The heroic Cavalier had been fortunate that Leo was now safe instead of being a dead man walking to the group, but now Alaroc was the one in danger. The menacing monk waltzed around the noble warrior, waiting for him to once again raise his guard.
Alaroc snapped up and threw his dragonslayer blade through the air at the monk. The enemy snapped up his wave blade and deflected the attack, and Alaroc followed right after the blade swiping with his arm straight and locked. The monk caught the attack with a quick burst forward.
The Cavalier's arm was all but broken, but then, finally, Alaroc struck the monk. He had snapped his energy blade around with his wrist while his arm was held and thanks to how light the handle and blade were, Alaroc managed to dig the blade into the monk's exposed flank.
The monk is halted right before he snapped Alaroc's forearm and instead throws the arm away to remove Alaroc's angle of attack on him. The monk flipped back away from the Cavalier as Alaroc retrieves his dragonslayer from the ground.
The monk examines his hip to see the minor cut with the left over burn of the blade. He smiles and hops with a wince or two before standing firm against the hero. Alaroc retrieves his flask as the monk tests his body, and takes three large gulps.
Slowly the dragonslaying runes begin to awaken on the blade. With a hearty belch and and roll of his shoulders Alaroc's second wind is back. He rushes in and the monk flicks out his wave blade to deflect the glowing dragonslayer and with a kick to Alaroc's torso he knocks the warrior back.
Alaroc swipes the energy blade, missing and twirling from the impact of the kick. The monk kicks off from the attack, doing a quick flip and in an instant once he hits the ground the monk darts in and readies for a cut with his blade into Alaroc's shoulder.
Alaroc manages to deflect the blade as he regains his balance just in time and as the monk readies to parry another energy strike by the arm, he sees a metallic object coming in fast. Alaroc crashes his helmet into the bridge of the monk's nose with a resounding ring. The monk is laid out flat as Alaroc drops his blades and steadies his helmet in pain.
The monk grips his nose with blood dripping down his face. The monk smiles as Alaroc finishes steadying his helm. The monk speaks, "Now that was impressive. I've never seen a style like that."
Alaroc retrieves his blades and responds, "I can take the risks, you've pummeled me up and down enough, think I'm startin' to build an immunity to the backlashes."
The monk steadies his motions as the blood from his face gushes and drips uninterrupted. Alaroc does the same, but his gaze flits away for a moment and the monk is on him and cracks Alaroc in his chest with a strong kick. The monk flips up as the cavalier is forced back and he begins to lay into the hero landing kick after kick with twirling flips, finishing with a bone shattering straight kick. After such an assault Alaroc is sent twirling off his feet.
Alaroc slams into the wall of the arena and lands on his head and rolls out to face the wall. The crowd goes silent waiting for Alaroc to move, but the monk doesn't wait and moves in to make another perfect strike.
The monk is suddenly dropped as Alaroc snaps his legs out and kicks him in the gut with a donkey kick. Alaroc pushes back off the ground and flips about in the air, running in as the monk staggers. Alaroc returns the flurry of attacks with some slashes of his own.
For the first time of the fight, the monk is on the defense, and he looks focused on it, rather than his typical thrills in the fight. Alaroc only manages to land a few light slashes across the chest and arms.
The crowd is back shouting again as Alaroc begins to turn the tables. Alaroc's rushing of blades is swiftly halted with a solid kick to his two arms at the same time as the monk hops up and clamps down and impacts the insides of both of Alaroc's elbows and loosening in his grips.
The monk lands with a low stance and a spin before once again launching the cavalier away without his blades. The monk once again returns the blades to his opponent and the two repeat the process a number of times, but with Alaroc not quite able to regain his momentum.
Alaroc's friends in the stands begin to worry. Zilo puts his hand to his lips and speaks, "Not bad, but he can't keep this up."
"No skin off my nose, I'm in the clear now. " Says Leo relaxing back in a reclined position. Cruxis pushes the magus' feet off the railing and says, " I don't get it, Alaroc was consistent in our bout, but here he can keep a solid defense."
"No, he can, but only in bursts from what I can see." Follows up Tess as Aakif questions, "The man is in a fight to the death, anyone who uses bursts and not 100% to finish a fight is asking to die."
"Unless he can't..." Responds Zilo as his hand lowers from his lips with his eyes going wide. Tess looks to him and asks, "What do you mean?" Zilo looks to his friends and says, " I have a hunch, If we want him to win do as I say."
Alaroc looks haggard with newly cauterized wounds from the wave blade cut into his armor. The monk still has the marks from Alaroc's initial come back. The monk shakes his head and speaks, "I must say you've got more fight in you than most others here, but it looks like you are at your limits here."
Alaroc looks to the ground in a trance, he doesn't seem able to continue. The monk flicks up his blade ready to charge in, but then a sound pierces the crowd's roar. The sound of a violin.
Alaroc looks to the sources of the sound and sees Zilo playing in the fighter's stand, but none of the others are anywhere. The violin begins repeating the same rhythm over and over with subtle variations as the bard plays.
The beat continues in the same rhythm and just as Alaroc began to wonder where his other friends are, he could start to hear clapping beginning to build from all sides of the arena. He spins his head about, no longer focused on the the bard and sees Leo, Cruxis, Aakif, and Tess all at different sections of the arena, clapping on beat with Zilo's tune.
The monk also looks at this performance and grimaces saying, "It seems your bard wants to perform for your final moments. I would have picked something appropriately somber." The crowd begins to also clap along with the beat unconsciously and within moments the entire crowd is in sync.
Everyone is clapping in line with the rhythm and Alaroc smiles. The monk looks to him confused before shrugging and saying, "I'm glad you enjoy your funeral medley!" The monk leaps in to attack, but unlike how the cavalier had been for the beginning of the fight, Alaroc taps into the focus he had during his middle round comeback.
Alaroc steps in line with the clapping and lands a cut across the monk's shoulder before shoulder slamming the monk to the ground on the second beat with the music. The monk looked confused, but Alaroc is no longer looking at his opponent's face.
Alaroc's hesitation was gone, and now the fight could begin anew. Alaroc's focus had returned to him along with the rhythmic clapping. The monk stood, assuming his stance. He could see Alaroc's stern gaze as the fight had finally reached it's last round.
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