In the forest, another refused to kneel. Kruger stood among the burning trees, with Tyrilda on the other side.They looked at each other as the fires flickered around them. The heat was unbearable for a normal man. Tyrilda got her sword resting on her shoulder. ’How long do you still have? What is someone so small going to do against a mountain? ′ She taunted with a smile.

  Kruger twirled his axes around. ’Ask for passage.’ He said gently back as Tyrilda closed in. Kruger tried to get distance between them, yelling out. ’Can we not talk about it.’ It was the only thing he could say as Tyrilda brought her sword down. Kruger dodged its attack.

  ‘Too much anger.’ Kruger said as he put the sides of his axe to Tyrilda’s thighs. Just enough for a warning. ’How many times could I have felled you?’Tyrilda tried to swing at him again. It missed Kruger for some reason. He didn’t even make unpredictable movements. It was as if some invisible force was redirecting her blade. She could feel that there was a force unseen by the eye working in his favor.Tyrilda brought her sword down again, and in rapid succession brought it up once more as Kruger defended himself from the first hit.It still missed him while Kruger was busy rebalancing after the first hit.In a rage, she kicked him.Sending him flying across the ground, almost sliding into the fire.

  ’How?’ She snarled, as Kruger didn’t even try to attack her.Kruger had his arms behind him, his axes forming wings, with the fire flowing over him as if a holy symbol stood before her. ’Gods aren’t real! What trickery did you bring?’

  Kruger slid back on his feet. ’Magic tricks. A lot of people find them useless. I found some use for them.’ Kruger moved his arms again while looking around. ‘This fire will not help us think.’

  Tyrilda ran toward him in a rage; the more he talked, the stronger her urge became. Her strikes became faster. Kruger ran toward her, to her surprise. As she swung her sword, he slipped underneath her. ’How can a warrior fall for a trick like that?’ Kruger said. Tyrilda turns around. She saw him looking disappointed. ’I thought you were a real warrior, not just a big animal thinking its strikes would bring its opponents down.’

  Tyrilda wanted to take a step, but she couldn’t.Somehow, his words, or at least something, stopped her.’No real warrior you are.’ He called out. ’I have defeated more knights than you have met in your life!’ She yelled out.Believing that the count made her a true warrior. Not just a butcher. Kruger took steps backward. ’Or maybe you choose only the battles you can win. Maybe you are just a child with a dream. I recognize those eyes.’Tyrilda moved closer. Finally, she managed to take a step. Yet even as he walked backward, he seemed faster.

  ′Listen to me. This is not how you want to live your life.I know from experience what it is like to be mad at everything.Don’t turn. Just try to be what you want to be.’ Kruger tried to stand as straight as he could. There would be no more time to delay it. A giggle escaped from him. As Tyrilda tried to come closer.‘No sanity left to hold back.’ Krugerpressed his axes against his ears as if to deafen the voices around him.

  Tyrilda felt that her movement had returned. There was nothing now to stop her.Her sword, like a comet from heaven, came toward Kruger.He rolled backward, looking as if he had broken his back in doing so. Yet he stood back up like nothing had happened. ‘Loot at me.’ He could barely speak as a smile took over his voice.

  Tyrilda brushed it aside. A man just showing his true colors underneath.Within the first bout they had, she felt that he fought more recklessly.She still could not hit him with her blade.But she had hit him with the pommel or with her own fist.He now fought with the will to kill. Putting one axe into her leg and another into her shoulder.Both aimed to cut deep.

  Tyrilda flexed her muscles, tightening the skin. It worked like armor.She did not give it a second glance.Kruger’s face became mixed up, ever changing.Never the same twice.As their clash ended, Kruger stood laughing into the air.He walked over to the fire and put the head of his axe into it. Warming it. His face changed back to his first expression. Serious. ’Tyrilda. Do what you must. But can you do me one favor? Do not...’ He broke off again in laughter. Tyrilda took a step back. Now the one standing in defense.All the voices in her head screamed at her to rush in.To kill him as quickly as possible. In that symphony of chaos, there was one golden strand that said:Patience will be key.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Kruger came charging at her, flames following behind him like a creature spat out from the depths of the earth.Kruger tried to strike first with the burning axe.Tyrilda blocked it with her sword. Sparks flew off it. The flames behind Kruger engulfed them both. In the storm of fire, Kruger let his other axe do the work.Tyrilda managed to grab his hand before the axe could make contact.

  She then forced her head through the fire, headbutting Kruger away. As the fire stopped blowing. ‘Good.’ Kruger said as he moved back, the sanity returning to him. He threw one of his axes into the fire. ’You are starting to understand.’ His face gave her a smile. It was different from the ones before. A smile no one had ever given her before.A proud smile of someone who had taught another.Before twisting back into the one from before. ’Let’s get you cut into edible pieces now.’ He spoke. Is this what someone filled with a lust for fighting would become?Tyrilda’s thoughts drifted over her memories of the villages and the knights. Those were never fair fights. But this one was. No victory could be real if you already knew you had won from the beginning. This felt more like putting down a wild beast. Is that what they thought about her too?

  Kruger came back in with his remaining burning axe. She kept herself on the defensive.Sparks flew around them from the heated axe.With only one axe, his attacks became quite predictable.Even though her attacks came in the same way.Both kept missing the other, with no time for a break.The longer it went on, the less their bodies felt like moving.Their once-fast attacks slowed down. Kruger looked like he was laughing it off. While Tyrilda kept pushing herself to new heights. Each time becoming faster in the process. From merely defending herself to overcoming his rage.

  Kruger was slowly pushed toward the woods.He suddenly disengaged and somehow moved the fire like a current of water over him.’Come through the fire if you want to end it all.’ His face shifted between madness and sanity. ’Show me the truth, dedication you want, have.’ He called out. As the fire arched over him, flowing along the arm he aimed toward Tyrilda. Flowing like water. Its heat burning Kruger’s own arm as it moved over it.

  Tyrilda moved through the fire, bringing her sword in front of her as a shield against the flames. Kruger looked like he was about to collapse. His stance lowered as the fire continued from his arm over his back like a growing wave. Tyrilda changed her stance, letting the fire wash over her while going in with a stab.Kruger dodged it as the fire stopped, and he brought his axe toward her head in one final gambit for both of them.Tyrilda felt her rage pushing her to bring the sword upward and split his body in half. Yet that golden thread kept saying that it would not stop him.She drove the blade into Kruger’s stomach, holding both the blade and the pommel to stop the axe. As the axe hit the blade, a gust of wind rushed over her.Its force was so strong that Tyrilda was thrown into the air.She looked down as Kruger gave one final smile, a mix of both expressions. As she fell to the ground, Kruger fell to his knees.Both stayed for a moment in that position.Taking a breather after it all. Tyrilda got back up. As she did, Kruger fell to the ground.

  She walked toward him. Placing her sword in the ground.The fire suddenly, as if freed from a binding spell, started to move again, closing the circle.Tyrilda left her sword in the ground, leaving it for the fire to consume. Instead, she took Kruger’s body.Carrying it with all the strength she could muster.His lifeless body was almost weightless.Yet it somehow still felt so heavy.She carried it through the fire, protecting it with her arms.Enduring the flames, the heat, and the smoke in the air.

  The wounds hurt as ash got into them.Her head spun with every step she took. The world looked like a light with an orange glow.Yet farther ahead there was a white light.The moonlight, and the darkness of the unlit land where the moon couldn’t reach. The orange glow slowly disappeared, and the heat turned into a cold breeze. Burning the wounds the fire had made.

  The light in the sky disappeared. Tyrilda fell to her knees to carefully place the body in front of her as she collapsed sideways. The crackling of the fire died out behind her. Leaving silence in its wake. It was a time for sleep. Forever or temporary.