Ghostly World
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Victorious now and never will
A/N:
Chapter 54 (Battling the Elements)
Ren made it halfway through the tunnel, she hadn't seen much in the way of shadow creatures, give or take one or two. Her breathing had grown heavy from the steep uphill climb that the tunnel had turned into. The tunnel was steadily becoming vertical with each passing step she took. It was now turning into more of a climb than anything. Her fear became true when she found herself facing a dirt wall rising into the sky. She cracked her neck and shot her claws from her knuckles. "Where the hell did they come up with this?" No time to complain, only climb.
With a grunt she leapt up and pushed her claws into the mound. She pulled her arm from the wall and replaced them a bit higher up, then pulled herself upwards. She wasn't in as good of shape as the others, which was odd. Her fighting style was more fluid than one would think, but her lung capacity was nil. What she lacked in stamina, she made up for in quantity and power. Who could resist the rush of water slamming against them?
Sure, she was the underdog of the tribal leaders. Everyone looked down on her because she didn't talk much, nor was she quite as strong. Her movements were nowhere near as swift as the wind or as strong as the earth, nor did she shine as bright as the light. She was extremely short, about five feet tall, but did that really matter? Perhaps, since she was shorter than most, they could walk all over her, but there was one thing that everyone misunderstood, the one thing that made her the leader of the water tribe above all else.
Ren finally pulled herself to the top of the hill and gazed down, it would be a steep slide. Only, at the bottom of the long hill, there were nearly hundreds of shadow creatures waiting for her. They shifted their eyes to her and started cackling. "Aw hell…" She shifted her eyes to the side and narrowed them as the creatures started rushing towards her. Without worrying, she recalled just how much water was in the body of one of these creatures, and there it was, the thing that everyone overlooked. She was almost always calm under pressure, as calm and quiet as water. No matter how silent, how cool, how collected, or how calm a body of water looked, it was still very deadly. "We're elementals, we don't need to have a source in order to generate anything."
The creatures all stilled and watched as she lifted her hand in the air. Their bodies began to tremble and sweat, then the sweat seeped into the walls. After five minutes of this, Ren's lips turned upwards and she slammed her hands together. As this happened, the water shot out of the walls, increasing in quantity and pressure. The creatures screamed as her water started to fill the tunnel, drowning them all. Smoke rose from the water, signifying the deaths, and it evaporated into the air. She tilted her head to the right and folded her arms over her chest.
"Hmph, it's always a nice time for a swim, I suppose. At least that's one place I don't run out of breath."
In Era's tunnel, she walked with a mist surrounding her. She'd contracted it from her own breath, and turned it into gas. So far, shadow demons she met were dumb enough to charge at her and breath in the vapor. When they did this, they would change from black to a very dark purple color, next they would fall to their deaths. Perhaps the poison air reflected herself, she always contemplated this. From a very young age, it felt like she was just toxic to everyone around her, and that always pushed her to grow stronger.
When she was just a baby, learning her powers of the element, she'd been suckling her mother and wound up poisoning the woman's breast somehow, causing a cancer that no one was able to cure. Her father abandoned her after that, so she raised herself. No one wanted to touch the girl who lived and breathed poison, but it wasn't her fault she couldn't control it.
After all this time, she did learn to control it, and now, she was able to direct it more as a weapon than anything else. Just rushing air out onto an enemy was hardly enough, she wanted to poison them, she wanted to kill anyone that messed with her. She could never have a good romance, because if she tried to kiss anyone, she might kill them. She could never be around people, as the very air she breathed might cause someone to become gravely ill. It was this very reason that she was the tribe leader that very few new about. When one became the tribe leader, it was because they beat the last one, and any candidates, in battle. When she met the former leader, she killed him without meaning to, as she had been so nervous that just hyperventilating filled the entire room with her venom. To this day, no one ever challenged her.
She turned her eyes to the side as several creatures ran for her. Once more, she rolled her eyes and stood as the creatures tackled her to the ground and started to claw at her. She waited and watched with boredom as the creatures started hacking and falling off her. "You would think…that you'd learn by now…all I am is poison."
"Good," spoke a demon from behind. She raised an eyebrow and slowly stood up as the creatures gasped out their final breath. She turned to see a black creature on is hind legs with thick arms and two fingers with claws on them, the demon's head was long and shaped like a bar, its eyes were crimson and its teeth were sharp like daggers. "I thought you'd be easy to kill because you were an air controller, but if you can turn that air into a poisonous vapor, then I can fight you…"
"Is that so?"
"I am a poison demon. You can't kill me with your air." Era scoffed and clenched her fists, shooting her claws out.
"Fine. I'll fight you with these." She never really used her claws, she'd had them since birth. She never knew why she was able to use them so early, or even how, but whatever the case had been, she never trained with them. She was not very acrobatic, as one who controls air ought to be, but that made plenty of sense for someone who relied so heavily on gas. "I assume you're the last one in this tunnel?"
"Yep" The demon charged towards her, startling her, and opened his mouth to release a greenish gas into her face. She began coughing and flailed her hand through the air, throwing the gas off to the side. As she did this, the demon charged around her and slammed its tail into her lower back. She staggered forward and quickly gained her balance by using the wind around her to adjust. The demon snarled and licked its lips. "You can't possibly defeat me. I'll devour you for myself."
"Don't get so cocky." She lunged forward and thrust her claws into his face. He let out a grunt and his head flew upwards, the claws could be seen beneath the folds of his skin. Era smirked and tore the claws outwards, grinning as blood fell onto the ground. "I might cut out your tongue before you can so much as get a nibble out of me."
"You wench!" The demon grabbed her throat and slammed her against the nearby wall. She gasped as he began to cut off her windpipe. She started to struggle as his blood drenched her armor. "Even you can't breathe if someone cuts off access to your lungs. Not so tough when someone manages to get a hold of you, are you now?" The demon began laughing, as though it already won the fight.
Era let out a grunt as the eye around her pupils began to turn a bright blue color. Her hands closed up and she slowly brought her forearms to point towards the demon. "I said…don't get cocky." She thrust her claws forward, punching into his chest and through his lungs. His eyes widened with pain as his lungs collapsed. The oxygen around him parted from his head and he could no longer breathe any air, making his death even quicker. He released her and collapsed to his hands and knees, grasping at his throat and crying out for air. Era stood over him with narrows eyes and a trembling fist. As the demon looked to her, his eyes begging for mercy, she raised her claws, holding them down vertically. "I'm poison to anyone that touches me. There is a reason for that…" With the sudden haste of a guillotine, her claws slammed down into his neck, killing him almost instantly. She turned her gaze to the wall near her and heard the earth rumbling from a distance, clearly Terra was handling her creatures with, or without, much skill. Of course, that woman never needed skill, mother nature was deadly enough on its own. Thinking fast, she crouched down in time for a vine to shoot all the way through the tunnel wall and start forming several leaves. She sighed and cupped her mouth, "Careful next time, Terra!"
Rama ran swift through his tunnel, slashing and cutting every creature he came across. He had to be fast, he had to be sudden, as these demons had very similar powers of darkness that he did. It was almost like a curse for him, having been born in the Dark Tribe, therefore deemed practically useless in the war against the shadows. He was out to prove that the Dark Tribe had what it took to fight and win this war.
He somersaulted in the air, flying above one of the creatures. He punched his claws down and stabbed the demon in the head. When he landed on his feet, he gazed over his shoulder and huffed, three small demons were growling at him. His lip turned upwards and a black circle formed beneath him. As he saluted the demons, he sank into the shadowy circle and moved along the ground. The demons looked around, clueless, as the ground was pitch black. Rama slowly rose behind the demons, smirking darkly.
"Boo." The demons swirled around just as he slashed his claws through their necks. Their bodies fell and evaporated into smoke. He never really felt so confident before, but the run in this long as hell tunnel was truly helping him feel better about his own abilities. He really wanted to give something to show to the Royal Family that he deserved that spot on the royal guard. These creatures weren't too difficult to fight, which was an amazing fact. "It's a pity I can't use the dome on them…"
He scraped his claws together and started walking off. His favorite attack was that of the dark dome, which blinded anyone except the user, or someone with the powers of light. It was soundproof to the point that no one could hear anything outside, and no one outside could hear the screams of the victims inside. Of course, these shadow creatures could likely see well enough without worry.
As he walked, a powerful blast struck him from the side. He crashed against a wall and hissed as his left arm cracked against it. "What the hell!" His eyes fell onto a man with a long black spear. The man was tall, thin, and had shaggy black hair that fell in front of his pale skin. "Who are you?"
"Nazar…" Thick black wings shot out from his back and a scowl formed at his face. "Third in command beneath my father. One rank below my sister, the General of the Shadow's Royal Guard." Rama felt his heart pulse and took a slight step back, this was the Angel of Death's son? How the hell could he fight this one? Nazar slashed his spear through the air and pointed it at Rama. "Are you prepared, Elemental Dark?"
"When the hell did the Angel of Death find time to have children?"
"Hecate and I are twins, for the record. Our father may be as old as time itself, but we have been around for five hundred years." The strange thing was, this man looked to be about twenty years of age, but yet, the angel of death had no physical age. "Now I asked you. Are you prepared to die?" Rama chuckled nervously and closed his eyes. Whatever he did, he had to do fast.
"I got the short end of the stick then. The tunnel with the strongest one here…great." Not only did he have to beat this guy, but killing him might piss the top guy off quite a bit. "Aren't you supposed to be guarding the core, though?"
"Our pet guards the core."
"Pet?"
"You'd like to know…" Nazar smirked maliciously and moved forward. "Wouldn't you?" Rama swallowed hard and waited as Nazar rushed him. Thinking fast, he swept his claws forward, but merely shot through an afterimage of the demon. When he realized his mistake, he glanced back in time to see Nazar throwing his spear forward.
"No!" The spear pierced into his back and he quickly ran forward. Fortunately, the spear didn't cut in all that deep, otherwise he would be having some serious issues. He twisted around, running backwards, and threw his hands forward, blasting off a dark laser. Nazar sneered and swung his spear downward, extinguishing the blast with ease. "Oh come on!"
"You're useless." The words stung his chest and he quickly moved to a halt. Useless? That was indeed how he felt. He bowed his head as the demon angel ran forward and slammed the spear into his gut. He let out a bellowing yell as the sharp point tore through his back. Nazar laughed and held the spear in place as Rama's head fell, his chin touching to his chest. That spear had all the power, all the strength, so was this what made Nazar so powerful? Just as the Angel of Death had his scythe? Dark sickle blasts appeared around him and cut into his body. "Fall by the spear of Nazar!" Rama's eyes widened as Nazar pushed the spear in some more. He clenched his teeth amid the blood and slowly wrapped his hand around the spear's handle.
"I might be useless against the shadows with my dark powers, but you are too cocky for your own good." He cut off the demon's laughter by hacking off the hand holding onto the spear. Nazar let out a powerful shout and jolted backwards. Rama let out a firm grunt and tore the spear from his body. Blood ran down his arms and drenched the bar of the spear. He turned his gaze to Nazar and craned his neck to the side. Nazar held onto the bloody stump of an arm and glared at Rama.
"How the hell are you able to hold that? No one can touch it but my own flesh and blood." His eyes widened fearfully as Rama's blood started to sink back into his body. Rama shut his eyes and breathed in as all his wounds started to close. "What in the…"
"There's so much you don't know about me…but since I'm guessing you are who you say you are, the third in command of the Shadow Realm, I have all that I need to know. However, unlike you, I am good." Grey wings sprout from his back and he quickly charged forward, slamming the spear into Nazar's chest. Nazar gasped and his wings drooped towards the ground. Rama swiftly spun around, slashing the spear out of Nazar's body and slamming his claws through the man's neck. "Oh, that one was for my mother, by the way…" The earth seemed to tremble as a dark dome formed around the two.
Darkness clouded Nazar's mind as fear gripped at him, a fear worse than even the shadows. He wasn't dying? How was he not dying! He felt the rush of cold steel along his body, his frozen body, too stiff to move. Blood seeped from his arm. Where was he? What was going on? His arms stretched out to the sides and he let out a fierce grunt as the spear shot out of his chest.
Rise up! Rise up! Why couldn't he rise? Was this fear truly that paralyzing? His eyes widened as his wings were torn from his body. Blood gushed from his back and he fell forward to his hands. Red liquid fell from his mouth and landed on the ground. How was he still living? All this hacking away, all this torture, no one should endure so much!
"All my life I've searched for the man that attacked my mother, the man that contributed to half my DNA. My mother told me he was the third in command of the Shadow Realm, she told me his name, your name! Now you see why I am the leader of my tribe? God forbid I ever reveal my wings, but I thought I'd show them to you, to use them just this once." The dome started to fall and Nazar gazed up pitifully as Rama closed his grey wings around him. "You are nothing to me."
"H-Hecate and…F-Father…will destroy you…" Rama leaned in close as Nazar's energy was slowly absorbed into his wings.
"I'll be waiting for them. Tell you what…I'll let you die, but by the darkness in me, it'll be slow and painful. Enjoy death in your own darkness…" He pushed his claws into Nazar's gut and spun them around, twisting Nazar's intestines around. He pulled them out and growled as Nazar fell onto his back, moaning painfully
Closing his eyes, Rama slashed the spear through the air, pointing it down at the ground. As it vanished in his hand, his wings retracted and he continued on down the tunnel. Maybe, just maybe, he could prove more beneficial to the Elemental Realm than he thought. He gazed into the distance and softly exhaled. There was a light, the end of the tunnel. Beck would be waiting for them.
Now there's a shock. Next chapter, Beck battles the worst of them all!
