Suddenly, there
he was.
Li narrowed his
eyes, taking on a reddish-amber brown fury deep in them, and forced Sakura
away roughly. With trained speed,the injured boy felt a surge of rivalry
cause him to once again push himself to the limit. Although he knew the
consequences of the last time he'd seen the fury of battle with the dark-haired
magician, he knew it was inevitable. He'd tracked him all the way here,
and it was clear the black fire in his ghostly gray eyes held no compassion
for him. With anguish rattling through his thin frame, Li skillfully used
his good arm to recover his sword and draw it one handedly up to the ready.
The Card Captor
sucked in sharp, painful breath and said in an exhausted and raspy voice,
"I thought you forgot, Audrey." A chilly wind left over from the dark whirl
of the Storm Card blew in his sweat darkened bangs, and he suddenly trembled
with under the burden of his heavy sword, wincing from the pain burning
white hot in his arm although he moved it little. "You... were supposed
to be dead, you know," he breathed to the silent, wincing again as he had
to adjust the hilt in his hand.
Behind him, Sakura
held her breath, and her misty green eyes widened in fear. She gently placed
her hand on his good shoulder and triedto pull to face her, but he turned
a cold shoulder and roughly wrenched it from her grasp. "Li, your hurt!
Don't do anything foolish," she warned, tearing up slightly as she got
the rebuke. But her face remained tight and she pulled her lip over her
top one. The wind brushed her hair across her face, and she held her hand
instinctively to her cheek, slightly balling her fist as she saw her precious
Li stagger forward. His good hand was straining around the hilt. "...Your
sword is too heavy!" she warned at last, summing up enough courage to defy
him again. Her voice was sharp. "Just back down, I can handle it!"
He turned fierce
but emotional brown eyes to her, only slightly shifting to face her, and
said simply in his firm, reassuring voice scratched with exhaustion, "Sakura...
I don't want you hurt." As she locked eyes, it was almost as if there was...
fear there? Was he afraid? she thought to herself. But... he's never afraid
of anything like this! Shivering in her angel costume, the Card Captor
sighed softly and held back obediently, trusting that Li's hard trained
fighting instincts would be enough.
"Good luck,"
she whispered breathlessly.
Audrey snorted to himself with his thin lips pursed smugly around a smirk.
From beneath the whipping mass of malicious black hair, his stormy gray
eyes were reflecting the moonlight, making them appear to glow. Although
he sensed weakness in Li's pause, the skilled magician restrained himself
from finishing off his rival so quickly. With sharp and expertly calculating
eyes, he just allowed himself to sum up magic and watched the pair of Card
Captors converse breathlessly. The young boy noticed the girl behind him,
and assumed it was Sakura Avalon, the much more inexperience partner of
Li. 'Just wait. You will humiliate him before his koi, Audrey, but its
not egotistical to kill without explaining your master plan.'
The young magician
drew his own, golden sword to the ready, lifting the blade before his face.
He patiently waited for Li to face battle, with a hungry power humming
along the hilt. "Come on, Mangy Wolf," he taunted, raising an eyebrow smugly.
"You know what I came here for." His voice was low and surly against the
whisper of the wind, but it carried to his brown haired rival. And struck
his ears like poison.
Whipping his
head back to glare at his rival, Li frowned and tensed his fingers around
the sword. "That's Little Wolf," he said in a dangerous voice back. Through
his amber-brown bangs, his golden brown eyes sparked fire back as he frowned
his lips.
"Oh, no need
to degrade yourself like that. We're all friends here, aren't we?" Audrey
replied smoothly. He had arrogantly stabbed the sword into the soft, dark
soil and was leaning jauntily against the hilt. The slim boy pretended
to look over his nails, then, pausing, flashed sharp gray eyes up. His
voice deepened to an ominous roll of words, barely audible but still cutting.
"...Oh, that's right. Li Showron... you turned on me, didn't you? Even
when I gave you your dream, your magic... kicked me out like trash, just
because it seemed 'wrong' to you..." he hissed beneath his breath, narrowing
his stormy eyes to be shaded by his wild black bangs. And in a flash of
golden fury to reflect the moonlight, the thin-framed surrounded in lavish
dark robes was airborne and whirling down in an expert attack.
"Li!" Sakura
cried.
He lifted his
sword to match the attack, red-hot pain voicing his arm's pain even as
it hung limp at his side, and closed his fiery brown eyes in pain. The
young boy bit his lip in anticipation as the golden glint in the gray painted
sky whirled nearer, and strained his fingers over the hilt, feeling a desperate
surge of lightning sparking at his fingertips. Li took a sudden ragged
breath, quickly breathing the words to his chant, before the magic stirred
enough to produce electricity. Was it too late? he asked himself. Face
tightened in pain, he only could brace himself. Audrey was ready, and he
wasn't.
Thunder roared
menacingly as the two blades clashed with heat sparking from impact. The
screeching of the two different metals striking each other were only drown
out by the thunderclaps emitting from the sword as it powered up. Li screamed
in pain, as he felt his dark-haired rival block his own sword and press
the flat side against his injured shoulder. White-hot pain flared up in
his chest, and gritting his teeth, the Card Captor managed to crack one
eye open. Narrowing golden brown fury at Audrey, Li said through clenched
teeth, "Why come back now? Why didn't you finish me off before I left?"
As he stared into the cold, steely eyed face of his rival, which was partially
concealed in the whipping black bangs, he secretly was slipping his blade
out from beneath the dark-haired magician, despite the danger of his golden
sword cutting him. His lips creased slightly into a frown, his expression
fiery through his thick brown hair and glaring eyes. "... Besides... I
said I was sorry long ago, Audrey."
As the magician
was supported in midair by the magic rushing the length of his blade, he
narrowed his stormy gray eyes beneath a smirk. Then, pausing, he cooed
dangerously, "Apology not accepted, Mangy Wolf."
"That's Little
Wolf!" he snapped. And in a surge of determination, he forced his injured
arm up, even as it drowned in a sea of white-hot pain, and violently jerked
the hilt of his sword toward Audrey. It struck forcefully in his stomach,
causing his rival to jolt back in pain and surprise, and the magician lost
his pressure on the other sword and was cast out. Fear twisted up his face,
as the dark robed boy struggled to regain himself and readied himself for
impact, recovering his golden sword to the ready. His stormy gray eyes
went wide, as he froze in fear, seeing Li defiantly lift his injured arm
to his silver sword and took a ragged breath, breathing the words 'Rai
tei sho rai!' repeatedly beneath his breath.
A crack of thunder.
Audrey fumbled
over his own weapon, stumbling to sum up his own magical energy, still
in danger of hitting the ground. He bitterly cursed to himself, jet-black
bangs whipping over his paled skin.
A surge of light.
His hands tightened
around the hilt, among the decorative gems and golden threads attached
there. His haunting gray eyes narrowed, as minute flecks of red embers
formed...
Brilliant light spilled out light
dust across the plain, whipping the grass into a surging sea of silvery
green. A howling wind clawed at the two rival's faces as the first, florescent
tinted sparks of lightning crackled along the glistening length of the
sword. They clawed their way around the edges, cutting the night like knives
as it was totally engulfed in lightning. Li's face twisted up in pain,
and he could feel Sakura worry hang thick in the air.
The hiss of flames.
The roar of lightning.
And the sound of those mixing, then exploding.
*********************
Sorry for the short
chapter! I really meant to get working on this a lot sooner, but school
came and other ideas came up, but there should only be one more to go after
this. Big finale. ^_^ I'll explain what Audrey was talking about in the
next one, don't worry! I think japanese name (Syaoran) can be translated
into Little Wolf, so I used that as a nickname. Right now, my main project
is finishing my first chapter of my Jurassic park anime parody for beta
reading and my OLS stories The Dragon's Cosmic Breath and Starwind and
Hawking. Pleeze R&R! oh and check out my new site! it'll be on my profile
soon
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