079

 

79.  The Brilliant Bloodshed

 

Gasps erupted from the audience as they watched Saffron force his blade into Vance's shoulder. Only a few seconds had passed since the match began, and the hero from the quarter-finals was already at the mercy of the bloodthirsty swordsman.

 

"A disgrace of a tournament this hath been!" Saffron declared. "Dost thou not agree, Vance Darcouver? Unless two knaves sweat each other's sweat, bleed each other's blood, and feel one another’s pain...there be nary a reason to combat!"

 

He’s strong... Vance’s eyes popped out from his skull as he tried to keep his body from buckling beneath the strength of Saffron's blade. He’s insanely strong!

 

Averyl observed the struggle from the waiting room. "Winslow was no match for him, but Saffron is the perfect opponent for Vance. He's an absolute fighting fanatic – a warrior that lives only to shed the blood of his opponents."

 

"Now that you mention it," Madeleine commented, "I've never really seen Saffron go all-out before."

 

"It's rather hard to find an appropriate opponent to match such raw, brutal power," Averyl explained, "although Saffron's actual ability is something else entirely."

 

"Huh?" Madeleine asked. "What is it?"

 

Averyl chuckled. "You'll have to watch to find out."

 

"Vance sure looks surprised, guys!" Trunculo boomed. "Then again, I would be too if I had a huge sword stuck in my shoulder!"

 

"Fight, Vance!" Saffron shouted zealously. "Let torrents of blood flow as a testament to thy mettle!"

 

Vance grunted in response and wrenched his body forward. His upper chest ignited with psynergy as he gritted his teeth and shoved the blade out from his shoulder.

 

"Yes!" Saffron cheered, watching the fury grow in Vance's eyes. "Victoria's blood boils strong within thee!"

 

Vance stumbled, struggling with the burning pain in his shoulder and the indignation at hearing Saffron talk about his mother at the same time. Saffron caught this and smiled.

 

"Alas, the Dark Zodiacs parlayed the great Victoria before my advent. Legend boasts it a formidable fight, lasting through sun and moon...perhaps ‘twas only foul play that sent thy mother to her grave."

 

Vance wheezed. "You know who killed her? Tell me...who..."

 

"Ah, unbeknownst is the deed-doer?" Saffron smiled wryly. "But of course. For if thou didst know...thou wouldst no doubt curse his name right now."

 

"Do you...know?" Vance asked desperately.

 

Saffron grinned. "Alas, I require my commission up front!"

 

There isn't any hatred in his eyes. He isn't frightened like Winslow and Madeleine were...he's seriously enjoying this!

 

Saffron advanced on him again, and Vance hurriedly coated his body in psynergy. Saffron slashed downward, and Vance dodged perfectly. His right arm burned with pain as he punched forward and slammed his fist into Saffron's breastplate. Purple psynergy from the attack exploded around the man's chest, accomplishing absolutely nothing.

 

"No!" Saffron looked down at Vance in surprise. "No, no...not even close!"

 

Vance could barely react as he heard the whoosh of Saffron's sword swinging through the air. The blunt part of the blade smashed into the side of his face and sent him flying backwards to the edge of the platform.

 

Stupefied, Vance scrambled to stay on his feet. Even with his psynergy barrier, his entire face ached. His ears rang and his mind reeled, and he struggled to stay focused. That was the same amount of power I used to knock out the guy in the first round, and it didn't even make a dent...

 

Saffron pulled on a silver cord that protruded from the end of his sword and attached it to a small latch on his shoulderpad. "Calculating thy opponent's moves is a waste. Follow thy heart, Vance – waltz for the kill!"

 

Saffron heaved his sword powerfully at Vance, as if it was a toy. The teenager barely got out of the way before the enormous bastard sword crashed into the thick stone platform and splintered it.

 

"For shame!" Saffron yanked Rosencrantz back like a fisherman would a lure. "If thou dost insist upon running, I'll simply have to pull thee back in!"

 

Vance picked up his pace as Saffron chopped another piece out of the platform behind him. The second time Saffron pulled his weapon back, he raised the cord and began to jovially whirl it around his head like a lasso.

 

"Yee-haw!" Trunculo hooted. "Looks like Saffron here's lookin' to wrangle some cattle...or maybe just a leg or two from Vance!"

 

As he ran, Vance created an orb of psynergy within his hands and launched it at Saffron, hoping to throw off the man's balance. Instead, Saffron simply took the powerful blast straight in the stomach. As it singed his armor, the Dog moaned in pleasure.

 

"Enjoyable!" Saffron cheered. "Thoroughly enjoyable! I felt it, Vance...I felt thy raw energy!"

 

Vance froze in disbelief. I can't even sense his psynergy! What the hell is going on?!

 

Saffron tossed the blade a third time, and Vance quickly snapped back to his senses only a bit too late. His mouth flew open and a cry of agony escaped his lips as the pointed tip of the ruby bastard sword pierced through his barrier and lodged itself in his ankle.

 

Saffron howled with glee, then yanked on the cord and dragged Vance's body roughly across the ruined stone. "A master fisher must I be to fish such a delicious morsel!"

 

Vance groaned in pain and focused on gathering more psynergy. As Saffron continued to slide him back, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and yanked his ankle out from the blade. Screaming in agony, Vance bounded up from the ground and traversed in the distance. Breaking through Saffron's yellow barrier in an explosion of rage, Vance launched his fist at the killer's nose.

 

Saffron chuckled nasally when Vance's fist came to a grinding halt on the edge of the man's face – as if it had run straight into an unbreakable wall. With every punch, he felt Saffron's hardened barrier push back against his own psynergy, but Vance refused to give up.

 

"Oh, come on!" Vance screamed in frustration. Pouring more and more psynergy into his arms, he unleashed a series of punches upon the swordsman. Saffron made no move to raise either of his arms and took each strike, one after another, without so much as blinking.

 

Finally, fatigue won over and Vance hit the ground, wincing in pain as his damaged ankle hit the hard surface of the arena. Panting heavily, he stared up at Saffron in horror. "What...the hell...are you?"

 

"A troubadour of blades," Saffron sang in a light, poetic manner, "searching for another man of mettle."

 

Vance's aura flared up as his rage seethed.

 

"Perhaps thou art in need of more incentive!" Saffron slid Rosencrantz back up to his shoulder. "Have at you now!"

 

But Vance was already moving toward his opponent, analyzing the battlefield just like Averyl had taught him. He studied Saffron, trying to absorb every subtlety of the way the Zodiac stood, the way he felt, and where his body stood in relation to Vance's fist.

 

No matter how powerful someone is, they still have a weak point! They still have a limit! Vance's fist was millimeters away from Saffron's cheek when the swordsman swung his blade up again. I can break through him!

 

Vance's punch exploded like it had so many times before, but this time it crushed into the small of Saffron's cheek and ripped through the man's rosy flesh. The swordsman let out a pleasant sigh as his skin was punctured, and his body jerked back from the force of Vance's blow.

 

A thin line of blood trickled down the left side of Saffron’s lips. "This...this is..."

 

Vance pulled his fist back triumphantly. "Now I got you."

 

Saffron laughed happily and lifted his sword high. "Success! And now...I want more!"

 

Sweat ran down his face as Vance charged up another punch. "Be careful what you wish for."

 

"Don't stop..." Saffron demanded as he brought the blade down. "More, I say!"

 

Vance charged up his arms and crossed them over his head. Rosencrantz fell, slammed into the deep violet aura, and stopped abruptly.

 

Saffron moaned and pushed down harder on his bastard sword. "Magnificent!"

 

Slowly, Rosencrantz began to cut through Vance's thick barrier, drawing closer and closer to the skin of his forearms. Raising his arms higher, Vance pushed back and overloaded his muscles with as much psynergy as he could muster.

 

Saffron sighed and pulled his sword back. "Hmm...how now may I slash thee up?"

 

Vance moved his arms closer to his body and took a breather, surprised that he had actually fended off the madman. As confidence returned to his mind, he watched closely as Saffron turned his sword sideways and aimed it at Vance's waist.

 

Quickly, Vance molded his psynergy into a sharp triangular blade that extended from his fist and hardened it as well as he could. As Saffron swung his sword around, Vance matched it with his own, causing slivers of steel to spark up between them.

 

"Vance has successfully blocked Saffron's monstrous sword with his own hand!" Trunculo crowed. "Could this possibly be a turning point in the battle?!"

 

Saffron opened his mouth in awe and pulled back. "A worthy armament...let us dance!"

 

This time, Saffron unleashed a series of harsh strikes aimed toward various points on Vance's body. The young man was quick to defend, blocking each attack with barely enough force. He knew that if he slipped up even for a second, he could lose his hand, or worse. But for some reason, this terror of battle only spurned on more adrenalin within the Albavitrean's mind.  

 

Saffron thrust out toward Vance's chest, but he was ready, and side-stepped the attack entirely. Now! Signals flashed within his mind, and Vance slashed outward at Saffron's ribcage. His psynergy blade dug deep into the Dark Zodiac's armor and ripped at the flesh beneath.

 

"Yesss!" Saffron hissed in pleasure. "Heigh-ho!"

 

In return, the Dog flicked his blade out at Vance’s arm. Vance cried out in pain as crimson spilled out from his flesh, but stubbornly remained focused. Saffron seemed equally unfazed by his injury and brought his bastard sword back around to Vance's opposite side, as if aiming to create a matching wound.

 

"So good..." he moaned. "Don't stop, Vance!"

 

Vance scrambled to stop Saffron's sword in mid-air as the remains of his own blood finished dripping from the end of it. "What are you, a masochist?!"

 

A delusional grin of pleasure lined Saffron's bloody face as he licked his lips and raised his blade once more. Meanwhile, Vance began to charge up a second blade around his left hand. Every moment of concentration consumed a great quantity of his reserves, and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for much longer.

 

Saffron brought his blade down harder than ever before and crushed Vance's right blade beneath him. As Vance fell to his knees, he turned his setback into an opportunity and slashed his newly-made psynergy blade through Saffron's legs, gashing the thick muscles in the man's thighs. Two vivid geysers of blood exploded from the new wound, drenching Vance's body.

 

"Geez," Madeleine commented from afar. "Saffron really has a lot of endurance..."

 

"Indeed." Averyl smiled. "Have you figured out his special skill yet?"

 

"It's his ability to take pain, obviously," Madeleine answered.

 

"You're on the right track. Saffron has an astronomically high pain threshold, whether this stems from his troubled childhood, or something else entirely...but that isn't all. He's also a masochist, in every sense of the word."

 

Madeleine raised an eyebrow. "You mean he..."

 

"Yes." Averyl nodded. "While most murderers are sadistic, Saffron is quite the opposite. Not only is he able to withstand pain, he enjoys it, as if it was the finest sensual pleasure in the universe – but only when it comes from a serious, life-or-death battle. With each attack, Vance only motivates Saffron to fight even harder than before."

 

Madeleine snorted. "What a freak."

 

Averyl smirked. "I doubt that Saffron even cares what the Dark Zodiacs are planning. I bet he joined them simply because he knew they would lead him to stronger, more powerful enemies. Enemies with the ability to bestow on him a whole new level of pleasure!"

 

"I see," Madeleine muttered. "Well then, I have just one final question, Averyl."

 

Averyl's eyes glimmered. "Ask away."

 

"Is Vance dead meat?"

 

Averyl tittered. "If he wins, I'm sure it will require him to unlock the deep, dark power that sleeps within him. And if he is unable to take the reins and control that monster, then he will surely die."

 

"Wow, that's cold," Madeleine snickered. "You pushed your nephew all this way, knowing the whole time that he might just end up running to his death?"

 

"Hmmm." Averyl's lips curled up evilly. "Didn't you already ask your final question?"

 

Outside, Saffron's sword sliced once more into Vance's body. This time the blade cut into the right side of his chest, freeing trickles of blood from the limits of his flesh.

 

Vance screamed and stared at the sword. He’d never seen such a large amount of blood exit his body at once, and it made him feel faint.

 

"Taste thy pain..." Saffron cooed. "Share its puissance with me, brother!"

 

"You're out of your damn mind!" Vance screamed.

 

The fear of imminent death sent Vance into a panic, and his muscles spasmed. Purple psynergy surged up into his fists, spawning the two largest psynergy blades that he’d ever created. Desperately, he rammed both of them forward and impaled Saffron's stomach. His mind was empty as he grit his teeth and drove his fists forward, pushing them in as deep as they would go.

 

Saffron screamed with an extended vibrato. "Yes! Many moons hath it been since so much blood spill’d from me...’tis heavenly!"

 

Exhaustion kicked in as Vance ripped his arms back and struggled to stay on his feet. He has to be hurting by now...

 

Saffron's right arm darted behind his back. "Methinks the curtain to playtime hath fallen."

 

Vance's jaw dropped in stupefaction as Saffron Morrigan wrapped his fist around the emerald hilt of his second bastard sword, a weapon that Vance had completely forgotten about since the beginning of the battle.

 

"Mayhap I neglected to mention..." Saffron spoke coyly, "I'm right-handed."

 

Vance shivered and started backing away. This must be a nightmare. This can't be happening!

 

Saffron unsheathed the monstrous emerald twin of Rosencrantz and brought it in front of him. After displaying it once for the audience, he slid it along his left arm, relishing the pain as he cut his own flesh.

 

"Rarely doth Guildenstern come out to play. But thou hast proved thyself more than worthy, Vance..." Saffron brought the blade to his lips and thirstily licked his own blood off it. "Thus, our true battle can finally begin!"

Next: The Violet Violence