Finches

Chapter 33 - Time To End This

Red-Head Rave blocked the incoming attacks as he had been doing, but he was having to do so a little faster now. Colt swung his sword again and again, and eventually he was finally attacking just as fast as Rave was defending. He found an opening at last and went for it, but Rave recovered and blocked just in time.

He'd almost had it there. That could have been it, if he'd just been a little faster.

Frustrated with himself, Colt accidentally missed a beat in his pattern of attacks. He tried to correct it, but unfortunately Rave hadn't missed that beat. The captain went on the offensive again, and pretty soon Colt was back to trying to narrowly avoid attack after attack.

And then all of the sudden, without hardly even realizing it, Colt started to fight automatically. He began to defend against the incoming sword slashes and strikes almost subconsciously, and in an oddly familiar way. He barely even thought about the attack anymore as he blocked, parried, side-stepped, or ducked under the opponent's sword. He started to defend and attack with better balance too, like he had been doing it for a long time. It was almost like...

Colt realized why his new defensive motions felt so familiar. As he kept his balance while dodging and blocking attacks, it felt as if he was walking along the path of Gold Forest, carrying along that massive barrel of fish and trying not to drop it. Dodging and ducking swords were easy compared to hauling that barrel up those steep hills in Gold Forest. So the fish barrel had been used for more than just getting some money. By getting him to carry that giant, weighted barrel up to the Authority base the fisherman was really continuing his training. Teaching him the ways of balance and defense. He recalled what the fisherman had said about the fish barrel: "Who knows? Maybe it'll save your life."

Colt considered this. Maybe the fisherman was right, maybe it would save his life. Carrying that annoying barrel and the weight at the bottom of it had built his strength and increased his balance, and both of those were things that he was utilizing in this fight. And if he did it right, those things might just win him this fight.

Rave struck toward him with his sword and Colt leaned to the left a little, imagining in his head that he was simply keeping the fish barrel level. As Rave's sword swung down beside him and missed, Colt planted his feet and slashed in. He was sticking to what he knew how to do, fighting the pirate captain like it was just a training bout with the fisherman. He stuck to the principles the fisherman had taught him, like how to use his weapon properly and do a powerful yet controlled swing.

The sword slash made it past Rave's defense and cut into his chest. The captain roared with anger, slinging his sword at Colt in rage. The sword came at him quickly and without warning, but Colt didn't panic. He just blocked the attack and rotated around gracefully to avoid any possible counter attacks. Rave had to turn to face him again, and while he did so Colt used the moment to put himself back on the offensive, performing another strong yet controlled slash.

Rave blocked the slash, shifting his body a little as he did so. It was a subtle move, but Colt knew what was coming next nonetheless. So he was ready as Rave's fist shot out toward his chest for the punch, bringing his cutlass down just in time.

Red-Head Rave shouted in agony as Colt's cutlass sliced down on his arm, cutting into it. Rave moved out of the way quickly, stepping backwards before the sword could do any irreparable damage.

"You almost took my arm off!" he shouted. Colt couldn't tell whether he sounded more angry or surprised. Probably more angry.

"You used the same move again," Colt replied. "I thought I warned you not to do that."

"How?" Rave spluttered. "You're a cabin boy! You should be dead by now! How... how are you?!"

"How am I beating you?" Colt finished it for him. "It's because you think you're so much better than me. But I know that you're not."

Evidently, that was the last straw for Captain Rave. His face became bright red, the color of a ripe tomato. He raised his sword and started shouting something unintelligible at the top of his lungs. And then he charged at Colt, the intent to kill written all over his face.

Colt resisted the urge to move backwards, raise his cutlass up, and hope for the best. Instead he kept his ground, standing strong and confident in himself. He stepped out of the way of Rave's first attack, which he knew would have taken more strength to block than he had left. That was the strongest one, but the following attacks came at him fast. He tried to stay calm as he let himself deal with them one by one, blocking and parrying when necessary.

As his attacks continued, Rave got angrier and angrier, likely frustrated at the fact that none of them seemed to be working. Rave yelled in frustration with every single strike, layering Colt with attack after attack. Colt struck back where and when he could do so. He stopped focusing on trying to deal finishing blows, and just worked on getting whatever he could past Rave's defense. Most of his strikes were blocked, of course, but a select few resulted in minor cuts on Rave's arms and legs. These attacks didn't do much in way of pain, but they weren't completely useless because they did do one thing: make Rave mad.

As they traded attacks and blocks, Colt worked slowly on making the captain as angry as possible. This was an easy feat, but Colt needed more. He wanted Red-Head Rave to get so mad that he forgot everything he knew. He wanted the man to be too angry to be worried about blocking attacks or anything else other than killing Colt. And it was working.

All of the sudden, Rave stopped attacking. He blocked an incoming slash from Colt and then took a single deep breath.

"DIE!" he bellowed. He placed two hands on his sword and charged, one last time, at Colt.

Colt knew as soon as Rave shouted at him that this was it. He was out of strength and energy, and he knew that he couldn't keep on fighting anymore. It was all down to this last exchange. Only one of them would survive it, and Colt knew that unless it happened perfectly, it wouldn't be him.

He used the side of his cutlass to meet Rave's blade. He put all of his remaining strength, which wasn't much, into pushing the opposing sword away. He knew that there was no way he could overpower Rave enough to disarm his sword or even push it away, but he didn't have to. He just needed to push the sword a little to the side.

Colt closed his eyes, trying to summon as much strength as humanly possible. He thought about what he was fighting for. Shelly, the fisherman, the town itself. Even the bandits in Gold Forest and the authoritarian officers who locked him up. He was fighting for all of them now, and he channeled as much of that as possible as Rave's sword slowly started to move away.

He pushed Rave's blade sideways as much as possible before attempting his final move. He pulled back his cutlass and stepped backwards a step. Then he did something that he knew Rave wouldn't expect and spun himself around, swinging his blade along with him behind his back. It was an outlandish move that the fisherman had called an embarrassment. But Colt called it the Spinning Slash.

His cutlass slashed straight into Rave's chest, catching the captain unaware and cutting him deeply. Colt turned back forward again in time to see the pirate captain hit the ground, coughing and clutching his coat, which had turned a shade of red due to the blood leaking from his chest.

"What..." gasped Rave. "What... did you... do?"

"I ended this," Colt replied. This time it was he who was standing over Rave, not the other way around. "You told me before that you were a shark on these seas, and I was just a kid. And you were right, you might be a shark on the seas. But we're on land now. My land."

"You... you..." Rave started to splutter, "you'll never... find all the riches... without me. You'll never find the Lost Captain... without me."

Colt laughed weakly. The man was a rotten trickster, even now. But Colt wasn't going to fall for that again. He'd been Rave's prisoner for too long to get anywhere near those chains.

"Yes I will," he said. "But I'd rather not find the treasure at all than find it with your help. You had your chance, and you blew it. I gave you years of my life."

Red-Head Rave managed to smile as he looked up at Colt. The rage left his eyes and they started to gleam knowingly. "You're... bluffing. You can't... let me die."

That was the last time Rave would ever underestimate him. Because Colt stood and watched as the smile slowly started to fade from the captain's face, followed by the gleaming in his eyes.

And then Captain Rave never moved again.