Within the darkness: chapter 39

Smiling bill let his arms fall from his normally crisscross and in a moment's time, he had his own sword out and was pushing wallkery back over the distance she had been pacing. the surprise of the attack only lasted for a few minutes and before they had made it more than a few feet wallkery was ready to fight.

the fight brought all sorts of attention, mainly from the fact that the sound of ringing swards had sent everyone into a panic. before long everyone was watching the two fight. had an observer known that they were fighting to relieve stress and not to kill they would most likely think that the fight was more of a dance between two masters. but to everyone's knowledge the two people who had basically one the fight were trying to kill each other.

that is to say, almost everyone thought this. two people watched the fight with different emotions than the rest. Maradith sat and watched slightly annoyed that they were doing this, she had known them for as long as they had known each other and had had to patch them up after every one of these fights. Will watched as the two people who he respected fought and sat two masters in an intricate dance that was awe-inspiring.

…

bill was the first to get tired, to him, this was just a fight to help wallkery relieve some stress. the fight just kept going on and on, and wallkery did not seem to deal with the steady weariness that he was feeling. in fact, as he studied her movements she seemed to be getting less tired. he had seen this before when someone had a personal stake in a fight, they seemed to have a pillar of fire burning at their core that kept them going.

years ago he had seen a friend do this after his son had been struck across the chest by a superior fighter. the end result was not something he cared to think about. the rage had pushed his friend over the edge and even when the other side had broken, on his attack, he hunted those fleeing and killed all that he could. the only reason any had survived was that the man's other son had gone to stop him. the man had never been the same and had not spoken since.

bill realized that to survive this he had to play dirty. there was not a doubt in his mind that if Wallkery was left with her word he would lose his life, and maradith would not be happy.

slowly so as not to give away what he would do he started losing ground. he later reflected that losing ground, keeping his edge, and not dying was difficult to do at the same time. but eventually, he was in position and he waited. eventually, his plan was ready. after seeing bill lose ground so fast and then having him become a wall, bill knew that wallkery would become angry, his shield would become the object of her anger and she would try to hack it to shreds. when she tried to do this he jammed his shield straight at her sword and twisted yanking the sword out of her arms and then proceeded to knock her over off the edge of the wall using her momentum. she fell wight into the flowing water below.