Third Jump: Soul Calibur (Part 2)

Dark Wings That Plot In Secret and the Lost Wanderer Not Of This World

(“Dark Wings That Plot In Secret” is a reference to Tira’s promotional material for SCV and the fact that the narrator of Soul Calibur gives everyone odd titles… Hence the other title.)

Music for the battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJJ4dZhh98

           

I ducked and rolled off to the side to avoid the woman as she came down, coming up to my feet so that I could run toward the center of the room, my body turning so that my back was facing the very throne that Nightmare once called his own… along with so many others before and after him. “I don’t want to harm anyone… but, I won’t be like that mentally deranged Pyrrha and her possibly incestuous brother.” As I spoke, she gathered herself and walked up, just as the narrator… Wait… Narrator? Really? That was actually canon... Alright. The narrator, who might only be able to be heard by those fighting, called out in his deep, thoughtful voice ‘The wanderer only desires enlightenment, but for the jester… only corruption.’ to add to the rather melodramatic tone that, by this point, saturated the very air of the castle.

At least it banished the current tension, Tira stepping up to a point a few feet away, her blade slung over her shoulder and her body hunched over. A stance that I was familiar with considering how often I used to play the games that she was from. She didn’t say a word and her otherwise Jolly appearance shifted to that of anger and distaste. “Here I thought I was switching emotions much too quickly…” I commented as I hooked the scabbard of my blade to my belt, positioning it off to the right so that I could draw it with my left hand and, just to be ready, I did so. I could already tell that my pacing was off, as well as my mood… Being thrown from one world to another probably wasn’t too easy on my mind and body to begin with, nor the fact that I was now malfested… Was simply waiting for it to claw at the corners of my mind to go on a rampage at this point.

As a fitting switch of atmosphere, everything went silent for a moment. The breeze that went through the throne room eased up, both me and the insane wench that was now my opponent barely shifting even a single muscle. Her manic depression did come with that one side benefit… I could at least count on either of her two emotional… viewpoints… to be stalwart in their thoughts and actions. Quite predictable in that regard.

I was the first to act, rushing forward with my blade held off to the side. I knew that my form was horrible, but I refused to use my malfested arm… At least while I didn’t have to. I brought the sword up from below, Tira stepping off to the side with a small spin on her heel. That circular weapon came around in the same movement, forcing me to turn and push my hips back to just barely, and quite awkwardly, avoid the strike only to feel the heel of her boot crashing into my jaw. I stumbled back a step and brought my katana up, my body turned in a similar fashion to a fencer. A truly improper stance for the weapon I am using. I thought for a moment, my malfested hand flexing as I mulled over my options… before I suddenly tore off my coat with that monstrous hand and tossed it up into the air.

Once the fabric settled, I was already a good forty feet away from Tira and going down a hallway. I ran straight to the first door that I came to, sheathing my katana so that I could pull out my warehouse key and slip it into the lock. I could hear Tira approaching and, as she turned the corner, she was greeted with the barrel of my Lancer pointed down range toward her and my foot propped up on a jar of dirt. “What’s the rule? Use what you have available? Either way… I cheat.” With that, I won the battle… I didn’t kill her, but I left her with a few bullet holes in her legs. Nothing major, thankfully.

I did not stay in the castle, I left… I left and simply found a place to stay for the remaining years… A few run-ins here and there, but nothing that couldn’t be taken care of with a few bullets.