Xenoblade Chronicles 2: The Fourth Driver

Book I Finale

     "I don't mean to interrupt, but we are still inside the shelter. May I suggest taking this outside?" Dromarch helpfully suggested before we burned the place down.

     "Oh right.... To be continued, outside!" I said laughing. Mòrag and Brighid both laughed as we walked outside and readied our weapons.

     I took a deep breath and concentrated on my target. As I exhaled I immediately converted to a one-handed stance. Though Rex never showed me how to fight the Aegis Sword one-handed, I felt like I already knew how. I studied Mòrag's stance. She was agile. Low health, but incredibly fast on her feet and had a parrying skill unrivaled by anyone else here. Although Zeke was a close second. Remaining on the defense would be wise, but futile if I chose to do so for too long. So my plan was set, let her rush me and then counterattack as I saw fit.

     She moved, but I was ready, I blocked a few and then jumped back and went in for a sword bash, she dodged immediately and before I knew it she was behind me. I used double spinning edge to block her attacks and then spun around quickly. I used the anchor shot and yanked her down by her foot, but instead of just toppling her, I pulled her towards me and combined it with a sword bash, flooring her backwards. She got up quickly.

      "I'm impressed. You already have quite the skill, but let's see how ready you really are." I heard clicks and her swords extended into her famous whips and she had at me. She whipped me a couple times before I realized I couldn't block them with just my sword so I had to resort to dodging. Not good for a heavy sword-user. Before I could think of a new tactic she grabbed my sword with the whip and flung me into that damned tree that I just love to get knocked into before she ended the fight.

     She helped me up. "I must admit, that was more intense than expected. The switch to one-handed was certainly unexpected. It seems you do learn as fast as Rex did."

     "Even faster if I do say so myself. Rex took three weeks to learn to even swing a sword. Granted, he was much younger, but still. It's quite impressive," Azurda said.

     "Nia!" I called. "Heal us up! Mòrag!" I turned towards her. "Ready for round two?"

     "Oh? And how long do you intend on letting this continue?" Mòrag asked.

      "Until I win," I said.

     "Very well, let us battle again."

     And we did, we battled all day, exchanging wins back and forth. Eventually Nia wanted to battle me in her blade form and we fought. I won again, and then soon I was able to take on Mòrag and win almost every time, it was almost impressive. I say almost because Mythra wanted her turn after awhile.

     I lost.

     A few more days of Cereza nightmares and fighting both Zeke and Rex and winning every now and then. Rex was fun, but Zeke was always a treat because with each hit our swords would blast out a wave of energy. I seemed to be equally matching them. But not quite surpassing them.

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     "Last day of your dumb bet," Mythra said.

     "I think he's gonna win today," Pyra defended.

      "He hasn't even come close yet Pyra. There's no way he's going to beat me. He can't even dodge my Ray of Punishment yet. Much less Photon Edge, or Architect-forbid Lightning Buster. He's hopeless!" Mythra argued.

      "We'll see."

      "I guess we will."

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