Not Everything

By Major Mike Powell III

Claudia Levantyne, a Holy Knight of the High Elven Goddess Cellestine Lucculus. She stood in the field of battle, the arena of the citadel.

The arena was completely empty save for the honey-blonde Holy Knight, her underlings, her Knights held hostage yet ready for a fight for survival. All they needed was a fighting chance, and Claudia would give it to them.

All she needed was one chance, to strike down the opponent hand-picked by Vault himself. If she defeated whoever that warrior was, Claudia knew her Knights would rise up thanks to that morale boost.

The sound of boots stepping towards the gate opposite of her drew Claudia out of her reverie.

She adjusted her shield in her left hand and raised a hand to reach for the greatsword sheathed on her back.

Claudia's face, formerly stoic and calm only showed a brief lapse of surprise, a small widening of her eyes as she saw the face of her opponent.

"You! Wh-What do you-...?!" The honey-blonde uttered softly and then, grit her teeth while Greaves Levantyne, Claudia's very won father-in-law, the man that had always coddled her and taught her how to wield a blade, the man that had showered her with love growing up, showing her more appreciation and affection than his own son, her husband, Klaus, who was likely dead...

"..." She bit the inside of her cheek. She didn't say a word as she slowly lifted her sword, drawing it slowly out of the sheath on her back.

"...it matters not. So be it." Then, Claudia charged at her father-in-law, the man that she had just now disowned as part of her family. She had a job to do, a duty to fulfill. Her sacred duty to resist and protect the High Elven Goddess...and she would see it through.

It was a short battle. Why? Because of Greaves and his utter overconfidence, his constant taunting of his daughter-in-law. His endless arrogance cost him. How?

"There's nothing you can do to stop this. Not now, not ever. You and your goddess have already lost! I've taught you everything you know! You wield a blade thanks to me!" He gloated and sneered in a stoic Claudia's face, the only thing separating them being their armor and the crossed swords held in their hands as they had each other in a blade lock.

At first, Claudia didn't say a word.

Then, she smirked and Greaves Levantyne only had a small window through which to see his mistake.

"Not everything." Claudia spoke and then, angled her far leg and sent her armored greave-clad knee straight into Greaves Levantyne's unguarded crotch.

Greaves howled in humiliating pain and then, his cry got cut short by a grunt of pain and shock when Claudia reared her cestus-clad free hand to knock some big teeth down the man's throat with a solid punch to the kisser, and to add insult to facial injury, Claudia swing her sword downwards to slice Greaves' arm right off, cleaving it clean off at the elbow.

The end result was Greaves' still-twitching arm falling to the dirt with his sword still clasped in cold, seizing fingers, and the man himself with a shattered mouth down on his knees, a hand to his smashed crotch, looking up like a pathetic dog as his daughter-in-law stood before him, towering in front of him, her arm and sword raised high, high up in the air.

"Any last words? Speak your regrets now so the boatman will at least smile at you." Claudia spoke softly.

"...you're so beautiful. I'm sorry, Claudia..."

Claudia closed her eyes. Then, she brought down her blade for a vertical cleave. Blood and other vital fluids splattered over her face after the deed was done.

Victory in her hands, Claudia looked up at the eagle perched on top of the viewer stands, in which Vault was standing up from his chair with a stoic look on his face. Claudia lifted her sword off of Greaves' corpse and then, pointed the blade, sharp edge up at the mercenary king.

"AND YOU ARE NEXT!" She bellowed and then, the eagle that was perched at the top let out an ear-piercing cry and took off into the sky.

And that eagle's cry happened to be the signal, the call for Claudia's imprisoned Knights to rise up, to seize their fighting chance.

And Claudia herself took off, running into the bowels of the citadel to play her part. She had cut down Greaves Levantyne, but that was just an obstacle removed. She still had a mission to complete.

"For you, High Elven Goddess, even for Queen Origa-sama...just please, be patient!" She shouted and then, she bellowed a war cry as she leapt into battle within the citadel.

At least, Greaves' life of training for her had come in handy.

The End

Well, so, this happened. :3 This is new, even for me. LOL Sorry for the lack of a proper fight scene. I'm just a wuss and trust me, you don't wanna see me try sword fight choreography. :P

In any case, I hope you beautiful people liked this "what if" scenario for "Kuroinu" episode 4. I know I had fun writing this and I want to give a special thank you to my good friend Glexen, in whose presence I wrote this story, right then and there on chat. Hoo-rrah for improvisation~! :3

Also…heh…this is my 200th story. :'3 Amazing, huh? Time flies and stories just keep on comin' and goin', and with this, I write my story number 200. Damn! This is a big milestone for me…(chuckles)

What do you think, people? What do you think of this story? Please, please, do review, hm? I know not many will even read this story, but a review is always, always appreciated it, especially if it's long and detailed and productive. :3 And yes, I'm quite aware that there's several discrepancies between thishere story of mine and the actual situation at the time episode 4 rolls around, but…I…kiiiinda don't want to watch the previous 2 episodes to know exactly where and how everyone is, so…yeah. You'll have to understand why I took the creative liberties I did here. LOL

A-Anyway! This was fun to write and I hope you guys and girls will return the favor with a nice review. :3 Till next time!

Semper-Fi! Carry on!