Chapter 5- Eyes of Lightning
Red dodges some more attacks from the lowly soldiers. He sends his blade and several volumes of flame at them to make them disappear. They were merely summoned by friendly allies, so if a killing blow is about to do its duty, then the summon will be sent back to where they were summoned from. The soldier carried a wide variety of weapons, from swords to pikes to lances to bows.
Gale aims her weapon as the red boy fought off the army. Shooting a volley of arrows, the unsuspecting Red loses his sword and sheath as the rest scratched his clothing. Having no choice, he lets a spear jab off to his side, grabbing it. With a high kick the owner flies back, recovers to see the same spear he had come for him. The birdman disappeared as several more flew in.
Stabbing the weapon straight into the wooden boards, the boy spins around it with his foot into the air to knock away those unfortunate to come close. He stands on atop the handle of the weapon to knock away some more enemies coming at him. One had a sword and aimed low, at the spear to cut off the handle. Red jumps up to land on a flying foe, kicking off above him and coming back down with a heel.
The one he attacked vanished and dropped his weapon, a nunchaku. Grabbing it, he blocks a sword attack to his head, wrapping the opposing weapon with his own and tackling the other user. The boy throws his current weapon at another birdman, in order to hold the sword that had dropped. He uses it to ward off the wooden arrows coming at him before jumping up to avoid Gale's green wave.
In the air, several soldiers tried to attack him, he deflected and countered as much as he could until two of them manage to trap his sword with their own as a third comes in for a finisher. Letting go of the weapon, Reb back flips and knocks the sneak attacker out, making him vanish as the boy grabs the bo staff that was left behind.
Red easily swings it around to keep the soldiers away as well as Gale's arrows. Landing, he twirls it around and around as he himself spins, making it difficult to get to him. Eventually, he makes a whirling wind around himself to make things even more difficult. Many soldiers dived in at once, only to be blown away. Red stops holding the staff with one hand behind him and looks at Gale and Gaia with a smile on his face.
Gale goes in, shooting her arrows rapidly at the target. He just swings the weapon to make sure none of those get even near him. One of his arms was wrapped up by a soldier from nowhere with a kendama. Gale uses this opening to shoot off the staff from his hands. Thinking fast, Red grabs the string and pulls the weapon away from the soldier. Just in time too as another soldier attacks.
The red boy dodges and wraps the kendama around the soldier's weapons. Holding them in the air, he kicks the soldier away and unwraps the tonfas. Using the weapon with ease, he easily knocks away several oncoming attackers with it, even getting in close with many bowmen to take them out as well. Luckily, he blocks a scythe just in time.
With the wood of the tonfa, a punch to the chin was all that was needed to knock out the scythe wielder. He turns to block some more arrows from Gale, forced to throw away the tonfas as they were cracking. Ducking, the boy takes hold of the scythe and starts swing it around whoever comes close. He pokes and swings anyone that was within range, all the while moving around to avoid their own attacks.
He comes into combat with a huge broadsword, almost as big as himself. The wielder swung downwards and the target easily sidesteps, the soldier then spins swings to the side upwards, Red ducks. The last attack was a continuation of that swing, going around and downwards. It was useless as the boy sidesteps once more and runs on the blade towards the wielder with scythe in hand.
After dealing with him, Red spins and throws his weapon at a big group of flyers coming for him. With nothing else, he picks up the fallen sword. Because of his rich heritage, and fierce training, the sword was only a little bit more difficult to handle. He runs forward, dragging the weapon behind him until he could twirl, releasing the weapon as he does so.
A lance user comes in to be pushed to the side and kicked into the face. Red wields the weapon and keeps away all the other soldiers. A flail gets itself wrapped around the lance, the boy tugs hard to pull the user in and stab. He took the handle of the weapon, which was stuck around the lance. The boy swings it around above his head, the handle of the lance knocking away everyone around.
Gaia comes in and gives a hard punch to the prince's chest, knocking him back to where his weapon lay. More soldiers begin to fly in as Red grabs the sword and sheathe. The gems on them glow brightly and a huge burst of flame erupts from the ground around the prince. Gale sends a big ball of whirling wind towards the wall to blow it away, exposing the defending swordsman.
Red had his sheathe to his side and his sword inside it. Any and every soldier that flew in were mysteriously and quickly knocked out. Gaia sends a wave of dirt and sand to the target, Gales blows in some wind to help out. The combined attacks were too much for him to handle and was taken off his feet.
"I thought you weren't going to hold back," Gale told him coldly.
"No, I wasn't holding back," Red answered. "I was test my full skills as a human alone."
"Will you continue to resist prince?" Gaia asked. "What you have done is unforgivable. To leave your own clan so willingly, that is considered treason! By law we should execute you, if return to your father-"
"I'm not going back," the prince interrupted. "I've already made my decision. I'm going to stay in the human realm."
"Don't be a fool!" Gale cried out, Gaia puts his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
"So be it," Gaia told him. "You are to be eliminated. Attack!"
The soldiers dove in towards the prince. A great white bolt of lightning crashes down from above in front of the target, stopping them in their tracks. A cackling sphere of electricity showed itself on stage. Setsuna was standing, poised for attack with both her blades.
"I won't let you hurt him!" she yelled out loud, her eyes showed the same sparks the surrounded her for a few moments longer, but those weren't a reflection, it was her determination. Gale, Gaia and even Red are surprised to see her come back.
"I told you to get out of here!" the boy cried out at her.
Setsuna turned her head so that she could see him behind her, putting on a smile on her face, "It's my turn to show you my desire to protect, William nii-sama…"
"H-how did-?" Gale stuttered before finally getting it. "Is that you Setsuna?"
Setsuna tightened her grip on her weapons, "Yeah, it's been a long while hasn't Gale?"
"Setsuna," Gaia started. "I suppose you're the reason the prince wanted to leave his people. I still haven't completed my order from long ago, and now that the prince is a traitor, both he and you will have to be taken care of."
Setsuna calls forth her wings, spreading them out in front of them, "I will fight, I owe him too much. I can't just stay back and let you do what ever you want to do."
"Setsuna…" Gale whispered under her breath.
"I guess, this means we're protecting each other then, Setsuna," William told her with a smile, he calls on his power and shows off his crimson red wings.
Gaia however, was not amused, "Soldiers attack!"
Setsuna was about to fly up and counter attack until a giant shuriken flew by. Negi, Asuna, Mana, Ku Fei, Kaede, Chachamaru and Kotaro come flying in and form a human barrier around Setsuna.
"Setsuna-san, are you okay?"
"Negi-sensei… you guys…"
"Come on Setsuna," Asuna pleasantly spoke. "Did you really think we'd let you do this alone?"
William puts a hand on Setsuna's shoulder, "You have some really good friends here Set-chan, those wings aren't unlucky after all."
A tear crawls down her cheek as she nods in agreement with her former prince.
"Come on you guys," Mana began. "We have some business to do."
Gale shoots off a green wave a the group, everyone jumps away to safety as it hits the stage, Setsuna and William floated above the stage.
"Everyone," William spoke. "Take care of the grunts, those two are mine. This is personal."
"No," Setsuna said in a low tone of voice. "We'll take care of them, together."
Shesmiled atthe princeand he returned it. Negi and the rest seem happy with that exchange, they all nodded to each other in agreement. They separate to deal with the black winged soldiers as Setsuna and William dive towards Gale and Gaia.
Gale call her power and spreads her bright green wings, Gaia shows his brown wings. They fly up to meet with Setsuna and William.