(During Issue 12: WITCH and Elyon travels inside the Palace)
"Oh! Should I go out there or what?! What should I do?!"
"I'm scared! I'm afraid! I want to go home" Meanwhile from the corner of the alley, Martin's memories suddenly rewind to the past and slowly slumps himself to the ground and tuck his head between his knees. He remembers how he was convinced that he would just observe and learn more about of what he has already known. He has dedicated his life to the point of coming and see Meridian, a new world for himself to discover; yet at the wrong time. He suddenly cries and shakes in fear though can't hear himself from the yells and screams of the battle. Traumatized from the battle
From the corner of the alley, the traumatized Martin urges to watch the horrid battle as both sides won't give in, even if Caleb's reinforcements came to the rescue. Yet what he fears the most is Nigel and Grantaire who tried to fight their way against the fast Thenard. He watches Nigel still beaten up and still stands on his ground with a solid steaming smoke that comes out from his body. Grantaire who lost amounts of magic when he was in prison and when he brought the Old Palace back to Meridian, exhausts too much of his magic of his own.
"This is not what I wanted…Yet I can't stay here and do nothing!" Martin cries out and feels a large thump in his heart that causes his body to feel numb and static.
"Arrgghh!"
"Sir Kandor!" Eric yells as Jolras' back is caught by Zagan's swift blade as he tries to approach and help his disciplinarian.
"You're weak as ever Kandor!" Zagan laughingly mocks as blood spurts from Jolras back. Jorlas spits and coughs the blood out and swings his axe back at Zagan to avoid distance, but avoids it and plans to finish Jolras in one full swing.
"Booomm!" an explode sparks in between the two pro-legionate combatants and Zagan distances away from Jolras who places his knees down and bends his body forward in exhaustion, undisturbed from the explosion. It was Ray manages to stop them in a nick of time.
"Good timing Ray—!" Eric approaches to Ray but pauses to commend as he sternly gazes Zagan. His mind flashes back to the same face he made when Zagan announced what he truly was to his uncle, but now seems a bit different off.
"You think I'm ready, Eric?" Ray asks grimly but with a controlled gesture.
Eric surprised by his new found attitude smirks for encouragement. He then remembers the practices he did after training the rebels, no delay and not a single day to waste. Ray has refined his skills for this very moment after he came to his senses after a smack from Eric. With every ounce of determination he takes is for his uncle, a satisfying revenge against Zagan. "As long you don't leave me hanging like last time." Eric fist bumps his shoulder. Though scared to fight Zagan again, Ray's will and determination keeps Eric away from his fear.
"Get ready then, I'll hold him off as long as I can." Eric breathes calmly and quickly dashes forward with his usual reverse-grip towards Zagan before the dust cloud clears the view.
"Aye aye captain…" Ray replies and closes his eyes. He starts to concentrate for moment and not let the battle disturb him and soon an encircling aura begins to illuminate his mana from the ground to above. "Farsight Ninth Technique…"
As Eric passes by Jolras, he continues to charge forward, ignoring his superiors' commands. "Leave out of this Lyndon! You can't take him on—urgh!" Jolras yells out to him but his strength fades and is unable to fight once more.
'The only way to keep Zagan from attacking is to force him to defend himself and out of his outside fighting range yet a smoke screen is not usable tool to surprise him.' Eric says to himself and glances at the Atlas sword. He pulls his sword back under his shoulder and with a momentum to spare, tosses it in a spinning directly at the dust cloud. 'That goes nothing! Hoping for a probable connection I guess!'
"By the Gods and the Dark Mother, that Osywn's boy!" Zagan dusts off the dirt away from his armor, but looks out to a small silhouette that approaches quickly from the dust cloud and recognizes him. "It's that so-called-Lyndon boy! Come and get me if you dare! I'll just have to keep you out of my—"
Suddenly he stops when a large spinning object flies directly towards his face. In an instant his stimuli reacts and quickly draws his sword and deflects the spinning object just in time before it pierces him. He sends the object to the ground near him as its blade sticks to the ground, and in a quick glance, he finally recognizes the sword that went flying and spinning, and also its prime objective. "The Atlas sword—That means—!"
Eric quickly passes through the smokescreen is now within Zagan's fighting range, but passes through it in an instant and manages to pick up his sword. In an instant, he's out from Zagan's fighting range and inside Zagan's vulnerable area. 'That's it! I'm in!' In his reverse-grip, he begins to hastily swing his sword around with a flip around of his body to increase speed and momentum.
"Urgh!" Zagan blocks the attacks once again and is forced to defend himself. The clangs of metal begin to hollow and echo wildly and continuously on the vast hill. Eric continues to acrobat and capoeira his body like a top just to keep his sword on rotational attacks and to keep Zagan in check. "Emulate Sixth Technique—urgh!"
"Oh no you don't!" Eric continues to spin once again and clangs his sword against him.
"So persistent!" Zagan continuously blocks and defends himself from Eric hastily and quick attacks with no opening for him to counter. But after one and half minute of endurance he grins when he notices something strange on Eric's attacks. "But how long can you keep up when you run out of steam?!"
Eric's tired arms begin to wear down and so as his legs and feet that slowly begins to lose momentum on its body spins. The weight of his large sword and his skinny arm still couldn't withstand a continuing endurance up until now.
"You think you could fool me the second time?" Zagan asks as he finally stops Eric from attacking as both of their blades stick together. "I know that Oswyn-boy is somewhere here to blow a divertive shot for you to continue your attack but I won't let you this time!" He then finally shoves Eric away to the ground and begins to land the final blow to Eric.
"Ugh!" Eric loses his balance and falls his back to the ground. 'Any time now!"
"I knew it!" Zagan finds Ray who aims his bow and a sword at him. "Impossible!"
"…Sword Aim!" Fifty kilometers away, Ray who concentrates on his chant and improves his technique at its maximum potential, finally shoots a large sword downward as it pierces through the air with its pommel that leaves out an electric tail behind.
"Emulate Farsight Ninth Technique: Sword Aim!" Zagan chants while he instantly shifts his sword to Oswyn's bow and manages to shoot a sword directly at Ray's shot. The swords meet halfway and the clash of metal echoes in impact. Yet in seconds Zagan's sword outwit Ray's when the sword shatters to pieces. Ray's shot cannot bear the strength and toughness of his sword.
"I-It can't be…" Ray in disbelief says to himself as he watches his one-of-a-lifetime shot in which he prepared and practiced for months, shattered to the ground.
"Ray! Get out of there!" Eric yells when he watches Zagan's sword still continues to fly along the straight path aiming at Ray who is still unable to react from the unexpected outcome.
"Move out!" Grantaire pushes out Nigel out of the way before Thenard rushes forward at Nigel and pushes him out of the way. They both land and crash to the ground as their bodies drag to the ground. Thenard is then charges by rebels who tried to defend and distract the legionates but to no avail.
"Flames! This is u-useless!" Nigel coughs as he staggers to get up. "I'm now getting the burns and I c-could last at least two magic s-spells…"
"I-I'm totally out too…" Grantaire lies to the ground wearily without to move a single finger. "Without the strength and time I-I don't have the time to regenerate a circle. We die fighting or surrender—"
"Surrender is not an o-option…!" Nigel sets his eyes on the hill as the Pasture Height's flag positions itself in a desperate position. "Until we open this g-gate it's a do or die…even if the situation seems hopeless…D-Does he has some kind of weakness? You both a-are Imperials after all…"
"We are, i-if only there were some kind of d-distraction…" Grantaire pants heavily. "T-Thenard's weakness is a quick interruption he has never e-experienced before…"
"A quick distraction? Is that all? Flames! What does that m-mean?!" Nigel stands weakly yet bravely before Thenard who finally defeats the incoming rebels and now angrily sets his eyes on Nigel.
"It's no use! I tried to explode myself such as the way I did to Zagan but I couldn't let myself blow up without a sudden impulse." Nigel recalls on how the story behind his strange phenomenon at the Old Palace.
"If there was a distraction, I could actually pull off a dual combo on my magic spell to knock him out unconscious—" Nigel says to himself.
Suddenly, a loud bang shots to the air, though not as loud as the battle scene, but it was too unreal that birds hesitantly flap their wings away from the loud bang. Nigel familiarizes the echo, but doubts the possibility of it. "A gunshot?"
"Arrgh!" Thenard cries in pain as he clenches his hand over his left arm, as a scratch wounds his hand unknown why the pain hurts too much. "What was that?!" he yelled as his eyes fixed on a certain rebel of some sort.
Nigel follows Thenard's line sight and is surprised to see a blonde skinny boy who holds up an unknown makeshift object which is held like a firearm. "Martin? What is he doing?! Why is he out from the hideout?!"
"Y-Y-Y-You—b-back-a-away from—them!" Martin stammers and shivers to walk forward in fear as he holds up which seemingly is a makeshift firearm. His weapon is made of a long wooden block that is strapped around a metal tube for the muzzle and a piece of metal that is hooked to an axle that triggers the gun mechanism to which is improvised and made by Martin from the scraps he found by the alley. Martin quickly slides the curved wood block to reload as its casing jumps out from the chamber.
"Why you—Arrgh!" Thenard cries out as another loud shot echoes and though Martin sweaty hands shakes as he tries to stay calm as he aims his firearm directly at him, his practice at the shooting range really paid off when he aims a good shot at Thenard's knee.
Martin grits his teeth and suddenly cries as he quickly reloads his firearm and continues to rapidly shoot him as metal pellets fly toward him. Thenard blocks and raises his arms to cover his face as the metal pellets miss or puncture right through his skin. But after rounds of continuous firing, the firearm's forearm budged as a metal pellet is stuck between the gun's chambers. "Oh no! Owie owiee!" Martin yelps as he hesitantly forces to reload. Yet without much strength left, he clumsily drops his firearm to the ground.
When Thenard notices his chance he starts to dash toward him. "I-I'll get you for this—!" Yet stops when a shadow casts under him and is shocked to see Nigel who rushes to him during Martin's barrage, is now above him.
With the ounce of strength Nigel has left, he swings his staff at the bleeding Thenard and finally hits him at the abdomen. The bewildered Thenard spits in from the impact and it was too late to escape the incoming demise. "Dynamite Shooter!" Nigel chants and focuses all of his energy circuits to his staff.
"BOOOMMM!" a large blast occurs between the combatants and large sound waves across the land to also which the men stopped in silence from the tremendous explosion. As the smoke clears out they see Nigel's unconscious body on the ground and so as Thenard's which lies on the demolished gates. It was Nigel's combo attack which made the opening possible together with his swinging momentum.
"The gates are open!" the rebels cheer as they continue to fend off the frightened and demoralized soldiers.
It was too late…
The confused and devastated Ray watches his demise and death by Zagan's stronger and better arrow sword. "Well, its better to die like this than to be humiliated forever for not being a true successor to my uncle—"
Suddenly, a large explosion blasts where Nigel is situated as the battle ceases to watch. The earth rocks and winds gushes from a focal point from the north. The sword's wind resistance is too much that the sword changes direction and it misses Ray from being shot.
After the impact the battle resumes, Eric sighs in relief of the safety of his friend's near death. He then glances toward the explosion on the north side.
"It better be that gate, Nigel…"
