Secret War: Warhammer 40,000 by Ben Agar (reading eggs books TXT) 📖

flew at me in a horrifically powerful butterfly kick which would have taken my head off if I hadn't managed just to duck underneath.

My sword was suddenly drawn. I slashed horizontally, attempting to catch the young woman in mid-flight, but she dodged, twisting out of harm's way with almost impossible grace.

She landed perfectly and followed on by pirouetting into a powerful hook kick which forced me into a backstep, her heel barely missing my nose.

Elandria kept up her offence, thrusting Katrina at my guts, a thrust which I sidestepped and countered with a horizontal slash. An attack she cartwheeled just out of range from, but her dodge was also an attack as she attempted to shatter my jaw with her feet.

I swayed away and slid into a vertical slash which would have sliced her skull cleanly in two if she hadn't parried with Setsukia, then countered by cutting with Katrina.

My dodge was a desperate leap back while simultaneously ejecting a knife from my sleeve and throwing it straight at her face at point-blank range.

Elandria knocked my projectile out of mid-air with almost contemptuous ease and lunged forwards. She quickly made the distance while spinning into a vertical blow which was far too powerful for me to parry, so I sidestepped, sliding nimbly around her while cutting at her back.

Elandria leaned low, just under the blow and swept her leg out in an attempt to take my feet out from underneath me, but I danced over the kick and stomped down at her.

She rolled out the way, across the carpet and into a feline-like crouch, her dead, drugged up eyes looking up at me under a furrowed brow.

"It looks as though your time in bed hasn't affected your speed, " she growled, getting back to her full height.

I grinned through my gasps that little skirmish would have lasted less than a second or two, but already it had worn me down a bit.

"Well, that's me," I said, "the Autarch Speedyrificus."

Elandria raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing!" I replied quickly, wondering what the hell I had said as well.

Then without hesitation, Elandria was lunging at me again.



I slipped from the slicing Katrina's path then weaved underneath the stabbing Setsukia.

My counter was a quick short slash, slashing up toward her ribs.
She spun sidewards out of the path of my attack. It was yet another fanciful dodge, but I'd like to think that I learned a lot about Elandria's fighting style over the past six months. I knew that her spins, her flips, her cartwheels and such were usually far too fast for me to take advantage of the openings they create, and I knew they weren't just for show either. She used them to build momentum, which added much more power to her strikes; it was a deadly mix of speed and power that made her such an exceedingly deadly enemy.

Elandria spun into a stroke with Setsukia, the blurring blade arcing in a decapitating cut that I kept clear of by backstepping. Against an offensive dual wielder with her speed, I wasn't ready to risk parrying. I didn't want to open myself to one of her next blows or even potentially be disarmed.

She flowed into a high front kick that I sidestepped; I would have loved to slice my sword straight into her leg then, but again she proved to be far too quick.

Clenching my teeth, I stepped into the offence. Slashing out horizontally with my sword an attack which Elandria parried with Katrina, and she flowed with the blow, turning her hips and augmenting my attack in an attempt to push me off balance to impale myself on the tip of Setsukia.

I would have been surprised if not running on instinct, it was the type of defence I used, and so the appropriate counter had been drilled into me over and over again by my father a long time ago.

In the blink of an eye, I pulled my blade back, reposting into a blindly fast overhead vertical slash that Elandria barely blocked with both her swords. A smile spread across my face at seeing the surprised look on her beautiful features; then I kicked out with my boot knife straight at her knee.

In hindsight, it was foolish of me to think that she wouldn't have anticipated the attack; I had gained much knowledge of her style, and so should she of me. I found that out the hard way as she suddenly slipped sideways, pulling her blades from the block and just managing to dodge my crippling kick. Luckily my skill had prevented me from putting too much pressure on my sword; otherwise, I would have been overbalanced and open to her counter cut. Hence, I knocked aside Katrina a mere millimetre with a desperate defence before the short sword sliced through my guts.

Elandria's second attack was a thrust, the tip of Setsukia moving so fast straight at my face that the sword seemed to phase into reality, and I leaned away. My dodge was quick enough to keep Setsukia from impaling my skull but not fast enough to prevent it from opening an ugly, gigantic gash across my cheek and tear off Feuilt's bandage.

Crying out as the horrific pain spread, I leapt back, away from any follow on that Elandria could muster, then fell into a defensive stance.

Elandria stood, her swords held limply at her sides, grinning at me with that sinister grin of hers.

"You are slowing down," she stated.

I could barely respond with the lull in the combat; my fatigue was back at full force, my heart was thudding through my chest at a mile a minute, and I couldn't stop gasping for breath if only I were at full strength if only I could breathe properly.

Elandria shrugged. "You are weakened, but even at your best, Attelus Kaltos, I am sure that I would win."

"Dream...on," I managed and glanced briefly over my shoulder to check on Feuilt and Olinthre, who both stood frozen still with expressions of utter awe.

"I don't want to fight you, Elandria," I said, turning back to her.

"Really, why did you try to shoot me then?"

My jaw twitched slightly, so I don't have to waste my frigging time fighting you, and I was aiming at your leg. I also thought but said nothing finding it hard to imagine a convincing lie.

"So tell me, El," I said in an attempt to change the subject. "Did I save all those people at the Twilight bar?"

"Not this again," she growled.

My jaw set as sudden anger welled at the pit of my guts. "Yes, this again," I growled, "did I or didn't I? Now spit it out before I kill you."

Her face turned grim. "I am not telling you, so if you by some miracle actually kill me, you will miss out on it."

"There are no miracles; there is only men," I said, suddenly recalling the quote although I could not quite remember from where it came.

She grinned again. "If that is true, then you are positively screwed."

I grinned back. "Then I am positively screwed, I guess, but really, I don't mind that it would be you who screwed me."

Elandria's face immediately turned a stark red, evident in contrast to her deathly pale skin.

I stepped forward, looking her straight in the eyes, her drugged dead but somehow still beautiful brown eyes. "I-I don't want to fight you, Elandria."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I don't want to fight you!" I yelled.

"Why don't you want to fight me?"

"Because I don't want to kill you!"

"Why don't you want to kill me?"

My reply caught in my throat; why was she pushing this? Damn it! I turned my attention to the floor, unable to keep eye contact with her any more.

"B-because I don't want you to die, Elandria."

"Why, Attelus don't you want me to die then?" she said softly.

I glanced at her. Why, because you are so damn beautiful, it hurts every time I look at you?

"Just because!" I snapped.

It was pathetic! But I couldn't; I just couldn't talk properly; my heart leapt like it wanted to burst out of my chest, my throat had a massive lump in it, it was hard so, so hard.

It was strange going from one second fighting her, to this, me struggling to confess, well I had no real idea what I wanted to admit exactly.

She tilted her head slightly, her pale face a mask of utter bemusement.

"Why, Attelus, why?"

"Because Elandria," I sighed, "I don't want you to die; it's because I know what you have been through."

I paused, trying to swallow back the lump in my throat, "and I know that you never had any choice in the matter, any choice to be what you wanted to be, to do what you wanted to do. That-that any real choice in your life was stolen from you when you were so young a-and you didn't deserve that Elandria, no one does; I-I want you to live so you could one day have your own life to escape this crap, too."

My left hand clenched into a tight ball while the right gripped my sword's hilt all the harder, "and that may be in your new life that I'd be able to be part of it, that I'd like to be by your side to help you through I-I."

I dropped my sword and kicked it away.

"W-what are you doing?" she demanded, her voice now high pitched, almost scared, her expression of grim determination disappearing entirely into one of extreme uncertainty.

"Giving you a choice Elandria," I answered, feeling tears welling in my eyes. "You can kill me or let me pass, but either way, I know now that you truly aren't the monster that you claim to be; your uncertainty now is proof of that."

Elandria was shaking in utter terror now, and I could even see tears in her own eyes; she had utterly no clue what to do, "Attelus..."

I closed my eyes, "just make the choice, Elandria; I won't fight it either way."

"What the hell are you doing!" I heard Olinthre roar, "don't just give up, you idiot!"

I ignored him, and despite my eyes being closed, the tears now flowed freely.

"I-I," stammered Elandria, "I don't understand, I-I just don't, why can't, why can't I do it? Why can't I kill you?"

Then I heard a clatter as she dropped her swords. "I-I can't."

My eyes opened, and I was greeted for the first time Elandria cry, and by the Emperor, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen as they weren't tears of sadness; they were tears of joy, utter joy.

In all honesty, I had expected her to kill me that her years of brainwashing would win, so to see her Elandria somehow overcoming it was so astonishing I could not help stand in shock and awe. It filled me with such unbelievable hope that if she could do it, why couldn't I?

Despite my self, I approached her, pulling her into an embrace she didn't fight, only tightly embracing me back and sobbed raggedly into my chest.

I held her all the more, and it was then I truly realised that I loved her, and she truly loved me too, and the joy it brought was beyond description.

The single gunshot roared, reverberating the very corridor to the core, and Elandria suddenly gasped, her eyes widening with shock, and she collapsed so fast that I had no time to catch her. I just saw with dawning, utterly numbing horror the vast ragged hole in her back.

My shock was so intense I never saw Taryst slip back through the curtains at the end of the corridor, a smoking gun in his grasp; neither did I hear Olinthre scream the rogue trader's name and run after him nor Feuilt sprint up to try to help me with Elandria.

I fell to my knees and slowly pulled her into my arms, turning her limp form over so I could look into those big brown beautiful eyes; it seemed so unreal I couldn't begin to comprehend.

She smiled weakly and whispered, "you're so stupid."

"H-how?"