Author's note:
Chapter 2 of my battle story series... Which is also the last chapter of it's kind for the time being. Fun as they are to write (No seriously, I get to go nuts, whats not fun about that? XD) I've got other things I want to focus on instead.
Please enjoy this delish story and don't forget to comment. And if you feel like it, give it a good review too ^_ ^
Dullahan: A battle gone wrong, part two.
The remaining four adepts slowly got into position. They had never practiced fighting in this set up before, it was and alien experience for them. But they didn't have time to rehearse. They were fighting Dullahan.
Matthew nodded at Eoleo whom responded by setting his body up ready to run. Sveta also seemed to understand what he wanted.
Rief's eyes flew back and forth between them and before he knew it all three of them dashed off, leaving him stunned in confusion for a few seconds before he hobbled after them.
Matthew and Eoleo took the central approach to Dullahan. Matthew jumped up to his enemy's chest height in front of him and clashed swords with him. The force of the impact forced the latter to reposition his foot for more stability..
Eoleo moved in, he was pulling his axe through the ground and created a massive hot glowing block of rock on top of his axe and smashed it against Dullahan's leg right as he repositioned it. Slowly the monstrosity fell forward, but not before lashing out and throwing Matthew back a good twenty meters.
As Matthew almost fell flat on his face, Sveta ran full speed across the wall and statues in beast form before pushing off with enough force that one of statues broke off at the feet and and was pushed back against the wall. She crashed down on Dullahan's neck with the back of her right leg. Pushing herself upwards against Dullahan with her other leg and hands she flew back up and made several barrel rolls in the air with her left elbow sticking out. After a few rolls and enough momentum amassed she plummeted down on Dullahan, elbow first, actually penetrating his armor with the blow.
The grin on her face soon faded as she pulled her elbow out and jumped back, a weird dark goo sticking to her elbow with purplish vapors coming off it. Rief instantly recognized the goo and dashed for her as she fell to the ground and rolled over in pain. He quickly, forcefully washed it off, taking most of her beast form's hair off around the elbow. The goo quickly vaporised the water Rief had used and then went so far as to eat at the very floor.
Eoleo jumped over Dullahan's lying body and launched a dozen fireballs at the opening in the armor, but it did not seem to do anything to hurt the monstrosity. Neither did the follow up attack of a spire of fire. It didn't even scorch him.
Dullahan rolled around on the ground and in the progress reached as far up as to hit Eoleo mid air with his left fist, smacking him into the walls after breaking straight through a statue. He slowly fell to the ground along with a crumbling statue and pieces of wall which ended up covering him on the ground.
"Eoleo!" Matthew yelled as his friend fell. But his sorrows weren't over yet. As Rief tended to the burn wounds on Sveta he failed to notice Dullahan's standing up and launching a demeaning kick towards him. Unable to dodge it in time, he pushed Sveta out of the way just in time before the impact.
"Rief!" Both Matthew and Sveta yelled, followed by another bone cracking sound which seemed to last for far longer than it should have. He motionlessly flew through the ground before hitting the ground, rolling a few times and eventually stopping on his chest. Blood seeped from his otherwise blue robes. He smiled faintly through ruffled hair, knowing he had saved Sveta, and that as two of the strongest combo fighters in the group, everyone still stood a chance.
Angered deeply, Sveta used her superior speed to outmaneuver several of Dullahan's attacks and met up with Matthew just in time as her beast form wore off again Matthew was struggling to just keep standing.
"This isn't going good, Matthew."
"I know." he responded, catching his breath. "There's got to be some way." But before they had the chance to form a plan the enemy resumed his assault. Dullahan raised his sword up high above him and dark energies circled around it. They swirled and amassed at the tip of his runed sword. The energies culminated and Dullahan swung his sword around and kneeled as he plunged it deep into the ground.
Sveta raced forward, not heeding Matthew's yells for caution. This had to be the last chance they would get and she wasn't going to waste them. She painstakingly reentered beast form to the point that she coughed some blood up. She poured all her remaining psynergy into her fist - a final blow. As she approached Dullahan she leapt up towards him, roaring with all the air in her lungs with her fist raised behind her.
Things seemed to slow down to Matthew. First he felt the dissipation of the dark energies on the sword and the creation of a much more powerful entity nearby. Then the sound of Sveta roaring her final attack finally pierced his eardrums. His heart beat faster than he'd ever felt it beat. Sveta slowly closed in on him. He yelled for her to stop and even his own words felt slow, almost stagnant. A dark being of horrific power sped from out of a suddenly appeared circle of runes floating in the air, a large orb of shadowy energy held in its boney hand. It must have been moving faster than even Sveta could move at her fullest speed as the monstrosity moved lightning fast to him whereas he and Sveta were no faster than snails. It lashed out to her just as she noticed it.
She didn't even have time to scream. The orb passed through her and she fell emotionless and unmoving to the ground. Just like all the others, she lay motionlessly. He was the only one left. Tears rolled down his face as he looked on distraught. Dullahan slowly pulled his blade out of the ground and stood up. Matthew fell on his knees in a seiza like position, his body hanging backward. Hope gone from his body and mind. How could he win on his own. They had already lost. He spotted Karis lying a few meters away and slowly tried to crawl his way to her, cutting his hands on debris as he went.
Dullahan intervened. He struck his sword into the ground before Matthew, stopping him. Matthew slowly collapsed onto the floor, tears rolling down his cheeks. Dullaha raised his sword back out of the ground and above his head, ready to end it. Matthew laid there, on the ground and barely even able to maintain his consciousness after all of this. However, Dullahan stopped. He lowered his sword and muttered that the blood of his nemesis would have to suffer more than that. In torture, Dullahan lit him alight with shadowy flames, charring his flesh.
Then, by miracle, the doors reopened behind them. Dullahan turned to face the door in anticipation off whom it was. For some reason though the door was shattered into many stone blocks by a large muscular man using fire psynergy. He busted straight through the extremely thick door using nothing but his fists and psynergy.
The man was wearing two leather straps on his chest in a cross position over each shoulder. He wore a pair blazing orange pants beneath which seemed too tight for the fit and sturdy singed boots to finish the look. His hair wasn't very long, ear length at best, but it was extremely beaded. In fact, it seemed his entire head of hair consisted of just beads.
"Russel, for what Weyard-rotten reason did you do that exactly?" A strong voice of reason spoke from the darkness. Somehow it felt familiar to Matthew. Three others walked out through the door. A man with army cut blue hair wielding a bow larger than he'd ever seen. It was even bigger than a long bow he had seen a city guard carry once. He wore a long white tunic with no sleeves and gray baggy pants underneath and a old leather belt to keep it up.
"Well if you were strong enough to open the door faster I wouldn't have had to." Russel jokingly commented.
The next one was a woman. She had short blond messy hair which was well conditioned. The hairstyle matched the rest of her clothes.. She wore bracers around her wrists, one of which was studded with what looked like large emeralds. She wore a purple tube top with orange frills on the top. Her very loose and wide purple pants with orange lines decorating the ending complimented her shirt and she wore an orange sash over what looked like half a priestess tunic. She wore it over her left shoulder and it converged with the backside around her waist, just above the sash. She wore tipped open shoes which covered her toes and a bit more including the backside of her feet, but protected the rest of her feet with naught but a few straps. She had a pendant around her neck with a sparkling gem centered in it.
The last of the three was another man. Brown, chin length hair at the front and long hair kept together at the back with two golden colored beads. This man looked like a natural leader. He wasn't as muscular as Russel but he looked just a strong, if not stronger. He had a very powerful aura about him which felt soothing and forceful, just like Matthew's father. He wore a short green tunic with underneath a gray shirt of presumably leather hanging till thigh height and brownish gray pants beneath. A large brownish green cloak hang from his neck and right shoulder. A brown leather strap also hang over his right shoulder, under the cloak and under a green belt holding a green satchel. At the back the strap held a long sheath up, almost as long as his legs. It held no sword though, which he instead carried in his left hand.
The brown haired man gazed into the room with his dark brown eyes from behind his hair and he didn't find what he had expected. They had arrived far later than he had hoped. Instead of finding a newly started battle he found what looked like corpses strewn out across a field of slaughter and the last man standing had given up already.
The brown haired man shook his head and then waved his hand casually.
Everyone but the leader charged forward at the sign. The woman blast winds forward, putting out the flames on Matthew, whom faintly smiled in return. The boy couldn't believe it... They were saved, hopefully..
Russel raised his left hand during the charge and backed it up with his right hand, charging a powerful psynergy. Sparks flickered across his open palm for a few seconds. The sparks united into a single tiny beam of red, jumping all over like lightning, before reaching Dullahan and create an explosion the size Matthew had never seen before. Even a building as strong as a church would crumble on this kind of force. Amazingly, it hit only Dullahan, nobody nearby him was as much as touched.
Dullahan escaped out of the blast from the side, his armor was scorched and smoke was coming off of him. The woman was the first there, much like Sveta she used wind psynergy to speed herself up and allow her to move in the middle of the air. She jumped up straight to Dullahan, whom lashed his sword down with powerful dark psynergy at her. She dodged it, elegantly rolling around the blade as it came close and using the momentum of the roll to strengthen her attack as she swung around to hit Dullahan on the side with her staff. His armor dented a good half meter, much to Matthew's amazement. She started to yell loudly as plasma started to form around staff, highly volatile but under absolute control. It quickly formed a plasma blade, shaped like a halberd. She slashed straight through Dullahan. The staff was not even affected in the slightest by the energies inside of him which had hurt Sveta so much.
Quickly, his armor began to regenerate. He swung his other arm for her, forcing her to dodge backwards and out of the fray. "Delbert, now!" She yelled as she flew back and back flipped to land safely and always so elegantly.
The blue haired man, apparently called Delbert, dashed straight for Dullahan's legs, he froze the ground in front of him and in between Dullahan's legs and went into a quick slide underneath him. In a frenzy fire he launched well over twenty ice arrows into Dullahan's armor, each of them evolved into a giant ice made arrow two feet long which continued on straight through Dullahan and into the void above.
Russel followed Delbert's attack up. He jumped up with a blast of fire to propel him when he got close by enough to attack and gave Dullahan a powerful fire punch straight into where the stomach would be. He yelled "Fire serpent! Hellfire!" upon impact and fire burst through Dullahan and formed a pillar of fire into the air which went straight into the void as well. It was strong enough that the void began to rip and swirl around the fire pillar. As the void was actually consumed by the fire a small figure fell out of it. Matthew barely had his eyes open anymore at that point but he recognized the form easily. It was Himi. He thanked the elements when she was caught in mid air by the woman and was placed down safely away from the fighting.
Dullahan stepped back, badly injured by the many attacks performed on him. His regeneration seemed to be too limited to keep up with this much abuse. Still, the monstrosity laughed and spoke casually. "Truly. You have become stronger... You have gained new allies, none lesser than those before. But, I will destroy you now as I have destroyed all others. I will not flee to contemplate my own strength as I did last time. This time... You are doomed."
"Am I now? Let us test that." It had been too fast for anyone to see, it seemed even his own allies were shocked by his speed. The brown haired man had moved across the room in an instant, drawn his sword and clashed with Dullahan. His cape violently flew in the wind behind him. His face was so close to Dullahan's headless area that it seemed like he was actually looking at a head, so intense were his eyes.
Dullahan was pushed into the ground, leaving a feet high indenture as he slid backwards under the immense power the adept was applying.
It seemed almost impossible but Dullahan had matched his speed and was parrying the blow. A few sword slashes and parries after Dullahan had stopped sliding later and they locked swords again. "You... Where did you get this kind of power?" Dullahan yelped as his incredible power was slowly being defeated to the point of humiliation.
"Sorry. I don't kiss and tell." The adept jokingly said. He started to release psynergy at an incredible amount and th rate at which it was increasing was intense. At more than twenty meters it felt overwhelming, even suffocating if he wasn't an earth adept himself.
The others fled back, taking with them the various people strewn across the room and placed them back on the floor near himself. The woman formed a barrier around them all, relieving the pressure.
Dullahan responded in kind, releasing his own brand of dark energies. It came to the point that the energies took on a physical presence, obscuring the sight of either of them. Instead they were represented by a giant golden orb pressuring down from the front top onto a just as large orb of shadows, the back blast of which ate away at the floor straight into the rock beneath the room.
"JUDGEMENT!"
"CATASTROPHE!"
Both roared the two names at the same time and for the briefest of moments everything in the entire room was overtaken by the following blast of energy. Two large shapes, one heavily armored the other heavily armed, clashed against on another within. Two eternal enemies. Forever each other's nemesis.
Then, suddenly it ended with a fizzle. All the energy that had been released and clashed had collapsed in on itself to the point where it had seemed to warp even space. What was left in the end, was the adept standing over the dark scorched remains of his enemy. He stood silently, looking down on the foe he had clashed with with all his power. His blade still in hand and his cape lost in the clash he muttered a few words as he waved his hand and the pieces of armor that formed Dullahan's remains were taken in by the earth.
He sheathed his sword as he approached the group. Despite his best attempts however, Matthew just could not remain conscious any longer. He slipped away, his vision weakening as the unnamed man kneeled next to him and said something to him. Or maybe about him. He couldn't tell anymore. Nor was he in a state that he could care. It was then though, in that brief moment between conscious and subconscious that he realized he had known the man's name all along. From the moment the man had stepped inside that room he knew who it was. His father's counterpart, Felix. The only one to ever match him. Then, Matthew was gone.
When he finally woke he found himself in a bed. The smell of cooked bacon filled his lungs. Or rather he had been smelling it all along and only just now realized it. Slowly he sat up straight in the bed, finding it hard to move. He then noticed why, almost his entire body was bandaged and parts of him were even in cast. Looking around, and finding it very painful to do so, he noticed only one other occupied bed out of the eight present. He couldn't make out the occupant from his bed though. The person was fully casted, top to bottom, the only thing uncasted was the face, too far to recognize.
A head popped out from behind a wall at the end of the room, it was Tyrell.
"Holy- Guys! Matthew is awake!" Tyrell yelled back at what Matthew presumed to be either nurses or, more hopefully, his friends. To his luck it was the latter. They slowly dripped in one by one and congratulated him on waking up, telling him what he had missed and what had happened. Apparently they woke up in this house-for-eight which was in a forest on an island, nearby a small hamlet. Nobody knew how they got there however, or what happened to Dullahan but their ship was docked in the harbor and pay had been supplied by a mysterious group for docking it for another four months.
Despite it all, there was one person missing from the moment.
"Where's Karis...?" He asked without thinking. Promptly realizing that what he might hear could be far worse than he might want to know. He was terrified of the answer but he could not go back anymore. He remembered perfectly well what happened... The helplessness, the cracking of her body. He felt like puking at the thoughts Strangely enough, rather than offering him the story everybody averted their gazes from him. Only Tyrell offered any form of an answer.
"She's not here right now Matthew. I'm sorry, get some rest, alright. You'll need more time to recover than this."
And that said, everybody one by one dripped back out of the room to whatever they were doing before. Tyrell was the last to leave. In respect for his friend, he gave Matthew what he had wanted to know, and nudged his head in the direction of the casted person.
When Tyrell went outside the room he could hear Matthew sobbing and shortly thereafter crying and cursing. He closed the door before it got that far with a tear rolling down his cheek with his eyes clenched. He understood fully well what Matthew was going through. But he already had his opportunity to get over that, and now Matthew needed that chance too.
Author's note:
Heyoooo! I remember saying I would bring something out in August!... I didn't do that!... Well, maybe in a particular part of the world? MAYBE?
Anyway. I'm not keen on breaking promises so just know I'm sorry about this. Good thing is I'll have chapter 7 out very soon as well :D I got a response at LONG last to what I was referring to, 'tis a positive-ish answer and no for the time being I'm not telling anyone what it's about. Don't even try to guess because I will really -really- confuse you on purpose if you do. Thou haveth been warned.