The Reformation Wars: A Hero's Peace

Chapter 8

While Tao retrieved his fallen sword, Bella withstood the heavy-handed assault of Commander Voy Morus. She held him at bay with swordsmanship displaying the finesse of a lady and the fierceness of a warrior all in one. Bella blocked and parried each incoming attack with a set jaw and steely eyes. Her moves were efficient and wasted no motion.

Bella broke Morus' rhythm up by dodging one of his sword strokes instead of blocking it. She followed that up with a counterattack at his elbow. For the third time, a Monteraynian blade bit into the same wound. Morus hissed and cursed in his native tongue, no longer muffled by his helmet. Bella lunged forward again with a horizontal blow which he blocked. She whipped around and swung again, initiating the prelude to another movement in their fight.

Bella took the offensive, driving Morus back in Tao's direction with her incessant advance, and also away from the town hall. Due to the advantage of wearing armor, Morus didn't bother with blocking each attack, which freed him to attempt throwing Bella off with counterstrikes. She wouldn't be deterred so easily. She treated each incoming blow not as a hindrance, but as a stepping stone to obtain new angles of attack for herself while batting his sword away in the process.

However, she overcommitted to one particular strike. Her sword ricocheted off Morus' breastplate, putting it too far out of the way at the wrong time. She grimaced and leapt back to attempt salvaging the maneuver, but too late.

Morus' thick blade ripped into the meat of Bella's thigh. The shockwave of pain coursed through her whole body—tendrils of biting sensation ascending to her scalp. Still, she managed maintaining an iron grip on her focus. Even as blood trickled from the wound and numbness overtook her leg, Bella held her ground and parried a return strike.

When Tao appeared at her side, Bella took heart. Managing to mostly ignore the sharp pain eating at her leg, Bella engaged Morus with Tao. They synchronized their attacks to gain the most of their numbers advantage. To be fair, Tao carried more of the weight with more blades and strength on his side, not to mention visible rage upon witnessing her injury.

The two forced Morus to keep his blade in motion, and mostly for defense. Bella and Tao constantly paced in a never-ending circle while throwing incessant attacks at Morus' exposed head. He repeatedly spun and twirled to smack away their onslaught. Forcing him to maintain a high guard was clearly tiring the Innutukian commander's arms.

When Morus spun about to engage Tao again, Bella raced in to land a hit on his head. But just when she'd entered into striking range, he glanced back. Immediately, his boot jetted out and he kicked right at the wound on her leg. With a scream, Bella tumbled to the ground. Her sword clattered on the stairs to the town call as both her hands clutched the throbbing, bleeding flesh.

Through tearful eyes, Bella watched Tao and Morus continue battling. The sheer speed of Tao's onslaught appeared to be overwhelming Morus, as his footwork was that of hasty retreat. Moving his thick sword fast enough to ward off each consecutive attack looked to be growing rather tiresome.

Tao crossed his swords and succeeded in pinning Morus' blade between them. He yanked hard enough he wrested the weapon from the Innutukian commander's hands. Through her pain, Bella's heart leapt for joy as Tao swung at his disarmed foe's head.

But Morus hadn't given up. He first raised his gauntlets to defend his face. Then he snatched Tao's arm and stole one of his swords for himself, and before Tao could react, Morus had run him through with his own weapon. A weak grunt was all that escaped Tao's lips before he stumbled back and dropped to his knees, coughing up reddening spittle.

Bella screamed in terror, pity, dread, and fury all rolled into one. Her own agony instantly became irrelevant, and she leapt to her feet after retrieving her sword. Charging in with a war cry, she swung at Morus' neck. He had grabbed his own sword by now, so he simply blocked. An insolent grin spread across his small mouth.