39- The Decisive Battle- The Maiden Shrine Part 2

"Shadow, we've got to give this our all!"

"Right," Shadow replied.

Hunter leapt at Stags from one side, Shadow from the other. But to their surprise, with a spinning movement, Stags sent both of them flying.

"He's strong," Shadow said.

"Naturally," Hunter replied. "But so are we!"

Hunter decided to try a more head-on approach this time, and charged Stags from the ground. Still, Stags deflected the blow with his oversized blade.

"No good," Hunter sighed.

"I expected a little better than that," said Stags. "When you fought against me with the power of one Key, you destroyed my horn. Now you have two, and you can't even hit me."

"I can tell you've gotten a lot stronger since then too," Hunter said.

"That is true," replied Stags. "I recognized my weakness, and underwent harsh training, so that next time, I could defeat you. Still, I longed for a better match than this."

Stags fired a shot from his sword, which sent Hunter and Shadow flying back to the other side of the room.

"Spider threads!"

Shadow quickly retaliated with another move. As Stags moved to counter it, Hunter decided to fire a blast Stags' way. Although it looked to have made contact, Stags was unhurt.

"Hunter…" said Corona worriedly. Although she was too busy trying to keep Aqune away from the Key to help, she was horrified by how one-sided his fight with Stags was. There was no doubt that Stags was the most powerful of the Big Four, but was he really too much for Hunter?

Igneous and Lumen were not in good shape either. Buguese was beating them almost as easily as Stags was crushing Hunter and Shadow.

"It seems this duel can't go on for any longer," Stags declared. "This attack should finish you."

He fired at Hunter and Shadow, blasting them through the stone walls of the castle.

"No!" Corona screamed. The castle was floating in the air. Were they falling?

"Nice one," came Hunter's voice. He looked pretty banged up, but he climbed back through the newly-created window. "Good thing Shadow was able to stick to the wall."

Shadow also crawled back through the hole. To Corona's relief, the both of them were alive. But they were hurt. This was not a fight they could win.

'I have to do something,' Corona thought to herself. She saw Igneous and Lumen lying defeated on the floor, and honestly, she didn't have much energy left either. Corona clasped her hands together, and kneeled on the ground.

"Please, Spirit Oracle. Save Hunter."

A massive amount of light came from around her. And it wasn't just around Corona, she realized, but around Aqune too. Aqune stopped trying to fight.

"Wh-what's… happening?" Aqune asked, seemingly in a lot of pain.

"Aqune!" Corona called. "Please, snap out of it and lend me your powers. Hunter is… everyone is in trouble."

"Corona…" Though Aqune still wore her mask, she was beginning to regain her will.

"Please," said Corona.

Corona's voice echoed through her head.

"Got it," Aqune replied. "We can give Hunter… the power of this Key."

"What is going on?!" Buguese asked. "Just take the Key, Aqune!"

"No," she said. "Not yet." She knew what she was supposed to be doing, that the Insectors did need the Key. But now, saving Hunter was the first thing on her mind.

Buguese could only watch in shock. Aqune never disobeyed

"This power," Brade said. "For her to be able to overcome the mask… Now I know it's true. Aqune, you are the reincarnated Oracle."

"The what?!" Buguese shouted.

"No way!" Corona was even more in shock. 'Then Aqune… is destined to be with Hunter?' she realized. 'I… I have to put that aside for now. Right now, Aqune's power can help me rescue Hunter. We need to work together.'

She started to concentrate as hard as she could on the Oracle Key which was inside the barrier. Aqune did the same, though she too was stunned at the news that Brade had told her. What did that even mean, exactly?

The Oracle's light then came over Hunter and Shadow. The pair underwent a new transformation. It was an unusual form, as Shadow now had taken on some human-like features, and Hunter became more bug-like.

"Incredible," said Stags. "Now this is the power I was waiting for. I can tell just from looking at the two of you."

"Shadow, I feel amazing!" Hunter exclaimed.

"Same here," Shadow replied. "This time, we can win for sure."

"Come at me!" called Stags.

In unison, Hunter and Shadow launched out at Stags. They unleashed an enormous attack. The force of the attack sent Stags plummeting through the hole that was left in the wall. After the attack was launched, Hunter came out of his three-key transformation state.

"Stags!" Hunter shouted, running up to the gap. Though he wanted to win the fight, he hadn't expected on blasting his opponent to imminent demise. But when Hunter looked down the hole, he couldn't even see anything but clouds. Did Stags hit the bottom? Did he land somewhere else safely?

"Hunter!" Corona cheered. "You really did it."

"I know," he said. "But… maybe that was a little too much power."

"Still, it was amazing," Igneous commented while trying to lift himself to a sitting position.

"I've never seen anything like it," added Lumen.

Unfortunately, while Hunter and the others were talking, they lost sight of Aqune. The girl was once again in front of the barrier, and she pulled out the Key this time, uninterrupted.

"No!" yelled Hunter. "Aqune, give it back!"

"This Key belongs to Mantid-sama," said Aqune.

Buguese fired a blast from his sword, which created a blinding light. The next thing the Riders realized, he and Aqune were gone from the room, along with the Key.

"Hey… didn't Solan tell us the castle was going to fall if the Key was removed?" Corona asked.

"Yeah," said Hunter. But for some reason, the castle wasn't falling at all.

Stags was on the ground beneath the castle. Despite the blow he had taken, and the fall, he stood up.

"An honorable defeat in a duel," he said. "Hunter Steele, only you can make that happen. I look forward to the next time we fight."

The Spider Riders couldn't worry too much over why the castle didn't fall. It was just a miracle.

Now that they had a chance, Hunter and Corona went over to Magma, who was still unconscious.

"Hey! Magma!" Hunter yelled.

"Are you alright?" Corona asked.

Hearing their cries, Magma cracked open an eye.

"Man…" he groaned. "I got beat pretty bad, didn't I?"

"Yeah," Hunter said. "But, as long as you're alright, that's what really matters."

"So… what exactly happened?" Magma asked.

Hunter and Corona both stood silently for a moment, both hoping the other would answer. Magma knew something serious was definitely up.

"We lost the Key," Corona finally spoke.

Magma clenched his fists. That was not good news.

"But that's not all that happened," Hunter said. "Shadow and I used the power of three Keys to fight against Stags. And we beat him. But I don't know what happened to him after that."

"At least something good happened, then," said Magma.

Corona nodded.

"What about the queen? Did you find her?" asked Magma.

"Uh… no," Hunter replied. "Actually, I was so caught up in fighting I kind of forgot about that. I wonder where she could be."

Corona seemed to be concentrating on something, Hunter noticed, when he turned to her.

"I sense something," she said. "It's in the room next to this."

"Then let's go!" Hunter declared.

AN: I had to work in the Stags-surviving-a-massive-fall thing somehow, because I always found that pretty amazing. Just how powerful is he?