Happy Friday, and happy reading!
The sound of flesh on metal rang out. Maka's fearful scream of his name died as the witch turned around, eyes wide with surprise. Soul was leaning backwards over her, arm raised to block the blow meant for her… and his arm was a blade.
He had been hiding in the shadows near the doors watching the fight between Maka and the witch. After being locked in the infirmary, he'd eventually figured out how to unlock the door from the inside. (What kind of door in a school has the option to lock from the outside?) It had taken some time figure out where she had gone, and by then, she'd been talking to the witch. It was obvious the witch was just playing with his meister, but he hadn't known what to do to help. In his current state, he would just get in the way, but he hadn't been able to draw away from them, even to go look for help.
She had been doing well, biding her time, keeping the witch distracted; keeping herself safe while trying to work out a plan. When she had refused to answer the last question, when her eyes had lost their calculation and become resigned, he had known that she was allowing herself to fail, and he couldn't let that happen. After she had been slammed down into the stones, he'd seen the pain in her eyes when she'd tried to get ready to defend herself. He'd watched that tail taunt her, causing his mind to blank and his body to take over.
The fact that the neither one had noticed him sooner meant he'd somehow managed to go through the door without yanking it open. As the stinger had risen, he'd run and thrown himself in front of her, breaking his promise to not be reckless and take a hit for her again. As he'd landed in front of her, the stinger had come down, and he'd whispered his apologies only to hear that familiar ping of metal instead.
There was a sting as the corrosive ooze trickled onto his blade. "Shit," he swore, then shook the green goo off his arm as the witch turned his way to stare. Still, the pain barely phased him as he stared at his arm. All of his doubt, the worry, the anger and the guilt that had been slowly drowning him the last few days was completely erased. He could change again, and so long as he was able to transform, to fight, to protect his meister, he was whole.
"Oh dear," Orsch said conversationally, her surprise gone. "I guess I should have finished this sooner." As the tail swung again, Soul blocked each swing as he kept his body between the tail and Maka. "There's only one way to break my curse; the fact that there is a way at all still irritates me, but that's the only weakness it has." The attacks continued as Orsch spoke. "Figures. If anyone was going to find the way to break it, I knew it would be the ever faithful Soul 'Eater' Evans. It really is too bad that you didn't stay away," she said as the stinger landed close enough to rip his pants. "Her death would have been quicker if you had."
Soul heard Maka whisper his name behind him, even over the sound of the stinger slamming into his blade. The attacks increased in speed and ferocity as he continued to protect his meister. The witch's expression never changed as the tail increased the speed of its attacks. Soul watched, blocking each one as it came, waiting for his chance, hoping she wouldn't grow bored and add her magic to the mix before he had his chance to strike back.
His chance came when the tail swung too wide in an effort to reach behind him to hit Maka. Soul blocked the swing with his foot, kicking it to the side, as he swung his blade down and cut clean through her tail.
Orsch screamed as she yanked her tail away, blood spurting all over Soul, the ground and herself.
"Maka, we gotta get out of here!" he said.
"No," she said, slowly sitting up behind him. "We'll fight. Can you transform?"
"I don't know," he answered as he kept his eye on the screaming witch. "I didn't try to do it this time."
Maka could see that he wasn't back to normal, but he wasn't as small as he'd been earlier in the day. No longer fearing the pain, she reached out to his soul with her own. When his soul wrapped around hers in return, they both sighed. "I think you can. Your soul is back to normal."
"Can you stand?" He glanced at her over his shoulder and worried for a second about the blood he could see, but the determination in her eyes gave him his answer.
Maka barely felt the pain anymore. The euphoria over Soul no longer being cursed, about him being at her side to fight with her, where he belonged, blocked out all else. If he was there with her, she could fight as long as she needed to. They would win- to do any less was unthinkable.
Orsch screamed, "You are so dead," but Soul was already in the hands of his meister. Maka swung him in front of herself as the witch curled her tail protectively behind her back. "You ready witch? We still have a soul to collect!"
Instead of answering, Orsch waved her hands in front of herself. "Scor scorpio, scor scorpion. Sand Summons!" As Maka moved forward, the witch hopped back onto the roof behind her. "Scor scorpio, scor scorpion. Sand Wall!" A windy wall of sand appeared in front of them, whipping at Maka's coat and making it difficult to see.
"Shit." Maka held her hand in front of her face as she backed away from the sandy barrier.
"Can you sense her, Maka?"
Maka closed her eyes to reach out. She could feel the pained soul hiding behind the sand and climbing up the roof slowly, but it was the other souls she sensed that worried her. "Uh, Soul?"
"Yeah?"
She took the couple steps back so she could look down at the city. "We've got company coming."
Around them, she could see that all of the scorpions in the city had started making their way towards the school. With her perception, she could feel them all ignoring the other meisters and weapons to charge the school. She faintly heard Black*Star yelling at them, and she could feel worry spike in Kid's wavelength as he came barreling in their direction. The rest of Spartoi also began making their way, the fastest of them being Black*Star as he used his shadows.
"Soul, we have to fly!"
"Will you be able to keep you balance okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine, let's go!" They managed to get their wings to sprout just as the first scorpion arrived and narrowly missed hitting them. They rose up into the air as Kid and Black*Star arrived.
"YO, WHAT IS GOING ON?" the assassin yelled.
"Maka, are you okay?" Kid asked as he stopped near her. "Wait a minute. How did you fix Soul?"
"By reinforcing a really bad behavior!" At his confused expression, Maka waved her hand. "No time to explain. The witch is still down there!"
"SOUL IS BACK!" Black*Star seemed to realize as he threw his arms out. "IT'S ABOUT DAMN TI-" The assassin fell a few feet before his shadow caught him again. "Oh no, they did NOT just cut my shadow!" He yanked his shadow up, falling towards the school before the other two could stop him. "YAHOOO! YOU'RE ALL MINE NOW!"
Maka and Kid didn't say anything as they turned towards the witch, who was leaving a long trail of blood behind her as she moved across the roof away from them.
"You ready, Maka? Soul?"
"Yeah, let's finish her off."
"Dibs on her soul!" Soul's voice rang out as he briefly appeared reflected on his blade.
Kid laughed, but didn't bother to remind him he couldn't have it. Kid flew to cut the witch off, shooting in front of her to stop. "I'll let you two clean this up, how does that sound?"
"Sounds good to me!" Maka landed behind the witch, flipping Soul as his blade appeared again. Orsch turned their way, her calm demeanor completely gone.
"You will pay for this! Both of you!" she screamed before turning to Kid. "First though, I'll take care of you! I only have to take you out, little Shinigami, and then the witches will have free reign again! I don't give a damn about your treaty! Witches will rule this world soon enough, just you wait! SCOR SCORPIO-"
"Get ready, Soul!" Maka yelled as she charged.
"-SCOR SCORPION! SAND TAKEOVER!" A blast of hot, sandy air shot out of the witch, knocking Maka off her feet and down the roof. The force also pushed Kid away, but he quickly recovered.
"I wasn't expecting that," Kid said. He saw Maka stop her fall with Soul's blade before she could be knocked off the roof.
Below him, a massive scorpion, easily several times the size of the others, had appeared on the roof in place of the witch. It snapped its pincers at the two flying meisters while two of the three tails curled menacingly over its back. The biggest one remained curled on itself near the creature's body, bleeding slowly.
"What the hell is THAT?" Liz asked.
"I believe that's the witch," Kid said, flying higher after one of the tails swung their way.
"Are you sure, Kid? How is that possible?"
"I don't know, but it definitely has the witch's soul inside of it." He looked over as Maka came to hover near him. "Well, Maka, any ideas?"
"Kill her," Soul shouted as he and Maka dodged one of the tails. The creature was trying to climb higher up the school as they continued to dodge and weave through the air.
"Yeah!" Patty cried. "Let's take this crazy lady down!"
Maka flew high to dodge two more swings as she studied the scene below. "If Black*Star can keep the little ones busy long enough, you and I can work on her. If you can draw her attention I can get in and land a hit. The armor on top of her body doesn't look like it can be pierced, but I'm betting she's got a soft spot on her belly somewhere."
"I'll see what I can do," Kid said, flying towards the thing's face. His shots bounced off the armor, not leaving a single mark, but it was obviously upsetting the witch. "How disgusting! Your body is disgusting!" he cried as he continued to shoot. "Three tails? And one of them has been cut unsymmetrically! You disgust me!"
He continued to dodge as he shot at the creature's face. One of the shots hit the thing in the eye, causing it to scream out. It flailed around, the sound rising and falling as it thrashed. One of the tails knocked one of the spires off, making it fly at the pile of scorpions fighting with Black*Star. As the ninja dodged, the creature continued to roll over the side, knocking more of the enemy away.
"Hey, Kid! Watch it! I'm trying to fight over here!"
Kid ignored him as his glared at the witch. "How dare you destroy the symmetry of my father's school! I will have to teach you a lesson for that." He pulled back out of range. "Liz! Patty! SOUL RESONANCE!"
As the trio began to resonate, their souls kicked up the wind around them, drawing the rest of the witch's attention. She turned, her two remaining tails beginning to ooze green. Maka took the opportunity to silently glide with Soul closer to her so she could scan the creature's belly.
"You were right, there's no armor," Soul said, just loud enough for her to hear.
"We just have to get in at a good angle. She won't stay distracted for long. You ready? You'll need to get your blade out and we'll have to resonate as soon as we land."
"You got it," he said, preparing. The thrill of being able to transform, of being able to fight with Maka once more, was positively addicting. He hadn't been this excited about something in a very long time. The thrill distracted him enough that he almost missed the third tail uncoiling again. As Maka circled around, he saw the movement just before she touched down. "Maka, move now!"
The warning came too late. Soul kept his blade in and tried to maintain the wings, but she was already hopping off when he yelled. Maka turned just in time to see the third tail swing at her and knock her off balance. She lost her grip on Soul as she bounced and rolled down the roof. Soul transformed and flung himself after his meister as an explosion sounded overhead from Kid blasting his Death Canon at the giant scorpion body. Soul managed to catch Maka's hand as she fell over the edge and stabbed his bladed arm into the roof to avoid falling as well. "Maka! Don't let go of me!"
Maka's hold increased slightly, but she still wasn't gripping hard enough to hang on for long. Her eyes were shut and her body felt more and more like dead weight as her grip slackened in his. He saw blood start to drip down her face, and he realized that she had hit her head on the way down.
As Soul glanced up, that became only his second most pressing problem. The force of Kid's shot had caused the witch's oversized body to lose purchase on the roof and she was sliding directly at them. He saw Kid flying their way, so he began to swing Maka as he watched the body getting closer. "Kid! Catch her!"
Maka, still clinging to consciousness, opened one of her eyes to look up. "What are you doing, Soul?" She didn't know why he was swinging her, but it couldn't be helping him hang on to her. "What do you mean 'catch her'?"
"No time to explain, just grab on to him the best you can, alright?" Soul only had a couple more seconds. With as much strength as he could muster, he swung her back again, ignoring her widened eyes.
"Wait, Soul-"
Just as Kid got within range, Soul flung Maka at him as hard as he could before the creature rolled over the edge and they both fell off the building in a cloud of dust.