Aki Ai Takehiko Yumi

Warnings of blood and violence for this chapter.

Nightwish saw that Zelda had selected a bow as one of her weapons, which meant he was allowed to use his wings if he wanted. Still, it wouldn't be fair for him right away, and he was suppose to show her what angels go through when they were harmed. He raised his fist and aimed at her chest. Zelda hurriedly put up her sword to defend, but Nightwish snaked his arm around and punched her chest.

"You can stop a sword strike or an arrow, princess," Nightwish sneered. "But trying to stop a close combat punch with a flimsy sword like that is impossible."

Zelda grunted under the blow and was horrified to see he broke through the cloth and some blood began to stain her gown. To her surprise, she didn't feel as much pain as she thought she might. "This must be what she meant..."

Gritting her teeth, she swiped her sword around and landed a thin gash on Nightwish's exposed chest. Not giving the angel a chance to counter, she gripped her sword tightly and attacked his arm, hoping to get him disarmed. Nightwish clapped his hands around the sword blade and kicked Zelda in the stomach.

"Not a clever move, princess."

"We'll see..." Zelda rotated her sword so the sharp edges were next to his hands and she yanked the sword out of his grip. Nightwish growled when he saw she broke skin and hissed at the pain. His punches wouldn't be as strong now.

But he did still have those blades on his brass knuckles. Nightwish grinned savagely and unleashed a flurry of punches. Zelda could hardly react or block the blows from landing on her body. Blood began to flow out of her skin and making a huge stain on the front of her dress.

"Four minutes!" Palutena called.

In the stands, Pit was turning white and gripping the seat so hard, his knuckles were clearly visible. It was THIS he was worried about...watching Zelda go through all this pain was making his stomach turn. She was too soft to be facing against Nightwish, of all the possible angels here in Angel Land. The man was a brute.

He would have rather gone through the Underworld a second time than view this.

Back at Zelda, she was clearly fighting a losing battle. Tears were stinging the corners of her eyes and her body screamed at her to make it stop. She didn't dare voice this...one yell of stop would make her fail.

But this hurt so much!!

Zelda gritted her teeth against the pain. If she still had mortal strength, she would have been put in a coma by now, but because she had an angel's strength, she was still alive and awake.

Finally seeing an opening, Zelda thrust her sword out and stopped Nightwish in his tracks. Her sword dug three inches deep into Nightwish's chest and she pushed the angel back. "I'm not giving up!!"

Nightwish grunted in surprise. He hadn't expected the dainty princess to see his blind spot. "Very clever, princess," the angel smirked, flapping his wings. Zelda replaced her sword quickly and took out her bow. Before Nightwish could even react, Zelda had fired an arrow at his wing and some feathers were ripped out from their roots.

"A skilled archer..." Nightwish thought. He cursed that she had taken out some of his feathers.

"Three minutes!"

A little smirk graced Zelda's lips. She was hurting badly, but she was almost at the halfway point. If she could just hold onto her resolve, she was bound to win.

Nightwish glared and took even higher into the air. Zelda fired some more arrows after him, but the higher he went the harder it was to hit him. Not wanting to waste arrows, Zelda ceased fire and waited very carefully. She knew he was injured, not as badly as her, but bad enough.

What she failed to realize was that he was an angel and was more used to pain than she was.

Nightwish used this to his ability. He suddenly plummeted down to the ground and landed a fierce blow to Zelda's back, one that sent her screaming loudly. The princess fell to the ground and ceased to move.

"Get up!!" Nightwish yelled. But Zelda stayed immobile. "You can't lay there, expecting to win by stalling your time out, you idiot! Move!"

"Shut up..."

Those two words stunned Nightwish, Palutena and even Pit. Zelda groaned and lifted herself off the floor, trying to ignore the bruises on her body and the blood running down her arms. Her head was spinning from the impact, but she shook the dizziness from her eyes until her surroundings came back into focus. The princess raised her sword up to eye level. "You want to fight? Come at me again. And do not take to the air when you know I cannot reach you from that height."

"T-Two minutes..." Palutena stammered.

Zelda let out a pained and infuriated cry and lunged at Nightwish. The big angel hardly had time to react and just kept defending Zelda's blows. The thin metal of the sword created loud CLANGS against Nightwish's brass knuckles. But Zelda didn't stop and Nightwish was getting scared she might slice off one of his wings.

Zelda, on the other hand, thought she was proving a point. Here she was with injuries that would make any other princess...or woman for the matter...cringe. Injuries that made grown men faint. But because of her angel's strength, she was prevailing. Sure the pain still dug in deep in her body, but it would all be over soon.

"I need to hold out..." Zelda thought. Her eyes narrowed and she did a parry attack, sending one of Nightwish's brass knuckles off his wrist. Off to the side, both Pit and Palutena gasped.

Nightwish, however, groaned. "I forgot to attach it properly..."

"Now you're paying the price," Zelda informed him and send her sword across his arm. The angel howled at the gash and Zelda continued her blows.

Pit was watching in awe. "Mother, the tables have turned..."

"I know..." Palutena couldn't believe it. She had chosen one of her harsher tests first, thinking that Zelda would have given up halfway through, like so many mortals before her. The goddess looked at the hourglass, startled at how many grain of sand was left. "One minute!!"

Nightwish just wanted this to end now. Infuriated he was going too soft, he lashed out on Zelda. She blocked the blow, but Nightwish kicked her in the stomach. Zelda recoiled, the breath momentarily knocked out of her and she quickly sucked in a long gasp for air.

Pit was glancing back and forth between the hourglass and the fight. Hope soared in his heart when he thought that Zelda might be able to win every test offered. Most mortals were weak minded and possessed even weaker wills. But not Zelda. Not his Zelda.

"Only a little more time..." he thought, watching the grains of sand on the top grow less in quantity. He then focused on the fight.

Zelda and Nightwish were in a fierce stage now. It came down to attack, then defend and vice versa. Both wanted to land blows on each other, but also wanted to prevent injury. Near the end of the fight, Zelda began to slow down, but Nightwish did not. He knocked Zelda's sword from her hand and decided to show her how much more pain she could sustain. The angry angel grabbed the sword and stabbed Zelda in the stomach, pushing it in so far that it poked out her back, making her blood flow all over his hands and on the ground.

Pit yelled out in shock and horror and Palutena visibly paled. No one had noticed that the grains of sand had stopped pouring down.

Zelda felt it. The pain was coming all back to her in a rush and she screamed loudly with tears running down her face. The spell was quickly leaving her, but her sword was still inside of her.

Was she...going to die?

"Mother!! Please, heal her!" Pit yelled, leaving the sitting area and rushing to Zelda. But Palutena was in so much shock, she couldn't move. Infuriated, Pit pulled the sword out of Zelda as carefully as he could and plucked a feather from his wing. Without thinking twice, he stuffed it in Zelda's mouth and turned to look at Nightwish, who was cowering in front of the prince of Angel Land.

"You idiot! You deranged and stupid brute! That sort of thing should have been done at the beginning of the fight, NOT WHEN THERE WAS THIRTY SECONDS LEFT!!!"

"M-My apologies, Prince Pit..." Nightwish stammered, but Pit didn't stop there.

"Oh so now you're saying you're SORRY? Well sorry won't cut this! She might DIE because of you and your stupidity and all you can think of is to say you're SORRY??" Pit felt a pressure point on his forehead. Nightwish cringed and wondered what was next.

"You're fired."

Nightwish's jaw dropped. This wasn't how he expected to end his service. Actually, he never expected to end his service to Lady Palutena or Prince Pit since he was immortal, but now...

Stunned at the new turns in his immortal life, Nightwish walked out of the palace. Pit turned back to Zelda and quickly put her in his arms. The feather was slowly beginning to work...she was no longer bleeding, but she still had the deep gash in her stomach that only his mother could heal. At least the feather would keep her from death.

Palutena finally stepped forward. She was still shaken by everything she had just witnessed, but she pulled her power rod off her shoulder grips. Wordlessly, she set a healing spell on Zelda that mended her flesh and cleared all her bruises up. Even the gaping wound in her stomach healed up until it was nothing but a small scar.

Pit was studying Zelda's sword, which was still soaked in her blood. "I bet she never thought that this sword would be covered in her own blood..."

"Irony..." Palutena whispered. "Is a cruel thing."

&-&-&-&

Chapter four. Dang, it's long.

Also, I've been banhammered on DA. ):

Stupid users.

I need a new owner for the PxZ club there...

...

Next chapter: Zelda wakes up from her injuries and Palutena prepares her for the next test. Learning how to really fly far in life was never this difficult.

Reviews are loved.

-The distressed Moonlit Assassin