Chapter Eight
Maria dashed towards Serras with one fist above her head. Serras was better prepaired this time. She managed to block all of her attackers strikes. The actual combat was both airborne and very fast paced. Leeroy and the others had problems trying to keep track of who's who. With her concentration at full, Serras could deflect anything thrown at her. But, with even the slightest slip of the hand could be disaterous.
"You're getting much faster, Serras. I applaud you. But it's time for you to end this masquerade. Mirror it up!" She shouted. An exact copy of her formed directly behind the Mage of Despair. She hardly had the time to let out a squeak before the real pain started. The copy of Maria mimicked her moves exactly. Evey strike that hit dealt double damage to Serras. Everyone watched on as Serras became a literal damage sponge, soaking everything she got hit with. In one finishing move, Maria executed an uppercut, kncoking Serras straight up. She was slightly dazed from the blow, thus unable to react. Maria teleported above the airborne Mage. She turned her wings into a tangled mess of black tentacles. Each one wrapped around a different part of Serras' body. The copy of Maria dissappeared into nothingness. She simply held the helpless Serras in place, while she executed a blinding set of linked combos, doing progressivly more and more noticable damage.
You could tell that the amount of shear ownage she was dishing out was extreame when every strike exploded on contact with the helpless target. Not wanting to be totally unfair, Maria spun Serras around and realeased her into the nearest geographical obstruction, in this case, the ground. When she hit, she created a crater that was, by anyone's best guess, thirty meters deep, and fifty meters wide. It swallowed almost all of Battleon, leaving the Guardian Tower intact. After making contact with the cold, hard earth, Maria reformed her wings, and curled them around her body, small spines protruding here and there. She then acted like a dead Battle Whale in water, falling very fast. Serras just managed to her feet before getting hammered again by Maria's own body wieght and the forces of gravity and several other magical forces. This, incidentally knocked the poor soul back onto, and further into the ground.
After making contact with Serras, The Guardian unfolded herself from the ball and repeated the process of pulverizing the Mage of Despair further and further into a full-body cast. After she stopped moving, Maria stopped and tossed Serras out of the crater, and onto the flat ground. Serras just managed to get to one knee before Maria came out.
"Had enough yet? Or do you still want some more?" The X-Guardian asked, putting her hands on her hips and coming to a rest before the crouched woman. Of course, Maria made the mistake to throw Serras right next to her sword. In one leap, Serras took hold of the Blade of Insight and held it. After several seconds, she stood back up, like nothing had happened.
"Oh, no, please. Go on." Nerra laughed. "Confused? Allow me to explain. My sword has the ability to use the souls of anyone it kills to regenerate my wounds. Once they've been used, they go right back to where they would usually go.
"Who else have you killed?" Maria asked through clenched teeth. Serras smiled and pulled her hand up with all five finger spread.
"In order; Robina the Ranger." She pulled her index finger down. "That idiotic Zorbak who got in my way." She pulled her middle finger down. "MegaPrime." She retracted her ring finger. "The blind old man." She pulled her pinky finger down. "And finally, the little girl Aria." She retracted her thumb. She only smiled.
"Those are all my friends!" She shouted, but then thought. "Except MegaPrime." Again, her tone changed to serious. "Release their souls to Death, so I can kill you! And, you can keep MegaPrime's he's goofed his last goof."
"I don't think so. Come and claim them." Serras replied, closing her eyes and smiling. A very, very bad mistake.
Maria retracted her fist, and readied to strike. But, this time, it seemed some kind of energy was surging through her fist, like dark energy or something of the sort. She muttered something inaudible under her breath before realeasing her fist. It planted right onto Serras' face, field-goaling her clear out of sight. She was flying towards Lolosia last she saw.
"That's for being such a bitch." Maria muttered, dashing after her, a streak of light was all that could be seen of X-Guardian Maria in Battleon.
"Hey! Where'd she go?" Leeroy asked, preplexed.
"Lolosia! Follow her!" Amani and Atrix replied in unison.