Chapter 21: The Light Blade

 

        Skylar woke up early the following morning. He ate a small, quick breakfast before leaving the house. The streets outside weren't crowded like they usually were; most of the people were still in their houses, possibly just now getting up to begin a new day. The only ones that were out and about were the warriors, who protected Wildtree heavily so that it wouldn't undergo a third attack.

        Once he exited the village, the blond began making his way eastwards towards the location of the Light Blade. He quickened his pace a tad and his gaze was set straight ahead. The only thing that was on his mind was retrieving the first sword of the Legendary Twin Blades so that he was one step closer to killing Blade and freeing Spike.

        Hours passed and Skylar kept up the slightly hastened pace, which didn't falter once as he passed through the vast plains. It wasn't until about late afternoon when he finally reached the fringes of the forest where the temple was located. His pace slowed a wee bit upon entering the dense wooded area as he peered about his surroundings for any possible signs of aggressive creatures. Not seeing anything that was threatening, he proceeded through the dense forest.

        Skylar pressed deeper into the forest, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any sudden signs of danger. The forest, however, seemed to be peaceful like the one back at Wildtree. It was silent aside from the birds that sang their tunes and various critters scurried about the underbrush. The blond's alertness stayed high though as he peered about for the temple in hopes that he would reach it soon.

        After a couple hours, the blond finally saw the scenery change in the distance ahead. The form of something slowly began to fade into view and the blond's eyes widened in hopes that this was the right place. Skylar picked up the pace a little more as he continued forward. The form slowly continued to become more clearer until there was no mistaking that it was the temple that was before the boy.

        A smile crossed Skylar's face upon becoming certain of the fact. He broke into a light jog towards the clearing the temple sat in. The features of the temple slowly became more distinct. It was large and size and it could be seen towering above the treetops. Vines covered it, barely showing any of the marble exterior beneath.

        Skylar soon broke into the clearing and his pace was slowed a bit as he neared the large doors before him. Upon reaching them, his hands were outstretched as he attempted to push them open. However, they wouldn't budge and the blond became a bit puzzled by this. He tried pulling the doors open with all his might, but they still remained closed.

        The boy wouldn't believe it. He continued to attempt to pull and push the doors open. No matter how hard he tried though, they still wouldn't budge. Skylar then tried shooting an energy blast, but the doors remained unmarked. Thinking a more powerful spell could maybe work, the blond used Angel Feathers and concentrated the entire spell around the doors. The white feathers appeared and softly fell down towards the ground in front of the blocked entrance. Once their descent to the earth was finally made, the bursts of golden energy came forth, but even that wasn't enough to scratch the doors.

        Skylar's hopes of obtaining the Light Blade shattered. No matter what he tried, his entrance was still blocked by the impenetrable doors. But there just had to be some way of getting into the temple. Skylar needed the Legendary Twin Blades, and he didn't want to leave this place empty-handed.

        The blond's blue eyes started to wander around the clearing as he stood there, trying to figure out how to get in. It wasn't long until he spotted a small lever on the front wall of the temple that was just noticeable amongst the vines. The smile that was once on the boy's face reappeared before he walked over to grab onto some of the vines that covered the surface of the wall. After tugging on them a little to make sure that they were secure enough to hold his weight, he began the ascent.

        About fifteen minutes later, Skylar finally reached the lever. His arms were a bit worn out from the climb and he panted a little too. A hand reached up towards the lever that was just above him and, grunting from the effort, pulled the lever. As soon as he did, the stone doors could be heard opening from below.

        However, before Skylar was even able to begin climbing back down, the vines around him all sprang to life. Two or three of them wrapped around his neck to cut off his airway. A hand went down to reach for the sheathed sword that was at his waistline, but before he was able to, vines started to wrap completely around him until his head was the only thing showing.

        The boy's face began to grow red as his lungs screamed for air. He tried to concentrate to the best of his ability and about a few seconds later, he was finally able to perform a spell. Blasts of golden energy rained down from the sky and towards the vines around him; the thick layer that was constricting Skylar was quickly decimated and he began to plummet towards the ground. The blond quickly managed to grab onto a few vines to slow his descent until he was able to land on the ground in a crouch.

        While practically gasping for air, Skylar quickly rose to his feet. Before he was able to begin running into the temple though, more vines shot towards him. Skylar quickly unsheathed his sword and cut the ones that came near him as he ran towards the opened doors. Once he was finally in, the doors closed shut behind him. Ignoring the bit of pain he felt from the blasts that had hit him, Skylar began to walk down the corridor. His footsteps echoed on the stone-tiled floor and burning torches were mounted on the walls that were on either side of him.

        After a couple moments of walking, the boy came to a large, seemingly bottomless pit that stretched for about twenty feet. However, there was a somewhat small bar that ran across it and over to the other side. Since that seemed to be the only way across, Skylar moved over towards it and stepped onto the bar. As soon as he put one foot on it though, a click was heard and four enormous axes swung down from the ceiling above. The axes were about five meters apart from one another and they swung back and forth at a pretty quick pace.

        Skylar didn't feel much of a problem with this though. Figuring that he could just maybe destroy the axes with a spell, he muttered the small chant that was required. However, when the chant was done, nothing happened. The blond was a little puzzled by this and tried again, but it still failed. A hand was then outstretched in front of him and Skylar tried to shoot a simple blast of energy, but still nothing happened. A couple curse words slipped out from under his breath when he then realized that there must have been something preventing him from using magic.

        A sigh escaped the youth's slightly parted lips as the hand fell to his side. He looked towards the axes again. Their blades came too close to the bar for Skylar to possibly hang down from the bar and cross like that. It seemed that the only option for him was to cross on the bar on foot and hope that he didn't lose his balance or get sliced in half from the axes.

        The blond carefully placed his foot on the bar before slowly bringing the other one onto it. His hands naturally went out just a little ways from his sides as he worked to get his balance. Once he was certain that he had it, he proceeded across the bar. After about twenty seconds, he reached the first ax. He remained where he was on the bar and watched it for a moment, waiting for the right timing to cross. Once the ax passed over the bar once more, Skylar quickly began to walk, just barely avoiding the ax as it made its way back.

        Skylar slowed down his pace a little more so it would be easier for him to maintain balance as he inched his way towards the second ax. However, when he was halfway there, he saw an arrow shoot out from a hole in the wall from the corner of his eye. Out of natural reaction, Skylar quickly took out his sword and used it to deflect it. However, by doing this, the blond's balance was thrown off. Skylar flailed his arms out a bit as he almost frantically tried to regain his balance.

        Unfortunately, he failed to and he was sent falling to the right of the bar. His free hand quickly shot upwards towards the bar though and it latched tightly on it. Skylar hung there for a moment as he sheathed his sword. His other hand reached up and grabbed onto the bar before the blond swung himself up and over it so that his feet landed on it. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth before he slowly rose to a stand. As soon as he was fully upright, he began inching his way across the bar once more.

        After several more seconds passed, Skylar finally reached the second ax. Right when the timing was right, he quickly made his way across the bar until he was out of harm's way. His pace slowed as he made his way towards the third one. Like last time though, an arrow was shot towards him when he was about halfway there. Instead of trying to deflect it though, Skylar quickly shifted backwards just enough to let the arrow whiz past him.

        Skylar continued to make his way across at a somewhat slow pace. He continued to dodge the axes and arrows whenever he came across them. After a few minutes, the blond finally made it safely to the other side. He sighed a sigh of relief before walking down the corridor at a slightly rapid pace, wanting to retrieve the Light Blade and get out of here as soon as possible.

        A couple minutes went by as the blond continued to make his way deeper into the temple. His blue eyes continued to scan everything around him to make sure there weren't any visible traps around. So far there wasn't anything suspicious and there was a corner just a small ways ahead. Unfortunately, he did what he intended not to do, and that was to set off a trap. When his foot went down on a tile, he felt it sink into the ground.

        Another click was heard, which was quickly followed by arrows that shot out from the walls on either side of him and from the one that was ahead of him too. There were spaces in between the arrows though that were barely wide enough for him to fit into to evade the projectiles. The barrage didn't stop though and Skylar was forced to keep moving to avoid getting hit. However, there were a couple times when the arrows cut him as they zipped by. Ignoring the pain and the blood that was beginning to seep from the newly formed wounds, Skylar made his way through the arrows until he was finally able to turn the corner.

        The blond slowly made his way down the corridor and it wasn't long until he was forced to a stop. A puzzled look formed on his face as he stared at a dead end. The blond looked around a little, trying to make sure his eyes weren't maybe playing tricks on him. However, what he saw was certainly no mistake. There wasn't any other way to go but back. Skylar mentally cursed at this as he tried to mentally retrace his steps. He couldn't think of any other possible ways to go though. The corridor had been pretty straightforward and there was never a time when he was left with the decision to go down a different one.

        A sigh escaped his mouth as he looked around at his surroundings a bit more. While he did this, he subconsciously stepped backwards to lean against the wall. However, the boy was surprised as he felt himself go through the wall and an “oof!” escaped his mouth as he fell to the hard floor. Skylar slowly pulled himself the rest of the way through the wall before getting to his feet and walking further into the temple.

        Several long moments passed until the corridor opened up into a room up ahead. A smile swept onto Skylar's face and his heart began to race a little as excitement began to fill him. This must be it; the Light Blade was surely up ahead. The blond broke into a run until he finally entered the large room. The first thing his eyes laid on was the sheathed sword that sat on a stone in the center of the room.

        He quickly made his way over towards it, but when he was about five feet away, a flash of light filled the room. Out of natural reaction, Skylar covered his eyes as he took a couple steps back. After a few seconds, when the spots had vanished from his sight, he noticed a purple, translucent barrier that was now around the sword.

        Skylar practically threw himself against the barrier, desperately attempting to shatter it. However, as soon as he came into contact with it, he was shot backwards until he slid to a halt on the stone flooring. The blond quickly got to his feet and he soon heard something of a small boom sound from behind him. He looked behind him to see that the corridor that had led into this room had been sealed off.

        The blond then looked towards the ceiling just in time to notice a large, black blur fall towards him. Skylar quickly scrambled to his feet and jumped backwards just in time to avoid getting squashed. When the blond was safely out of harm's way, he looked to notice a large, headless knight that wore black armor and stood to be about fifteen feet high. In one of its hands was a sword that was about seven feet long and one foot wide.

        A hand quickly reached for the sheathed sword, which was removed from its case as Skylar made a quick jump to the side to avoid getting sliced in half. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the youth subconsciously reached his free hand out in front of him to try to shoot an energy blast at the enemy. He mumbled a curse word when he recalled the fact that he wasn't able to use magic here.

        Another jump to the side was made to avoid a second slash that was made at him. Once the overgrown sword clashed on the ground, Skylar leaped towards the headless knight. He landed on its large hand before he quickly jumped up onto its shoulder. When he got up there, he looked to notice that there wasn't anyone inside the suit of armor.

        The hollow armor then gave a jerk and Skylar was knocked off. A grunt left his mouth as he landed on the ground before he rolled to the side to evade the enemy's blade. The boy quickly scrambled to his feet and jumped backwards to create a gap in between him and the empty armor.

        Skylar was currently at a loss of what to do. There was nothing inside the armor, so it almost seemed pointless to even bother slashing away at something that was unable to be destroyed. After dodging another attack made by the hollow armor, the blond quickly looked around a little to see if there was maybe something controlling it. However, there didn't seem to be anything peculiar that could be causing the armor to move.

        A couple minutes passed and the blond continued to dodge the attacks that were sent his way. He soon felt his back press up against the wall as the live armor closed in on him. Skylar moved to the side to let the large sword whirl past him and crash into the wall. The blond quickly used this time to get around the armor and get into the open where he couldn't be trapped. As he did this, he looked behind him at the armor and it was then when he caught notice of something. On the upper back of the armor was a black magic circle.

        It then became clear to Skylar. That must've been what had been controlling it. He learned about something similar to this in a spell book he had been studying ever since he returned to Wildtree. The magic circles that were used to bring inanimate objects to life weren't permanent. All Skylar had to do was slash at it to break it and the fight would end.

        A smirk crossed the youth's lips as he stood where he was and faced the armor, figuring that he would let it come to him. The hollow armor charged forth towards the blond and when it was within striking range, it brought its sword downwards towards him. Skylar sidestepped the weapon before jumping onto the gauntlet and running up the arm. When he reached the shoulder, he jumped off and quickly turned around to attempt a slash at the magic circle.

        However, before the blond was able to hit it, the armor managed to spin around in time before trying to slash at Skylar once more. With no way of dodging it, the blond was left with no choice but to attempt to block it. The swords clashed and Skylar was sent flying backwards. He grunted loudly as he crashed into the wall before falling face down on the stone flooring.

        After climbing to his feet, the boy looked towards his weapon to notice that it had been shattered; the only thing left of it was the hilt. A couple curse words left his mouth as he dropped the remainder of his sword. He reached down to his boot and took out a knife that had been tucked into it. It wasn't very large, but Skylar hoped that he would maybe be able to finish the job with it.

        The magically controlled armor rushed towards Skylar once more. When it got close enough, it thrust its blade towards the boy, who moved to the side to avoid it. The sword zoomed past him and embedded itself into the wall. Seeing that now would be a good chance, Skylar did the same thing he did previously, but went at a much quicker pace. After jumping off the shoulder of the full body plate, he quickly spun around in the air and made a slash at the magic circle that had been drawn on the armor. When the small blade of the knife struck, a small burst of light was emitted and the armor fell to the ground afterwards, lifeless.

        With the blade being bent, Skylar quickly discarded the now useless knife before turning to face towards the Light Blade. A smile washed onto his face as he watched the barrier fade from view. Not wanting to take a chance of something else preventing him from taking it, Skylar sprinted towards the sheathed blade and picked it up.

        The blond removed the blade from its scabbard, taking a look at the stainless steel that shined in the semidarkness of the room, which gave off light due to the small bit of golden energy that flowed softly around it. A gentle warmth filled Skylar as he held onto the golden hilt and the power of the weapon was practically radiating off of the blade.

        Not wanting to spend a moment longer in there, Skylar sheathed the Light Blade and secured it on his waist. His blue eyes wandered around the spacious room until he found an exit. It wasn't the same corridor he had came from, but it didn't concern the blond. He broke into a jog towards it and out of the room.

        As soon as he did, however, the entrance into the room was closed. A wave of flames was immediately shot from the wall, which sped towards the intruder. Skylar quickly glanced behind him to see this before looking straight ahead and breaking into a sprint to run away from the fire. However, he wasn't going to be able to get away from it so easily; as Skylar picked up the pace, the flames seemed to do so as well while making its presence known by the extreme heat that pounded the youth's back.

        Skylar continued to rush further down the corridor. He soon turned a corner with the flames still on his tail. His eyes widened a tad when he noticed a seemingly bottomless pit that was up ahead. Unlike the last time, however, there were small pillars, which were about a foot in diameter, equidistant from one another.

        When the youth reached it, he began hopping from one pillar to the other. His speed was slowed some and he was certain he could feel the heat intensifying behind him. There were a couple times when Skylar nearly lost his balance on the pillars, but he somehow managed to regain it in just enough time to leap away from the flames and over to the next pillar.

        After about half a minute, Skylar finally reached the other end of the pit and he resumed his sprint down the corridor. Pants rapidly left his mouth and his heart pounded as sweat practically poured off of him. The blond soon turned another corner with the flames still in pursuit. The next thing that was to come was a barrage of arrows. Out of natural reaction, Skylar unsheathed the Light Blade and made a wide, horizontal slash with it to try to deflect the arrows. To his surprise though, a beam of golden energy shoot out from the blade in a semicircle. The arrows were immediately obliterated, leaving Skylar's path completely clear of projectiles.

        The blond continued to run. When he got further down the corridor, beams began to shoot at him from the walls and ceiling. Skylar moved accordingly to dodge them while rushing forward to hopefully reach the exit. As he ran further, another barrage of arrows was released. Skylar swung the Light Blade through the air once again to shoot a beam of energy from its blade. The beams that blocked his path were overpowered by the sword's and the arrows were obliterated like before.

        Another beam was soon shot, but this time it was from the floor. Skylar managed to react in time to this though and quickly ran around it. His eyes widened when he noticed a few arrows coming straight towards him. He tried to dodge them, but they still managed to give him cuts on his arms.

        A few more minutes passed. Skylar somehow continued to outrun the relentless fire that was still in pursuit. He soon turned another corner and, to his relief, he saw the exit just up ahead. His pace was quickened just a wee bit more, trying to get to the exit which seemed to get further and further away from him like a door in a dream. After about another minute of running though, Skylar exited the treacherous temple and ran far out of the clearing.

Reviews

[Clark]

There is a lot of Skylar getting faster. Is he moving at a faster walk, a hastened crawl, or a quicker sprint? Maybe using a more visual verb than "move" would be more effective than the "quickened/hastened pace" things. By definition, nothing can fade into view. To fade means to become dimmer, less clear, so that word needs to change.

"The blond's alertness stayed high" - Whenever you can, you want to keep your important character the doer of verbs like this, so give the verb to skylar and say he stayed alert or something.

You said pace seven times. It may not seem like a lot just out of context, but while reading, I felt like I was drowning in them.

The bit where Skylar falls off the balance beam has potential to be a real nail-biter action-packed scene--If you let Skylar do it. Let him have the action. Passive voice is def a no-no for an action scene, so 'was sent falling' could use some mmph. And, unless I'm mistaken, those hands belong to Skylar, so let him control them, not them control themselves. Unless they're like Thing, a la Addams Family and DO control themselves. Think, "I slapped him" instead of "My hand swept through the air at high velocity and collided with his face", unless you're really wanting the "collided with his face effect.

"Slowly rose to a stand" a stand is something somewhat like a podium. A standing position would work, but that is also a bit of a mouthful. Stood, however is a very good verb because it says everything after "slowly" in one word.

"His blue eyes scanned�" See my above comments about the hands.
"Another click was heard�" See comments about passive voice.
"Another jump to the side was made�" See passive voice.
"�second slash that was made at him." See passive voice. Or just get rid of "that was made at him" entirely. It's not really necessary, especially if you imply Skylar as the subject in the first place (which we don't, right now, because X made a jump and we don't know who X is).

Who's hand is reaching for the sheathed sword? Which sheathed sword? The light one, or Skylar's personal one?

"The blond removed the blade from its scabbard, taking a look at the stainless steel that shined in the semidarkness of the room, which gave off light due to the small bit of golden energy that flowed softly around it.�" This weird to me. You don't need to describe the fact that it's shining twice, leastwise not in the same sentence.

"pants rapidly left his mouth" is a really clunky way of saying he was breathing heavily. There are a lot of different ways to say this, and frankly, I would even prefer "he was panting", even though it reminds me of a dog, because it puts the action on Skylar.

I definitely liked the action here; keeps things interesting. I'll keep waiting for the acquisition of the Dark Blade.