Paradoxon [Kaeya x Reader]

9. Finale: Pride and Courage

You parried all of his attacks, not with ease, but you still remembered your training well. Rich was stronger than you by far, but he was outclassed by the vision you had gained. Each of your hits was accompanied by a slash of ice crystals, most of which he couldn't dodge. After a hard hit, one slashed across his face, leaving a deep red cut on his cheek. You could see him gritting his teeth at the realisation that he had been hit. He jumped back for a short pause, then regained his composure and fully focused on the fight. Suddenly, he was a lot more concentrated and his attacks became even more powerful. You started making mistakes and he - being much more trained and used to fighting than you - almost gained the upper hand. Still, the newfound strength lent to you by the gods helped you keep up with him, though you started getting exhausted slowly.

A sudden smirk on Rich's face took you by surprise, just like the movement behind you. In the same motion that you blocked one of his attacks you turned around - only to be hit by the blade of one of his men. Pain erupted in your stomach as you were thrown backwards by the force of the attack, and you stumbled to stay on your feet. With weak knees you tried to steady yourself again and covered your abdomen with your arm.

Instead of blood, pieces of ice dropped down to the ground. In the very last moment you had managed to protect yourself from being cut at least. That tiny inobservance, however, turned out to be a fatal mistake. More of Rich's people came running up to you, and paired with his own harsh attacks as well as the pain still lingering in you, they quickly overwhelmed you. A few moments you still managed to defend yourself, until one of the men threw himself on your sword arm, effectively rendering it useless. The others followed and in a matter of seconds you were pinned to the ground.

Rich came up to you and looked down at you with an evil grin.

"You bitch", he spat at you. "I'll cut off all your limbs so you'll have no choice but to obey me!"

In this moment, you realized that you'd have to kill them. In order to break free, you'd have to use everything available to you. Originally you had wanted to spare his men, but the only way to escape would be to unleash your vision's power and freeze everything around you.

Clenching your fists, you gathered the energy to summon huge ice shards - but suddenly a huge flaming phoenix pushed through the men holding you down and lifted them off you. You heard their screams of pain and terror behind you, but you paid them no mind as you immediately jumped back to your feet. Rich turned around and ran back towards his tents.

"I'll deal with them." Diluc stood next to you, pulling on his gloves to get ready for combat. "You focus on that bastard."

His unexpected arrival was the best thing that could've happened to you, especially since he took care of Rich's underlings and left him to you. "Thank you!" you shouted back at him as you took up the chase.

Rich's reason for fleeing was evident in the exact moment he returned to the battlefield with even more of his men, all armed with swords, spears and halberds. But it seemed Diluc didn't come alone either. Fire arrows and a shattering crystal stopped almost half of his men before they even reached you.

"I told you I'll be there for you!" With a cute wink at you, Amber walked up from behind you, facing the soldiers, followed by Eula, who gave you a short glance of reassurance before rushing into the enemies and hacking down every guy who got too close to her girlfriend.

From your other side, a gush of wind emerged and pushed even more of Rich's people back. You had not expected Jean to be here as well, but she placed her hand on your shoulder and then stormed on the battlefield without hesitation.

Only a few guards remained. You'd be able to take them on. With newfound courage, you stormed towards your enemy once again. His remaining men tried to block you, but crashed into the ground being hit by another wave of ice. Even though you were in the middle of a fierce battle, your heart jumped up to your throat at the sight of Kaeya passing you to deal with them. It didn't take him long to get them under control and push them away from Rich. During parrying all of them at the same time, he even found the opportunity to turn to you, he saluted with his index and middle finger and a cheeky grin. "Get him."