Ch 24 – Round 4 – Zell VS Clara
Zell watched Grey turn from July's unmoving body and begin to walk back to the transport area, his face grim as death.
Zell pulled his fist from the hole he had bashed into the floor and stood up, unnaturally quiet as every person turned to him. Looking up at the screen with narrowed eyes, he burned a brilliant red – before vanishing through the door, leaving a red vapour trail behind him.
* * *
Back in the suite Angel ran out the door into the corridor, running down the hall to Irvine and Selphie's room. She banged on the door impatiently, watching as Zell's trail began to dissipate.
Selphie opened the door, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She was wearing pyjamas with little chocobos on them, her usually straight brown hair ruffled from sleep. "Angel? What time is it?"
"It's just turned ten. Selphie…July is dead."
"What?!" Selphie cried, now fully awake. "You mean her fight is already over?!"
Angel watched as Selphie began to play with the hem of her nightshirt nervously. "This is bad…really bad…" She muttered, causing Angel to frown.
"Why? What's going on?"
Selphie blinked, and looked up at Angel with guarded eyes. "Nothing…"
Angel frowned, placing a hand on the doorframe. "Selphie! Something is going on, and I wanna know! Zell's been beating himself up over it ever since the Tournament started, and he wont tell me!"
"Maybe cause you don't need to know."
Selphie's haughty words were like slap in the face for Angel, and she balled her fists and thrust them to her sides, her hands trembling with anger. "Now look! I've had my boyfriend killed, beaten, and poisoned, I've almost been killed, and I think about now I need to know!!"
"No…you don't."
Irvine walked up behind Selphie, placing a hand on her shoulder and looking down at Angel. His chest was bare, his red hair undone and draped loosely over his shoulder. "You wanna find out what's going on? Talk to Commander Squall. I'm sure he'll be able to figure out wether or not you're on a need to know basis. But until then…" He reached out and grabbed the door handle. "Stop bothering us."
The door slammed shut in Angel's face, and she turned and leaned against it weakly. "What's going on…?" she muttered to the empty corridor.
* * *
Zell's feet made craters in the ground as he traced his way to the fight site, where Grey was waiting. Simply bounding over the electronic boundary fence, his mind burning with the image of July's broken and bleeding body lying lifeless on the floor, he smashed through rocky hills and the occasional monster.
Finally reaching his destination, he over shot, skidding straight past a surprised Grey and running directly into a rocky cliff, the red rocks tumbling around him as he promptly destroyed the mountain.
Grey was smirking when Zell blasted his way clear, and didn't move when Zell advanced. He spoke, however, when Zell pulled back, his fist raised high in the air to remove Grey's face from its foundations. "I wouldn't do that if I was you."
Zell just managed to stop himself, his Uber Ehrgiez Gauntlet glinting in the morning light as his fist trembled within. "And why shouldn't I?" he growled through gritted teeth, his eyes shooting lasers into Grey calm gaze.
"Because…you'll never find out."
"Find out what?"
"Why."
Zell screamed then, his yell echoing throughout the landscape as loudly as any monster could possible roar, and released his fist, throwing it at Grey's head with unbelievable speed. The Firaga that erupted from his fingertips roared past Grey's head, smashing into the ground a few miles away and exploding brilliantly. Grey's look of surprise quickly turned to one of smugness, his smile forming slowly on his face as the debris crumbled around them.
Zell moved forward them, grasping Grey's tattered remnants of shirt and lifting him up by them, shaking him with one hand. "Why'd you kill her, Grey?! She wasn't a threat!"
"She knew too much."
Zell threw him down then, Grey only barely able to land on his feet. Zell allowed him to regain his balance before shoving his finger in his face. "You listen to me. You're not going to get to Ma, you're not going to get to Angel, and you're definitely not going to get to Justice!" His ultimatum served, Zell turned and began to walk away from the White SeeD, his rage only barely suppressed.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Zell stopped dead, his spine suddenly freezing as his eyes widened. The tone of Grey's voice said it all. He had no clue what Zell was talking about.
Zell turned slowly, watching Grey carefully, his voice cautious. "You know exactly what I'm talking about." He said accusingly, pointing at Grey one more. "Don't deny it."
Grey crossed his arms. "Dincht, if I'm going to attack anyone, it's going to be you. Why would I want to kill your mother and whoever this Angel person is? And in case you've forgotten, we both have a common goal here. To stop…ah, what's the point? You obviously suffered a concussion the last round with Emily or something."
Oh Hyne. "Why were you seeing Emily late at night?" Zell said suspiciously, not wanting to deny the truth. It has to be him. Hasn't it?
"That's none of your damn business."
Grey looked away slightly, in the direction where the transport was supposed to be arriving any minute. Zell began to walk forward, recognising the guarded tone in the now off-balance Grey, his eyes darting from Zell to the pickup area back to Zell. He wants out. I've backed him into a corner. "You've been seeing Emily…late at night…July told me…"
Grey grimaced, before reaching up and pulling out his earpieces. Moving them to the same hand, he crushed them easily, before looking up at Zell. "I told you – that's none of your business."
"She also told me about what you did – the knife, Grey. She told me about the knife."
Zell suddenly jumped forward, his hand easily reaching out and tearing the shirt off Grey's chest. The grey material in a gauntleted hand, Zell stepped back in horror.
Scars adorned his chest, the multitude larger then Zell would ever have. There were long thin ones, large jagged ones, deep cavernous ones – there were ones that looked like someone had cut a jagged chucks out of his body – and Grey looked at Zell with malice in his eyes. "Satisfied?" He spat.
"Hyne…" Zell gasped. Compared to Grey, Zell's body was no more then covered in cat scratches. Grey looked like he had gone toe-to-toe with a Berserk Behemoth – and barely survived.
Grey crossed his arms again. "They tied me to a board of wood and taunted to me as they cut bits and pieces off. There was one who had this thing with the knife – he's stab it in, twist it a bit so it'd carve a symbol on the bone underneath, then cut off the chunk of flesh to see if he had done it right." There was no emotion in Grey's voice as he spoke. He continued as if he was rattling off the weather report. "When the others rescued me…three month later…I was barely alive, no even able to speak from the constant use of Full-Lives and Hi-Potions they had used on me. I was in de-tox for almost a year afterwards, to ease out of the drug they had forces into me to keep me alive and screaming."
He looked at Zell now, the malice behind his eyes hidden behind the memories. "I screamed so loud I couldn't even recognise my own voice, Dincht…" He looked down at the floor, his bottom lip trembling. "But I never gave them anything. Even when I was high from the drugs they pumped into me, I neve talked. I was strong, and I never gave up. But when I was rescued, I couldn't even look at a butter knife without crumbling like a child…"
"And then I found a way to stop it. Kill off my emotion. Show nothing but the hatred that the world deserved. That's how I was able to kill July without a heavy heart. And that's how I've been able to glean some information out of Emily...even when she suggested using the knife in our sessions."
Zell shook his head. "I'm sorry for what's happened to you…but July didn't deserve death."
"Really?" Grey asked. "Then answer me this. Why did you think the assassin was me?"
Zell blinked. "You're…you're more powerful then July…you threatened Justice at the selection…you always seem to have your head up your ass when it came to your power…"
Grey snorted. "Ok. Reasonable enough. But it's all circumstantial. Why did you really think I was the Assassin?"
Zell looked at his boots, his eyes narrowing. "Because nobody except a SeeD would have the training or the experience to take out a President and fade into the background." He admitted to himself, admitting the thing he had been denying the whole time.
Grey smiled. "Exactly."
Zell shook his head. "But…that just incriminates you further! You have motive, you have training…"
"C'mon! Did you really think I was dealing with Deling the whole time?!"
Zell looked up, his face full of shock. "Deling?!"
Grey frowned slightly, taking a step back. "You don't know anything, do you? You've been stabbing around in the dark the whole time."
The transport suddenly arrived, several medics jumping off and sprinting in the direction of July's corpse. Grey shook his head sadly and stepped onto the transport. "You disappoint me, Hunter. I thought you would have been deeper in then you are. It looks like it's up to me to find the SeeD who's gunning for Justice."
And the transport sealed. Then took off.
Leaving Zell standing by himself in the Estharian plains, his mind a tumble, his soul ripped to shreds.
* * *
The door to the apartment opened, and Zell walked in, his face more despondent then it had been at the fight area.
"Zell!!" Selphie cried, standing from where she had been sitting with a crying Angel and walking up to him. "Where the hell have you been?! Do you have any idea how worried Angel has been?!"
Are you the Assassin? "…Sorry, Selphie."
Irvine walked out of the bathroom, the toilet flushing behind him as he stepped out. "Hyne, man, where have you been?! Your match starts in an hour!!"
Are you the Assassin? "…Sorry, Irvine."
Angel stepped forward, her eyes red, sniffling as she looked up at his stony face. "Zell…what's wrong?"
Apart form the fact that I can't even trust my own friends? Apart from the fact that I can't trust anybody? Apart from the fact that I can't even trust you? "…Nothing, hon. Everything's peachy."
Selphie walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Zell…something's wrong. I know it."
"Nah, nothing's wrong guys. I'm fine! Seriously. I just had to go and see if July was alright."
Irvine stepped forward. "And?"
Zell looked down and shook his head, before looking up at them. Is that relief or regret on your faces?
Angel stepped forward. "What is going on, Zell? Selphie and Irvine wont tell me anything, and Commander Squall just brushes me off whenever I try to ask!!"
Zell stepped forward with a huge sigh and wrapped his arms around her, looking up at Selphie and Irvine. "Can we have a few minutes, guys?"
Selphie paused before nodding, but Irvine stepped forward. "Zell…the less she knows, the less she is to be hurt."
"She's already had an attempt on her life, Irvine! I think she's in deep enough already, don't you?"
The force of his words took Selphie and Irvine back a bit, but they left without any more questions, Irvine shutting the door quietly behind them. Zell then walked Angel over to the bed, not realising her from his grip until he turned and sat down, their position having her in his lap.
She placing her hands on his shoulder and looked at him. "What's going on, Zell? You come in here looking at us accusingly, and now you look sad. What's going on!? I need to know!"
He looked down at her pretty face, her smooth cheeky red from crying, her little button nose as it sniffed cutely, her full bottom lip trembling slightly as he continued to stare at her. No. I wont accept that it's you. You're not even a SeeD – you have no idea what is going on. I wont accept that it's you. "Baby…I've had some weird things happen while I was away."
* * *
They both sat on the edge of the bed, Angel's arms tightly around his neck in the tightest hug she had ever given him as she cried into his shoulder. He had told her everything – July, Watts, Shooting Star, the two times he had actually spoken to the Assassin – everything.
When she was finished she sat back and wiped her nose with one of her petite hands, placing them on his chest as she looked at his shirt. He shook his head and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, honey. I should have never tried to protect Laguna in the first place. I should have just entered the Tournament as a single candidate." He shook his head again and punched his fist into the bed. "I should have done a lot of things, dammit!!"
She looked up at him. "All that…and you never told me…no wonder you were so clammed up when you came home…you were beating yourself up inside…"
He shook his head once more and sighed, closing his eyes and bowing his head, feeling more defeated then ever. "I'm sorry honey."
He felt her brush her smooth palm over his chin, and felt her place a soft kiss on his lips. "Don't get sorry, baby. Get even…right?"
He opened his eyes and looked down at her. She was smiling through her tears. "You have exactly five minutes before you have to go to the fight. Are you ready?"
He paused. What's she going to do? "Yeah…I'm ready."
She placed her hands around him once more and hugged him again. "Then you go and win this one, and we'll come back here afterwards and figure it all out, OK?"
He smiled down at her. "Yeah."
* * *
The trip down to the warm-up tent was a silent one, as Zell pondered Angel's final words to him, trudging through the rocky plains with both hands in his pockets, opting to walk instead of catching the air-ship with Squall and the rest.
Don't get sorry, baby. Get even…right?
"Is that what I've been doing this whole time?" He muttered to himself. "Searching for the Assassin in the wrong places?" He narrowed his eyes. "Was Watts wrong?"
He shook his head. "C'mon, Dincht, snap out of it. You can't fight with all this stuff bouncing around in your head. First thing to do when this is over is to track down Grey and pump him for info. Then we all get together and figure out who's who."
He nodded to himself. Right. Time to rock.
Pulling his hands from his pockets, red fire flamed out around him as the Haste magic did its work.
* * *
Clara was waiting into the warm-up tent when Zell finally arrived, and she looked up from her meditation, her legs folded neatly beneath her. She didn't say anything as he sat down – she simply resumed her trance.
Zell looked down at her with a smile. He used the same meditation technique.
"What's so funny?" Clara muttered, her meditation causing her senses to be hypersensitive, like Zells.
"Nothing…"
Clara shook her head and sighed, before opening her eyes and looking up at him. "Why is it I can't rile you like all my other opponents?" She said, half to herself, half to Zell.
He simple shrugged with a warm grin. "You do – I just don't let it get to me."
For some reason she was slightly agitated, and this small show of weakness intrigued Zell, making him forget all about his own troubles for a second. He assessed her, looking over her with a new eye.
She had brown hair down past her shoulders tied into an even ponytail, and was dressed in a bright green shirt with matching pants. She was pretty, but not anything special – the 'girl next door' kind of pretty. Bright green eyes looked up at him, intelligent and methodical, warrior's eyes. Right now they looked anxious, even a little scared.
Zell's grin wavered a little. "Is everything alright? You don't look good."
Clara set her jaw and looked down; breaking the stare she had been building. "I'm fine, thank you." She said abruptly.
Zell shrugged again and began to loosen his arm and leg muscles, pulling a limb this way and that to loosen the muscles and ligaments.
He paused suddenly as Clara stood, turning her back to him. "Dincht…"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you really here?"
Zell had to think quickly. The question had come right from left field, right from the blue. There had been no warning, before the question, and she asked it as if she already knew the answer. "Why do you think I'm here?" he countered slowly, figuring that he wouldn't have been able to bluff his way out of the question truthfully.
Her back was still turned to him, but her shoulders sagged slightly, as if the answer had been a physical blow. "I thought so…" She muttered.
Zell stood up straight, rolling his shoulders around. "Does he know?"
She shook her head.
"Then he doesn't need to worry. The less he knows, the less reason he has to panic when we nail this sucker."
"Do you know who it is?"
Zell was silent.
"For all I know, you could be him…" She snorted a small laugh. "…But I know it's not you. You don't have the heart."
She shook her head and walked around to face him, sitting down on one of the benches that skirted the room, resting her elbows on her knees. "You know, I'm not his biological daughter…I'm adopted. I always thought of him as a weak old man, too kind for his own good…I figured that he would see his time in office through with no ill action, that he would retire peacefully and we would be able to move out of Deling and to someplace quiet…but now…"
"You're talking like he's already dead."
She snorted again. "You have no clue who it is. I don't have a clue. He might as well already be dead." Her head lowered a little further. "And now one of us is going to die. Die for something worthless."
"We wont have to die."
She shook her head. "No. I might be talking to you like a comrade here, now, before – but when we leave this tent we'll be enemies, sworn to fight one another until one of us is defeated. And this far into the Tournament…someone will die."
She finally lifted her head to look at him, hr green eyes shining. "Tell me you'll hold nothing back. Tell me you'll fight with all your strength." Tell me you'll kill me.
Zell looked down at her, before shaking his head. "I can't promise that, Clara. A fighter I may be…but I will not euthanise anybody." I cannot.
She shook her head and lowered it once more. "I'll hold nothing back. You're death will be final then." She sighed. "I just wished I knew who it was. Why they're going to do what they're going to do."
"We'll find out later…after our fight."
Clara laughed out loud at that. "You're such a hopeless romantic, Dincht. I thought it would be sad to kill you…but I think I might have some enjoyment in wiping your soul from the earth."
"I think you wont." The girl looked up at him, at the way he said the words, his tone as lifeless as a rock, his arms crossed as he looked down at her, his eyes blank. "You wont, because, deep down, you're also like me. Not wanting to kill, but having to. I know, because you love a man who hasn't only brought you up, but has also returned the love not only to you, but also to all the people of Gaia."
Her face was one of anger, at an unrelenting fury that she only barely managed to conceal. His small speech had just ripped away all the mental covering she had placed, laying her emotions out like a rape victim. "How dare you say that…you have no idea who I am…"
"I don't. But I do know how you feel. Bottling your feelings up. Portraying a stoic view on the world. I know, because I've had to deal with people like you before. I've seen what can happen when the loneliness gets to them, tearing them up inside. And I've brought them back from the brink."
She stood roughly and pushed him aside, stalking from the tent with a burning anger.
He watched her go, and sighed. A hopeless romantic? Maybe I am…
Romantics are the speakers of the soul, my boy. Remember that.
Ifrit?
There was a dead silence in Zell's head as the GF chose not to answer.
* * *
Zell and Clara watched as the transport took off, tearing down the landscape to disappear into the horizon. Zell turned to see Clara double-checking her own gauntlets, making sure they were snugly on.
"Who do you think it is?" Zell had to ask.
"It doesn't matter anymore." She muttered back, finishing off her check and looking up at him. "You wont live long enough to put it to good use."
"Indulge me."
She rolled her eyes in annoyance, and placed her hands on her hips. "If you must know, I figured it to be one of you SeeDs. Seeing as two White SeeDs are incapacitated, and the whole Sorceress gang has just shown up, my sights have been on you for a while."
Zell nodded. So, Grey was right…but the motive? "Do you know anything about defectors in the Galbadian Army."
She sneered at the comment. "All soldiers are put through stringent evaluations before they join, especially on patriotism. Any who are deemed unfit aren't even accepted."
"Have you ever thought that some soldiers are patriotic to your country – just not to your father?"
Clara blinked at the comment. "What do you mean by that!?"
Zell suddenly erupted from his spot, rocketing towards Clara with unhindered speed. The ground smashed underneath his feet as his step ground their way through the hard rock, and the fist that he threw into Clara's face blasted straight through her defences, kicking her head back unnaturally.
Amazingly, she rolled with the attack, flipping backwards and onto her feet to swing an uppercut into the SeeD's face, rocking his head back. As his body twisted back, she jumped and twirled in mid air, the kick pummelling Zell's stomach twice before she landed.
He landed clutching his stomach and grimacing, and she grabbed his head with both hands. He looked up with a snarl as she head butted him viciously, knocking him onto the ground.
Get up. NOW! His mind screamed, and he rolled to the side just as the Fira erupted form her fingertips, reducing the spot where he had laid to a smouldering mess. Flipping around on his fingertips, he swung his legs out and catched hers, bringing her to the ground. He took the opportunity to put some space between them, rolling backwards and coming up on his feet, launching himself back from her body.
He landed on his feet – and was smashed forward as she suddenly appeared behind him, the Haste magic glowing bright red around her as her elbow connected with his left shoulder-blade, sending a jarring pain through it, dislocating the arm cleanly.
He fell with a scream, but twisted through the fall and blasted her face with a Blizaga from his other hand, the ice forming around her and picking her up, flinging her far away. Zell landed with a whump on his dislocated arm and grunted with the agony, but flipped up to his feet professionally.
Looking down at his limp arm, his jaw set, he quickly grabbed the shoulder and gave it a shove. He felt the bone enter the socket and growled with the pain, his breath coming out in short bursts as the agony began to subside.
He looked up to see Clara running towards him once more, the red of the Haste burning around her as he watched her lift her fist and throw it into his face –
To be caught at the last second, gauntlet smashing into gauntlet with an echoing 'ding!'.
Zell pulled the fist aside with infinite slowness, smiling down at Clara as he saw the look of shock on her face as his own fiery red aura burst out around him.
What happened next happened so fast the surveillance bees were unable to follow. One second the fighters were standing still, Clara's grip arrested by Zell's metallic gauntlet – then they vanished, their movements only shown by what looked like a red haze emitting from the area. Shouts of pain and battle cries echoed around the area as the sounds of metal hitting flesh and cracking into bone emitting from nowhere, the fighters moving so fast they didn't even leave after-images – they simply disappeared.
Suddenly they appeared, their cloths torn and bloody, their faces and bodies covered in scratches and blood. Their hands were locked, fingers interlaced as they pushed against each other in a deadly battle of Mercy, their faces mere inches away from each other as they muscles burned and trembled.
Zell screamed into Clara's face as he pushed harder and harder, as if he was pushing into an unmovable wall – and Clara screamed back, her shrill siren calls meeting Zell's animal snarls with equal force and their arresting pushes.
Suddenly Zell pulled back, Clara's push causing her to stumble over him as he fell backward, and he kicked out, smashing her in the stomach and sending her flying up into the air. Landing on his back with a 'thump', he didn't waste any time following through with the manoeuvre – slamming the butts of his palms together with a metallic clang, he screamed out as the Thundaga shot out of his hands, the electricity lacing out and slamming straight into Clara, who's body jolted and twitched with the current as it traced through her body, licking over her skin and pulsing through her brain as gravity took hold once more and allowed her to fall.
She fell to the ground with all the grace of a rock, tumbling through the air like a rag doll – before twisting suddenly and landing on all fours, like a cat. She looked up at Zell with a devilish smile as the last of the Thundaga traced across her body, the electric current finally dying down, the powerful attack seeming not to have had any effect on her, in fact, seeming to strengthen her. "Thanks for the boost." She whispered, before launching herself at him.
Shit! She absorbs Thunder Elementals!! Zell's mind screamed as Clara was on top of him, her powered up body slamming her fist into her stomach, causing him to cough up a gout of blood.
Gritting his bloody teeth, he replied to the attack with due force, slamming his fist into her stomach, causing the female fighter to vomit blood too. What followed next was a trading of blows, each fighter applying a little more force then their last attack, each blow slamming straight through each other's defences and causing great damage to the internal organs. The attacks were devastating, and for a short, painful moment the fight declined into who could last the longest. Zell finally finished the five-blow trade with a head butt, before slamming his palms onto Clara's chest, gripping her breasts bizarrely. "Drain!" he screamed.
Clara managed to slap Zell's touch to the side, but not before he drew in enough energy to boost his strength immensely. Setting his arms to his sides, he screamed at the ground, making his energy blast into unfathomable heights, before sucker-punching Clara right in the face, sending her flying backwards. Acting quickly, Zell grabbed her foot and twisted her around in the air, smashing her into the ground with all the force he could muster. Suffice to say, the ground crumbled as her body sailed through it with almost no interference.
Stepping back slowly, his breaths coming out in shallow gasps, he tried to focus himself, assessing his damage. The Uber Ehrgiez gauntlets had seen better days, dented and tarnished by her tough skin and the missed blows hammering into the rocks. His shirt was now in tatters, and he ripped it off defiantly, throwing it aside evenly and flexing his tanned muscles to get some more circulation going. His scarred skin was broken and bleeding, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he had accidentally swallowed a tooth. He was also covered head to toe in Estharian dust. He figured he would have to burn his remaining clothes in order to get the red out. No amount of washing would rid the red stains.
He watched cautiously as Clara pulled herself form the rubble, shaking her body to loosen any rocks that had might fallen down her shirt. Turning to face Zell, he saw that she was furious, her breaths also coming in short bursts, her face also dirty with the red Estharian dust as her snarling face stared up at him. He returned the glare with equal force, shaking his head to rid himself of any cobwebs and setting his stance, ready for anything.
She didn't attack immediately, however – stepping out of the hole Zell had create for her, she patted down her clothes, pushing her anger down to an acceptable level. "Interesting, Zell…" she muttered as she bent down to pat down her torn pants. "I haven't had this much of a challenge since…well, ever!"
"I'm honoured, believe me." Zell replied, his sarcastic tone not betraying the no-nonsense look on his face.
Clara stood up straight and sighed, smiling at him for the first time since the tally ceremony, a real smile, not a fake one or a cold one. "It pleases me to finally find a worthy opponent. Believe me when I say I will not have any pleasure in defeating you."
Zell smiled back, finally relaxing his stance. "Well…that's more like it…"
His smile faded, however, as he realised that Clara had managed to cover the small distance between them and bury her fist into his stomach in less then a second, her teeth bared as her metal fist twisted into his gut. Zell began to feel physics catching up on him, and he looked down at her, his face twisted in pain. "Does everybody know Meteor Barrett nowadays?" he choked.
She didn't, or couldn't, reply as he was launched form her fist and sent flying backwards, tumbling through the rubble that they had created to finally slam into a rocky outcrop with a grunt. His head flopped forward and blood spurted out of his mouth and nose, before he moved no more.
* * *
Clara took her time moving forward, picking her way through the rubble delicately, stepping over some rocks and skipping over others. She was in no rush.
Her body glowed green briefly as she waked up to Zell's supine form, her cuts and internal wounds healing almost instantly thanks to the Curaga flowing through her veins.
She stopped before Zell, shaking her head disapprovingly. His back had shattered the rock that he rested against, and blood dribbled from his mouth and nose onto his chest, making a red trail down to pool around his belt. She clucked her tongue like a disappointed mother and grabbed Zell by the hair, lifting his head up to look at his face.
She didn't expect to see the bleeding visage suddenly open it's eyes and smile wickedly, and she felt a hand slam into her stomach. She took the blow graciously with her own smile, but that was wiped out as a burning sensation flowed from her stomach up her body, before it launched her away from him.
* * *
Zell smiled with exasperation as he watched his Firaga blow her back, allowing him enough time to heal up. Closing his eyes, he allowed his body to relax, the Curaga healing his wounds almost instantly – but not all of them.
He opened his eyes with surprise as he looked down at his chest, seeing the tiny nicks and cuts that should have been additions to his scar collection by now.
It was undeniable. He was beginning to lose power. The barrage that they had been throwing at each other was beginning to take its toll on his body. The magic would only work for so long.
His fatigue gone thanks to the Curaga, he quickly cast Cure to heal the smaller wounds and cricked his neck to the side, his face now set, his expression on of complete seriousness.
He watched as Clara began to run at him from where she had landed, rocketing towards him like he had done at the start of the match – but unlike him, she was unprepared for the sheer brutality that his serious mind created.
Slapping her gauntlet aside with a metallic clang, his own fist erupted into her face, sending her staggering back. Suddenly running forward, Zell punched her again and again, her feeble defences unable to withstand the barrage of attacks that he threw at her. Grabbing her hair with a hand, he punched her face like a ball and bat on a string, his punch flinging her head back only to be arrested by her strong, long hair, making her head rebound into his fist.
He rebounded her head again and again, before she finally blasted him with a Fire to desperately escape his iron grip. Mercifully, he let go, and she fell to the floor onto her bottom, looking up at him with wide eyes.
The Fire didn't even faze him, his body seeming to crackle with energy as he pulled all his stops out. "It isn't a game anymore." He muttered down at her.
"I see." She replied, wiping her bloody mouth, smearing the crimson on her gauntlet, and standing defiantly. "So I suppose we'll up the stakes."
Throwing her hands up high, she bellowed up into the air, the winds around them picking up with astounding speed. Zell looked about him as he sensed what would come up next, and threw up a Shell.
"Tornado!!" Clara screamed, the winds now picking up into a funnel of pressurised death, the sky above them seeming to darken with rain clouds as Zell tried desperately to keep the Shell intact.
Magical winds beat against the Shell insanely, attacking him from all sides, and Zell knew that if he dropped the Shell he would be picked up by the massive winds and thrown to Hyne knows where.
He fought desperately, barely able to keep his eye on the shape through the red winds that was Clara, until finally he couldn't hold on any longer, and the Shell crumbled around him. The winds picked him up instantly, and he was flung high up in the air, to tumble through the sky and land very, very hard.
* * *
The winds were beginning to settle just as a pile of rocks blasted upwards, revealing a very dishevelled Zell, dizzy from the twisting winds.
His dizziness wouldn't subside, and he groggily caste Esuna, the white and green light clearing his vision and returning his balance. He looked around to take his bearings. He seemed to have been flung far away from where Clara was – he could just see he on the horizon – but didn't see too worse for wear. He quickly looked down to check for anything broken.
He looked up, however, as he heard Clara screaming, and a bright light began to form around the area where she would have landed. The ground began to tremble with the power she was drawing…then it began to shake…then the earth began to crack and shift, the massive quantities of energy causing the very earth to shake to it's foundations.
She is taking this seriously now. Well, if she wants to up the ante…
Zell bared his teeth and growled like an animal, allowing instinct to take over as he set his stance, one leg pinned back, the other set before him. He slowly moved his left hand out to face where she was, setting the palm facing her and his fingers straight, lining up together, his thumb slightly bent inwards. Almost as an after thought, he used his right hand to grip the wrist of the left, to help absorb most of the shock from the gigantic feat he was about to perform.
He snorted his air through his nostrils as he called upon magic he had figured he would have never had to call again, watching the horizon begin to glow with a bright white light, the magic's fluxing aura just hitting him. He felt the Holy before it was launched, and he gritted his teeth as the ground beneath him began to shake with his own power.
The Holy was unleashed, the burning white light blasting from Clara's hands and bearing down on Zell with unimaginable speed. It sheared a clean path through the rocky ground, creating a super-smooth trench from the unbearable power.
Zell stood his ground, the rocks and ground snapping and crumbling as the paramagical energies emitting form him took it's toll on the physical world, his boots digging into the ground as he screamed the word, the power dumped in his hand and launched almost as quickly. "Ultimaaaa!!"
It was like someone had strapped a great magical gun into Zell's arm and pulled the trigger. His feet dug into the ground and smashed the rocks around him as the kick from launching the devastating attack pushed him backwards. He fought desperately not to fall backwards, and leaned forward into the attack, as if to make it go faster.
The Holy and the Ultima met somewhere in the middle, and the ground around it simply exploded, the atoms and molecules which bound them together simply unable to withstand such a vicious magical assault. It was pandemonium for the fighters as every single sense was assaulted – they felt the massive pressure from both opposing magic bearing down on their bodies, their ears were bleeding form the shrieking winds and massive explosions as the separate energies fought against each other. Their eyes burned from the light of the Holy and the deep darkness of the Ultima, their nostril were caked from the dust that survived some of the attack, and they could taste their blood as they both fought to keep the other's magic at bay.
Zell grimace began to turn into a guttural snarl as he pushed forward, smashing his feet into the ground, the wind slashing around him as he began to step forward, pushing the Ultima into Clara, giving her no place to go.
Clara had the same idea, however, and Zell had to stop as he felt her own pressure began to bear down on him. His power beginning to wane, he upped his outage, the beam of dark energy suddenly becoming a massive blast of supernatural power, the beam simply ploughing straight through the rocky ground.
Clara replying with due force, her own Holy attack doubling in size, until it seemed to grow bigger then Zell's Ultima, and Zell began to lean back with the attack, his arms burning as his very soul fought to keep the Ultima going, feeding it with all the paramagic he could muster.
Come on, you pussy!! Diablos suddenly screamed in Zell's mind. You can do better then that!!
Spurred by Diablos' harsh words, Zell screamed a battle cry that echoed around the fighting area, lifting up and over the roar of the opposing magic's. His Ultima suddenly burst outward, the wave of energy instantly becoming a tsunami of pure dark energy, dwarfing Clara's Holy instantly and bearing down on it with unrelenting force.
* * *
The air was filled with debris as the attack finalised, the power crackling through the air finally dissipating with the last whisps of dark energy.
Zell lowered his arms slowly, his breaths coming in short gasps, his body seeming to have had every last bit of paramagical energy sucked out of him. He barely had the strength to stand, let alone move, and he leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees, allowing the last of the adrenaline to seep out of his mind. Hyne…I've killed her…Was the only thought in his mind as he slowly lowered himself to the floor, his breaths still coming in short bursts. How many others must die before I find you?
His shuddering breaths suddenly froze as he heard an echoed wail, a siren call that chilled his bones. He looked up, not wanting to know where it was coming from, but wanting to silence it all the same.
The landscape around him had been completely obliterated, the carnage from the Holy and Dark energies making it a disrupted and shattered plain. It looked like someone had dragged a large, jagged plough through the world, crushing the flat, rocky ground.
The wailing came from the site where the Holy had originated.
My Hyne! She's still alive!!
Standing abruptly, he began to stagger to her, tripping over the rocky ground and feeling his lungs begin to swell, his muscles burning with fatigue and he vaulted a large upturned rock.
Finally reaching her, he collapsed besides her, falling to his knees beside her in horror.
Her left arm had been completely sheared off, the wound ending just at her shoulder. Her clothes, like Zell's, were in tatters, and she was grasping the stump in a bid to kill the pain. She looked pitiful.
Zell blinked, his mind in a whirl. Amazing! She survived!! "Don't…don't worry, Clara! I'll get the medics out here ASAP!!"
Her cries suddenly died, and she turned to him. "Don't worry about it."
Oh shit… Zell thought to himself as she pulled herself to her feet, seemingly unharmed. She looked down at him with a large grin. "It's being taken care of."
Zell suddenly sensed a new kind of magic, one that he had never felt before, and in a spurt of blood another arm sprouted form the stump of her shoulder!
He lowered his head in dismay. "Shit…you have Blue magic, don't you?"
Her chuckle was all of the answer he needed.
"Should have know it was a Regen based magic…same as Sheran's, no doubt?"
"Right again, Zell. Unlike Emily, Sheran and I have recovery based Blue magic. Not Status. You're going to have to rip all my limbs off to kill me. If you had paid attention to my fights you might have seen this…but now you're going to have to die."
He shook his head, punching the ground with sad anger. Weakened now, with her regaining strength with each second, he had only one card left to draw. "I didn't want to do this, Clara…" He muttered as he felt something move within him. "…But you leave me no choice."
Her sneer was interrupted as he stood, an unknown power seeming to lace off his body. "No way!" She gasped, taking a step back. "You should be exhausted from the Ultima!"
"You're right." He agreed, lifting his arms and balling his fists as the power began to build within him, a dark blue light beginning to emit from his body. "I am utterly exhausted…I feel like I can't take another step…"
He suddenly gritted his teeth. "But that's just the paramagical push I need to defeat you!!" He screamed, the ground around him blasting away as his Limit Break rose higher and higher, topping the levels he had previously showed and going beyond.
Electricity laced across his body as he lifted his head and screamed to the heavens, every muscle in his body tensing as the paramagical elements pushed and probed through his arms, his legs, his torso, even his head, causing a splitting headache and his scream to increase to a crescendo, causing Clara to take a step back in fear.
She suddenly turned and ran, jumping over the rocky ground in a bid to escape the sudden eruption of power that dwarfed hers, even at her full potential. She threw a look back at the light as it began to build, and watched it disappear – to reappear in front of her!
He had moved so fast she hadn't even been able to see it!!
"Going somewhere?" He muttered through gritted teeth as his body twitched with the excess energy. "You're not going anywhere, Clara. You're staying right here!!"
At the utterance of the last word, he suddenly attacked relentlessly, his fists and feet flying with supernatural speed, hammering her body into a bloody pulp as he continued to draw power from within himself, the attacks causing him to generate enough paramagic to pull off the final attack. Screams of 'Punch Rush', and, 'Booya', echoed in the destruction around them.
Suddenly jumping back from her, he bent his body down and screamed, his power reaching it's maximum for the attack he desired. He looked up at her with malice.
"Different Beat!!"
Skidding forward, his feet barely touching the ground, he suddenly back flipped, his feet connecting with Clara's chin and causing her to rocket up into the air. Crouching down, he jumped up after her, flipping constantly to keep her in the air as they both rose higher and higher. His sneakers connected with her body again and again, accompanied by a wet thump or a jarring crack.
Finally flipping up above her body, the both of them suspended high up in thin air, time seemed to stop as Zell's sneaker suddenly flamed, pulling his body through the air with infinite slowness – before finally ripping itself through the atmosphere with all the ferocity of a meteor on a crash course with Gaia, the atmosphere burning around it as it pummelled into Clara's stomach.
They both crashed in the ground with a resounding boom, the crater smashing out from their landing going out for a good ten yards.
Clara was underneath Zell's smouldering sneaker, her body covered in blood and bruises as the push from the attack finally let up, allowing him to fall backwards onto the ground.
Using the last of his strength, Zell quickly reached over and pulled off the flaming sneaker and tossed it away, where it exploded harmlessly. He then lay back with a dusty thump, covered in sweat, caked in blood and red dust.
He was hyperventilating now, but he was feeling calm. He had survived to pass into the final round, and had managed to pull himself this far. He now somehow knew that he would see this to the end.
But he still had the night to worry about.
The surveillance bee suddenly interrupted his sight of the clear blue sky as it fluttered down to him to get a closer look. Realising that someone was blaring his name into his earpiece, he weakly lifted a hand in a fatigued salute. "I'm…I'm still here…"
Mr. Dincht! You're awake! I thought we would have had to call a draw!!
"What…what about…Clara…?"
Her vitals are still registering on the monitors, but she's unconscious and in REM. Congratulations, Mr. Dincht! You've survived to make it into the final round!!
"Congratulate…me…later." Zell said with a spluttered laugh. "Just…get us…a doctor…"
* * *
Ladies and gentlemen! How did you like that? Cool, huh?
As of now, the Assassin contest has officially closed! You may enter in one final guess in your review of this chapter, but after that, no other guesses will be accepted. One guess who it is, and why you think it is them, and you're e-mail so I can contact you.
The next chapter – The Assassin Attacks – will be a clincher. Questions will be answered, some truths will be revealed. The only question you must be asking yourself will be…
…is Grey really the Assassin?
