Zorn looked to Ruto, the overwhelming need to protect her rushing through his veins, then back to Enki. "You talk too much."

Enki growled, shadows licking around his form. He suddenly disappeared and reappeared before Zorn, the Dark One's fist heading full speed for his naked abdomen. The youth knocked the attack away with a kick and brought his own fist around towards Enki's head. The shadow man disappeared again, this time reappearing behind him. Zorn had anticipated this move however and spun to catch the Dark One's fist. He suddenly felt a wave of pain as his hand touched Enki's flesh and he was sent flying backwards into the water, purple electricity snaking its way across his skin. Zorn willed the pain away into the water around him and quickly brought himself back up to the surface.

The shadow man smirked at him, humor dancing in his eyes. "It looks like you can't touch me anymore."

Zorn dipped his arms into the water below him and lifted; the water responded by wrapping itself around his forearms and fists and freezing into place, essentially creating a barrier. The youth rushed forward, the water seemingly the cause of his movement, and swung his now hulking arm at his enemy. Enki breathed in and tensed just before the ice made contact and a shadow jumped from his skin, creating a barrier to block the attack.

The ice shattered, sending millions of tiny shards in all directions. Zorn jumped back, at the same time preparing an ice spear, and threw his weapon. Enki swung his arm and knocked the weapon aside with his magic long before it could connect.

It was now that Zorn was beginning to regret leaving his weapons in his room; if he had them his chances of actually doing something to this man would greatly increase, but doing so would put Ruto at risk. She could definitely handle herself but putting her in that position would be a painful task emotionally, especially if something were to happen in the short time that he would be gone. He would just have to find a way to do without for the time being.

Enki didn't waste any time after knocking the spear away, before the youth could ready a defense he was being hurled across the room at such a high velocity that when he slammed into the wall spider web like cracks formed around the impact site. With his breath caught in a frozen state, Zorn did the only thing he could do: tense himself for the next blow rapidly approaching.

Time seemed to slow, the shadow hand headed for him was suddenly blown apart as a blue flame ripped through the air, the intense heat forcing him to close his eyes. When the heat dissipated enough for him to see, the scene was such: Ruto throwing nearly every spell she had at their opponent. Enki barely had enough time to block one attack before he was forced to give his attention to the next blast. It was an onslaught that was probably draining her quickly with how much force she putting into every attack.

Not wanting to waste any more time now that his breathing had returned, Zorn launched himself from the wall and into the fray. The Dark One couldn't avoid him this time, there was simply too much for him to focus on. The youth let loose a violent blast of wind directly into the side of Enki's head, sending his form spinning off and out of control. Their opponent hit the ground with a loud thud before skidding to a stop a good ways away, his form unmoving.

"I need my gauntlets." Zorn looked to Ruto. The Sage nodded and darted off out of his sight.

Enki slowly got to his feet with a hand held to his head. "That was honestly not something I had been expecting, kudos to you, boy." With a pop of his neck, the Dark One lowered himself into a fighting stance once again. With a quick thrust of his hand he shot out a bolt of energy which Zorn very narrowly avoided. He could feel the heat coming from where it exploded behind him, the sound of crackling fading away as quickly as it had appeared.

The youth sent several blades of air flying towards his enemy with spins and thrusts of his limbs, all of which came close but none hit their mark. He could hear Ruto enter the room again but didn't turn to look for her, not daring to release his attention. With a final kick he sent out a wave of fire, hoping it would keep Enki busy long enough for him to take his gauntlets from Ruto.

He quickly turned his attention away and there she was holding them at the ready for him to easily slide his hands in. Without so much as a moment of hesitation his hands were fitted into place, the familiar sensation of the leather forming to his skin greeting him as if his weapons were welcoming their master back from a long journey. Zorn didn't linger on the sensation for long, as soon as he was sure he was ready to continue he refocused himself back to the intruder in time to see him burst through the wall of flame.

The youth didn't even give him a second to reassess his surroundings, reaching out towards the pool, he willed the water directly towards Enki. The Dark One noticed just in time to put up his arms as it blasted him into the wall. Zorn didn't wait, as soon as his enemy hit the ground he was on top of him, swinging wildly with a new found strength in knowing his gauntlets would protect him from whatever dark magic assaulted him.

Enki let out a grunt as the youth's fist connected with his gut, the blow lifting him up into the air; just as he reached the peak of his lift, Zorn smashed his other fist into the side of his head, sending him hurdling into the pool with a splash. Ruto decided now would be a good time to join in and immediately began freezing as much of the pool as she possibly could. It was in vain, however, as Enki caught on quickly enough and launched himself out of the pool.

The youth sliced his arms through the air, sending blasts of wind flying towards their opponent. With this distraction Ruto began charging as powerful a flame spell as she could muster. Enki jumped about the room in as erratic movements as one could imagine, only narrowly dodging each gust; through the chaos he could see the sage charging her own attack and knew the if she succeeded he would no doubt be hit but, at the same time, she was vulnerable.

The Dark One suddenly flew straight through one of the blades, blood appearing upon impact, and was quickly approaching the Sage. Time seemed to slow as Zorn watched his enemy, with one last attempt he let loose a final kick that sent a blast of air towards his enemy… and missed.

Ruto, now ready to release her energy, jumped back and thrust her hand forward. Flames burst forth from the small zora in waves that poured over the room. When it was over, Zorn could see the exhaustion written all over her; she was breathing heavily and was having trouble standing but Enki was nowhere to be seen. He rushed over to her and grabbed her arm to help stable her, but kept himself aware of their surroundings.

"Are you okay?" The youth asked, his tone was worried but held a hint of distraction.

"I'm fine, I just didn't get quite enough time to focus, I let too much go too fast." Ruto was leaning heavily into him now, thankful that he had come to her; she felt she would have fallen had he not.

The silence that now plagued the room was deafening. Zorn could only hear ringing as he held Ruto up. "I don't feel his presence here any longer." The zora announced through ragged breath.

The youth wanted to agree, everything told him their enemy had perished, but he still felt something was off. Still nothing changed in the room however, all was still. The sensation was like a buzzing up his spine that screamed for him to move but his mind said all was well. He couldn't sense Enki nor could he see remains of his foe. All of his being told him the Dark One had been destroyed save for that Goddess-forsaken buzzing.

"Is everything alright?" The Sage looked up at her student. She could see the veins on his neck and forehead protruding through as his muscles tensed.

Before he could reply, a wave of shadow knocked the two away from one another and sent them careening towards opposite walls. Zorn felt the wind leave him as he slammed into the wall and pain arched throughout his being. His eyes quickly shot open in fear as his mind caught up with the situation.

Enki was suddenly an inch from his face and before he could react he felt a sudden pain shoot through his chest as sparks erupted from him. Zorn slumped back against the wall as his breathing came back under his control. The Dark One smiled with delight as he sent a second wave through the hybrid, the pain finally causing a small vocal reaction.

Ruto had raised herself from the ground during the time that she had been ignored and was now moving towards Zorn as best she could. As she neared she readied a spear of ice. It was proven ineffective before, this she knew, but if she could distract him long enough for Zorn to attack then the effort would be worth it. She raised her arms and swung the weapon with as much strength she could muster straight for Enki's head.

Enki took the hit and cried out, his vision alight with the attack. "You vile wench!" He cursed. The Dark One spun around with his back to Zorn and knocked his attacker to the ground. The youth saw his chance but couldn't push his convulsing body to action. Every time he attempted to move his muscles would lock up from the excess energy.

"I'm done with your interference!" Enki placed his hands together and summoned forth a blade for himself. With a quick thrust of his hand he shot a bolt of energy into the zora, her body suddenly locking up in pain. He readied his blade above, both hands on the hilt with the blade aimed for her chest.

Ruto lay in fear, fully knowing there was nothing she could do to stop him. She had been careless; years without true battle had eaten away at her abilities. She had grown complacent and now that long fed failure was going to be the end of her. She knew she couldn't disperse the energy in her body quickly enough in order to roll away and the water was too far away to help her accomplish that task. All she could do now was accept that she had failed and hope that Zorn could finish Him off.

Zorn's eyes suddenly grew wide as adrenaline flooded through him. With a renewed sense of purpose, he pushed himself from the wall and lunged for the kill. His under arm blades sprang forth in an instant, ready to take the life that had been long a friend to him, but now was nothing more than a murderous singularity poised to take the one thing he had left to love. His blades slid deeply between Enki's ribs, his flesh not even slowing the process. Zorn's hands slammed into his enemy, normally signaling a halt, but the youth continued to press in all the while trying to slip the blades deeper and in doing so turning them.

He felt a deep satisfaction as his enemy cried out in more pain than he had since their battle had begun. Enki struggled and grabbed for Zorn's wrists, succeeding but unable to send current through the enchanted weapons. Through the struggle the youth realized something was not quite right with the situation: he had not heard the sword clatter to the ground as he had been expecting. A deep sense of dread crept over him as he did his best to peer around the Dark One's form.

There on the floor lay Ruto, her body still and pale, with her hands placed in disbelief upon the black sword he had so desperately tried to keep from her. It stood like a tombstone from her chest, plunged just to the left of her breastbone most likely intended for her heart but had fallen off course when Zorn attacked and had instead ended up just below her breast. Her pained face screamed out in silent pain.

Zorn felt nothing but rage, a deep boiling rage the sent him into a frenzy. He looped his boot between Enki's feet and quickly brought him to the ground with his face slamming into the cold stone. He wasn't even sure where he began stabbing, it all became a blur as his fury was manifested upon Enki. Blood began to splatter his chest as continued to tear his enemy apart, his stabs quickly turning into slashes. His blade would occasionally catch with and imperfect slash, the blade turning sideways and getting caught. This didn't stop him, he just kept moving, the flat end of his blade now tearing off chunks of flesh where the sharp end failed to slice.

He realized that during all of this the sound he could hear was no longer Enki, now only gurgling up blood with every spasm his torn lungs and stomach could send up, but instead it was himself. The noise could hardly even be called human, it sounded animalistic and distorted.

The body of his enemy lay unmoving, the blood now a stagnant pool at his feet. He remembered feeling Enki leave the body and hoped that it had meant death, but something told him that a man such as Enki would not have allowed such. It just meant he could bring that devil further pain the next time he dared to show himself.

He turned to Ruto and fell to his knees next to her. Her breathing was labored, coming in quick gasps. Blood was slowly pouring from her wound, a small pool forming beside her. He felt numb, none of this felt real. The blade was too deep, it had gone straight through into the stone she lay upon. Even if he could heal her she would likely die in removing the blade. He felt tears filling his eyes and running down his face. He placed his hand near to her wound and pushed as much of her pain away from her as he could, masking the injury so she could at least not suffer. It was the only thing he could do now.

Her breathing became more regular, though it still came faster than usual. "Zorn, I- I want you to know that I am proud of y-you." Her voice was broken with each word, heavy with sorrow. "I- I knew that you were always destined to fight a great evil and to suffer many hardships. But-" Her voiced cracked, her tears flowing heavy. "I wanted, when it was all over for us to still be together. I wanted when the fighting was over to take care of you and for us to have a life together."

She openly cried as she looked deeply into his eyes, each sob wracking her body. "Zorn, I love you so much, and I'm so sorry I can't show you what I had wanted for us."

It felt like his insides were tearing with every word she spoke, so much so that it was difficult for him to speak. His throat tightened as he pushed off the need to cry. "I love you too, more than I can possibly explain."

Through her tears she attempted a smile. "Will you kiss me, please?"

He could barely contain his sobs now. Zorn nodded, carefully placing his free hand behind her head in support. He slowly leaned down and with the utmost care pressed his lips to hers. She responded with pressing hers lips in return as best she could. He felt her hand caress his face as she began to pull away. Her eyes found his and it was like the whole world stood still for just a moment.

"Thank you." Her voice seemed tired, and slow. She kept her hand on his face and kept her eyes locked with his.

Zorn couldn't hold back the tears as he watched her eyes struggle to stay open. "I was honored to have been given the privilege."

There was a slight twitch at the corners of her lips in what he assumed was a smile just before her hand fell away and her head fell to the side. Zorn closed her eyes and carefully set her head back before pulling his hand away. There was no one to hear him sob as he stood, no one to comfort him as his tears fell to the floor, no one to support him when he pulled the sword from her body and cast it aside, no one to help him carry her limp form to his bed. None but the walls of his broken home.

With a heavy heart, the warrior took up his equipment in full and prepared himself as he continued his mourning. As he left the room, he set his shield at the foot of the bed and went silently as a ghost, only the door's hinges to signal his departure. He turned away from the door and his eyes caught the blade he had left on the floor. As he knelt beside it he suddenly felt sick at the sight. It was nearly identical to his own.

The pommel was a mix of black and gold with a small red gem fitted at the end of it. The blade itself was a deep obsidian and the guard was slightly curved clockwise. Zorn could barely stand to look at its blood stained surface, but if this was good enough to kill a part of him then it would more than suffice as his own instrument of death.


It's been nearly a two year wait since my last update and I didn't forget my promise: I am going to finish this story.

The Sage of Water,

~ConGie