Author's notes: And you thought I forgot this chapter?
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia.
Chapter 37: Unison
Kratos sighed again and rolled his eyes at Zelos. The man pulled his wings out, jumping upward. He used the momentum to fly up to the edge of the bridge at rapid speed. Reaching one arm out, Kratos snatched Zelos by the back of his shirt and once more descending toward the ground. Kratos briefly hovered over the metallic surface and dropped Zelos flat on his face before gracefully landing beside the downed Chosen.
Zelos positioned himself on his elbows, and rubbed his injured nose. "You didn't have to drop me you know!" he complained in a high-pitched whine.
"I had to let you go because you were struggling too much," Kratos responded coolly, drawing his sword
Zelos instantly sat back on his knees as he quite suddenly saw the sword in his face. He threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Whoa, whoa! Watch where you point that thing!" Kratos clenched and unclenched his fist in a surprising show of temper.
He considered responding with a scathing remark, or one of his infamous 'death glares' but instead settled for a command. "Focus!" he snapped, not just toward Zelos, but to the others as well. Though, the anger in his tone was mostly meant for the younger red-head…
Everyone blinked and stared at Kratos. "When did he become so hostile?" Sheena asked warily, glancing between him and Lloyd.
Lloyd sighed. "When Zelos opened his big mouth," he responded drily, his eyes closing briefly.
"Oh c'mon! Why does everyone always pick on me?" Zelos whined as he drew his sword.
Sheena bit back a snarky response, and instead pulled out her seal cards. They had to focus on the soldiers, not one of Zelos's stupid remarks. Sheena was the first to make a move, throwing one of the seal cards at the nearest guard, the paper holding place in midair only a few feet from his face. She followed up with a series of hand motions and an exclamation of "Pyre Seal!" as she lifted one palm in the soldier's direction. An explosion broke out amongst their ranks, knocking them back. The man it had been closest to was thrown into a brick wall, bones cracking upon impact.
Colette flinched at the sound and Lloyd allowed himself a brief wince before wiping all expression from his face. Kratos and Lloyd charged at once while Zelos stayed behind, preparing a spell. Presea held her axe in both hands, nearly dragging it along as she slowly moved toward the other group of fighters.
There were more soldiers now then before, apparently having regrouped somewhere along the way and instead of the seven from before, there were now closer to ten or twelve knights surrounding the Sage Siblings. They were technically outnumbered, but with the surprise of Sheena's seal working in their favor, it likely wouldn't be a difficult task to defeat them.
Mana collected at the tip of Kratos's blade, channeling it through his arm into the steel, as he jabbed at the soldier to the right of him. "Lightning blade!" he shouted as sparks danced from the sword, conduction throughout the man's armor. The knight stiffened as his body convulsed from the shock and he went limp, dead or unconscious it; truly didn't matter.
Kratos turned with greater speed then what they were used to seeing from him and his attention shifted from the neutralized enemy to the next attacker. Lloyd, while faring well against them, wasn't quite so formidable a foe; he feinted left then ducked right, coming around one man's side and slashed horizontally with his right blade, before pulling away to avoid the quick thrust of the soldier's spear. The man spun the weapon about quickly attempting to cut through his defenses with force alone. Lloyd blocked with his left sword bringing them into a stalemate as the two opposing forces applied equal power.
Their deadlock was broken when another Papal knight cut in, jabbing at Lloyd's side. The boy jumped back in surprise and the soldier staggered forward with the momentum. Lloyd took his chance and clubbed him hard on the crown of his helmet, using the hilt of his sword as a blunt weapon. The other soldier was taken by surprise as Zelos released a wind spell in his direction, the cutting blades slicing through his armor as if it were paper.
Lloyd winced. Now that looked extremely painful…
"No need to thank me!" Zelos called brightly, a smirk and a two fingered wave adding to the smugness in his voice. "It's all in a days work!"
Lloyd snorted. "I honestly wasn't about to…" he responded flatly, clearly unamused.
"Tch! You're no fun…" Zelos muttered as he drew his sword to his side.
"Pyre Seal!" Sheena shouted again, blasting away three more soldiers as they attempted to gang up on her. They all flew in three different directions, though the most notable was the one who went straight over the edge of the bridge and into the unforgiving waters far below.
"Only five more to go? No problem!" Zelos yelled cheerfully. His general laid-back attitude belied his true fighting prowess, and Zelos sprinted forward with inhuman speed. He slashed upward at the soldier before using the momentum to twirl about into a spirally jumped his sword flashing in the sunlight. "Lightspear!" he shouted the Art as the two enemies caught in the vicious onslaught landed dead before him. Zelos landed gracefully on his feet, blue-eyes flashing dangerously in the sun. He and Kratos turned to the three soldiers left standing, the two on opposite sides.
Almost as if by unanimous decision, they charged in perfect timing and cut straight through the remaining knights, barely missing each other in the process. "Cross thrust!" the yelled in unison as steel sliced through steel and into soft flesh. Blood spattered across their faces, but they seemed not to notice and remained still for a moment as the battle haze faded and their minds cleared suddenly.
Endnotes: I know strange ending but it was getting late and I wanted to upload it today. Too late for that though.