TWO OF A KIND
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 25
Despite the enormous sword that Rohkan wielded in his four hands, Mizuki let out a bark of laughter, pointing with her left hand. "You, finish off Morrel and I? With that clumsy big sword? And your feet trapped in crystals?"
Frowning in irritation, Rohkan hefted his sword to a better grip and raised it vertically, the blade tip pointed at his feet. With a grunt, Rohkan heaved the giant sword down and at the point of contact, a shuddering wave of kinetic force blasted outward in a ring. Morrel yelped and fought for balance as a seismic rumble swept across the tower's roof, but to no avail; the mortared stones making up the roof shattered and roiled with the intense force, throwing Morrel to the ground flat on his stomach. He felt the air forced out of his lungs and broken brick shards poke into his skin, and Mizuki was similarly sprawled out nearby. That wasn't the worst of it; the crystals encasing Rohkan's feet shattered easily like a thin film of ice, shards of unnatural crystals flying everywhere in a cloud.
Freed, Rohkan bunched up his legs and pounced like a frog, swinging his enormous sword back as though it were a mere willow wand instead of a ten-foot-long sword.
"No you don't!" Mizuki shouted as Rohkan's blade descended through the air, aimed right at her neck. She thrust out her giant cursed hand and caught the oversized blade in her ivory-colored talons, but Morrel saw Mizuki's arm trembling against the awesome strength Rohkan brought to bear. The Vedalken landed on his feet and pressed harder, using his stance on the ground to stabilize his attack.
Sparks of green, red, and black mana sputtered from the point where Rohkan's blade met Mizuki's claws, and the huge sword crept inexorably closer to its human prey as a look of increasing terror spread on Mizuki's face.
Not in my lifetime, Morrel vowed to himself. He didn't yet hoist himself to his feet on the shattered rooftop but instead, he reached out and channeled blue and white mana through his fingers and a Hindering Light barrier popped into existence between Rohkan and Mizuki. Taking her chance, Mizuki scrambled out from the Hindering Light and pranced away on her bare feet, letting Rohkan shatter the Hindering Light with one jab of his sword.
"Admirable teamwork," Rohkan commented, raising his giant sword back to ready position. "Neither of you will abandon the other, even when your reserves of mana grow dim."
Morrel clutched a hand at his sternum. Actually, it's the plesori root that's juicing me up, but that won't last forever, he thought, warily watching Rohkan slowly approach again. What can I do against a threat like this? Rohkan is unlike anything I've ever faced! Except Azrael himself...
"Hey! Rohkan!" Maretta called over.
The Vedalken turned his head to face her, impatient. "What is it?"
"Try to keep the trembly stuff to a minimum, okay? We're fighting over here, too!" Maretta pouted. She flashed her multi-corded mana whip through the air, guiding more of her shielded Golgari minions toward Zoira's flaming servants.
Rohkan shook his head. "I am sorry, but no." With that, he turned back to Morrel and Mizuki, then slashed his sword across the roof, carving a wide arc across the crumbled stone.
Morrel was ready this time, and he leaped into the air as the shock wave raged underfoot. He landed again and threw a quartet of his knives at Rohkan to distract him while Mizuki approached from the side. Rohkan merely swished his sword horizontally through the air and a sudden gale buffeted both the swords and Mizuki alike, throwing them toward the ruined tower roof. The knives clattered to the rooftop and Morrel rushed over to Mizuki, catching her in his arms just before she hit the stone ground.
"Thanks for that," Mizuki grunted as she got back to her feet, glaring at her opponent. "Okay, switch it: I make the cover and you approach!"
Unwilling to wait, Rohkan jabbed his sword at the rooftop and a narrow channel of shock waves rocketed toward Morrel, and the Bant battlemage barely evaded it in time. Rohkan struck the roof again and again with his sword, channeling red and green mana that shuddered the roof with explosive results. Only narrowly avoiding one such tremor, Mizuki planted her feet as firmly as she could on the jagged rooftop and pointed her giant right index finger at Rohkan, pouring her dwindling reserves of black mana into the talon. A beam of focused black mana lanced at Rohkan like an arrow, and the Vedalken swordsman raised his blade and let the beam strike the metal surface. Rohkan dug his feet into the rooftop to keep steady as the mana beam pushed at him relentlessly.
Morrel sprinted across the battlefield and launched himself into the air, throwing a roundhouse kick at Rohkan's exposed head. Rohkan noticed the incoming blow just in time and spun away, releasing his blade from the deadlock with the mana beam. The black mana beam blasted into the rooftop near Rohkan, throwing off his balance. Morrel took his chance: landing back on the ground, Morrel swung his fist and caught Rohkan's jaw, throwing the Vedalken's head to the side. Tightening his fists as hard as he could, Morrel sank one fist into his enemy's chest, then blasted another fist onto Rohkan's temple. The Vedalken hung tightly onto his blade but stumbled back, stunned. Grinning, Morrel lowered himself and quickly swept out his leg, blasting Rohkan's legs out from under him. The Vedalken crumpled in a confused heap, sprawling across the ground.
"There we go!" Mizuki cried in delight, pouncing on her downed foe. Before she could land a blow, however, Rohkan jabbed his blade through the air and threw Mizuki back with a tunnel of shock energy, then scraped his sword on the ground. Morrel cursed as he was thrown back by a seismic shock in the ground, and Rohkan took his chance to get back up, albeit shakily. Rohkan swung his sword down at Morrel, and the Bant battlemage rolled out of the way.
Mizuki leaped back to her feet and caught Rohkan on his blind spot, raking her talons across his flesh and drawing blood. Howling, Rohkan slashed his giant blade back at Mizuki, cutting deep into her cursed hand. The Kamigawa Planeswalker wailed in agony as she stumbled back, her giant right arm going slack from the deep wound. Dark blood seeped from the injury and Mizuki's face grew paler by the minute.
Blood pounding in his ears, Morrel summoned up the last of his mana and thrust out his hand, stark-white mana flowing from his hand like mist. A wide ring of white mana flashed into existence, taking Rohkan's sword with it.
Rohkan blinked at his suddenly empty hands, stunned by the Oblivion Ring that robbed him of his only weapon. "If that's how you want to fight, Morrel, then so be it," he warned, clenching all four fists. "But you must know that it is futile, and Mizuki is injured and unable to fight. Flee!"
Morrel gave Rohkan a dismissive look. "Sorry, Rohkan, but I'm beyond trying to forgive Azrael or his minions. You guys are trying something terrible by trying to re-assemble that Sphere of Ages. You brought this on yourself."
Rohkan looked strangely disturbed. "Yes. So I did," he muttered, and then he and Morrel charged at each other, fists raised.
*o*o*o*o*
"I thought you'd be a challenge!" Maretta complained. "You got past my Izzet minions just fine, so put up a fight already!" Three of her shielded imps beat back one of Zoira's wingless dragons, their tainted claws dissolving the dragon's scaly flesh. Blue mana tendrils connected the imps to their human mistress.
Zoira motioned with her hands, altering her strategy. "How's this for a challenge?" She had unsummoned her phoenix to conserve its strength. The wingless dragon snarled and pulled back, forcing the imps to fly closer to resume their assault. The imps shrieked as the dragon spun around, whipping its thick tail through the air and swatting aside the three imps. One of them was blasted into pieces while the other two limped away weakly.
Then Zoira's flaming saber-tooth tigers charged, fire crackling on their paws and their saber-teeth poised for the kill. Flicking her mana cords through the air, Maretta guided her minions forth, three plant-zombies and a huge scarab beetle with green, mossy chitin. The tigers pounced on one of the plant zombies, slashing their flame paws across the unyielding white mana shield that cocooned the zombie. One of the tigers yelped as a plant zombie swept it aside, but the remaining tigers ignored their fellow's plight and broke through the first zombie's shield and incinerated the Golgari creature.
"Focusing your fire? Very nice," Maretta hissed, twirling her whip through the air some more. Her imps came back with infectious claws, strafing the tigers and wingless dragons as they charged again. One of the dragons rumbled as imp claws raked its head, but Zoira's summons threw aside Maretta's minions with blasts of fire and they had a clear path on Maretta herself. Just as they got close, however, Maretta relieved a few of her Golgari thugs of their mana cords and guided the free lashes toward Zoira's creatures instead.
Suddenly realizing what Maretta was planning, Zoira commanded her summons to evade the blue mana cords, but a dragon and tiger were too slow. Zoira felt her eldritch connection to those two animals vanish as Maretta's whip took command of them, forcing them to fight the other summons. Taken by surprise, Zoira's summons howled as Maretta's newest pawns struck with claw and flame. The Golgari thugs regained their momentum and charged en masse at the exposed Zoira.
Sorry, phoenix, but I need you again! Zoira focused her red mana and conjured her fire ring once again. The phoenix swooped out of it, its flaming wings noticeably dimmer than before. Still, the majestic bird cawed and flapped its wings once, engulfing the Golgari monsters in a maelstrom of raging fire. As the flames dissipated, only charred ashes remained of the Golgari thugs, both their white mana shields and natural armor burned to nothing. Zoira prayed to the gods for her phoenix to hold out, but the bird was spent. With one last croak, the phoenix collapsed in on itself and was gone with a puff of embers.
"Oh, too bad about your fire pigeon," Maretta teased Zoira, flinging around the mana cords that had latched onto the Golgari thugs. Realizing that she was about to lose her other minions, Zoira unsummoned most of her creatures, leaving only the two under Maretta's control and one last saber-tooth tiger. The mana cords chased after the tiger but the flaming cat sprinted out of the way, zig-zagging as it approached Maretta. With a shrieking howl, the fire cat pounced and slashed its claws and fangs against Maretta's personal mana shield, sparks flying from the points of contact. Wincing from the effort, Maretta sent her two minions after the tiger to distract it, then took control of the free tiger with a whip thread.
"There. Only I command an army now!" Maretta gloated as her dragon and two saber-tooth tigers turned to face Zoira, prepared to attack. "What else have you got, fire elf?"
I can't lose like this! Zoira fought back panic in her gut as she tried to weave unsummon magic on her three surviving minions, but nothing happened: they were truly under Maretta's command. She backed away slowly, heart hammering as her own creatures advanced on her. What do I do?
The dragon and two tigers pounced for the kill, and then, as if from thin air, a large, bronze humanoid figure appeared and blocked the incoming attack, shielding Zoira from harm with its wide body and thick arms.
"What... what?" Zoira sputtered, gaping. Then she realized what she was looking at. "Veldor?"
The Etherium-armor-clad man turned back to look at Zoira, excitement blazing in his brown eyes. "Hello, Zoira. I got here just in time, huh? Very lucky. Close call."
"Did you just Planeswalk here like that and block the attack?"
"I did. Tricky, but I've practiced this technique. Finally came in handy," Veldor explained in his usual rushed babble. The dragon and two tigers still strained against Veldor's giant armor suit, but the Esper Planeswalker channeled all of his blue, white, and black mana into the armor suit and kept the animals at bay. "And now I'm going to end this battle. Are you hurt, Zoira?"
"N... no," Zoira shook her head. Then she smiled. "You have the damnedest timing."
Veldor merely smiled back, then turned his attention back to his foes.
*o*o*o*o*
Howling in rage, Rohkan stampeded across the ruined tower rooftop, all four blue fists swishing through the air. Tightening his own hands into fists, Morrel tracked his opponent's movements as best as he could, ducking and evading Rohkan's flurry of punches. The good news is, he uses crude moves that are easy to avoid, Morrel analyzed as he ducked a pair of fists and twisted past a jab at his stomach. His feet danced all across the jagged stone floor to keep his body moving. The thing is, he uses four arms! I've never trained for an opponent like this.
"Give up!" Rohkan shouted in frustration, landing a glancing blow on Morrel's cheek but failing to down his human foe. Morrel clenched his jaw as he ducked another punch to the face and slipped into Rohkan's blind spot, and he swept his foot to topple Rohkan. The blow smashed Rohkan's legs against each other and the Vedalken tipped, and Morrel took his chance by throwing another pair of punches. Quick on the upkeep, Rohkan stabilized himself by planting both left hands on the floor and blocking with his two right hands, then throwing a hard kick at Morrel's gut. Morrel's breath exploded from his mouth as the Vedalken's foot slammed into his stomach like a crazed Rhox, sending him stumbling back with a hideous ache.
Rohkan recovered and swung his fists to knock Morrel out, but the Bant battlemage read Rohkan's blunt moves and evaded them, then he took a risk and seized both of Rohkan's left arms and pulled. Rohkan grunted in surprise as he felt himself getting thrown off-balance by his own momentum, shepherded by Morrel's grapple. Rohkan gasped as Morrel's knee crashed into his ribs and Morrel's elbow bashed on the back of his head.
Growling, Rohkan squirmed away and rammed his open palm onto Morrel's left shoulder, sending Morrel spinning away off-balance. Rohkan charged again and threw a quartet of punches, but Morrel's leg shot out in a vicious kick that connected at the same time as the four fists. Both Morrel and Rohkan crashed to the stone floor and sprawled away from each other, both gasping for breath and nursing various aches.
"I'm not... giving up, monster," Morrel huffed as he wobbled to his feet. His legs trembled and his stomach churned in a sickening way, but he refused to tear his increasingly blurry vision from his blue, four-armed enemy. His Oblivion Ring vanished and Rohkan's giant sword popped back into existence, clattering to the ground.
Rohkan spat a glob of blood and rose to his feet, stooped with fatigue. His regenerative green mana was long spent. "I won't... retreat, either," he grated back. "I don't want to kill you, Morrel. You committed no crime but interfere with Azrael's work. You need not pay with your life."
"I don't understand," Morrel panted, his aching brain whirring. "Why so much mercy? It's like you don't really want to fight!"
Nearby, Mizuki watched the two fighters square off, her giant arm shrunk back to normal. She clutched her bleeding right arm to her chest, breathing heavily. I don't get it either, she thought. What is Rohkan planning?
Rohkan made an impatient noise. "I do want to fight, it is just..." he broke off, glancing away. He breathed heavily and his eyes danced, as though he waged a fierce mental battle. Morrel gawked, wondering if Rohkan had a secret agenda of his own that he had been holding back this whole time. Morrel's conjectures, however, were interrupted by a new arrival as another Planeswalker entered Ravnica.
"I have suspected this ever since Lorwyn, Rohkan," commented an unamused voice horribly familiar to Morrel's ears. Gliding forward a few feet off the tower's rooftop, the red-headed Azrael fixed his stern eyes on Rohkan as his bright red cape fluttered at his armored shoulders.
"What do you want with me?" Rohkan spat, turning to face his master.
"I want to know why you fail me yet again!" Azrael thundered, landing at last on the ground a dozen feet from Rohkan. "You refuse to finish off your foes and you clearly despise my noble ambitions. Why is this! Tell me!"
Rohkan glared. "You assume nonsense."
"Do I?" Azrael demanded. Even Maretta, Veldor, and Zoira stopped to regard the newcomer. Azrael pointed a finger at Rohkan. "I've seen the way you cringe at my methods and question my ambition! You joined me because you wanted to serve a cause greater than yourself, but you've strayed from that and become useless! What do you say for yourself?"
Morrel braced himself as the Vedalken staggered over to where his giant sword lay. Rohkan wrapped his four hands around the hilt and lifted the weapon to a ready position, then flooded the blade with primordial green and red mana. "I say... that I serve you no more!" Rohkan bellowed, and with a downward sweep, he smashed the tip of his blade against the floor.
Everyone else recoiled as a tremendous, narrow shock wave raged toward Azrael like a bloodthirsty wurm, but Azrael merely looked contemptuous as the shock wave drew closer. Spreading his arms out for balance, Azrael lifted himself off the ground once again and extended his left hand, letting Rohkan's savage shock wave strike his open palm. Fiery sparks of mana showered from the point of contact where the shock waves met Azrael's open hand, and the thick tunnel of seismic energy halted and strained against its foe. Still, like water eroding rock a million times faster, Azrael's hand dispelled the shock wave as it came until the shock waves were spent.
Oh, this isn't good, Morrel joked feebly to himself as Azrael glided higher into the air, now extending his hands with clouds of sickly black mana focusing on his palms. Then, Azrael smiled coldly and thrust his hands out, conjuring a tidal wave of ghostly but thick black mana that rushed toward everyone in sight. The ocean of ravenous black mana swelled even more and spilled all across the battle-damaged tower, burning through the building like corrosive acid and tilting the whole structure. Morrel felt a thrill of vertigo as the tower began to lean and crumble from the strain, and he was not alone: everyone else was fighting to stay on the tower and avoid getting thrown off to the ground hundreds of feet below.
"Morrel!" shouted Veldor, and the Esper Planeswalker bounded over in his giant Etherium suit and seized Morrel in one metal hand, his other hand gripping the tilted tower surface with adhesive blue and white mana.
"What about Mizuki?" Morrel shouted over the din of the collapsing building and the roar of the black mana ocean.
Veldor glanced over. "There!" Indeed, Mizuki clung to the tower with her right hand, which she had returned to full size despite her injury. Her face tightened in effort as her talons gripped the tower, but the bricks of the tower were coming apart and Mizuki would soon lose her grip.
"Help her!" Morrel bellowed to Veldor and the Esper warrior wasted no time. Adding adhesive mana to his suit's Etherium boots, Veldor fought his way across the crumbling tower toward Mizuki, extending a hand for her to take. Mizuki reached out with her normal left hand, but then the tower reached a critical point and shattered into several pieces that crashed to the ground. Mizuki howled as she fell through empty air, plummeting to the sheer ground below.
Somewhere deep inside Morrel's gut, he felt a little node of mana clamor to his conscious like a servant who realized that he was late. Without even thinking, Morrel reached out with his hand and conjured a shield of shimmering blue-gold mana that hovered only a foot above the ground, and Mizuki fell right onto the shield and bounced slightly. She tumbled back onto the Hindering Light but relaxed, proving that Morrel's shield saved her life. Veldor landed heavily on his feet, a surge of his blue-white-black mana absorbing the shock of the landing and keeping Morrel safe.
"What about Zoira?" Veldor realized, panicking. He whipped his gaze everywhere among the chunks of tower crashing to the ground, and he breathed with relief as he found Zoira perched on top of one of her wingless dragons. The beast looked injured but it had saved its rider all the same. Maretta was nowhere in sight.
At last the rubble settled down and clouds of dust hung in the air like fog, thousands of stray bricks and columns scattered everywhere. Rohkan stood with his giant sword still in hand, watching warily as Azrael gently glided to the earth on a cushion of blue mana.
"So, you survived," Azrael noted to Rohkan, fire in his eyes. "Traitorous brute. I'll prove the error of your ways." He vanished in a flash of blue mana, re-appearing an instant later right behind Rohkan. The Vedalken couldn't even blink before Azrael's roundhouse kick smashed into his head, sending him reeling away with a new bruise. Azrael vanished again and blinked back into existence at Rohkan's blind spot, hammering the Vedalken with a barrage of hard punches, rattling Rohkan and driving him back. Rohkan swung back and Azrael vanished before the blow landed, giving Rohkan time to dispel his giant sword back into its four original blades and sheath them.
Then Azrael appeared again, seizing Rohkan by the shoulders and teleporting again. This time, he took Rohkan with him.
"Up there!" Zoira shouted, pointing high up in the sky. Morrel craned back his neck and gasped at the sight: a hundred feet into the air, Azrael and Rohkan hovered. Then, Azrael dropped his heel on Rohkan's head and sent the Vedalken on a crash-course to the ground a hundred feet below. Not wasting any time, Azrael vanished again and re-appeared right before Veldor, landing a heavy kick on Veldor's bulky armor with a thud.
"The Sphere shard is here! Find it!" Veldor grunted as Azrael pushed him back with more heavy kicks that shuddered Veldor's armored body. Morrel took a nervous step back, unsure what to do: Azrael was hammering away at the armored Veldor, and Rohkan was still falling and the Sphere shard wasn't even in sight. He chanced another glance in the sky, and he saw Rohkan only a few dozen feet above the ground. The Vedalken scrunched his face in concentration, gathering the last of his strength. With a flare of green and red, he Planeswalked away.
"Morrel! Come on!" Mizuki shouted, scampering among the ruins with Zoira to find the Sphere shard. Trying to ignore the one-sided brawl going on between Azrael and Veldor, Morrel hurried over to Mizuki and started sifting among the ruins, desperate to find a piece of the melon-sized Sphere. It's quartz-like with a million colors inside. Can't be hard to find! Morrel told himself, remembering the Sphere shard that Veldor currently held. We got that one on Lorwyn. We can get this one too!
"Out of my way," Azrael snarled, throwing a kick that smashed the armored Veldor to the ground. He whipped his gaze back and saw the search going on and frowned, teleporting yet again. This time, he appeared right before Zoira and sent her sprawling with a quick pair of jabs to the stomach. He stomped closer to the weakened Zoira, intending to finish her off.
"Here!" Mizuki declared, her giant right arm tossing aside a chunk of bricks and revealing the quartz shard glittering with countless colors. She quickly seized it in her right hand, beckoning for Morrel. "Quick! We've got to get away!"
"No you don't!" Azrael thundered, teleporting yet again. He warped himself to Mizuki and kicked her away, sending her crashing into rubble. Then he was gone again, this time taking Morrel by surprise with a hard blow to the head. Morrel's head rang and his vision flickered from the heavy blow, but he refused to go down.
We didn't come all this way for nothing! Morrel growled to himself, too fixated on the shard to contemplate Rohkan's betrayal to Azrael or anything else. Instead, he saw Mizuki stagger to her feet and swing her left hand, conjuring a cluster of black mana tentacles. The tentacles speared through the air at Azrael's back, and although Azrael quickly thrust out his palm and negated the tendrils with his blue magic, the tendrils bought Morrel time. Morrel scampered past Azrael and joined Mizuki, seizing her left hand. "Get us to Bant!"
"Get to Bant! Just follow me in the Blind Eternities!" Mizuki shouted to Zoira and Veldor as Azrael came charging in for another attack.
"Won't Azrael follow us?" Zoira called back.
"Trust me, there's a lot of guys at Bant who would help protect us!" Mizuki called back. Apparently unwilling to test the defenses at Bant, Azrael stopped short and merely glared with rage as his four foes vanished into thin air.
*o*o*o*o*
Cards in this chapter... Hindering Light, Oblivion Ring, Stinkweed Imp, Woodwraith Strangler, Grave-Shell Scarab, Withstand, Cancel, Consume Spirit, Teleport, Tendrils of Corruption