Rowdy lunged with a feral roar, his claws slashing in a wild arc toward Sawyl's face. His right arm moved like a whip, fast and full of fury, but...
CLANG!
Sawyl didn't budge. With a casual tilt of his wrist, he angled the flat of his massive greatsword against the blow, absorbing the slash with practiced ease.
Then...
BOOM!
A pulse of invisible magic burst from the blade. Rowdy's eyes widened just before he was blasted backward, his boots skidding against the stone road. It wasn't just steel, it rejected him, repelled him like his very touch was poison to it.
"What the hell...?" Rowdy gasped, stumbling back.
Sawyl stepped forward with the calm of a killer. "You've got fire," he said with a low grin, "but fire dies when the air gets thin."
He brought the blade sideways in a sudden horizontal slash, aiming straight for Rowdy's abdomen.
Rowdy twisted, instinct overriding thought. He spun midair and caught the broad side of the blade with both hands but the same force erupted again, shoving him violently off-balance.
His back twisted from the push, muscles burning.
Sawyl didn't stop.
"Too slow!"
He lifted the sword high and brought it down in a vertical cleave.
WHAM!
But Rowdy, with wild agility, stepped off Sawyl's chest, using the brute's massive body as leverage, and flipped backwards, narrowly evading the strike.
He landed several feet away in a low crouch, claws dragging small sparks across the stone as he skidded back into a ready stance.
"Not bad," Sawyl muttered, eye gleaming. "You fight like Joshua like a wild beast. But rougher. More... savage. I like it."
Rowdy's eyes flared brighter red, rage mixing with focused clarity.
His sword... it's enchanted. Warded by a witch.
Every strike, every contact, pushes me away. It's like it rejects the very idea of being touched.
He looked to the side.
Sam stood frozen, a few meters away, eyes wide with terror. Her lips trembled, her hands clutched against her chest.
"Sam," Rowdy called, voice sharp but steady. "It's going to be okay. I swear."
But that split second of distraction...
"HRAAAAGH!"
Sawyl charged, closing the distance in a blink.
SWOOSH, CLANG!
His massive blade swung in a brutal horizontal arc, aiming for Rowdy's neck.
Rowdy saw it too late.
He leaned back, barely dodging, his body arched so far that his hand touched the ground behind him to stay balanced. The sword's edge screamed through the air, missing by inches.
But Sawyl didn't stop.
Another horizontal slash came faster than the first, lower this time.
Rowdy spun, his body coiling through the air. With a flash of instinct, he launched a mid-air kick toward Sawyl's scarred face, aiming to stun or at least interrupt the swing.
THWACK!
But Sawyl caught the kick on his thick forearm like it was nothing, and in the same motion, twisted into a brutal roundhouse kick of his own.
WHAM!
Rowdy crossed his arms just in time to shield his head, but the impact rocked him. The force launched him through the air, his body twisting as he flew backward.
He landed hard but upright, his boots skidding across gravel, claws gouging lines into the earth to slow his momentum.
Both combatants froze.
A few meters apart.
Breathing hard. Tension electric.
Rowdy's crimson eyes burned, glowing with rage and wounded pride.
Sawyl's lone blue eye gleamed with thrill and violence, lips curled in amusement.
Neither of them blinked.
Then...
Sawyl spoke.
"Your brother screamed when I slashed his head off. You gonna scream too, boy?"
Rowdy growled.
"I'm not James."
He wiped the blood from his lip and flicked it to the ground.
"I'm the one who's going to kill you."
They stared each other down.
Red and blue.
Fire and frost.
Twin forces on the verge of breaking everything in their path.
The street held its breath.
And the second round was about to begin.
The second round began with silence...
Then a crack of motion.
Rowdy darted forward first, a blur of crimson rage and slicing claws. He twisted low, then launched upward with a rising claw strike aimed for Sawyl's ribs. The brute caught it on the flat of his blade again, but Rowdy anticipated the magical pulse this time, he rolled with it, using the repelling force to flip over Sawyl's head.
Mid-flip, he slashed downward...
SSSHHHRAKK!
Three claw marks scraped across Sawyl's shoulder, shallow but real.
The giant grunted. "So you can adapt."
He turned, swinging his sword like a hurricane.
Rowdy ducked the first strike, slid under the second, then dashed around behind him, his claws glinting in the lantern light...
Only to meet a spinning backhand from Sawyl's gauntleted fist that cracked across his jaw like thunder.
CRACK!
Rowdy's body twisted in mid-air from the blow, but he landed with feline grace, skidding sideways.
His vision blurred, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
He charged again.
Their next exchange was pure chaos...
Blade against claw. Power against precision.
Rowdy ducked a slash and elbowed Sawyl in the gut.
Sawyl grunted and shouldered him backward.
Rowdy retaliated with a spinning roundhouse kick to the head...
Sawyl caught his leg mid-air, grinning savagely...
... and slammed him into the ground like a ragdoll.
BOOM!
The cobblestones cracked from the force.
Rowdy groaned and twisted, trying to rise.
But Sawyl was already over him.
"Let's see you dance now, little beast."
With a grunt, Sawyl brought his greatsword in a brutal side-arc...
Rowdy barely rolled out of the way, the edge shaving through his shoulder, tearing flesh and cloth.
He screamed in pain, tumbling across the ground.
Before he could fully rise...
WHAM!
A knee smashed into his stomach.
His breath left his lungs in a gasp.
Then... another sword slash.
This one connected clean.
THWAAAACK!
The runed greatsword slammed into Rowdy's chest with the force of a collapsing building.
He was launched.
The world spun.
He smashed into a brick wall, bounced off, and flew straight through a boarded storefront window reinforced with thick, rusted chains crisscrossed like prison bars.
CRAAASSHHHH!
Glass shattered, metal screamed, wood splintered.
And Rowdy vanished into the darkness inside, buried beneath rubble and iron.
"JAMES!!!" Sam shrieked, her voice cracking. She sprinted forward, tears in her eyes. "JAMES!"
The name slipped out before she realized.
The pain too similar.
The fear too fresh.
Sawyl's glowing eye turned toward her, wide grin spreading like a crack in hell.
"Well, well," he said, voice thick with satisfaction. "Looks like you do still care."
He began walking toward her, slow and deliberate, each bootfall louder than the last.
"You know," he drawled, dragging his sword behind him with a screech, "King Siegfried's going to be very pleased when I deliver his little runaway whore back to him."
Sam stepped back, legs trembling. Her nails dug into her palms.
Sawyl's eye narrowed as he advanced, still talking. "He's got plans for you. Said you were special. His little 'werewolf pet project.' I hear he's been real lonely ever since you ran off with your new friends."
Sam's hands shook, but she didn't run.
She looked toward the shattered storefront.
"Please," she whispered, eyes shining, "get up…"
The chains inside rattled.
And somewhere in the dark...
A growl rose.
Low.
Feral.
Unstoppable.