OMG…I'm updating. looks around Yes, indeed, I am updating. Wow…and sorta on time too. I think something's wrong with me. Well, I think it had to do with me feeling bad about writing such a short chapter last time. So this time, I shall write a bit more...a lot more.
Chapter Ten – Onwards to War!
Steiner had once told her how horrific war was, but even in her wildest imagination, she didn't imagine it to be like this. Standing on a high hill, which overlooked the entire battlefield, Garnet could see nothing but blood, fighting, and death. Beside her, even Eiko, who had been in more battles than her, was quite pale and faint looking. This was war at its most primal level; when all thoughts of pity, sympathy, and love were thrown out the door, to be replaced by sheer hate and loathing for the enemy before you. You had to fight to kill, because you could be sure that your enemy wanted you dead.
"My gods," Eiko breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. "This is horrible."
Garnet held out her hand, palm outwards, and muttered, "Scan."
Information about the entire battle was shoved into her head, and she tried to analyze it as quickly as she could. She nodded in approval when she saw that the two forces were about equal in fighting strength. Good, that meant her troops were holding their own, even against the genomes.
"Well?" Eiko inquired.
Garnet smiled slightly and replied, "Not too bad. If we keep this up and then use our trump card, we should win easily. Especially when – "
A scream drowned out the remainder of Garnet's sentence. A genome was lying at the bottom of the hill they were standing on, his back to the ground and his face screaming at the sky. The reason for his screaming was evident: lodged in his chest to the hilt was one of the most of powerful knight swords of all time: Save the Queen. And the genome's screams only increased when the owner of the sword started walking towards him.
"Holy!" Beatrix shouted. The potent white magic, dulled slightly by the fact that Beatrix was not a true white mage, nonetheless incinerated the genome to atoms. All that remained was Save the Queen, buried in the grass.
"Your highness," Beatrix said with a smile, bowing and pulling her sword out of the ground at the same time. "Please stay out of danger."
"I will," Garnet replied with her own small smile. She turned to Eiko. "As I was saying, especially if Beatrix keeps fighting the way she is, she'll take out half of Zidane's forces by herself."
"Garnet! Look out!" Eiko screamed and leaped in front of Garnet, taking the rocketing spear straight to the chest! Only a last second Protect spell had prevented Eiko from suffering the same fate as the genome that had just died. Quickly, Garnet rushed over, threw the spear behind her, and pulsed a Cura spell through her best friend.
"Tsk. That attack was meant for you."
Garnet wheeled around to face the best Dragon Knight that Burmecia had ever had to offer: Fratley Crescent. The dragon knight reached down and scooped up his spear, which Garnet had conveniently thrown right at his feet.
"If you're here, then that means…" Beatrix trailed off and turned around, just in time to see Freya's spear right in her face! Instincts born out of decades of fighting saved her life but could not save her from injury. The spear lanced through her left shoulder, severing a nerve, leaving her left arm limp and useless.
"Close, but not close enough," Freya muttered as she landed, retrieving her spear. She glanced at Beatrix and saw the damage she had done. "Still…you're not nearly as dangerous now without your left arm."
"Says you," Beatrix snarled and charged Freya, Save the Queen clutched firmly in her right hand. Freya snapped her spear in a guard stance and flew forward as well. Their exchange of blows was quick and furious, but Beatrix was quickly blown backwards with a new cut on her face.
"You cannot beat me in your current state," Freya stated. "And if you cannot beat me, how can you hope to avenge the one you loved…the one you let die, because you were not strong enough to protect him?"
Beatrix screeched, "You're blaming his death on me? You were the one that killed him, you filthy rat!"
"It is true that I killed him," Freya replied. "But the two of us were evenly matched. Sooner or later, one of us was going to die. But the deciding factor was you. If you had fought with the same strength that you had used against Fratley in the original battle when you gave him amnesia, you would have easily beat him and saved Steiner. But you couldn't because you had lost that strength. In these times of peace, you had lost the power that made all warriors respect you. So, in the end, it was your fault that Steiner died."
"Power?" Beatrix choked. "You think this all comes down to power? If so…then let me show you real power."
With her right hand, she reached up and ripped off the bandana that covered her left eye! A hideous scar ran vertically across the eye, the evidence of the wound that had taken that eye. She then dipped her right hand in the wound that Freya's spear had carved in her left shoulder. With the blood dripping off her index finger, she wiped the blood in her left eye!
"What the devil?" Freya whispered, taking a step back. Fear gripped the female Dragon Knight as a shockwave of power emulated from Beatrix. But that wasn't what really scared the Dragon Knight. For, the moment the blood came into contact with her blinded eye, her entire left eye had become blood red!
"My ultimate technique," Beatrix hissed. "Once unleashed, no one has ever walked away alive. It is called Saikyō, the all seeing vision!"
Freya gasped, "My gods. That's supposed to be a legend! It has never been attempted before!"
"Well then," Beatrix growled, sliding into her fighting stance once more. "The warrior that is about to take your life is only one who has ever attempted the technique and learned is successfully! Be honored."
"Feh," Freya spat, twirling her spear and holding out in the guard position. "All seeing vision or not, I'll still send you to hell with Steiner. After all, you are the only that that's been holding back secret techniques."
Freya charged again, her Lancer technique propelling her forward at incredible speed. And yet, despite her incredible burst of speed, to Beatrix, the dragon knight was moving in slow motion! Beatrix leaped to the side and held her sword overhead, preparing to cleave Freya in two the moment she shot passed.
To Freya, it appeared that Beatrix had already started her counter attack before Freya had launched her attack! Desperate to dodge the counter attack that would surely injure her, possibly even kill her, Freya turned her Lancer into a spinning dive! And yet, once more, Beatrix saw all of this in slow motion.
"Shock!" Beatrix screamed and the airborne Freya was blasted away by fifty feet!
"Freya!" Fratley shouted and was about to spring to her side when he felt a powerful force beside him. Glancing down, he saw that tiny child he had knocked unconscious earlier was up and about again. She was glaring at him and in her hand, pointed at him, was a white ball of pure holy energy, so pure that it could only destroy, not heal.
"Holy!" Fratley thought to himself with shock. He had seen the power of Holy moments before him and Freya had launched their ambush on them. The power of Holy had completely incinerated a genome to atoms.
"If you attempt to help her," Eiko hissed, "I'll blast you out of the air."
Fratley responded numbly, "But against Saikyō, Freya stands no chance."
"What is Saikyō?" Garnet questioned. "I'm pretty sure I've heard it in a book before or something."
"Saikyō," Fratley whispered. "The ultimate fighting technique. The one who possess it would be unstoppable in battle, for it allows the user to see events before they occur and thus, allows the user to react the moment the attack is launched. Also, Saikyō registers everything so quickly that it all appears in slow motion to the user. But, no one thought the technique was attainable."
"Why's that?" Eiko questioned.
Fratley swallowed and replied, "It is ancient white magic which must be spoken in a language that has long since died. Then, even if the user learns the incantation, it requires much sacrifice. Saikyō requires that the eye be blind, so the user must blind himself in one eye first. Even then, the success rate of Saikyō is only 25. The user must be willing to give up his life to gain the technique."
Garnet said thoughtfully, "I suppose, when Steiner died, Beatrix had nothing left to live for, save for avenging his death. She also knew that she wasn't strong enough to defeat either Freya or you. So, to accomplish her goal, she was willing to give her life."
"It seems to have paid off," Eiko remarked. "Freya is getting her butt handed to her."
"Not quite," Fratley contradicted her. "For you see, Saikyō is an extremely powerful move. But, it has one downside. Twenty-four hours from the moment she activated it, the user will die. There is no cure and no preventing it. That is why so few have ever attempted to gain it."
"Beatrix," Garnet thought in shock. "What have you done!"
"It was the only way, Garnet," Beatrix replied, her eyes trained on Freya, who was struggling to get to her feet, still recovering from the Shock attack that Beatrix had landed perfectly on her. "It was the only way I could avenge Steiner and see him again soon. Now," Beatrix said, turning her attention to Freya, "now…we finish this."
Beatrix charged, her sword gripped in her right hand, preparing to gut Freya through. The female Dragon Knight, still too wounded to defend herself, could only watch in horror at Beatrix charged.
"Freya!" Fratley shouted, startling the two mages. With one, swift move, he batted away Eiko and Garnet and leaped towards Freya. Screaming in outrage, Eiko hopped to her feet, fed all her energy into her Holy, and let it loose!
"EIKO, NO!" Garnet screamed from the ground.
But it was already too late.
Time seemed to stop for Beatrix. Even with Saikyō, she had never seen it coming. One moment, her sword seemed destine to thrust straight through Freya's heart. The next, a swift moving shadow had planted itself right in her path. Too late to stop, Beatrix's sword lanced straight through Fratley's chest. And yet, Fratley did not budge an inch after he was hit. He remained standing, arms out, head held high. The reason why became apparent.
"Fratley," Freya sobbed, hugging her beloved from behind. "Why?"
"For love, of course," he replied simply.
"Your spear," Beatrix breathed in realization. "You stuck your spear behind your back to prevent Save the Queen from hitting Freya!"
"Yes," Fratley replied quietly.
"Beatrix, you monster!" Freya screamed. "You were supposed to kill me, not him!"
"I couldn't stop it!" Beatrix shouted back. "I was supposed to kill you. You killed Steiner!"
Fratley interrupted, "She killed the one you love, and now you've killed the one she loves. In a way…I'd call this some kind of ironic justice…wouldn't you? Freya, my love, I await you in the afterlife."
And, with that parting message, Fratley Crescent, the greatest dragon knight that Burmecia had ever raised, passed away. Suddenly, with no life left to support his weight, Fratley crumpled to the ground, Freya going down with him. She cradled the lifeless warrior to her chest, tears pouring down her face, but no screams were coming out anymore.
Suddenly, Beatrix felt an enormous power behind her. Saikyō told her it was Holy, and she could have easily dodged it, but something held her back.
"Freya and I," Beatrix thought. "We aren't so different. We both are warriors, refusing to let the one we love fight for us. We both fight for our countries and the ones we love. And we both killed the other's lover. Perhaps, it is only fitting we die together as well."
"Perhaps you'll see Fratley soon that you think," Beatrix said with a smile. Freya raised her head slightly to see a massive spell of Holy streaking towards them with impossible speed. She smiled sadly, bowed her head, and kissed Fratley lightly on the cheek. Beatrix saluted them with Save the Queen and sheathed her faithful sword, one final time.
And then…they were gone…in a blast of pure, holy light.
A/N: Ahahahahahaha…bet you didn't see that one coming, did you! Bwahahaha…I am so evil.