A Hero's Storm Part 2

A Hero's Storm

Lightning skidded along the snow after blocking a fierce blow from Link. She could see he fought for a long time, seeing how he barely made any immature threats and focused on her style. At the beginning of the fight, Link only evaded and block which she assumed was him analyzing her attacks and speed. Now, he was attacking himself, which took her by surprise and forced her on the defense. While he was defending, she noticed that he mainly evaded and countered and rarely blocked, there she assumed he was used to fighting with a shield, so she figured she had an advantage there.

However, Link pulled off another surprise by matching her own speed easily and mimicked some of her own attacks. He came sliding in while spinning, which she managed to block but knocked her back a couple of feet. He then came rushing in with a slash at the torso which Lightning stepped back to dodge and slashed her own sword downward. Link faced his back towards her and bent backwards, holding his sword above, blocking the strike. Lightning then placed her other hand on her sword and pushed downwards, hoping to knock him on the ground. Link placed his other hand on the ground and tightened himself to endure the push. He then stabbed his sword towards the ground, causing Lightning to stumble forward. Using his sword as support, he flipped backwards, kicking her across the face making her stumble backwards now. He then turned towards her, ready for retaliation.

"No way in hell I'm losing to this guy" She thought quietly to herself and began to think a strategy. She then realized that she said no guns, but that doesn't mean she can't use magic. She then twirled her gunblade, which Link tilted his head to the side. She then swung her free arm three times, causing three separate fireballs to trail towards him. Seeing this, Link then swung his free hand once, facing his back towards her again, but this time a green light appear from his feet and he disappeared from view, causing the fireballs to trail off. Once again surprised, she looked around to see where he went. She then looked up in instinct and there she saw him slashing his blade down towards her causing her to jump back to dodge the blow. Landing on the ground, Link swung his sword at her, which she held her sword out and blocked the attack. She then swung her free hand back and thrust it towards him, this time causing wind to throw him off.

Skidding back a couple of feet, flipping backwards to stop, Link then wondered what other magic she had in store. Again she swung her hand, this time causing a huge amount of thunder to crash down towards him. Throwing his arms in front, he then rose his sword up, attracting the thunder to his blade while at the same time shining. Seeing this, Lighting braced herself for another attack from him. Heeding her thoughts, Link slashed his sword towards her, causing the air itself to sharpen into a blade coated in electricity. Lightning rolled out of the way, dodging the attack and looked where Link was, only to see him gone again. Turning backwards, she saw him swing his sword at her again, which she barely managed to block. Link then twisted his sword and swung it aside, taking advantage of her weak block and caused her to lose her grip on her weapon, flying out of arms reach.

Link then spun and kicked her in the ribs, causing her to fall onto her back. Before she caught her breath, she saw him in midair leap, swinging towards her. With a barely audible gasp, the blade stopped right at her right collarbone. Pressing his weight against her, Link moved his sword to the other collarbone, "Looks like I win." He remarked.

Getting off her, Link swung his sword, causing it to shift away and placed it on a pouch on his back. He then walked towards her sword, while she got back onto her feet. "I can tell that I caught you by surprise." He replied as he picked up her sword.

Lightning then crossed her arms, "Wasn't really expecting someone that isn't a L'Cie to use magic." She pointed out.

Link picked up her sword and started to walk towards her, "Magic is common where I'm from. A land governed by only three Goddess. Even a simple farm boy can learn magic there. Although our magic is limited, only having three basic ones." He explained a bit of his land.

"Three Goddess'." Lightning muttered, still having her arms crossed, "Which one do you serve under?" She asked out of curiosity.

Still inspecting her weapon, he began to wonder, "I'm not sure I serve under any of them, although I would say I serve Nayru, the Goddess of Time." He answered half-heartingly. He then flipped her gunblade in reverse-grip handing it over.

"Time?" She remarked, grabbing her sword, "Do you travel through time or something?" She asked sarcastically.

"In a way." He answered. "Although I no longer have it, I used to have a sword that allowed me to travel back and forth in time." He added to his story.

Lightning crossed her arms again, "Great. Now I'm fighting fairytales." She thought in disbelief, "Next thing you know, I'm going to disappear from view and serve under time as well."She added sarcastically to her train of thoughts.

"You don't believe me?" Link asked, reading her body language.

Lightning then scoffed towards him, "Honestly put, I'm not sure what to believe. Although your ears are a sign that your something." She answered, looking at his pointed ears.

"Want to touch them?" Link suddenly asked.

Lightning tilted her head curiously, "What?"

"My ears." Link repeated, pointing towards his ears, "Usually in most of my journeys to other worlds, many woman I meet wants to touch them." He revealed, crossing his arms. "Got annoying at first, but then I got used to it...usually using it as a sign I'm friendly." He added to his history.

"Just like a dog." Lightning remarked.

"..." Link mumbled quietly, "Never mind."

Lightning just remained with her arms crossed.

"You waiting for something?" He asked, noticing on how long she remained. Lightning only looked at him curiously. Link then cleared his throat, "You strike me as the type of woman who would leave as fast as your namesake. Our encounter in the cave earlier told me that you would not hesitate to strike me down if it weren't for me having you in a vulnerable position." He explained, pointing out how he saw her as, "So it is questioning to me on how a woman like you would remain here doing nothing." He added, crossing his arms.

Lightning then scoffed again, "Look, it's just that I'm..."

"Worried about me?" Link intervened, "You don't strike me as that either." He added to how he saw her.

"How long were you here?" Lightning asked.

Link then wondered, "I'd say a month." He answered, "It was easier at first, then this snowstorm comes and now its harder to hunt for food." He explained.

"No food means you'll get hungry." Lightning pointed out.

Link then remembered something, "Ah, right. I sort of took some biscuits I found on your person while your were unconscious. Hope you don't mind." He smiled innocently.

Lightning immediately felt around herself to realize that she was missing the biscuits she stored earlier.

"Seeing as your worried about my being person for some reason you probably don't even know, why don't I come with you?" He offered.

"Fine, but only until I can reach the others, your free to leave then." Lightning admitted, pointing a finger. "But don't get any ideas, I'm only helping you because you helped me." She added, then started to walked ahead.

"Reasonable enough." Link replied, following her.

After a while

The walk was quiet, which wouldn't be too surprising, given the nature of the two. However, the crickets chirping was getting surprisingly annoying to Lightning, so she began to think of starting a conversation.

"You don't talk much." She pointed out. It was a start.

"Neither do you." Link countered.

She was then at a loss of words.

Seeing this, Link let out a little smile, "I often travel alone in my journies." He pointed out, "But sometimes I'm accompanied by others." He added.

"Others who would turn out to be woman who wants to pet your eats?" Lightning asked, tilting her head.

Link gave a little laugh, "Many are surprise to find...an elf in their world." He pointed out.

"Your not an elf?" She asked, noticing his hesitation at using elf.

"Let's not get started on that." Link requested.

Lightning just gave a little smile at that remark, before frowning in realization that she smiled.

Link then began getting curious about something, "Your magic..." He called out, "How does it work?" He asked.

"What was that?" She asked.

"When you shoot fire from your hands, how does it feel?" He asked, looking over his hand.

Lightning then stopped in her tracks, "Now that I think about it, I don't really know." She answered, looking at her hand too, "But now that I do, I guess I could say it feels like heat, warming up in your wrist. Just by willing it, you can channel it to your hand, the warm feeling washes over it and you have your fireball." She pointed out, "That's as much detail I can possibly put it." She explained as much as she could.

Link then closed his eyes and appeared to be concentrating.

"What are you doing?" Lightning asked, then he raised his other hand pointing out to remain quiet.

Link then open his eyes and flicked his hand open, causing a fireball to emerge in his palm.

Lightning then widened her eyes surprised, "H-how did you do that?" She asked.

"You know that skill I said I had?" Link pointed out, closing his hand and put out the fire, "Apparently it works on your magics too." He revealed.

"You ask me how it feels and you learn it seconds later?" Lightning pointed out, "That's..."

"Incredible?" Link guessed, "Truth be told, I was thinking about the fireball ever since our spar, it usually takes me a couple of hours to understand it." He further explained his ability. "Probably days for more advance ones, not to mention I already have a fire spell under my sleeve." He pointed out and continued to walk.

Lightning continued to study him, "What is with this guy? First he makes his own gunblade, now he can learn our magics?" Lightning asked herself, "He's not even a L'Cie. How can he do things like that?" She continued within her train of thought.

"Well? I don't know where I'm going, your leading me." He snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Right..." She muttered to herself quietly.