have healed it in time if he wanted… but he didn't.

"... The winner is Drannor! The champion and new owner of the king sword is sir Drannor of the royal guard!" The narrator said.

                Drannor sighed in relief and let himself fall on the ground to catch his breath, even though he did that in just a few moments. Zaos had recovered, healed himself, and grabbed his spear. Not to mention, he turned around and began to walk.

"Zaos…" Drannor said.

"Remember, don't give me any reason to fight you again. Our rivalry is over. I didn't beat you a single time in a fair duel," Zaos said. "I don't want to duel with you anymore, but the next time we fight, if I have to fight, I won't hold back."