Interstellar: Exploring The Cosmos With My Anomaly System
Chapter 55: Blade Of The Sun

Chapter 55: Blade Of The Sun

"You really thought you could beat me?" Freya scoffed, advancing on the wounded Belk, her staff spinning between her fingers in a hypnotic rhythm. The polished wood gleamed under the fractured sunlight, each twirl a silent promise of pain.

Belk clutched his side, blood seeping through his fingers as his gaze flickered toward Godric and Tanaka’s brutal clash. The two titans were still locked in combat, though Tanaka’s punches were growing sluggish, his strength waning.

"Hey—the fight is here, you brat!" Freya’s voice sliced through his thoughts an instant before her staff cracked against his jaw. The impact sent him reeling, his vision swimming as he barely kept his footing.

Before he could recover, she was already raising her weapon again, her knuckles whitening around the iron beam. Her brow furrowed with cold precision as she prepared to deliver the final blow.

Belk shut his eyes, bracing for the inevitable.

Then—a sharp whistle cut through the air.

A spray of crimson arced between them. Freya’s scream tore through the forest, raw and piercing.

Belk’s eyes flew open.

An arrow jutted from her hand, the shaft still quivering. Freya staggered back, clutching the wound as blood welled between her fingers, her face twisted in agony.

Vagnis jumped out of the tree and between them, his eyes furrowed in both focus and annoyance. His hand stretched between Belk and the girl before him.

"Vagnis?" Belk pondered his voice tinged with disbelief at his friend’s sudden arrival.

"I told you to stay put!" the Craftsman hissed, the grip of his hand tightening against the oak wood of his bow as he watched his adversary. Belk blinked hard, trying to steady his sight. Something at Vagnis’s side caught his attention—a strange, slender object, like a polished stick that tapered near the top. It was lashed to his belt with coarse rope, its surface uneven, as if carved by hand rather than forged. Another just like it hung across his back.

The woman pulled the arrow out of her hand, the final remnants of blood gushing out the wound before it oozed down her hand.

"Great, another one–" She grunted, wrapping her hands around her weapon, despite the pain that followed. "No matter—"

"I’ll just take you both on!" Her roar was filled with confidence, her gaze fixated on the two boys before her, pushing off in a sprint and tore the earth beneath her.

"Can you stand?" the Craftsman pondered, waiting for Belk to respond. The scientist steadied himself, panting heavily as he watched the woman approach them.

"I’m fine, I’ll live..." he reassured, Vagnis smiling softly and nodding ahead of him.

"Good to hear— take this," Vagnis tosses the weird stick on his back to Belk, his hands almost dropping the weapon before firmly grasping the subtle oak arch before forcing himself upright. "When you’re ready, join in..."

"What’s this..." Belk muttered, looking at the object from all angles.

"Something me and Celi were making, it’s not 100% but it’ll do..."

With that he coiled his legs, the muscles stiffening before he bolted forward to meet Freya. The woman planted her foot into the dirt, the staff she wielded practically an extension of herself as she twirled it in an almost invisible arch channeling her momentum.

The craftsman got low almost to his knees, his arm snaked back to grab at the stick, pulling out what seemed to be a arched blade of high carbon steel that shimmered in the sunlight, the light crescent it created arch above his head as he raised it, flipping it to its side as he prepared himself just as Freya’s back foot pivoted to face him.

Her staff came down as his blade raised, the collision causing a sharp noise to echo amongst them.

Her eyes widened with both surprise and pain as the two weapons recoiled off eachother, the sudden shift brushing against the wound in her arm. The two of them stepped back to make space, their gaze still set on eachother.

"Tch–" She clicked from annoyance, wasting no time as she got back into the frey, Vagnis smiled and followed suit, no step was wasted as the two collided, she swung her staff but it was narrowly avoided, allowing him the opening to arch his katana at her neck.

Almost as if it was pure reflex her arm shot up to it, catching the blade despite the cut that goes deeper into her palm. Vagnis was caught off guard, reacting too late as she sent her leg straight into the side of his face, the blunt force causing the boy to stagger on himself.

He spun his hand out to regain his balance before planting his feet once more, pushing off the ball of his feet charge in once more. Their weapons clashed together repeatedly, arms moving faster than one can responsibly react to.

Vagnis leapt in the air, his arms gripping tightly on the hilt of his katana before bringing it down harshly on Freya’s staff. Their weapons both recoiled with extreme force, leaving Freya on the heel of her foot, the other in the air as she lost her balance.

Vagnis flipped to his feet, pushing off the ground once he had connected with the earth. His grip tightened around the hilt as he swung his hand into a hasty arc. The pure metal cleaved her skin, spilling forth a sea of crimson that spilled from the shallow cut.

"Ngh-" She grunted as she felt the burn of the blow, her eyes snapping downwards to the boy before striking her weapon straight down onto his shoulder. The sound of a sickening crunch filled the air as Vagnis eyes popped open at the sheer pain.

He gritted his teeth not to scream, the craftsman to his knees as he gripped his dislocated shoulder.

Freya seized the moment, her arms swinging down to strike once more. The sound of faint footsteps echoed behind Vagnis, the boy smiling when he heard it. He got up slightly, one knee to the floor as a sudden force pushed off his other shoulder.

Freya’s eyes widened to see who could interfere now. Her gaze snapping to Belk, his brows furrowed over determined eyes. Hands tight around the hilt of his katana, his blade drawn inches away from her neck.

"It’s over!"