Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

28 The End of the King's Quest

"Who the hell are you calling upstart!" Sam yelled as he readied to cross blades with Rondo.

King Herke tried to cut the villainous Cutthroat off, but was met by Caesar and his greatsword. The king steadied his own greatsword and the pair of them clashed. Rondo quickly closed the distance between him and Sam, looking at him with a murderous gleam in his eye.

"I'm referring to the idiot fool who's in over his head." hissed Rondo. He brandished his ornate short sword in one hand and his black dagger in the other. His attacks were swift and unrelenting. Sam held his shield out and blocked all of the incoming attacks. He grew anxious when he saw his stamina bar quickly winding down with each new blow. He had to move. He rolled away to recover some stamina, but found that Rondo was right back in his face again. Sam lifted his shield again to block, but had lost his footing soon after. The shock of falling down had blinded him to what caused his fall. It had all happened so fast and Rondo quickly took advantage of Sam's disorientation. Rondo hit Sam with a slash as he was rising and followed up with a thrusting attack. Sam had quickly lost half of his health.

"Did you just kick me?" he yelled then quickly rolled away nearer to the cabin. The king and Caesar were fighting intensely to his right, both going blow for blow and canceling out each other's heavy slashes. Sam listened to their swords clash and boots kick up dirt so that he had an idea of where they were compared to where he was. His eyes were strictly on Rondo, who was proving to be a tricky opponent.

"This can't be all you've got? Let's give you a test." Rondo said to Sam.

When Sam moved too far out of his range, Rondo threw a knife at him. Sam blocked it with his shield and continued to backpedal. He was getting discouraged about the fact that he didn't have an opening to retreat and heal.

"I think it's time to show you my more advanced killing artes. It's a one time show. Make sure to take it all in." said Rondo. He held his hands out to the side and splayed his fingers out like a magician would do. He then did some kind of hand flourish and produced a handful of throwing knives. In seemingly one smooth motion, Rondo tossed a succession of three of the knives at Sam. Sam blocked all three knives, but doing so locked him in place and drained his stamina. As expected, Rondo approached soon after and struck Sam's shield with his shortsword. Sam was pushed backwards and decided to roll in that same direction. Pain shot through his shoulder as a well-timed throwing knife tore through his flesh. He hurriedly rolled again to dodge the other two incoming knives. How is he doing that, he thought. As Rondo approached, Sam charged a Fireball and tossed it. Rondo first rolled backwards then to the side to avoid the Fireball as it collided with the ground and exploded. It gave Sam the spacing he needed to safely drink from his Soul Fire Flask or so he thought. As he drank, he felt all three knives pierce his chest. The third knife knocked him down once it hit. Once the Soul Fire's healing effect was done, he was left with half of his maximum HP. His poisoned and bleeding gauges had also built up halfway, leading Sam to believe that each of the knives had a different status effect placed on them.

Sam began to shake. Rondo hadn't given him much room for error. He hadn't expected him to give him so much trouble from a range, but those knives were as powerful as any of his close range attacks. When he finally got to his feet, he was suddenly shocked to see Rondo once again in his vicinity. Rondo quickly stabbed him in the shoulder thanks to a last minute evasion of Sam's and followed up with an upward slash with his shortsword that was first aimed at Sam's ribs. Sam saw the origin of that particular attack and was able to Parry it. He pushed Rondo's sword hand aside, surprising the Cutthroat, and thrust his Rapier into his heart for the Opening Blow. Rondo folded and Sam pushed him off of his blade where he then fell to the ground in a heap. Surprisingly, Rondo still had a little over half of his HP. Sam scoffed. Only in a video game were you able to get stabbed in the heart then get up and dust yourself off right after. Sam's own heart was beating a mile a minute, after getting the desperate Parry. He used the time to heal up to max with his Soul Fire and ate a Stim Plant as well. He briefly looked over to see Herke and Caesar still engaged in intense combat. The king's slash had grazed Caesar's skull helm and chipped it. Caesar was unperturbed and continued forward pressing the king with big overhead slashes. King Herke blocked each blow with his sword. Sam couldn't help but notice a similarity in their overwhelming sword styles, though Caesar's fighting style seemed much more vicious and reckless. The king fought smarter and hopefully it would be enough to give him the edge against Caesar.