Chapter XXXVII: The Fall Of Tyrants.
"Charge!" Cloud yelled as the enemy army came into his vision. Jarred was the first person to react.
The half breed leapt over Cloud and pulled out his hand axe. His torn clothes fluttered in the wind as he ran happily towards an army of soldiers. The metal soldiers turned in alarm to see the half breed slice the first enemy in his way.
From behind the soldiers, something screamed out orders.
"KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!" And the soldiers obeyed.
Jarred found himself facing a large of army of metal soldiers by himself, but this turned out to be a fun experiance in itself. His axe hacked into the anything that looked like it wouldn't shed blood, while he randomly ploughed through the enemy ranks. Behind him he could hear the sounds of Cloud and his soldiers clash against the enemy.
Jarred tried to retreat into his own forces, but found that he had been surrounded.
"Fu-$!" He swore.
The hand axe became a silvery blur as he tried his level best to find the enemy leader, who could be heard above the din of war. The soldiers in front of him fell easy prey to the hefty axe and the strong weilder. Before he knew it a dark figure stood infront of him, trying to slice at him with sharp claws. Jarred sidestepped and cut upwards with his axe. The demon dodged it narrowly.
With his spare hand he readied a ball of light.
"I DON'T THINK SO." The demon in front of Jarred said.
A clawed hand stabbed straight for jarred's head. Jarred let the ball of light dissapate and raised a hand to defend himself.
The clawed fingers went through his hand, and grazed his cheek.
Jarred screamed in pain. Dark red blood coursed down his cheek from four open cuts. His hand pulsated with pain.
The demon didn't wait for Jarred to recover. A black knee planted itself squarely in Jarred's stomach. As the half breed doubled over the demon drove an elbow into Jarred's back. Jarred collapsed.
"NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YOU? WHEN FACED WITH REAL POWER YOU CAN'T COMPARE. WHAT A PATHETIC DISGRACE OF LIFE. I GUESS I SHOULD FINISH YOU OFF, BUT I DON'T THINK I SHOULD SOIL MYSELF WITH YOUR BLOOD." The demon hissed while kicking Jarred viscously.
"You... Bastard!" Jarred swore.
The demon lashed out at Jarred again.
"WHO WOULD WANT TO CREATE YOU? YOU ARE A MOCKERY TO MY RACE! YOU ARE TOO WEAK TO CALL YOURSELF HALF OF ME!"
"I'll kill you!" Jarred said resolutely.
Malice prepared another to kick.
"AND HOW DO YOU PROPOSE TO DO THAT? YOUR AT MY MERCY. AND YOU SHALL SEE THAT MY MERCY DOES NOT HAVE A VERY BIG RESERVES." The demon spat.
The kick came.
But this time, Jarred cauught it.
"NOW YOU SHALL DIE!" He screamed.
Jarred's eyes were no longer dark red. They were intense glowing globes of fiery red. His hands burned with black flames, and a his body became emersed in flames.
"WHAT IS THIS TRICKERY?" Malice hissed as he recoiled.
Soldiers spread away from Jarred as he screamed out his rage. The flames licked across his body, illuminating the darkening streets.
"YOU HAVE LED THE LIFE OF A TYRANT, NOW YOU DIE AS THE COWARDLY MONSTER YOU ARE!"
Jarred tensed every muxcle in his body. His back arched. The flames that covered him seemed to take a life of their own. They leapt from Jarreds dark body and onto Malice. The demon screamed in pain.
"BURN!" Jarred howled.
The flames seered the demon, but they did not kill it. Eventually they died down, and Malice remained.
Jarred relaxed again and stared at his foe. Malice did the same.
"SO, YOU HAVE HIDDEN STRENGTHS. BUT THEY WON'T HELP YOU FOR LONG!"
Malice charged.
Jarred braced himself for the oncoming demon.
But as Malice approached Jarred, something odd happened. His wings disintegrated into a grey cloud of dust, the claws shrunk into fingers, and the fearsome skull changed into a face with spiky red hair.
"Huh?" Jarred said as Reno landed into a his arms.
"Where's the demon I was going to kill?" He asked confusedly.
He lifted the still body he was holding.
"Who's he?" He asked, more to himself than anyone else.
Jarred shrugged. He dropped Reno and returned to battle.
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Vincent towered above the grounded Mech-Head. His pointed metal boots prodded the still demon.
"Get up." He ordered.
With a puzzled look on his face, Mech-Head pushed himself off the ground.
"Y, your dead!" He muttered in disbelief.
Vincent smiled a mirthless smile.
"Yes, and because of that I was able to get in touch with my inner demons." Vincent replied, spreading his black wings.
"No, you didn't!" Mech-Head ranted. "They don't let humans in there."
Vincent's smile widened, and he laughed.
"I guess I was even less human then I first thought."
Mech-Head stood face to face with Vincent, his metal teeth gleaming wickedly.
"I don't suppose you brought your freind, did you?" Mech-Head sneered.
"I don't need him." Vincent replied.
Mech-Head didn't see the golden claw until it was too late. It slammed into his metal skull and latched on.
"I am going to make you suffer for what you did to me!" Vincent said, his mouth twisting into a hatefull sneer.
Mech-Head felt the claw tightening around his head. He going to crush me, he thought. The metal demon shot into action as he realized that he was in real danger. His metal claws grabbed onto the metal limb a pulled it away, but not before they made five long gashes across his forehead, and taking a handfull of steel hair.
"You will pay for that!" Mech-Head screamed.
The demon threw a claw forward, hoping to catch Vincent unaware. But the man expected the blow, and deflected it with ease. Mech-Head swiped at head height with his other hand. Vincent dodged this as well, and pushed hard with both hands in the metal demons midrift.
Mech-Head fell withh a resounding CLANG, while his head slammed painfully into the ground.
"You thought you were smart the day you killed me didn't you? You thought you had it all figured out, eh?" Vincent began circling Mech-Head. "Well you thought wrong!" Vincent lashed out at Mech-Head, causing the demon ball up in defence.
"What a pathetic example of a demon! A blood warrior? Hah! I saw HUMANS that accomplished more than you!" Vincent hissed.
Mech-Head leapt up.
"You Don't talk to me like that!" He yelled.
After another brief encounter, Mech-Head was floored again. Vincent stood before him, the sneer still on his face.
"You came all this way for revenge, and your going to be killed by me. But theres one thing I want to know. Why?" He asked. "Why? You were going to destroy an entire city of people, just to get to me and Seph-X, and we never did you any REAl harm, did we? Your still standing. laying atleast."
Mech-Head pushed himself up.
"It the prospect that counts." The demon ground.
"The prospect." Vincent muttered. "I'll be damned if I didn't say that once." Vincent shrugged.
"Well, I guess its time for the prospect to end."
Vincent grabbed Mech-Head by the throat with his hand.
"Jazac Na, Today is your last day on this planet."
Vincent raised his claw directly over the patch of skin on Mech-Heads skull.
"Good bye."
The claw fell. Mech-Head closed his eyes. He screamed one last scream of rage.
Ssssthunk!
And his limp corpse fell over.
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Seph X rounded the corner that would bring him to enemy. His army marched imperiosly behind him. But when he arrived, there was only a lare pile of steel, and a very proud Jarred standing on top of it.
"I seem to have taken care of your pest problem." The half breed called cheerfully.
Seph X began climbing the massive pile.
"God damn, you could have saved some for me!" The machine muttered darkly.
Jarred kicked a metal arm down at him.
"Don't be such a spoiled sport."
Seph X grabbed the arm.
"I'll show you spoiled sport!"
The mechanic clone threw the arm back at Jarred, where it landed straight in his gut. Jarred fell of his mound.
"I say sir, foul! I demand a penalty! Fifteen minutes!" Jarred yelled as he pushed himself up.
Seph X stood on the silvery pile, and struck a noble pose.
"YOU didn't follow my plan!" Seph X said indignantly.
Jarred shrugged.
"It needed improvement."
Seph X grabbed a metal skull.
"Improvement? I'll give you improvement! I'll improve your face with this skull!" The lump of steel narrowly missed Jarred.
"Well, I did get help." Jarred said, gesturing to Cloud and the others, who were gather their possesions.
Cloud smiled at Seph X.
"Leaving so soon?" Seph X asked.
Tifa answered.
"Yuffie's still up in the north, she might need our help." She said.
Seph X furrowed his eyebrows.
"The little brown haired girl?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh," He said. "I guess I'll come too."
The skull came back up and slammed into his skull.
"Gotcha!" Jarred said happily.
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Yuffie kept running, even when she heard the thing slam into the ground. She dared not look back, lest the demon sneak out in front of her, and give her a similar fate to that of her sweet Vinnie.
As she neared the end of the forest around capital, she heard a scream of rage. It seemed to last forever, echoing around the trees. But it was suddenly cut short.
Yuffie took this as a victory for her persuer, and added new force into her flight.
Behind her she heard a flap of wings, a whoosh of wind and a happy cry. Yuffie could only immagine what the demon had in store for her.
She ran past the trees and into the open, desolate city of ancients. But it was not long before the wing beats were right behind her. Yuffie felt two hands gently grab her by the waist and lift her. She tried stuggeling but there was no use. She pounded down on the hands that held her. It took her a while efore she realized that one of the hands was a golden claw, gently holding her, and trying desperatly not to peirce her skin. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth dropped.
"Vinnie?" She gasped.
"Yes?" Came the dubios answer.
Yuffie immediatly began hitting the arms again.
"If you ever do something like that again, I'll HURT you!" She yelled.
Vincent laughed above her.
"Vincent," She said. "Your, LAUGHING?!"
"Why, yes." Vncent replied. "I do believe I am."
Another thought suddenly rammed itself into Yuffie's mind.
"Vinnie;" She asked concernedly. "HOW THE HELL ARE WE FLYING?!"
There was a nervous reply.
"Ah, well, that I can explain, but theres a lot I can't."
"Charge!" Cloud yelled as the enemy army came into his vision. Jarred was the first person to react.
The half breed leapt over Cloud and pulled out his hand axe. His torn clothes fluttered in the wind as he ran happily towards an army of soldiers. The metal soldiers turned in alarm to see the half breed slice the first enemy in his way.
From behind the soldiers, something screamed out orders.
"KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!" And the soldiers obeyed.
Jarred found himself facing a large of army of metal soldiers by himself, but this turned out to be a fun experiance in itself. His axe hacked into the anything that looked like it wouldn't shed blood, while he randomly ploughed through the enemy ranks. Behind him he could hear the sounds of Cloud and his soldiers clash against the enemy.
Jarred tried to retreat into his own forces, but found that he had been surrounded.
"Fu-$!" He swore.
The hand axe became a silvery blur as he tried his level best to find the enemy leader, who could be heard above the din of war. The soldiers in front of him fell easy prey to the hefty axe and the strong weilder. Before he knew it a dark figure stood infront of him, trying to slice at him with sharp claws. Jarred sidestepped and cut upwards with his axe. The demon dodged it narrowly.
With his spare hand he readied a ball of light.
"I DON'T THINK SO." The demon in front of Jarred said.
A clawed hand stabbed straight for jarred's head. Jarred let the ball of light dissapate and raised a hand to defend himself.
The clawed fingers went through his hand, and grazed his cheek.
Jarred screamed in pain. Dark red blood coursed down his cheek from four open cuts. His hand pulsated with pain.
The demon didn't wait for Jarred to recover. A black knee planted itself squarely in Jarred's stomach. As the half breed doubled over the demon drove an elbow into Jarred's back. Jarred collapsed.
"NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YOU? WHEN FACED WITH REAL POWER YOU CAN'T COMPARE. WHAT A PATHETIC DISGRACE OF LIFE. I GUESS I SHOULD FINISH YOU OFF, BUT I DON'T THINK I SHOULD SOIL MYSELF WITH YOUR BLOOD." The demon hissed while kicking Jarred viscously.
"You... Bastard!" Jarred swore.
The demon lashed out at Jarred again.
"WHO WOULD WANT TO CREATE YOU? YOU ARE A MOCKERY TO MY RACE! YOU ARE TOO WEAK TO CALL YOURSELF HALF OF ME!"
"I'll kill you!" Jarred said resolutely.
Malice prepared another to kick.
"AND HOW DO YOU PROPOSE TO DO THAT? YOUR AT MY MERCY. AND YOU SHALL SEE THAT MY MERCY DOES NOT HAVE A VERY BIG RESERVES." The demon spat.
The kick came.
But this time, Jarred cauught it.
"NOW YOU SHALL DIE!" He screamed.
Jarred's eyes were no longer dark red. They were intense glowing globes of fiery red. His hands burned with black flames, and a his body became emersed in flames.
"WHAT IS THIS TRICKERY?" Malice hissed as he recoiled.
Soldiers spread away from Jarred as he screamed out his rage. The flames licked across his body, illuminating the darkening streets.
"YOU HAVE LED THE LIFE OF A TYRANT, NOW YOU DIE AS THE COWARDLY MONSTER YOU ARE!"
Jarred tensed every muxcle in his body. His back arched. The flames that covered him seemed to take a life of their own. They leapt from Jarreds dark body and onto Malice. The demon screamed in pain.
"BURN!" Jarred howled.
The flames seered the demon, but they did not kill it. Eventually they died down, and Malice remained.
Jarred relaxed again and stared at his foe. Malice did the same.
"SO, YOU HAVE HIDDEN STRENGTHS. BUT THEY WON'T HELP YOU FOR LONG!"
Malice charged.
Jarred braced himself for the oncoming demon.
But as Malice approached Jarred, something odd happened. His wings disintegrated into a grey cloud of dust, the claws shrunk into fingers, and the fearsome skull changed into a face with spiky red hair.
"Huh?" Jarred said as Reno landed into a his arms.
"Where's the demon I was going to kill?" He asked confusedly.
He lifted the still body he was holding.
"Who's he?" He asked, more to himself than anyone else.
Jarred shrugged. He dropped Reno and returned to battle.
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Vincent towered above the grounded Mech-Head. His pointed metal boots prodded the still demon.
"Get up." He ordered.
With a puzzled look on his face, Mech-Head pushed himself off the ground.
"Y, your dead!" He muttered in disbelief.
Vincent smiled a mirthless smile.
"Yes, and because of that I was able to get in touch with my inner demons." Vincent replied, spreading his black wings.
"No, you didn't!" Mech-Head ranted. "They don't let humans in there."
Vincent's smile widened, and he laughed.
"I guess I was even less human then I first thought."
Mech-Head stood face to face with Vincent, his metal teeth gleaming wickedly.
"I don't suppose you brought your freind, did you?" Mech-Head sneered.
"I don't need him." Vincent replied.
Mech-Head didn't see the golden claw until it was too late. It slammed into his metal skull and latched on.
"I am going to make you suffer for what you did to me!" Vincent said, his mouth twisting into a hatefull sneer.
Mech-Head felt the claw tightening around his head. He going to crush me, he thought. The metal demon shot into action as he realized that he was in real danger. His metal claws grabbed onto the metal limb a pulled it away, but not before they made five long gashes across his forehead, and taking a handfull of steel hair.
"You will pay for that!" Mech-Head screamed.
The demon threw a claw forward, hoping to catch Vincent unaware. But the man expected the blow, and deflected it with ease. Mech-Head swiped at head height with his other hand. Vincent dodged this as well, and pushed hard with both hands in the metal demons midrift.
Mech-Head fell withh a resounding CLANG, while his head slammed painfully into the ground.
"You thought you were smart the day you killed me didn't you? You thought you had it all figured out, eh?" Vincent began circling Mech-Head. "Well you thought wrong!" Vincent lashed out at Mech-Head, causing the demon ball up in defence.
"What a pathetic example of a demon! A blood warrior? Hah! I saw HUMANS that accomplished more than you!" Vincent hissed.
Mech-Head leapt up.
"You Don't talk to me like that!" He yelled.
After another brief encounter, Mech-Head was floored again. Vincent stood before him, the sneer still on his face.
"You came all this way for revenge, and your going to be killed by me. But theres one thing I want to know. Why?" He asked. "Why? You were going to destroy an entire city of people, just to get to me and Seph-X, and we never did you any REAl harm, did we? Your still standing. laying atleast."
Mech-Head pushed himself up.
"It the prospect that counts." The demon ground.
"The prospect." Vincent muttered. "I'll be damned if I didn't say that once." Vincent shrugged.
"Well, I guess its time for the prospect to end."
Vincent grabbed Mech-Head by the throat with his hand.
"Jazac Na, Today is your last day on this planet."
Vincent raised his claw directly over the patch of skin on Mech-Heads skull.
"Good bye."
The claw fell. Mech-Head closed his eyes. He screamed one last scream of rage.
Ssssthunk!
And his limp corpse fell over.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Seph X rounded the corner that would bring him to enemy. His army marched imperiosly behind him. But when he arrived, there was only a lare pile of steel, and a very proud Jarred standing on top of it.
"I seem to have taken care of your pest problem." The half breed called cheerfully.
Seph X began climbing the massive pile.
"God damn, you could have saved some for me!" The machine muttered darkly.
Jarred kicked a metal arm down at him.
"Don't be such a spoiled sport."
Seph X grabbed the arm.
"I'll show you spoiled sport!"
The mechanic clone threw the arm back at Jarred, where it landed straight in his gut. Jarred fell of his mound.
"I say sir, foul! I demand a penalty! Fifteen minutes!" Jarred yelled as he pushed himself up.
Seph X stood on the silvery pile, and struck a noble pose.
"YOU didn't follow my plan!" Seph X said indignantly.
Jarred shrugged.
"It needed improvement."
Seph X grabbed a metal skull.
"Improvement? I'll give you improvement! I'll improve your face with this skull!" The lump of steel narrowly missed Jarred.
"Well, I did get help." Jarred said, gesturing to Cloud and the others, who were gather their possesions.
Cloud smiled at Seph X.
"Leaving so soon?" Seph X asked.
Tifa answered.
"Yuffie's still up in the north, she might need our help." She said.
Seph X furrowed his eyebrows.
"The little brown haired girl?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh," He said. "I guess I'll come too."
The skull came back up and slammed into his skull.
"Gotcha!" Jarred said happily.
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Yuffie kept running, even when she heard the thing slam into the ground. She dared not look back, lest the demon sneak out in front of her, and give her a similar fate to that of her sweet Vinnie.
As she neared the end of the forest around capital, she heard a scream of rage. It seemed to last forever, echoing around the trees. But it was suddenly cut short.
Yuffie took this as a victory for her persuer, and added new force into her flight.
Behind her she heard a flap of wings, a whoosh of wind and a happy cry. Yuffie could only immagine what the demon had in store for her.
She ran past the trees and into the open, desolate city of ancients. But it was not long before the wing beats were right behind her. Yuffie felt two hands gently grab her by the waist and lift her. She tried stuggeling but there was no use. She pounded down on the hands that held her. It took her a while efore she realized that one of the hands was a golden claw, gently holding her, and trying desperatly not to peirce her skin. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth dropped.
"Vinnie?" She gasped.
"Yes?" Came the dubios answer.
Yuffie immediatly began hitting the arms again.
"If you ever do something like that again, I'll HURT you!" She yelled.
Vincent laughed above her.
"Vincent," She said. "Your, LAUGHING?!"
"Why, yes." Vncent replied. "I do believe I am."
Another thought suddenly rammed itself into Yuffie's mind.
"Vinnie;" She asked concernedly. "HOW THE HELL ARE WE FLYING?!"
There was a nervous reply.
"Ah, well, that I can explain, but theres a lot I can't."