A/N: okay...here's chapter 10. The recap for this chapter would be slightly different from all my other chapters so far...because this chapter still takes place at the same time as the previous chapter...(In case anyone is wondering...I didn't forget about Lenalee and the others in the previous chapter...)
Enjoy the chapter! =)
Recap
"Die! Exorcists!" a level two akuma yelled, throwing a pair of blades at both Allen and Syaoran with deadly accuracy. As always, the boys were able to dodge the blades. Immediately after they had dodged the initial attack, Vines, a level three akuma, shot out a series of what it seemed to be like bullets. Allen and the others prepared to avoid the oncoming attack, half-expecting that it'll hit them. Instead, it had missed by a landslide, hitting the ground.
"What?!" Allen gasped, shocked that the level three had missed; usually the akumas they faced would have tried to hurt them in any way possible. Other than the two akumas, the remaining level three akuma have not revealed what his abilities were and in order to succeed in defeating the akumas, the exorcists had to plan everything with great caution.
Unfortunately, it was only at the last moment before either Syaoran or Allen noticed the akuma's intention.
"Allen-san, they're separating us!" Syaoran cried, once he had figured out why the akuma had intentionally missed in the first place.
As the two tried to rush over, the ground suddenly shook, causing everyone apart from the akumas to lose their balance. Then, huge vines shot from the ground, surrounding the two boys and enclosing them, forming something which closely resembled a fortress. Lenalee, Sakura and Mokona tried to rush to their aid but were blocked by the akumas.
"Now, where do you think you're going?" the level two akuma asked sinisterly before starting his attack.
"Don't worry, Tyki-sama will take good care of them" Vines continued, enjoying the expressions on Lenalee, Sakura and Mokona.
Lenalee didn't want to believe what the akuma had just said; remembering the time where she had found out that Allen could not return as an exorcist shortly before leaving to Japan. The grief and guilt were the main things that she had felt back then and she did not want to experience it again, neither did she want Sakura or Mokona to experience it.
Determined to stop the level three akuma from taunting them any further, Lenalee used her boots and kicked off from the ground at a speed that was impossible for anyone to see where she was headed. Before Vines could react, Lenalee appeared right before it and delivered a hard kick that brought the akuma crashing to the ground. However, before Lenalee could attack him a second time, the other level three akuma, stopped her, with a speed that matched her own.
"Noah-sama had warned me of your abilities, luckily, I'm well-prepared!" the level three cried confidently, before taking off to the skies
"Amazing, she's fast." Mokona breathed while Sakura could only nod her head in reply as Lenalee chased after the level three akuma.
Unexpectedly, the level two shot up out of from the ground and appeared in front of Link, Sakura and Mokona. When she caught sight of the chained soul which resided within the akuma, Sakura flinched slightly.
"What's the matter, exorcist?" Vines asked as he joined in, standing alongside the level two.
"Mokona, please stay near Link-san," Sakura said quietly, not taking her eyes off the akumas.
"But-"
"Mokona, please...you might get hurt."
Sensing determination within her, Mokona quickly hopped onto Link's shoulder while Sakura prepared to attack.
"Take that!" the level two shouted, as it once again threw the blades. Instead of dodging it, Sakura aimed her anti-akuma weapon and shot right at the oncoming blades, deflecting them.
"Heh...not bad, I thought you were too scared to move but at least it would be more interesting to fight you." Vines taunted, "But it's time for you to die!" launching his attack.
From the ground, many vines shot out, entwining around Sakura. Sakura tried to fight with the bonds which, unfortunately tightened each time she tried to move.
"It's no use, I'm able to control the plants as I want to" the level three gloated, as the level two prepared to attack.
Sakura gasped as she realized that if she did not get out of her bonds right now, she would most likely be killed by both the level three and level two. "No...no...I won't die here!" she thought, while she reached for her anti-akuma weapon.
Just as the level two threw the blades, Sakura had managed to get Hope free from the bonds. Almost giddy with relief, Sakura fired two shots which had hit both the level two akuma and the blades with extreme accuracy.
"T-T-This isn't the end yet, e-e-e-exorcist..." the level two barely managed to choke out as it dissolved away into Sakura petals.
"If he can't finish you off, then I will," Vines cried, while placing his hands to the ground, causing the ground to tremble once again. Then, unexpectedly, a rather gigantic plant to emerge from the ground.
However, before the akuma could continue further, an evil and sinister voice said, "Ah...my darling akuma, would you please finish off the two exorcists in that lovely fortress you've made?"
"With pleasure, Earl-sama," the akuma replied, before turning to Sakura, "I'll be back to finish you off once I'm done...that is, if you can survive my ultimate creation!"
"Oh no....he's after Syaoran-kun and Allen-san!" Sakura thought as she tried to rush forward to stop the akuma. Unfortunately, the gigantic plant prevented her from going any further. Each time she took a step, the plant had attacked.
A little distance away from the fights and unknown to the exorcists, Road watched. Earlier on, she had felt that Sakura was merely not suited to be an exorcist, judging from the way she had reacted to the akuma in her first encounter. Since Sakura had proven that first impressions might not always be right, the latter had decided to watch the fight from a distance rather than joining the action.
"Road-tama, why didn't you join in the fight? I thought you were really enthusiastic about it earlier." Lero asked.
"I have not decided who I should play with first...Hey, look! That rabbit on that human's shoulder looks really adorable!" Road exclaimed in a child-like manner.
"Road-tama, that's not right! You shouldn't-" Lero tried to reason with her but was promptly ignored.
"Shut-up, Lero, besides, I sense that the innocence is nearby." Road interrupted, becoming instantly serious. Stepping away from her initial position, Road created a door using her powers.
"I'll return to join in the fun later, don't eliminate the exorcists just yet, as for the human, you can eliminate him if you like." She silently ordered the akuma.
"The plant moves really fast...how am I going to attack it if this continues?" Sakura thought as she barely dodged yet another attack from the plant. Because of its speed, Sakura did not have enough time to properly attack it.
"Sakura!" Mokona cried out worriedly, "Link, are you able to help her with this?"
"I'll try my best," Link replied, taking out his pair of switchblades. With an expert aim, he threw it straight at the plant, successfully catching its attention.
"Destroy the plant now!" Link yelled as he dodged the plant.
Sakura immediately understood, aiming her anti-akuma weapon, she fired a few shots. Luckily, all the shots had hit their target, causing it to literally freeze in action before dissolving away.
"Sakura, you're great! Wait till Syaoran-kun and the others hear about this." Mokona said brightly, hopping lightly off Link's shoulder and onto the ground.
"Thank you, Mokona, Link-san" Sakura smiled, looking at them respectively as she mentioned their names.
"But...Lenalee is still fighting with that level three up there," Mokona pointed out, "is there anything we could do to help her?"
"No...we can't help her much from here. She's too far away." Link replied.
A few miles away from the battle, Road's door magically appeared from the ground. Pushing both doors open, Road strolled out into the open surrounding where the snow was so deep that it seemed that it had been snowing heavily for the past few days.
"Brr...It's cold here" Lero shivered. Road, however, did not seem affected by the cold.
"If I were innocence where would I be?" Road sang, as she made her way through the snow without much difficulty.
"Road-tama, there's a grass patch over there that doesn't seem affected by the snow. It's still green." Lero pointed out.
Road scanned the area and true enough, a tiny grass patch was seen from a short distance away and right in the middle of the grass patch, a sakura flower laid there, unaffected by the freezing weather and the cold draft of air.
"Found you, innocence!" Road cried excitedly as she rushed towards the innocence. However, the moment she got within a hundred meters from the innocence, a bright light appeared, momentarily blinding the noah.
"The light is too bright!" Lero commented, facing the opposite direction away from the blinding light as he was unable to shield his eyes from it.
Soon, the light faded. Road gently opened her eyes, however, the innocence was already gone. In addition, the snowy weather had been replaced by a sunny weather.
"That innocence has an interesting power, not only is it able to cause a weather phenomenon, but it teleports as well." Road thought as she turned back to the door which she came through.
"Road-tama, where are we heading?" Lero asked.
"You'll see..." Road replied, not bothering to elaborate.
Meanwhile, Lenalee was fighting on par with the level three and the fight was really fast-paced and it was impossible for anyone to help either of them unless they could move at the same speed. Sakura, Mokona and Link had no choice but to helplessly watch as the battle.
"Sakura, I had just felt a strong presence like your feather but it just suddenly vanished." Mokona said.
"Eh? How's that possible?" Sakura replied, turning her attention to Mokona.
"Sakura, could you use your innocence and shoot the level three?" Link asked, as his eyes were transfixed on the battle, as if estimating the distance between them and Lenalee.
"But...I may hit Lenalee-san by accident!" Sakura replied, panicking slightly.
"Just do it! They are fighting at a lower altitude now. Your weapon would be able to distinguish the akuma from Lenalee." Link cried.
Sakura aimed her weapon cautiously and she fired. As Link had said, the bullets had hit the level three directly bringing its attention to Sakura instead.
"Why you-" the level three cried, clutching his left arm, obviously distracted from the fight and that gave Lenalee the advantage to give the finishing move.
"Pay attention to your opponent."
The level three could only gasp in shock as Lenalee delivered a direct kick into its body; no words could come out from his mouth as his body slowly dissolved into some-sort of flake-like substance.
"Thank you, Sakura, without your help; I would be probably still trying to defeat that akuma."
"Sakura's so cool!" Mokona cheered.
"Don't be too happy yet, now it's my turn to play with you, exorcists!" Road voice said rather playfully.
"Road..." Lenalee muttered as she recognized her voice.
"Bingo."
A red and black checkered door suddenly materialized out of nowhere, causing the group to be even more tense than before.
"Time for me to play with you, and I don't take no as an answer," Road smiled as she strolled through the open door that she had just created. "but...I only want to play with the exorcists...so..."
"Link! Mokona!" both girls cried as they saw the two of them being encased within a large semi-transparent dice.
"This is going to be so much fun." Road giggled, as the two exorcists turned and faced her.
"Let the fun and games begin." Road continued before slowly fading away with the surroundings, leaving Lenalee and Sakura trapped within the dimension that she had just created.
"Where are we?" Sakura asked, as she looked around nervously.
"This is one of Road's dimensions." Lenalee answered.
"That's right, now, my game is rather simple. If you manage to win, I'll let you and your friends go." Road explained, fingering the sharp tip of a candlestick, "but for every wrong move that you make, that human and the cute bunny outside will get hurt, like this." Road demonstrated by stabbing a dummy she had created with the candlestick, enjoying the shocked expressions on both Lenalee and Sakura.
A/N: hehe...I have to end the chapter here for now, the rest of Road's battle with Lenalee and Sakura will continue in the next chapter...and Lavi, Fay, Yuu-chan and Kuro-rin will also be appearing in the next chapter^^ Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Re-edit: The next chapter might take a little while longer to be uploaded...I'm kinda doing really major changes to the initial draft...
Please read & review ^^