The Chosen: the Age of Corbin Tyler the Undying

Chapter 13

A week later I was sitting in the pews at church as I used to. But it felt weird. I felt like I needed to be doing something. I felt like I was wasting time.

"Corbin," Jay elbowed me. "Pay attention, dude."

I refocused my eyes on the pastor, Jay's dad. I felt bad. It wasn't like I was trying to be rude; I wasn't tired either. I was just zoning out for no real reason. 

I watched the pastor, his words running in one ear and out the other, no matter how hard I tried to listen. 

Just then I felt a presence that should not have been there but was. Behind the stage. Outside, but it was about to be inside. 

I leapt up and jumped for the pastor. 

"Corbin?" He asked right as the presence I felt came busting through the wall. 

Drywall, bricks, laminate siding, and insulation flew everywhere as I stopped a spear from piercing the pastor with the flat of my blade. 

"Nice move," Diana acknowledged. 

I didn't answer, it was all I could do to hold her back with two hands. 

I looped my right leg, which was behind me for support, around the pastor and shifted my weight so that Diana would slide past me without harming either of us. 

She did exactly as I predicted but managed to correct her balance very quickly. 

"Is that what you wear to church?" She asked me, pointing at my suit.

"Yeah, my parents didn't raise a slouch," I said, turning to face her properly. "But I don't like fighting in it."

"You've fought in it before?"

"I meant the thought of fighting in it. What about you? I respect the drip." I waved at her solid gold armor. The shoulder pauldrons bore the face of hawks and as did the helmet. The back was as folded wings, the lower parts of which were the faulds that fell below her belt. Her spear was also what looked to be solid gold, but I knew it wasn't. No way. It wouldn't be smart to do that.

"Just my traditional war wear," she said simply.

"You want to do this here?" I asked, readying myself. 

"Do you?"

"I will take you anytime, anywhere."

She readied herself as well and we froze for a moment. 

It seemed as though all time had stopped. The pastor had managed to move from his spot on the stage, but everyone else was glued to their chairs and facing us.

She gripped her spear with both hands as we stared each other down.

"Lord help me," I whispered. 

"I will always help you," He responded.

We flew at each other, clashing with such force that the sound of our weapons striking each other was almost deafening. 

She grunted.

We held the position, neither one budging an inch until I sidestepped and released the pressure, causing her to fumble forward a little. 

I thrusted my sword toward her neck like an idiot. I don't know why I thought I had outdone a being with hundreds of years of experience. 

She teleported behind and above me, using the fumble in a downward thrust. 

I sidestepped again and our battle continued. 

It was tough. Way different than Tritan's training dummies. However, it seemed to me that in terms of sheer weapon skill, we were about equal because neither one of us could land a hit on the other. 

She knew this and parried one of my attacks in such a way that I was knocked back a little bit. She then thrust out her hand and I had the weirdest sensation. It was like everything around me had been torn apart and then put back together again, only now I was outside. 

She then closed her fist and pulled it towards her. When she did so, the ground beneath me moved toward her like a conveyor belt, and I lost my balance. I fell forward and she thrust her spear toward me.

I teleported behind her onto the roof of the church. 

I clenched my fist. 

"Can I do that?" I asked myself. 

"You can do anything if you walk with me."

I turned around and faced Diana again. "That was a little cheap don't you think?"

She shrugged. "In battle, a real battle, you don't think about stuff like that."

"Well, then you'll have to excuse me." I leapt down off the roof and slammed the ground beneath me and manipulated it in such a way that it sent ripples through the earth as though it were water. 

Diana twirled her spear in one hand before planting the base firmly on the ground, when she did so, the ripples froze, and then the world around me shifted in some crazy Euclidian Geometry stuff. The only sky to be seen was through cracks between segmented dirt and earth. 

She then tapped her spear on the ground and clones of her appeared all over the place. 

"You don't want to play that game with me, Corbin."

I readied myself and exhaled. 

All of her clones readied themselves as well. 

I had a thought about this stuff she did, I just hoped it worked. 

I leapt up to the nearest clone and immediately felt that I was right. Gravity was now all over the place. 

I flew way off from what I was aiming and landed kind of in the middle of all of her clones. 

"Come on," I growled. 

They all came at me at once. 

I parried, deflected, blocked, ducked, dodged, and weaved my way through all of her attacks, but there was no way for me to land a hit. 

Eventually, I couldn't keep up and I was stabbed. 

It wasn't going to kill me, at least, not right away. It was through the thigh. 

I fell to my knee. 

All of her clones switched gears to hold me down.

She strode toward me confidently. 

"Sorry Corbin. I had hoped it would be different this time," she said.

I struggled to get free as she pulled her spear back ready to stab me.

I shouted in protest as she thrust it forward.

I grunted in pain as it went through my chest. 

I looked down at the spear and watched as my blood ran freely out, down my chest and into the grass. 

I coughed up a mouthful of it. It was warm and tasted metallic. 

I looked up at Diana.

"Sorry."

My vision went black.