Chapter 24: A Battle to be Remembered
A/N: See, I told you that I would update soon! Thanks so much for the reviews, I appreciate them so much! I would also like to thank my cousin for giving some ideas for this chapter; he's good with writing battle strategies. While I was writing this, I kept imagining how Raoul and Erik looked during the sword fight scene in the movie, so while your reading this, imagine how they looked then. I even put a picture of Raoul with his sword in hand on my computer desktop to look at while I wrote, and it really helped me write his angry side. Just thought that was interesting. Enjoy!
Raoul's POV
My hair clung to my face and sweat trickled down the back of my neck as I exerted all the energy that I posessed in fighting Louis, the wretched gypsy leader that had caused such havoc and pain in my life over the past months. It seemed as though with each swing of the sword I took out more and more of my anger on him. Christine and I had come back to Paris to start anew, not to create more bad memories, and these gypsies had almost ruined any chance of that happening. I felt myself becoming short of breath as the fight continued; this man was gigantic and posessed more strength because of it. I did have one advantage however; I could mve quicker than he could.
"Growing tired Vicomte?" he taunted. "Would you like to just give it up now and let me kill you?"
My eyes narrowed as he spoke. "No, I don't think so." I answered him as I took advantage of his arrogance and spun around, slashing his legs with the tip of my sword.
His shout of pain and fury echoed through the air, sounding much like a wolf howling at the moon. He stumbled towards me, almost falling as he did so. It was as I had hoped; his speed had decreased even more, increasing my advantage in that area. But I wasn't prepared for what happened next. I felt myself being picked up by my shirt and got one glimpse of my enemy's ruthless face before I flew through the air and felt my head colliding with a solid brick wall. It was pain beyond pain, and it felt as though skull had been cracked. I felt the blood seeping down the back of my neck from the impact. Blackness threatened me, and I felt as though I might pass out until I saw a sight that made my heart stand still. Louis was heading straight for Christine, a smirk on his face.
" Well , Vicomtess," he began. But he never got a chance to finish. I stood up like lighting, my head pounding and my shout reverberating throughout the room.
"Do not touch her!" I yelled, sounding nothing like myself. Anger coursed through my veins as I ran across the cold stone floor. The man looked as though he were about to laugh at me until the broadside of my sword slammed against his forehead, knocking him out cold. Everything went deadly silent. The gypsies stopped jeering and for a moment even the crickets seemed to stop chirping.
"Well then," I said firmly. " I believe the deal is sealed. I won, so we will taking our leave."
I was the first one to move. The gypsies, who seemed to be lost without their leader, didn't budge. I sheathed my sword and unbound Christine, Lucien, and Phillipe. When I moved to unite Erik I discovered that he had alreadty untied himself. We made to leave and quickly, but when I looked behind to see if Erik followed, a most unwelcome sight met my eyes; the gypsy that was Louis' right hand man was heading towards Erik with sword in hand. Erik had his back turned and didn't see him coming.
My mind spun. Erik and I were sworn enemies, and there were many scars on both mine and Christine's hearts that would never heal because of him, but he had been an irreplaceable help in this situation, and as hard as it was to admit, I was thankful to him. As the man came closer, a memory of Christine's words in the graveyard flashed through my mind, her begging me not to kill him. I made up my mind. I dashed towards them, ignoring Lucien's cry of "Raoul you idiot, what are you doing!"
Time seemed to stand still as I moved between them just in time. Erik whipped around just as the blade that was meant for his back pierced my shoulder, going in very deep. The gypsy let out a scream of rage.
"You fool, that blow was meant for the Devil's Child, how dare you get in the way!" he yelled, his bloodshot eyes having a look of pure insanity in them.
"Your leader said that everyone would go free," I said as I put a hand over my profusely bleeding shoulder. "You cannot go back on the deal."
He sneered at me, a smirk overtaking his tattooed features. " I believe I can, for you see, I wasn't expecting your victory." He turned, and nodded at the other gypsies, and I watched in horror as men and women alike pulled out weapons. There was no need for Erik to say what he said next.
"Run!" he shouted.
Lucien and Phillipe led the way, and I grabbed Christine's hand and followed them, with Erik following behind. We ran for dear life, straight towards the opera house. I could only hope that the Girys had gotten the police, for a full fledged battle was about to begin.
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We had been running for several minutes until we stopped out side the opera house, gasping for breath. The pain in my arm was really setting in now; it throbbed suddenly and I inhaled sharply, supressing shout of agony that came to my lips. Christine turned to me, her face lined with worry.
"Raoul, we must get you hom, you're in a terrible state," she said gentely.
I shook my head, trying to ignore the pain that was coursing through my body. "I have I finish this Christine, love" I said, feeling tears prick my eyes as I saw the tears in hers. " Or they will nevver leave us alone."
"Raoul," said Phillipe seriously. " The four of us can't fight fourty gypsies on our own, it would be suicide."
"If only Meg and Madame Giry could get the police here sooner." said Lucien, rubbing his wrists that were red from being bound by the rope.
It was then that I looked up and saw our prayers being answered. There, running towards us was a large group of policemen, led by the Girys. Madame Giry was the first to reach us.
"Look at the state of you all!" she cried out. "What happened?"
"We're in a bit of an unexpected predicament," I answered vaguely. " But please Madame, take Christine into the opera house and keep her safe!"
She nodded, and after I gave Christine one quick kiss, Madame, who had to pull Meg from Lucien, took both Christine's and Meg's hands and fled towards the opera. It pained me to see the looks on Christine's and Meg's faces as they looked back at Lucien and me. But my thoughts were interrupted as the police chief himself approached me.
"Monsieur le Vicomte, I'm sorry that it took us so long to get here. Please tell me what has happened," he said, eyeing my wounds.
"I'm afraid that you shall have to wait for that part of the story monsieur," I said gravely. "They're coming."
Everyone swung around and saw the gypsies sprinting towards us. What happened next rather reminded me of something that I had once read in a book about battle strategies. The group of policemen, each armed with a saber and a gun, ran directly into the group of ragged gypsies. A defeaning clash rang out as the weapons met each other. I looked around at Phillipe, Lucien, and Erik, each of whom looked ready to fight. Each of us unsheathed our swords and charged right into the fray. The minute I entered the battle I knew that we were out numbered. There were many officers that were fighting two gypsies at once, and Lucien and Phillipe had already been pounced upon, and I lost sight of them in the crowd. The gypsies seemed enraged by the defeat of their leader and fought harder than I had yet seen them do.
I heard someone behind me, and turned around to see the gypsy that had tried to kill Erik standing before me. He was leering at me, and his eyes burned with dislike.
"You'll pay for your victory against out leader, and for getting in the way of my killing of the Devil's Child, you filthy aristocrat!" he growled.
"And you will pay for doing this!" I gestured to my injured arm. "Come at me you fiend, I dare you!"
And so he did. I swung at him with my good arm and the fight began. We had only been fighting for a few minutes when a gunshot rang out, piercing the night. I became distracted, looking to see if it had hit anyone on our side. The gypsy took this opportunity to pounce, knocking me to the ground. I was a bit too quick for him however. Before he could pin me down, I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and stood up as his legs dangled in the air. I pointed my sword at him, his face paling.
"Please Vicomte, don't kill me," he pleaded. "Show mercy!"
"I have no mercy for you," I spat. "As to killing you, I'll leave that to the authorities, it is not my place to decide your fate. But in the meantime, perhaps you should take a nice nap!" With that I threw him roughly away from me and he landed near the steps of the opera, completely unconscious.
I surveyed the scene around me. The fight still raged on, with no hope of ceasing. We needed reinforcements! I became locked in battle with yet another gypsy. For the first time that evening, I felt myself losing hope. We simply didn't have enough people. As I managed to fend off the latest gypsy however, something happened that caused many to stop their fighting and stare. There on top of the opera house stood a group of people, women from the look of it, hurling objects off the roof. I grinned; Christine had clearly found a way to help. It seemed that she, Meg, Madame, and the ballet girls had found objects to throw at the gypseis from above. And it was working well too, many gypseis were being hit and falling to the ground. This cleared my path and I could see more and more clearly what was going on around me. After knocking a few more gypsies out of the way, I saw something that I hadn't expected. Louis, the leader, was standing there opposite Erik, whose glare burned with animosity. I thought for sure that Louis would have been knocked out for hours, but he was proving to be less and less human as the night progressed. Erik made the first move and swung hard at his enemy, knocking him over on the first try. This seemed to infuriate the gypsy leader beyond control.
"You will not defeat me Devil's Child! I shall seek revenge upon you!" he screamed in rage.
I watched in horror as the gypsy came at Erik full force. Erik managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, but he did recieve a cut on his arm. He caught sight of me and nodded, though I noticed that he didn't look me in the eye. I rushed over and fought Louis while Erik took a moment to recover from being attacked. He didn't take long however, and soon we were both fighting the very same enemy.
"Well, it seems as though I will have the double pleasure of taking out both the Devil's Child and the respectable Vicomte De Chagny. What an evening !" said the wretched gypsy, his face a grimace of pure evil.
"You shall have no such pleasure!" growled Erik menacingly. "You people never learn do you?"
With that, Erik and I simultaneously ran our swords into the fiend's legs causing him to fall and rendering his legs completely useless; he couldn't move. Everything seemed to fall apart for the gypsies after that. I heard the police shouting that the gypsies had surrendered, and whipped around to see the uninjured gypsies throw down their swords in defeat. Apparently the defeat of the two highest ranking gypsies and of most of the clan had significantly decreased their morale. The police were handcuffing gypsies left and right. Lucien and Phillipe came to my side, each bearing cuts and bruises.
"Are you all right Raoul?" asked Phillipe.
"I've been better," I said, as both my arm and the back of my head throbbed.
"Where's that Phantom fellow?" asked Lucien, wiping his bleeding cheek with his shirt sleeve.
I turned to look where Erik had been standing only moments ago, only to find the gypsy leader we had fought together now not only paralyzed from his wounded legs, but with a very familiar piece of rope around his neck. He was dead, and Erik was nowhere to be found. I did notice some smoke in the air; it looked as though Erik had dissapeared to avoid the suspicious eyes of the police. It thundered overhead, and the rain began to pour. The battle had finally ended, and we had come out victorious. I silently thanked God as Lucien, Phillipe, and I walked towards the welcoming opera house.
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A/N: Hey everyone, I hope that you liked this! There are still a few chapters left, so look for the updates. Please read and review!