Cross Conviction

The Penultimate Trial (16-1)

Gustavo and Magnolia narrowly avoided the charging giant, having leaped to either side of the enemy's path as he came to a sudden halt and swung his fist downward with incredible power. The masonry was shattered by the strike, blasting debris into the air. Some of the finer particles blew back into Gustavo's face, compromising his vision.

"Damn!" cried the boy as he covered his eyes and shook his head.

Despite the pain, Gustavo forced his eyes open just in time to see his adversary's balled sledgehammer of a hand ram upward into his stomach. The force of the impact was so great that the young knight candidate was thrown upward nearly five meters. Magnolia watched on with shocked horror as Gustavo's body careened back down from the air. However, just before the boy collided with the pathway, the titanic enemy kicked him back upward to chest height before redirecting his trajectory forward with a brutal punch. At the mercy of gravity, Gustavo flew down the path before crashing into the cold bricks and breaking into a violent, uncontrolled tumble. When the knight candidate's body finally came to a stop, he lay no less than seven meters from where he had initially been struck.

With Gustavo's threat neutralized, the enemy turned his shining red gaze to Magnolia. Under the pressure of her opponent's hulking presence, the rabid anger that had plagued the girl was quickly replaced with abject terror. The crimson light projected from the man's eyes grew brighter with each booming step in her direction until Magnolia's grey jacket and white nightgown were completely hue-shifted by its glow. As he made one final pace toward her, the bricks underneath his massive right boot cracked and exploded beneath his weight.

Magnolia was under no illusions. This was a fight she could not win.

It's over... the normally confident blonde concluded as the pounding of her heart began to slow, I didn't even make it a month. Why is this happening to me?

Suddenly, something caused a glimmer of hope to spark in her green eyes.

No matter what it entails, I can't die, she thought to herself, I refuse to give Mother the satisfaction of being correct.

The man gradually raised one hand into the air, flattening his palm over his head as if he were about to splatter an insect against a countertop. His preparations were agonizingly slow as if to torment his victim up until the final moment. This, however, gave Magnolia a chance to make her plea.

Inhaling deeply, the girl clutched her fists and straightened her back. "Listen up!" she shouted with confidence, "My name is Magnolia von Wald of House Wald in Württemberg, and I'm worth much more to you alive than I am deceased!"

Though his expression was hidden under a mask, the enemy's pause betrayed his acknowledgment and contemplation. After a brief moment, he tilted his head in apparent inquiry- though never lowering his hand.

"Oh yes, that's right," Magnolia continued, "Truly, my family would pay a fortune for my return. Whatever your cause is, such a grand ransom would fund it to total realization..."

Still holding his pause, he slowly tilted his head in the other direction. "You're really a Wald? Alright, how many marks do you got on you, then?"

Magnolia's jaw dropped. "Y-you can't be serious..." she muttered under her breath. "None! I wasn't offering to empty my pockets, I'm offering you my surrender!"

The man did not relent. "A Wald would be carrying a fat purse, that's for sure. You're lying."

Panicking, Magnolia threw up her hands. "No, no!" she exclaimed frantically, "I'm not lying!"

"The Walds aren't exceptionals, sweetheart! I wasn't born yesterday!"

As the man suddenly flung his hand back in wind-up, Magnolia flinched and, with no choice, uttered the unthinkable.

"My mother had an affair with an Iron Knight! I'm the only one!"

With her eyelids tightly sealed, the girl's world was drenched in complete darkness as she awaited her end. However, it never came.

"Wow, that's juicy," the enemy suddenly spoke up, "Wonder what's worth more? Your life or that bit of info?"

Magnolia slowly opened her eyes to see that the man had finally lowered his gigantic hand. She breathed a sigh of relief and made herself as small as she could.

"I will not give you any trouble," Magnolia assured the enemy, "You have my word."

The giant scoffed and cracked his half-meter-thick neck. "As if you could."

A bead of sweat ran down the side of Magnolia's face as she suppressed a tremor in her knees. She shifted to the side and lifted her foot, tugging at her boot to mask the fact that she was slyly attempting to peer around her monstrous opponent.

"Hm?" the man growled, "What's with you? Stand still or I'll squish you into a red stain."

"S-sorry" Magnolia huffed between increasingly heavy breaths, "I was j-just thinking..."

"Do you see this helmet?" asked the enemy, "Speak up! I can't hear a damned thing!"

Now speaking even more quietly, Magnolia repeated herself. "I-I was... just thinking...

"Huh?!" the man snarled in aggravation as he leaned down closer to her, "Are you screwing with me, kid? Stop fucking whispering!"

A smirk overtook Magnolia's face and, to her opponent's surprise, she began to giggle.

"I was just thinking about what an idiot you are."

The enemy clenched his fists as rage quickly flooded his body. "You got some fucking nerve, you know that? Now I'm gonna twist your head off like a bottle t-"

He abruptly paused, alerted by a dim shadow that was cast on the ground from underneath his massive arm. Realizing that someone had approached from behind, the man turned his head to see Gustavo, scraped and bleeding, jump up and onto his back. The boy then wrapped his arms tightly around his opponent's neck and held on with every ounce of strength he could muster.

"Little bastard..." the enemy grunted as he flung his head forward in an attempt to buck Gustavo off.

Magnolia's ploy had worked. As early as the point where the giant had first loomed over her, the girl had noticed her felled teammate's subtle movements as he struggled to right himself. It was thanks to her stalling that Gustavo had managed to push through the pain of his injuries and make a last-ditch surprise attack. Now, with the enemy's head within her reach, it was Magnolia's turn to go on the offensive.

Holding both of her palms forward, Magnolia taunted, "If only your brain matched your body. Shame..."

With that, she cupped both sides of the man's grey helmet and began to vibrate her hands at incredible speed. After mere seconds of contact, the metal headgear began to ring out at a high, ear-splitting frequency.

"What the fuck?!" the man bellowed as he reared up violently, finally shaking Gustavo loose.

The vibrations were unrelenting, rattling the enemy's skull within its steel shell. Though he firmly clutched the helmet in an attempt to cease its quivering, his effort with in vain. Soon, it became too much to bear and the giant was forced to take drastic action. Wrapping his thick, muscular fingers under the rim of his headwear, he pried it away from his mask, cracking a welded seam and causing both heavy metal elements to crash to the ground. Even after the mask and helmet had been torn away and discarded, they continued to vibrate across the ground as if alive.

Now that their opponent's armored guise had been destroyed, the young knight candidates were able to lay eyes on the true face of their enemy.

"That... that can't be," Gustavo uttered in disbelief.

"I don't understand..." added Magnolia.

Before the youths, pawing at his shaved head and square, chiseled jaw, was the Iron Knight, Grizzler- the very same Grizzler who was among the instructors present during the assignment of the new candidates' teams.