Duran’s fingers snapped closed around his sword handle and then his whole arm whipped forward.  The sword exploded out to its full length with a crack like a peal of thunder.  The blade flared orange as it shot from his hand like a missile.  He’d thrown the sword a little to the right of his target.  Once it’d covered half the distance to the approaching ship, it started to spin through the air and curve back over to the left.

The sword was an orange, circular blur, moving too fast for the pilot to dodge.  Metal screamed in agony as the sword cut through the strut holding one of the front engines on the ship.  The rotor blades still spinning, the cylinder somersaulted through the air and crashed into the ground.  The metal crumpled as the engine tumbled over the ground.

The helicopter tilted towards the lost engine, the other three squealing as they tried and failed to compensate.  Duran watched the craft fall out of the sky and allowed himself a moment of triumph.  Until he realized that the ship was falling at an angle—right towards him.

Duran looked for his sword and saw it arcing through the air back towards him.  That was good, but the fact that it was still spinning so fast the blade was only an orange smear was not.  Closing his eyes and trusting in his weapon, Duran held out his arm, his hand open.  With a slap that pushed him back a couple feet, the handle flew into his hand as the sword’s spin came to a complete and sudden halt.

A crash shook his skeleton and jolted his eyes open.  The gunship slammed into the ground and pushed a tsunami of dirt towards him.  In seconds he’d be crushed.  Throwing the sword behind him, Duran dug his feet into the earth and then whipped the blade forward and up, jumping with all his strength as he did.  Smoke spat from the jagged edges of the sword and he sailed up into the air, barely making it over the downed aircraft.  As he sailed back down to the ground, the cloud of dust that’d followed behind the engines enveloped him, even as he saw one of the two remaining craft turning towards him.

Duran stayed in the cloud as it drifted towards the town.  Without the constant motion of the rotors, the dust quickly slowed down.  Duran had no choice but to make the final dash back to the cover of buildings in the open.