Looking at the heavily armored mountain in front of him, Connor couldn't help but inwardly cry.
"How the hell am I supposed to fight that?", he lamented to himself, clearly regretting saying anything at all. With only the two knives at his waist, he realized that they may not be enough. They suited him just fine when fighting a normal enemy, but against this titan, they would be almost useless. Gandering around the arena, he spotted a host of weapon racks to be used for training. He grabbed a gladius from one of the racks and tested its weight. From among the many weapons here, it was definitely the most generic, but nothing could speak more for a sword then history and the gladius, with it's long background with the Roman Empire, had a solid record to fall back on.
Arranging himself across from Darius, he mentally prepared himself for the bout. Having been in many fights before, he was able to erase all nervousness and excitement from his body. Focusing solely on the task at hand he raised his guard as he prepared to meet Darius head on. The most important thing in a fight was to be able to gauge your opponents strength as well as his technique. And given the hulking man in front of him, it was clear that he wasn't lacking any strength. Connor was going to need to be quick and avoid taking a single hit. One swing from the sword would blow him clear across the room.
Taking Darius's cue, he flashed a cocky wink as if to signal the start of the fight.
"May the most aggressive man win." Bursting from his position, he dashed head on at Darius. With the intention of responding to his opponents first move, Connor brought the short sword to his right side as if prepared to swing it from a low position.
"What is he doing?" Behind an expressionless face he questioned his opponent internally. The last thing someone would want to do is charge in head on, that's a rookie's mistake and could quite possibly cost him dearly. Darius sighed, with both hands he brought his blade around behind him in a position that would allow a swing from right to left. He awaited Connor to close the gap and then he made his move. It would seem to many outside of the fight that a blade of that size and weight would move slow but it was quite the contrary. Growing up he had held blades much larger than the typical short sword for training, his father made sure of that and because of the intense training he was given this blade felt as light as a regular sword. With an audible woosh it flew threw the air towards Connors mid-section but thankfully he was not one to swing at people with the razor sharp edge but rather its blunt side.
Seeing the giant blade reap its way through the air, Connor couldn't help but be amazed. The sword hurtling a coarse of destruction towards him was a frightening sight to behold. He naturally couldn't block such a catastrophe waiting to happen and was left with only one choice. He had to dodge it. His brain began working in high gear causing a rush of adrenaline to surge through his body. The world seemed to automatically slow around him. Connor deduced all of the possibilities he could think of in the coarse of milliseconds. With his course set, Connor gathered all of the might in his legs, forcing his body to roll to the right.
Given the range of motion of a shoulder, a swing from the right should provide him with just enough room to dodge when the blade pulls up at the end of its swing. Hopefully, when he lands, it should leave an open second for him to counter attack but Darius didn't slow his momentum. Instead, he continued the momentum, putting his body in a full spin, attempting to get Connor coming out of the dodge. His steps would match his spin so by the end of the rotation, he would be back in his starting stance.
Gritting his teeth, Connor saw the mistake he had made. Seeing the shift in Darius's foot work, he sensed that there wasn't going to be enough room for him to dodge at this rate. He needed to be faster. Welling up power in his gut, he activated his powers. Time around him abruptly slowed by a small degree and his body seemed to cut right through the fabric of the world. He completed his roll and slid back just in time to see the tip of the blade cut into his face. As the world came back into its proper motion, and Darius finished his swing; blood began to flow down Connor's face from a gash just below his left eye. The exchange only lasted seconds, but activating his power already put a visible strain on his endurance. Having not been able to fully grasp the extent of his power over the last month, he was barely able to draw out its full potential. Ignoring the wincing pain in his face, Connor immediatly charged forward once again.
Darius was slowly beginning to notice a pattern with Connor, dodge and charge. He clearly hadn't been in a lot of fights from what he could see and it showed in his style of hit and run tactics if one could even call them that. So he decided to bite and charged forward as well.
Using the momentum from his own charge, Connor pushed off the ground and entered the air. Throwing his weight to the side, he shifted his body and struck out with a thunderous kick towards the head. Darius watched as he jump up and smirked. Taking advantage of still remaining grounded, he released his right hand on the blade, letting it remain in his left as he brought his now free hand around to the broaden side of the blade. With his left, he twisted the handle, allowing the kick to make contact with the flat side of the blade. Once he felt the vibration from the impact he lifted up, twisting his body and bent down, allowing the blade to drag Connor to the ground with an audible thunk, so long as his opponent was still airborne and near him.
Connor never experienced a fight against an opponent with a sword and was banking off little experience in these kinds of situations, however he did practice the concept of Jeet Kune Do. One of the many principles of Jeet Kune Do is known as the economy of motion and it's entirely about anticipating an attack and finding an effective and direct approach to your next move. Having noticed that Darius favored the broadside of his sword in the beginning of the fight, he expected the natural counter to his kick to be exactly how Darius responded. When his foot made contact with the blade, instead of the toe of his boot, it was actually the ball of his foot. Pivoting his body around and coiling his leg muscles, he used the strong upward momentum of the blade to propel him several feet straight up into the air, with the blade passing swiftly inbetween his legs. It was a gamble to be in the air with no way to move, but Connor was counting on his fall giving him enough force to drive his gladius through the sturdy armor that adorned Darius's entire body.
Darius's eyes widened slightly as he watched the smaller of his brothers leap off his blade like a diving board, using his own strength to amplify the jump.
"Nice move kid, heh." He internally congratulated him but his thoughts quickly returned to what was going on. Connor was still, by all intent and purpose, airborne. So it was time to take advantage of it. As Connor's descent came, he lept back, bringing the blade that was in his left hand across his body, the tip on his right...and lunged forward, broadside already passing through the air in the hope to catch Connor before he hit the ground.
Seeing Darius bring his blade into position, Connor knew that he was once again forced into a single action.
"I can't seem to find a single opening," Inwardly groaning to himself, he reached for the knife on his right hip and swiftly tossed it at Darius's face hoping to catch the brute off guard. With the final few milliseconds of his fall, Connor twisted his body to the left, bringing the broadside of the gladius up to help bare the brunt of the swing.
The end of Darius's follow through faultered as the blade knocked into Connor, allowing him to escape the full brunt of the assault. Darius stumbled forward before hitting the side of his head onto the ground, roaring in pain. This pain-filled roar was laced with rage as it echoed through the arena and halls. Soon it became silent as he stumbled to his feet after nearly blacking out from the pain. He turned to face Connor with a strange look in his one eye as the other one continued to bleed. He was smirking, but one that was rather eerie, borderline demonic. Darius gripped the part of his blade closest to his face and yanked it out, throwing it to the ground with an audible
"tink". He nodded as he licked the side of his mouth where the smell of iron was its strongest.
"My turn..."He lept up, high into the air and twisted his body once again into a spin before he eyed up Connor and threw his blade at him like an eight foot kunai knife. Its aim held true but Connor's abilities would allow him to move and this is what he aimed for because as he came back down, he lept at Connor.
"Oh, shit", was the only reaction that Connor could possibly have when he saw the murderous look in Darius's eyes. As he watched the nearly seven foot tall man leap into the air and throw the massive blade like it weighed nothing, he was left speechless. Still disoriented from the massive collision he just took from the blade a few moments ago, he barely managed to side step to his left in time as the blade thundered into the ground, leaving sprawling cracks in its wake. The blade had pierced half of its eight foot length into the ground and caused the ground to shake. Stumbling to kneel on his left knee he still held the blade in his right hand. Lifting it up in the hope that it would prevent whatever was coming his way next, he had little expectations on being able to respond with his thoroughly exhausted body.
His gamble paying off, Darius landed next to his blade and with Connor on the ground he felt it was time to finish this. Gripping the handle hard with both hands he twisted his body and heaved the heavy blade out of the ground, the edge of the sword cut through the ground like butter as he brought it down upon Connor. Was this the end for Connor in this fight?
Struggling to lift the blade to defend himself, Connor watched helplessly as the steel carved it's path toward him. The gladius snapped in two as the already weakened blade could no longer hold up to the immense strength of Darius and The Crucible. The Crucible gleaned blood along its path as it split through Connor's body as easily as it carved the ground. Luckily, he was able to divert the path of the blade with his gladius, just enough to spare his life. But, moments later, Connor was lying on the ground in two pieces. His right arm disconnected entirely from his body leaving only a small stump, but covering the floor in a pool of blood. With his last remaining strength, Connor looked towards the man. As the blood from his cheek covered the left side of his face like a broken mask, he grinned with high appraisal at the man that could have soundlessly beat him from the very beginning. His conscious finally slipped from his grasp as the pain receptors in his body recognized his fatal condition and raked his body with mind-numbing electricity.
It took a moment for Darius to break stride from his numbing adrenaline to see that he had been victorious. With a light
"heh", he walked forward a few steps before a reaction, similar to Connor's, came from Darius. The pain that had been suppressed came through in its entirety, shutting Daruis down where he stood.
