Chapter Thirteen - The Black Knight
Rita Repulsa looked into her scrying pool and cackled with glee. Her Green Knight had served her well today. He had been showing some rather alarming signs of rebellion lately, but getting him away from the Princess and back into action had taken care of that.
She had not expected things to go as well as they had, but the entire plan had gone off without a hitch. Finster had created the perfect monster, and she had given Tommy the means to summon it, but there had still been a dozen different things that could have gone horribly wrong. But instead Tommy had led the most meddlesome of Princess Kimberly's friends to their doom, just as planned, and was now on his way back to the castle to claim his prize.
So far as Rita was concerned, it was all simply marvelous. The Crown and all its power would soon be within her grasp.
And the best part of it all was that Jason Scott would no longer be standing in her way. Without him, the kingdom was practically ripe for the picking. Rita smiled cruelly. The man was ridiculously easy to manipulate when he was looking for reasons to be angry, and she couldn't have found a more perfect way to take advantage of that than Tommy. She was delighted not only to have found the key to his downfall, but to have used it to rid the world of one more obnoxious goody two-shoes.
She knew from experience that people like Jason Scott were dangerous. If you didn't take care of them quickly, they'd bug you forever.
But with him gone, it would be smooth sailing from here. None of the other knights were as big a threat to her long term plans as Jason had been, and with the Princess entirely under Tommy's sway there wouldn't be anyone left with enough power to stop Rita from getting what she wanted.
It was nice to have things go her way for a change. Finally, things were starting to turn around.
Rita laughed again in delight, and turned away from her scrying pool for the first time in hours. "Goldar! Fetch me some of that fancy bubbly wine! Tonight we celebrate!"
-x-
Billy stared in horror at the edge of the cliff, which only a moment before had extended much further and had held an enormous, draconian monster and two of his closest friends. Two of his closest friends that he could now assume were either dead or seriously wounded, fallen down a good fifty feet of cliff face along with the monster they had been trying to defeat.
It took him several moments to collect his scattered wits, but fortunately Zack was just as flabbergasted and horrified as he was. Or perhaps not, since Zack had given no indication that he realized just who the Yellow Knight was. He would be mourning Jason and a masked stranger, not Jason and Trini.
Well, Billy realized, now was not the time to tell him the truth. Right now, he needed Zack to focus. Someone had to stop Tommy from doing whatever he was on his way to do, and Zack was the best candidate. He was a capable warrior, he had witnessed Jason's demise and Tommy's evil actions, and, most importantly, he was here.
"Zack," he began, his voice shaky. He could feel his palms sweat at the realization that he was about to take charge in a very precarious situation. The fate of the entire kingdom could rest on what he did next.
In response to Billy's nervous opening, the knight loosed a string of curses that would have made a sailor proud, culminating in a horrified, "What are we going to do now?"
Billy suspected that Zack was already aware of what needed to be done, but that he was torn between loyalty to his oldest friend and loyalty to the Princess. Not that Billy could particularly blame him for feeling that his duty lay with Jason, rather than Kimberly; it was, after all, her tournament that had led them to this plight in the first place. But she could never have known that it would end like this. And she certainly was not responsible for Tommy's actions.
And if Billy had to guess, he would suspect that Kimberly would be the next unfortunate soul to meet with Tommy. Thoughts of Tommy persuading the Princess that Jason's death had been the result of a duel to the death, rather than at the hands of a monster Tommy himself had summoned, made Billy's blood run cold. If a man as dangerous as Tommy were to become king...
That thought did not bear finishing. Instead, Billy focused his energy on working out exactly what he and Zack could do to prevent such an event from occurring.
"We must not lose hope, but we must assume that the worst possible scenario may have come to pass and take the necessary precautions to protect Kimberly from danger. Without its rightful queen, the kingdom will be plunged into political turmoil."
"Right," Zack said, looking a little lost. "What do you want me to do?"
"You must go after Tommy. I do not think he would harm Kimberly, but she may be in grave danger and you are the only one left that could hope to defeat Tommy."
"What about you?"
"I intend to find a way down that escarpment."
Zack made a face that said, loud and clear even without words, that he thought Billy had lost his mind. "But that thing is down there."
"And, if he is still alive, so is Jason," Billy pointed out. "He may need help. I cannot hope to stop a warrior like Tommy; he would simply incapacitate me. But I can assist Jason if he is injured. Therefore -"
"I have to go after Tommy, while you do what you can to help Jason."
"Precisely."
It was obvious that Zack did not like the plan and would have much rather accompanied Billy in his quest to find Jason, but he also knew that as a knight his responsibility was first and foremost to the Princess and her kingdom. Which meant that Billy was right: they each had to play their part or they were doomed for sure. And they might be doomed, even so.
But they had to try.
"Come on then," Zack said. "If I'm going to catch up to Tommy, we don't have any time to waste."
They spent far more time than Billy would have liked tracking down their horses, and then went their separate ways. Zack headed as quickly as possible back toward the castle while Billy made his way with more trepidation toward the river. He went on foot, not trusting himself to ride, and led his horse and those of his companions behind him.
It was a long time before he found a safe path down to the river. And by then the sun was low on the horizon and, despite his best efforts, his hope at finding his friends alive was dwindling.
-x-
Jason felt like a drowned rat. A half-frozen drowned rat, courtesy of the cold mountain water that formed the river. All things considered, it was preferable to the alternative, but he was less than pleased. He hauled himself out of the shallow pool he'd ended up in and waded, shaking slightly from the chill, up onto the shore. Methodically, he took stock of his situation.
He did not seem to be injured, or at least nothing hurt more than anything else. His armor was intact, mostly. The helm was missing and what was left was soaked from his plunge into the river. His sword was long gone, a pity, since he'd been fond of that sword, but he still had his belt knife. Everything else he'd had was, presumably, still with his horse. Wherever that might be.
Looking around, he realized that the river had carried him quite a distance in a very short time. That, or he had been unconscious a lot longer than he thought he had. There was no sign of the tentacled monster or even the high cliffs, but there, downstream a bit, he caught sight of something yellow in the water. The Yellow Knight.
He picked his way closer, careful not to trip and fall amid the rocks that covered the shore. He knew he should be trying to find a way back to where he had left Billy and Zack, but he couldn't just leave the Yellow Knight here. And he had to admit he was curious. Just who was that guy, anyway? This could be his best opportunity to find out.
It did not take him long to realize that something was wrong. The outline of the still form, lying on its side with its back facing toward Jason, seemed to be all wrong. The cut and color of the clothing were not what he remembered, and that tangle of long black hair...
His eyes went wide as he drew closer and the truth became irrefutable. The Yellow Knight wasn't a knight at all. "Trini?"
She made no response. From this distance it looked like she wasn't even breathing.
"Trini!" As he scrambled to her side, he felt a strong pang of guilt. He should have seen this coming, and done something to prevent it. The fresh calluses on her hands, the masquerade ball and the ring, every time she had evaded his questions and dismissed his concerns... She had given him every opportunity to realize what was going on, but he hadn't paid close enough attention. To be honest, he had simply assumed she was smarter than that.
And now she was nearly dead because of it.
When he made it back to the castle, Kimberly was going to get an earful about this. Trini's predicament reeked of her handiwork.
As much as he wanted to track Kimberly down and give her a piece of his mind, right this instant, he knew that he needed to keep his priorities in order. He would have to deal with Kimberly later and trust Zack to keep Tommy from destroying the entire kingdom. Right now, Trini needed help and there was no one to give it but him.
He tugged her up out of the water, almost cradling her in his arms, and had the distinctly unpleasant realization that it would probably break his heart if she didn't survive this.
She stirred slightly as he moved her, coughing up water, but that was not what caught Jason's attention. It was the way she seemed to shimmer as she came briefly awake, her appearance altering to that of the Yellow Knight. It happened so quickly that at first he wasn't entirely sure what he had just seen. But there was really no mistaking it. That was definitely magic.
He frowned. When had she learned to do that? And why had she never told him?
He supposed none of that would matter if she died. "Come on, Trini. Wake up," he urged, but she gave no sign of having heard him. "We have to get back to the castle. I've got to stop Tommy from doing whatever he's planning."
When she did not respond, he muttered a curse under his breath and hauled her further up onto the shore. She wasn't particularly heavy, even sopping wet, but as dead weight she was awkward to maneuver. If she didn't wake up soon, he would have to carry her. With Tommy still on the loose, he did not have time to waste waiting for her to come around, but he couldn't just abandon her here either.
"If you don't wake up, I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you," he warned. She remained stubbornly unconscious, so he did exactly as he had threatened, somehow managing to keep his feet and not send both of them sprawling to the ground in the process.
Once he got up and moving the going was easier, even if he did have to carry Trini. He started to warm up and dry out, and the dazed feeling that had plagued him began to fade away.
There was a trail not far from the river. He stumbled onto it by accident, but decided to follow it as it went vaguely in the direction he felt he should go.
He followed the path for a little more than a mile, give or take, before it opened up into a scrubby clearing. The forest became sparser and he could see the beginnings of hills and cliffs forming on either side of the river. They were getting closer to where they had fallen.
Unfortunately, they were also running out of daylight. He did not particularly want to stop and make camp, but he knew better than to keep blundering on through unfamiliar terrain in the dark. In spite of his better judgment, he pressed on until the sun was little more than a fading orange glimmer on the horizon and the stars and moon were beginning to show themselves through the gloom.
He knew he should have stopped sooner when he saw several dark figures emerge from a stand of trees up ahead. It was too dark and too far to tell who it might be, but Jason immediately braced himself for the worst.
It had been harder than he would have liked to admit, carrying Trini all that way after the melee and the fight with Tommy's monster. And nearly drowning. He wasn't entirely sure he would win if this confrontation came to a fight.
But it never came to that. Another couple of steps closer and he was close enough to identify the newcomer by moonlight.
"Billy." And not just Billy, but all three of their horses; he had never felt so relieved in his life.
"Jason! You're alive!" Billy sounded jubilant. "And -"
Jason did not bother glaring at him, though he would have liked to. It was too dark and the effect would have been lost. And besides, he needed to get moving. He had lost enough time already. "She's still alive. At least right now. But she's been unconscious for a long time. We'll discuss this later."
"Of course."
"Where's Zack?"
"I sent him back to the castle, to do whatever he can to keep Tommy from getting to Kimberly."
"Good." Finding Billy had been a stroke of luck. It certainly made Jason's path much clearer. "Here, take her. I'm going after Zack."
He had been carrying Trini slung across his shoulders, but she shifted her now so that she was in his arms and would be easier to hand over to Billy. She stirred as he moved her, moaning quietly and clinging a little. He would have liked to stay with her until she woke up - really woke up - but he knew he couldn't. Zack was going to need all the help he could get. So he let Billy take her, trusting in his old friend to take good care of her in his absence, and set off toward the city.
His horse was already tethered to Trini's, so he took them both so he could switch to a fresher mount when necessary, and tried not to look back. He had a long ride still ahead of him, and need to keep his wits about him and his attention focused on his ultimate objective. But as the forest closed in around him, he had to suppress the feeling that he was leaving his friends to the wolves... and racing headlong into the lion's den himself.
-x-
The race back to the city passed in a blur. It seemed at the same time to drag on for eternities as Zack picked his way through the dark and unfamiliar forest, and to be over far too quickly. The city rose into view long before he was ready to face what laid ahead of him, but he knew he could not afford to waste time on fear. He had seen no sign of Tommy during his return to the castle, and that worried him.
What if he had arrived long ago, and already managed to turn everyone against Zack?
He didn't think Trini would let that happen. Then again, someone like Tommy wouldn't hesitate to simply get rid of Trini if she became an obstacle to his ambitions.
Fighting against the fears that threatened to overcome him, Zack paused for a moment to form a plan of action. He'd made it back to the city in one piece; the question was how to proceed. He could go charging into a potentially hostile castle, spouting accusations and a wild story... or he could find another way in and hope to catch Kimberly alone and in a reasonable mood. And he had a feeling he knew just how to do that.
Rumors going back to the time of Kimberly's grandparents, or maybe even further, told of a secret tunnel connecting the royal quarters in the castle with one of the luxurious homes outside the castle walls. The King at that time had, supposedly, kept a secret lover at the estate and used the passage to reach her without arousing suspicion.
If the stories were true, he could use the secret tunnel to get into the castle without taking the winding road through the rest of the city. And, more importantly, without going in through the front gate.
And it just so happened that he had a close connection with one of the estate's residents, a certain fine, upstanding young woman named Angela.
It wasn't far from where he had entered the city, so he changed course slightly and headed that way instead of toward the road to the castle. If Angela was still staying at the estate, as she had been since the plague struck months ago, he was sure she would show him the shortcut to the castle.
The streets were dark and gloomy, but though he half expected Tommy to leap out of the shadows and attack, he saw no one. Finally, he came to the building he had been looking for. The large gate was shut and locked, and there was no guard to be seen. But that did not stop Zack for long; ages ago, Angela had told him the trick to getting the gate open without a key. True, she had told him never to use that knowledge again, after he had showed up to serenade her in the middle of the night and been summarily removed from the property by her elders, but he figured this was probably an exception to that rule.
He closed the gate behind him and locked it again for good measure, then made his way around to the back of the house. There was a light in the second story window that belonged to Angela's bedchamber, which he considered a good sign. He dismounted from his horse and searched the ground. Finding a likely looking pebble, he tossed it up toward her window. It bounced off with a nice tapping sound, but there was no response so he tried again. And again.
After the third strike, the window opened and Angela peered out, her expression darkening when she caught sight of Zack standing in the yard below.
"Angela," he called as discreetly as possible, "I need your help."
"Zack! What are you doing here? Where have you been?" she demanded.
"It's a really long story."
"With you it always is."
"I'm serious," he insisted. "Can you come down here so we can talk?"
For a moment she looked like she might tell him to leave, but then she gave in. "Okay, fine. I'll be right down."
He made his way around to the front of the house, but he still had to wait quite a while before she emerged. He was just starting to worry that she might be going to get him in trouble when the front door creaked open and Angela came out. It was immediately obvious what had taken her so long: she had stopped to change out of her nightgown and into one of her nicer dresses, complete with a cloak to ward off the night's chill.
"What happened today?" she asked. "You just... disappeared! Everyone's been worried sick about you and Jason and -"
"Has Tommy come back yet?"
"Not while I was still at the tourney grounds, but I left at sundown. Why? What does Tommy have to do with anything?"
"I need to get to the castle before he does."
"Then you had better get going," she said, frowning slightly. "Why did you come here if you need to go to the castle?"
He gave her a level look.
She grimaced. "Oh, come on, Zack. Those are just rumors... There is no secret passageway between here and the..." She trailed off, but he did not let her protests deter him. She looked almost guilty when she met his gaze next. "No, no, no. They may not all be just rumors, but I can't let you in in the middle of the night just so you can take a shortcut home, Zack. My parents would kill me."
"Angela," he said, deadly serious. "Jason is dead. Tommy killed him. I need to get to the castle as quickly as possible to stop Tommy from hurting Kimberly, too."
She only hesitated another moment. "Okay. I'll show you where the passage is. But no one can find out about this."
"They won't hear it from me," he promised.
"You won't be able to bring your horse this way," Angela cautioned. "Come on, we'll hide him in the stable."
The private stable was small, but there were a few empty stalls. And one look from Angela had the sleepy stable boy seeing to the new arrival and agreeing to say nothing of the late hour.
Zack had thought they might find the hidden passage in the basement of the estate's main building, but Angela led him straight past the large house and out into the walled-in yard behind it. The entrance to the tunnel was hidden in plain sight at the back of the garden.
And it wasn't so much a tunnel as a path between the walled compounds around it. It only descended underground to pass below the castle's moat.
He hesitated at the entrance to the tunnel. It yawned before them, dark even in the gloom of the night. "There aren't any snakes or anything down there, are there?"
Angela just laughed and tugged him down the stairs after her. "You're the one that wanted to come this way."
"Yeah, but I thought it would be a little less... rustic."
"Sorry to shatter your dreams."
Just the thought that there were undoubtedly spiders down there in the dark with them was enough to give him a bad case of heebie-jeebies, but he knew he had to keep going. If Angela could brave the dark depths, so could he.
If Tommy hadn't come back to the castle yet, taking his sweet time in his presumed victory, no doubt, that meant Zack still had a chance to reach Kimberly first. And, hopefully, to convince her of Tommy's evil intentions.
But first he had to survive the tunnel. And in the pitch darkness, with creepy-crawlies potentially lurking everywhere, that was easier said than done.
After tripping over the uneven flooring stones for the second time, he asked, "Shouldn't we have brought a torch or something?"
"You want to choke on smoke the whole way?" she retorted. "I didn't want to waste time finding a lantern. Besides, it's a straight shot from here. We'll be okay."
"You've come through here before," he deduced, hurrying to keep up.
"Duh. Everyone in the family comes this way at least once, just to say they have."
He slowed for a moment; she tugged insistently at his hand. "And they never say anything about it to anyone outside the family?"
He could practically see her amused smile. "Think of it as a rite of passage." A moment later, she added, "Ah. I think we're here."
Somehow he managed to avoid running into her in the dark. She did something, which he could not see, that clicked loudly, and then the wall in front of them, which he had not even realized was a wall, fell away and they stepped into a corridor that was no less dark than the one they had just left behind.
Angela stepped away from him for a moment, and he felt horribly lost and disoriented. "There's usually... ah-hah!" A moment later she had a small lantern lit. "And we're in," she said, smiling slightly.
"Yeah, but where in the castle are we?" He had certainly never seen anything like this before in his explorations. It looked very, very old.
"So far as I can tell, it's about the oldest part of the castle," she replied, "but I don't have any idea what it was used for when it was still being used. Come on, this way."
A couple of twists and turns - and several scarily decrepit staircases - later, and they were back in the inhabited portions of the castle. They hurried toward the royal quarters as unobtrusively as they could. Considering the last day of a tournament was usually cause for a great deal of celebration, even late into the night, the place was oddly quiet. The city had been much the same, as if the people knew that something terrible was afoot in the night. It was starting to make Zack very nervous.
They finally encountered life, in the form of two bored looking guardsmen, when they reached the Princess's current quarters.
"I need to see the Princess," Zack told them breathlessly. "We need to see the Princess," he amended, with a glance at Angela. When neither of the guards made a move to respond, he added, "It's important."
One of the guardsmen finally spoke up. "The Princess has given orders not to be disturbed, until..." He trailed off uncertainly as the door opened and Aisha poked her head out.
"Zack! Welcome back," she greeted. "Do you have news for the Princess?"
Having expected to see Trini, Zack was momentarily taken aback. "Yes," Angela said for him, with a glare in his direction.
Aisha gave them both a thorough look over, then she smiled. "Seeing as it's the middle of the night, you've obviously just come back from a hard ride and you look like you've just seen a ghost... I'm going to assume this is important," she decided. "Come in."
As Aisha ushered them in, Kimberly emerged from the bedroom at the back of the small suite and into the tiny sitting room, pulling a pink robe on over her elaborate nightgown. "Aisha, what's going on?" she asked. "I thought I said I didn't want to see anyone except -" She paused for a moment. "Zack and Angela? What are you doing here?"
Zack decided that there was no use in dancing around the issue, so he summed it up as bluntly as possible.
"Jason's dead. And the Yellow Knight, too." He hated having to say it like that. He had been trying hard not to think about it, to tell himself that since he had not yet seen proof one way or the other there was a chance Jason might still be alive, but every time the words came out of his mouth they seemed to make Jason's death somehow more real. Anger and deep sorrow warred within him; Angela squeezed his hand gently, an unexpected show of compassion. He hadn't realized she was still holding his hand.
"What?" Kimberly gasped out. She nearly staggered, but managed to keep her balance. "How? And... what about, what happened to Tommy? Why hasn't he come back yet?"
"Kim," he began, wondering how to make this less painful for her. "It was Tommy that killed Jason. I don't know why he hasn't come back here yet."
"No." The Princess shook her head vehemently. "It's not true. Tommy wouldn't do something like that."
Zack begged to differ. "I was there, Kim. I know what I saw."
When she looked ready to protest again, he headed her off. "I've known you since we were both kids, Kim. I count you as one of my best friends." He struggled to find a way to explain that he wanted her to be happy and safe more than just about anybody else, and ultimately gave up. There really wasn't much he could say. "Why would I lie to you about this?"
"You wouldn't," she admitted quietly. "But I... I don't understand. Why would he do something like that?"
He would have liked nothing better than to give her a hug and a shoulder to cry on, but duty dictated otherwise. Tommy could still show up at any time, and if he did, Zack needed to be ready for anything. And he needed Kimberly to be aware of what they might be up against.
So he told her, as briefly as he could, what had happened after he and Jason followed Tommy into the forest. By the time he had finished with the tale, all three women bore looks of horror, although Aisha and Kimberly were slowly edging more toward anger.
"Kimberly, it's okay," Aisha soothed, seeing the turmoil on the Princess's face.
"It's not," Kimberly insisted. "If Jason's dead, if... if Tommy's really a menace to the kingdom, if he's just been using me all this time..." Her expression hardened. "I'm going to put a stop to this. Once and for all." She stormed out of the sitting room and into the hallway, ordering, "Zack, come with me."
He hurried to obey. "Shouldn't you stay here, where we can defend you?"
The look she gave him was as cold as ice. "No. If Tommy used magic to kill two of my knights today, then I will use magic to stop him."
After sharing a confused glance with Aisha and Angela, Zack followed her down the hall. The girls were hot on his heels, with the two bewildered guards trailing along behind. Zack had to admit, he didn't have the slightest idea what Kimberly might be planning when she made her way directly to the royal treasure room. This was really not the time to be wearing lots of old and expensive jewelry or looking at antique weaponry.
But Kimberly ignored the cases of jewels and the weapons that were on display in the treasure room. She even ignored the famed royal crown in favor of pacing agitatedly back and forth.
Zack did not want to point out that they probably did not have time for that, but they almost definitely did not have time for that. And every moment that slipped past set him more and more on edge. Where was Tommy? He thought he had won, didn't he? Or had Zack and Billy guessed wrong, and he had gone to make sure Jason was dead, first?
The sounds of a scuffle outside drifted into the room, along with warning shouts from the guards: that would be Tommy arriving. He must have arrived at the castle shortly after Zack did; Zack thanked his lucky stars that he had thought to ask Angela to show him the shortcut, or he would have arrived too late.
Now that Tommy had realized Kimberly wasn't where he expected her to be, and had likely been warned of his misdeeds, he would be beyond angry. It wouldn't take him long to get rid of the guards, and then...
Zack did not want to admit that he might not be able to stop Tommy, but he realized it was a distinct possibility. The man was ruthless. And if he had summoned a monster before, there was no guarantee he wouldn't do it again.
"Kim, we don't have much time left. I'll do my best to stop him from hurting you, but... do you trust me?" For some reason, with everything on the line, it seemed suddenly important that she believe him, and not think that he was lying to her for his own gain, or Jason's.
With a look that told him her heart was well and truly breaking, the Princess nodded. She paced across the room one last time, coming to a stop where the royal crown and other artifacts sat on their pedestals. Much to his surprise, she returned with the crown in her hands. He had a momentary panic that she was about to give it to him, but she did not. His confusion only increased when he realized she had also picked up a jeweled letter opener.
"I may pass out in a moment," Kimberly cautioned. "When I do, grab this stone and think 'armor'."
Baffled, Zack could only watch as Kimberly took hold of the royal crown and used the letter opener to pry one of the gemstones out of it. As the large black onyx came free of its setting, the Princess crumpled. Luckily, Aisha and Angela were there to catch her and keep her from swooning to the floor.
While his first instinct was to help Kimberly, Zack found himself oddly compelled to do as she had ordered. He carefully took the black stone from her and felt a momentary flash of panic as everything went suddenly white. But the white light passed in the span of a single heartbeat, and he found himself once again standing in the royal treasure chamber... but now he was clad in shining black armor and felt overflowing with energy, as if he had just woken from a good night's sleep.
And in his hand was an axe the likes of which he had never seen, except in his dreams. "This... this is awesome!"
He had barely finished that observation when Tommy Oliver appeared in the doorway, his expression one of fury and, surprisingly, horror. "What have you done to her?"
"Nothing," Zack replied. "She did it to herself, to give me the power to stop you."
Tommy drew his sword. "She's mine."
Zack had not expected that declaration, or the attack that came immediately after it. He dodged out of the way, feeling astonishingly light on his feet considering he was wearing full body armor. It was almost like the magic armor Kimberly had given him didn't weigh anything. He suddenly felt a lot more confident. Maybe he really could win this battle.
He parried Tommy's follow-up slash and took the offensive. Whatever magic Kim had used on him might have put him on equal footing with Tommy, but he still had a feeling he should try to stay in control of the fight and end it as quickly as possible. As they traded blows, Tommy aimed for all the weak points in Zack's armor, but Zack was quick to defend himself and turn the failed attacks to his advantage. He had not undergone years of rigorous training for nothing.
With every tactic Tommy tried, Zack tested him. Slashes, thrusts, parries, evasive maneuvers, some fancy moves he had never expected to actually use in a real battle... His confidence waning as he realized they were almost perfectly evenly matched, Zack was beginning to hope just to find a way to incapacitate Tommy. But no matter what he tried, Zack could never quite seem to get the upper hand long enough to put an end to it.
Finally, Tommy broke away and backed up a few steps. "That's enough of that. I'm getting bored," he sneered.
He came to a stop and raised his left hand, leaving himself momentarily open. But Zack did not have time to take advantage of the opening, because Tommy fired what could only be described as a bolt of greenish-blue energy right out of the palm of his hand. It moved too quickly for Zack to even consider dodging or blocking it; he barely had time to comprehend what had just happened before it struck.
The bolt hit him square in the chest, and while it did not strike him dead like a true bolt of lightning, the force of the impact sent him stumbling backward. It seemed somehow grossly unfair that, if he had magical abilities like that, he did not know how to use them.
Tommy smirked. "You really thought you could beat me? You don't have half my pow-"
Zack almost laughed when he saw what had cut the cocky bastard off mid-boast. Aisha had nailed him in the head with the butt end of an antique spear she'd pulled out of its wall mount. That would teach him to think that women were harmless.
Still reeling slightly from Tommy's magical attack, Zack surged back into the fray. At least he had armor to protect him from Tommy's attacks. If Tommy chose to go after her instead, Aisha had no way to defend herself from him, save for that spear. And Zack wasn't about to let it come to that.
He attacked furiously, his momentum nearly toppling both of the knights as Tommy sluggishly moved to defend himself. It would seem that Aisha had landed a solid hit and Tommy was still struggling to recover from it. Zack counted his blessings and steeled himself to move in for the kill.
And then he realized that blackish green smoke was seeping into the room from somewhere. It clung to pedestals and display cases, crept over to sweep around Angela and Kimberly; Aisha swung her spear experimentally in an attempt to dissipate it, but it stubbornly remained unharmed. It ultimately began to congregate near the center of the room, where Zack was still trying to fight Tommy.
The sensation from the smoke was bizarre and distracting, like little feelers touching his body and mind at the same time, searching for weak points. It burned in his lungs and made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. And clouds of it began to envelope Tommy. Soon it had filled almost half of the room, and it was impossible to even see his opponent.
Fearing that this might be some kind of new, more powerful magical attack, Zack backed off a bit. He swung his axe a couple more times for good measure, but struck only empty air. A few moments later, it was apparent that the smoke was disappearing. And, as the room cleared, it became equally obvious that Tommy Oliver was gone.