Chapter 28: KABOOM
Ladarsa just kept laughing manically. "Hahahaha - WHOA!"
The elf suddenly ducked and rolled out of the way as another green energy ribbon came flying at him from the side. It instead hit a table and exploded.
"What the fuck?!" Ladarsa cried as he jumped back to his feet again just in time to bring his red katana up to parry Sam’s green katana. He looked into Sam’s eyes in shock for a moment as they pushed their blades against each other. Then he saw the impaled body a few feet away vanish in a puff of emerald flames, the blood spikes falling to the floor. "Oh fuck, it was a fire clone!"
"A dragonfire clone, to be exact," Sam said with a grin. "I learned a lot during my training. Training I did specifically to prepare myself for you!"
Ladarsa growled in anger. The two swordsmen unleashed a flurry of new attacks at each other, their blades clashing repeatedly. At one point, Sam jumped in the air and stomped back down, sending a shockwave of green energy from his feet. That sent Ladarsa flying across the room.
Sam followed that up with another energy blast from his hand, which hit the elf in the chest just as he was trying to stand back up. The resulting emerald explosion sent Ladarsa crashing through a wall.
Sam rushed after him through the hole in the wall, which led into the Palace kitchens, lined with stoves and copper pots and spice racks. There were still a few cooks who quickly fled the room.
Ladarsa immediately charged Sam again with a wild swing of his sword. Sam ducked, and the blade instead cleaved clean through a hanging rack of pans, sending them crashing to the stone floor in a loud clatter.
Sam fired out another energy beam from his free hand that Ladarsa barely avoided, the green blast instead obliterating an entire bank of ovens in an explosion of fire and flying brick.
Ladarsa closed the distance between them in a blur, red katana crackling, and drove the blade in a brutal upward slash that Sam only barely caught on his own sword, the force of the block driving him back into a long wooden prep table.
Sam then kicked Ladarsa away and rushed forward with another series of fast, brutal strikes, which the elf deflected with his own katana. Then they just stood there for a moment, staring at each other, blades pressed together yet again.
Sam’s lips curled into a grin, and then his face began to crack like a ceramic mask.
"What the fuck?" Ladarsa cried out, clearly alarmed.
The cracks began to spread and widen, a bright green light shining from within. Sam looked intensely into the elf’s eyes. "Can you say, KABOOM?!"
"UUUUGH!" Ladarsa yelped out as Sam exploded in a massive emerald inferno that sent the elf crashing through the kitchen wall and out into the courtyard garden. He was covered in green flames very briefly - fortunately, it had started raining outside, snuffing out the blaze.
Out through the shattered wall stepped the real Sam, katana still in hand, the emerald fire inside the kitchen behind him and the dark, stormy night outside working together to make his body look like a silhouette. "Exploding clones. Pretty neat, huh?"
"I’m going to kill you!" Ladarsa growled as he stood to his feet, the rain soaking his hair and his burnt clothing. "You die NOW!!!"
They rushed each other, blades clashing again as the rain continued to fall, drenching the entire landscape. Lightning flickered in the dark clouds above them, the rumbles of thunder close behind. The green fire in the kitchen was reflected on the puddles of water forming on the ground outside.
"I’m surprised you haven’t tried to crush my heart again yet!" Sam said in between strikes.
"If I could have, I would have!" the elf snapped back angrily. "But I sensed right away that you were flooding Mana into every part of your body, shielding your blood and your organs from my control!"
Sam grinned. "Oh, that! The benefit of gravity training!"
"It doesn’t matter!" Ladarsa shrieked, swinging his blade with renewed fury. "I’ll kill you regardless!"
Their swords clashed yet again, and Sam managed to find an opening to jab his foot into Ladarsa’s shin, shattering the bone.
"AAARRRGGHHHH!!!" the elf screamed out in agony, dropping to one knee. Sam snatched the red katana away, and then crossed it over his green katana, holding both blades against Ladarsa’s throat like a giant pair of scissors.
"Any last words?" Sam asked as he looked down upon the kneeling elf, the rain still falling hard.
"Please..." Ladarsa said, showing fear for the first time. His eyes looked terrified, his lips quivering. "I’m sorry... I’ll never bother you again... Just let me go..."
Sam growled at him as the elf began crying and sniveling. "Are you really that pathetic? All that big talk... and all it takes is a broken leg to turn you into a wailing baby?! What a fucking joke!"
"Please!" Ladarsa continued, weeping heavily now. "Mercy! Show mercy!"
"You fucking piece of shit!" Sam spat, then bent forward to look the elf straight in the eyes. "If I ever see you again, I will fucking kill you. Get it?"
Ladarsa nodded frantically. "Yes! You won’t ever see me again! I promise! I’ll be on the first ship out of the city!"
Sam looked at him in disgust before stepping back and chucking the red katana far away, towards the other side of the courtyard. "Go on, then! Get the fuck out of here!"
"My... My leg..." the elf said weakly. "I can’t walk with it like this. If some of my Mana was restored, I could use my blood magic to heal it... Please lend me your strength? Just a little?"
Sam scoffed and rolled his eyes, then stepped back towards him. "Don’t make me fucking regret this!"
"Thank you, you’re very kind," Ladarsa said as Sam placed a hand on his shoulder, transferring a tiny amount of Mana into him. "Very kind... And very stupid!"
"What?! AAARGGHHHH!!" Sam screamed out as the red katana impaled him from behind and began electrocuting him with scarlet lightning emanating from the blade. It had entered through his lower back and was protruding in front from his abdomen. Then Ladarsa placed his hand against Sam’s upper chest and unleashed a crimson energy blast that sent the dracozian flying across the courtyard. Sam shrieked again as the red blade ripped itself free and shot through the air, returning to the elf’s hand.
"Such a fool!" Ladarsa stood to his feet, his shin snapping back into place and healing instantly. "Did you forget that my sword is made from my blood? I always had control of it!"
Sam laid there on the grass, clutching the open wound on his stomach, still twitching from the aftershock of the red lightning as Ladarsa bellowed out his sinister, maniacal laughter.
Fuuuuuck....