The Hidden Ch12

Adam ran toward me, unsurprised by anticipation. I slowly raised my sword. reluctant to fight my brother, but knowing that I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. And it wasn’t like knocking him down was going to work anymore. Adam raised his sword to slice at me vertically and I cut quickly towards his left ribs. Adam flicked his wrists to send his falchion into the path of my sword. Our swords met with a furious clang, and we held them there, each pushing towards the other with all their strength. Adam, realizing he could not win this contest with strength along decided he’d have to use speed to best me instead. He jumped up, releasing his sword from my own, and flipping over my head. When he was just above me, he spun and lashed out, his sword whipped towards my head. I parried the blow by sending my own towards the blade. Adam landed and began to rain down blows in quick succession. A set directed towards my arms, another focusing solely on my head. He managed to pull the trigger on nearly twenty strikes, the last of which came as a sweep at my legs. I jumped, but stumbled when I landed on a piece of stone slick with blood. Adam took full advantage of my vulnerability, rewarding my inattention with a deep gash down the length of my arm, from which blood flowed thickly. Adam advanced on me while I was clutching the wound. He raised his sword to remove my head, but a long burst of gunfire rang out from behind me. Lauren had foolishly decided to reengage my brother, and Hendel recklessly ran towards him, my flambard in his hand. Adam looked at me and smiled, “Have you kept your friends ignorant on purpose? Or maybe they’ve a death wish?” he taunted me, raising his free hand in the direction. My wound almost healed, I lunged for him, but it was too late. He’d already launched a fireball, and it caught Hendel square in the chest, blasting him back a few meters and pounding him into the ground. He gave an agonizing, bone chilling scream as the heat began to melt his skin and boil his blood. I saw Lauren run over to him and heard her curse as she saw the damage, but that was all I could afford to watch. As it was, I brought myself back to my own predicament just in time to parry another blow from Adam. I felt anger boiling up inside me, and this time, I refused to try and stop it. My brother’s face contorted as I unleashed my anger upon him. I slashed diagonally, catching his left shoulder before he could remove himself from the path of sword, which whistled just past his right hip. Bringing my sword around in a loop, I slashed horizontally across his abdomen, but my brother managed to jump out of the way again. He took his falchion and swept it towards my head. I hacked at his sword, effectively parrying it. We fought like this for nearly twenty minutes, both of us inflicting only minor wounds upon the other. My ability to heal myself effectively had been exhausted by Adam’s first mark, so I was now left with the option of kill him, let him kill me, or run. He had the same options. Neither of us would consider the last option, and the second was unacceptable to us both. Over the battle, we both acquired various cuts and scrapes along our body, but it was once again Adam who caught me. Recklessly, I’d swung a heavy two-handed blow right towards his head. Adam had only to lean back to avoid my sword. The momentum from my attack carried me right into Adam’s falchion, which cut right into my abdomen and continued out through my back. I dropped my sword. I tried to suck in air, but all I could do was release it. From my mouth dripped blood, and the liquid life flowed freely from where the sword had pierced my body. Adam grinned sadistically, slowly pulling his falchion free of my belly. The sword made a sickly sucking sound as it left my body. Once it was free, I began to fall. Adam wasn’t finished with me yet though.  He caught me before I hit the ground, wrapping his free arm around my neck, and dropping his sword at the same time. He held his now empty sword hand open, the palm facing Lauren, who was still working on Hendel. She stiffened suddenly, her long brown hair rippling with a small gust of wind, the only part of her that moved. Then slowly she turned, her eyes filled with malice and fear. She gave a small sigh, rolled her eyes, than dove for her gun. The fireball hit her in the leg, and she screamed in pain as the heat turned her blood to steam, which exploded from her skin. She picked up the gun. Adam held me up as a shield. She fired everything the gun had left. Only two bullets went through my body and actually hit Adam. The rest of them smashed into me and stayed. I felt Adam drop my body and run. I heard him flee as Lauren screamed in pain once again. I felt myself crawl over to her. Past that, nothing, only darkness.