Blindsided and falling, he shoved the sword into the cliffside at a downward angle—curbing his momentum and stopping the fall. However, the hand that had pulled him down still grasped tightly onto his ankle. As he desperately gripped the sword’s hilt with both hands, he looked down, into the determined face of his friend who was clawing at his leg, attempting to pull him down as they both hung from the cliffside.
“Mel!”
“This is the end of the road, Cedric,” the boy spat, tugging viciously at his leg. “It’s time for you to end this farce, already.”
“You should already know…” Cedric groaned, repositioning his hands, his face beet red. “That’s not going to happen!”
“Can’t you see what’s going on?” Mel pleaded, his aggressive tone turning desperate. “Everyone’s getting hurt protecting you and your foolish ideals; if you’d just give that thing up this would all be over; don’t you get that?”
“You’re exactly right,” Cedric responded. “Everyone’s fighting to help me, even you and your friends. Now… why would I just waste all that support?”
The two of them looked down upon hearing a cry, that of a charging Ango.
“You won’t lay a hand on my sister!” he shouted, jumping in front of the downed Tess despite his bleeding ribs and wobbly legs.
The captain of the Red Wolves, Suguille, pounced on him without mercy, knocking his rapier away with a tremendous swing. He then cut across Ango’s turned back with his other blade and followed up with a kick to his wounded ribs. The blow forced Ango to crumble before the man, who turned his focus back to Tess as she tried to sit herself up.
“I’m greedy, Cedric,” Mel appealed, his face turning purple as tears rolled down his cheeks. “I want everyone to be okay, but that can’t happen at this point unless we give the sword over.”
“No, Mel!” Cedric yelled, “Listen, if we can turn that guy onto me, along with his friends, I can lead them away from here. There’s something I’m supposed to accomplish with this sword, so the last thing I’m going to do is give it up when it might be our saving grace!”
“Cedric, you’re…”
“Yeah, I’m greedy too,” he replied with conviction. “I want to protect everyone, take the enemies with me, and find a way to defeat them away from here. If I can get them to chase after me off the island, Takanova can regroup and rebuild its army… but that can only happen if you help me get out of here right now!”
“Cedric, that’s…” Mel replied desperately, having climbed up to his knee, “how can I rely on a naïve, ill-conceived plan like that? How could you possibly manage something better than what we’ve spent so long planning?”
At his frenzied, uncertain words, their attention was drawn to a horse climbing the far side of the cliff where the forest met the volcano’s base. A large man rode the horse slowly up the cliff’s edge, watching them intently.
“Melvin Cillavier, is it?” Cedric spat, staring daggers at his friend’s widened eyes.
“It’s over now, Cedric,” Mel muttered, a hopeful smile breaking across his face. “I just have to hold you still till he gets over here, and then we can deliver the sword.”
Cedric wore a frustrated grimace as he looked past his crazed friend into the canyon.
“You know, Mel, it’s due to your group’s rotten ideals that you, just like that old traitor, are losing sight of what’s important.”
Seeing the burning light Cedric’s eyes bore, Mel slowly followed his gaze back to the battlefield below, where Suguille was preparing to strike down the struggling Tess. Just as he closed in, someone else staggered onto the scene from the trees.
“Tess, no!” Selmy cried desperately, attempting to jump between the man and her friend. Suguille shifted his focus toward her without a moment’s hesitation, and Cedric felt the grip on his leg vanish instantly.
“I’M RIGHT HERE!” Cedric belted out from atop the cliff, having climbed up the instant he felt Mel’s grip loosen. Suguille’s attention immediately shot away from Selmy, and onto him.
In that moment, Mel had slid down the cliffside, recovered his bow, and fired off a shot mid-skid—a faster shot than Cedric had ever seen him execute.
Suguille, eyes beaming in recognition of Cedric and the sword, barely noticed the arrow slicing the air in his direction. Abandoning his attack on Selmy, he threw himself in the opposite direction, the arrow just grazing his cheek.
Blood trickling from his right cheek, the man staggered to regain his footing as he glared viciously at Mel. Selmy dove onto Tess, who was still trying to stand up, disoriented. Meanwhile, Mel had already prepared another arrow.
“I told you not to turn your blade on her, Suguille,” Mel snarled at the man, firing the next arrow at his chest.
“I’m going to kill you,” the man growled with rage. “I’LL KILL YOU, BOY!”
Deflecting the arrow just before it reached his chest, Suguille shifted all his attention on Mel, and darted toward him. His path took him between the twins, who broke away from their opponents to attempt to flank him.
Suguille recognized their low rush, and with ease struck down on their blades with both of his, pummeling them into the ground where they laid, coughing.
Mel stood his ground, firing another arrow. The shorter distance put his shot at nearly point-blank range. However, the raging man did not flinch, and deflected the arrow with ease.
As he closed the distance, Mel cocked his head over to see Cedric at the top of the cliff with the sword in hand, and called out, “Fine, I give up… I’ll let you have your way, so get out of here, Sword Heir! Do your job and get these bastards out of here! And you better make it back to the beach with us when we’ve won, got it?”
Cedric stood tall and took one last hard look at his friend’s face, and firmly responded, “Yeah, I will. I promise I’ll make it back, so make sure you and everyone else are waiting for me.” He then turned and, without waiting to see the outcome of the enraged Suguille’s attack, ran in the opposite direction.
The man approaching on horseback from the forest, Melvin Cillavier, hurried his horse in pursuit up the hill. With a fierce glance, Cedric mustered every bit of strength he had left in executing a strike just like those he had managed earlier, tearing into the earth and sending a flash of red light on a direct path toward the man.
Melvin Cillavier reacted, leaping from his horse onto the ground before it was hit by the light and fell with a whine to the earth. He made no attempt to pursue Cedric further, instead turning his attention down below.
As Cedric ran down the path leading to the shoreline, Suguille closed in on Mel, who stood his ground.
Even if I move out of the way, he’d still come at me before taking off after Cedric.
In that case, I can at least try to slow him down.
No matter what happens…
He tossed his bow aside after firing one last low shot and readied the short dagger that paled in comparison to the blades of Suguille, who bore down, steam rising from his arms once more.
“Mel, you have to make it to the beach, too!” Selmy cried out desperately as she hugged Tess.
Heh, you don’t have to tell me anymore, Selmy.
No matter what happens…
I’ll be here when he gets back.
Mel gave a low roar as he braced himself for the blow. Suguille swung both blades in the same motion from his left, crushing Mel’s defending dagger into his injured ribcage. The impact sent him rolling across the dirt until he collided with a tree at the forest’s edge and lay motionless.
“MEL!” Selmy screamed as she ran limply toward him along with the twins, while Suguille climbed the dirt mound, calling out to his comrades.
“Red Wolves, if you still breath and don’t want to become prisoners of war, come with me and take the Red Sword!”
Several men stirred from the pile of dirt, while the two that had been battling the twins followed. He didn’t bother looking back to see who came, and scaled the cliffside slope with ease, pulling himself up the edge with a face that frothed with focused rage.
