Cruxis and the Samurai stand staring at each other as Zilo retreats over to May who is knelt down healing Maldrek. The head of the Black Daimyo, the Black Samurai steps forward and twirls his blade before clasping it with both hands and speaks in his deep intimidating voice.
"By the blade that swings for glory and the true honor of a warrior, General Susumu will lead me to victory in this duel."
The samurai's eyes beneath his helm narrow and his presence expands to silence all other noise in the room. Zilo, May, and the barely conscious Maldrek freeze, scared to even twitch in fear that the tall blade master would strike them down from across the room. Despite his heavy armor, in a flash, the man slices at Cruxis.
Cruxis isn't ready for the attack and is blasted backward by the strike on his chest plate. He stands again just in time to block an overhead cleave by the samurai then try and thrust back. His heavily magicked sword, Permafrost was just barely enough to pierce the thick armor on the Samurai, but he is immediately knocked off balance by the hulking opponent with a sweeping kick.
Cruxis rolls to the side narrowly avoiding another swipe by the samurai, but as he rose he was beset upon by another flurry of advancing slashes. He continued to make his movement backward away from the samurai. Cruxis tries to mount an opposed attack, with two swings at the samurai's midsection, but after taking the first strike and barely reacting to it, the samurai flicks his wrist up and cuts along Cruxis' wrist to force the attack to falter.
The counter forced Cruxis to lose his grip on his blade and it flew past the samurai about 2 meters away. Seeing the blood flow from his wrist, the paladin Laid on his hands to stem the flow before attempting to make his way back over to his blade. The samurai tries to cut down the paladin, but Cruxis manages to deflect the swing with his shield.
As Cruxis recovers Permafrost the samurai changes his stance, where he had held it forward with both hands, he now let it come to rest by his hip pointed back and down with both hands in the same grip. Cruxis moved, shield forward.
Time seemed to stop as the samurai performed a dash forward intended to Strike True. Zilo had experienced a much weaker version of this strike, but this man did it with much more devastating results. Cruxis' blood exploded from his chest as his plate mail fell from his shoulders, cleaved clean in twain.
The samurai back to advance toward May and Zilo who both rose until another sound was heard. From behind the samurai the sound of a dagger being unsheathed was heard. The samurai turned to see Cruxis once again, with one hand on his wound using more of his Lay on Hands knitting together into a scar, and the other hand grasping a knife while his sword and shield lay on the ground.
Zilo shouted "Cruxis! Stay down! I can-"
"NO!" Shouted the wounded half-orc. As he stared at the Black Samurai he continued, "I can do this, but you have to promise you will not try to help! I do not know if I can avoid hitting you!"
Zilo's eyes narrowed as Cruxis lifted the knife and plunged it into his own palm, but where normally blood would shoot from the hand, instead there was a crimson light. The samurai fully turned back to his old opponent, and Cruxis pulled out the knife and stabbed his other hand. Cruxis held out his hands and his shield and sword shoot off the ground back to his hands before he shouted,
"I bare the Stigmata of Freya! I am Cruxis Valior, Holy Vindicator and you will fall before me!" Cruxis' eyes explode with a similar crimson red light and his wounds that he held disappeared as he cast a cure spell to a degree he had never been able to heal before. The wounds that glowed on his palms however continued to bleed their crimson light.
The samurai ran at the warrior and as he tried to slash at him Cruxis blocked with shield before his hand shot forward with sword in tow. The light on his hands sparked forward and also pierced through the samurai's guard leaving a series of wounds on the man's hip. For the first time since the beginning of this encounter, the Black Samurai reacted to the wound with a grunt.
The samurai jumped back off the blade and held his sword shaking. Cruxis flicked the blood from Permafrost as he lifted his shield up and shouted, "A Vindicator's Shield never falters!" And his shield began to glow the same crimson light as his hands.
The samurai charged and sliced with the shield deflecting the attack, only this time it was Cruxis' turn to hold no reaction as his guard didn't budge a centimeter while the katana of the samurai was bounced off by a great force. Cruxis stepped forward and slashed at the Samurai. The samurai only barely manged to deflect the blade as it swung along his own blade mere inches from his face.
Cruxis followed up the swing with a bash from his shield, forcing the warrior back. The Black Samurai was now the one on the back pedal and began to step backward as he breathed calmly and closed his eyes. In a flash he stepped in, and looked to be trying to shatter Cruxis's shield arm with a hard swing, but the warrior managed to move fast enough to avoid the shield arm entirely and slash across Cruxis's unguarded chest.
Cruxis spat up blood and fell to his knee as the Black Samurai hopped back again. While the Vindicator had unleashed his new power, he was still mortal and had lost a significant amount of blood. With each passing moment more blood flowed from his palms. He stood and healed himself again with the last of his cure spells to undo his body's damage, and still, his palms bled.
As Cruxis looked at the Samurai he could tell that this man was on his last legs. Cruxis stepped forward with the poise and authority of a holy warrior and as the Samurai moved to swing, Cruxis swung his sword upward and the katana flew from the Samurai's grip before Cruxis had thrust Permafrost into the chest of the Black Samurai. It was over.
As Cruxis drew his blade out he felt a grip as the eyes of the Black Samurai flashed back to life and punched the unprepared paladin in his jaw. Through an Unstoppable Resolve the samurai was making an Honorable Stand as he pulled Cuxis' blade from his own chest and moved to decapitate the dazed paladin.
But as he went to strike he stopped and fell to the ground, with a Cruxis' knife planted between his legs. Cruxis's crimson light dissipated as May and Zilo rushed over to heal him. Once May arrived at his side Cruxis whispered with half closed eyes, "Good tip May, a bit of underhanded tactic might be good here and there."
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