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Of Light, Shadow and Love: Volume 2 Chapter 6 Give and Take There
was no warning. Like a gazelle, she sprang forward, clearing nearly half the
distance between them before he could blink. Hayai! he thought, eyes widening as he
pulled at his blade. Only his reflexes saved him, the air-splitting edge of
her blade skidded across his own half-sheathed one, a strike that would have
opened his ribcage. She skidded
to the expected stop two steps behind him. He spun, the rasp of his
Light-born sword slithering out of its sheath the only sound. He brought the
blade down on her unprotected side….Time moved slowly as she glanced at him
through the corner of her eye, and raised her arm to protect her head. The
blade came down on her arm. There was a muffled thump, as though he had
tossed something heavy on a pillow. Lightsider’s eyes widened as he realized
that his blade could not penetrate her kimono. Armored silk! he thought frantically. Lightsider
moved to kick her in the side, anything to get her away to give him time to
recover, but a silvery blur moved at the border of his view and he found
himself out of breath, flying backward, swatted by her glittering, now
metallic wing. He took
a split second to recover mid-air, twisting so that he would land on his
feet. He held his blade ready, awaiting her immediate strike. Shadowdancer
did not attack. Instead, she settled into an unusual stance. She leaned forward,
the sword edge pointed up, the side of the blade pressed lightly against her
fingertips. She watched him, her eyes still dancing with fun. He was
not familiar with the stance, but he readied himself as well. She struck
then, just as he had gotten his feet into the proper positions. His sword
came up to block as she suddenly stabbed forward, twisting the blade at the
last instant. Lightsider
caught her blade and pushed it upward, deflecting her fatal strike. He pushed
at her with his own sword, hoping to throw her back. It was
like pushing against a mountain. Shadowdancer
met his eyes calmly, just before she allowed her arm to relax, letting him
fall forward. One hand
slid up to slash him across the nose lightly with her koto pick, a strike
meant to distract more than harm. Her kick caught him in the chest, well
within his defenses, and the taller doctor went flying into a nearby boulder.
She heard the breath whoosh out of him, and darted forward to strike once
more. Cursing
himself for forgetting her immense strength, Lightsider rebounded at
Shadowdancer the instant his feet had purchase, his strike aimed low. The
speed of the attack caught Shadow slightly off guard, and her stabbing strike
passed harmlessly over his head. She felt the impact of two crosscut strikes
slicing harmlessly against her side, and she whirled to face Lightsider
again. He
grinned where he had stopped, blood trickling down his face. Inwardly he
winced, certain she’d bruised his ribs. Shadow
readied her next strike, and noticed something. Her kimono robes where
sliding across each other loosely, and not protecting her fully. Then she
realized what was wrong. The
kimono and her obi were armored
against most attacks, but the string tying the sash had been ordinary, and he
had cut it in two. The
crowd gave a collective blink at Lightsider’s strike. No one took their eyes
off the monitors, but later replays showed what was too fast for most eyes to
track. The doctor had ducked under Shadowdancer’s stabbing strike, his sword held
in his right hand in a reverse grip. The shining blade had slid across
Shadowdancer’s left side, and then Lightsider had flipped the sword to a
forward grip and slashed backward as he passed. Shadow
looked down and grimaced. The strike she thought completely useless had very
effectively reduced her defenses, by striking the one weak point her Kami-woven silk kimono had. She
looked up, and gave a start. Lightsider had vanished. Shadowdancer
flicked her eyes around. Where’d he . .
. . Then she
realized, and looked up. Just too
late. Lightsider had sprung into the air the instant Shadow had looked down
at her clothing, and had used the split-second distraction to his advantage.
Five meters above her, his palm already was facing Shadow, and she saw the
air ripple in front of him. The
crowd gathered at the monitors couldn’t hear what Lightsider whispered, but
the computers translated for them, putting the name of his attack at the
bottom of the screen. Shield Lightsider’s
discoid Shield blasted away from his hand and smashed into Shadowdancer. The
elfin woman gave a grunt under the blow. The Shield had pinned her to the
earth, driving her flat against the ground and more; the force of the Shield
actually compressed a shallow crater into the grassy soil. Despite her
enormous strength, she found it impossible to move. Lightsider
dropped directly down, his own shadow enveloping the drow like a death shroud
as the doctor brought his paired Light katana down in an impaling blow into
Shadow’s torso. Shadow
smiled. Even in
mid-strike, Lightsider gritted his teeth. Now
what . . . ? And with
that, Shadowdancer melted into Lightsider’s shadow, like snow fading
underneath the summer sun. Damn! Lightsider cursed himself. I knew she could do this! He brought his
blades through his Shield into Shadow’s disappearing form in an
all-but-futile gesture. She had vanished. Lightsider
knelt with his blades half-buried in the ground, and looked around the forest
setting. The wind hissed through the leaves, and the grass rustled.
Lightsider tried to look in every direction at once. Mostly because that’s
where Shadow’s next attack would probably come from: everywhere. He stood
carefully, and felt a sting on his cheek, and then another on his arm. He
whirled and looked behind him, and only got another sting across his leg for
his pains. “Ohohohohohoho
. . . .” The laughter, soft and mocking, floated to him on the breeze. ---- Shadowdancer
had removed the ribbon binding her hair into a foxtail and had plucked
several strands. They had been woven into a web of death, strands diving in
and out the shadows of trees, bushes, and stones. Soon, they criss-crossed
into a cruel cat’s cradle around the doctor with a blade. She
laughed softly as he discovered them. Her wires would shred him like a boiled
egg in an egg cutter. Lightsider
watched a lock of his hair fall, and then split in two again a foot from the
ground. It betrayed a little glint of metal as it did so. Lightsider
flicked his vision back and forth. Wires!
Each was as thin as a promise, and as sharp as betrayal. And nearly
invisible. Nearly. Lightsider was able to see them all around him, like a
web, a cage. Lightsider
figured he had less than a second before the wires converged like a cat’s
cradle and sliced him into dog food. They’d probably make a nice little knot
and bow where his heart had been, knowing Shadow’s style. Lightsider
flicked his eyes across again. There! He folded his wings around his body and
dove for a narrowing gap. He made
it. Mostly. The wires converged and knotted, just catching and slicing the
sole of the doctor’s shoe as they closed in. Lightsider hit the ground,
rolled, and launched into the air again. Shadowdancer
chuckled softly. Well played, Doctor!
But my wires will follow your dance as well as I would. She pulled and
teased the wires, letting the magic flow through them. Lightsider looked
down, and groaned inwardly as the wires unknotted themselves and whipped
after him on their own. Shield was no good here, he knew. He couldn’t
maintain a large enough one to deflect them all for very long. Eventually,
he’d run out of strength, and then he’d be sukiyaki. His only
chance lay in Shadow’s security in the darkness. Lightsider
looked around the forest clearing as he darted and dodged. Sight The
clearing suddenly became to Lightsider’s view as blazing noonday. The trees
and underbrush suddenly betrayed their artificial origin, appearing not as living
entities, bathed in Light, but as awkward wireform constructs. And
there . . . . Lightsider
aimed his hand, palm outward once more, and a ravening bolt of Light leapt
from his hand and impacted a huge oak tree. The bolt shattered a whole
section of the tree’s trunk and caused the entire tree to leap a full meter
in the air. Lightsider
allowed himself a tight grin as the tree came crashing down and
Shadowdancer’s wires went slack The
whole arcade erupted in pandemonium. Yells and cheers erupted from the crowd,
and some even started to try to collect their bets. Others
hushed them, though, and pointed at the monitor screens. It wasn’t over yet. ---- Shadowdancer
stepped out from the roots of a willow with small grimace of displeasure. He
had caught her nearly unawares, and she had a fairly substantial “sunburn” on
one cheek to testify how close it had been. His changing tactics... from grace to brutality.... Shadowdancer
felt the barest twinge of fear before she smothered the emotion so completely
that she hardly remembered it. Still, you do not have a monopoly
on energy, Doctor!
Shadowdancer wove her fingers in a quick pattern, casting a spell. She
shivered in delight as the power flowed from her soul, through her body, and
coalesced into her hands. She spread them and unleashed the magic, which
sizzled toward the doctor’s unprotected back. Lightsider
frowned. That wouldn’t have been enough, he was almost certain, to kill her.
The simulation hadn’t ended either, so he knew he hadn’t succeeded. He rose,
alert, wary of her next attack. Lightsider’s hair stood on end; an oppressive
sense and the strong smell of ozone making the air about him seem alive. The
doctor turned just in time to watch the electricity scream through the air
and slam into his unguarded side. The agony was indescribable, and black
spots danced in front of the doctor’s eyes. Oh, yes. The pain simulators worked very well, he thought in a
part of his mind that wasn’t busy shouting in agony. The
doctor had no concentration for a counterattack, or even a simple shield, so
he fell back on simple instinct. Lightsider stabbed his sword into the
ground. Shadow’s magic was powerful, yes, but it was still elemental, and had
to obey natural law. The lightning grounded immediately into the sword and
into the earth, sparing Lightsider from most of its effects. By random
chance, it also found a tree root to follow. Right
back to Shadowdancer. Shadowdancer
hovered above him, admiring the glint of the sunlight that danced upon her wings,
playing on them as it would on water... or folded steel. Stretching
them to her full length, she whipped her wings forward, the larger
pinfeathers thrown from them like large sword blades raining death from the
sky. The wings immediately grew a new set, and she repeated the strike. Lightsider
looked up and gritted his teeth. How many attacks did she have?! There were
too many feathers to dodge, and there was no way to summon a Shield big
enough in time. The winged doctor raised both his hands toward Shadowdancer,
as if to ward the razor-sharp feathers with his bare hands. Shadowdancer
watched him raise his hands, in an apparent gesture of futility, to shield
himself from the deadly feather-blades. She knew better though, than to think
he was that defenseless and watched him to see what would happen. A little
bubble of Light appeared between Lightsider’s hands, too small to be a
shield. Lightsider gave only what could be described as an insane grin as the
bubble shattered and crystalline shards of Light shot out in all directions. Shadow
revised her assessment instantly, though: not in all directions. In her direction. Shadow
marveled as each shard intercepted and destroyed a single feather. Such control! she thought. Truly, he is worthy... more than worthy...
to fight me in full. So be it then! She
noticed that a single shard was left, and it was arrowing in her direction. Shadowdancer
smirked as she raised her hand and whipped out a single hair to shred the
shard. As she did so, she darted out of the way, and left behind her a trail
of tiny feathers, softly falling like sakura
petals on the breeze in her wake. She landed behind the doctor, gently
fluttering her wings, clapping. “Marvelously done, Dr. Lightsider!” The
breeze carried the little, fluffy feathers to him, as she shook her wings
once more and folded them upon her back. Lightsider
used his sword as a crutch to hoist himself up, and shook off the last
effects of Shadow’s lightning attack. He looked up at Shadow’s comment and smiled
slightly. “I was hoping that would work,” he said. “You
adapt most excellently.” Shadowdancer smiled. Lightsider
frowned at the feathers floating at him and prepared for another attack. The
only reason for so many feathers was some sort of visual distraction. He
ignored them as they wafted to him and put his katana up in a defensive
stance. His belief was confirmed as the feathers began to drift around him in
a swiftly speeding whirlwind. As one
brushed against his face, he felt a slight sting. The feathers glittered like
spun sugar, and one tinged off his sword, before tumbling off after its
fellows. Lightsider
looked at his sword in disbelief, and then at the storm of small feathers
around him. “Awww . .
. ,” he said aloud, “Not the small ones, too!”
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