Edward launched at the first two soldiers heading his way right as the first smoke bomb went off a few dozen feet from him. The illusion on his armor still hadn't been dispelled which meant that not even his armor had taken any damage from what he had been through. During his landing, he had hit everything feet or weapon first so his enchanted armor still hadn't even received a scuff mark. The two soldiers would have been surprised that a swordsman would enter combat with them without any visible armor, if they hadn't been at the battle of Safeharbor the year before. Both soldiers were instantly wary of him but that did little to save them from The Blade Master.

The Blade Master's sword reached out with surprising grace and speed, for a weapon the same size as the man who stood nearly a head taller than those he was fighting, trailing crackling yellow lighting behind it. The one soldier crouched slightly behind his shield and attempted to bowl Edward over as the second trailed behind him. The second was clearly there to provide cover for the first but their plan was far too aggressive from the start. Being on the offensive, against someone like The Blade Master, was utter folly.

Even while his sword was coming down in an incredibly fast and absolutely perfect downwards arch, Edward sidestepped the incoming charge. He moved to his left, which positioned him on the soldiers' swords' side of their bodies. This meant that their defensive ability was weaker as it was hard to bring their shields to bear in the fraction of a second of time that they were aware of his reposition. The first soldier's eyes tracked Edward's blade as it came down almost right in front of his face. The soldier's sword and corresponding hand were braced against the back of the shield and it would take precious fractions of a second to get the weapon into position to try and parry The Blade Master's blow. The second soldier stabbed his sword out to try and catch and misdirect Edward's swing in order to save his companion but that was the last mistake that he would ever make.

Edward's sword snapped and changed trajectories faster than either of the soldiers could have foreseen. His perfectly vertical downwards cut snapped into a perfectly horizontal one, without slowing in the slightest, at exactly the height of the second soldier's eyes. His blade passed over the tip of the blade, and its crossguard, of the second soldier's sword by fractions of an inch. The tip of The Blade Master's blade caught the eye slit of the second soldier's helmet perfectly and the soldier's forward momentum did the rest. The second soldier's body started convulsing even as his brain began to fail from a massive horizontal slice being made across it through the eye slit and direct lightning injection.

Edward already knew what was going to happen which led to his next move beginning without delay. Before the second soldier had even tripped, or the first soldier was able to slow down, he ripped his blade out of the second soldier's helmet and took a step towards the still charging first soldier. The first soldier turned and tried to stop his charge in an instant which led to his boots sliding across the ground under him. Edward started again, in much the same way as his last fatal strike, in a perfect downwards arch that fell like a guillotine's blade.

As he turned, the first soldier's shield came up to block Edward's second attack, but he lacked the strength and proper footing to halt the inexorable demise that was The Blade Master's perfect 'kiri orochi'. Edward's stance dropped low as he brought all of his weight down on top of his already incredibly powerful downwards cut. The soldier's attempt to stop and counter his attack was the absolute worst thing that he could have done. If he had continued his charge and then turned around to face Edward directly, at a more measured pace, then Edward would have been forced to deal with his shield properly.

Edward's sword slammed down on top of the soldier's shield with the equivalent force of a grown man jumping off of a rooftop. The shield was treated as a mere annoyance to the blade in its path. The last hand's length of Edward's sword caught the top of the soldier's helmet and both the helmet and the shield were sent directly downwards into the cold stone. Edward straightened and eyed the soldier with a frown. His sword hadn't managed to cut through the soldier's helmet but it was a near thing. Blood was already pouring out of the soldier's helmet as his body twitched. The soldier was taken care of, but Edward wasn't sure if he needed to make sure that the soldier would never be getting back up or not. His few seconds of internal deliberation were interrupted by the sounds of two more soldiers arriving to stop him.

As he turned to face the two new opponents, Edward realized that they had seen their companions be ruthlessly obliterated and were now being incredibly defensive. Both soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder with their shields raised, waiting for him to go to them. He could go on the offensive, if that was what they wished, but his body wasn't in as good of shape as it had been fifteen years earlier so he tended to prefer defensive fighting. He swung his sword off to his side, and a geyser of flames shot up towards the ceiling in the direction Lenna had been flung, as he started casually walking towards the next two soldiers. What little blood and brains, from the first soldier that he had killed, that were left on his blade were flung against the cavern wall and his eyes met both of the soldier's in kind. He watched as both of them took half a step back and couldn't hide a smirk. It had been a long time since he was on a battlefield and the opposing soldiers actually backed away in fright.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

They didn't know this, but Edward probably would have let them leave if they had decided to just cut and run. He was past his physical prime, and they were stuck in theirs for centuries, so his odds of catching them were low to begin with. Add in the fact that his knees still hurt from Shamesh's horrible entry idea, and Edward had no preconceptions of chasing anyone down. In the end, it didn't really matter though as there was no way that Isaac was going to let a single one of them escape.

"If you keep coming at me two at a time, you aren't going to get anywhere." Edward told the pair as he continued stalking towards them. The two soldiers backed up a little more and then spread out. It was clear that they were planning on engaging him at the same time but from different directions.

The massive, for a human, Blade Master walked into their 'trap' with eyes wide open and an air of casualness that sent bolts of fear into the hearts of both of his opponents. He stopped right at the edge of both of their ranges, which happened to be the perfect range for his massive sword, and glanced back and forth between them. Neither soldier said a word or made a move as a pair of Fireballs went off somewhere else in the cavern. It was at that moment that Edward realized that they were more than happy with just holding him there until someone capable of defeating him showed up. Edward was fairly confident in his skills but he was not arrogant. The odds of there actually being a hostile entity present who could defeat him were too high for him to start to mess around. Knowing that, he made his first move.

Edward knew that he was not going to be able to end the fight quickly, not without getting himself hurt and that was not on his list of things to do that day. His sword swung wide aiming for the eyes of both of his opponents at the same time. The soldier to his left, the new 'first soldier' as far as he was concerned, got his shield up in time to block it. The lighting from Edward's sword was quickly sent into the soldier's shield and would begin messing with his motor function a little bit. It was negligible from just one hit to the shield but given enough of them, there was no doubt in Edward's mind that the soldier's arm would end up locking up entirely.

The new second soldier's sword shot out towards Edward's flank as soon as he saw his companion start to raise his shield, this was a mistake but unfortunately not a fatal one. Edward was easily able to keep his sword's trajectory and most of its power as it continued towards the second soldier. The second soldier quickly blocked Edward's attack with both his sword and shield as the end of the strike carried with it far more power than the beginning had. Unfortunately, the soldier had noticed the attack coming in time to preserve his footing so in the end neither enemy soldier was even forced out of position. Now, that did not mean that Edward had lost anything in the exchange, quite the opposite in fact. The first soldier's shield arm had taken a mild dose of lightning and both of the second's arms had as well. If things kept up, it wouldn't take long for Edward to finish them both off.

The first soldier tried to capitalize on Edward's sword facing the opposite direction and moved to attack him. Edward moved the massive blade as if it was half of its size. His sword came around and blew through the incoming attack. He tried to transfer into a counter attack but the soldier's shield came up and the second soldier tried to pressure him from the opposite direction. Back and forth Edward swung his curved greatsword as if he were dancing with the momentum of it. The sword's arcs bent and twisted with his every whim to the time of music of clashing steel and a howl of wind from the middle of the cavern. He attacked their weapons more often than not as it was simply the most effective. He had far more power to bring to bear than either of them and the constant impacts against their one handed swords threatened to knock the smaller blades from their grasps.

It had only taken three direct hits against their blades for both soldiers to begin pulling back simply because his blade was headed their way. They tried to intercept his attacks with their shields, in order to force an opening, but it did not take long for their shield arms to begin to suffer as well. Five direct hits later and they were forced to start ducking behind their shields instead of raising their shields up to block or parry his attacks, their arms simply stopped cooperating.

The end of the two soldiers happened in a blink. The first one wasn't able to get his shield between Edward's swing as his head in time, he had been in the middle of a counter attack attempt, so he tried to attack Edward's sword directly with his own, it hardly slowed it down. Edward's perfect control over his weapon meant that it threaded the gap between the soldier's pauldron, collar, and helmet to hit their chainmail coif underneath. The chainmail meant little to his enchanted blade and the front two inches of Edward's sword sliced open the soldier's neck before he launched at the second one.

The second soldier didn't even have time to mourn his comrade before Edward's sword came down with the force of a vengeful god. He blew through the soldier's attempt to block with both his sword and shield just enough to get the tip of his blade aligned with the soldier's eye slits. He twisted his body and let go of his sword with his offhand so he could send the blade two feet further forwards, he only needed half of that. The tip of his sword punched into the back of the soldier's helmet, signifying his total demise. As the last soldier dropped to the ground twitching, Edward's eyes panned over the smoky battlefield. His part was done, yes, but there was always more to do.

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