Second Genesis

The blade was a head taller than even Grey, but it rested obediently in his palm. It trembled once as though the Swordsworn Guardian was trying to regain control of it, but the attempt fell on deaf ears.

Grey hoisted it up, holding the enormous blade in one hand and his own long sword in the other.

"You cheating motherfuckers..." Grey growled.

This blade was almost too powerful compared to the scrap of metal he had been given. It didn’t have the true characteristics of an Epic Item, but it was certainly made of the same material.

No wonder his long sword looked like he had tossed it into a wood chipper. If this battle went on for any longer, it would probably shatter at some point.

"Pipe down." Grey said as his body fell through the body of the Sacred Bulwark Guardian. Its body disappeared into motes of light, filtering into his own. The sudden change in elevation caused the Divinesever Guardian’s thrust to hit empty air. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The perfect rhythm of the Swordsworn Ascension Guardian was also thrown off the moment it lost one of its blades.

Grey had no intention of handing it back.

’It’s time to end this shit.’

Grey checked his Stamina. He didn’t have much left, but it would be enough for this. He weighed his new sword in his hand and immediately adjusted to it.

’Let’s go.’

His figure seemed to flicker and he shifted out of the way of a strike that came from his back.

He slid backward, stabbing his long sword up at the spine of the Hallowed Endurance Guardian’s blade and sending it spiralling upward.

The guardian just barely managed to stop its weapon from flying from its hands, but wasn’t nearly fast enough to stop the sudden spinning slash at its torso that came right after.

With a real weapon in hand, Grey slashed the Hallowed Endurance Guardian in two, a wild grin spreading across his face.

The Wrath Coronation Guardian buzzed, its blade light accumulated along its sword and it suddenly slashed out several times in quick succession. It felt like it wouldn’t be satisfied until the world was drowning in white gold.

The Divinesever Guardian appeared right behind Grey as he took one step to the side.

DENG.

The guardian was forced to deflect an oncoming blade light from the Wrath Coronation knight. Grey, however, weaved through them as though a butterfly scrying the winds, every step moved with a current that pulled him out of the way of danger.

The eight remaining swords of the Swordsworn Guardian surged over, the Knight’s Vigil Guardian roaring as it charged.

But it was like Grey didn’t even see any one of them. He lightly tapped his foot just once more, appearing before the Wrath Coronation Guardian.

He blocked a sweeping strike with his long sword, then slashed down from above with his divine sword, splitting it right in two.

Their rhythms were painted onto the backs of his hands, his steps finding the valleys and crevices in their cacophonies as his blade slid into and slit their weaknesses at the jugular.

Grey swayed to one side, dodging one of the Swordsworn’s blades, he swayed to another, slipping away from a second. His body shifted and slid with ease through minor, tiny gaps until the last appeared.

His head tilted out of its way, but it didn’t manage to shoot all the way past him before he tossed his long sword into the air and grabbed the second divine sword’s hilt right out of the air.

His arm was ripped back and nearly out of its socket, but Grey seemed all too prepared.

He held his ground for the briefest of instants, then leapt up, allowing the sword to pull him out of the way of a rampaging Divinesever Guardian.

It and the Knight’s Vigil Guardian got into one another’s way, both conveniently interrupting the Wrath Coronation Guardian’s next assault.

Grey landed deftly on the ground. He could already feel the Swordsworn’s last seven swords turning to face him, but he had charged back into the fray with the three guardians.

Every one of them turned and roared, the first sound Grey had ever heard them make.

"Frustrated, are we? Well fuck you too."

Grey felt his body hit a new state of harmony, his arms dancing through the air to a perfect rhythm with his feet, and then right up to his heart.

Horns and drums, his own rhythm, drowned everything else out as though to say what they did was irrelevant so long as he could execute his own.

He cut limbs and severed heads, thrust through bellies and ripped mouths asunder. All the while, he tiptoed between the slashing blades of the Swordsworn as he took down the last of its enemies.

"Come on, you overgrown pile of shit."

Grey blazed a trail forward as the three guardians fell into motes of light. The light streaked toward him much the same way the seven divine swords of the Swordsworn Guardian did.

Each chased after him, but the light was faster, and he reached the Swordsworn before the blades reached him.

"Fuck you."

Grey said, his divine swords sweeping out and cutting the bastard into four pieces as he drew two diagonal lines across its body.

It collapsed into motes of light and its sword tumbled to the ground before slowly disappearing.

"Hey, hey, hey, I earned these."

Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the divine swords in Grey’s hands from disappearing as well, vanishing into an array of nothingness.

Well, maybe not nothing. They had flooded into his body somehow, and he was sure they were making changes to his Frame. But even with all his sensitivity, he couldn’t quite feel what he was supposed to.

—

Stamina: 10/111

—

’Well, just in the nick of time, I guess. That should be the last one.’ Grey thought, heaving for breath.

The platform trembled.

’Oh fuck me, you can’t be serious.’

Grey burst off into a run.

He didn’t know what he was running from, but he knew that he was going to need the sword he just threw away if he was going to beat it.

Unfortunately he was too slow.

A man appeared in front of him far faster than any of the other guardians had. It was like there was no pause for his manifestation at all.

He slashed at Grey’s head.