Episode 4 – A Power Within

The situation was beginning to look grim. The warriors of the Heaven's Seven guild were beginning to slowly but surely realize that this fight was only going to end in turmoil if they couldn't turn the tide in their favor quickly. Kaizen, Andrea, and Helen had their hands full with the first Balrog that appeared. At the same time Saevio, Ruder, and Sizzer were busy battling it out with the second one that had just recently came crawling out of the Balrog ship. While all of this was going on, Zain was still in a state of fear from the sear power that these two monsters were generating. By this time the battle had been going on for around ten minutes. But those ten minutes seemed like hours to the warriors. They were starting to feel the burn of exhaustion. Their moves had begun to slow and become full of errors. Their defenses began showing more and holes that the Balrogs took advantage of each time. The only person that didn't appear to start feeling this way was Ruder. He was the only one that was still attacking with as much fire as when they started.

Ruder noticed the looks on Kaizen's, Andrea's, and Helen's faces. He then looks over to Saevio and Sizzer and tells them, "Go over and help those three. I'll handle this guy."

Sizzer turns around and replies, "Are you crazy, you can't handle one of these beasts on your own! It'll be suicide!"

Ruder turns back over to the Balrog that is now standing directly in front of him ready to strike, "Go now! They need your help over there more than I do over here. Besides, I've got Zain to watch my back."

Saevio starts to head over to the other three on the opposite side of the ship and says, "That kid is of no help…"

Without taking his eyes off of the Balrog, "GO NOW!"

Sizzer stares at Ruder a little bit but then looks as if he understands. "Be safe", says Sizzer as he moves away.

Ruder smiles and mumbles under his breath, "Every thing will be fine. I'm sure of it." He then raised his sword at the ready position, "Now fiend, prepare for a real fight."

Ruder then bent his knees and leaned forward. He stayed like that for a moment and then leaped forward. In the middle of the lunge he started to spin and then took his sword and made a horizontal slash to the Balrog's side. But the monster had skills and speed as well. Just like before he moved his arm and blocked the blow. Then with his other hand, attempted to punch Ruder right between the eyes. Ruder saw the punch coming and shifted his weight to dodge the blow. Then jumped back to get a little distance between him and the Balrog in order to get ready for his next attack. However, before Ruder could do this the Balrog launched an attack of his own. Several dark spheres were hurled over to Ruder and lightning bolts strike the floor around him. In order to dodge them all Ruder once again had to jump back out of the way. When Ruder looked up the Balrog had quickly moved directly in front of him and was about to pound him in the ground.

Under Ruder's breath, "Shit!"

Ruder narrowly escaped the attack by rolling out of the way. However, this put him right next to Zain who was still standing there seemingly lifeless. The roar of the Balrog coming towards them caught Ruder's attention once again.

Ruder thought to himself, "I can' t move back any farther without putting Zain at risk."

Ruder stood up straight and held is sword out and placed his other hand on the flat part of the blade in order to block the Balrog's attack. Even though he was able to stop the attack, he was pushed back far enough that Ruder bumped into Zain. This caused Zain to fall to the ground. But it did finally snap him out of his state of shock.

Still holding the Balrog at bay Ruder glanced over to Zain and said to him, "Hey, do ya think you can give me a hand with this giant flying fur ball. All you have to do is remember what you've been taught."

Zain just kind of stared over at Ruder and nodded his head once. Then he moved over so that he was looking at the Balrog in profile.

Ruder, still keeping the Balrog occupied, just smiled a bit and reassured Zain with, "Just remember what you've been taught and you'll do fine. No one is this group has more confidence in you than me."

Zain nodded his head once again and raised his staff. "Alright, I'm ready."

Ruder started to push away the Balrog, "OK! Here we go, round four!" And with great force Ruder swung his sword causing the Balrog to have to take a few steps back. "NOW ZAIN!"

Zain focused his attack and put all concentration into the Balrog in front of him. "Alright here goes something…" And with that a blast of ice came screaming out of Zain's staff and flew towards the Balrog. The blast hit the monster but it was only his left leg that was frozen over and connected to the ship's deck. The Balrog looked down at his leg and then over to Zain. The beast smiled and began to laugh in a low tone. You could see its breath as air came out. Once again Zain had been completely over taken with fear. But it wasn't the same as last time when he was so afraid that all of his senses were dulled. The monster grabbed his leg and started to pull on it.

Ruder started to run towards it with his sword raised, "Crap, crap, crap, I can't let him work himself free. It's now or never."

But before Ruder could reach the Balrog it had broken out of the ice and blasted Ruder with a sphere. The power of the blast sent Ruder flying. And with no distractions from him the Balrog turned his attention to Zain. The monster began to walk over to where Zain was standing and got that sinister smile back on his face. The monster stopped about five feet from where Zain was standing. The beast stood completely up right making him at around seven-in-a-half to eight feet. He also spread his wings as far as they would go. The sight scared Zain so much that he dropped his staff and began to shake.

The Balrog chuckled with his low toned voice and simply said, "Pitiful human…" With that he raised his massive right arm high into the sky. But instead of making a fist, he kept his fingers out meaning that he was going to slash Zain most likely making deep and fatal cuts into him. Even Zain, in his limited experience, realized what was about to happen and his pupils got really small.

At the same time this is all happening Ruder has come to and saw the Balrog towering over Zain about to deal the final blow to him. He quickly gets up and grabs his sword and dashes towards the two of them. "Crap, Helen would kill me if anything happened to Zain."

Back over to the Balrog and Zain. The fiend smiled down to Zain and said, "Prepare…for I will wake you from this nightmare." The beast clenched his hand and began to bring his hand down to make contact with Zain.

Realizing that he wasn't going to make it in time all Ruder could do was yell, "ZAIN GET OUTTA THERE!" Ruder's scream caught Saevio's attention and he had turned towards to also see the Balrog loomed over Zain.

Right before the Balrog's hand made contact, Zain covered his face with his left arm and stuck his right hand with palms wide open. Just then something strange happened. In an instant a bright circle of light lit up on Zain's forehead. The circle had lots of writings of an archaic language and many archaic symbols inside it. The circle was enough to catch the Balrog's attention causing it to stop his attack midway. After that, huge amounts of wind began to rush around Zain and caused a vortex to form all around him. But the Balrog wasn't the only one who was seeing what was going on; Ruder and Saevio could also see the whole thing. Just then, out of nowhere, a huge blast of ice came out of Zain's right hand. The blast was so strong that it sent the Balrog flying back and rammed it against the mast of the ship. Not only that, but the whole right side of it was frozen to the mast.

Both Saevio and Ruder had a face of amazement. After awhile of silence from the two of them the only one that could say anything was Saevio, "I can't believe it. That looked like a Secret Arts Skill. Even though it was highly unrefined it was enough to catch that fool off balance." And with that Saevio backed into the shadows of the ship.

Eventually, Zain lowered his hand and the arm that was covering his face but he had a completely blank expression on his face. Then his knees began to bend and he started to fall to the ground. But Ruder made it in time to catch him and lay him down flat and gently.

Then he said, "Well that was interesting, who would of thought that I would find someone of the special bloodline that contains the ability to perform the Secret Arts Skills. And with such a huge usage of the amplification skill you must of sucked out every last drop of energy you had."

Ruder then looked around and said, "I'll just lay over here where its safe and can regain your strength." Ruder then picked up Zain and carried him over to some crates and laid him down behind them.

Then he stood up and looked over at the Balrog frozen to the mast that was just now starting to regain some consciousness from the blast caused by Zain. "However, this will be my best chance for me to pull off one my own tricks." And with that he picked up his sword once more and very quietly said, "Here we go…final round."