Did anyone catch the play on words in the title? Rough, like sand? 'Cause she's a scorpion witch? Hahaahhaahaha, I'm sorry… I swear, not all my jokes are terrible. Please still favorite, follow, and review!
As always, happy reading.
The witch laughed from her perch across the room. "Oh, that was adorable! Can you say it again? You sounded so serious!"
Maka planted her foot solidly before launching into the air. Soul's blade, fully extended now, glinted in the firelight.
"Careful, little one," the witch warned, "those don't look very stable. Scor scorpio, scor scorpion. Sand Tower!"
As Maka landed, the pillar under her feet crumbled into sand. She nearly lost her footing, but she swung Soul at one nearby and used his blade to stop herself from falling. Quickly, she climbed up and continued to make her way across the room.
"Well done! Now try this. Scor scorpio, scor scorpion. Sand Storm!"
A blast of sand assaulted Maka as she jumped between two platforms, carrying her swiftly into another. She grunted as hit the stone, pieces crumbled and fell to the ground with her.
"Maka!"
"I'm fine," she said, standing. "I'm not a fan of this jumping around nonsense."
The smirk was obvious in Soul's tone as he responded. "I'm ready when you are."
She stood as Soul retracted his blade again. As she hopped onto the handle, wings sprouted from the end and they blasted off, heading straight for the witch.
"Oooo, that's amazing!" The witch's tail coiled under her and launched her off her perch a split second before Maka landed hard where she'd been. "I heard the rumors, but who would've thought that you really had a grigori soul?! That is amazing!" Maka charged again, but once more the witch dodged with her tail.
"She's just playing with us," Soul said.
They did this for a while, and each time Maka missed, she became more agitated. She hated the witch's nonchalant attitude, the way she was obviously just playing with them, and she wished the damn witch would just get serious and fight her already! Seeing red, she made a jump that was much longer than she'd been doing, giving the witch an opening.
"Scor scorpio-"
"Maka!"
"-scor scorpion. Sand Storm!"
Maka was thrown again, this time breaking through a thinner column of stone before landing on the ground. "Maka, what's wrong? Get out of your head and back in the fight!"
"She's pissing me off. I hate this running game she's playing."
Soul sighed, his face appearing on the blade again. "Maka, you're smarter than this. I know you prefer head on fights, but you can't let her bother you. Take a breath and think. We can beat her."
She laughed a little. "You're right, I know." Another blast of sand smashed into where she was standing, but she rolled out of the way. "Sorry, it won't happen again."
"I know. Now let's show this witch what we're made of."
"Right." She charged the witch, this time analyzing her movements before chasing her down again. Attack, wait, dodge, repeat.
Soul sprouted wings at Maka's silent demand and they flew above, circling their opponent. She needed to anticipate the landing, instead of aiming where she was. It was stupid of her to not figure it out sooner. They dodged two more sand blasts before diving at the witch. This time as she dodged, the pair turned sharply in the air to intercept her.
As the witch's feet landed, Maka swung Soul around, blade exposed again and aimed directly at the witch. A split second before she made contact, the witch's smile shifted. The tip of her scorpion tail split in two and caught Soul's blade.
Her smile turned predatory. "Scor scorpio-"
Maka landed and yanked on her weapon, but it didn't budge.
"-scor scorpion. Sand Setback!" A wind began to whip around them, and yellow lightning crackled all along Soul's blade and handle. As the light hit Maka's hand, she barely kept herself from dropping Soul as the witch's tail slammed Soul into the ground as he yelled out. The tail coiled again and flung the witch back across the room as Maka switched hands to shake her suddenly numb arm. "It was nice meeting you, Meister Maka, Death's Last Weapon." The witch waved, her former smile back in place as she hopped again, landing near the door. "I'll be seeing you!" There was a poof and the witch disappeared. Maka made a move to follow her, but the ground beneath her began to fall away, turned to sand.
"Soul, we need to fly!" As the entire room began to fall apart, slowly filling with sand, Maka tried to to use the still standing pillars to make her way to the door. "Soul!"
She caught one of the pillars with Soul's blade and pulled herself up before hopping towards another still standing platform. The eye at the top of the shaft was blank, no pupil or eyelid visible, causing Maka to worry. A few more jumps and she made it to the doorway. She started to run, continuing to call her weapon's name. The hallways filled with sand behind her, filling the space entirely. Getting up the stairs was more difficult with Soul's blade out, but Maka managed to stay ahead of the sand long enough to get out of the building before it was completely covered.
Maka stuck Soul in the sand before putting her hands on her knees, taking deep breaths. The panic and worry settled a little as she focused on her breathing. As she stood again, she scanned the area around them. She didn't sense any souls, and the barrier she'd found under them before was gone. Looking at Soul, she saw he still hadn't moved or returned to human form.
"Soul, hey, you still in there? What's going on?" When Maka reached out for his soul, she sensed something weird. Something coarse and gritty was faintly clinging to the edges of his soul. Before she could investigate further, there was a flash of light and Soul appeared on the ground in front of her on his hands and knees. "Soul!"
"Maka." He looked around, confused. "What happened? How did we get out here?"
"The witch got away," Maka spat. "The room started filling up with sand, so I had to get out. What happened to you?"
"I don't know," he said, running his hands through his hair. "I remember feeling a shock and then everything just blacked out." He tugged on his hair, as though the pain might help him remember. Something felt off, but he didn't know what it was. Looking down at himself, he saw nothing amiss, his clothes and limbs all still in one piece. Maka was kneeling near him, the skin of her face and legs scuffed from the sand attacks, but otherwise whole. Must just be that I blacked out, he thought. He released his hair, fluffing it a little to try and fix it. "So she got away?"
"Yeah," Maka answered with a frown. "She didn't even try to fight us. I don't understand what she was doing."
"What happened after we landed?" he asked, sitting down and crossing his legs. He noticed that she was still kneeling, her scuffed legs folded under her in the sand. Soul pulled off his jacket and handed it to her, the warmth of the desert enough to keep him from getting cold.
Maka had opened her mouth to answer, but she closed it and raised an eyebrow at him as she looked at the jacket. "What am I supposed to do with that?"
"The skin on your legs looks bad. Sit on this so the sand doesn't dig into it." Soul gave her a bored look but shook the jacket at her impatiently. Maka smiled at him as she stood to wipe off her legs before kneeling again on his jacket.
"That's awfully sweet of you," she teased.
"Whatever." He crossed his arms, then watched as she kneeled down again. The jacket was warm and was much more comfortable on her skin than the sand had been.
She sighed. "That is a lot better. Thank you."
"Yeah yeah, now tell me what happened." After she told him, his brows furrowed even more. "She said she'd see us again? That means she's planning something. Damn it, I can't believe we couldn't take care of her."
"Whatever invitation she sent out, she obviously was hoping Kid would show up. It's also obvious she didn't want to fight us, but I don't know if playing with us was her goal from the start, or if she did it because we came instead of Kid. I wish we had more information."
Soul stood and stretched. "Well, we don't and we're not going to get any hanging around here. It's going to be a few hours before we get to that town, right? Sooner we get back, sooner we can hit the hay, so let's go." He held out his hand to help her up. She took it, then shook out his jacket before handing it to him.
He waved his hand at her. "I don't need it while I'm in weapon form. Maybe you can use it as a cushion or something while we fly."
"If you insist," she said, as she folded the material a few times. When she was done, she held out her hand and Soul took it as he transformed. After she got situated, they began to fly, her sitting with her legs hanging over one side. "I don't know if I can do this the whole time, but it is comfortable. Thank you."
"Yeah yeah, don't get all mushy or anything. It's not cool." She snorted as Soul took off even faster across the desert, never looking back.