My stomach lurched as the world around me slowed to a crawl. The knight that loomed over me seemed to be frozen in place, apart from the massive sword that was steadily descending toward the top of my head. Although I could perceive my surroundings perfectly, taking action to influence them was a challenge; it felt as if both the air around me and my muscles themselves were holding me back, in an attempt to keep me from surpassing their preconceived notions of how fast I was allowed to move.
Pushing on my Strength and Agility enhancements, I began to force my left hand up and over my head. My brain was moving leagues faster than my arm, calculating how much additional force to add and which microscopic corrections to make in order to perfectly connect the flat of my palm with the falling blade. As the blade fell ever closer, I dragged my right foot backwards and turned my body sideways, leaning back as far as I could while still keeping my balance. When I finally felt the cold steel of the greatsword against my skin, I channeled all of my focus into the open-handed strike.
Time righted itself in an instant, and I felt a gentle breeze as the sword swished by my face mere inches away. Missing its target, the weapon continued on its trajectory downward to impact against the stone floor with a reverberating crash. While the knight was still stunned from a combination of missing his impossible-to-miss strike and jarring his overextended arms, I slipped inside his guard and wrapped my hands around his now lowered helmet. Energy snaked around the surface and suffused the metal just in time to be activated by a rune engraved on my ring.
The greathelm shattered with a deafening ring, sending metal shrapnel inward against the Sword’s head. As the armor blasted apart, I saw the whole of his face for the first time; he was a younger man, with pale silver hair pulled into a tight topknot, dark brown skin, and light green eyes. His otherwise beautiful complexion was marred with a hail of metal splinters, and blood trickled out of both of his ears. The greatsword fell from his hand as he reached up to his ruined face, and he screamed as he collapsed backwards in disoriented agony.
To my great surprise, my Detection alerted me that the King’s Strength had risen to his feet behind me. I turned to find him panting as he stared me down, the excitement that had painted his face earlier replaced by a mask of suffering and rage. Whereas his head and shoulders had been well shielded by his gauntlets, the rest of his body hadn’t been so lucky; the lower half of his torso and his exposed legs were burned into a horrible, charred mess that bled and sloughed off as he began a valiant charge in my direction. The fact that he was still conscious, let alone trying to fight, was amazing to me.
He began to smash his fists together again as he approached. “What are you going to do without your magic sword, bastard?” He lunged forward with a flurry of blows that came much slower than before, but I could sense that the force of the attacks was much greater than the ones I had previously blocked. I dodged and redirected the punches in step with him as his assault continued to drive me towards the closest wall, waiting for my opening. “When I’m through with you, you’ll be—”
My opening came in the form of a left hook that flew well wide of my head; I recalled my sword to my hand and sliced upwards through his armpit, completely detaching his arm at the shoulder. The limb fell to the ground with a heavy metallic thunk, and the Strength staggered backwards and looked at the wound with wide, confused eyes. Before the pain could register in his brain, I whipped the sword in a horizontal slash that separated his head from his shoulders, and his body collapsed into a bloody heap.
I kneeled down and retrieved the detached gauntlet, carefully extricating the severed limb from inside. The cold steel felt far too light in my hands, and I could sense the mana stored inside still pulsing away, ready to be used. After dismissing my sword, I gingerly slid my arm through the metal sleeve and wiggled my fingers into the articulating joints. While the gauntlet felt a bit loose around my arm, even with my armor providing extra padding, I found the grip comfortable and oddly empowering; my mana probed at the energy stored inside the metal and found it hungry, almost as if it wanted to be activated.
As I retrieved and donned the second gauntlet, the King’s Sword screamed from his place on the floor. “Primes curse you! You would dare defile the body of a Trinity Guardsman?! Those are not yours!” He climbed to his feet shakily, using his sword as a cane. “You’ll find no aid in those gauntlets now; only through years of prayer and discipline can their power be unlocked!”
I sighed and shook my head. “If you believe that, come and take them back.” Turning to face him, I rang my fists together and retook my fighting stance. The mocking gesture enraged the knight, and he charged forward in a foolish headlong rush. I closed my eyes and observed the scene through Detection, focusing on my newly acquired weapons. Broaching the energy in the left gauntlet once again, I followed the natural flow of the stored mana and activated the enhancement that lay dormant within the metal. A satisfying flare of power told me that the magic worked
