Chapter 891: Parallels [3]

Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!

The soft thump of his heartbeat echoed within Leon’s mind as the question lingered inside Leon’s mind.

For a brief moment, everything else seemed to disappear.

The roaring crowd.

The sand beneath his feet.

Even the pain spreading through his body became strangely distant as Leon stood there, staring at the blood running along the edge of his sword.

A knight.

A prince.

All his life, someone had always been there to tell him what he was supposed to be.

Follow Julien.

Protect him.

Grow stronger.

Protect the Empire.

Become its light.

Become its future.

Different words.

Different people.

But was this the path he had chosen?

Leon slowly lifted his head.

Tharvek remained several metres ahead of him, his figure almost perfectly still while sand drifted around his feet.

"...Done reminiscing?"

Leon didn’t answer.

The strange thing was...

He still didn’t know.

He didn’t know what his life amounted to.

He didn’t know what he wanted to become once everything was over, nor did he suddenly understand what sort of person he was supposed to be.

But perhaps that was fine.

Because there was one thing he did know.

His fingers tightened around the sword.

He had chosen to come here.

No one had ordered him. No one had placed the sword in his hand and pointed him towards Tharvek.

He had wanted this.

Leon drew a slow breath.

Then he stepped forward.

Tharvek’s eyes narrowed.

The sand beneath Leon’s foot sank immediately.

He didn’t stop.

Darkness gathered beneath him, forcing the surrounding grains apart as Leon pushed from his rear leg and crossed the distance between them.

Tharvek lifted one hand.

Leon saw the movement. He saw the shoulder rotate. Saw the sand gathering around the knuckles.

And understood exactly where the strike was going.

He could avoid it.

But⎯

Leon lowered his shoulder instead.

Tharvek’s fist slammed against his ribs.

BANG!

Something cracked.

Pain exploded through Leon’s side, forcing the air from his lungs as his body folded around the impact.

But he had already stepped too close.

His sword moved.

Tharvek’s expression changed.

The blade cut upwards from beneath his arm, forcing him to pull his head back as the edge passed across his face.

A thin line appeared beneath his cheek.

BANG!

Leon was thrown away a moment later. His feet left the ground before his body struck the sand and rolled several times.

"Ugh...!"

He stopped on one knee as his vision swayed, every breath sending something sharp through his ribs.

The crowd went quiet for only a moment before the arena erupted again.

"Kill him!"

"Fight! Fight!"

Leon barely heard them.

His attention remained fixed on Tharvek.

A small trail of blood ran down the Conqueror’s cheek.

It wasn’t much. Just... a little something.

But it was there.

Leon pushed himself upright.

Tharvek touched the wound with two fingers.

"...I see."

Leon breathed through his teeth.

’My ribs are broken.’

If this was the only way for him to fight, then...

’I’ll do it.’

Leon moved again.

His movements came to an abrupt halt as the sand around the two suddenly lifted, swaying in the sand as a thin veil of yellow engulfed the arena.

Tharvek’s figure scattered.

Leon’s eyes moved across the ground, then shifted to the left.

’...Behind.’

Leon’s body twisted as an elbow came towards his temple.

He raised his injured arm.

Crack!

Pain tore through his shoulder.

Leon stepped closer anyway.

His forehead smashed against Tharvek’s face.

BANG!

The impact sent pain through his skull, but Tharvek’s head shifted back. Still, it was enough to graze him as Leon drove his sword towards his stomach.

Gray spread across Tharvek’s palm as he caught the blade with his hand, sparks flying through the air.

CLANK!

Leon released the hilt, trying to follow up.

Tharvek’s eyes flickered.

Leon stepped inside his guard and punched him across the jaw.

Bang!

His knuckles split.

Tharvek barely moved.

Leon struck him again.

BANG!

Every movement hurt, and every breath was worse than the last. But for the first time since the fight began, Tharvek was no longer dictating every exchange.

There was no longer anything sensible to dictate.

Leon had stopped fighting sensibly.

A palm crashed against his damaged shoulder.

CRACK!

Leon ignored it.

His fingers caught Tharvek’s sleeve.

He pulled.

Their heads nearly collided as Leon drove another fist forward.

This time, Tharvek caught his fingers.

Crack.

Leon’s expression twisted. Two of his fingers bent at an unnatural angle before he knew it.

Still, he showed no reaction.

Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!

He couldn’t hear anything at all. All that he heard was the soft thump of his own heart echoing within his head.

Tharvek stared directly into his eyes.

"You’re destroying yourself."

Leon breathed heavily, but didn’t reply as he tried to attack again. Even if it was at the expense of his own body.

He stepped forward.

This was the only thing he could do to win.

Ba... Thump!

Leon paused only slightly as a strange warmth passed through his chest, disappearing almost immediately.

Tharvek moved.

Leon raised his sword—

His fingers closed around the hilt, all of them, without him noticing.

The blade collided against Tharvek’s forearm, sparks briefly flashing between them as Leon shifted his weight and turned the sword towards his neck.

Tharvek ducked beneath it.

His palm struck Leon’s sternum.

The world disappeared beneath his feet.

Leon flew backwards and hit the ground hard enough to send sand rising around him. For several seconds, he didn’t move, until the crowd’s roar slowly began to reach him and his hand pressed against the ground as he pushed himself onto one knee.

"Haa..."

His breathing trembled.

He pressed a hand against his chest.

Something was wrong.

He couldn’t tell what.

The pain was still there, but—

Swoosh!

Tharvek appeared in front of him before he had time to think. Leon threw himself sideways as the Dune Conqueror’s foot fell, sending sand exploding from the spot where his head had been. He rolled, pushed himself back to his feet, and swung.

Tharvek stepped back.

Leon followed.

His sword cut across, only to be blocked. Leon turned his wrist and struck again, then again, each attack meeting the same resistance as his movements gradually became faster.

Not because he had suddenly become stronger.

But because...

He simply stopped caring what happened between one attack and the next.

Tharvek struck his forearm.

Leon let him.

The opening was enough for Leon’s sword to reach Tharvek’s shoulder, leaving a shallow cut behind. Tharvek answered with a kick to his knee, and Leon felt something tear, but he planted the same leg anyway and attacked again.

The blade passed within inches of Tharvek’s throat.

Tharvek’s brows lowered.

His palm crashed against Leon’s face.

Blood sprayed across the sand.

Leon staggered.

Ba... Thump!

Something shifted beneath his skin as the torn muscle around his knee tightened, the fracture along his ribs slowly pulled inward, and the skin across his knuckles closed beneath the blood covering them.

Leon noticed none of it.

He was already moving.

Tharvek did. His gaze dropped briefly towards Leon’s leg just as Leon attacked.

Their arms collided, and Tharvek drove his shoulder into Leon’s chest, forcing him several steps backwards.

Leon recovered quicker than he should have.

Tharvek’s eyes narrowed.

Sand wrapped around his ankle.

Tharvek pulled, sending Leon forward as a knee rose towards his face. Leon barely managed to turn his head in time.

The impact caught his cheek instead.

Something cracked.

His body spun before crashing into the ground, and for a moment, everything went dark. The cheering faded into the distance as his fingers moved weakly through the sand.

"...What are you?"

Tharvek’s voice came from somewhere above him as Leon stared at the grains of sand beneath his face. His body had reached its limit; he knew that much.

The strange thing was that his heart hadn’t.

Ba... Thump!

Slow.

Steady.

Almost peaceful.

Leon swallowed.

Why...?

His heartbeat should’ve been racing.

Instead—

Ba... Thump!

Warmth spread through him again, dulling the pain along his cheek as something shifted beneath the swollen flesh. His breathing became slightly easier, and Leon’s eyes widened.

Before the thought could fully form, however, a shadow fell over him.

Leon pressed his palm against the ground, and pushed himself away.

His knee should have collapsed beneath him, but it didn’t. Leon stood slowly, shoulders rising and falling as blood continued to drip from his chin.

Tharvek’s gaze shifted towards his hand.

The fingers he had broken earlier were curled around the sword, perfectly straight.

His eyes hardened for a moment.

"...Interesting."

Leon followed his gaze and flexed his fingers. For the first time, confusion briefly broke through his expression.

They worked.

He couldn’t remember when that had happened.

Then Tharvek disappeared, and Leon barely raised his sword in time.

BANG!

The impact travelled through Leon’s entire body and sent him sliding backwards, but Tharvek was already following. A second attack came, and this time Leon didn’t evade.

He stepped forward.

The fist crashed into his shoulder as Leon drove his blade towards Tharvek’s chest. Tharvek twisted, letting the sword tear through fabric instead, before another strike slammed into Leon’s ribs.

Leon attacked again.

Tharvek blocked, and Leon immediately swung from below.

A palm caught Leon’s wrist, and when he kicked, Tharvek checked it with his knee. They remained almost chest to chest, neither giving the other room to breathe.

Blood scattered across the sand between them as the crowd’s screams blurred into one continuous sound. Leon could no longer tell which blood belonged to him.

He didn’t care.

All he knew was that Tharvek was finally being forced backwards.

One step, then another.

Tharvek’s attacks were still stronger, faster, better, but every time he damaged Leon, Leon ignored it and just kept going forward.

Tharvek’s fist tore across Leon’s jaw, shattering it completely. And yet... Leon turned with the impact and brought the sword around behind him.

Tharvek leaned away, but not far enough. The blade cut across his chest, and blood appeared from a deeper wound this time.

The arena fell silent.

Leon staggered past him with his sword lowered, and for several seconds, neither of them moved.

Then Tharvek looked down as blood slid between his fingers.

Behind him, Leon’s knees trembled.

He almost fell.

Ba... Thump!

His legs steadied.

A wound along his side slowly closed beneath his torn clothes.

This time, it was visible enough for all to see.

Ba... Thump!

His breathing eased as the darkness around his feet thickened.

Tharvek slowly turned.

Leon stood with his back towards him, head lowered as blood fell steadily from the end of his chin. Yet the wounds Tharvek had inflicted only moments earlier were already beginning to disappear.

Tharvek stared at him as Leon raised his sword again.

"...C-come."

Leon still didn’t understand what was happening. He didn’t understand why his fingers could move, why his ribs no longer screamed with every breath, or why something warm had begun spreading through his body with every beat of his heart.

But right now...

It didn’t matter.

This was his decision.

Leon turned, his eyes settling on Tharvek.

"A-gain."

Tharvek remained silent.

Leon stepped forward.

Ba... Thump!

Far beneath the blood, sand, and broken flesh, something within Leon churned. Something he had never known he had.

And his heart continued to beat.

Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!