"What a refreshing sleep, wouldn't you say so boy?", valor's voice boomed, far too bright for the grey pallor of the morning. He stood at the cave's mouth, four golden eyes drinking in the dawn breeze as if it were wine.
He turned, his grin faltering for only a fraction of a second. "What in the gods' name happened to you?"
Mavir didn't answer. He couldn't. His body felt less like flesh and more like wet clay as dragged his feet across the stone, each step a heavy, scraping protest. Dark circles deep as bruises, hung under his eyes, and his skin had taken on the translucent, sickly sheen of a week-old corpse making his previous appearance mercy to his current state.
'You, you four-eyed bastard', "Nothing, I just couldn't sleep very well.", he said that but his thoughts were cursing him with every shred of determination.
"Well, that's on you. Early to bed, early to rise." Valor let out a sharp bark of a laugh that made Mavir's teeth ache.
'I wan't to kill him', shaking those intrusive thoughts out of his head, he responded with an eerie smile, "I'll take note of that". Internally, he was already imagining the weight of a blade across Valor's throat. It was a comforting thought—until it wasn't.
A roar suddenly tore through the air. It wasn't a sound; it was a physical force that vibrated through the marrow of mavir's bones. In the distance, birds erupted from the dense forest like a cloud of black shrapnel. mavir's heart hammered against his ribs, but Valor's posture shifted instantly. The warrior didn't look afraid.
He looked hungry.
"Yes, Finally. Another round.", valor said excitedly.
Valor's manic energy surged. He turned to Mavir, eyes flashing. "Wait here."
He vanished into the cave's shadows, returning moments later with Mavir's belongings: the spear-shaped branch, the intricate curved knife, and the ring. He tossed them at Mavir's chest. The boy fumbled, clutching the gear like a lifeline. He'd almost forgotten they existed, his mind too clouded by the sheer terror of his company and his..interrogations.
"My Stuff", mavir instantly realized, 'how could I forget. Stupid Idiot'.
"Prepare yourself," Valor grunted.
"Eh—?"
Before Mavir could finish the syllable, Valor's massive hand clamped around his waist. He was hoisted up like a discarded ledger, tucked under Valor's arm with bruising force. Then, the world vanished.
Valor leaped.
The air didn't just blow past; it slammed into Mavir's face with the force of a tidal wave. The temperature plummeted, the morning chill turning into a biting, razor-edged frost. Mavir squeezed his eyes shut as they soared, the wind howling in his ears, threatening to peel the skin from his weak bones. He risked a glance downward. The forest was no longer a place of trees; it was a map—a dizzying, green ocean broken by an impossible number of jagged peaks either short or tall and some were next to each other or being lonely like what he loves to be.
They reached the peak of the jump. For a heartbeat, the world went silent. The wind died. The air grew thin and heavy. Mavir looked up and saw the underbelly of the clouds, thick and grey, mere meters from his reach. His childhood memory flickered—a dream of wanting to touch the clouds, wanting to feel it and wanting to show his mother—before it was incinerated by Valor's deafening, joyful roar.
"GWAHAHAHA!"
Then came the drop. Gravity reclaimed them with a violent jerk. The air rushed into Mavir's open mouth, bloating his cheeks and making his vision blur into a streak of grey and green.
'You crazy bast—!'
The ground rushed up to meet them. mavir closed his eyes bracing himself for whatever pain he's about to receive from the impact.
Rustle.
Snap.
THUD.
The impact should have shattered Mavir's spine. Instead, there was only a jarring throb of adrenaline. He was alive.
"Surprised?", Valor asked, his four eyes dancing with predatory delight, the sudden surprise of what occurred in about the last one or three minutes made mavir see him very strangely.
"You..You crazy- Bluegh", and he finally got his answer of why. His body couldn't handle the events that happened and his throw-up was an effect of that. Valor, luckily, was able to move two meters away from mavir and he released the remains of last night dinner to the hard rough ground.
ROOOOAAAARRRR
The sound echoed cleared and a bit metallic compared to when they were in the mountains Valor excitedly walked towards the end of a cliff a few meters away from him while mavir was still trying to get himself back up.
Reaching the end of the cliff, he looked downwards. Below them lay a scarred wasteland—an open wound in the middle of the dense forest with Trees lay snapped like matchsticks, and the earth was tattered by deep, jagged trenches with a figure at the center.
The figure exhibited a dead malicious presence from its ember green eyes, this figure looked human except for the fact his limbs were elongated make him tall and less human if anyone saw him. but strange enough, he was draped in rusted, dull blue plate armor looking like they had gone through a hell of a journey with the wearer with sword marks on them and and, X-shaped visor on his face.
A Knight? Might be but his appearance looked too inhuman to be one and the presence he gave around seemed unlike of any knight valor had seen throughout his lifetime which seemed to intrigue him even more about this knight's origin but regardless, he was not here to think about this dead knight, he was here to fight him.
The Knight seemed to be in the same agreement as it held its rusted blue broad sword almost meeting him in height, For an average knight, I don't think they would even lift this type of sword.
Valor turned around towards an already standing mavir, "Wait here and watch mavir".
"Huh", before mavir could utter another word, valor had already jumped, plummeted from the cliff, landing in the clearing with a bone-shaking boom.
"W-Wait, what am I supposed to do-", he ran towards the edge of the cliff while talking and stopped midway seeing the knight, his body shuddered as he felt like throwing up again but he held on, looking at Inhuman knight made his skin crawl. Never in his life- his previous life had he seen a knight so inhuman, especially with his ember eyes, even though he wasn't looking at it, mavir still felt it looking at him, perhaps watching him as if waiting for mavir to do something.
'I can't look at this creature'.
then he turned to the landscape and was utterly bewildered by the sight.
"What the hell happened here", noticing the cut down trees, the multiple marks that looked to have come from a sword, not surprising since there's one holding it right now, and finally a large rock bearing an entrance to a cave but he didn't pay it much mind to it as the atmosphere grew tense.
valor looked at the inhuman knight, his four eyes and mouth showing an excited look. The knight didn't flinch. It simply shifted its weight, the heavy armor groaning like a haunted ship and Its ember eyes locked onto its target.
"It's been a while, Bluey," Valor shouted, hefting his own massive blade.
GRRR. The Knight gave a low venomous growl, greatly angered by the name.
"What, you don't like your name", This Bluey seemed to have intelligence and somehow doesn't charge at its target or enemy such as valor right now, mavir was quick to learn this but the distance between them made it quite hard for him to hear valor's converse with the knight.
"Fine, Let's skip the pleasantries", Valor declared, his grin widening as he raised his hand a dull golden light emanated producing a massive broadsword similar to the inhuman knight sword but looked in better condition.
Immediately, he charged shattering the ground, his moving with manic speed. The Inhuman Knight did not flinch or roar in return. Instead, the dull blue giant simply shifted its weight on its lanky limbs, raising its massive, rusted sword in a slow, precise arc to meet Valor's charge. The heavy metal groaned under its own immense weight. The air grew heavy, and up on the cliff, Mavir gripped his new belongings in terror, feeling the lethal pressure of two monsters about to collide.
Then....BOOOMM
The collision detonated a sonic wave that tore across the clearing, sending a wall of dust and grit screaming around them, the trees and even the cliff.
Mavir shielded his eyes, feeling the lethal pressure of the clash even from his height. Below, the two monsters were locked in a stalemate, their blades grinding together with a sound that set Mavir's teeth on edge.
'Shit, What monsters', that's the only thought he could have in his head as he watched the fight, strangely captivated by it.
Holding their swords against each other, the inhuman Knight suddenly releases one hand from his sword's hilt and delivered a punch that sent Valor skimming across the dirt but he was able to capture himself mid-air and just in time as the knight came running at him.
Valor did the same, the knight readied his sword creating a horizontal arc against the wind but valor already predicted this, it was an obvious tactic but that's what the knight wanted again with his hands, he smashed them to reach a crouching valor creating a field of dust around them from the impact.
As soon as the dust settled, the knight was shocked, his attack didn't reach valor because valor was never there at all. "It seems you've become stronger bluey", a voice rang behind him.
Bluey.
That seemed to enrage the knight as it roared a venomous sonic wave sending mavir flying back, "Ha, You really don't like it when I call you that", valor said putting on a stance, his sword in left hand and extending his right hand to as far as he could reach on his sword.
"But...That's what I want".
The Knight was the one to charge forth, running at top speed with full on killing intent from it as his body glowed mysteriously ember green.
But Valor was silent, how the roles have been reversed. His body glowed golden and the real fight begins.