"One thing I have to request."
"And that'd be?"
"Don't screw up. Please."
"Oh, thanks. Don't need to remind me."
"There's one small part of this plan that we still need to work out, you guys."
"What'd that be, Eileen? Make it quick, not much time."
"Well, how is Maxwell going to recognise you?"
That small statement made all four of them stop dead in their tracks. They hadn't considered that. The four sat in the room which had been provided for Jacqueline to get ready. They had decided to use that as their base of operations, as it was the one place they could be most assured that they wouldn't be spied on.
"Well, I look pretty much the same," Jacqueline said.
"Not quite, kupo," Isaac said.
"How so?"
"Well, your skin's darker, you're taller, you're much skinnier, your face is a bit more, uh, what's the word for it, kupo?"
"Angular," Eileen supplied.
"Thanks, angular. And, well," Isaac shrugged. "The ears don't help too much, kupo."
"Right," Jacqueline muttered, reaching up and scratching one of the rabbit ears thoughtfully. "Forgot about that."
"Well, the three of us are going to be in the arena, monitoring," Ben began.
"I can't say that I'll be much help on that," Eileen said sheepishly.
"There's me, but he probably won't look at the average old human," Ben muttered.
"Um, I wouldn't be much help anyways, kupo, but on top of that, I, uh, probably won't be there…"
"What?"
Isaac took a step back at the three shocked declarations. Well, that hadn't gone quite as well as he'd expected. "Well, I'm going to be in one of the towers with Diesel."
"Why?" Eileen demanded.
"I thought that it would be a good idea to keep an eye on him. He's probably the biggest threat to us, kupo…"
"And how are you planning to get down to us?" Ben asked.
"Look, it's not like we've planned too much on the entire thing, kupo! And besides, he offered me a personal invitation. I couldn't turn that down without suspicion! Besides, out of all of us, I'm the best one to take him down, and he's the wild card we weren't counting on. I can keep him out of the fight altogether, kupo."
"Fine," Jacqueline snapped as the other two began taking in breaths to argue. "It's too late to deal with that now. The question is, how will we get Max to recognize me?"
The four were quiet for quite a long time. Then, Isaac spoke up. "You know, I think those ears of yours might come in handy, kupo."
………………………………………………………………………………………………
"Did you pay your final respects to your friend, kupo?" Diesel asked as they climbed the many steps to the top of the tower.
"I wished her luck, kupo," Isaac replied. "Not that she needs it."
Diesel laughed, shaking his head slowly. "You've never seen the Dragoon fight, have you?"
"And you've never watched the Scarlet Rapier dance, have you, kupo?"
Diesel gave him a slight inclination of the head, smirking. "I guess that this should be quite the fight then, shouldn't it?"
"Oh yeah," Isaac nodded, huffing and puffing. "How far until the top?"
"Only about a minute. Sorry, it's quite a hike, kupo."
"That it is, kupo," Isaac muttered, considering how he was going to get down all these steps quickly enough to rendezvous with his friends at the bottom.
They reached the top, and found it deserted. It was very plain: a simple stone floor with a moogle-waist-high lip of stone going around the outsides. The stairs went down from a small hole in the ground, located in the center. The two approached the lip and peered over. Isaac glanced around, and guessed that they were about three-hundred metres up, which afforded them a very good view of the arena below them.
The stands were filled to the breaking point with the residents of the underworld. Apparently, though they rarely showed their faces, Jagd Helje actually had a very heavy population. The five of them
Though Jacqueline hadn't stepped onto the field yet, Isaac instantly spotted Ben and Eileen, standing on the sidelines. They were both wearing full battle gear, much like Isaac. Ben had both sabres strapped on, his hat pulled low, and his long blue cloak buttoned firmly shut down the front. The sleeves of his cloak were rolled up, so that his bare hands were visible, just in case he had to use some blue magic. Eileen's robes were all well pressed and tidy, and her mace was in her hand. Though he couldn't see it, Isaac knew that she was meditating, gathering her energy around her in preparation.
At that moment, there was a puff of smoke in the center of the arena, and there was Tarentalas, in all his horrible splendour. He looked up at all of the assembled crowd, and raised his hands, yelling out, "Welcome! We all already know why we are here; to witness the greatest battle of our time!"
The crowd erupted into cheers and roars of excitement. Tarentalas waited for the noise to die down before he continued, his breathless voice ringing out: "The battle of Jacqueline, the Scarlet Rapier, against Maxwell, the Dragoon!"
Once again, the vampire had to stop for a time, as the crowd exploded again, this time with many hundreds of them yelling out, "Dragooooooooooon!"
"Thus, let our own champion enter!"
The large doors on one side of the coliseum opened up, and there was one figure there. That figure belonged to a creature akin to the ones that mothers would tell naughty children about to frighten them out of misbehaving. The figure was a bangaa, as was evident from the broad shoulders, long snout, and thick, muscled tail. He wore little more than rags, which did nothing to show off the impressive muscles in his arms and much more impressively his legs. Those legs were about the size of tree trunks, incredibly powerful and most likely near fatal to take a kick from. His shoulders, however strong and great, were slouched forward, and his entire appearance suggested defeat and resigned acceptance. He held a crude blade in his right hand, rusty and near-dull. A small iron ring was looped around his ankle, and a dull glow emanated from it. Isaac gritted his teeth upon seeing it. He'd seen that in his dream. The small thing repressed several of Maxwell's more impressive abilities, and also acted as a leash, making it impossible for him to leave the coliseum.
"And now, for the challenger!" Tarentalas cried, pointing a hand at the doors opposite Maxwell.
They swung open, and in walked Jacqueline. Her long silver hair was tied back into a ponytail to keep it from falling into her eyes. The red robes she wore were kept tight to her body using several long leather belts and straps. Her rapier was still sheathed at her left hip, positioned just perfectly so that she could draw it in an instant if need be. Her large, red pointed hat was strangely absent however. In its place, her ears tucked easily through the ear holes, was Isaac's fedora.
"Any particular reason why she's wearing your hat?" Diesel asked.
"Alright, kupo," Isaac muttered. "Just because I gave her a good luck charm doesn't mean that I wished her good luck."
"Would the opponents please approach the center of the arena?" Tarentalas's voice boomed.
The two slowly approached each other. Jacqueline kept her eyes steadily set upon Max, but the bangaa's eyes hadn't risen from the ground yet. When they met in the middle, Maxwell finally raised his eyes. For a moment, there was shocked surprise plastered all over his face, before he managed to quickly get his feelings back in control.
"Now, shake hands," Tarentalas ordered.
The two reached forward, taking each other's hand and shaking slowly, making it look competitive. Maxwell's blade was pointed at the earth, but his grip on it was tight, and Jacqueline's other hand was on the hilt of her rapier.
"In that case…" Tarentalas disappeared in a cloud of darkness, which quickly flowed up to the tower opposite that Diesel and Isaac were on top of. His voice still rang out, just as clear, "You may begin."
Their hands parted, and each leapt back one step before charging back forward. Jacqueline's rapier flashed out, smacking forward in repeated stabs. Max parried each one of them with perfect grace, spinning quickly as he did so. Then, he retaliated by twirling around and whipping his blade out at her at full extension. Jacqueline bent over double backwards to avoid it, then continued with the momentum into a backflip. She landed, her rapier ready. Max lunged forward with a mighty stab, and Jacqueline jumped up, landing gracefully with one foot on the blade for an instant, before leaping again and kicking Maxwell in the face. The mighty bangaa fell back, grasping his nose and growling in outrage. He regained his balance and stared at Jacqueline in absolute rage for an instant, before grasping his blade in both hands and running at her.
Jacqueline's rapier came out to block, but Maxwell's blade smacked it out to the side with his brutal strength. Isaac knew that Jacqueline could've avoided that. He had watched her fencing with Ben before, and he knew that normally she would have simply feigned the block and twirled her rapier around the strike, leaving her opponent open for attack.
This was it, Isaac realised. He let his paw drift slowly down to the hilt of his blade. Things were about to begin.
Max brought his left elbow back across towards Jacqueline's face. Isaac's trained gunner's eyes noted the millimetre large gap between the elbow and Jacqueline's nose. Jacqueline, acting as though she were hit, kicked off lightly with her right foot, throwing herself backwards and into a spin. She fell, and hit the ground.
"Wait," Diesel muttered. "That's not right, kupo…"
"Kupopo?" Isaac demanded, his grip tightening on the hilt.
"He didn't hit her… That attack missed…"
Maxwell stopped, his chest heaving. Jacqueline didn't move from her sprawled out form. Maxwell slowly approached, raising his blade for a finishing crushing blow.
At that moment, Ben screamed in mock rage and ran forward, one of his sabres locked into his grasp. He ran at Max from behind, making as though to run him through. The bangaa spun around, saw him, and threw himself into a backflip to get away from the slashing sabre.
Beside Isaac, Diesel began drawing his gun.
Knowing that this was when it began, Isaac drew his blade.
The sabre swung by the Maxwell's ankle, and exploded with blue light which Ben fed it to strengthen the blow.
Diesel's gun came down to bear upon Ben.
Isaac's blade smashed the gun from Diesel's hand.
The metal loop split apart, and fell off.
As the crowd exploded with shock and confusion, Isaac and Diesel's pupils focused on each other out of the corners of their eyes. Then, Isaac jumped back as Diesel's knife came out and stabbed at his exposed side. Isaac's other paw went to his short barrelled gun, but found his holster empty. Looking up, he saw Diesel levelling the weapon at him. He fired, and Isaac swung his blade out in front of him, knocking the bullet out of the air from luck more than anything. The two each took a step towards each other, and their weapons met, sending sparks up into the air. Diesel's lighter weapon smacked along Isaac's blade three times in that one exchange, but he held tight. He spun and slashed, and Diesel bent over backwards out of the way of the attack. He came back up, stabbing at Isaac's face. Isaac turned his head out of the way, then brought his arm back to elbow the other moogle in the stomach. He backed up, bent over double and wheezing, and Isaac advanced. Diesel suddenly came up straight, pointing the gun he'd stolen from Isaac. Quickening his pace, Isaac swung his sword and split it in two at the base of the barrel. Realising what he'd done, Isaac leapt back. Diesel, who had no idea of how the gun worked, looked surprised, and his surprise only increased when the handle he still clung to ignited into flame and let off several small explosions. The grey-furred commander threw it away on instinct, then met a charge from Isaac. Isaac stabbed forward, and Diesel moved his head out of the way, grabbing Isaac's wrist with his hand. He stabbed at Isaac, and the brown-furred moogle grabbed Diesel's wrist in the same manner. They were locked like that for a moment, before Diesel drove his knee upward into Isaac's gut. He heaved forward with his hands, and threw Isaac back several feet onto his back. The young gunner stayed down, breathing hard.
Diesel approached his fallen enemy slowly, twirling his knife around his wrist nervously. When he was standing directly above Isaac, whose eyes were shut and whose breathing was haggard, he raised the knife up for a final finishing stab, then brought it down.
Faster than Diesel could react, Isaac rolled to the side, his grasp tightening on his blade, and came up in a crouch, his blade resting comfortably at Diesel's throat.
They heard the sounds of fighting suddenly from below them, and the explosion of magical attacks ringing out. Their chests were heaving from the intense physical combat.
"If you move, I'll kill you," Isaac told him.
"And if you move, kupo, I'll kill you," Diesel told him.
Isaac suddenly became aware of the cool feeling of metal on his armpit. He glanced down to see the point of Diesel's knife sticking through his vest and shirt, touching the skin just below his armpit.
"Path straight to your heart," Diesel said.
Isaac smirked at him. "Well, isn't this going to be fun, kupo?"
"I'll strike you a deal," Diesel said suddenly and brightly, "If we stay like this, we're both going to end up dead, kupo. So, I'll let you walk away from this right now if you'll do the same."
"Not a chance, kupo," Isaac laughed, shaking his head. "I'm not an expert at battle tactics, but I know that you're the most important figure in this kind of attack, commander."
"Hmm…" Diesel mused. "You're smarter than I thought. Too bad."
"Why?" Isaac asked, confused.
Suddenly, a shot rang out. Not from Isaac or Diesel's guns, but from behind them. Isaac felt a sudden pinpoint of pain on his back, and then his entire body locked up and would not move.
"Commander Diesel, sir?" asked a voice, clearly a moogle's, from behind them.
Glancing a pleased smirk over at Isaac, Diesel reached over and grabbed his blade, prying from his rigid grasp. He stepped backwards out of Isaac's vision for a moment, and then he heard the two discussing.
"Well done. Thank you for that, kupo."
"Of course, sir. Should we help out with the fight?"
"I don't think so. I've got other business to attend to."
"Kupopo?"
There was the sound of a blade whistling through the air, and then a squelching noise. The other moogle's voice came out in a strangled grasp, followed by some gurgles, then something hit the floor.
Diesel returned into Isaac's vision, wiping blood off of Isaac's blade. He reached over and replaced the weapon into Isaac's sheath, before smiling at him.
"Well, we'll have to see how this plays out, kupo. Of course, I'm not about to help you and your friends… but I won't attack you guys either. If I think you're losing, then I'll finish the job and kill all of you. If I think you're winning, well…" his smile widened. "We'll have to see what happens then. Either way, I can't have it look like I did nothing to try and stop you from mercilessly slaughtering my subordinate, so…"
He reached over and grabbed Isaac under the arms, dragging him over to the edge of the tower. "I do hope you survive this, kupo," the moogle smirked. "Good luck."
With that, he flung Isaac off the edge, still locked in by the stopshot, and watched the moogle fall.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Several hundred metres below, Max, with his true powers now unleashed, stood watching as about twenty guards swarmed about onto the battlefield. His eyes scanned them, until he locked onto one bangaa who was carrying a spear. He looked over to Jacqueline, who had gotten back up to her feet, and pointed at the other bangaa, yelling, "Get me a path to that one!"
She nodded, then ran towards that one group, with Maxwell keeping perfect stride. Jacqueline whipped her rapier forward, meeting the sword of a human. Jacqueline twisted the rapier around in her hands, spinning it about and forcing the human's sword into a similar uncomfortable spin. When she finished it, her rapier was pointing directly at the human's chest, but held back by the sword. Smirking, she lifted her hand, pointed, and whispered, "Feuer."
Flames leapt out of the rapier and caught onto the human's chest. He fell back, crying out in pain and hitting the ground.
Maxwell ran by her and met the spear-wielding bangaa. His blade smashed into the spear, which the other bangaa held in a horizontal quarterstaff block. Faster than his opponent could react, Maxwell's blade snapped back over, smacking the blade of the spear and knocking it down a bit. He lifted one powerful leg up to kick the spear, sending it out of the other's grasp and up about two metres into the air.
Dropping his blade, Maxwell filled his lungs with air.
When the air came back out, it was crackling with lightning and concentrated into a cone of death.
The electricity slammed into the bangaa's metal armor, conducting all over his body. Maxwell's foe fell in spasms as the dragoon caught the spear perfectly in his left hand, twirling around his wrist before stopping it in both hands in a perfect ready position.
Oh yeah, he'd been missing spears.
Turning around, he saw the other three bunching in together in anticipation of the crush that was no doubt coming. He ran over to join them, keeping his eyes scanning the field for rangers.
"Hey, Max," Ben called, "Nice to see you again."
"The same," Max nodded. "Might I ask where the fifth member of our quintet has gotten to?"
"Isaac?" Eileen asked, as an orange glow began collecting around her. "He's up in one of the sniping towers."
Maxwell glanced up at those towers, and saw a small figure suddenly come plummeting over the edge of one of them. He glanced over at Ben, glad to see one of his former friends who didn't have fur or rabbit ears. "Would that be him?"
Ben followed his gaze, and swore. "Yeah, that's him! He's got quite a thing for falling off tall objects."
"Right," Maxwell muttered, grasping his spear in both hands. "I will be right back."
"What?"
With that, Max took two steps forward, then drove the but of the spear into the earth. Using it as a launcher, he tensed his great leg muscles, then took off.
He flew. There was no other word for it. He rose about a hundred metres, his spear held out horizontally behind him in one hand to steer, and came up right next to the moogle. Reaching out, he plucked Isaac out of the air with his extra hand, and kept going. The bangaa landed comfortably in a crouch on the wall of one of the towers, and took a deep breath.
"Long time no see, kupo," Isaac muttered, his eyes wide with surprise at his sudden lack of mortal peril.
"Hello, Isaac," Max breathed, then chuckled.
"What, kupo?"
"You are a moogle."
"I hate every one of you."
With a grin, Max push off again, just before they would have fallen. He pulled one, full, slow backflip as he went, then landed in an easy crouch about three metres from the rest of their friends. He dropped Isaac, and the two of them joined up with the three others.
"Well that was impressive," Eileen muttered.
"No arguments," Ben replied. "But now how are we going to get out of here?"
"That door," Isaac and Max said as one, pointing towards a small entrance in the side of the arena. Max glanced over at him and Isaac shrugged. "I've been a bit closer than you thought, kupo."
"I'll just assume that the explanation is forthcoming," Maxwell muttered. "That door leads to the armoury."
"They're forming up," Isaac observed, gesturing his head at the large ring of guards around them.
"Then I'll lead the way," Ben muttered.
"I've got you covered," Eileen added.
Ben sheathed his sabres, then ran directly at the small group of humans which was in his way. One or two of them managed to get their wits together enough to send an attack his way. Ben sidestepped a block of air and rolled under an arrow, coming back up to his feet unhindered. Just before he was about to actually meet with the group, Eileen yelled out, "Aufflackern!" Flames erupted from the earth, rising in an inferno to destroy many of the guards standing there. Isaac looked away as Ben's blue light struck up, not wanting to watch as he tore them apart.
"Less go!" Jacqueline yelled, and the four of them ran for the door.
From up ahead, Ben yelled out, "The door's locked!"
"Get out of my way, then!" Max roared. Ben stepped out of the way, and Max pulled ahead of the others, jumping over the scene of molten slaughter caused by Eileen and Ben's magics, and smashing his foot into the door.
The thing was ripped off of its hinges, and flew backwards several metres into the room. He ran into the room, quickly followed by the others. As Max bent to grab the door, one of the guards ran into the room, a dagger clenched in his fist. He was about to plunge it into Maxwell's back, when Isaac drew his gun and fired a shot off his forehead. The human took a step back, knocked off-balance. That was all the invitation Maxwell needed, as he picked up the door and used it to push the guard out the entrance. He fitted the door back into position, and Jacqueline ran over. She touched her rapier to the metal hinges, and, using her flames, welded the entire thing shut. Max stepped back, and Ben pushed a large rack of weapons in front of the door.
With that done, the five of them took a moment to breathe and stare at each other. Finally, Ben broke the silence, saying, "That was, quite simply, awesome."
"Agreed. But we got a little problem now, don't we?" Jacqueline reminded him.
"Yes…" Maxwell whispered. "Thanks for the rescue effort, but what is the plan now?"
"'Now'?" Eileen laughed. "There hasn't been a plan since the start."
"Well," Isaac added quickly, "seeing as we're in an armoury, and it can only be so long until they break down that door, kupo…" Almost as if to accentuate his point, a pounding came at the door. "I say we should load up."
"Best plan I can think of," Jacqueline agreed, and the five split up, each running to one rack or another.
The room was vast, and filled with row upon row of weaponry and armour. There were separate sections for each race, and thus Isaac found his equipment first (the ones with the shortest racks). He grabbed two more belts of ammunition from a pile, wrapping them tightly around himself. After transferring all the bullets from his near-empty bandolier to his other fuller one, he dropped that to the ground. Then, he went to a long wall of guns, checking through them just in case there was one he'd like. His finger traced along each one until it stopped on one pair of holsters with twin pistols in them. He pulled one out, and noted a bulky bit at the base of the barrel. He hit a small clasp on the side, and watched a tiny department pop out of the side. Looking closely, Isaac noted that there were six bullets nestled comfortably in it.
Isaac grinned. A pair of six-shot revolvers. He pulled off the holster from the gun he had lost, and placed it on the rack. Then, he grabbed the two new guns and attached them so that each gun's handle was sticking out on either side of his torso, about halfway up.
Isaac then proceeded to a rack filled with light pieces of clothing for moogles. His vest had been getting thin lately anyways, and the cut from Diesel's knife had sealed the deal for him. He flitted through until he found a leather vest, dyed blue. He tossed it on over his shirt after discarding the older vest. It felt more flexible, but also harder. Then, he headed back to the centre of the room.
Jacqueline was already there, with a new rapier and a fresh set of chainmail underneath her robes. She glanced up as he approached, and smirked.
"Well, see you went to town," she said. She reached up and removed Isaac's fedora from her head, tossing it to him. "That's yours."
"Thanks, kupo," Isaac replied. "Nice work out there."
"Ah, it was fun," she smiled. Then her smile disappeared. "How you holding up?"
"Kupopo?"
"I saw your face when Eileen and Ben took out them guards. You okay?"
Isaac sighed, and shook his head. "It has to be done, kupo. Just because I'm not willing to kill doesn't mean that you're all unable to."
"But you're not okay with it."
Isaac smiled a small smile, and said, "I'll be fine."
"'kay then. How's it going with Eileen?"
Isaac glanced quickly around them, and didn't breathe again until he was sure that the nu mou in question wasn't nearby. "Say it a bit louder, kupo!"
"If you want me to," she shrugged, then took in a deep breath to yell.
Isaac, not doubting that she would do it, pulled out his Longbarrel and pointed it at her. "I'll do it, kupo. Don't think that I won't."
Jacqueline grinned and let the air out. "So you haven't made a move?"
"No, kupo."
"Get a move on it," she suggested, cocking an eyebrow at him. "At this rate, we'll all get killed by next adventure."
"Thanks."
Just then, Eileen walked up, grinning from ear to ear. "I actually like this vampire," she declared. "He's got so many fun little magic things to steal."
While her choice in general clothing hadn't changed much, Eileen had put on many pieces of small jewellery which were undoubtedly magical in some way. There were three small rings around each of the large holes in each ear, one red, one blue and one yellow. A pendant hung from a chain around her neck, which was a perfectly clear diamond. However, as Isaac looked closer, he saw that there was a tiny little core of orange in it.
"Honestly, I could spend a year in here and not get bored with all his stuff."
"Too bad," Jacqueline said, shrugging. "Personally, I want the sun. And could I get my hat back?"
"Oh, sure," Eileen said, reaching into her robes. She tossed the red hat to Jacqueline, who promptly placed it on her head.
Ben showed up next. He had two new sabres attached to his back, and a long dark robe on instead of his old blue one. He nodded to them, and was about to speak, when Maxwell walked up, and all of their jaws dropped.
"Well," Jacqueline muttered, "sorry for saying you went to town, Isaac."
"He took everything from me," Maxwell explained. "I figured this was the least he could do to repay me."
He looked completely different. He wore a large, heavy set armour, covering him from his chest down to his legs. It was beautiful and shiny, so well-polished that they could see their faces in it. He had done away with the plain old spear, and now had a large, long, beautiful one, crafted for perfection down to every perfect detail. The weapon had definitely been made by a master. He also sported a long red cape which went down almost to his feet. He held under his arm a large, equally well-crafted helm which was designed to look like a dragon's head, with the nostrils of the great beast just above the mouthpiece.
"Well, that door will not hold much longer," the bangaa observed. "Shall we get to this?"
They all drew their weapons. They knew how dangerous this was going to be. They knew it was likely they were all about to die. They knew that this may be not only the first time they had all been together in nearly a year, but also the last time they would ever be together. They knew this, and they were ready. With spear, sabre, rapier, gun, and mace readied, they turned to the door.
What they did not know was that the battle was about to be brought to them.
Just as Max was about to push the rack of armour away from the door, Ben cried out in surprise from the back of their line. They spun, and saw that he was gone, with only a small cloud of black smoke left where he was standing.
"Tarentalasss!" Maxwell cried, and the other three noted his hiss appearing with his fear.
Another flash of darkness came up not an instant later, and Eileen was gone. Jacqueline yelled something about getting ready, and then she was gone. Isaac turned to Maxwell and shrugged, then felt a cold, strong hand with a vice-like grip clamp down onto his shoulder, and an instant of incredible disorientation. Then, he was falling forward and sprawling onto the grounds of the arena, sand getting in his fur.
Isaac coughed, and looked up. He found the barrel of a gun pointing into his face. He followed the gun up and saw that Diesel was holding it. The commander smiled at him, then said quietly, "Please get up."
Isaac stood up slowly, and looked around. He was in the middle of the arena. Eileen, Jacqueline and Ben were standing next to him, each one looking wary and surprised. There was a rather large ring of sword bearing warriors standing around them, and about thirty archers standing in the lowest levels of the stands with arrows trained on them. Suddenly, Maxwell was stumbling next to Isaac from out of nowhere, and then Tarentalas appeared in the center of the five of them.
The look on his face froze Isaac's blood. While those eyes had been completely emotionless before, now they were something much worse. Not rage, not anger, not disgust, not power. Laughter. There was laughter in those eyes. Laughter at their helplessness. He could kill all five of them in that instant, and he knew it, and he knew that they knew it. They could do nothing against their imminent demise at his hands. He held all the power.
"Well," he said simply. "I must say that I'm disappointed. I thought that the four of you were more honourable than that."
"Well—" Ben began, but was silenced a moment later when Tarentalas disappeared for an instant, and the blue mage went suddenly sprawling backwards several feet before landing hard on his back. Tarentalas reappeared back where he was standing as Ben sat up painfully and wiped blood from his lip.
"None of you have the right to speak," the vampire whispered. He turned slowly, looking each one in the eye as he spoke, the green light illuminating his face and making him look all the more devilish. "I welcomed you here. I allowed all of you the chance at the battle of a lifetime. I gave you food and board. And this is how you repay me?" He grinned, and the five of them knew he'd come up with their punishment. "Thus, I will afford you an even greater honour. The true greatest battle which will ever grace this arena: these five renegades against I, Lord Talentalas of Jagd Helje. First, however, I wish to know why. Jacqueline, you are the leader of this group of dogs," he disappeared, and then reappeared directly in front of her, his face leaning in close to hers. His hand reached down and grasped her firmly around the throat, and he said, "You shall tell me why you have come, and why you have done this."
Jacqueline stared him directly in those horrible eyes, and without a tremor in her voice or a doubt on her face, she said, "My friends are more important than you, and not one o' them deserves what you did to Max."
And, with that said, she spat in his face.
There was dead silence for several seconds as everybody stared on in shock. Then, Tarentalas roared, and drew back his hand, about to crush Jacqueline.
Ben let out an equally ferocious roar and jumped at Tarentalas from the side, his sabres spinning in wide and dangerous circles. Just as one of his sabres would have slashed through the vampire, he disappeared into a shadow, and reappeared directly in front of Maxwell. The vampire threw a punch, and Maxwell blocked it with one hand, grabbing the fist. Though the powerful bangaa had his feet planted firmly at his sides, the vampire's punch pushed him back about a metre, leaving deep tracks in the earth. Maxwell pulled hard on the hand, using it as further leverage to flip over Tarentalas's arm and attempt to scissor kick him in the face.
Tarentalas, however, disappeared. As soon as he vanished from his short exchange with Maxwell, Eileen crouched down and orange light gathered around her. Her eyes closed and a serene look came across her face as she felt with her magic for his dark presence. When he showed up right behind her, she instantly spun around and smacked at him with her mace. He, however, disappeared once again, and Isaac, knowing what was coming, reached for his two new guns and drew them out.
He heard something off to the side, and turned. There was the vampire, several metres away, holding a glob of some sort of green and foul-smelling slime, about to throw it. Isaac pointed and fired with both guns. The vampire, drifted to the side and out of the way, so Isaac fired again, and again and again, going through the entire rounds of both guns as the vampire dodged. At last, the vampire smiled at him, and threw the slime. Holstering the two spent weapons, Isaac grabbed his Longbarrel and infused it with the cold he had felt while watching his friends kill those guards. He fired, and the slime froze. The added weight caused it to fall a metre short of Isaac.
Tarentalas reappeared in the centre of them, grinning. "Well, isn't this fun?" he asked, and he actually did look as though he was having fun with their petty attempts to attack him. "Now let's just see if any of you are unlucky enough to share a similar battle style with me."
"No!" Eileen yelled, and summoned a flare at the vampire's feet as the ring of swordsmen around them backed up quite far away. They thought for an instant as the flames rose that they had finally got him, but he reappeared an instant later behind Eileen. He delivered a back-handed slap to the back of her head, and she fell about a metre to the right, spinning to a hard landing.
"A flare, is it?" the vampire asked. "How about I show you my own flare?"
He raised a hand into the air, and called out, "Aufflackern vor Schwärzung!"
Darkness rose up from the earth beneath Tarentalas, and the vampire sighed in the rush of it. They were so fixated on the vampire, that Isaac, Jacqueline, Eileen and Maxwell didn't notice Ben until he screamed in absolute agony. They looked over, and saw they same darkness washing over him, and burning all the skin it touched. The dark cloak he wore seemed to repel much of the darkness from his form. He was bent over double, and his throat was already hoarse from the screams issuing from it. As the darkness began fading, a blue light came out from the cloak where his leg would have been, and reached out to grab some of the darkness. It pulled the darkness back with it, assumedly to the pin in Ben's pant leg. Then, the darkness was gone, and Ben collapsed to the ground.
"Ah, so I see he fights more with fury than finesse," Tarentalas grinned. "Or at least he did." Darkness gathered in his hand, and it formed into a long blade. He disappeared, reappearing before Ben with the blade above his head. "But no more."
"Zwei: Blitz und Blitz!"
Twin forks of lightning flew from Jacqueline's hands as she rushed forward. The viera drew her rapier, coming hard on the heals of the electicity. Tarentalas disappeared out of the way of her electricity, and Jacqueline, as though she could read his mind, spun full around, and her rapier rung off of his dark sword. He moved lightning fast to counterattack, but Jacqueline was the faster as she reached forward with her empty hand and smacked his sword-arm out of the way. There was a general intake of breath as she actually made contact with his skin. She pointed her rapier at his chest, and said, "Feuer!" Flames leapt from the rapier's tip, catching onto his chest.
The vampire cried out, then disappeared. The flames, having nothing else to cling to, fell to the earth. Jacqueline, however, didn't watch, as she simply spun her rapier around into a stabbing position, and drove it blindly behind her.
Everyone gasped as the tip of the rapier touched the waxy flesh of Tarentalas's chest, and went through, running all the way through his body up to the hilt. Tarentalas was silent in shock that he'd been hit, and didn't even move when Jacqueline pulled the clean sword out of his body. She turned around and looked up into his eyes, a condescending look on her face.
"You ever touch him again, I'll rip you apart."
Tarentalas looked shock one more moment, and then a wide smile crossed his face. He said, quite easily, "My, my. You are impressive. Nowhere near good enough, though."
He reached out suddenly, shoving her with a flat palm. This one attack threw her back several metres, somersaulting back over and over until she came to a rest and didn't move again.
Isaac glanced around quickly. Jacqueline and Ben were definitely down. Eileen still hadn't gotten up from the blow Tarentalas had landed on her. That left Max and himself.
Isaac slowly pulled out a bullet from his bandolier, and began pushing it into his gun, when suddenly he felt the displacement of air that told him Tarentalas had just teleported near to him. He turned quickly, and got a fist under the chin as a reward. The uppercut threw him into the air two metres, and he dropped his gun as he hit the ground hard. The Longbarrel slid along the ground several feet to rest at Diesel's feet, the only one of the guard who hadn't backed off at the vampire's flare. He slid a foot underneath it, and lifted the gun to his hand, twirling it around. Then, he shoved it into a holster at his hip, and stood by to watch the battle.
Maxwell's spear was at the ready as he watched Tarentalas several metres away from him. They simply stood there, staring at each other for a short time, and then Maxwell's legs bunched up, and he jumped the distance at frightening speeds. Still, the vampire disappeared an instant before his spear would've thudded into him. Max spun around in midair, and saw the vampire sailing through the air with him, just above. Tarentalas punched at him, and Max caught it. The force threw him into the earth, slowing there flight. The bangaa managed to keep enough of his mind about him to lob the fiend at the ground behind him.
Just before he would've hit the ground, Tarentalas disappeared into darkness, and came up in a perfect standing position standing over Maxwell. He lifted his blade above his head, and brought it down in a crushing blow. Max caught it on his spear, which he had managed remarkably to hold onto. He forced the blade up higher, then twirled the spear in his hands, attempting to trip up the vampire. Tarentalas, however, simply teleported again, and Max took the opportunity to rock back onto his shoulders and push back up onto his feet.
As he came up, Tarentalas showed himself, directly before him. He punched, and Maxwell ducked, and came up spitting flames at the vampire lord. Tarentalas was already gone.
Max stood, waiting, looking about him for any sign of his foe. A confused look crossed his face when he saw no trace.
"Look up," a voice said.
Max looked up, and brought his hands up in a desperate block as Tarentalas dropped down with a mighty punch. Maxwell caught it in both hands, and fell to his knees with the force. Tarentalas stood above the kneeling dragoon, smiling down at him with the black sword in his hand.
"And now to bring this little upset to an end," he whispered.
The sword fell, aimed directly for Maxwell's neck.
Ka-chunk!
Tarentalas's eyes widened in shock. He stood up suddenly, forgetting Maxwell. Turning around, he faced Diesel, who held Isaac's Longbarrel out, its barrel smoking.
"What is the meaning of this?" Tarentalas demanded.
"It's called an insurrection, kupo," Diesel replied. "Live with it."
"You should know better than any that I cannot die by normal means," Tarentalas laughed cruelly. "You have just wasted your life."
"Really?" Diesel asked.
Tarentalas suddenly fidgeted, and his eyes went wide. His hand flew to the hole in his back where the bullet had entered, as light erupted from it.
"How…?"
"I made a bullet just for you, sir," the moogle smiled evilly. "Pure silver melted down from an abandoned church's cross. Religious symbols of banishment engraved into the sides. Filled with holy water."
Tarentalas's eyes showed, probably for the first time for his extremely long existence, fear. "No," he whispered, and then screamed as loud as he could, "NO!" He moved towards Diesel, apparently with the intention of taking the moogle with him. However, he hadn't gone half a metre when he suddenly screamed in pain. He bent backwards slightly, as light began ripping through his waxy skin.
Isaac, Eileen and Jacqueline all managed to slowly sit up in pain as he continued to deteriorate. His cloak and clothing was totally gone now, leaving only a few bits of skin on his torso and arms and his hole head. Suddenly, the light exploded out through his eyes, and the rest of his skin quickly followed, leaving only a dark nexus hanging in the air where his brain should have been. The light gathered around it, and, after a moment of pressing at it, swallowed the core of evil whole.
There was a long period of silence as they all stared on at where the evil lord had been but a moment earlier. The first sound heard was a strangled sob, and all eyes turned to Maxwell. He breathed in, and breathed out slowly. He glanced around at his friends; Isaac, who was getting shakily to his feet and spitting out a tooth; Jacqueline, who was standing, but coughing very hard from the blow; Ben, smoke rising from his still motionless but breathing body; and Eileen, rubbing the back of her head and cracking her neck. They had come for him. They had fought to set him free.
And they had won.
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A/N: I'd just like to mention that the Tarentalas fight scene lasted four pages. FOUR PAGES! Please, tell me if it's too long or too exhausting. I'm kinda nervous about it. Thanks.