[indent][indent]He caught a glimpse of moonlight on steel out of the corner of his eye, coming from one of the rooftops to his left. It merged with a flash of blonde and realised that the young swordsman had not only stayed but obviously had a few tricks up his sleeve. [color=steelblue][i]So you’ve chosen your path, boy…well done.[/i][/color] In the split second this took, he never took his eyes off the men before him, watching them twitch like coiled springs, waiting for their commanding officer’s order to attack. He had been on both sides of that scene, soldier and commander, and he knew what those men were feeling, the rush, the excitement that flirted with fear and the blood raging in their veins, the trembling that seemed as though it would shake their bodies apart…he felt it now…and he lived for it.

But he wasn’t such a fool to believe his own legend. “Taru the Unkillable” was a myth, and he knew that. Every man who bleeds can die, and he was no different. The pair of crossbowmen at the rear guard bothered him. He had to hope that whatever skill the blonde on the rooftop possessed, he had aptitude for it beyond his years. He knew the order was a breath away, he could read it in the corporal’s face. The world slowed and everything came into focus. The pattern of his attack and defence played in his mind, how he would move and when he would strike. 

[color=f7976a]“Kill him!”[/color] The corporal cried.

Before the command was finished, Taru’s weapons were in his hands, epee in the left, wakizashi in the right. The first man was too eager, charging from his commander’s left into an almighty sword swing. Eager but slow. As the blade came down, the arc aiming for Taru’s head, the swordsman stepped inside the soldier’s guard, flipped his wakizashi into a reverse grip and brought its curved blade up and underneath the man’s breastplate. It cut through his flesh and bit hard into the underside of his ribcage. Taru pulled the sword free and brought his fencing epee up to defend a horizontal strike from the soldier on the other side. Despite its thin blade, it was as strong as any weapon he had ever held. The wounded man fell, blood pooling in his chest cavity, a doubtless torn lung collapsing within his ribcage. 

The second man was quicker and another swift horizontal attack from the other side forced Taru to deflect the blow over his own head with his wakizashi. This set the man off balance, the weight of his blade carrying him, leaving his head and neck completely exposed. A blur of Taru’s steel rapidly separated one from the other. Scarlet sprayed skyward and the man’s body crumpled.

In the fray, he hadn’t heard the crossbow being cocked. What he did hear was string loosen and the bolt leap from the frame.
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