The Nameless Scourge I

A JP by Tahjerius, Ender, Thaen, and LSP

((Ship of the Fair Lady, Kobroran Sea))

The clash of steel was fierce as the two collided. Jeke moved quickly, using his second blade to attempt to overwhelm the sorcerer, but Ponce was quicker, taking a first step away and leaning back with speed, avoiding the second blade by inches. Jeke pressed, unleashing a measured single slash. Ponce receded once again and was finding very few pockets to counter the experienced fighter. A parry would only knock away one sword, and the other just might catch him.

He waved his right hand behind him, using his telekinesis to sense the wall. The weapons master had him now, all it would take was a strong slash pressing him to the wall, where he would pin him and finish him. All the while Jeke anticipated a telekinetic push, likely the sorcerer would try to make space for himself, as he was quickly running out of it, alas, no such push came. So be it, Jeke came forth with force to pin, only for the pull to come right when he put his mind past it. The sorcerer spun, pulling Jeke into the wall and twirling out of the way. Jeke turned, expecting blades coming for him, and quite predictably, they came. The swordsman ducked and dipped, narrowly missing the sorcerer's razors, hearing them crash into the wall as he pressed forth. He was off-balance now, and Jeke took advantage, coming with a quick dual slash, however, the sorcerer expertly parried both blades and drew away, all the while making a slight gesture with his hand as he did. The razors came fast, and Jeke turned only turned halfway to avoid the blades, but he could only do so much in such a short time. The blades slashed by, one biting into the weapons master's pauldron, the other sailing harmlessly by. But, alas, Ponce wasn't after a clean cut.

He suddenly charged, and Jeke whipped around to defend, only to see the sorcerer glide past him, in and out of his field of vision. He was fast, so fast that it wasn't until tried to slash at the sorcerer as he zipped by that he realized his right blade was missing. The sorcerer had pulled it out of his grip mid-swing, and it was now embedded in the nearby wall, still vibrating from the intense impact. The blades, though, were of quality make; the impact hurt the wall more than it hurt his sword. Jeke kept his guard towards the sorcerer as he moved toward his blades, he had proven thus far that eyes couldn't be taken off of him. Ponce, seeing what he was intending to do, proceeded to push him toward the wall. Jeke, who had been pushed around quite enough by this point, found that leaning into the force at the right time softened the blow a bit. Still, he was even closer to his blade now, so the push only helped anyway. Ponce moved forward cautiously, offering only a wink as he did so. Jeke wondered what he was playing at now, he was losing the only advantage he had, and in the back of his mind, perhaps some trap had been sprung. He gave the room a quick once over, finding nothing apparently out of place, and gripped the handle of his blade before pulling it free. Just as he did, Ponce charged, and Jeke blocked the sorcerer's wild swing with his left blade and brought about the right in an expertly poised thrust. To his surprise, though, the sorcerer's left hand shot forward, gripping the weapons master's blade as it came at him, and in his hand, he held not a razor-sharp blade, but a stick with a handle attached to it. Ponce twisted with a grunt, snapping the stick, rendering the now useless weapon even more useless.

"Crafty sonuvabitch." Jake uttered, casting Joseph a quick glance.

"How are we doing with the guard?" He called.

"Cleaning up," The cursed warrior replied. Joseph ducked under a swing of the guard's longsword, coming to punish against the opening, only for the guard to turn on his heel to narrowly block the blade with his handle.

"This guy seems way more annoying now that his buddy's gone!" Joseph called, sizing up his opponent once more.

Jeke grimaced, this was taking way too long now. He couldn't afford to rush though, this guy had a knack of always being ready to take advantage of even the smallest mistakes. And just as Jeke reminded himself of that, Ponce pivoted, using his lead foot to leap into a dead sprint across the room. In a final long stride, Ponce whipped his arm, recalling the razor that had missed Jeke earlier, firing it in a sideways arc around the mind-bent guard.

"Joseph!" Jeke called, doing his best to pursue the sorcerer and stop him from doing whatever he was doing now.

Joseph parried an attack when the razor slashed across his back with surgical precision, cutting a long gash across it. He grunted, the pain only throwing him momentarily off guard. But that was all the sorcerer needed. He braced and leaped, soaring unnaturally high into the air where Jeke could not bother him on such short notice. Hovered there for just a moment, Ponce drew his right arm back and unleashed a bolt even more vicious than the last, this one knocking the cursed sorcerer off of his feet. He let out a shout as he collided with the ground, and this time did not stand back up.

Ponce landed, nothing but a glare to the guard, who subsequently changed direction and charged Jeke, stopping just within blades' reach and swinging to ward the weapons master away. Jeke glanced over the guard to see Ponce approaching the downed Joseph, and his heart dropped at the thought of what the sorcerer might do next.

"NO!" Jeke shouted, letting forth a magical blast to knock the guard away before coming at Ponce fast. He reached into his coat, finding a dagger, his last one. Just as he prepared to whip it at Ponce, the sorcerer turned, and Jeke saw his crimson eyes glowing bright, and the crack of light like lightning that streaked across his face. And as Ponce glared, muttering something under his breath, and Jeke's vision proceeded to distort as he experienced his every traumatic memory in the blink of an eye, he realized, fully and firmly, ‘This man simply is not human,’

When his vision returned to him, he saw the sorcerer charging him, blade already coming toward him. In a bout of speed that not even Jeke was sure how he managed, the Weapons Master managed a timely block, but it was too little, too late. His sword arm knocked away, Ponce simply drew his left arm back, and with a great shout, he exclaimed, "ENOUGH!" and his hand shot forward, gripping the weapons master's face. He growled, giving everything he had, and he could feel the pain, the exhaustion, the forces of gravity as he moved, all exhilarating, and pushed the man into the floor, and he crashed into the boards with a momentous thud.