Sword - Chapter 3
Sword
By Chustang Sundust

Chapter 3
"Rival Clash"



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.


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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