119 Vol. 2 pt. 56 Patch 10.0: Something Stupid (1/2)

Alexander leaps into the air and swings his blade at Fenrir at the same time that The Shoebill crashes into The Steel Tiger's bow! Fenrir, still standing on the deck, almost gets knocked off his balance from the collision.

Fenrir raises Rod in front of him and blocks the sword! Rod may just be a fishing pole right now, and the wood that it is made of is nothing special, but the ”veins” running through the pole's structure are as hard as any steel and stop the blade from cutting through it. ”Surprised?” Fenrir asks with a sly smile.

”How?!” Alexander shouts. This masterfully crafted blade has no reason not to cut through some fishing rod! Even a steel blade would be sliced through by this sword, yet a fishing rod is able to stop it?

A bright glow from the bottom of the pole tells Alexander why his sword can't cut through it.

Alexander kicks off of Fenrir to jump back a few feet and ready himself for another attack.

”You alright, Rod?” Fenrir asks.

One pulse.

”Good. Don't worry, he won't—”

Alexander charges once more, but this time, he has used magic to imbue his blade in a swirling cyclone of flame.

The flaming blade may still not be enough to cut through Rod, but there is one distinct advantage over Fenrir that Alexander has, and it is apparent to Fenrir from Alexander's movements.

While Fenrir's sword fighting experience comes purely from randomly swinging around weapons in games until figuring out what works and what doesn't, Alexander utilizes proper techniques that can only be obtained through serious training.

Fenrir tries to block Alexander's attack after he switches the direction he is swinging from, but he then fakes Fenrir out again by tackling him rather than using his sword at all!

While Alexander pins Fenrir down and presses his flaming sword to Fenrir's neck, a new battle is about to begin at where the two ships are joined.

Cassiel and Bonekraka look at each other and nod, but before they can jump over to the ship they've rammed, Tabitha jumps between them with her oversized hammer and is the first one to pick a fight!

”Come at me! I'll show ya that the Strism name ain't just good for smithin'!” Tabitha shouts.

The nearest man charges her with a sword and a kite shield.

Tabitha smiles at him and swings her hammer into his shield. The force of impact from her hammer is enough to smash the shield into hundreds of small fragments and completely break the bone in the arm that it was strapped to.

Cassiel cringes when she sees the man's arm limply hanging at his side, but when Bonekraka jumps over to the ship to join Tabitha, she decides that it's time for her to join the action herself.

It is now that she notices something. Whereas before, these men were wearing regular armor that bore no insignias nor looked noticeable in any way, they now don white and gold plate armor with a design that she is very familiar with. Even the scabbards of their shields look familiar to her, and if that's not enough to tell her who these men are, one of them recognizes her.

”Cassiel?” the man standing in front of her asks.

Cassiel draws her blade and aims it at him. The only men wearing armor with this design that would recognize her have to be angels, or at least angel trainees, fighting for the Augus Empire. She used to have armor that looked exactly like theirs.

”That's you, isn't it? Hey, what're you doing with these guys?”

The answer he gets is her blade slashing at him rather than a spoken one.

With Tabitha and Cassiel in their own fights, Bonekraka looks at the final man available for a fight and grunts as he clacks his two axes together.

”Should – should we help them?” Corwin asks Oleander and Serra.