The Grand Catastrophe

…

Climb looked at the man in front of him and gawked. It was Brain Unglaus. The second place winner for the battles for the Chief warrior. He and Gazef had fought, neck and neck to earn their place.

Gazef had won, history knew that of course. Yet, Gazef had said time and time again that it had been close to a draw. He had said that Brain was one of the strongest men that he had faced.

Yet now, as he looked at the man in front of him, he saw only a broken man. Sweat coated his every pore. His limbs were shivering with fright. He was scared. He seemed truly and utterly shaken.

How could he tell him anything when he looked like that? What could he even tell the older man? What did he even want to hear?

“I just did,” he said, and the shivering stopped, “I just thought about my mistress and the fear became bearable.”

Brain stopped and looked at him for a solid second. Then, he grabbed the lad by the shoulders and shook him. He spoke while he did so, and it became quite comical. The two of them could hear a small chuckle from Calvaria while the both of the shook.

It was after about a minute of shaking that they were stopped by Sebas. He had yet to speak in full since Calvaria’s speaking. While he was content to simply stand there and be a god butler, at the same time he was quite sure that his charge would just stand there and watch as she was rather close to laughing outright.

“Could you please stop, you’ll discombobulate him at this rate,” Sebas said, and then looked to Climb.

His eyes were seemingly fine. While the lad was stumbling a bit as he stood on his two legs, he seemed very much all right. Brain was seemingly very apologetic for his actions, with mutterings of sorry coming from his lips.

“I’m sorry,” the taller man said, “I was just peeved that that was his answer. I’ve been dealing with some things, like depression and dispar for the longest time. I was just mad that the answer seemed to come naturally for some people,” he explained.

“Well, perhaps it didn’t,” Sebas said, and earned a confused look from the two other men, “perhaps it was because of the memories and thoughts for this mistress od Climbs that he stood strong. An emotional anchor to the world that stopped him from dying of dispar,” he said, and the earned a nod from Brain.

Climb looked to the older man with sparkles in his eyes. He seemed wise. Very wise. Maybe he had had an encounter with dispar like with Brian had had in the past? It was a possibility, at least from where Climb was looking.

“Okay,” Brain said, “That’s a good reason to not dispar.”

The three of them nodded in repour. It was as if they had faced a great triumph together, and had come out brothers, like how many deep and brotherly bonds formed. Then again, this might just be the author’s imagination. Then, then again, this is all his imagination.

“Okay, now that we are all on the same page; we probably should address the assassins that are coming for us,” Calvaria said, earning a shocked gasp from Brain and Climb.

The three of them stepped back each other. Their gazes meeting the forms of the six different men. Three on one end of the street, three on the other. Brain grimaced slightly, then smiled, his fear gone in an instant.

Climb raised a brow as he looked on at the man that had been trembling in fear but a second ago. Shouldn’t he be a bit wearier? Shouldn’t he be a bit more shaken? He shook his head from those thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to do something. After all, the four of them were being readying themselves.

“We’ll take the way we didn’t come in. you guys take the way we came in. that sound good?” Calvaria asked, and the other two men nodded their heads in confirmation.

Climb moved to face the three men at the end of the alleyway. He gazed upon them as they sized him up themselves. He pulled his sword from his waist and took them in as he did so.

The three of them wore all black. The cloaks that they wore reminded him of thieves, and of shadows. He supposed that is what they were supposed to look like. all in all, they were scary, at least in the shade of the overhang that the entrance to the alleyway had.

When they stepped out of it, he could see that they had knives in their hands. One of them through the weapon at Brain, and he deflected it as he unsheathed his blade. The assassin muttered a curse under his breath, and pulled another one from the folds of his cloak. Climb himself had locked his sight unto the man in front of him as two of the three men went for Brain.

The man then through his own dagger as he grabbed one from his cloak. Climb deflected the blow as he walked forward. His blade kept in front of himself. The man the rushed forth, intent on getting a quick kill.

Climb blocked the stab that he put forth. He deflected the attack with the edge near to the hilt of his sword. It was then that he tilted the sword down and went for an overhead strike. The assassin pulled back, the tip of Climb’s sword clipping his nose and earning a slight yelp of pain.

Climb smirked as he strides forward. As he stepped forward, he could hear the sounds of a man gasping in what could be awe, then getting stabbed in the chest. he wanted to look behind him and see what it was, yet the man in front of him would let him do so.

The assassin then went for an reverse grip stab to Climb’s side. He was to stiff though, and Climb blocked the blow with a shift of his stance and the flat of his sword. Climb then thrust his blade forward, piercing the man in the lower ribs.

He gasped in pain as he fell backward. His back hit the ground with a thunk. Climb grimaced. He had wanted to arrest the man and question him. Yet now he was confident that he was dead.

He turned back to Brain to see that he had knocked out the men that had gone after him. Why they thought they could take him, he had no idea. Brain smiled as he caught Climb’s gaze and then the both of them turned to Calvaria.

Sebas seemed to have knocked out the two men that had gone for him, and Calvaria had stabbed the man in the chest. Yet, how she had down so, he had an inkling. She held a silver colored estoc in her right hand, the blade buried in the man’s chest up to the hilt.

She then pulled the blade from the man’s chest, and plunged it into her cleavage which she had exposed. She seemingly didn’t care or realize that people were watching her do so. she looked up to those around her, and tilted her head to the side as if she had done nothing strange.

“Is there something on my face?” the woman asked, her face holding a confused look.

…