A Song for Winter: Rival Battle

    “What’s the count at,” William asked as he circled Violet in their makeshift arena.

 

    “Six to six,” the purple-eyed lioness answered, holding her war scythe while circling the arena. “The festive match tied us and before you ask, don’t hold anything back. No holds barred.” The words barely left Violet’s mouth when William lashed with the now frozen blade of his water bastard sword. Easily parrying the attack with the blade of her war scythe, Violet spun to launch a counterattack with the scythe shaft. With a few whistled notes, William summoned a gust of wind that caused his opponent to stumble backward. Violet’s attack fell short causing her to scramble to a defensive position.

 

    With his opponent forced on the defensive, William launched an aggressive series of attacks with his ice-bladed sword. His opponent was slowly being worn down by William’s attacks but the lioness wasn’t out of the fight yet. Violet managed to deflect an attack with enough force to buy a few precious seconds. The lioness dropped to the ground for those brief moments, planting her hand firmly on the earth. As William was about to strike his opponent down, vines erupted from the ground entangling and binding the folf in place. He tried to fight the free of the vines but they held strong as Violet prepared to slice her opponent in twain with her war scythe.

 

    “Allfather, grant me insight,” William shouted desperately. Divine influence from the Allfather flooded into William, illuminating the othala rune on his eye patch with white light and shredding the vines that held him.

 

    “Allmother, would you kindly grant me your wisdom,” Violet inquired as William prepared to resume his offensive. A bjarkan rune glowing green traced itself into existence inside her right arm.  “Don’t look so surprised,” she told William as he looked shocked at this revelation, “you didn’t think you were the only one favored by a god, did you?”

 

    Momentary shock overcome, William resumed his attack on Violet. The lioness parried the attack causing a shock wave as the two divinely blessed weapons met. Sword met war scythe resulting in shock wave after shock wave. Nearby trees were stripped of their leaves and flowers of their petals as the battle continued with divine fervor. Neither William nor Violet could edge out an advantage over the other as the duel intensified. William’s strength and ferocity were an even match for Violet’s dexterity and serenity.

 

    The pair pushed each other back with enough force to send each other flying to opposite sides of the arena. Vines, flowers, and all sorts of plant life came erupting out of the ground in a tsunami towards William only to be utterly eviscerated by gale force wind. In one last desperate attempt to overcome the other the two combatants launched pure raw divine magic at each other. As the opposing blasts met they exploded kicking up a massive cloud of dirt and dust. Once the cloud cleared up both William and Violet stood exhausted both physically and magically drained. 

 

“Draw,” William asked, nearly collapsing to the ground trying to find a place to sit.

 

“Draw,” Violet confirmed as the purple-eyed lioness lay down on her back in the dirt.