The Last Amazons
By Dixxy
Chapter Twelve: The Battle Ensues
(Sage)
I watched as Ella and Damion fought, neither ready to give up. Ella was losing badly, a few cuts on her arms. Despite the fact she was an Amazon, she was losing, and at that, badly. Damion had been in training with his powers for ten years. Ella had probably known about her powers for little more than an hour, two at most.
I impatiently flapped my wings, getting Damion's attention. He dropped Ella, who had been in a choke hold. She grasped her neck and started to hack and cough. Seeing that I was ready to take care of the situation at hand, she stepped down and crawled over to where Sam was. Ella gently stroked Sam's forehead with the back of her hand, worried about her niece. My friend was covering her exposed breasts, looking on in a strange mix of fear and worry.
The two were going to be spectators to Damion either getting killed or making another killing. None the less, it was him or me, and if it was going to be him walking out of there, then I'd go down after giving him the best fight of his life- he wasn't getting out in one piece, even if he DID win.
"So. . . you're a Ronin Warrior, too, huh? I didn't expect that, though I suppose that if Sam is a Senshi it makes sense for her to have strange taste in boyfriends. I will give you one thing, though. You're brave boy. Stupid, but brave," said Sam's father. "So, ready to die, Fairy Boy?"
"You should talk!" I said. Sam's father grabbed another concealed weapon, a nice sized sword. He darted at me, swinging wildly. I used my wings to my advantage and flew upwards, avoiding his slices. He cried out angrily that I had gotten away. I looked down pleased with myself for making him angry.
"You're going to DIE, YOU DAMNED FLITTEREE!" he screeched. He took an upward slice that I flew to the right to avoid. Now he was getting REALLY mad! "THIS WILL BE THE DOWNFALL OF YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE DAMNED RACE! YOU AND YOUR DAMNED RONIN WARRIORS!"
And I was just starting!
"DIE!" SLICE! SWISH!
"Missed me!"
"YOU LITTLE-" SLICE! SWISH!
"Can't hit a beach ball with a tennis racket!"
"DAMN IT YOU LITTLE SON OF A-" SLICE! SWISH!
"My near sighted grandmother has better aim than you do!"
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" SLICE SWISH!
"Missed me, missed me, now ya gotta kiss me!"
"OH, I'LL KISS YOU ALL RIGHT!" SLICE! SWISH! "DAMN IT!"
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of an aggravated Amazon who has managed to wedge his weapon between two cement bricks. I grinned to myself and watched in amusement as he tried fruitlessly to free his blade from the wall. He grunted and groaned, but that blade would not budge.
"Aw. . . did the poor little Amazon get his sword stuck in the wall?" I teased.
Damion turned to me, his eyes glowing red. I gulped and paled. Suddenly all of my taunting didn't seem like such a hot idea anymore. I had seen what that guy could do. Now he wanted to do that to me. I tried to figure out a way around him, hoping whatever I came up with worked.
He raised his hands, preparing another blast of energy. I threw my hands up and created a light screen, hoping it would shield me from the attack that was about to come. Block the energy, block the energy, please, for the love of Pete block the energy! I thought to myself.
BOOM!
The energy bounced off of my shield and hit Damion head on. The Amazon was sent flying through the cement wall, creating a nice sized hole. The blast threw me backward to where Sam and her aunt sat watching the fight. "Sage, are you okay?" asked Sam. By now Ella had given her some sort of button-up shirt to cover herself. "Are you hurt?"
"I'll be fine," I said. "Just a little razzled from that last hit."
"Be careful," said Ella. "You're the last of your kind!"
"We don't know that," I said, thinking about the Flitteree woman Kento and Keisha had told me about, Celeste. If she'd been able to escape at four, then maybe I wasn't the only one left after all. And at that, we didn't know what happened to Celeste after the Hardrocks had their encounter with her.
"Sage, you're also the bearer of the Armor of the Halo AND the main carrier of the Armor of the Soul! If you die, then we could all be SCREWED!!!" Sam said through very gritted teeth. "Please. For. The. Love. Of. God. Keep. Out. Of. Too. Much. TROUBLE!"
"Yes ma'am," I said. Just out of the corner of my eye I saw Damion coming back for another round. Time to look for a new strategy. I looked up at the walls and ceiling, watching as boxes and support beams began to shake. "Damn. The pressure from the blast is going to bring this place down on top of us." I dismissed my sword and grabbed Ella and Sam, one under each arm.
"Sage, what are you-"
I made a mad dash for the hole in the wall, passing Damion on the way. Sam and Ella screamed as we exited through my accidentally made door. I dropped them off a safe distance away, then the three of us turned to watched as the old factory began to crumble and fall to the ground in a head of broken cement blocks. I watched in awe as the structure came down, amazed that Damion's magic and my shield had done that.
"Thank the Lord no one was in that building," said Ella.
"Except for Damion," I said. "But there's no way he survived that. Is there?"
Sam was eyeing the rubble. "I thought I saw something move."
I took in a deep breath, summoning my sword again. "Stay here," I said.
My partner in arms snorted. "Like I'm going anywhere in my condition?"
"YOU stay out of trouble- you're injured and I don't want to see you get hurt any more," I said. I turned to the rubble, gulped, and took a step towards the rubble. I swallowed again and took another step. Slowly, but steadily, I took nervous step after nervous step closer and closer still to the remains.
Suddenly, the pile erupted from underneath as Sam's father emerged in a fit of pure fury. "DEATH TO THE FLITTEREE!" He was glowing in a bright, black hue, his form protruding with energy. I screamed and put up another light screen, hoping it would hold out.
CRASH! BAM!
It didn't.
"SAGE!"
I crashed into a tree. It was then I learned the hard way that having wings makes a hit to your spine all the more painful. I fell to the ground, and, see I wasn't paralyzed, got up. I was going to have to get serious. I wasn't going to provoke him and dodge him. I was going to blast every last cell in his body to kingdom come.
I flew up high where he couldn't hit me easily. That gave me an advantage, because I was closer to my element of lightning AND my aim isn't half bad when I'm fifty feet off the ground. Now I just had to decide if I was going to use Ronin magic or Flitteree magic.
"GET DOWN HERE!!!!"
Flitteree magic would be an extremely ironic thing to bring him down. It would bring honor to my ancestors and any other Flitteree who might've somehow escaped the assault on the last city. Bring honor to Celeste, the very reason I was even alive. If she hadn't saved me, who knew what would have happened to me?
"I MEAN IT!!!"
On the other hand, I knew exactly how to use my Ronin powers, where their limits were, and I had a better idea on how much I could do with them. They are also much more controlled- my Flitteree magic was extremely wild and I didn't have as much control over it.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT!"
Both of them revolved around lightning, thunder, and light, so element wasn't an issue. No matter which kind of power I chose to use, Damion was still going to get electrocuted. I had only to decide which spells to use. Which would be more effective and more justifiable?
"YOU'RE GOING TO BE DEADER THAN A DOOR-NAIL!"
"Is that even a word?" I asked (Dixxy's note: *flips through dictionary* nope, not a word).
"I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A WORD! I'LL INVENT IT!"
I grinned, coming up with my strategy. I was going to combine the best of both worlds and combine the two powers. The only catch was that I didn't know if that was a good idea or a bad idea. But, then again, it was my only chance to win the fight. I began to form an energy ball between my hands, Damion still cursing and swearing below me.
"GET DOWN HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!"
The ball was done. I raised it above my head and murmured a chant that I done several times while in Trulpa's clutches. I had to summon a thundercloud. Right on schedule, a nice sized thunderhead sat over me, waiting like an anxious puppy to fulfill its duty. "Good boy," I said.
"I'M WARNING YOU! YOU'RE JUST DIGGING YOU OWN GRAVE!"
"And you've just carved out your headstone!" I called back. "I CALL APON THE POWERS OF THE ARMOR OF THE HALO! I CALL APON THE POWERS OF MY PEOPLE! THUNDERHEAD!!!!!!" The thundercloud cracked, lighting up the dark sky as a bolt of lightning struck my energy ball and my wings. I concentrated on my extra appendages and forced the electricity through my arms and into the energy ball. I screamed as my world suddenly went bright white. . .
~
"Sage!"
"C'mon, Blondie, get up!"
"I resemble that remark, Tubbo!"
"Tubbo?! Who're you calling 'Tubbo', you Australian bimbo?!"
I opened my eyes, looking around. I saw the sky above me, still glistening with stars and the moon against the dark blue-violet backdrop. I blinked. Was I still alive? "Sage, you okay?" I looked towards the source of the voice and saw Keisha sitting by me, cross legged as she pressed the back of her hand to my forehead.
"Keisha?" I asked. "What are you- SAM! ELLA!" I sat up, frantically looking for Sam and her aunt. I sighed with relief to see Sam arguing with Kento, Ella watching them with a somewhat annoyed look on her face as they traded insults (some of which were very colorful).
"They're fine- Sam's got most of her energy back and Ella wasn't badly scratched up at all," said Keisha. She smiled, giving me a thumbs up. "You really saved the day back there, Sage. Just be careful when you use that kind of magic- you could've died."
"And Damion?" I asked. Keisha pointed to a circle of scorched pavement. My eyes widened. That black stain on the ground was all that was left of Damion. Not so much as a tooth remained of him. I obliterated him. There isn't anything left. I killed him. I killed someone! "I actually-"
"There wasn't any other choice," she said. "You did what you had to do." Keisha turned to the still arguing Ronins. "Now I have to do what I have to do." She stood up, cleared her throat, and began to scream at Kento and Sam. Both hung their heads like misbehaving children and took the tongue lashing with as much dignity as they could muster.
"At least this one's all over and done with. Too bad we didn't get any of the action." I turned around to see Rona had been silently watching the whole argument from a piece of the rubble. She's so quiet and stealthy. . . just like Rowen. Is that one of the traits of the Strata armors?
"How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to prevent you from being street pizza," she said, turning her head to face me. "After you sent that attack out on Damion, you fainted. Right in mid air. You're damned lucky I was able to get up there fast enough to save your butt, Sage old boy."
I shrugged. "I figured that."
Rona offered her hand to me and pulled me to my feet. "Sam and Ella told us the rest."
I lowered my head. "But I killed someone. I killed Sam's father!"
"She would've done the same to him. Don't you see, Sage? The man killed his own parents and his wife. He had it coming," she said. I hung my head, still feeling guilty. "If you hadn't killed him, then he would've killed you and Sam would have been next on his list."
"I still feel bad about it," I said.
Rona placed a hand on my shoulder. "My virtue is life. My virtue makes me realize just how precious of a gift life is and how sad it is to see a life waste away or taken away. It's part of me, just like Wisdom is a part of you. But even though I don't like death, there are times when it has to be done."
I folded my arms. "You sure?"
"Positive. Now, let's go find an all-night ice cream parlor and get some ice cream," said Rona, closing her eyes as she gave me a really big cheeky grin. "If you ask me, there's nothing better than a big, juicy strawberry sundae after beating the living daylights out of a bad guy, and you look like you need a double hit of the whipped cream right about now."
"Do they even have all night ice cream parlors?" I asked.
"They'd better have them," said Rona. "Now let's go get ice cream!"
~
Another chapter, another round of answering your questions/comments/marriage proposals:
Harry: *blushes* Why, thank you! As for the Sam/Sage thing, it's really up in the air. I may or may not have them get together later on. What I might do is something similar to the idea used in "My Best Friend's Wedding" where the two parties involved promise to marry each other if they aren't married by a certain age. As for Mia. . . gee, I never really thought about that. Thanks for the food for thought.
Musou Misora: Yes, yoga classes are the answer here (but Lord knows anger management would help, too). As for the number two fan thing, you gave me an idea. If you look at my bio under my profile, you will find something that says "My Top Ten Fans List". Notice that Winter is in the top spot and you are in the second spot. I'll decide rankings number 3-10 later.
Winter: Ah, my number one fan. Sure, I'll see what I can do about reading them. Um, sometime. Maybe. When I have time. *sweatdrops* School sucks. . . As for the unrevised editions. . . uh. . . I saved over a lot of them? Heh, heh. . . don't worry, Winter, if you're looking for romance, you will like A Tale of Two Torrents and you will absolutely ADORE TO DEATH Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds, because they're almost pure romance (with butt monsters and demon worshipping clans thrown in, of course ^_^).
Only the epilogue to go. The epilogue is all new content and may/may not change the storyline a little bit. It depends on whether or not I decide to use an idea I've been toying with the past few days.
Oh! Today is May 20, 2002 (that's when I posted this chapter for those of you who are going to read this a few years from now). Today is my website's second birthday! Yay!
~Dixxy