Thanks for the review, Hoshimare! Ok, here I am assuming that unlike the sailor scouts, the saints cannot 'summon' their armor, like the sailors summon their fukus. But I could be wrong, as I have not gotten past episode 16 in the undubbed version. Anybody care to enlighten me?? Ah, and yes, yet again...Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya do not belong to me...tear
Ikki found it rather irksome, if you will, that the one moment where he wanted a quiet and solitary walk, he had to run into a disgusting...thing. And it certainly was disgusting; dripping with slime, it was hunched over, razor-sharp blades sprouting along its spine. Its face was squished in, and the squinty eyes narrowed at the phoenix after it had gotten over the initial shock from Ikki's kick.
The human it had been clutching in its claw was tossed easily aside as it advanced on Ikki. Now, hunched over the way it was, the thing only went up to Ikki's elbow.
"You're not so big, are you?" he taunted, ducking a disproportionately large hand that was aimed for his head. The thing bared its teeth, and hissed, before straightening up to its full height. "Spoke to soon," Ikki muttered as the monster rose a good two or three heads above his own.
"Dammit!" he muttered, narrowly missing a jet of slime shot from the thing's mouth. He readied himself for a punch when a stream of goo caught him off guard, and clung to his lower leg. He cried out sharply as the acrid smelling junk began to seep through his pants and burn his skin. He turned, gasping with pain, and almost began to cry with relief; he had nearly forgotten that there was a small lake behind him, the trail he had been walking on winding around the shore.
He quickly threw himself in the water, the slime actually smoking as it hit. When Ikki looked down at his calf, he saw that the cloth had been eaten away and a large, angry red welt was beginning to form. Wondering how long it would've taken for the slime to eat through his entire leg, a splash reminded him about the creature and that it was on a trajectory to kill him, as well as equipped with acid slime.
Ikki stood up quickly, and collapsed just as fast; his leg had gone numb, and wouldn't support his weight. The thing, on the other hand, reached out, and took the saint's neck in its hand, and the lifted him up, legs kicking up a spray off water, dangling in the same position he had found the schoolgirl in.
Ikki placed his own hands on the rough fingers and attempted to pry them apart, or at least break them, but all that he accomplished was a tighter grip on his throat. Cursing, Ikki squirmed in the choke-hold, and tried desperately to find a way to get the thing off.
It's slitted eyes opened wide, and Ikki glimpsed red flames dancing in the center. The phoenix was paralyzed, and his hands slowly dropped, and his legs ceased movement. It seemed like every beat of his heart was a struggle, that with every breath he took, his soul strained to be free.
His mind hazed, he watched the thing open its mouth not with disgust, but with mild interest. It was going to help him be free. Why, it wasn't such a bad thing after all, now was it? The saint glimpsed a woman standing behind the thing, her dark eyes triumphant, he felt his soul struggling even harder to be free of its mortal casing, and he felt the creature helping him, drawing him out of the body that was slowly decaying and into an eternity of blue sky and white clouds.
Just as his eyes were rolling back into his head, and he was surrendering his essence, a loud voice jolted him back to reality.
"Drop him, slime wad!" A slender woman stood silhouetted against the setting sun. Ikki felt very alert, but very exhausted, as if he had just fought a strenuous battle. The creature tossed him to the ground, where he crumpled on the soft grass, and made its way towards the woman, making soft snarling noises. She held up one arm, and allowed a ball of orange light to gather about her hand before clenching her fist.
"World...Shaking!" she bellowed, tossing the ball at the thing. The light tore a large rent in the ground as it sped towards the frozen monster. It shrieked horrendously as it was caught within the light, its body lifting off of the ground, and it's back arching as the ground around it trembled.
Then, with a simple poof, it was gone with a shower of dust and a piercing scream. Ikki was fighting to hold onto the last shreds of his consciousness as the woman first knelt over the school girl, and then over himself.
Her eyes were a dark green, bright and penetrating. She brushed a short piece of blond hair out of her eyes before smirking.
"You took a hit," she said, her voice deep. "But you're gonna pull through." With that, Ikki finally let go, and sank deep into a welcoming well of black sleep.