Defender's Bane

Somewhere on the battlefield Chari heard the sharp sound of countless blades slamming against metal and then a gust of wind followed violently tugging on his clothes.

There was no doubt about it, Sarah was back.

He couldn't afford to look though because right in front of him was his own tribulation. Although the two bandits in front of him were probably the weakest among the 4 of them it was still a 2v1 situation.

Chari let the staff gently rest on his shoulders as he gently watched his opponents and then he lunged forward. He had hoped he wouldn't have to use this move yet because he had not perfected it but at this point he had no other choice.

Defenders bane was guaranteed to tear through their defences utterly riping through anyone that stands in its path to shreds.

He would have to land it first though, that would be the hard part. He was going to have to match them in speed at least for as long as he could.

His plan was to push his body to its limit and hopefully take them both out at the same time with defenders bane. He held onto the staff the same way he did on the day of his death, only this time he would be the Victor.

Broken style.

Chari wasn't sure if calling it broken style was still appropriate because he had managed to improve it by a lot. He was able to reduce the damaging effects of the technique a little as well as increasing its offensive capabilities.

The technique still had a long way to go but it should be enough for these two.

He moved forward, his body fluid resembling that of a broken doll, he danced in between their attacks while delivering no blows of his own.

The mace came flying plummeting into the ground where Chari once stood but he was now behind him but even still he did not strike.

He was positioning himself for the perfect strike.

Irritated, the man with the scimitar swung straight for Chari's head aiming to split his head in half. The sword whistled past the front of Chari's face as he bent backwards to dodge the blow.

In that split second the other man was on him, his mace coming down in the same strike he had repeated countless times in their fight.

But once again he missed, but barely.

Chari was already beginning to feel the effects of pushing his body to move this fast. His knees were sore and his back was aching but he just needed the perfect opportunity, enough space to pull off the technique. It wasn't long before it came.

His fluid movements were beginning to annoy the two brutes and it wasn't long before they began to swing wildly, they abandoned all their battle tact and just aimed at obliterating the little boy that was becoming a torn in their flesh.

Chari sidestepped a swing from the mace which was considerably easier to dodge because of the force it took to swing it and then used his staff to deflect the scimitar.

That was when his opportunity came.

He quickly rested the wooden staff on his shoulders and swung it. The staff crossed his chest rotating around his hips and then moved forward, he could already feel the force of the swing multiplying with each step.

Then for a brief moment he thought:

'Do I really want to kill him?'

Defender's bane responds to the will of the user, it was a technique that required utmost focus to pull off. Except when mastered, the littlest mistake or a brief moment of distraction was all that was needed to destroy the flow.

The staff slammed against the scimitar wielding man's head just managing to knock him back, the man staggered back disoriented but very much alive and kicking.

Chari's mind went back to the day of his death, how he had ignored Luck's warning just because of his ideals…

He would not kill, even in the most dire situation or rather he refused to. That very ideal was what led to Vera's death.

Chari slapped himself facing the two brutes.

'What the hell am I doing? My worthless ideals are the reason I am here in the first place.'

Chari screamed at the top of his voice:

"Burn them all!"

Only he knew what he meant when he said that...

…He had decided to leave everything behind, all his ideals, his very notion of right and wrong and forge a new path… the path to strength.

The other man walked in front of his recovering partner and stood right in front of Chari, a goofy smile on his face.

"Burn them all? Out of tricks, rat?"

Chari looked up at him, his face twisted in rage.

"Ahh, I see amusing things everyday since I came into this world."

Chari took a step forward like a crazed man.

"Huh?"

"Why would a corpse be speaking?"

There was a brief moment of silence between the two as the man processed what Chari had said and then with a battle cry he rose his mace high up in the air as though he was about to squash a bug and brought it down.

This time Chari didn't dodge.

His staff moved from his shoulder and found itself curving around his waist, Chari let go of it watching the staff swirl into his left hand as though it had a mind of its own and then switching it to his right hand he rotated the staff around his head.

Everything happened so fast.

And then the staff collided with the man's chest.

"Defender's Bane!"

The air shook violently and a small shockwave spread around the area blowing the flowers all around them, pulling them from their roots.

The staff came at the man carrying the force of many years of pain.

The wooden pole was as furious as its master, edging forward as if trying to escape his master's control and bring about absolute destruction.

When the wood slammed against his chest everything from the man's chest up exploded into a red bloody mist leaving one headless, chestless gory mess, his body crumpled to the floor.

'Fuck my ideals.'

The staff slowly burned, turning to ash in Chari's hand.

And then something flashed across his face.

[System Notification]