Legacy - Christopher Pastrana (books to read in your 20s TXT) 📗

run into one you here, but no matter how long the day, the evening comes." With a whip of his stave a large slab of rock hurled through the air towards Sherwyn which he clearly hadn't been expecting. The spiraling wind around his body condensed just enough to push the attack away but it had been close to striking him in the face.
         Returning with a flurry of his own, the Duzee fighter danced forwards, slashing into the tornado that surrounded him. Each strike launched a thick gust of air towards Briccio which he easily flicked away with his stave or just dodged away from. Keeping his momentum moving towards Sherwyn, the bartender used his control over the earth around him strategically. Never moving more than needed, he was able to block the strongest of the attacks with a rock barrier and then move on.
         Reinhardt was honestly impressed by how well the man fought. With his senses he could tell that when it came to shifting Briccio was by far outmatched by the wind shifter, but he fought intelligently and never wasted movements. All of his attacks were able to get dangerously close to Sherwyn, sliding in between cuts, and moving in from below his constantly changing line of sight.
         Visibly tiring from the level of excretion, Sherwyn began losing control of his shifts and they began to grow week. Knowing the fight was not moving in his favor the man drew as much power as he could towards himself and gained full control over the wind he had gathered. Watching as it started to concentrate itself into a blade, Reinhardt could see that this was a last resort move.
         The now visible blade of air tore through the air around Sherwyn and destroyed everything in its path. Briccio slammed the end of his stave into the ground and caused the earth around him to ripple like a wave. Quickly raising the weapon into the air he dragged a large stone pillar up from the ground. Striking the pillar with the other end of his stave it flew towards the oncoming attack. As it connected with the condensed air it was torn apart easily.
         Seeing that it wasn't going to be as easy to block as the others Briccio threw as many as he could at the same spot of the attack. Reinhardt could feel it falter as one last strike caused it to crack and dissipate into a heavy, but safe, rush of wind.
         Sherwyn collapsed to his knees with exhaustion and didn't bother raising his sword to defend himself. He had been beaten and wasn't going to shame himself any more. Moving in Briccio didn't waste any time bringing his stave down onto his opponents head for the kill.
         Before Reinhardt could warn the man, another blade of wind ripped into the side or his arm, and removed his right hand completely. The stave fell to the ground a few feet away and clunked to a stop. Sherwyn looked around shocked, trying to figure out what had happened. Nearby three men stood watching. Each of them dressed similarly to Sherwyn himself. Though these men looked nothing like him it was clear that these were his 'brothers'. Having taken to long to reach them they had come looking for him.
         "Boreas, Notus, Eurus, what are you doing here?" The impact had thrown Briccio away from the West Wind and onto his face. Reinhardt couldn't tell if he was unconscious but he wasn't moving around much.
         "You were late Zephyrus, so we came to look for you. It seems that it was a good thing we did." Boreas was shorter than Sherwyn but clearly the oldest of the group. His short, stalky build would have been intimidating if his carried a weapon that wasn't a knife. Finding that almost comical, Reinhardt didn't think he was the strongest of the brothers.
         The other two were fairly tall men, though both were thin. Reinhardt could see a bow in one of their hands, which made sense considering he could control the wind and make the arrow fly for as far as he wanted. Oddly the other man had a whip, and he found that to be strange. Of all the weapons he had seen so far from this country had some kind of blade on it.
         "We have eliminated the others who attacked you."
         "Thank you Eurus, they caught my men off guard. We have been too relaxed since we were assigned to the southern cities." So it was Eurus who had the bow, from what he could tell their names all had some special meanings, and he had no idea what they were.
         Notus walked up to Briccio and looked down on him. His blood started to heat up when he recognized the look of disgust on his face. Obviously the most pompous of the group, Notus looked at Briccio like he was nothing but an infected animal. Wind gathered around his whip and Reinhardt could feel how dangerous this man actually was.
         "I think it's time we end this. You have had enough fun at our expense Ental peasant." Notus rose his whip high into the air, ready for the kill. Seeing his turn to interfere Reinhardt released the clasp on his cape and let it fall to the ground. During the fight nobody had noticed that many of the wind attacks had been stolen and used to cut Reinhardt free from his cell.
         As the whip began to fall, a strange steel tip wrapped around Notus' whip and pulled it away from Briccio. Startled, everyone's eyes followed the long cable that was attached to the blade back to where Reinhardt stood. The moonlight shone brilliantly off the vambrace and pouldron attached to his arm. Pulling back sharply, the steel blade sliced the whip in half before returning to his arm.
         Although the weapon was impractical for fighting it had its advantages. The cable ran down his arm, protected by a thick leather and coiled around his arm under the pouldron. Its primary downfall was that it was so heavy, to get the blade to fly forward it had to be heavier than the force pulling the line back in. He preferred not having to use it but the range it gave him was invaluable.
         Having created an opening Reinhardt sprinted forward and picked Briccio up under his arm. As he reached the tree line he felt something flying towards him. His eyes met Eurus' and he recognized the shock in them when his own turned black and the elementalist lost control of his own arrow. Slamming into a tree next to his head Reinhardt didn't waste time and disappeared into the shadows.
         Boreas started to pursue but Eurus grabbed his arm and held him back. "Don't follow him!"
         "You're just pissed because you missed! I want him!" Boreas struggled against his brother but Notus moved closer and put a hand on his shoulder.
         "Eurus is right; there is something strange about him. Just before that strange contraption grabbed my whip I felt my control over the wind falter enough for him to grab it without damaging his own weapon. I assume it was similar to what you felt Eurus?" Still staring into the darkness Eurus could only nod. "I think we should get back to the capital, Master Astraeus is waiting for us."
         Helping Zephyrus back up to his feat they all looked back towards the tree line and hoped they never met him again. Bound

         Wood burned heavily in the fire as Briccio slowly woke. Looking around in a daze he found the dark clothed man he had been trying to save sitting on the other side of the fire, making careful alteration to a strange device on his arm. The weapon was hiding below the armor pieces attached too his body. A pouldron on his shoulder must have housed the mechanism that forced it to retract. Briccio had never seen anything like it before, and probably wouldn't again.
         "What is that thing?" He managed to ask in a low voice. Not having realized how sore his body was until he spoke Briccio grimaced. The battle with the wind elementalist had taken a lot of energy from him. Not having been a very talented shifter he was surprised he had fared that well against one of the four winds. Looking down at his arm he realized that his arm had been removed up to the elbow. Briccio chuckled to himself realizing that he hadn't done as well as he had thought.
         "This is just a complicated tool that I used to use while I would farm."
         "What kind of farming where you doing?" The tone of his question made the man laugh. Packing up a small pack of tools, the man stood and put more wood on the fire. Without his cape on, Briccio could see how big this man actually was. Although he was only a few inches taller he had to be twice his size. His shirt had no sleeves which showed off every muscle in his arms. Briccio guessed that years of farming had conditioned him to be strong.
         "It's used to pick fruits off the tops of trees without having to climb them. I just modified if a bit for use on the battle field. It has some major drawbacks but it gives me a decent range advantage in a pinch. In addition to that, not many people have seen anything like this before since I made it myself. It's called the Dragon's Tail."
         "Have you ever seen a dragon?" Briccio was having trouble speaking but the name ammused him, even if he couldn't laugh.
         "No, but when I was younger a friend used to tell me stories about dragons, ghouls, and things that lived in the woods outside our house at night. He always said that a dragons tail tipped with a long, sharp point that could reach you from over fifty feet away. When I designed this it reminded me of his stories so that's the name I took."
         "He sounds like an interesting friend. What's you're name anyway? I just realized I haven't gotten it yet." Speaking was getting difficult for Briccio, he was also very tired but refused to fall asleep yet.
         "Reinhardt, and you're Briccio Donovan if I recall correctly?"
         "That is correct, and is it just Reinhardt or do you have a last