Chapter 35: Surprise Attack
They set out south as soon as Dark Pit's story was over. They all wanted to reach Xintut as soon as possible. Dark Pit especially. He was sick of carrying all the deadweight in his soul. He just wanted to be rid of it and move on. It would hopefully take them about two days to reach the town (including that particular day).
The sun had just started sinking towards the horizon when Dark Pit felt something was watching them. He couldn't really tell what it was, but something was off. His danger sense was going haywire. Something was just horridly out of place.
"Duck!" he yelled. He hit the ground, hoping his command had come out in time.
It did. Just as the last of them hit the ground, a charged shot from a Laser Staff tore through the air they had occupied not two seconds earlier. Dark Pit could feel the heat from the blast. A Dark Agent had caught them once again. This time, though, Dark Pit wasn't going to take the 'kill first, ask questions later' rout. He was just going to hurt him/her really bad.
The shot had come from the left of where they were walking. "Split up," Dark Pit said. "Find him."
With that, each member of his team took off in a different direction. They were all headed in the same general direction, but fanning out. Dark Pit didn't know it, but he was on the most direct route. He slowly crawled forward. He didn't dare stand, for fear of having his head removed. Angel or not, a fully charged Laser Staff at long range was not survivable. Especially considering that a Dark Agent was wielding it. That meant that it wouldn't be some crappy 0 star 100 value weapon. No, it'd more likely be a 12 star 300+ value weapon.
Dark Pit saw a clearing ahead of him. In it was a man dressed in black. It was a simple outfit, but it held an ensemble of angelic weapons. There was a strap to hold the laser staff on his back. Another weapon, a Lancer Staff, was cross-strapped on his back. He had a Gaol Blade and a Samurai Blade at his belt. And at his wrists was a pair of retracted Artillery Claws.
Dark Pit tried to look at his face. There wasn't much to see at all. Both the upper and lower halves of his face were covered in black scarves, with the tails of the scarves trailing down from the back of his neck. The man's eyes were clearly visible. They were a soul-less gray.
Dark Pit silently withdrew his sword and extended the blades. He hoped he could win before his team arrived. Of course, given the fact that the guy was armed to the teeth with angelic weaponry, that was unlikely. A team effort was far more likely.
Dark Pit built up a burst of wind. He came into the clearing and used the wind to give himself a forward speed burst. He had his sword set to take the man's head off. The man caught wind of the attack and just barely got his laser staff into position in time. They exchanged furious blows for a few seconds and then parted.
"You're good," the man said. "I should have heeded the master's advice about angel's sixth danger sense."
"And who would this 'master' be?" Dark Pit asked.
"Oh, I'll die before I tell you that."
Dark Pit just smiled. "Fine then. We get to do this the hard way."
Dark Pit shot golden bolts at the man, who deftly dodged. As the man dodged, he returned the Laser staff to its place and drew his Blades. Dark Pit was suddenly caught dodging a combination of lacerating air blades and green rimmed dash bursts.
The dark angel decided to switch tactics and use his blade's flame ability. He used the concentrated bolts of burning palm as he dodged the combination assault from the man's twin blades. Unfortunately, the Dark Agent was just as adept at dodging as Dark Pit. One of his blades probably had an evasion modifier. A darned good one, too.
Dark Pit was beginning to wonder when his team would show up. The assault of the two blades was really starting to wear him thin. Just as he saw death headed his way, a blue bolt struck the man in the side.
Aria had been the first to arrive at the clearing after the battle started. She walked in, calmly firing a barrage of bolts from her Palutena Bow. The man used switched the blades so that the Gaol Blade was in his left hand. He then proceeded to use it as a shield to block Aria's bolts. The man would have moved to attack Aria, but he wanted to ensure that he didn't leave himself open to Dark Pit.
Said dark angel was having an increasingly hard time dodging. He couldn't get any more shots off, as the man had switched to standing continuous fire. The rapid fire rate made it very hard to dodge. The damage of the tiny air blades from that Samurai Blade was nothing to laugh at.
Dark Pit summoned the power of the Obsidian Fist. As he dodged under one of the Dark Agent's passes, he slammed his blade into the ground, channeling black energy through it. A rift opened in the earth and moved to between the Dark Agent's feet. The energy then knocked the Dark Agent off of his feet. Dark Pit pressed the attack by using his golden bolts to attack the man. The man dodged.
It was at about this time that Magnus showed up. The big man appeared right in the Dark Agent's path. The Agent had less than a second to dodge out from under the massive sword that was bearing down on him. However, the Dark Agent was nothing if not fast.
He moved out of Magnus's way and dodged the strikes that the three members of the Dark Triad were leveling at him. The man had not time to put in an attack, and he knew he was going to lose if this kept up.
Of course, where Magnus was, Gaol wasn't far behind. A massive purple-white beam tore through the clearing at the man. The man jumped over it and landed in a tree branch. As he jumped out of the way, he sheathed his Blades and drew the Lancer Staff. The man disappeared in the leaves of the trees. The Dark Triad went back to back, expecting an assault anysecond.
A massive, diamond shaped charge-shot forced the team to separate. Three ranged attacks went to where the blast had come from, but they hit nothing but air. The process repeated itself again. And again. And again. And again.
The team was getting sick of it. They all looked at each other and silently agreed on a path. They all knew that they were going to use the Dark Triad's special move. As they moved through the next attack cycle, the move was quickly explained to Aria. They waited for another attack cycle to finnish.
Instead of counter-attacking into air, the Dark Triad assumed a modified formation for the special move. Dark Pit flew directly above Magnus. Aria and Gaol were both twenty feet away from him. Aria and Gaol both charged up massive bolts of energy.
The women shot at Magnus. He held his sword so that one side caught Gaol's blast and the other caught Aria's blast. Magnus swung his sword directly up. The swing combined the two energies and amplified them. The amplification was one of the weird properties Magnus's sword.
Dark Pit was ready. He only hoped that Gaol and Aria would get a shield over the team in time. They all agreed that the move would react differently with Dark Pit's new weapon. Dark Pit released the power of a Special Move as the energy blast hit his blade. The resulting explosion was awe-inspiring.
A fiery tornado rimmed the outside of the explosion. It was also full of Gaol's pulsating energy, adding to the devastating properties of the move. Following the flame tornado was a hailstorm of gold and blue arrows. The move had completely torn up everything within 100 yards of the blast center.
Dark Pit descended to the ground as the silvery-purple shield protecting his team dissolved. They all surveyed the carnage. The forest had been ripped up. Charred trees were everywhere. Except for where Magnus, Gaol, and Aria were standing, there was no more green. However, the Dark Agent was nowhere in sight.
Aria moved behind Dark Pit and summoned her shield. The bolts from the Artillery Claws were harmlessly deflected. Dark Pit turned and saw the Dark Agent. He was bruised, battered, and his outfit was full of bloody holes. This last attack failed, the Dark Agent slumped into the ground, totally spent.
Dark Pit led the Triad to where the man had fallen.
"I want those answers now," Dark Pit told him nonchalantly.
"I told you," the Dark Agent answered, "I'll die before I tell."
"I think I can come up with something worse than death to make you talk."
"You misunderstand," the Dark Agent said frustrated. "As soon as I open my mouth to say something, I will die."
Dark Pit put the blade of his sword to the man's arm and drew blood. The man grimaced at the pain.
"Fine," he said. "I'd much rather die than go through torture. The god I serve is called-"
The man said no more, as flames spontaneously consumed his form. When the flames vanished, there was nothing left but ash. Not even the bones had been spared from the blaze. It was safe to say the Dark Triad would be left with more questions than answers.