"I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Merrymore. The pleasure's all mine," the knight stated.
Hoku was relieved to see that Baldervich had seemingly lost interest in killing him for the time being. The scavenger moved forward, then turned his head to Guppy
"Keep an eye on this one," he said, motioning to Hoku.
Baldervich started pushing his way towards the silver man, readying his hammer. The silver knight looked to the side, admiring the golden sun.
"Sick em!" Baldervich yelled.
All the scavengers circled around the armoured knight.
The same scavenger who tried to attack Merrymore earlier was the first to take a swing at the man. This time, the knight deflected it with his own sword. His sword was thin and shiny, with a rose-patterned guard.
"You must fancy me, my friend-"
"Shut up!" The scavenger yelled.
"I'm not finished." The knight shouted. "I find it particularly deplorable that you would attack me in the same manner, expecting a different result. Are you an idiot, perhaps? Yes, I think you are."
During his conversation, other scavengers jumped and tried to slash at him. But he effortlessly deflected their strikes while continuing to engage the scavenger he was talking to.
"You could consider planning out your actions before you commit to them," Merrymore suggested.
"Don't get cocky, you bastard!"
Merrymore watched the scavenger as he raised up his sword. Several others appeared behind Merrymore, also readying an attack.
Merrymore spun around, knocking all the scavengers behind him back before his blade clashed with his first combatant.
"That was better than last time," Merrymore said as the scavenger hesitated. "But you could try to be a little faster." Then he was knocked away.
The pale scavenger Bones jumped in, smiling, spinning with dual blades. The knight continued to deflect every unpredictable strike.
"All you do is block." Bones complained.
The scavenger launched out another attack that was effortlessly blocked; though, to Bones' surprise, Merrymore flipped his sword around, brandishing its pommel.
"In some regard, every swing is made with the intention to block." The pale scavenger fell back; both his weapons were flying back as he was unable to take the opportunity to attack the unguarded knight.
Merrymore continued, "It just so happens your opponent gets unlucky from time to time." Bones' expression morphed into a raving smirk before it was indented with the force of Merrymore's pommel, sending him flying back.
Bones almost fell into another scavenger, but before he did, he turned his weight around and planted his own feet against his ally, rocketing back forwards towards the knight.
While the battle persisted, Hoku stood at the back in amazement. His chains were broken, and the sled was moving a lot slower. On top of that, he could see the carriage approaching in the distance. If he jumped out now, he might actually be able to reach them. But despite considering it, Hoku stayed put, captivated by the silver stranger's battle.
Just ahead of him, Guppy approached.
Hoku frowned. "Aren't you going to help your friends?" He asked.
Guppy nervously glanced at the battle. "I don't think I-" then he caught himself, shaking his head. "Baldervich told me to keep an eye on you."
"Why bother?"
Guppy was eyeing Hoku nervously; The pellet shooter he used earlier was still on his arm. Hoku sat down.
"Relax, I'm not gonna run. I think my odds are pretty good here."
Guppy lowered his pellet shooter and stared at Hoku, still somewhat unconvinced. An awkward silence persisted.
"So," Hoku said, playing with a piece of wood on the floor. "Is Guppy your real name?
Blades continued to fly at the silver knight, but they either ended up in the ground or flying in some other direction.
One scavenger shouted in frustration and jumped in to slash him with a strong overhead slash. His blade arced down, splitting the wood, and the knight's thin sword was brought to the side of his neck, inducing sweat.
"What was the plan, if I may ask? I strongly recommend reinforcing your fundamentals. In the future you could work o-"
Before he could finish, he grabbed the scavenger's shoulder and pulled him aside as a chunky mass of metal swung inches away from him.
Baldervich planted his hammer in the ground and clicked his tongue.
The silver knight remarked, "Attacking your own men? Quite the-uh?"
Before he could finish, the scavenger he saved grabbed hold of him and squeezed tightly. "I got him, boss, finish him off!"
"Nice, hold 'im steady," Baldervich said, raising his hammer.
Merrymore threw his elbow back into the scavenger's face. He tried to get out of the path of Baldervich's approaching hammer, but the hammer slammed into his side. A cloud of dust formed at the impact. Baldervich grinned.
"Something you should know about the dunes, city dog. We don't play nice."
The dust started to clear, and the silver knight raised his head, a part of his armour dented by the blow. To make things worse, many of the scavengers that he knocked down were starting to get up now.
The Merrymore looked past the edge of the sled with a calm posture. He sheathed his sword.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Baldervich demanded.
"It appears we've reached our destination."
Baldervich's mouth curled.
Then the rider at the front interjected. "Boss! It's no good."
"I tried to patch her up as best I could. The first wound was fine, but the second... The bleeding. It just wouldn't stop. And j-just now I-I think- She stopped breathing!"
Shock took hold of all the scavengers. "What does that mean for us?" One of them muttered.
Several insidious bumps hit the sled.
Merrymore spoke. "Don't give me all the credit. Without my student's help, I wouldn't have been able to catch up here."
Footsteps slowed in the sand as the lizard driving the sled finally met its end. The momentum of the vehicle it was pulling caused its carcass to be overtaken. It tumbled underneath, reins snapping and bones cracking. The rider knew what was coming and made the last-minute decision to unstrap himself and jump out to the side.
The scavengers all watched as the sled movements became sporadic in the sand, and finally a single piece of uneven sand was all it took.
Several scavengers were thrown in the air, flying back. The sled tumbled and lurched, eventually skidding to the side. Hoku felt the impact and desperately held on to the part of the chain that bones had cut. The one that was buried in the broken wood. Guppy bounced up and lost his footing. He was flung from the sled. He just barely caught onto a piece of wood, holding on with dear life.
"Hey!" Hoku shouted. He hesitated, and that was all it took for a flying crate to break the young scavenger's grip. Hoku threw out his hand, but he missed Guppy by a few centimetres.
Guppy flew out the back of the sled
Hoku grit hit teeth, he took the chain attached to his leg and threw it out. Guppy just barely caught it in the chaos of broken crates. Hoku felt the pull on his leg and grabbed onto the other chain that was attached to the floor before he could be flung.
"Hold on!" Hoku shouted in the chaos.
The sled fully came to a stop. Some of the passengers were launched much further back into the sand. Others flew out at the last second in the broken remains of the sled. The rest remained close to the wreckage.
After some time, Hoku woke up in the sand
He looked around to see the crashed wooden remains in the desolate sand. He then looked to the side as the knight's carriage was getting closer. He looked to his other side only to see Guppy face-first in the sand.
He got up, but his shark-teeth mask was missing. Hoku gave a slight sigh of relief. Then he spat sand out of his mouth and snickered.
"What?" Guppy asked.
"You looked so intimidating with that mask, but you really are a kid!" He cried.
"Well yeah! What else would I be?"
"You look like a baby!" Hoku laughed out loud, slamming the ground.
Guppy got self-conscious and turned to search for his mask.
"How old are you anyway?" Hoku asked.
"14"
"Why, how old are you?" Guppy asked.
Hoku stopped laughing.
Near the wreckage of the sled Baldervich was starting to get up.
Atop a plank of wood sat the man in silver. As the dust settled, Baldervich gripped his head. He walked towards the silver man, his eyes burning with rage, his hammer readied.
Baldervich swung his hammer each time, trying to crush the agile man. Despite the gap in skill, Baldervich only had to get one good hit off on him, so he continued to slam his hammer fruitlessly into the sand.
Suddenly he had an idea.
Baldervich closed in, and just as the man jumped away, Baldervich placed the head of his hammer into the sand and tensed his biceps.
In a single motion, Baldervich swung upward, blasting a vast amount of sand into his opponent.
Merrymore flinched as he was sprayed with sand.
Baldervich kept the momentum of his hammer, bringing it lower and swinging around until he hit the mass of sand that he hoped was his opponent. It didn't hit him, but that didn't matter. With that stupid-looking helmet on, he won't be able to get the sand out of his eyes.
The cloud of dust hiding Merrymore swept away with the subsequent swing, and suddenly Merrymore was gone. Baldervich searched only to see the knight show up behind him. Baldervich's eye twitched.
"I just gotta get one good hit on that bastard," he repeated. "Bones!" He shouted, "I know you ain't dead. Get your ass over here."
A shadow crept up from the sand.
Baldervich closed the gap to Merrymore and continued to sink his hammer in the sand each blow.
Merrymore evaded much further back to avoid the spraying sand, but then Bones joined the fight, pinning him from behind.
Bones slashed endlessly at Merrymore. He parried Bones' blade, then he was forced to duck under Baldervich's hammer. He tried to kick Baldervich away, too, but he barely flinched. He jumped over Bones' blade and took several steps back.
The two looked at him.
Merrymore clashed blades with Bones and continued to run in that direction. He was trying to lead Bones away from Baldervich. Bones didn't care. They matched each other's pace, and before they knew it, neither of them cared about which direction they were moving.
Out of nowhere, Baldervich jumped in from above and slammed his hammer down on the two, and both Bones and Merrymore jumped away. Instead of jumping far, in a moment's instant, Merrymore drove the base of his sword down into the hammer. Cementing it deep into the sand.
Baldervich smiled at Merrymore, seeing him so close. He tried to attack again. "What the?"
Then Bones charged back in, stepping atop his hammer.
"Hey!" Baldervich barked
Bones continued his barrage. Merrymore dodged the first, then second incoming blade and parried a double slash by holding his sword straight with his fingers. The force, however, knocked him back some distance
Bones wasted no time and closed the gap. He flipped his sword this time and delivered an upward slash, almost cutting at the knight's helmet. Then came a spin and a second slash aimed for his throat.
It was parried fiercely, knocking the blade out of Bones' pale hand.
Bones briefly looked back. "Aw, no fun."
But Merrymore wasn't finished as he attempted to remove his other sword from his hand, and for the first time, Merrymore attacked with the blade of his sword.
Bones backed up in surprise at the sudden aggression as Merrymore lunged at the scavenger with his sword with quick and precise strikes to his centre. Strangely enough, Bones' savage offence and demeanour were completely contrasted by a more calculated defence. Despite that, Bones struggled to defend himself with a single blade; several black grazes appeared on his body.
Suddenly, Baldervich appeared from the side with his hammer raised. "Forget about me, did you?"
Baldervich fell backwards as Merrymore put aside a tenth of his focused strikes on the large scavenger. Merrymore returned his attention to Bones, but a curved sword was flying his way.
Bones had thrown his other blade. Merrymore easily caught the sword from the air and regarded Bones, who was catching his breath further away.
"Have you changed your mind?" The scavenger asked, hunched over.
"Pertaining to?" Merrymore asked.
"Trying to kill us." He snickered.
Merrymore held back his laughter. "You think this is me trying to kill you? You should see me with my students." Merrymore threw Bone's curved blade back to him as he retrieved his other blade too.
"What will it take?" Bones hissed, his voice scraping against the inside of his throat.
"Rather cryptic, aren't you?" Merrymore sighed.
Suddenly, the knight noticed something about his opponent. His wounds. There was a black, murky liquid oozing out of them.
Hoku cringed as he and Guppy spectated from afar. "What is that?" Hoku asked. "Hey, his blood... why does it look like that?"
Guppy motioned over to the side at the approaching carriage.
"You're better off running to those guys," he said.
Hoku raised an eyebrow.
I owe you one, so I'm not gonna stop you or anything," Guppy said. He returned his gaze to the fight.
"This guy won't be able to save you."