The sound of clashing swords scattered throughout the entire cavern, waking up any animal that happened to be resting nearby. Ed saw Joyce’s golden blade of light strike against the monster’s hardened steel. She managed to shove away the strike, barely, before leaping off of the cliff and onto another.

  Ed followed suit, and he saw the animated armor jump after them as well. With a clap of his hands, a golden wall formed in front of them to push the monster back. However, its sword simply lodged into the barrier, leaving it hanging in the air. It must not have put its all into that strike, because he was certain that this monster was stronger than most barriers he could conjure.

  “You ought to watch where you’re jumping!” Ed said before dissipating the wall, leaving the armor with nothing to hold onto. The creature dropped into the ravine, down into the depths below. Joyce and Ed took a moment to catch a breather.

  “Phew,” Joyce huffed. “Do you think that took care of them?”

  “Absolutely not,” Ed said. He began to form blades and looked down towards the chasm. “Do you have a way that can put it down for good?”

  “I’m… confident enough in my strength and sword that I could cut down the armor it’s wearing. I just haven’t been able to get a good hit in.”

  “It seems to parry your own hits pretty well, I think it could take a few.”

  “Just because it can match my strength doesn’t stop me from cutting through it. There’s an obvious difference. You managed to stab through it with your sword didn’t you?”

  “Oh, that’s actually fair,”

  However, their conversation was short-lived as they heard a rumbling from deep in the cavern. With a massive gust of wind, the animated armor flew through the air straight to the roof of the cavern, before slamming its sword down onto the cliff the two of them were on.

  Due to the long path it took, both Ed and Joyce were able to easily predict this and jump to another cliff. The one they were standing on essentially collapsed due to the force of the blow, leaving the monster on a falling rock again.

  It ran forward and jumped off of it, with its sword raised once more. Joyce prepared a beam of light from her glowing blade, to strike back as it flew towards them. The monster met with Joyce’s projectile head on, clashing with it in the air before cutting through it completely, landing on the cliff.

  Joyce’s maneuver seemed to prevent it from completely crumbling the land they were standing on to dust, however. As it stood right in between the two of them with hatred in its empty body.

  “Ed! Go! Find something! I’ll keep this thing occupied!” Joyce shouted, her glowing sword drawn. The monster didn’t seem to know what to choose, but Ed made a run for it on Joyce’s command. With a rope he threw, he immediately leaped onto another cliff.

  He looked back, and saw Joyce clashing swords with the monster. Both of them made powerful swings, as anything less would result in a crushing defeat. He figured Joyce couldn’t hold out forever, so he needed to do something.

  The boy looked around the cavern. The waterfalls, the cliffside, he needed something to make an opening for Joyce. With a rope, he began to climb further and further upwards, onto a nearby pool of water. His eyes darted around, looking for anything. And out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a boulder sitting next to the pool. An idea formed in his head.

  Through the background clashes of the monster and Joyce’s sword, Ed pushed the massive boulder, at least five times his size, towards the edge of the cliff. It took him a while, but he managed to do so. He also saw a massive stalactite on the roof of the cavern. He could also make use of that.

  He looked down to see Joyce locking blades with the animated armor. With a shout, he called down towards the girl.

  “DESTROY THAT CLIFF!”

  Joyce had barely a moment to react, as she parried the armor’s sword. In that brief respite, she stabbed her sword into the ground. With a glow of light, the entire cliff that the two were standing on crumbled into fragments. The two that were standing on it began to fall down into the ravine, but Ed quickly summoned a long golden rope and threw it. The girl caught it just before she fully plummeted, leaving her hanging in the air.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “What now?” Joyce shouted.

  “Your opening!” Ed responded, before kicking the boulder he pushed to the cliff down the ravine, where the monster was. Then, in his other hand, he summoned a spear and tossed it at the stalactite, causing it to fall into the ravine too. Eventually, the two heard the sound of rocks crashing and metal clanking. That was their time. “Now!”

  Joyce let go of the rope and clutched both of her hands onto the sword. Ed and her both saw the blue glow of the water from the depths below, and from there, they saw the boulder and the stalactite, on top of the creature. With a slash, it cut apart the two distractions, leaving Joyce behind them to strike it directly from the shoulder, into its chest.

  The golden blade went straight through, lighting up the entire bottom cavern with its pure light. It cleaved halfway through the armor’s body, creating a clean cut through the empty shell of a creature. The monster let out a horrendous noise as the sword was lodged in its body. However, despite all of this.

  The blade didn’t cut through fully.

  The creature was damaged, but it responded by grabbing Joyce’s arms holding the blade. With a simple crush, Ed heard two massive cracks reverberating throughout the entire cavern.

  “AAAAGH—”

  Joyce’s scream of pain followed soon after. Ed watched as Joyce fell into the shallow water pit, alongside her sword. Her arms were entirely crushed.

  “It’s okay…” Joyce shouted as she tried to force herself up with her broken arms. “I’ve healed through worse…” It sounded like she was trying to make a call to Ed, to not worry. It didn’t work. Ed was very worried.

  And as the girl tried to stand up, a brutal slash from the golem struck from behind. Her entire back was cut open as she was sent flying into the side walls of the cavern. A crashing sound echoed throughout the entire area as dust covered the glowing water the two were in.

  That’s when Ed felt himself move.

  He felt himself falling through the chasm, like his body was moving on its own. He fell faster and faster, with two blades clutched in his hand. His arm was raised, in a position for a strike as strong as he could manage.

  His glowing shortsword struck the beast’s chest. One in the wound that Joyce already inflicted, and one brand new one. He didn’t cut as deep as Joyce, but it hurt the beast. He raised one sword and stabbed, then stabbed again. He kept on doing it, as his mind didn’t even comprehend what he was doing.

  Then, he didn’t realize that the beast grabbed his cloak, pulling him off before tossing him into the wall. The boy crashed, and landed on the dry ground, the only one in this area. His vision blurred, as he tried to regain his senses. Next to him was Joyce, bloody and beaten, her back was cut open really badly… far deeper than the last wound he saw her heal from.

  “Shoot… I’m out of…” Joyce muttered next to him. “Ed… I can’t heal this as fast… unless…”

  “What…? I know you can… regenerate but… you need to…” Ed groaned. The clanking of the monster’s footsteps matched the swishing of the water. The armor approached them slowly.

  Ed tried to form a barrier to slow it down, though his arm was in pain. He had to put all of his magic into it, as much as he could, to give them as much time as possible to recover. The creature began to slam on the barrier. It was cracking, much faster than they’d like, with every hit shaking the entire cavern.

  “I’d like an idea right about now!” Ed said, as he tried to maintain the shield.

  “Ed…” Joyce said. “I didn’t want to do this… but…”

  Joyce pushed herself up, despite the gaping hole in her body and her broken arms. Ed could see the wounds trying to patch themselves up, like she did back at Pugna.

  “Hey, hey— is that going to make healing harder—?” Ed tried to say. However, before he could finish his sentence… he felt a sharp piercing of fangs directly into his skin. He looked at Joyce, as her mouth sunk into his shoulder.

  Ed couldn’t speak, because he didn’t fully process what she was doing. Blood spurted out of his arm as he felt the liquid flow out of his arm, and into Joyce’s mouth. The boy became lightheaded, as the pain of the bite settled in.

  “A…Agh…! What are you—?” Ed shouted, instinctively pulling away. That made it worse, because Joyce’s mouth tore through his skin further. She grasped Edward, her arms seemingly quickly healed, to prevent him from moving and squirming any further. Ed looked at Joyce, in confusion, and in panic. He saw something amazing, as the massive gap in Joyce’s back began to heal itself as quickly as possible. All wounds that she incurred vanished, quickly repairing themselves as she drank Edward’s blood.

  And soon, she let go. The girl looked brand new, as if she hadn’t taken damage at all. She stood up with a renewed vigor. Ed fell backwards, clutching his arm as the shield fell to the monster.

  The energy around Joyce felt stronger. She fearlessly stared down the monster. Ed crawled backwards, having just undergone massive blood loss a moment ago. His head was dizzy, and he could barely comprehend Joyce’s movements.

  But from what he saw, the golden sword was drawn. In the blink of an eye, the two met blades with one stroke. It was so fast, that Ed’s eyes couldn’t track it. However, he saw the aftermath. Joyce calmly sheathed her sword, and the armor fell into two pieces. Cut apart at the waist, falling into the water.

  The monster was defeated, leaving just the two of them in the empty caves. Ed was breathing heavily, as he looked at Joyce. His blood dripped from her mouth, and that was the last sight he saw before he fainted.