Hi guys. Wow, a week has passed already. Well, time to get back to work then. I know you're all probably dying to see how the fight with Skelter goes, right?...right? Anyway, before I start this chapter, I want you guys to know that I have made some serious progress over my vacation of outlining my next story after this one, which is the eighteenth story in my Ross and Mike series and it will go up later next month. But this one is going to be making several references to the other 17, starting with the first one I wrote almost five years ago. So if you want to read The End of Time (the name of the new Ross and Mike story) when it gets posted, you'll probably want to check out the summary of the series in the Goosebumps section on August 20, which is the day I plan on posting it. If you're confused or want to learn more about this, please check it out in my profile. Anyway, enough of that. On with the story!
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Not in the mood for any garbage, Lloyd and Kratos immediately drew their two swords while Skelter was on his guard, ready to counterattack either of the two.
Lloyd charged with his two material blades pointing right at the pirate, but Skelter swung his scimitar with brute force and knocked one of the swords out of Lloyd's hands, leaving him with only one.
Lloyd clutched his only sword (his Flamberge) with both hands and he and Skelter started dueling with their two swords.
"Lloyd!" Kratos yelled as he saw that his son was starting to lose the fight. Lloyd wasn't used to fighting with only one sword, so that definitely gave Skelter an advantage. To help Lloyd, Kratos pointed out his sword and cast a quick fireball at Skelter.
Skelter saw the flames coming right at him and ducked out of the way. The small fires flew right over his head and hit the wall to the side of him, turning a burnt black afterward.
Skelter now saw he was in trouble with Kratos closing in on him. Soon, he was surrounded with Lloyd and Kratos ready to strike him simultaneously, finishing him.
But Lloyd ruined the plan by swinging his sword a bit too early. It gave Skelter plenty of time to jump out of the way of his swing, but it also left him plenty of room to make a getaway when Lloyd was recovering from the recoil of his swipe.
After Lloyd swung, Skelter jumped out of the way with all the free space he had, and now he was back in the open part of the room.
Now Skelter had his turn to attack. He ran to the back of the room, and when Kratos and Lloyd were turning around to start chasing after him.
Skelter then started charging back at his two enemies, so it was essentially the three of them out to collide.
As soon as they would have crashed, Skelter jumped surprisingly high into the air, but it seemed Kratos was anticipating that move, because he ducked below and stuck his sword upward and Skelter fell onto it when he was heading back towards the ground.
The end of Kratos's sword pierced Skelter. As he fell to the ground, Skelter pushed himself up with a giant gash on his abdomen where the sword pierced him. Blood was gushing from it, but he wasn't acting like he was in that much pain.
Meanwhile, Lloyd had run over to where he dropped his Vorpal Sword and picked it up. Just like that, he was dangerous again.
Skelter was now limping away from his two foes and drew his sword when he was a long distance away. He obviously couldn't hold out much longer, but he was still fighting hard.
"Wow, I guess you can go through a lot and still fight hard when you've been a pirate since you were five," Lloyd considered when he saw that Skelter still wouldn't go down, even though he was mortally wounded.
Skelter drew his sword again and seemed even deadlier than he did before. He was fighting with much more aggression and speed than he did prior to Kratos giving him the stab wound. In fact, it was even a bit harder for Lloyd and Kratos to concentrate, because the squirts of blood that were coming out of Skelter's injury proved to be a distraction.
Kratos tried running over to Skelter and giving him a quick slash, but Skelter turned out to be surprisingly fast. He slashed his sword at Kratos's knee, skimming it and causing a small, but very painful scratch.
As Kratos grunted and quickly cast first aid on himself, Lloyd ran over to Skelter and tried to strike him from behind, but Skelter was able to detect Lloyd coming and turned around. He blocked Lloyd's Vorpal Sword with his scimitar. In no time, the two of them were dueling viciously. Lloyd and Skelter alternated between swinging their sword and parrying their opponent's.
Kratos finally got back on his two feet, stable. He saw that Lloyd was struggling just to keep Skelter occupied, so he knew he had to act now.
When Skelter was about to swing his sword again and repeat the pattern he and Lloyd had been following when they were dueling, Kratos ran up from behind and stuck his sword right into Skelter's back, and then forcefully pulled it out.
Skelter made a small groaning noise and his eyes widened. He sounded like he was choking, but then without a word, he fell onto the ground, dead.
Lloyd was panting heavily. He sheathed both of his material blades and bent over and supported himself by placing his hands on his knees. Kratos, meanwhile, casually placed his sword back in its sheath and crossed his arms.
Once Lloyd got a few moments to catch his breath, he looked up at Kratos. "Thanks," he said heavily.
"We have no time for that," Kratos insisted. "Cesara is still in danger and we'd better save her before Kayne does something really bad to her."
Lloyd suddenly shot up as if he had been automatically rejuvenated. "I know. Let's go!"
Lloyd and Kratos ran into the elevator that Skelter had been guarding. They hit the button to go to the top floor, assuming that's where Kayne was holding Cesara hostage.
When the doors on the top floor opened, they were greeted by the long, seemingly never ending hallway. Both of them bolted through the halls and headed towards the room at the very end.
When they got there, they saw that Kayne was indeed in the room, and he had Cesara with him. She looked terrified of what was going on.
"How did you manage to make it past Skelter?" Kayne yelled.
"None of your business!" Lloyd yelled.
Kayne just laughed. For some reason, just seeing him intimidated Lloyd. Lloyd didn't notice for a while that Kayne was causing him to shake.
"Well, then, I'm sure you won't mind me taking this lovely lady into the dungeon," Kayne said in a nasty way. "You want her? Come and get her!"
Kayne grabbed Cesara by the arm and forcefully pulled her out with him. The two of them were practically flying down the hall, mainly due to how fast Kayne was forcing Cesara to move.
Lloyd and Kratos stood there, not knowing what to do. Did they want to follow Kayne? He said he was taking Cesara down into a dungeon. Who knows what he could do to her down there? Would it be safer to launch a surprise attack or something of that sort?
"Kratos, what do we do?" Lloyd asked, uncertain.
"I regret to say I don't know," Kratos answered.
Then the two of them heard Kayne step into the elevator at the far end of the hall, and seemingly in a split second, he decided he wasn't going to let Kayne get away. He ran out of the door, leaving Kratos in his dust.
"Lloyd! Wait!" Kratos yelled as he started running after his son.
Lloyd and Kratos were running down the hall, and Lloyd had a fairly large lead. They both got to the end of the hall and saw Kayne and Cesara in the elevator. Cesara was scared to tears when Kayne closed the door just as Lloyd was ready to run in and get Cesara back.
"Dammit!" Lloyd screamed as he kicked the metal door to the elevator. "He got away!"
"Wait, Lloyd," Kratos said in his calm voice. "Look."
Kratos pointed to a long line of thick-glass windows lining the side of the wall. Looking out of the window would give an obvious indication on exactly how high the two of them really were.
"So?" Lloyd asked, not sure what Kratos was getting at.
Kratos just sighed in exasperation and disappointed. He looked at the window and pointed his sword at it, quickly casting a demon fang on it. It caused the window to smash, creating an opening.
Kratos went over to the open window until he stood less than an inch from the edge of it. He then looked at Lloyd with an almost sorrowful look, then jumped out of it quickly.
Lloyd gasped, and then screamed "Kratos!" loudly. He ran over to the window Kratos had jumped out of and looked down, not seeing a thing. He then slowly looked up and saw Kratos had sprouted his angel wings and floated right in front of him.
"Dare I ask what you thought I was doing?" Kratos said in a concerned way to his son.
Lloyd let out a nervous laugh. "I thought you were…you know, about to…"
Kratos sighed. "I was sprouting my wings so we could follow that elevator, not so I could commit suicide. I'm 4,000 years old and I'm showing no signs in dying anytime soon."
Lloyd just rolled his eyes, and then he sprouted his own wings. He flew out of the smashed open window next to Kratos, and the two of them were soon flying outside the very top floor of the massive headquarters.
"Hmmmm…" Lloyd said when he turned to the side. He was staring at a massive tower that was standing several yards away from them. "I wonder what that tower is? What do you think, Kratos?...Kratos?"
Kratos had flown away, and Lloyd had to really start flying fast in order to catch up with him. In just a matter of moments, both he and Kratos were actually staring at the elevator that Kayne was in as he was leading Cesara into the dungeon.
Lloyd and Kratos slowly flapped their wings as they tried to follow Kayne's elevator. But then, when the elevator car reached the ground, it continued going down.
"Whoa!" Lloyd said. "That car just went into the ground. Do you think it broke and didn't stop in time?"
Kratos sighed at Lloyd's ignorance. "It didn't break; the elevator went into the building's basement. That's obviously where the dungeon is that he's planning on putting Cesara in."
"Oh," Lloyd casually said.
"Come," Kratos said as he gently tapped down onto the ground and folded his wings back up. "Let's leave here for now and think about what we're going to do."
Not really sure why Kratos was ditching at this point, Lloyd listened to Kratos and started walking away from the headquarters with him. The two of them went back to where they had camped a little while before.
Lloyd kicked the ground once they got back to their campsite. "Dammit! Why did we have to leave!"
"Lloyd, calm down," Kratos said, trying his best to get his overbearing son to relax. "It was the smart thing to do."
Lloyd whipped around and started staring at Kratos angrily. "What do you mean 'it was the smart thing to do'! Cesara's locked up in that dungeon now! Who knows what Kayne is doing to her in there!"
"Lloyd, that base has guards all over the place. If we were to go in there, we would be caught for sure. That's the last thing we'd want."
"Come on, Kratos!" Lloyd whined. "Cesara is in danger! We can't just leave her like that!"
"Lloyd, I'm sorry," Kratos apologized. "But we must do the safe thing. And I think sacrificing the life of one person isn't a good thing, but it's better than risking the existence of an entire world. Do you not agree?"
There was obviously a lot of tension growing between the two now. Lloyd thought they needed to do everything they could to rescue Cesara, but Kratos didn't think that would be the smartest move.
"Kratos! Cesara has helped us out over and over! If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't even be in Tiberia! We gotta help her!"
"Lloyd! I said no!" Kratos said loudly, getting angry and defensive.
"I don't care what you say!" Lloyd snapped back. "If you don't want to save Cesara, I will!"
Lloyd started walking passed Kratos and back towards the headquarters where Cesara was being held hostage, but he was blocked. Kratos drew his sword in less than a second and horizontally stuck it out right in front of Lloyd, blocking his path.
"Lloyd, you may be my son, but I'm not going to hesitate to use any measures necessary to make sure we don't ruin our objective," Kratos said.
"Kratos, get your sword out of my way!" Lloyd yelled.
"No."
"Fine then. I'll make you move it!"
Kratos's eyes widened, but his expression remained the same. "You wish to fight me?"
"If it's the only way to get you to back off and to let me do what's right!" Lloyd yelled, stepping away from Kratos but not turning his back to him. "I'm one-for-three against you, anyway!"
Kratos grit his teeth and he suddenly looked very angry and aggressive. He put his sword into a fighting position.
Lloyd drew both of his material blades, and the father-son duo glared at each other, ready to engage in combat where the victor would make a decision that would make-or-break their quest to save Aselia from Tiberia.