Valor
Alec and Nera ran at the armored warrior from both sides of him. They both reached him at the same time, Alec tried to dive past in order to get to Charlotte but was sent tumbling a dozen meters away by an incredibly fast and strong strike from Ax's fist with his training halberd being knocked far away from him out of his hands.
At the same moment, Nera threw a punch at Ax aimed at his chest. The armored warrior was able to react in time and swung his axe downwards at her. She nimbly avoided the attack by flipping high in the air and slammed her feet down on the long handle of the axe as it hit the ground, embedding it into the asphalt of the road. Caught off guard and unable to dodge without disarming himself, Ax took the full force of Nera's second punch.
"MAGICAL KNUCKLE DRIVER!!!" She yelled out as the attack made contact with his armor with a loud metallic clang. Ax grunted, audibly showing the damage he had taken from attack even with the reinforcement of the musical Craftsman, Harp's, skill. However, it was not enough to move him from where he stood, and he batted his arm at Nera forcing her to jump back.
"Heh." Ax scoffed. "There was nothing magical about that. You...you're a Variate, aren't you? One of the products of the dark side of Formation Craft and this city. "
Nera was unfazed by this remark and neither verified nor refuted his speculation. Instead, she simply replied, "None of that matters right now. You need to be more worried about getting your armor fixed up."
Ax took note of the large dent on his chest plate left by her punch.
"I'll have plenty of time to deal with this once I'm don-"
His was cut-off mid-sentence as Nera lunged at him with tremendous speed. He answered in kind by unleashing a maelstrom of swings of his axe. Nera effortlessly dodged over all of them while striking around his body with precision attacks. However, despite this, like a pillar of iron, he barely budged at all to her assault.
Meanwhile, it was all Alec could do to watch as the fight played out between them. From the searing sensation that blazed from it, he knew his arm had been fractured from when he had just barely managed to block the blow from Ax. Even slightly moving it sent out a jolt of intense pain and the rest of his body was not fairing much better. With just one hit, he was bruised and sore all over.
Using a great deal of effort, Alec got up on one knee clutching his arm, he could taste the blood in his mouth as he withstood the pain. He observed the fight between Nera and the armored warrior with his recovering vision then looked over to Charlotte. As the musical lines of the Craftsman's mystic skill that encircled her tightened around Charlotte, so did her expression tighten with pain and fear.
"Come on, show me what you're hiding!" Harp commanded jovially, clearly enjoying this situation.
However, Charlotte could do nothing to answer her as she was crushed by the force of the skill.
Spurred on by the anger towards the Craftsman's cruelty, Alec was able to get up and took a step towards them.
"Oh!?" Harp exclaimed without even glancing in his direction.
Alec stopped.
"You're actually going to confront me? And what do you think a powerless nobody like you will be able to do to stop me? You'll only make things worse for everyone involved, so just stand there and watch as this story plays out like the bystander you are as I get what I want from this girl and that lab rat gets struck down by my partner."
"She's right, even if I do go over there, what am I going to do? She's a Craftsman and I'm a Blank, completely powerless. It'd be like going against a raid boss with a level zero character." He looked over back to the battle between Nera and Ax.
"Maybe, I can provide some sort of distraction for her. Maybe..."
He observed their battle closely searching for any openings he could exploit. Nera continued to dodge all over the axe swings. With her grace and agility, it almost appeared more like she was dancing than fighting. However, Nera was unable to get a finishing blow and the longer the battle drew on, the more the armored warrior got accustomed to her swiftness until eventually one of his strikes landed, making contact with one of the metal gauntlets Nera wore on her wrists.
'Clang.'
At that moment, a smirk appeared on Nera's face that instantly vanished as three vertical slashes appeared on her torso with blood splattering out from them. She gasped and retreated backward from the attack before kneeling down and clutching her wounds. She was breathing heavily. These slashes were much deeper than the one she had sustained before on her side. Her vision was starting to blur from blood loss.
"But how...I blocked that attack." She let out in a ragged voice.
"She did block that attack." Alec repeated her in his mind similarly shocked and confused. He couldn't tell how that attack had managed to get through after she blocked it or why three slashes appeared on her torso when only one axe was swung.
A burst of malicious laughter interrupted both of their thoughts.
"My
"This means that Ax's attacks can flow straight through solid objects such as your gauntlet allowing them to get past your defenses and the rhythm of his attacks is multiplied three-fold giving him two extra strikes with each swing. It was a combination of sheer dumb luck and that erratic fighting style of yours that you were able to avoid getting hit for so long."
"Now Ax, finish her off." She said this in the same whimsical tone as always.
"Yes, Madam Harp." He said with a monotone voice indifferent to the heinousness of the command.
"You should've known this would have been the result from the beginning. Your body may be stronger than average but strength can not win against Craft. It was meaningless to even fight against that iron law."
Nera spit out a drop of dark red onto the street.
"You really don't get it do you, Tin Bucket? Even if there was no way I could win, giving up would be even worst than losing, because if something's truly worth it then there's always meaning fighting for it."
The warrior didn't respond and silently raised his axe up to the full moon in the sky preparing to deliver the finishing the blow before swinging it down towards Nera.
Blood splattered once again into the air but this time it was not Nera's but Alec's. Without any hesitation at all, he had leaped in the way of Ax's attack taking the full force of the blow himself and being marked with three deep slashes on his body as well, just like Nera.
"Why!? Why did you defend me!? Do you think being courageous is going to save us, now we're both done for!" Nera berated him.
"I...wouldn't be able to forgive myself if didn't do anything, hearing your words made me realize that." Alec gripped the handle of the axe tightly with both hands. The only reason he was able to stay standing at all was thanks to the protective gear from Knight Arms that he was still wearing that had protected him from the brunt of the axe swing.
"Then, I guess you're an even crazier guy than I thought." Nera snided.
"I guess so." Alec replied.
A faint smile emerged on her blood-smeared face. Even though she knew these could be her last moments, she felt a little bit better knowing she had got to met someone like him.
"Maybe we could've both become venturers..." Nera whispered to herself.
"Is that all." Ax questioned Alec. "If your wish is to be struck down along with her here then I will gladly grant it. In the face of the power of Craftsmen, there's nothing those who are not Craftsmen themselves can do to oppose them. Now, let go me of my stylus you fool and accept your fate!"
He tried pulling the axe out of Alec's hands but the young man wouldn't let go. He was using all of his strength to hold on to it.
"No." Alec uttered out.
Suddenly, a blast of force emitted from the silver weapon thrusting open Ax's grip on it to his bewilderment. It was now glowing bright with magical energy.
"Even if it appears that way, that there's nothing I can do, I'm going to keep trying anyway, because there's no way I'll ever accept a garbage fate like that!!!"
Alec swung the weapon towards Axe with everything he had left. As Alec did so, an immense slash of energy erupted from it in the armored warrior's direction engulfing the right side of his body completely and sending him flying away then tumbling along the hard ground of the street before coming to a stop right before the edge of the mist that encircled the area,
Both Nera and Harp looked at Alec in astonishment.
He was panting heavily with his hands still clasped on the ax that was now embedded into the ground using it to support himself and keep from falling down due to the tremendous exhaustion he know felt. A deep crevice covered the distance between him and the armored warrior who was still laying on the ground. The red musical staves that had circled his arms and legs began to crumble away like dust.
Out of desperate breaths for air, Alec asked, "Did...I..do that?"