The Laughing Swordsman

Snow continued gently falling from the sky. Yet, when they came within a certain range of the mountain made of gold pillars, they repelled violently. There seemed to be some conflicting property that rapidly propelled the snowflakes away like magnets.

Kylan sneaked a peek down at Layla. He saw her tumble and bounce off the pillars like a runaway tire. Kylan let out a small sigh of relief before focusing his attention back on Apollo.

Giant arcs of bright blue lightning continued to dance around Apollo, but they seemed to unconsciously avoid the various golden pillars. Apollo was giggling this entire time, but suddenly cut himself off.

His head tilted to the side eerily.

Without warning, Apollo burst forward like a thunderbolt. As for the bright blue arcs of lightning, they were taken with him, firmly attached to his bokken.

Kylan wasn't just standing there, however. He slowly raised his golden cane, pointing towards Apollo. His mouth parted ever so slightly, to let out a single word.

"Go."

Some of the golden pillars around him rapidly distorted to form countless golden spikes. They launched towards Apollo, raining down on him relentlessly. However, Apollo fearlessly shot forwards with a wide smile on his face.

...Or, at least, that was supposed to happen.

Once the golden spikes were a few meters away, the giant blue arcs of lightning rebounded, before disappearing altogether. As for the trail of lightning behind him, it suddenly cut off.

Apollo still flew forward from his initial momentum, but was also slowly falling to the ground.

However, before he could worry about that, he had to deal with the golden spikes that were moments away from colliding with him.

Apollo burst out into laughter, clenching the hilt of his bokken tighter. He let out a flurry of blows.

Several grating sounds rang out, as though someone was scraping metal together.

Apollo's bokken moved rapidly, but also twisted at strange angles. He was unable to damage the golden spikes themselves, but he could still divert their trajectories.

...Albeit, slightly.

A few cracking sounds came from Apollo's wrist. The force behind the golden spikes was simply too much for his body to handle. The saving grace was that Apollo didn't get scratched from the golden spikes themselves.

But after he dealt with that problem, another one came. The fact he was barreling down to the ground.

Apollo lost his earlier momentum forward and simply plummeted towards the ground.

Apollo had dealt with something like this before, where Layla threw her high up into the sky. He didn't have his bokken at the time, so he used his hand. It should've been fine, but there was a tiny difference in this scenario.

The golden spikes that flew by did a u-turn and came back for him. As if that wasn't bad enough, a new set of golden spikes were flying towards his front.

Apollo felt a sense of loss when his feet were not on the ground. After all, that was the way he was used to fighting. His footwork wasn't anything flashy, but it helped greatly in both dodging and attacking.

Now that he was in the middle of air, there was little he could do to dodge.

As such, he had to block every single golden spike.

The golden spikes rushed towards him. It was as though a swarm of locusts surrounded Apollo, all charging towards him. The only difference was his body would be torn to pieces if he let the golden spikes hit him.

Apollo raised his bokken high. He waited for the golden spikes to approach.

First fifteen meters...

Then ten meters...

Five meters...

And finally, they were less than one meter away from Apollo. 

His pupils shook, and his bokken traced a sharp arc through the air. Countless uncomfortable screeching sounds rang out while Apollo's bokken danced through the air.

Every time Apollo's bokken would collide with a golden spike, a small spark would shine in the air. From a distance, they almost looked like shining stars. It was as though Apollo was not swinging his sword, but weaving a starry night.

Apollo's swings grew in momentum, as did his laughter.

But then a clear snap resounded.

After fighting with all it could, Apollo's wrist snapped. His hand was bent at a strange angle, nearly ripped off. While the hand itself was tightly holding onto the bokken, the only thing keeping it connected to his arm was a strip of flesh.

The sudden shift of events was akin to a cord being cut. Then, a massive boulder that the cord was holding, fell.

Straight towards Apollo.

The multiple golden spikes directly pierced through his body, shattering the rib cage Apollo's body just healed after so much effort. Apollo involuntarily coughed up blood, interrupting his laughs.

However, despite having a throat filled with blood, Apollo continued to laugh. He could no longer move his bokken and his tight grip meant that changing hands wasn't really an option.

There was simply not enough time. Especially considering a golden spike was about to pierce through Apollo's head.

Apollo knew this, yet he still had a carefree smile on his face.

His uninjured hand straightened out like a sword.

Then, right when the tip of the golden spike pressed Apollo's head, a sudden bang resounded. It sounded like someone hit a gong with a metal battering ram.

The golden spike flew to the side, scraping across Apollo's face as it went. As for his hand, his pinky was now bent at a strange angle. The skin on the side of his palm tore open and blood splashed.

But as bad as the injury was, Apollo couldn't stop here. After all, there were countless more golden spikes coming for him.

And so, Apollo's palm tore through the air. The side of his hand violently collided with the golden spikes, causing his finger bones to crack and the webbing between his fingers to split.

Unlike the time he swung with his bokken, there was no longer any grace. Instead, it was palm brutally hacking.

Yet, there was still a strange beauty to it.

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