Chapter 27: Fire & Blood
Sam maintained eye contact with Ladarsa as he walked back down the stairs, his green katana held firmly in his hand. "Why now? Why here?"
"Because this was the only opportunity for the Druids to hear the truth!" the elf professed, walking towards Sam with his red katana ready to strike.
"Why the ruse earlier?" Sam demanded.
"Because I had to maintain civility while my men were searching the area for your friends," he revealed. "I had to make sure you didn’t have them hiding somewhere around the Palace before I made my move. Fortunately, they were located at Timmony’s Tavern, not here on the premises."
"Did your men hurt them?" Sam asked in a growl.
Ladarsa shook his head. "No. They were only observed. As long as they do not come to the Palace, they will not be bothered. This fight is between you and I." He then looked over his shoulder at his men. "Do not interfere with our duel unless you are told to. The Druids have heard the truth now, so clear out the ballroom."
The pirates fanned out, herding the people into the foyer, towards the front doors. Some protested, others went along quietly. Gabriella slipped out a side door silently.
"You have no right to disturb my event like this!" Horxenhall demanded as he stomped up to Ladarsa.
The elf just turned and looked at him, and that seemed to scare the pig enough that he fled the room without another word.
Sam didn’t wait for the ballroom to finish emptying. He powered up his katana with a glowing green aura as he neared the bottom of the stairs, and then swung the blade in a wide, diagonal arc. This movement unleashed a thin ribbon of green energy the size of the sword, which flew through the air towards Ladarsa.
It missed the elf by inches as he stepped to the side, the blast instead colliding with a marble pillar behind him, exploding into a shower of green sparks and shattered stone.
Ladarsa then ran at Sam, powering up his red blade with an aura of crackling scarlet electricity. Sam brought his own sword up to meet the first strike, and the two blades met with an explosion of powers, green fire licking against red lightning, sparks scattering in both directions.
"You’ve gotten stronger," Ladarsa said with a smirk, pushing back against Sam’s blade. "But you aren’t the only one who trained in a Time Chamber!"
How did he know about that? Sam wondered in his mind. And the shit with Maeve. How the fuck does he know so much?
The elf then shoved Sam backward with sudden, brutal force.
Sam stumbled but recovered, bringing his blade around in a horizontal slash. Ladarsa ducked beneath it, red electricity crawling visibly across his skin now, sparking at his fingertips, and drove his sword up and in. Sam twisted away, but not fast enough to avoid the tip of the red katana cutting through the sleeve on his arm and leaving a slash on his skin.
He didn’t wait to assess the wound, using the momentum of his attempted dodge to spin around and swing his green katana towards Ladarsa’s shoulder. The elf caught the blow on his own blade, but the force of it drove him down to one knee.
The remaining stragglers in the ballroom screamed and ran faster. Ladarsa’s men, having finished clearing the bulk of the crowd, turned back toward the fight, weapons drawn, moving to encircle Sam.
"Do not interfere!" Ladarsa snapped. "I told you before - stay back until commanded otherwise!"
Sam used the distraction to his benefit. He held out his free hand, firing a beam of green energy from his open palm. It hit Ladarsa full in the chest and hurled him back into a row of wooden tables in an explosion of splinters and flame.
"Forget what I said! KILL HIM!" Ladarsa shrieked in rage as he jumped back to his feet. The men circled in closer.
Sam fought with the desperate efficiency of a man who understood that stopping meant dying. He cut down two of the encircling pirates with wide, fire-trailing slashes that set their coats alight even as their bodies fell. He then spun to catch a third’s blade on his own, forcing the man to drop his weapon. Sam then slashed his flaming sword at the man’s chest, causing him to scream out in agony as his skin blistered where the heat touched flesh.
Ladarsa used the chaos of his own men as cover, darting in low and slashing his crimson blade upward. Sam just barely managed to bring his sword down in time to parry, but Ladarsa kept pushing forward with repeated strikes, the assault forcing Sam back step by step across the ballroom floor.
Twice the red katana scored shallow cuts along Sam’s ribs and thigh; twice Sam answered with a burst of green fire that sent Ladarsa reeling back, coat smoking. After another strike, Sam managed to trip Ladarsa backward onto the floor with a leg sweep. In response, the elf shrieked in anger and fired a crimson lightning bolt from his hand. Sam slipped out of the way just in time.
The bolt hit a chandelier above them instead, shattering it and sending broken crystal cascading down towards them. Sam jumped back and Ladarsa rolled out of the way as the shards came crashing down onto the floor.
Sam turned around and unleashed a flurry of sword slashes towards Ladarsa’s other men as they tried rushing him from behind, each swipe sending out another green energy ribbon that flew through the air and ignited in an emerald explosion upon impact. The men screamed out for an instant before their bodies blew apart, painting the floor, walls, and ceiling in scarlet.
"Enough of this," Ladarsa growled as he rose to his feet. He reached out his free hand, willing the blood all around to grow into sharp spikes. With a swipe of the elf’s hand, the spikes shot towards Sam from every direction, stabbing into his neck, chest, stomach, and limbs.
"Haha!" Ladarsa cried out victoriously as his opponent fell to the floor, unmoving. "Got you!"
The elf walked towards Sam, who just stared at the ceiling without even blinking, as if in shock from being impaled so many times at once.
"Look at you, laying there all fucked up, about to die!" Ladarsa taunted him, staring down at his twitching body with a demented grin. "Hahahahahaaaaa!!!"