“Yes,” I said, looking at the sword in my hand with awe. It held a different inscription, which I read out loud. “The wielder of this blade commands the power of Jade Perdition, arbiter of balance and death. Forged to face them all, this blade is the final retribution.”
“That is the final blade,” Mercy said from the doorway, taking a step back. “How did—?”
“Questions later,” Calisto said, her voice low and dangerous. “Move back, Mercy. Sepia is about to show me she can manage the power of her sword…or die in the process.”
I took a few practice swings and felt the balance of the blade.
It was a perfect extension of my body.
I smiled and entered a fighting stance.
“Don’t hold back,” I said. “I wouldn’t want this to be unfair.”
Calisto returned my smile.
“I don’t intend on holding back,” she said, placing her hands together and slowly separating them as she materialized her sword. “None of your enemies will.”
“My enemies won’t live long enough to regret their choice.”
Calisto stepped forward and attacked.
EIGHT
The first thing I noticed were the small stones hovering around her.
She came in with her sword drawn and, surrounding her, small stones whirled in erratic orbits. They were perfect spheres, which only made me more wary—that, and the fact that these floating stone spheres seemed to be hovering around her in a protective manner.
I lunged forward with a thrust; Calisto parried my attack with ease. Several of her stones grazed my face as I shifted quickly to the side. Only my heightened reflexes made it possible to dodge them at all.
I glanced behind me and saw small holes in the stone wall.
“They’re called seekers,” Calisto said as she circled. “They serve one simple purpose.”
“Make me Swiss cheese?”
“Deter and defend,” Calisto answered, as she slid sideways.
“Deter and defend by punching holes into me?”
“I’d say that’s an effective deterrent,” Calisto replied. “Wouldn’t you?”
“I’d say it gives you a considerable advantage,” I said, letting my gaze go wide to maintain an awareness of the spherical orbits.
“Think of them as a lethal shield. One you must bypass to attack me.”
“The Unholy I face don’t walk around with shields of stones to protect them,” I said. “They’re usually focused on tearing me apart, not defending themselves.”
“You think you’ve met the most dangerous of the Unholy?” Calisto asked. “You have no idea.”
“Well, I’m not fighting with a stone shield,” I said. “So I’d say the odds are in your favor.”
“Only because you still don’t know how to use the power of the Jade Demon,” Calisto answered. “The defensive capabilities it possesses, that you now possess, are formidable.”
“Formidable enough to deal with a Greater Behemoth?”
“Your best course of action with one of those is evasion. Most of the Unholy at that level require extreme caution—that actually goes for all of the Unholy.”
“I’ve met enough of them to know that they are singular of thought when it comes to me,” I said. “It’s usually a variation on how to introduce me to pain and death.”
“True. The best block—”
“Is to not be there in the first place,” I finished. “Gan’s first lesson.”
“One worth remembering…always.”
I slid forward with a horizontal slash. Calisto intercepted my attack, stopping my slash midway with her sword and stepping close. The spheres stayed back as she ran her blade up the length of Perdition. The energy coming off her sword increased as she got closer.
At the last second, she drove a fist into my stomach and rotated around my body as the blue energy expanded around her blade. I staggered back as she struck my arm with the flat of her sword.
The crackling energy leapt from her blade and wrapped itself around my arm with painful intensity, causing me to stumble back.
“That was sloppy,” she said as she moved back, stepping into a defensive stance. “If I had been an Unholy…you just died.”
“Shit,” I said, putting more distance between us before rubbing my arm. My ink flushed hot to repair the damage from her sword. “Let me guess, your sword serves the same purpose as the stones?”
“No, actually,” Calisto said. “My sword—every sword, yours included—is designed with a duality of purpose.”
“Slice and dice?”
She narrowed her eyes at me and shook her head.
“Defend or destroy,” Calisto said, absorbing her sword again. “Your sword, even Perdition, can be a life-giving weapon or a tool of unimaginable destruction and death. That choice rests with you.”
“What are you doing?” I asked, confused as to why she had absorbed her sword. “Draw your weapon. Or die.”
“Bold words,” Calisto said, stepping back to her floating spheres. “Do you think you can even touch me in your state?”
“I’ll do more than touch you,” I growled under my breath. “I’ll show you what Perdition can do.”
I skip-stepped forward and changed direction at the last second with a feint to her side. I unleashed Perdition in a straight lunge designed to avoid her spheres while puncturing her midsection. With a slight shift, Calisto avoided the feint, allowing Perdition to slide harmlessly next to her to body.
Several of her spheres blasted me in the chest as she brought a hand down and stripped Perdition out of my grip. My sword fell to the ground and remained there as Calisto used her other hand in a punishing palm strike to my side, which launched me across the room and into the wall with a crunch.
The stone wall I impacted shone with wards as I smashed into it. I slid to the ground in a heap of pain and heat. I felt like a Brute punching bag as I assessed the damage to my body.
“How are you going to show me what Perdition can do, when you barely know how to wield the power it contains—the power you contain?”
“Perdition…is different,” I countered. “I can feel it. I know it, but the power—”
“I killed you several times today,” Calisto said as she walked over to where I sat on the ground and extended a hand. I took it and
