The Dragonslayer (title is a w.i.p.)

Chapter 4

He walked through the curtain into the courtyard. 

"Where are you hiding?" he called out. He looked around the garden.  There were shrubs sprinkled with tiny bright flowers of majestic blues, reds and pinks. 'Disgusting,' he thought. There was a pool of water before his feet filled with koi and a tranquil waterfall gushing into it from a rock. There was a zen-garden-type section full of gravel and rock that had been raked into a striped pattern. His eyes moved upwards towards the gigantic dead tree in the back. 

"Almost impressive," he said, then he pulled his sword from its scabbard to block an attack from behind. "Almost." 

He spun around to meet his combatant, and a smile emerged on his face. "That's a pretty big sword you got there," he said: his enemy's nerve remained steel. He pulled out his scabbard and struck him in the stomach with it, knocking him back; he drew his sword and jumped into the air to slam down on his enemy. His target dodged, only to be met by his sword in the leg. He kicked the body on the floor. 

"Come on, fight me." He noticed they were now on the 'zen' part of the garden. He lifted his sword high and thrust down, but before his sword could meet the body a knife hit it. He looked to the source. Eight people in black suits holding different weapons stood on the roof. He laughed. His entire body erupted in flame. More knives came hurtling towards him, all of which he dodged. He stood his ground. A man with a mace came charging towards him. He hit the mace with his sword and the man fell on the floor, covered in fire. Two more people ran towards him, one with a cutlass and the other a club covered in barbed wire. He released a fire ball from his sword that killed them within seconds. He leaped into the air and released 3 more, killing five of the remaining guards. The only one left was the one with the throwing knives. A flurry of knives flew through the air towards him. Fires leapt from him to destroy them all. He ran towards another and slashed with his sword to destroy her. His flames were extinguished as he walked back to his main target, slowly dying on the floor.

"Now, now, I wouldn't want to ruin art, would I?" He kicked the dying body out of the way of the sand and fixed the pattern with his sword. "Shame that the blood changes the colour of the sand so, maybe I'll take some with me." He pulled out a flask and filled it with the blood. "Bye!"

⚔

It had been about a month since Armin had slayed the Shadow-woman and he had pretty much recovered from killing the little girl. He got out of bed and went to the tavern for his day job. 

The tavern saw much gossip that day. His customers talked to him of a man made from fire. And a bounty hunter known as the Scarlet Scabbard, for his great ability with only his sheath. This scared Armin. Before dying, the Shadowoman warned him that 'now he had this power he'd come looking for him.' This sounded like a bounty hunter. The name 'Scarment' is like scarlet + garment, a name fitting for someone who could set themselves, and their weapons, on fire. He hadn't trained for a couple of weeks now and he was going against his toughest enemy yet, it seemed. As soon as his shift was over he ran to the training grounds and re-perfected his aim and fitness. He repeated this process for about a week before he finally came.

Armin was walking to the training grounds when he saw that there was somebody else there. Armin knew exactly who it was because he was dressed like no-one he'd ever seen before. He had baggy red trousers and sandals. He had long, spiky red hair and a cross-shaped scar on his cheek. 

"Hello!" he said sarcastically. Armin knew he should try and get the advantage by using the element of surprise. He threw an axe straight at him. Scarment caught it and threw it back. Armin ducked to dodge and then turned around to grab it. 

"Aggressive, sheesh," he chuckled, "why don't you come a little closer before we fight."

Armin walked towards his adversary. His sword was short and slightly curved, but not a cutlass.