The orange of the night never seemed to fade, and the wind calmed everything but Derek's beating heart, making it too silent. Derek's own heavy breathing filled his ears, the presence of his teammates bare to his senses. The coolness of the night crept around them as Derek watched the names carved deep into the stone graves. He felt sick to the stomach as he fought off wave after wave of nausea.
He had to try with a hundred percent effort to stop himself from throwing up. The names were mind pulsing to even look at, and he felt the nausea grow around his teammates too, as well as the panic and confusion. The cross style graves stood crookedly, slanting off to one side of the dirt road. Behind them lay the barrier of gates standing eerily, the skewers thin and weak, the fencing binding and restricting. Cold mist pooled around the graves, the center one straight up with Derek's name on it. They corresponded to their places next to each other, and Derek began to wonder if he was really still alive.
The crescent moon seemed to curve further above as the darkness behind the graves began to shift. It began to churn and alternate, moving like a blurring imagine behind them. The shadows began to shake violently, as if panicky. It soon wrapped itself around the graves like demonic, greedy fingers. Derek watched with a lost voice and wide eyes, the cold perspiration beginning to stride easily down the side of his face. He could hardly feel himself breathe. All that kept him sane was the racing beat of his heart thumping against his chest, and the hellish cold that wrapped around him, keeping senses live.
He stared hard at his name as darkness wrapped around it more and more. YOMI, DEREK he read in his mind slowly. His inner voice had been lost as well. It can't be, Derek thought. It can't be true.
"What's wrong?" a voice whispered, snapping Derek to his senses a little more, shaking him. Derek took in a sharp, quick breath as he peered left to right nervously. Anxiety began to fill his thoughts as he took bare breaths of freezing, cold air. The night was still painted an eerie orange. "Don't you recognize your own names?" the voice whispered in a raspy voice again. The creaking voice seemed despaired, or angered to say the least.
It seemed to be coming from… behind the grave, Derek realized. He tried hard to swallow the knot tightening in his throat. The warmness of his own sweat left him, seeming to run away as fast as it could. All the comforting warmth had left him alone to freeze. Derek couldn't feel his arms. It didn't feel like he was in his body anymore. It felt like he was standing next to it, and was watching through astral eyes. An invisible block of ice was what he called home now.
The shadows began to churn more wildly, until dark ebony silhouettes began to form slowly, shivering out of the darkness like they had gone through a portal. The shadowy figures stumbled behind the graves, the middle one laying its hand tight on Derek's grave. The fear in the Shadow Minor's heart began to grow and expand, like taking him over with every dreadful second that passed. He felt his heart tighten and it seemed as if it were to implode at any minute as he watched the grip loosen and tighten on his grave.
The three silhouettes soon crept into the unknown reality, and their identities were swept open. The wind picked up dramatically and brushed a line of leaves along the way as Derek locked his frozen stare with a bleak, emotionless one. "N-No way," he managed to choke out barely. His voice was so low, he wasn't even sure if he had said anything in the first place. The knots began to tighten in his throat again, and he felt like someone had struck him through the heart and held it tightly, constricting demonic fingers around it.
His hand still on the cross, the figure stared blank into space, its ebony eyes dark and deep as the shadows were of the midnight shade. The blank stare seemed statue-like, without thought or feeling. Derek couldn't believe what he was seeing. He couldn't believe what lay right before his very eyes. He almost felt like screaming, yet his voice had left him long ago. Behind the grave, only a few feet away from Derek's feet stood the exact same person he believed himself to be – Yomi Derek. Beside the imposter stood two other figures, with the exact same appearance as his two teammates, carrying the same empty stare that was lost in space.
"Wake up," the voice rang again. The voice was easily recognized now. Through the coldness of the night, the piercing voice resembled Derek's own voice. But it didn't' seem to come from his replica. Its lips didn't move at all. The echoing of his own voice shook him and added tons to Derek's all ready shaking legs.
Suddenly without warning, the three figures jumped in the air expertly, as if they were ninjas soaring high in the sky. They continued to lock stares with their original as they dropped closer and closer towards them. As if on cue, the feeling immediately returned to Derek's legs, surprising him. He felt the energy burst in his body once more, and he jumped swiftly out of the way. His two teammates followed.
In the silent night, the three figures landed before them, but they didn't stop there. The three copies went after the original silently, as if they were being controlled like puppets or through voodoo. Derek's replica's fist was thrust through the air, and the original dodged it expertly as he moved slowly back towards the forest.
The punches kept coming, and Derek kept dodging, surprised that he could move his body so well without taking his eyes off the reality he couldn't handle. The bleak stare of the clone mystified Derek's thoughts and covered reality with enigma. Derek soon found himself in the midst of the forest trees that branched high towards the sky, reaching out for their dreams as their heads wavered solemnly in the light breeze.
The clones had separated the three teammates, taking them away into different directions. Derek's clone move swiftly and expertly, and the real one didn't know if he could keep up the bare dodging and ducking.
"What the hell are these things?" Derek said in a whisper, finding his voice in the pit of his stomach. The clone was about to jump on top of him as Derek regained the confidence he had lost earlier. With agility, he sent his arm outward as a Shadow Arm, mastering Hibiyomi's specialty. The ebon limb clasped the clone tightly in its large, controlling fingers and sent both of them flying into the trees. They collided with each other and sent old dust flying into the air.
Derek began to breathe heavy again, his lungs about to burst. What are they? He thought tiredly in his head, his eyes wandering around the cloud of dust that rose slowly into the night sky. Do they have our powers, too? From the clearing cloud of dust came a shadow limb made of black energy – the kind of energy Derek had within him. The energy made a tightened fist and smashed into the ground at Derek's feet. The Shadow Minor jumped away and onto the limb of a tree. The coolness rushed past him as he jumped expertly. I can't believe this, he thought as he watched the stars slowly move past. "Just what are you?" Derek demanded as he found the silhouette reappear in the rising smoke.
PoVS
Rick swallowed as he peered to the side to find Marissa uneasy against the towering bark of the tree. She looked as if she were locked in a deep pain as the mechanical hand gripped tighter and tighter as the seconds ran past. Her teeth were tightly clenched in a lock of anger.
Lance peered back to find Marissa's uneasy face as well. The sight pained him to some scale, but he knew he couldn't take his mind off the battle. If he did that, he'd die. "I… I can't move," Marissa muttered through clenched, angry teeth. She was right. She showed struggle as she tried desperately to move her body towards the rising tension of the battle, but the mechanical arm was so consuming, it took up all of her body except her head.
"Just hold on," Lance promised. "I'll get you out of there as soon as I take care of this guy," he said as he locked eyes with the robotic being in front of him, Otoshiana. The tension began to build up as their hateful glares intertwined.
"Something like that won't be too easy," Otoshiana declared as a hole opened up in the palm of his hand and fired a metallic hammer that swung in a zigzag through the dirt path of the swamp. The sudden movement surprised Lance to say the least.
The Metal Minor jumped back with a flip as he dodged the first swing of the hammer, then jumped again as it tried another swing. It seemed to extend and keeping pushing him backward and he knew he couldn't keep that up for long. Finally, the swinging stopped, and Lance found himself closer to Rick, and farther away from Otoshiana. The coldness of the night was almost deadly, but Lance was able to ignore it.
"Got you," Otoshiana said in his raspy, creepy voice. Lance put a confused look as he felt the ground beneath his foot rumble uneasily.
"Shit!" he cried out in despair as his right foot was caught in a bear trap, the metal teeth sinking into his foreleg's skin like the piercing pain it was. The metal hammer suspended in the air only inches away from Lance, it opened up another whole and sent out a large pare of scissors that snapped in the air like piranha fish. It reflected the cool moonlight as it snipped toward Lance and struck for his heart.
Rick's eyes widened as he watched, taking a sharp breath of surprise as he saw the scissor blades fly backward in the air, deflected off Lance's chest. Even Rick, Lance's own teammate was confused as to what happened.
Otoshiana looked solemn as the crazy, snapping scissors crawled back into the hammer. The deflection made a piercing clash of metal that echoed through the air like a destructive cry. "You're dangerous," Lance noted in a sort of rival friendly way as he cleared his throat and put a serious look on his face that seemed to tighten with the reigning cold air. His plain robe seemed to sway in the air with the soft wind running by. Otoshiana made an acknowledged look. "So I guess it won't hurt to use some creativity in this battle," Lance piqued insightfully.
As Lance's words filled everyone's ears with understanding, a silky, smooth metal began to take over his body, crawling up to his face like a building blanket of its own. The silver armor glimmered in the faint moonlight and was as cold as ice in the deviant frost. Soon, Lance's whole face was covered with the metal, including his eyes. His legs were soon consumed with it, too, as well as his hands. "Armor?" Otoshiana figured out swiftly, narrowing his eyes as he stood coolly and comfortably. His voice was deep and robotic, as if he weren't human.
Lance cleared his throat as he stuffed his smooth, heavy hand into his robe and pulled out two black leather gloves. The new armor was heavy on his body and seemed to way tons. He slipped the gloves on easily, feeling the comfort of the warm leather through the metal lining. His hands became lighter and lighter as he released the metal armor on them. "Gloves?" Otoshiana noticed. "What do you need gloves for?" he interrogated, his own metal armor the color of periwinkle blue that the midnight stars seemed to glitter.
They were completely surrounded my lush, colorful bushes and dead looking trees wrapped in a binding cold that seemed like the devil's breath. "No reason," Lance told with a secretive smile. "Just don't want to dirty my hands," he lied. The truth was the Metal Armor technique he developed was hard to use and heavy to carry around. It would certainly wear him down if he used a full version of it, and he would die in a matter of seconds if his opponent ever found its weakness. He had to cover up as much as his body as he could so he could take away the metal. As for his face and legs, they had to stay like that. But it was okay. Lance would be able to cope with it. "Now, about this trap," Lance began, moving on.
He bent down and took the metal teeth with his gloved hands and began pulling them apart, slowly at first with his forearms shaking violently, but the task got easier as more of it got finished. He grunted out his efforts as the searing pain left his legs, only leaving jagged teeth marks that leaked out blood into the cool, night air. Things like that didn't really matter either. It was just a wound that he could accept in a fight like this. He'd be lucky if that's the only wound he would receive from this whole experience. Lance stood back up again, his back straight and proud, his eyes narrow and metallic, his new skin glimmering in the night.
Lance took a deep breath as he disappeared, zooming up to Otoshiana in just a matter of a second. He sent a punch flying at the armored opponent, and Otoshiana dodged easily. Lance kept the punches and techniques consecutive, using every opening he could find for a punch, kick, sweep kick, and jump kicks. He varied his movements, but in the end, they were all dodged by Otoshiana. Damn it! Lance complained in his mind as he kept the swift punches going. He's too evasive. At this rate, I'll never lay a finger on him. Why is he so good? It's impossible to use close combat with this guy because he never fights back anyway.
As Lance finished up a punch, a spiked, spinning wheel sprung from Otoshiana's back shoulder and looked dangerous as it spun. It moved on its own will toward Lance and forced the Minor to jump back a few feet. The machine continued to work, slicing the air as it passed by. It sunk back into Otoshiana's body until the next time it was needed. "You made the right decision not underestimating me," Otoshiana complimented. "But that still doesn't mean you can win," he declared as he opened his mouth widely, his mechanical lips opening a hole shaped like a square that showed nothing but long, empty darkness. In seconds, missiles found their way out of his mouth and fired for Lance with expert agility. They left streaks of white smoke as they darted past the trees and bushes. The thin bullet looking missiles glided easily through the air, their tails glowing in the deep darkness of the night.
Lance jumped back with flips and kicks, dodging each missile as it gave a weak explosion that carried dust and smoke into the air. He jumped to a tree limb as another bear trap sprung from the floor, and continued to dodge obvious traps thanks to his eye for detail. Traps like nets from bushes, missiles, bear traps, and even mines. Dust spread all around as Lance felt his body grow weak and tired quickly. He found his heavy breathing begin to take over him. He was sorry he even got himself involved in this stupid battle.
"Why?" Lance asked as he dodged another set of missiles. "Why are you coming after us with so many murderous attempts? What reason do you have to keep attacking us the way you do?" Lance asked as his legs grew tired and cold, the metal sticking to his skin like a leech.
"Why?" Otoshiana repeated the question, his glaring red eyes demonic and cold. "To follow my father's footsteps, of course," he muttered in his robotic, empty voice as he fired more various types of mechanical weapons. "To fulfill my purpose in life. Something you wouldn't understand," he cried out in confidence and anger as he sent more continuous traps. The sound of metal clinking and zooming filled the cool, night air and Rick's ears as he wondered why Otoshiana hadn't noticed him yet. Maybe because I don't really pose a threat to him yet, Rick piqued. But if what he's saying is true, then I should be dead right now lying on my back. There has to be something more to his reason, Rick concluded.
Lance soon found himself in the midst of dead grass blades and towering trees that stood tall like empty monuments filled with no meaning. Time to fight back, Lance decided. The Metal Minor took a deep breath and spit out an array of aluminum needles, being the second easiest metal to mend. The thin, toothpick like needles glimmered in the light moonlight that seemed to grow. The firing of them sounded of metal clinking and a sharp cry of an infant banshee. It filled everyone's ears, even Marissa, who soon found herself half conscious due to the pressure put on her body.
The ray of needles missed their target as it moved out of the way easily. The beam soon stopped and left Otoshiana standing by the bushes behind him, only a few feet away from Rick, yet paying no attention to him at all. "My, my," he said prestigiously. "How dangerous," Otoshiana commented. Even though he couldn't smile, Lance could tell he would have an assuring smirk on his face. He wished he could wipe that mental smile away.
Once again, Lance took a deep breath and churned the liquid in his body for more metal. He spit out a long pillar of metal, the zooming ray as hard as steel. The pillar missed and crashed a foot away from its target, who looked not the least bit tired at all. Lance detached the pillar from his mouth as he waited for the slight dust to clear in the air. It stung his eyes and the cold of the night began to become too intense for fighting conditions. But it wasn't like he could stop the battle now and postpone it.
Otoshiana opened up a hole on his back and a metallic snake soon found its way out. It was made of cylinders and was joined by metal spheres that acted as joints. It even hissed its fake, silver tongue. Its eyes were beady and robotic, and the cool silver reflected the strengthening light. The snake crawled around the metal pillar, as if calling it home, marking its territory. It crawled upward to the side of it and hissed with its mouth wide open, the snake looking so unreal it wasn't even funny. As its mouth grew wider, tons of other snakes found their way out of its mouth, three coming from the first one, and then five coming from each of those, then ten, fifteen, twenty, and so on. The parade of snakes opened their mouths to reveal horns protruding out of them, glowing with hints of purple.
Lance took a huge breath as he watched the snakes soar closer to him, the horns purple with a glimmering poison. "Damn it," he muttered as he jumped as far back as he could, the snakes crashing into the ground, sending steam and dust into the night sky. The ground shook violently as the millions of metal snakes rammed into the floor and melted the surrounding trees, grass, and all other kind of life. The poison became so intense it melted the grass behind Lance, and he gulped, trying hard not to breathe in any of the solution. The parade of snakes looked like millions of pillars struck on the floor as they rose back up weakly, swallowing the points again to fill with more poison. The ground was hissing with cautious steam and some parts of the ground bubbled with purple liquid. With the first snake still wrapped around the metal pillar Lance had spit out, the millions of other snakes it held in its mouth hissed evilly, as if warning Lance, who immediately got the message.
Lance looked around to find the destruction all over the forest, all these bushes and trees smoking, all of the life between the two metal-users completely dead and melted, revealing the soil that was unsteady and mushy, freezing in the unthawing night air that would become frothy in just minutes.
Time's running out, Lance thought as he peered far away to Marissa's place against the tree. She was completely unconscious now, and as the wind blew past, her hair swung solemnly at her side. It rustled with the wind and danced smoothly, the blonde-brown streaks whipping towards Rick, as if calling out to him subconsciously. Rick watched with sympathetic, wondering eyes, his blonde hair obvious in the navy blue night, and Otoshiana looked straight ahead at his opponent, confident that he was going to win, confident that he was going to fulfill his "purpose" and send Lance to his grave.