Chapter 10: Stormy Weather

You know those scenes in anime where everything is super dramatic and the two arch enemies are facing off in this really extreme environment? Yeah. That was the point we were at right now. Scar had followed me as I drew her away from the camp site and up onto the base of a mountain, far from humbled buildings of Canyon City. It was just us, and the storm, now blowing wind through the trees, making the leaves shake in the blackness of night.

And she wasn't pleased about getting drawn so far away. I'd hoped maybe separating her from the slayers would get her to calm down and come back to her senses, but she was still raging as much as ever, ready to put that sword deep into me and fry my insides. But she knew better than to meet me head on. I had superior blood in my veins, and she'd never seen me all out fight.

If she was going to fight with electricity, I was going to have to fight with fire. Though she'd very soon have every upper hand possible. If the storm finally broke out over us, she'd not only have lightning, but she'd have me drenched and wet, not something very advantageous when your powers were fire-based and the water would only make getting that electricity into me that much easier. I had to finish this quickly, before that happened, but before I entered a full on battle with her, I'd rather give her one last chance to back down and let it go.

"You don't have to do this," I yelled at her over the sound of rushing wind. "You can still stop now.

She let out a deranged laugh and shook flipped her hair behind her. "Nie. You don't understand, du schurke."

I sighed. "Mio dio." Now she was mixing her sentences in both English and German. Could she make this situation any worse?

Yes. Yes she could, by charging me when I wasn't ready. I leaped out of the way, no time to block her move when she was going so fast. How could I stop her without hurting her?

Her sword fell heavily on the ground I'd been on moments before and carved a line in the dirt there. Leaving a very clear impression.

She looked upa t me before launching herself off the ground again.

Well that was one thing I had that she didn't, I thought as I jetted away from her. The ability to get up in the air and fly around.

So I used it and got up high in the air.

And then the lightning came. Because Scar wanted it to, she had her sword raised, pointed at me and I suddenly realized I had decided to put myself between nature's van de graff generator and the psychotic chick that controlled electricity. Smart.

The bolt hit me before arching down to her sword and into her, making her shiver as the power surged into her.

Great. That had to be the stupidest thing I could've done, I considered as I fell, unable to do much of anything after, you know, getting struck by lightening. Stupid, stupid, stupid brain. I fell hard on the ground as a roll of thunder echoed from above us. Time was ticking, and I already knew that the storm was big enough and close enough for her to use it if she had something to draw it down with.

I picked myself up, sensing her marching up to me in all her fury. Her sword came at me again and I blocked it with my own. But was immediately shat back with more electricity. My hair was standing on end, straight out form my skull in petrified strands.

I got back up. Despite the power in every move she was delivering to me, she hadn't hurt anything significant. I was covered in scrapes and cuts but her electricity was more shocking than harmful. And I was wondering why. Perhaps she wasn't really that powerful, perhaps she just looked it, but couldn't actually electrocute me.

But no... the slayers had fallen and were probably dead from her power. It should be atleast enough for it to hurt me, even if didn't kill me... so why?

"Are you even trying?" came her criticizing voice from in front of me. The soft glow from her eyes had dimmed.

Oh, thank god she was getting weaker... or something. It had to be a good sign. Maybe she just needed to vent on something, though I really wished it hadn't been me, but at the time was glad she at least couldn't kill me... right?

Then she took her sword in another swing and met mine, again. The sparks jumped to my blade but only touched it before arching straight back to hers.

So that was it. Her power couldn't travel through my Katana. She had to put enough power behind the energy to get directly to me. So distance would be my friend, long as I didn't touch anything zappy.

I pushed her away again and leaped back, trying to think of a way through this. Fire. Fire was always the way out. Fire was my greatest ally, my greatest weapon. I had to use it.

I summoned a ball and threw it at her, hitting her square in the chest. She did flame for a moment, making we rather concerned before she simply waved the flames away, leaving her clothes horribly charred, but still on her, thank god, and a gentle redness coming to her skin, the severity of a small sunburn.

So she wasn't hurt by fire the way other things were either. That made me much more comfortable throwing it at her, and I did so, hitting her several times but every time she snuffed it out like it was nothing. Like it was nothing more than a moth she could simply brush away.

Damn. She was going to really make me exhaust myself, wasn't she?

she came at me again, her blade coming up in a powerful overhead swing. But this time when our blades met mine was on fire. I felt her trying to push the electricity across, but she couldn't. No through the flames.

"Sie Drecksau," she spat and pulled away.

I made to throw an even bigger, hotter ball of flames at her but she took the hilt of her sword and did some movement with it, opening a portal and hopping through.

Silence. I looked around. She was going to come at me from some un expected angle. That always happened, so I kept my eyes moving around, trying to spot her before she had the chance. A portal opened directly in front of me, more of those black sparks arching across it's entrance. Jeez. Her and the theatrics. I was all about some drama but she just made everything cool-looking creepy. The way she was grinning. Wait... her face, I could see that scar on her cheek and here eyes had turned black under the glow.

Oh no... that couldn't be good.

I stood my ground as she calmly walked out of hell. That sulfuric stench overwhelming the air again.

A rain drop fell on my hand.

I was out of time. She'd have every advantage of top of not being... her.

Her eyes were glowing brighter than ever and an even more evil grin was on her face. More evil than anything I'd seen on her face before. If this even was her, I could still see the black in her eyes.

Then she charged me but this time when our blades met, the electricity passed straight through my flames, and it was black in the way only demonic things can be. when it hit me, it hurt, and it made my heart jitter against my control for a second. I was on the ground after, gasping for air as it felt so horribly like someone had knocked the wind out of me.

But I didn't have time before her foot met my ribcage and I was launched off the ground, into the side of the mountain somewhere.

I wanted to give in, to let her rampage through the town. But that wasn't right. I had to keep fighting. My eyes stared at the sky, and more drops fell on my face. Wait... before... she'd gotten struck by the lightning and it put so much power into her she was shaking... so what if that happened again? And over and over? How much power could she take before her body shut down, unable to keep up.

I had to get her in the heart of the storm.

I got up before she could find me again and jetted straight up, ignoring it as water spattered into my face. She looked up at me and then looked at her feet and picked one up, shook her head and jumped after me. She might not have been flying ,but she could jump pretty high. But that was all I needed. I reached up with mymetal hand and waited for the pain to come. Her sword glittered underneath me, I could see it. The arch was powerful, bigger and much much more painful than the previous one and it hit me, and went straight down to her, but she wasn't grounded now so she was the only place for it to go, and she eagerly sucked it in at first, drinking in the power before she realized it was too much. We both fell and landed on the ground hard. Steam rose from wherever the rain had fallen on me.

She wasn't moving at first then her limbs were violently twitching. I got off the ground and crawled over to her, hurting in every inch of my body and feeling like my muscles had been stretched beyond the point of no return. Everything felt like wet noodles. And I hoped... yes. This was over. She was slowly relaxing and was just about unconscious on the ground that was getting wetter and softer with every second that passed. And then the gentle sprinkle turned into a torrential downpour before I could limp over to her.

She was shivering, from the wet and cold, and the electricity still occasionally sparking from her to the ground.

Her eyes looked up at me when I got next to her and she broke the eye contact, shame coming across her face. She was sane again, thank god.

I reached out to touch her, to check and make sure she was still actually breathing after getting struck by lighting. There was a loud crack and another jolt zapped me, making my hand flinch into a fist before the feeling subsided. I flexed my fingers before actually poking her. No more shocks.

Finally. I nearly collapsed there and slept off the burns, the stress on my heart, the cuts and bruises, the exhaustion of fighting. Instead and gathered her in my arms. Neither of us would do well out in the cold rain.

She struggled weakly, whimpering something but all I managed to make out was "sword."

I looked up, expecting it to be right next ot her, but it was nowhere, then I saw the gouge where it'd made contact with the earth, but it had been moved by some unseen force and was now missing entirely.

"It's gone," I told her.

She sighed and gripped my shirt, looking depressed.

"Du fligil schwine," she murmured and shut her eyes.

"The hell does that even mean?" I asked, guessing it was some offensive term.

There was a long moment of silence, making me think she'd passed out before her tiny voice spoke up one last time. "Flying pig."

Flying pig? She called me a flying pig? I sighed and shrugged it off. Offensive, insane, whatever she was, she wasn't trying to kill me anymore, and that was what was important.