"Damn it!" The young boy cried as he pounded his fists relentlessly against the crumbling building, skin scraping against the cold stone where the mirror used to be. "Damn it!"
In the near distance gut wrenching screams and ear piercing roars filled the air as flames danced through the town, eating everything in their path. Hiro squeezed his eyes shut, fists still clenched and forehead resting against the crumbling wall. In his chest, his heart was pounding like crazy, the fast pumping of blood doing little to drown out the horror behind him.
Hiro knew exactly where he was – and it wasn't anywhere he ever wanted to be again.
Another loud roar caused the violet haired boy to whimper. He couldn't look round, he couldn't face that beast again. Another roar. Tears began to brim in the corners of Hiro's eyes and the seventeen year old bit his lip, hard, causing a trickle of blood to run down his chin.
"Hiro, make sure that you look after your sisters, ok? They need you right now." Hiro's eyes snapped open and he whipped his head round to face the delicate voice, cerulean orbs wide as salty drops finally left his eyelids and trailed down his cheeks. "And Hiro… I love you."
Hiro watched the scene with a heavy heart as a ghostly image of his mother kissed the top of a nine year old Hiro's head, tears flowing freely as she said goodbye to her three kids. Hiro's dad was nowhere in sight, and back then, Hiro hadn't known why his father wasn't present, but now he did – it was because his father was already dead.
"Mamma?" Hiro watched his younger self and clearly saw the fear dancing in the boys eyes as his took hold of his mother's sleeve. "What's going on? Where are you going?"
Hiro's mother smiled a watery smile and pulled all three of her children into a tight embrace, wanting to never let them go, but knowing she had to.
"Mummy has to go and help our friends and the village, sweetie. But I'll be back, I promise. And then, when I come to get you from your hiding place, everything will go back to normal, ok?" Her voice was trembling and the woman's whole bod was a mass of awful shakes as she released her children from her hold and looked at them all once more. "Now go."
And then he was gone, Hiro's younger self was running into the rubble of a narrow alleyway, both his sisters hands gripped tightly in his. Back then he foolishly believed his mother's words – believed her promise that she would come back. His mother was a liar. She never came back.
The ghostly image suddenly rippled and faded, leaving only a cloud of golden dust where it used to be, and Hiro sunk to his knees, his head pounding and tears dripping frequently off from his chin. This is the one time in his life he didn't want to remember – this is the one thing that haunted his dreams, that caused his younger sisters to wake up screaming. This was the day that Deliora destroyed everything he ever cared about.
"Stop it…" The violet haired boy raised his shaking hands and clamped them over his ears, trying to drown the terrible roars and screams. He squeezed his cerulean blue eyes shut and buried his head in his knees. "Stop it!"
CRASH!
"Any other time this would be fun for me" Alithra said, spitting on the floor, her stance that of a person who was ready for a bloody, harsh fight. "But right now, I have a teammate to save, so I'm going to have to make this quick."
Fallon smirked and cracked her fist in her palm.
"Well that's good," the auburn cooed "Because I plan on doing the same."
And yet again, the two girls charged at each other, magic stinging their fingertips as they prepared to enter another brawl, this time having finished testing the others power and ready to fight for real – ready to fight to the death.
Fallon suddenly skidded to a stop and began to run to the side of her opponent, causing Alithra to halt and try to pin-point the cat-eyed girls location. As she ran, Fallon smirked, her right hand busy drawing a complicated pattern on her hand using a small cut that had been made during the previous spar. Alithra whipped her head round as she heard Fallon's footsteps stop, and caught sight of the brown haired girl just as the amethyst orbed teen slammed her palms together, completing her alchemic circle.
"Smoke Screen!" The eighteen year old cried and in an instance grey tendrils shot out from her clasped hands and immediately made a thick layer of fog around their small battlefield, completing obscuring both girls and making it impossible to tell where they were.
Alithra cursed and flipped her head from side to side trying to catch any hint of movement – no such luck. Once again, the white haired teen spat at the ground and snarled.
"Guess I have no choice, huh? I might even have to bring out that" She hissed before smirking and closing her eyes. "Animal Soul: Wolf!" There was a puff of black smoke before it disappeared, revealing Alithra's no golden wolf eyes and sharp, sharp canines. Sharper than they already were. "Now, where are you?"
The white haired teen sniffed the air, trying to catch a whiff of her enemies scent. Nothing, all she could smell was the musty smell of burning, probably from the smoke surrounding them.
"Shit." Alithra cursed. "Looks like it's only hearing left."
Alithra closed her eyes and focused all her energy on the sounds surrounding her. The low, soft blow as the smoke moved through the air. The distance cheers of revolting Dark Mages in the stalls in the stadium above. And…
Footsteps!
Where? Over to the right! Alithra snapped her eyes open and quickly looked to her right, just in time to see Fallon whisk out from the smoke screen, twin swords gripped in either hand that shone with a dull red light.
"Too slow!" The alchemic mage shouted as she brought one sword down at Alithra, who raised both her arms in an X shape to block the attack. The golden eyed girl cried out in pain as the sharp blade cut into her skin, the weight of the weapon being much more than it should. Crimson blood trickled down Alithra's arms and Fallon smirked, sensing opportunity and raising her other arm before swinging her second sword round and under, aiming for Alithra's back. But Alithra was too quick, the white haired warrior ducked and manoeuvred her arms, sliding them down the side of the first swrod painfully before grabbing the blade in one of her palms and twisting Fallon, pulling her forwards before the gold orbed girl brought her foot crashing down onto the second sword, holding it in place.
"I think you're the one who's too slow!" Alithra roared, a triumphant smirk stretching across her face.
Fallon let out a low chuckle and let go of her swords, both of which shattered upon release, the red glow having vanished. Alithra's silver flecked eyes widened and she looked at Fallon, watching with gritted teeth as the grinning girl vanished back into the smoke. However, Alithra could still hear the teens footsteps, and she ran after her opponent.
Suddenly, there was the hiss of piercing wind and a sword landed directly in front of Alithra, causing the slightly older girl to skid to a halt. Then, she grinned.
"So that's how it is." Alithra slowly bent down and pulled the sword from the now cracked floor, testing the weight of the weapon by swinging it around her body. "But I warn you, this is a huge mistake."
And in mere seconds Fallon zoomed out from the shadows and their swords clashed.
I feel awful for not updating sooner :( I have a list of excuses here, but I'm not going to lie to you, I kind of forgot about writing and focused on Pokemon! LOL, I just got a 3DS and Pokemon White, and everything else flew out of my head XD But, I'm back, thanks to the lovely country of Wales that has no internet so I can't get distracted and can actually write :) But I'm back home now, with this new chapter, and I'm going to focus a lot more on writing now :)
This tournament has forged its own path and decided to take up more chapters than I originally planned, but that's alright, I think I'm going to enjoy writing the rest of Fallon and Alithra's fight, as well as what's going on inside the mirrors with Setsuko and Hiro :)
Again, so sorry :( Forgive me? Pretty please with cherries on top?