Chaotic Worlds: Book 1

Chapter 8: Boss Fight

Disclaimer: The only thing original here is the plot and my characters. Nothing else belongs to me.

Universe 1566

The Zombies stood rooted to the spot, unsure of their next move, as Matt ran headlong into them, bringing down his huge Blade as he did so. With a great slash, he decimated a great number of them before slashing sideways again, missing this time. The Zombies leapt out of the way and now targeted Matt, who they deemed to be the greater threat. It was a big mistake for which they paid dearly as Brian, Ken and Rachel tore into them without mercy.

In a sudden flash of clarity, the two other Seals broke off their attacks and concentrated hard, focusing energy upon. A yellow ball of light was growing on Rachel's left hand as electricity crackled around Ken's open hands. From the lightning, there appeared slowly a silver-blue cylinder with peculiar markings inscribed onto it. In the meantime, the hilt of a sword also began to protrude from the ball of light in Rachel's left hand. Without hesitation, she pulled out a long thin rapier smoothly from the ball, the ball of light diminishing as she did so. The Blade materialized just in time for her to skewer a Zombie through its heart. She turned around to be greeted by a small mob of Cursed Zombies heading for her. Quickly, she made rapid thrusts with her rapier in the direction of the Zombies, leaving creations of yellow light in the shape of her Blade. She powered it up, and with a loud cry thrust her Blade forward hard, sending the swords of light flying straight into the Zombies, spearing them where they stood.

Meanwhile, Ken was still busy fending off persistent Cursed Zombies and Demons as he held the strange silver cylinder in his hand. He flicked it up into the air, and then blocked a barrage of energy bolts streaming at him from all directions by instantaneously creating a lightning shield with a single movement of his hand. There was a momentary pause in the attack, and Ken responded with a Lightning Smash attack that wiped out a half of his opponents. The cylinder dropped back cleanly onto his hand as he twirled it around casually. Ken moved to face the Zombies as he held the cylinder in front of him in an offensive stance, the open end of the cylinder facing downwards. The Zombies fired back even more energy bolts with a renewed fervour. A blade of blue light suddenly extended from the open end of the cylinder and Ken swung his Blade in a wide arc in front of him as he sliced the Zombies attacking him in half. He leapt out of harm's way easily, batting away the energy bolts with his energy blade, and moved quickly into a deadly dance of thrusts and slashes as the Blade cut bright arcs of blue light around it into the mass of Cursed Zombies.

The three Seals now moved to attack the Zombies head-on, with Ken directing Matt to take point with his huge buster sword while he and Rachel brought up the flanks with their own Blades. The three worked in perfect harmony, whittling down the numbers slowly as Brian provided cover fire from behind with Nadare's Dan-En attack. The four gradually began to make their way to the centre of the mass of Cursed Zombies where the dark energy was strongest. The Zombies fired their strongest attcks yet, momentarily driving back the four, even Matt with his huge Blade. As the Zombies fired off a second wave of attacks, Brian leapt in front of the other three and summoned a new flame dragon. "Madoka!" he yelled.

Brian's fifth flame dragon burst out from his right hand with a great roar and circled him while rising up majestically into the air. It shot flame out of its mouth, the flame reforming itself into a shield that protected the four from further attacks, catching the Zombies off-guard. Without wasting any time, the three Seals leapt up above the barrier in three directions, bringing down their own Blades with a loud battlecry each.

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Kyle yelled out in surprise as all the Zombies made a shock move and leapt at him abruptly, breaking off their attacks on the other three. Again they had changed tactics and were now trying to take down all four Seals in Isaac's spirit shield one by one instead of spreading their forces. Unfortunately, the other three were too far away, having spread themselves out in the battlefield. Nevertheless, they could sense Kyle's momentary panic and immediately rushed to where he was. They were greeted by a small mountain of black suits on the spot where Kyle had been standing only moments earlier. There was no sign of him. Bageheera, in his Blade form, snarled softly.

But Kyle hadn't gone down yet. As the black mass before them throbbed and pulsated with dark energy, the three Seals suddenly felt a gentle breeze seeping out from within. The breeze slowly got stronger and stronger. "Back off. Kyle's planning something big," warned Isaac to both Jake and Cassie. Just as the three had moved back to a safe distance, the black mass of Chaos Legion forces suddenly exploded outwards with a loud boom as wind swirled fiercely all over the place.

The sudden blast of wind from Kyle left Zombies twitching on the ground as he stood, sporting minor injuries all over but still able to fight. The wind that had exploded fiercely was still going strongly and was now gathered around its master, whipping his hair in all directions as it began to swirl faster around him. As the wind circled Kyle faster and faster, white specks of light began to appear, dotting the vortex of wind all over. These specks now gathered at a point just above and in front of Kyle, combining and changing until the other three could make out a sword forming itself. At the same time the wind vortex surrounding Kyle was beginning to subside in both speed and volume. The Blade that was forming itself in front of Kyle was now shaping itself into a Chinese saber. When the wind around Kyle had stopped, the Blade dropped straight down, only to be caught by Kyle who gave it a few practice swings to get a feel of its balance. He smiled grimly. "I like."

Again the Zombies rushed at Kyle, only to be thrown back by a fierce gust of wind by Kyle, who then followed up his attack and sent a few wind razors their way before running straight at them. He was followed closely by the other Seals. With a renewed determination, the four attacked the Zombies and fought their way into the centre of the mass of Zombies where Jake had his own surprise for the Zombies. Protected by his friends, the leader of the Seals prepared to release his Blade.

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The ground was littered with defeated Zombies as 3 Seals and a metahuman Mithril agent rested against a nearby wall catching their breath from the difficult battle, the Blades gone for the moment. Tired from standing, Matt slumped to the ground where he sprawled all over it, breathing heavily. "Let's…not…do that again," he wheezed. The others could only manage weak nods. Even with their new-found abilities, the three Seals had been unprepared for the massive force that they had just dealt with. Brian was faring better, being the more experienced and fitter fighter, but even he was taking his time resting. Worry filled his mind. The War-General Razorpoint was a new foe, even for him; the Mithril agents had only been dealing with their Warlord subordinates and so had no idea whatsoever on the best way to deal with them than through sheer power. It only took one guy to hold three Seals to a standstill, and that was just by sending his goons. If he's gonna go for real…

Matt, attuned to the earth through his powers, began to sense a faint stirring in the ground. "Something big's coming from below," he said worriedly, glancing at the others. Even as they quickly got up and moved away from the location, nothing could prepare them for the sight of four black shadow tendril breaking out from underground and spearing Ken through both shoulders and thighs. The shocked expression on Ken's face was almost frozen in time as he flopped to the floor in a dead heap in front of the other three. It remained in place as he lay limply on the ground, the blood pooling under his body.

"KEN!"

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Jake ran two fingers along the surface of his Blade, powering it up with bright flame. To his left, both Kyle and Isaac were sending power to their own Blades, as was Cassie on his right. The combined amount of power was sending minor shockwaves just by itself towards the Zombies, pushing them back against their will. The Zombies were giving as well as they got, however, and pushed their inhuman powers to the limit, straining against the makeshift forcefield. At a signal from Jake, the other three moved into a protective formation in front of him as he kept concentrating. Then, at the same instant, the three swung their Blades in three big arcs. Immediately after releasing their power, all three leapt up and followed up this attack with another long range attack, with Isaac reforming his Blade into the bird summons, Cassie changing Bagheera into a portable missile launcher and firing away gamely and Kyle sending out amplified wind razors with his Blade.

In the meantime, Jake had raised his Blade high above his head, the flame engulfing it growing larger and stronger by the second. With a loud yell, he thrust it hard with both hands into the ground. The flame on his Blade flowed down into the ground and travelled in multiple jagged lines towards the Zombies, burning them. Without waiting, he cut right into them, slashing any Zombie that had evaded the flame and making quick work of them. After a short while, all the Zombies had been destroyed, disintegrating into nothingness, leaving only the destruction around as proof of their coming. Jake looked meaningfully at Isaac, who was now walking towards him, Kyle and Cassie behind him. "That's it for the grunts then. Where's the jerk that sent them?" he asked.

"Hiding in the shadows in that back alley there," said Kyle unexpectedly, pointing south, before Isaac even had a chance to answer. Isaac just nodded in reply to Jake's questioning look before running off in the direction that Kyle had pointed without waiting for the rest.

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The spirit shield created by Ken started breaking down in splotches as Brian and Matt, supporting the semi-unconscious Ken on their shoulders, moved as fast as they could to a safe location with Rachel bringing up the rear. Along the way, they bumped into many civilian onlookers who were simply shocked to see 4 people appearing out of thin air in front of them, one of whom was badly injured. Brian felt his younger brother beginning to stir.

"Somewhere…isolated…" he groaned in pain, "where there're no innocents."

"Just hang on, Ken. It's gonna be fine."

"While…the shield's…still…up…get to somewhere…where…there're no people. Once…the shield's…down…Matt…Rachel…one of you…set up…"

"We got it dude. You just get some rest," replied Matt worriedly.

"Brian, there's a park nearby. It's nearly always empty so we can go there and make a stand," said Rachel.

"Good idea, but we gotta move quickly. The shield's breaking down faster."

"Here, let me take care of it," said Matt as he hoisted Ken on his shoulders, earning a weak grumble from his friend. "Dude, you're not in a position to complain here. You're injured, man, so shut up," he chided, "just lemme carry ya to safety alright?"

"Watch out!" yelled Rachel abruptly as black shadow tendrils suddenly erupted from behind them. Pushing the guys away, she swivelled and cut down the tendrils before they had the chance to do any more damage.

"Man, these things are starting to get on my nerves!" yelled Matt as he kept running with Brian beside him while Rachel brought up their rear.

"Took you long enough," she muttered while slashing yet another group of tendrils to bits. "I know this place. The park's nearby…about two minutes away. Follow me guys!"

But Razorpoint had no intention of letting his prey have their way. He launched his biggest attack yet as tendril after tendril erupted from the ground and headed straight for the small group. Surprisingly every single one of them missed their four targets and instead sped on by, leaving them bewildered.

"They missed? He missed? What the hell?" asked Matt. It was then that they saw what was directly in front of them: a gas station. The tendrils were aiming straight for its pumps.

"Ah hell."

The blast of flame that appeared before them threw them backwards with a great force, slamming them against a wall where they slid to the ground, all four unconscious.

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Jake and his team were now chasing a black hooded figure across the rooftops. Thanks to Kyle, they had managed to surprise and ambush the Warlord. Its experience in battle was showing, though, as it had managed to escape them. Pursuing it was a tough business. As the team raced along the rooftops, the trail suddenly went dead. They had lost the Warlord.

"What the hell…" Jake began as he looked around for any sign of the black hooded figure. "Kyle? Can you still sense him?"

"Yeah. He's around here somewhere."

"I'm getting the same feeling too, Jake," said Isaac.

"Let's fan out. Remain within sight and extend your senses. We're gonna flush out this guy and take him down," Jake ordered grimly as flame began to flow out his hands and envelop his body. A distance away, wind was moving fiercely in a vortex from Kyle, as were the spirit cards that surrounded Isaac. The pinkish glow that covered Cassie grew brighter and stronger with every minute. All four had closed their eyes.

Kyle's eyes opened abruptly. "Found you," he smirked as he made a sharp slashing motion with his right hand to his left. The wind razor cut through a spatial rift by the side of a building, six floors up, revealing the unmistakeable hooded figure of a Warlord. The Warlord, shocked by how easily the Seals had found him, summoned a small wave of Cursed Demons, sending them at the group. The Seals were prepared for it this time around, though, and easily defeated the Demons before heading straight for the shocked Warlord. The Warlord, however, was not ready to die just yet.

There was a shockwave of dark energy echoed by a thunderous boom and the four Seals were momentarily thrown back by the force. Where there was once a Warlord, now there was a blob of dark energy, pulsing angrily. The Seals tensed up, waiting for the Warlord's next move. They didn't have to wait long.

The Warlord suddenly shot out little blobs of slime at the Seals. It was like being shot at by paintballs, only in this case there seemed to be a never-ending supply of balls and these melted whatever they hit, burning through concrete and metal. Even as the Seals leapt high up in the air to avoid them, the balls of black slime always seemed to hone in on them even though the Warlord remained rooted to his spot.

"Kyle! Divert them!" yelled Jake as he twisted in mid-air, narrowly avoiding a small barrage of the balls.

"I'm on it!" shouted Kyle in reply. Concentrating, he pooled wind into both palms of his hand so that he now held two mini tornadoes in his hands. Using these two, he sucked the balls into the tornadoes and held them inside, careful not to let the balls hit him. In the meantime, Cassie and Isaac now launched attacks of their own at the Warlord. Immediately after attacking, they leapt out of harm's way as Kyle now used the mini tornadoes to fire back the Warlord's own slime blobs back at him. At the same time, Jake used the chance to light all the balls now rushing at the Warlord on fire with a single swing of his Blade. The fire had its intended effect.

The flaming slime blobs that hit the Warlord set him alight too and the Warlord panicked, trying to summon more slime in order to smother the flames. Distracted, he was unable to do anything about the long Blade of spirit cards that suddenly skewerd him. Struggling to escape, he was pushed back by a strong wind, courtesy of Kyle, that kept him trapped. He looked up to see Jake running down on Isaac's Blade toward him, his own Blade alight with strong flame. "Haaahhh!" yelled Jake as he jumped and slashed down hard, cutting the Warlord in two.

The destruction of the Warlord, however, meant that the remaining Zombies that had been sealed inside the Spirit Shield were now out of control. Having no master to control them, they went about destroying everything in their path indiscriminately. The four Seals, Bagheera in his familiar form and perched at his usual spot on Cassie's head, stood at the edge of a rooftop, surveying the chaos before them.

"Looks like we've got some cleaning up to do," Cassie commented as she willed Bagheera into a Blade again. The rest just grinned as they summoned their own Blades again.

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The pool of black shadow grew from a tiny black speck on the ground and Razorpoint rose up from within. Smiling evilly, he glided over to where Ken was slumped on the ground, a few metres from the other three who were just beginning to regain consciousness. Smirking at their inability to help Ken, Razorpoint changed his right arm into a sharp long tendril and raised it high, preparing to stab Ken viciously with it. Just as he thrust down, Ken opened his eyes and grinned up at the old man cheekily.

"Acting! Tadah!" he crowed as he rolled out of the way, and sweep-kicked the old War-General of his feet before following up a strong punch to the face that slammed Razorpoint to the ground. Razorpoint retaliated with a quick swipe but Ken dodged nimbly, rejoining his teammates. Razorpoint smiled, then wiped of a small trickle of blood down his lip from Ken's punch.

"Not bad. Not bad at all. You Mithril lackeys are certainly turning out to be more interesting than I thought."

"Yeah? Well, round two starts here, old man," replied Ken. "And this time, we're ready to play."

"I see. Well, that certainly is reassuring. Just don't die too fast," replied the War-General as tendrils burst out from all over his body and headed straight for the group.

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Jake casually flicked the blood off his sword as Kyle stood beside him, concentrating on taking down his spirit shield. Cassie in the meantime was sitting on the edge of the rooftop they were on playing with Bagheera while Isaac was fiddling with his earpiece that had somehow gotten damaged during the fight. "Why – won't – this – stupid – thing…ah there we go. Hey Van. 'Sup? Hold on, let me put this on speakerphone."

"I see you took care of business on your end."

Bagheera growled softly at the earpiece, which drew questioning looks from the guys at Cassie.

"Bagheera says we kicked major butt," she chipped in.

"Yeah, what she said," said Isaac, "plus these kids managed to summon their Blades, too."

"Hey that's great news! Nice!"

"So, all in all, a job well done, right?" asked Isaac.

"Not exactly," Van's voice turned sombre. "We lost contact with Brian and his team a few minutes ago. The good news is that Ken managed to set up a shield, so civilian injuries were kept to a minimum. The bad news is that the last video transmissions from both Ken's and Brian's commlinks weren't exactly full of good news. Ken's badly injured. Shortly after his commlink died Brian's followed suit; the whole group was caught in an explosion."

"Damn."

"Yeah. Damn. Look, I don't know how your Seal powers work, but can you guys do something to help? Is it possible for Seals to enter another's spirit shield after it's been set up?"

"Only one way to find out," replied Jake who had been looking off into the distance, pointing at a blue spirit shield in the distance. "We'll get back to you as soon as we've found out, Van. Let's go guys."

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Razorpoint stood in the middle of the park, his hooded face only showing his menacing grin, as his tendrils lashed out all around him at four blurs attacking from all directions. The four fighters meanwhile were relentlessly attacking him trying to find an opening they could exploit. Two tendrils shot out at one of the blurs, but Brian twisted and dodged them. He then grabbed a tendril each and yanked hard, pulling Razorpoint towards him who retaliated by shooting off even more tendrils at them.

The new incoming tendrils were suddenly deflected by Rachel's light rapiers. Brian took advantage of Razorpoint's momentary indecision to send flame towards the War-General through the tendrils he was holding while Razorpoint hurtled towards him. He then kicked out hard, sending a temporarily aflame Razorpoint flying into a tree. The tree suddenly burst into dark purple flames as a snarling Razorpoint got to his feet. The four fighters were standing in a line in front of him. With an angry growl, he leapt with blinding speed at them.

"Oh no you don't!" shouted Matt as he stamped hard on the ground, causing spikes of earth to pop out of the ground. With a second stamp, he fired a salvo of earth spikes at Razorpoint who narrowly dodged in time. The War-General looked up to see Ken above him in the air. "This is payback from just now, old man!" Ken yelled as he let loose a barrage of attacks at super-speed at Razorpoint. Razorpoint was flung back by the force of Ken's attacks and was again slammed into a nearby tree.

"How…dare…you?" he growled. "Do you actually think I'd let you off with this. Such an insult to me…UNFORGIVABLE!" With that scream he sprouted tendrils all over his body, the tips of which changed into weapons of all sorts. "DIE!" he shrieked as the tendrils fired alll at once.

"Scatter!" Ken yelled as he leapt and dodged gunfire from all directions. The others immediately followed suit. Although the enraged Razorpoint remained rooted to his spot, his tendrils moved all around him, attacking the four without stopping. Without warning, the tendrils suddenly headed toward Brian as Razorpoint grinned maniacally. "I'll kill you…kill you all…one. By. One."

Brian was able to set up his flame shield in time, but the War-General's attack was so strong that the shield was shattered and Brian was flown back into a pond nearby. Razorpoint sent the tendrils again towards a winded Brian who was struggling to get back up. Just in time, Ken leapt to his brother's rescue and set up a shield of his own. Being a Seal, he managed to hold it after the first attack. However, Razorpoint kept up the attacks on Ken's shield. The unending attacks on his shield, coupled with the earlier skewering that he'd endured were rapidly weakening Ken. "Don't know…how long…I…can keep…this…up…"

With a burst of effort, Ken raced at Razorpoint while still maintaining his shield, trying to corner the War-General. He managed to sandwich Razorpoint between his shield and a tree. Matt was already running towards Razorpoint behind the tree, Blade grasped firmly, intending to slice both tree and War-General in half from behind. But Razorpoint was having none of it.

There was a loud explosion and both Seals were flung backward onto the ground. As both lay on the ground, trying to get back up, Brian and Rachel came racing to their aid, standing in front of them. Tendrils writhing, ready to strike and impale the four at any moment, Razorpoint simply stood there and looked on grimly. "I tire of this. You four have lived long enough. Goodbye."

With blinding speed, the tendrils lashed out at the four. There was a sudden blast of wind, and all the attacking tendrils were all cut down swiftly by a seemingly invisible force, eliciting a painful scream from Razorpoint. The four turned to see Jake and Kyle running towards them, followed a split second later by Cassie and Isaac who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Kyle slashed the air again, sending another wind razor at Razorpoint who was prepared this time and deflected it away angrily. Jake's team reached their friends and stood in front of them. Jake smirked. "Well what do you know. We can get in after all."

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On the viewscreen in front of Karl Fanell and his wife, Ken collapsed, the sheer effort of maintaining his shield in his weakened state finally getting the better of him. Jessica Fanell gave instructions to her medical staff to ready their facilities for an incoming emergency metahuhan patient as Karl gave orders to Brian and Isaac to finish things up quickly and to protect Ken.

"No way, Dad," said Ken over the line. "I'm still good to go…I'm not giving up this fight just yet. I'm not gonna lose…not to this geezer."

"Then finish it fast."

"Roger." Karl could almost hear his son smiling grimly.

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Slowly, Ken got up to his feet, wincing involuntarily. Noticing this, Razorpoint attacked the group again. Both Isaac and Brian were ready for it and set up their shields while Jake, Matt, Rachel and Kyle attacked Razorpoint. While the War-General was occupied, Cassie went to Ken, a hand on his shoulder. "Let me help you with that," she smiled. He stood there shocked as the hand glowed pink and energy from it seemed to fill him up. It took him a while to realize that she was healing his injuries. "Hey thanks, Cass. I owe you one."

She smiled again. "Just take care of him," she said, jerking her head at the marauding Razorpoint, "and we'll call it even."

Ken grinned at her. "Sounds like a plan to me," he said as he broke contact with her and ran towards Razorpoint, summoning his Blade. His friends, sensing his movement, leaped up at the last minute, leaving a shocked Razorpoint suddenly fighting desperately to avoid Ken's fierce slashing. Ken dodged then let loose a charged punch straight at Razorpoint's face, leaving him temporarily paralysed. As he struggled to break free of the paralysis, Ken leapt up high as the other 6 Seals also rushed toward Razorpoint, Blades in hand.

Brian stood awestruck as the seven Seals worked together to deliver a series of damging strikes, one after another, a graceful and deadly dance of Blades. At the end of it, the Seals stood in a circle around the War-General, backs facing him as he fell to a heap behind them, Blades held ready. They turned to face him. His wounds were many, his anger and humiliation at defeat clear.

"This…isn't…over…" he groaned painfully. His eyes settled on Ken, who was looking at him coldly. "You…are…mine…whelp."

He suddenly dissolved into a pool of black shadow on the ground which shrank, then disappeared completely. Razorpoint had gotten away. But the six teenagers, having survived their first real fight, had survived. They had won. All flopped to the ground on their backs, taking great deep breaths as they lay on the cool grass. Matt was the first to speak up.

"Seriously. Let's never do that again, yeah?"

"Fat chance. You know they'll be back for more, no use asking for it, right?" rebutted Rachel beside him.

"Is that right?" wheezed Ken. "Heh. It doesn't matter."

"Yeah…" said Jake, "Next time, we'll be ready for 'em." The other teenagers nodded in reply

"You mean…" started Brian questioningly.

"Yeah. We're in."