Chapter 20: Fight!
Zelgadis tensed as the beast's head loomed over the trees. The beast's black lion head stared down at them, yellow eyes glowing slightly. He scrutinized it, finally able to get a good look at the thing.
The creature was clearly a chimera of some kind. Its torso and legs were that of some mammalian creature he couldn't identify, and on its back was a pair of leathery, draconic wings. Its reptilian tail was lined with spikes, with a mace-like clump of spikes at the tip.
Zelgadis narrowed his eyes. Where had Morris gotten this thing? Creating chimera's required a laboratory, especially for one of this size. Not only that, they took time to create. He wouldn't have had enough time to create this thing between now and when they last saw him…
He had no time to think on it further. Whoosh! The monster swung its tail at them. They all leapt away in different directions, barely avoiding it.
"Freeze arrow!" Naga launched a spike of ice at the creature. The spike hit where the right foreleg connected to the torso, encasing that area in ice. For a moment the creature simply stood there, as having trouble processing what had just happened. Naga threw back her head triumphantly, about to laugh…
Shatter! The creature flexed its leg muscles, causing the ice to shatter and fall away. This brief action provided Zelgadis the distraction he needed to get close to it. With his broadsword he slashed at one of its legs, hoping to hobble it. To his astonishment, the wound closed up as if it had never been there.
Zelgadis stared. "What the…" Even though he hadn't wounded it, the creature was still apparently ticked off, and raised one of its giant feet. Scrambling out of the way, Zelgadis narrowly avoided the fates of bugs that anger people armed with flyswatters.
"I think you made it angry," Naga remarked, as if she were noting some mildly interesting piece of trivia.
"No, really, you think so?!" he snapped.
"Please you two! This is no time to be arguing!" Amelia pleaded. As if emphasizing her point, the monster let out a feral roar and charged at them. They scattered. Hurriedly, Zelgadis began chanting under his breath. Across the clearing (created by the monster's sheer bulk flattening all the trees), he saw Naga doing the same.
"Dug haut!" He slammed his palm to the ground. All around the monster great, stone spikes sprung up from the ground. With that many spikes, the monster wouldn't be able to dodge all of them.
Or rather, shouldn't be able to dodge all them. Draconic-wings flapping, the monster hovered a safe distance above the magically created stalagmites.
"Damn it, forgot about the wings," he muttered.
"Blam Blazer!" Amelia released a blue beam of light, hitting it squarely in the chest. "Got it!" she pumped her fist triumphantly as it roared in pain.
"I wouldn't celebrate just yet if I were you," Zelgadis cautioned. As he expected, the monster was not significantly hurt. But it was even angrier now.
It opened its mouth and began spewing out a strange substance with the color and consistency of glue. Whatever it was, it smelled bad- but not nearly as bad as the mysterious squishy substance from their cell at the bandit camp.
Zelgadis and Amelia both tried to jump out of the way, landing but wound up landing in the resultant puddles of goop. Disgusted, Amelia tried to move out of the puddle, except…
"My feet are stuck!" It seemed that whatever it was, the white liquid had more in common with glue than color and consistency. Amelia franticly tried yanking her feet off the ground, while off to her right, Zelgadis did the same with a Levitation spell, both to no avail. Their efforts grew more desperate as the monster started advancing on them. Then…
"Vu Raywa!" There was a deep rumbling noise. From a nearby cliff face, a great dragon golem formed from the rock. Naga laughed. Zelgadis swore he saw both the golem and the monster wince.
"Go golem!" she pointed at the monster. The dragon golem obediantly took to the air. Or at least it tried to.
"I don't think that golem's aerodynamically stable," Amelia murmured. Whether or not the golem actually flew is debatable. The best description for it is probably that it leaped off the cliff face, glided a little bit, then fell down on top of the monster.
Although the golem was now nothing more than a pile of lifeless rubble, that rubble was still enough to keep the monster distracted.
Amelia took advantage of that to cast a spell. "Aqua Create," she whispered. Water streamed from her hands, washing away the glue that held her feet like mud. Zelgadis quickly picked up on this and followed suite.
"I probably should have mentioned," Morris offhanded voice came from somewhere just outside the clearing, "That my little pet here is part Mazoku. You won't be able to hurt it with physical attacks."
"That explains a lot," Zelgadis said.
"Hmph, well if that's the case…" Amelia chanted quickly. "Assher dist!"
"Goz Vu Row!" Zelgadis launched his own spell seconds after her. The former hit the monsterr with no affect whatsoever, while the latter was dodged fairly easily.
"Dislash!" Several bolts of light shot from Naga's hand. Whoosh! Once again, the monster took off into the air, while the spell passed harmlessly beneath it.
"Damn, that thing's fast," Zelgadis growled. The monster suddenly dove down towards them, claws outstretched. Once again, they were forced to duck for cover.
"Balus Rod!" Amelia's spell sliced through its side. The monster howled in pain, crashing to the ground. Slowly, it stood up again and turned face them. Evidently she had hurt it, but not mortally so.
"Demona Crystal!" Several feet of ice covered the ground surrounding the monster, effectively trapping its feet. The monster struggled against its icey bonds.
Amelia and Zelgadis exchanged looks and nodded. This was their chance. Simoultaneously they began to chant.
"Source of all souls which dwells in the eternal and the infinite, everlasting flame of blue…" Naga listened to the rythem of the incantation, and her eyes widened as she realized what it was they were chanting. When had Amelia learned that spell?!
"Ra Tilt!" They released the spell, and the monster was engulfed in an enormous pillar of blue flames. Naga watched the light show, and had to admit she was impressed. She hadn't seen anyone do a double Ra Tilt before. Little sister's better than I thought.
"Did it work?" Zelgadis breathed.
"It had to Mr. Zelgadis," Amelia insisted. The blue flames slowly faded away. The monster was still there, albeit badly hurt.
Naga smirked. "Looks like you gave it quite a beating."
"I wouldn't get cocky if I were you," Morris' voice came again. The creature began to glow. When the glow disapated, all signs of injury had vanished.
They gaped. "I-impossible!" Zelgadis stuttered.
"It can heal itself that quickly after an Astral attack?!" Amelia cried.
"Nice, isn't it?" Morris sounded amused. "It uses a variation on a time-reversal spell to heal itself."
"You created this thing?!" Naga said, sounding astonished.
"Sadly, I can't take the credit. I don't know who created it. I merely found the spell that allowed me to summon it from the Astral Plane." He sounded almost regretful. "I've been waiting for the right time to use it."
"It looks like," Zelgadis said quietly, "we're gonna have to take it out in one shot."
Naga frowned. "But if it could survive a double-Ra Tilt…"
"Then the only one who can do that is Miss Lina," Amelia finished, looking worried. She turned to look at Naga. "Gracia, you need to go find her and bring her back here."
"But why me-?!" Naga started to protest.
"Because you're the only one who knows the spell to turn her back to normal," Zelgadis cut her off.
She nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Fine, I'll go."
"Right then," said Amelia, "We'll keep him busy till you get back." She nodded again and disappeared into the trees.
Watching from the Astral Plane, Xellos was having the time of his life. Already things were exciting, and Lina hadn't even shown up yet! He was going to get fat from all this negative energy.
"Well, you certainly seem to be enjoying yourself," came a low and deceptively warm female voice. Zelas Metallium appeared besides him.
Xellos bowed. "Hello Beastmaster." He offered her a handful of popcorn. "Want some?" She stared at it.
"What is it?"
"It's called popcorn, I believe. Humans like to eat it while watching plays."
She raised an eyebrow. Xellos was well known among the Mazoku for being partial to human food. "I'll pass thank you."
He shrugged and popped it into his mouth. "Suit yourself." He swallowed it. And looked thoughtful for a moment. "What brings you here Beastmaster? Do you have new orders for me?" He hoped not. He didn't want to miss the the fun that was going on right now.
She shook her head. "No, I was just checking to see what you've been up to." She surveyed the window into the human world with some amusement. "Quite a lot from the looks of things."
Xellos shook his head. "Not really, I only pointed Morris in the direction of the Cave Temples where he could find a few rather, erm, interesting spells."
Zelas looked thoughtful. "Weren't Lina and her companions at the Cave Temples just recently?"
He nodded. "They were."
"You're aware of how the chimera man-" she gestured at Zelgadis- "had been turned to stone there, correct?"
"He's been stone since long before then," Xellos said innocently.
She glared at him. "You know what I mean."
Xellos grinned and nodded submissively.
"Sources have recently informed me that it was, in fact, Morris who was responsible for that." She smirked. "Ironic, isn't it?"
Xellos' lip quivered with surpressed laughter. "Yes, especially since I don't think either one of them is aware of that. Where did you hear that?"
Zelas held up one finger. "That, my priest, is a secret."
A/N: No, I haven't forgotten about Xellos being in this story. So now you know how he fits into all this. And Zelas showed up as well, but her only purpose in this story is really just to explain Xellos' role in Morris' plot. As for why Xellos is doing this... he was bored. And doing this not only is entertainment for him (as I stated), but it also creates negative emotions. As for Zelas using Xellos' catchphrase... the idea suddenly came to me that he gets that from her.
Regarding Morris being the one who turned Zelgadis to stone... does anyone even remember that part of this fic? I couldn't just leave that bit unexplained. Reusing the Cave Temples was the easiest way to explain how Morris was able to turn them in animals and summon that monster. Considering that, it made sense that he would also be the one who turned Zelgadis to stone (another spell he found there). And Xellos was right, neither Morris nor Zelgadis are aware of this (IE: Morris doesn't know it was Zelgadis he turned to stone). Thing will probably stay that way, since I couldn't think of another good way to bring it up.
I owe a lot of thanks to the KanzakaDex for its excellent list of spells, which I was able to make good use of while writing this chapter. If you weren't amiliar with some of the spells I used, here's link to the KanzakaDex: http:// kanzaka. wikia. com/ wiki/ MainPage (Note: Insert an underscore between "Main" and "Page")
By the way, the monster in gonna get explained more fully in the next chapter.
And speaking of the next chapter... odds are, it'll be the last. -Gasps-
Please review!!!