Burst_Swords to the Skies

by Adam Wan

  "You're the one I want..."

  "You could have chose Cel"

  Just after I said that, her face that was looking down at her lap turned down to her bottom left.

  "I... don't want to..."

  I felt like I should not continue my questioning on this topic and decided to change the subject.

  "Umm... Who are we going with?"

  She lifted her head and faced me. She shook her head slightly, after she shook her head from left to right about two times, her expression changed to being more cheerful.

  "You and I are on the front lines, Conn and Siceia are support. Siceia would support by healing, by the way. And Conn uses magic attacks. Gonnda is the hammer wielder"

  "Hammer wielder?"

  "He uses a hammer to hit the ground, making a shockwave when it hits. He's actually more like a tank"

  I was wondering when we were about to go. I wanted to ask her, so I took a breath of air in and out before asking,

  "So... When would we go?"

  "If you want, we could go now"

  "Yes... I want to. It sort of became personal to me too because my mother died of the same curse"

  "I understand"

  She took up from her chair, making a pretty loud creek. She stepped away from the chair and walked towards the door.

  "Where are you going?"

  "Closing the dojo. We're going right away!"

  "Ah... Alright"

  She opened the door and exited the room. I did not feel like moving from the chair, let alone the room. I placed my palms on my elbows and looked at them.

  "Somehow... I feel like I have a close connection with her. Is it because of what we have in common? We spent only an hour or two and I feel this way. She's a friendly person anyway" I thought as I tapped my right index finger on my left elbow.

  "Alright, people! We're closing for now, were going out! Thank you for coming!!!"

  I lifted my head when I heard her shouting out loudly from outside of the room I was in. I unintentionally looked over my left shoulder and looked through the window on the door. The crowd's chatter continued and footsteps were heard after her order.

  "What is it?" asked a young man with a slightly higher pitched voice.

  "Wait a sec'"

  I heard footsteps of someone running towards the room just after saying that. It was definitely Lumi, the obvious. The footsteps had a particular unique sound, a rhythm different from normal running.

  I hurriedly stood up when I heard the door open. From the door was Lumi, who was leaning forward in to the room.

  "Let's go"

  "Ah, right"

  I stood up and walked out of the room. I entered the now quiet and empty main hall. The white carpets were stained black from the training people did on them. The lantern flickered as the wind blew into the room, giving a slight chill.

  "Huh?! Your Highness, you're still here?"

  Greeted the three people standing in the main hall. They seemed surprise that I was still around.

  "Where are we going?"

  A girl about Lumi's age asked. She was nearly my height and was obviously taller than Lumi. She wore a white and light blue long coat with a royal blue tunic inside. Her hair was white, a surprisingly rare hair color in Cielo.

  "We're going for our looong- awaited quest!"

  Lumi answered with a stretched out "long" as she raised both of her hands up and stood on the tips of her toes.

  "And why is Your Highness here?"

  Asked the young man named Conn. He was roughly the same height as Lumi. He wore a green tunic under a brown hoodie. His brown leather shoes were knee high. His hair, that was dark brown, was short but had a slightly longer fringe.

  "She's joining us!"

  Lumi declared in a loud and happy voice. Her eyes were closed as she smiled after answering him. The guy next to Conn, Gonnda was quiet.

  Gonnda wore a green tunic under a dark green hoodie. He was pretty fat from the place I was looking at him, no, he was actually muscular. His hair was short and even, the color was light brown.

  "So!"

  Lumi clapped her hands as she said that and smiled, her clean white teeth could be seen from the narrow gap between her lips. She then continued with her arms open.

  "Let's go out there! Get your stuff!"

  I smiled as I saw her being herself. She turned and faced me, she that I was smiling. She smiled too, her eyes were lightly closed and her head was tilted to her left. Her smile was as cute as it was before.

  ...

  We were on the way to Dalinia Village. We were on a carriage ride there. I sat at the left of the backseat, next to Lumi who was having a conversation with me.

  "I was born on Miah the fifth 2342, the second month"

  We were talking about our birth dates. I said mine before Lumi said hers. She said,

  "Mine is Miya the 22nd on 2343, the fourth month"

  "Oh, so you're 20?"

  "Yup!"

  "Wow, you're one year younger than me"

  "Haha!"

  The others were asleep. Siceia was sleeping next to Lumi on her right, her head was placed against the wall. The boys were sleeping soundly in the front.

  I looked outside of the door's window next to me and saw the trees passing by us and the vast wheat field. The sunlight seemed like it flickered due to being blocked by the trees as they passed by.

  I began to think about to original sword skills, mainly comparing "Mother's Requiem" and "Light vs Dark" skills. Lumi's skill was a one handed sword skill while Cel's was a dual wielding skill. Lumi's move count was 59 while Cel's was 64, but 32 hits per hand. But then I thought that dual wielding was harder and that Cel could still beat Lumi while she was using her special skill. Both of them had a duration of 10 seconds, meaning that Lumi's moves per second were 5.9 while Cel's was 6.4.

  "Your Highness?"

  I snapped out of the long and deep thought when I heard Lumi calling me.

  "Sorry, I was lost in thought. Oh, call me Sora, by the way"

  "Uh, why?"

  "I feel close to you, somehow"

  "Alright, I feel the same!"

  We smiled at each other when we talked about our feelings. Lumi suddenly continued by asking,

  "What were you thinking about?"

  "Oh... I was... thinking about you and Cel. Your original sword skills..."

  Lumi placed her left hand and placed it on my right shoulder. She assured me that,

  "Cel is stronger than me. We might be nearly equal in strength but he is far better in my opinion. I bet that many would wish to be his wife, even I might"

  She stressed out the "might" at the end. I felt better when she said that and I felt like I was the luckiest girl in this world.

  ...

  After a few hours, we finally arrived at the village. Everyone woke up as the carriage stopped outside of the village's main gate.

  We stepped out of the carriage and walked towards the village's gate. There were people gathering at the gate, especially a young man who was slightly shorter than Cel and more or less my height.

  We approached the man, he stopped us by making a gesture that meant stop. Lumi walked forward towards him, her face had an angry expression on it.

  "What do you want, Luuumi?"

  The guy asked, he intentionally stretched the Lu longer than what it should be. Lumi lashed out in a loud voice,

  "Let us pass! We want to get rid of that beast"

  "What are you going to do?"

  He said that in a way that felt annoying, basically, he was mocking her.

  The soumd of a sword being drawn out was heard. A gush of wind could be felt behind her her back and in a flash, her sword was pointing at the man's neck.

  "Urg..."

  The man seemed slightly frightened. He closed his eyes and looked to the side in arrogance. He walked away from us, allowing us to enter the village.

  "Hmph, whatever..."

  Said the man as he walked away, making a
waving gesture as he said that.

  Lumi placed her sword back into her scabbard and began to walk. I quickly walked forward and walked next to her. I leaned slightly towards her and asked,

  "Who is that guy?"

  "He's Dustard. He bullied me when I was younger but I manage to overpower him with my sword skills. He still manages to bully me mentally though"

  "Don't you care about him. He would just bring you down, and don't let that happen"

  She took a deep breath and released it before answering me with,

  "You're right. Thank you!"

  She smiled happily after saying that and thanking me. I smiled back in return as we walked through the village.

  The villagers greeted and talked to me. The conversations were short as we wanted to hurry and get to the cave. The village was made of stone and wooden. The pavement was made of gravel and had some grass growing from it.

  ...

  We eventually reach the cave that was around a kilometer away from the village. The surroundings were mainly stone and some plants that grew near the edges.

  The cave was dark and the opening could fit 5 people standing on top of each other. It was about 18-20 meters in width.

  "Here goes nothing"

  Lumi said as she walked into the darkness with a torch in her hand, glowing a red light in the blanket of darkness. We followed her in and walked carefully as we could not see well.

  The sounds of us kicking stones unintentionally and stepping on the hard stone floor. The wind that blew was cool and nearly cold. The flame gave some warmth as we walked deeper and deeper inside.

  We eventually see the light of the other side. All that we could see was a bright white light coming from the other side. It seemed like this cave was like a tunnel.

  "Let's go!" said Conn impatiently.

  His voice echoed in the cave, making Gonnda grab him and close his mouth with Gonnda's hand. Siceia nearly laughed from the boys actions. I simply smile as I saw them being happy.

  On the other side, we saw a sleeping beast on the grassy floor. The place was like a stone arena. We were surrounded by walls of stone and the sky was above us. There were trees that were grown in certain areas of the place.

  The beast was like a human and bison. It had a bison's head but had a more human-like body. His chest seemed to be pretty large and he looked like he had claws.

  "Let's do this!"

  "Conn!"

  Conn ran off, he planned on attacking the beast while it was asleep. Lumi shouted his name but he was long gone.

  He sliced at the beast's left arm multiple times. We were on the way there as he sliced at it.

  "Raargh!!!"

  The beast roared in anger and pain as it woke up from its sleep and stood up high. It was as tall as two men standing on one of the men's shoulders.

  "I'm about to hammer!" shouted Gonnda.

  Gonnda took his hammer from his back and raised it high in the air over his head and smashed it down, causing a shockwave that hits the beast when we jumped up and over the wave.

  I activated my sword and pointed it towards my right side. The sword gave off a clear blue glow as I did the "Cross" skill. I swiftly jumped forward-left, slicing it horizontally and then the other side the same way.

  Lumi raised her sword high over her right shoulder as she jumped up and did a three move horizontal slice combo on its chest. She landed back on the ground and did three back flips to run away.

  Conn switched in and did a vertical strike downwards and then twisting his sword around slightly before slicing upwards. When his sword was at his top right, he did a horizontal slice.

  The beast raised his right hand and made a fist. It pointed its knuckles down at the ground and I was expecting for it to happen. "It's going to make a shockwave, maybe. I should fallback now" I thought.

  I ran and lept back towards Siceia and Gonnda. Lumi leaped backwards with her face still facing the beast.

  Conn finished his final swing and did two consecutive back flips. The fist hit the ground, causing a golden shockwave to form on the ground.

  Conn was in the middle of his second backflip, the shockwave went under him perfectly as he was in midair. He landed gracefully with out getting hit. The shockwave was not powerful enough to reach us.

  "Woah!!! Did you all see that?! Its amazing!!!"

  Conn shouted with his face towards us. He seemed to be really thrilled by that daredevil move he did a moment ago. We were more concerned about safety though.

  "Yea! Be careful!" shouted Siceia.

  She casted a spelled and shot it at the beast. It was like colorful fireballs that left a rainbow-like trail in the sky as it flew and hit the beast. The beast let out a cry of pain when it was hit, a rainbow colored explosion was made on his chest.

  Lumi and I ran towards the beast as Siceia shot more at him, buying us time to get to him before he attacks us.

  I placed my sword at my waist and sliced it upwards as I jumped and did "Rapid Fire" in midair. The 20 moves cut through his skin as I slowly fell back down to the ground.

  Another colorful explosion was made before Lumi came up to the area near the beast's stomach area and did her special skill as her sword gave off a purplish pink light.

  She swung down from her right shoulder and raised it upward immediately afterwards. She then did a horizontal cut from right to left and afterwards, left to right, then left again. Repeating those slices over and over, left then, vice versa, up and down. She even did quite a few thrusts. She finished her 59 hit combo with 9 thrusts before falling back.

  I jumped up, moving forward with my sword high over my right shoulder. The beast's right hand glowed with a bright greengreen light as I jumped forward.

  "What? What's this? A magic attack or something? What should I do now?" I thought as I noticed the bright light that shone.

  "Noo!!" shouted Lumi.

  I was suddenly pushed away to the side by Lumi. The light turned into a beam that hit her directly. She was blown away to the tree southwest of the area.

  "Lumi!!!"

  Everyone, including me shouted her name out loud. Siceia shot the beast with three more colorful explosions that turned the place into a rainbow covered area.

  I stood back up and did a 23 hit combo as I leaped towards the left leg of the beast. I first hit left then sliced right, slicing upwards and then downwards afterwards. I continued doing various moves until I reached that amount of 23 moves.

  "Rarrgh?!"

  The beast fell to the ground after letting out a loud cry. His body was turned into a completely black corpse that bursted into a black smoke.

  We hurried to get to Lumi's side, she was lying down on the ground with her face facing the tree leaves of the big tree. She was lying next to the large tree trunk.

  We got to her side and called out her name. The orange light of the setting sun made the scene feel like an end of a journey.

  She opened her eyes, revealing her pupils through the narrow gap between her eyelids. She raised her right hand slightly at me, wanting me to come over and hold it.

  I came over to her side and held her delicate hand. The warmth was gone from it, it was like I was holding the hand of a dead person.

  "Sora, guys, I have to tell you something"

  "What is it?"

  "I have Filiastra too"

  "What?!"

  "I got it when my mother was attacked again, it killed her and cursed me as well. A second hit from the curse would kill instantly. And this... is my end"

  The moment we all heard this, our brains were trying to process the situation. After a short while, some of us started to cry when we understood what was going on.

  "Lumi! Don't leave us!" shouted Siceia.

  "The beast was about to curse you, Sora. I'm happy that I made it in time"

  "But you're going to die"

  "I was going to die sometime later anyway, and I'd rather die before the symptoms show"

  "You saved so many of the future
generations of this village, and you saved me..."

  "I'm sorry that I did not get to teach you"

  "That's fine!"