Crusader King-Chapter 140: Two-faced lie(4)

He wanted to attack first, he felt the need to dominate his opponent, he felt as if he would be able to do it easily, after all, there was no one who understood Cades better than Cades, aside from, perhaps, a psychologist or something of the likes, and as such he tried to attack first, seizing the initiative and pressuring the opponent against the entrance that he had now once more realized to be gone, having forgotten it because his mind was dancing around a stick right now, lying to him more than anything, after all, even just a second ago Cades could've sworn that the opponent didn't have something to hold weapons, but now he had a black leather belt with a knot in the front and a simple black iron dagger on one of the sides in a small scabbard, right next to another scabbard that seemed to be intended for a sword, both not having been there when the clash had begun.

He had only really realized this because his mind was burning itself up, thinking as much and as fast as it could as it was trying to find a way to make it all count, but before he could think on what to do next, having been preoccupied with the scabbard, a relatively meaningless detail in the long run of this battle, the opponent had time to both rise his sword and dash froward as well, already taking part of the initiative and lowering Cades relative momentum as he realized just a mere fraction of a second later, something that he already knew to probably result in him and the opponents blade meeting in the middle, forcing a show of strength and resulting in the stronger of the two to gain the upper hand, just as it had always happened when he had thought in that accursed realm up to now.

And indeed, they met in the middles, the two identical long blades colliding and causing a spark of magic to fly off the two of them, something that had resulted from both of them infusing magic into the object, something that they had been capable of doing for a long time and also something that had been happening naturally with their current ranks, without them even wholly realizing.

For a moment the two blades twitched in the air, hugging each other as if they were old friends, but then Cades' opponent's blade, who shall know be known as false Cades, moved away, backwards, something Cades hadn't expected, and as such caused him to stumble backwards, barely being able to save himself from going towards the false Cades, but it still made him an easy target, and he already knew that his opponent would use that as well as he could, especially now that he had temporarily lost his balance.

The false Cades moved quickly, not resting for even a single moment and instead using his own momentum as if he had planned all of this already, and as such he moved in, the blade ready to attack the stumbling Cades' stomach and end this battle in a short, impressive and embarrassing way.

But for some reason the false Cades didn't attack, instead opting to catch himself in a weirdly steadfast way, simply standing there while Cades, the real one, took a second to recover, grabbing his stomach that he had already felt being torn apart by the sharp blade of silver in his own hands, perhaps even being penetrated by the steaming hot lightning and being boiled alive like the false spider he had managed to kill not too long ago.

It took him a second to look up again, but as soon as he did he already regretted it, because his opponent resumed his attacks as soon as he indicated that he was fine, or at least that he had recovered enough balance to fight a relatively fair fight, something that the opponent had just proven to be fantasy for his opponent, seeing as he hadn't even really taken Cades seriously, evident by the fact he hadn't taken the chance to slash into his abdomen, or at least that's what Cades thought.

The false Cades moved in, his sword ready to slash at the side of Cades, his blade greedily looking forward to the blood and soaring through the air, cutting it in the process and producing a sound that everyone should have heard at least once, a soaring sound that appeared when one twirled around a rope, a sound that appeared when one swung a wooden sword with great sword, a sound that appeared when the air itself was temporarily forced apart.

Cades himself on the other hand watched with widely opened eyes as the inevitably powerful attack appeared, ready to face it with as much power as need be and taking the position, going to his right and blocking it, knowing that the false him wouldn't be able to change the direction at that speed, at least not without stumbling forward himself.

And Cades did not intent on letting him live if that happened.

However, it didn't seem like the false Cades even had to change the trajectory, no, the blade suddenly slowed down, the real Cades' eyes still stuck on the deadly tool, until, he felt a stabbing pain in his right leg, a pain that spread in waves throughout the inner half of his leg and caused him to stumble back, trying to get away from the now stopped blade and the leg of his weirdly steadfast and flexible opponent that had just kicked the inside of his own, right, leg.

He had never even imagined that it would hurt this much, but Cades already knew what he had to do, he knew that he just had to force his opponent down by surprising him with magic, the overload, a spell that didn't need any real preparations, a spell that was almost instant, a spell that had served him incredibly well until now, even being able to be infused into his trusty sword.