Secret blade

Brandon picked his sword up off the ground and heaved it into the air so that he could rest it on his shoulder. It was far too large for one to carry comfortably in one hand, but Brandon was no ordinary man. His muscles heaved and strained as he wielded the blade, yet his face gave away no sign of discomfort and effort towards the task. He had been given a challenge, which made a smile spread across his face, for he was not about to take it lightly.

Even if the man who had challenged him was clearly lesser than he. The man was small and lanky, and the blade he wielded was thin and cracked. He was barely able to hold the loft with two hands, and his eyes were dull and aged. Yet they had a strange certainty burning within them, which made the curiosity burn in Brandon's own chest. It was those eyes that made him feel a need to put everything he had into this fight. If it ended in a single instant, then that was it. But he had a feeling it would not be so simple.

The strange man stood with his sword held out in front of him, both hands wrapped firmly around the handle, the tip of the blade pointed at the space between Brandon's eyes. His feet were planted firmly on the ground, and he was clearly using all of his strength in order to hold the blade aloft. After a moment of watching, Brandon stepped in, grabbing the end of his handle with his other hand and ripping it down onto the man's head in a savage blow.

But his blade stopped very abruptly, sending a shiver down his arms and into his spine, shaking his very core and threatening to collapse him. His blade was stopped in the air six inches above the man's own sword, which had moved in an instant to stop his own. The man was showing an unknown agility, but that barely registered. Brandon's sword was being stopped by nothing.

He pulled it back, bouncing on his shoulder before steadying itself, and glared at the man, trying to read his eyes to learn what had happened. The man smiled coyly back at him, and dropped one hand from the hilt, easily holding it up now, where before it had been such a struggle. His free hand glowed for a moment as he passed it slowly over the length of his blade, an invisible force around the blade beginning to be revealed. Thick, solid energy surrounded it, the span of which demonstrated where Brandon's sword had been stopped.

A magic user. He should have known. They weren't common these days, but they were also more than legends. This changed things. Though he could hardly turn down the opportunity to have such a fight.

Very well, he thought. Bring it on.