"If you lose," I say as I watch the timer count down the few seconds left before Ed and I duel. "I never want to see your damned face ever again." Ed's reaction is immediate as his anger turns to sadness for a second, but quickly fades as the timer reaches zero.
FIGHT!
Ed looses the arrow, and it flies straight at me. I flap my wings swiftly and fly upwards, dodging it. I rush straight at Ed, who's prepared another arrow, and ground myself right in front of him. With a swift turn, I swing my blade towards his neck. He leaps backwards and shoots his arrow towards me. I roll under it and begin advancing on Ed again.
Ed pulls out a small knife in anticipation and waits for me to get close enough for him to use it. Rather than rush at him, I take a step to my left and start up my flurry skill. Before I can actually activate it, Ed chucks his knife my way. The blade sticks into my leg, reducing my speed, and readies an arrow. I manage to get to him before he can loose it and activate my flurry attack. The attack only hits ten times, the minimum amount, but I'm able to knock Ed back a bit, and step towards him again before he can recompose himself. I slash his chest, watching as the small -20 appears above his head, and begin to follow up with a stab towards his neck. Before my blade reaches him, he falls down onto the ground. One of the worst moves anybody could do.
I take a quick second to retract my arm and prepare to attack him with another flurry attack, but a pain shoots through my stomach. Looking down, I see an arrow stuck in my stomach with a string attached to the other end. Ed yanks the string, pulling me towards him. He brings up his left foot, which I land on, before kicking me away.
I land on my back roughly three feet away, and we both sprawl to our legs before continuing our fight. As I get up I notice an arrow flying towards my leg. I attempt to dodge it, but it hits me anyways. I watch as the arrow evaporates, leaving behind an immobilized status. I watch on as Ed prepares three arrows and looses them towards me. Once all three hit me, my immobilized status wears off and I use my wings to fly up just a bit before rushing at him.
Waiting for just the right moment, I draw back my sword and wait for him to loose an arrow while I rush at him. Within a few seconds he does just that. As the arrows fly though the air, I immediately retract my wings and slide on the ground. I slide directly under his arrows, and stop right in front of him. I slash my sword diagonally across his chest and prepare another of the attack I'd learned since I joined Neverland
Opportunity
Strike an enemy three times, dealing less damage with each hit. If the enemy is above 50% when the first attack hits, each attack does double damage. If the enemy is below 50% when the first attack hits, the third attack will inflict a bleeding effect.
Once Opportunity lands, Ed's health bar falls into the red zone. I watch as the bleed effect takes place before noticing a grin on Ed's face. Realizing what that grin meant, I take to the sky to increase my evasiveness. If his crisis skill is what I think it is, one hit could mean certain death. I watch as his arrows takes an exceptionally long time to generate, and he aims his bow straight above him.
Good news: he doesn't have kill shot. Bad news: I don't know what he has. Looking at my own health bar, I realize that Ed's arrows are much more damaging than I remember, as my health is just outside of the red zone.
Looking back at Ed, I notice that he'd already shot his arrow into the air. As soon as I look up, I realize what his crisis skill is, and swear under my breath.
Arrow Rain
Send a flurry of arrows into the air, and have them crash down on a wide area.
Realizing I probably have only a second to dodge them, I quickly rush towards Ed. I'm too late though, as four or five arrows hit me in the back. I flinch at each of them, giving Ed enough time to loose another arrow that hits my left wing. I scream as the pain shoots through me, and look at my health bar. I'm still alive, but I'm immobilized.
I start falling to the ground as Ed brings out his knife and runs towards me. A look of determination comes across my face as I grip my sword and wait for the immobility to wear off. The status effect wears off just as we get into each-others' range. I open my wings in an attempt to dodge him, and flap them as hard as I can. I lessen my momentum, but don't stop it fully as Ed's knife comes towards my stomach. I manage to use reflect as Ed's blade connects with mine, and a blinding light flashes as he stumbles backwards, and puts his hand over his eyes. I take advantage of this by using parry, and watch as my sword goes through his neck in a powerful stab.
Once the damage is dealt, Ed flies back as a message comes up in front of us both.
Winner: Steven!
Looking back at Ed's crumpled state, the realization of what had just happened washes over me. Both Jake and Incognito come out from the bushes and run over to him before helping him up. I look down at my hands as a single thought runs through my head over and over again.
I just beat one of my friends to a pulp.
As much as I shouldn't feel sorry for what I did, considering what Ed has done to me previously, I can't help but feel guilt consume me. Ed had tried to apologize to me, and I just attacked him. I ignored his apology like an asshole, and attacked him when he got angry with me.
"So, I overheard that one of your old friends came here. Is that correct?" Pyralis's voice breaks the silence as I sit in his office.
"Yes." I respond. I try not to sound like I was just crying, which I was for a bit, but my voice comes out extremely croaky. "They weren't here to start any conflict, the guy who made me leave the guild just came to apologize for what he did."
"And what did you say?"
"I told him 'I came here to become stronger, and I'm not leaving until it becomes true.'" As much as I tried to hide it, the words still come out laced with a small bit of venom. Pyralis notices this, but chooses to ignore it.
"I'm assuming that you feel you've become stronger, yeah?" I nod my head, the decision to secede from guilds altogether forming. "Alright. I'll inform your squad tomorrow, and you can leave as soon as you have all of your stuff packed."
A small grin forms on my face as I thank Pyralis and walk out of his office with confidence. Now that I'm free of any guild, I suppose I could become stronger on my own. I'm not yet ready to go back to my friends, especially since Ed's probably still pissed at me, but if what he said was true about this guild preparing for war, I don't want to have to fight him again.