Against all Odds {Middle-Earth fanfic}

Chapter Fifty-Three

"No!" Thea screamed, her heart feeling as if it was being ripped out. She ran over to Nikandros, not even feeling the pain of her foot or hands.

She quickly knelt down beside him and cupped his face in her bloody hands. "Nik...I-I am so sorry." She whispered, tears streaking down her face.

Nikandros smiled through the pain, "It's okay, Thea. Not...." He took a shaky breath, "Not your fault."

Ulric watched the two assassins with sadness, before he remembered the master. He started walking over to the master.

Alicia handed the master her sword and pulled out a dagger. She quickly ran around Ulric towards the Master's sword. She jumped for it, barely missing Ulric's sword above her. She ran towards where Thea was trying to help Nikandros. She saw that the Master's sword was behind Nikandros. She jumped over both Nikandros and Thea, and picked up the Master's sword, tucking her dagger away.

The Master clutched his stomach with his left hand, and stood up, holding Alicia's sword in his right hand. Ulric glanced between the master and Alicia, sword held in a guard position.

"Thea. Go...help Ulric." Nikandros said weakly, "Please don't argue, just go help him. He...can't fight two at once...I'll be okay." He forced a small smile.

Alicia walked around Ulric toward the Master. When she got to his side, they traded swords, and Alicia started back around Ulric to face him from behind.

Ulric frowned slightly in concentration, glancing between Alicia and the master out of the corner of his eye. He stepped backwards a few steps, so Alicia and the master were in plainer sight.

"Thea, go." Nikandros pleaded, "Take this sword." He gestured weakly at the sword he had dropped. Thea bent down and kissed him once on the lips before grasping the sword and standing up. She turned to face the group, ready to fight.

Ulric felt a surge of relief that Thea had come to join the fight, before realizing that this might mean Nikandros was dead. His eyes narrowed and he decided to go on with the attack as long as he could. He leapt at the master, reigning hard blows down, trying to keep the master from touching the gem.

Alicia jumped behind Ulric, and advanced on him, faster than the master was losing ground.

The Master saw this and smiled cruelly at Ulric. He then grabbed his sword with two hands, touching the jewel with his pinky, and blocked Ulric's sword, not moving backwards anymore.

Thea gripped the sword tighter, it sliding a bit from her blood soaked hands, and ran into the battle. She swung her sword around towards The Master, trying to push him away from Ulric.

After stepping between them so Ulric could take out Alicia, Thea advanced on the Master. She no longer felt any pain, all the rage she felt towards the Master gave her strength as she pushed on, reigning blow after blow down upon his sword.

The Master swung an especially hard block at Thea, making sure that he touched his jewel before having their swords clash. Once their swords had hit, the Master locked their swords together. "You are a fool." He then kicked Thea in the stomach, sending her sliding for a few feet. "You couldn't do a simple task that I sent you out to do. I should have known that you were too weak to actually kill someone," the Master raged. "Now, you will have to die as well!" The Master continued to advance on Thea.

Meanwhile, Alicia was fighting Ulric. "You shouldn't be king. You can't even defend yourself from me." She pulled out her dagger, putting it in her left hand, and twirled her sword around in her right hand. Alicia then stopped twirling her sword and hurled herself at Ulric. Ulric blocked the assassin's blade, and struck back at the assassin. Alicia blocked his sword with hers, and was about to cut at Ulric's arm, when she heard something shatter. She changed her mind and kicked Ulric back, then turned to stare at the broken jewel.