Disclaimer: I don't own CCS.
…Something… Flashbacks
"…" Speech
… Actions
Italics Thoughts and accented words
# … # Songs and POV's
(…) My notes
… Time and scene changes
Flashback from the last chapter...
The snake hissed again, flicking its tongue. It's hiss sounded remotely like the word: 'Strike'.
"Hey that sounded like the word 'Strike'!" exclaimed Eriol.
"It probably is then," replied Syaoran, shrugging casually.
Everyone turned to face them and raised their hand out facing out towards them, looking like they're about to blast a power ball at them.
Suddenly, long, vine-like snakes came flying out of the palm of their hands, shooting directly at them like never ending ropes of death.
Chapter 23
Sakura let out a short scream; she couldn't help it. Pretty sure that no one had control of their minds right now, Eriol summoned his staff, while Syaoran summoned up his sword. Sakura didn't want to summon her star wand, unless it was a matter of life and death. She didn't want to give her identity away to other people who might see.
Syaoran and Eriol stood in front of her in a fighting position, ready to defend her, since they thought that she didn't have any magic. Sakura suddenly felt guilty that they were risking their lives for her. The snakes shot out at them as Syaoran and Eriol tried to fight them off. Syaoran took the front as Eriol took the back. (They were surrounded in a circle as I said in the last chapter).
They seemed to be holding off the snakes quite well without her, so she took the time effectively and scanned the area for traces for darkness and evil. She started ticking off names in her head as she saw the students around her, until she reached Luke.
# Sakura's Point of View #
Where's Luke? Oh no. Don't say that he's the one who's been fighting against us...How could I be so dense not to realize that before? But then again, I still have that feeling that we should be nice to him even though he is the mad maniac that has been trying to kill me...What am I supposed to do? Tell Syaoran and Eriol? Then they'll suspect me for having magic...No...I can't do that...
# End Sakura's Point of View #
Syaoran sliced off one of the snake's heads with his almighty sword. Surprisingly, no blood came out, the head of the snake just fell off and shattered into thin air (Like the duel monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh, when they get destroyed ;;). It then grew back, stronger than before.
Syaoran looked at the snakes with disgust as he sliced off another head and grew back again.
"Won't these foul creatures ever stop?" he muttered in frustration.
"Doesn't look like it," replied Eriol, as he blasted some snakes away with his staff. "They just keep coming back for more!"
"You need to destroy the source of the power!" yelled Sakura automatically.
"That's right!" said Eriol. "Hey! How do you know that, Sakura?" he asked suspiciously.
"Never mind that!" she cried. "Just destroy the main core of energy!" Just then, a snake came blasting towards Sakura.
"Watch out!" screamed Syaoran and Eriol in unison, but they were too far away to block the attack. Sakura ducked expertly and did a hook kick, slapping it in the head. It slithered away to all the other snakes, hissing angrily.
Syaoran's jaw dropped.
"Where did you learn to do that?" he asked distractedly. Sakura winked.
"My secret," she said. "Now duck!" Syaoran ducked just before the snake struck and it came shooting towards Sakura. Sakura, who had already expected its attack, kicked it with a double sidekick. It went flying into the other direction.
"What –" began Syaoran, until Sakura cut him off.
"Just destroy the main core of power!" cried Sakura. "And do it now!" Syaoran just nodded dumbly.
He summoned up a golden ball of light with his sword and shot it at the real snake. The black snake got blasted backwards, but did not show any signs of damage. Syaoran summoned up another ball of light, weaker than the first one and shot it again. It hit the snake once more, without any effect. He was just about to summon up another one when Eriol stopped him.
"Syaoran," he said. "Stop. You're wasting all your energy on your shots and they're not doing anything to help us." Syaoran glared at him.
"Well, we're supposed to "Destroy the main core of power". How do you suppose we do that if we're just standing here like dumb ducks?" asked Syaoran, preparing to shoot another ball of light. Eriol held onto the handle of the sword.
"What are you doing?" asked Syaoran.
"Transferring my powers to your sword," he replied. The emerald crystal on the handle of the sword turned from green to blue. It looked like this midnight blue liquid thing swirling inside it. (It's what their powers look like if they had a form. LoL). Syaoran summoned up another ball of light, which was much stronger than his last two attempts and shot it at the snake. Again, no damage, it just got blown backwards.
"You don't have enough magical substance in your sword," said Sakura, out of the blue.
"Yeah," agreed Eriol. "You're right. Here Syaoran – I'll transfer more of my power to your sword."
Sakura was about to stop him, until he held onto the sword once more and transferred most of his remaining power to Syaoran. Eriol collapsed onto his knees, having used up far too much magic.
Syaoran summoned up all of his remaining energy and was about to shoot it when Sakura stood in front of him.
"What are you doing?" snapped Syaoran. "Get out of the way!"
"It's not enough," said Sakura. "It won't kill off the dark magic inside the snake. There's no use using all of your powers up for a final blow if it's not going to work."
"Then what do you say we do?" asked Syaoran impatiently. "Wait here and get demolished by some snakes?"
Sakura didn't reply. She just groped onto the handle of the sword.
"Hey!" called Syaoran. "What are you doing? You think you can make a difference in the power of the shot?" (Remember, he doesn't think she has magic).
"I might not have magic," lied Sakura. "But it just might make a difference."
Sakura felt all of her energy drain from her as it transferred to Syaoran's sword. She suddenly felt weak all over her body and he felt like she was about to collapse, just like Eriol, until she realized that she had to do this to save everyone, and remained strong. The emerald in the handle of Syaoran's sword now swirled with pink, green and blue colours all around.
"Now summon it," said Sakura really weakly.
Syaoran summoned up all the energy in his sword and blasted it dead center at the black snake that was slithering towards them. It hit it and it flew backwards. Some kind of black shadow flew out of the snake and it shattered and disappeared.
"It worked," said a relieved Sakura, as her legs gave way and she blacked out. Syaoran, even though he was weak as well, caught her and laid her gently on the ground. All the snakes, except the original one, disappeared. The original snake's eyes turned back into a shade of green and slithered back into the enclosure. Everyone else also returned back to normal.
The teacher, who was the last of them to snap out of the trance, finally noticed Eriol and Sakura lying on the ground, knocked out and Syaoran, who looked as if he was about to too.
"What happened here?" she demanded to Syaoran.
"They fainted because the heat was getting to them," he said thinking up an excuse. "I think the heats getting to me as well – I feel very dizzy."
"Yes," agreed the teacher. "It is quite a warm day today, maybe it is best for us if we return home now. Thank you so much for showing us your farm, John. We all greatly appreciate it."
"No need to thank me," said John, chuckling. "My wife has some treats in the kitchen, you're quite welcome to come inside if you want to try some."
"No, no," said the teacher. "We'd best be on our way."
"I insist," replied John. "Otherwise my wife's treats will go to waste if there's no one to eat them. I assure you that they are quite tasty indeed."
"Oh all right then," said the teacher giving in at last. "But maybe we should get these three into the bus to rest up."
"We'll take them there!" cried Meiling, Tomoyo, Ryu, Chiharu and Yamazaki. The teacher nodded.
"Are you sure that you don't need more help?" she asked them. "I'm sure that Rika and Naoko would only be too willing to help you." Rika and Naoko nodded eagerly. Chiharu shook her head.
"We'll be fine."
Meiling supported Syaoran as he half limped over to the bus. Tomoyo and Chiharu dragged Sakura and Ryu and Yamazaki took Eriol. They flopped the three of them on a double seat each and sat down themselves to look after them.
"Maybe we should get some cold drinks for them or something," suggested Yamazaki. "Who wants to come?"
"I'll come," replied Chiharu. The two of them set off to the kitchen of the farm. After fifteen minutes, they still didn't return. Ryu looked at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"That's it!" he said, standing up. "I'm going to go find out what's taking them so long." Ryu walked out of the bus and didn't return either. Meiling started to get worried. Syaoran fell asleep already and Eriol and Sakura were still knocked out, both lacking energy. She was about to follow Ryu, when everyone seemed to walk towards her, in lines.
"What's happening?" she asked herself out loud, totally freaking out. They were all holding weapons like swords and long sticks. (The weapons were magically created...so they just sort of appeared from nowhere.) "Oh my gosh!" she shrieked.
"XIAO LANG!" she screamed hysterically into his ear. "WAKE UP!" Syaoran sat up automatically.
"What is it?" he asked groggily, rubbing his eyes. Meiling pointed out the window towards the rest of the class, who were coming for them. Syaoran followed the direction of her finger and gasped out loud.
"We need to get out of here and fast!" he said and immediately grabbed Sakura. "Take Eriol." Meiling dragged Eriol out of the bus, quickly followed by Syaoran with Sakura. Syaoran put Sakura down next to Eriol and ordered Meiling to stay with them and make sure nothing happens to them.
"What about you?" asked Meiling, sounding worried. "You could get injured really badly, especially when you've already lost most of your magic!"
"H – how did you know?" stuttered Syaoran, looking bewildered.
"I'm your cousin for crying out loud!" cried Meiling. "I should know when you've lost most of your magic."
"I can look after myself," replied Syaoran gravely. "Just look after Sakura and Eriol and if they wake up, make sure they don't come after me."
"But –" began Meiling, but Syaoran already ran off to head the others away from Eriol, Meiling and Sakura. "Please don't let him get hurt..." whispered Meiling to no one in particular.
Syaoran needed a way to get everyone away from the others, so he ran straight towards them. Everyone got into a fighting stance and prepared to attack him.
"This is the time where my dodge ball skills come in handy," he murmured and kept on running at them. Everyone separated from their lines and started to attack him with sticks and swords.
One of them swung a metal pole at him. Syaoran did a forward flip over it, but there was a sword coming in the opposite direction, aiming for him while he was still in midair. The person holding the sword expected him to land on his hands and use momentum to flip back up so it struck in that particular spot.
Syaoran, who expected that the person expected that he would land on his hands and flip back upwards, fell on purpose, so that he was lying flat on the ground and the sword missed him by around thirty centimeters. As soon as the sword was taken back and ready for another strike, Syaoran jolted back up again and kept running forwards, away from where Meiling was.
As the swords and sticks shot at him, he dodged them all as ease with a few close shaves. He ran, flipped over and ran some more. You might think that this would be a life-threatening situation, but Syaoran just pretended that it was another mere game of dodge ball. He pretended that people were throwing balls at him and he dodged him with ease.
The people continued to follow him, away from Sakura, Eriol and Meiling. After they were a safe distance away from Sakura, Eriol and Meiling, Syaoran sighed.
'Yes. They're not close enough to attack Meiling, Sakura and Eriol. Good.' He thought to himself. He was distracted for a second and was hit in the stomach by an attacking wooden stick. He went flying sideways, as he skidded on the ground. It gave him a minor scratch on his arm. A sword came aiming at his head, as he was still lying on the ground.
He rolled to his left and avoided the attack by just a mere inch. Another sword came shooting downwards towards his head, as he sat upright, avoiding the attack again. A pole came swinging sideways from behind at his back. Syaoran, who had already foreseen the attack, grabbed the pole with his hands by arching his back backwards and swung himself over it, landing himself on his feet.
He summoned his sword, as his magic dropped back down as he did so. He felt half of his remaining magic drain from him. He blocked off the attacks of everyone with it, being careful not to actually strike anyone with it. He knew he couldn't hurt anyone, since they were all students from his class and they didn't mean to do this since they were being controlled. He knew he was losing his energy really quickly, but he knew he had to go on for the sake of his friends.
Meiling, who was sitting on a rock with her head on her hands, was silently cursing under her breath. Eriol stirred and sat upright.
"What's happening?" he asked, immediately in the alert.
"ERIOL!" screamed Meiling. "You're finally awake! People in our class have gone insane with sticks and swords and are currently trying to kill us, but Xiao Land led them off somewhere else." Eriol took in all the information in a few seconds, and then recovered back to his senses.
"WHAT?" he roared. "WHY DID YOU LET HIM DO THAT?" Meiling murmured something along the lines of: He told me to stay here and look after you and Sakura and he led them off away from us. Eriol swore silently.
"I'm going after him," he told Meiling. "Stay here and look after Sakura."
"Xiao Lang said for you to stay here –" said Meiling, but Eriol had already ran off. "Is anyone going to listen to me?"
"If I was Syaoran, where would I be?" asked Eriol to himself as he ran around, looking for him. As he ran passed, he got a quick glance at something that looked like people, and doubled back to get a better look.
"If I were Syaoran, I would be right in front of Eriol's eyes." Eriol ran forward as he summoned up his staff. He was still fairly weak in magic wise, but he was determined to help Syaoran fight off the dark magic spell that was cast onto their classmates once again.
"Eriol!" panted Syaoran. "What –"
"Don't ask," said Eriol, as some of the people started to attack Eriol. Half of the class was going for Eriol, while the other half were still going for Syaoran. The people who were fighting Eriol cornered him into a concrete wall. (What's a concrete wall doing in the middle of the farm?)
"ERIOL!" called Syaoran, who was about to go help him out of a sticky situation, but everyone blocked his way. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He roared at them. A few people pinned him to the ground, as one of them held the blade of a sword to his neck. Syaoran shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to see his own death.
'I'm so sorry Sakura...'
TBC
I've finally updated the next chapter sooner than usual! Well...I have nothing else to say here...just don't forget to review!
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