Magic: the Gathering

Chronicles, Volume 36

A/N: Finally! We're going to see Alpha fight for real! I've been waiting for this as long as you have, good reader!

Also, take note that this chapter is a little more graphic than previous chapters. Like PG-13 instead of PG.

*o*o*o*o*

Viktor's breath came in slight pants, his chest aching slightly as he inhaled the thick, hot Jund air. The scent of blood, steel armor, beast odor, and freshly churned dirt all hung in the air, but none of it could distract Viktor from the presences he was standing before. He hadn't personally encountered Elena since the first battle on Kamigawa, when he had fought Delta and Epsilon to capture Ryusei, the Falling Star. Elena had shown up astride the Reaper King, and she had failed to capture Ryusei but had succeeded in capturing Makoto. Viktor knew about Elena's bottomless shapeshifting power, and wasn't too eager to go up against it again. But even more scary was the fact that not only was Alpha the most powerful Hunter, but his skills were completely unknown.

Alpha took a single booted step forward, his blue-black armor clanking slightly as he advanced, a hand on his dagger's handle. At that moment, however, a streak of blue, white, and green flashed among the ranks of Viktor and his friends, and Epsilon was there, panting from the effort.

"I'm... not going to miss this one," the rogue Hunter grinned fiercely. Alpha cocked his head slightly but made no other acknowledgment of Epsilon's arrival. Viktor turned to Epsilon. "Wait a minute."

"Yes?" Epsilon asked, turning to face Alpha.

"You've fought him before, right? When you turned against Elena?" Viktor asked.

"I would hardly consider that a real fight, actually," Epsilon said tightly, his eyes fixed intently on the approaching Alpha. "I stabbed his abdomen with my blade, but he merely pulled it out and knocked me against a cliff and threw me to the ground. He would have killed me with that dagger if I hadn't taken my chance to teleport away to Ravnica. Alpha was mistaken to neglect that possibility, but he won't let anyone get away this time. Either we kill him, or he kills all of us."

"All of us?" Devin repeated defiantly. "He's got to be good, but all eight of us at once? That's kind of stretching it, unless Elena's going to help him."

"She might, or might not," Epsilon said frankly, a drop of nervous sweat running down his forehead, right past his cracked emerald. "I really don't know. For now, at least, get ready for Alpha. His powers know no limit."

"That's right, Epsilon," Alpha nodded, then vanished in a flash of bright blue mana. Viktor jolted, not expecting such a move so soon. A second later, there was another flash of blue right next to him, and Alpha was right there amid the kids and Epsilon, crouched with his knife out. Before anyone could react, Alpha whirled into motion and drove his long dagger right into Viktor's gut, all the way up to the dagger's hilt.

Pain flashed in Viktor's gut where the dagger impaled him, but somehow, the feeling sank away almost immediately. A different feeling replaced the pain as the dagger remained in his flesh for a few seconds: a heavy creeping sensation that spread from the wound, as though lead were filling his flesh and weighing him down. Viktor coughed blood and sank to his knees, his vision blurring and arms falling limply at his sides, his fingers grasping at nothing.

"Viktor! No!" Ashley's terrified voice shrieked. Man, she's really far away, Viktor thought dully, hearing the distant quality of Ashley's voice. Where'd everyone go? I... I... this cant be... can't be right...

The knife slid out of Viktor's gut, letting warm blood seep out of the two inch-wide wound on his belly. Viktor now fell completely to the ground, tumbling onto his side and clutching at his bleeding wound, his whole body feeling heavy and cold. He looked up enough to see Alpha holding his dagger, dodging a Shock from Devin and a fire bolt from Sarkhan's staff. Alpha ducked under Epsilon's sword slash and teleported again, vanishing from Viktor's sight. He could hear Alpha's voice from where Alpha had been standing originally.

"Is this all? This battle may end even sooner than I expected," Alpha said flatly, not sounding contemptuous or excited, just determined. "Don't you all value your lives? Fight for real."

"Urrrghhh... guhhh..." Viktor gasped and groaned, clenching his teeth as an icy cold sensation coursed through him, originating from the dagger wound. He gasped and grunted tightly, feeling as though all the water in his body had turned to bitterly cold ice. The cold wave flashed through him again, making him spasm and squirm. Ashley immediately rushed to Viktor's side, kneeling before him and running her hands over his body, trying to figure out what to do.

"Viktor! Can you hear me? Say something!" Ashley cried, her eyes wide and her breath coming in gasps through her parted lips. She shook him. "Viktor!"

Cards! Use... Holy... Holy Day or something like... like that! Viktor thought, feeling his brain ache as another cold wave surged through him, as cold as death. As though reading his thoughts, Ashley turned Viktor onto his back and tore off his jacket and T-shirt, tossing the garments to the ground. Viktor summoned the strength to look down at his body, and nearly fainted from the sight. Only a trickle of blood came from the wound now, but Viktor was far from safe. The skin around the wound was blue and black, wrinkling and cracking as though it had been burned. The infected area spread further and further, covering the whole lower half of his chest. That part of his body felt utterly numb from the effects of the magic Alpha must have put into his dagger.

"Oh my God... oh my God..." Ashley muttered frantically, as Kelly, Devin, Makoto, Sarkhan, and Epsilon started throwing offensive magic at Alpha. Ashley fumbled with her cards, dropping them all over the place. Her grasping fingers found her Holy Day, and she pressed the card to the tainted flesh, and golden-white magic seeped from the card and all over Viktor's chest. He felt the magic's effects start to dull, but not fast enough – it felt as though his life were sinking away.

"Come on... heal!" Ashley muttered desperately, pressing the Holy Day card harder on Viktor's chest, pouring her blue-white mana aura into the card. The magic's light shone on her face, illuminating her concerned features. However, the Holy Day was not advancing, and was only able to stall Alpha's magic. "Why aren't you healing?" Ashley scolded Viktor in nervous sarcasm. "Don't you want to get better?"

"I-I..." Viktor gasped, unable to speak further. Salvation arrived at that moment, however, in the form of Epsilon. The blue-white-green Hunter strode over to Viktor's side, motioning for Ashley to move aside.

"I can help," Epsilon told Ashley, and she nodded and got up, walking back to let Epsilon take over. Epsilon clapped his hands together once, and a plant-warrior was summoned into existence. Then, Viktor saw that it wasn't the warrior type: rather than having thorns and poison-pollen emitting flowers, this plant had small yellow flowers that secreted golden nectar.

"Hold still, no matter what," Epsilon told Viktor sternly, and Viktor nodded, figuring that he was in no shape to move around anyway. The plant lowered itself onto Viktor's chest, grasping and embracing him in its smooth vines like a friendly octopus. The plant produced a few long, thin thorns from its base and Viktor twitched in fear, until he saw the thorns sink into his tainted flesh. Instantly, he felt the heavy sensation start to lift again, and the thorns were apparently injecting a pre-healing salve to start things off. Once that was done, the plant lowered its vines and pressed its yellow flowers to Viktor's flesh, and the flowers oozed their golden nectar at an increased pace, letting the nectar pool on the skin. The nectar started to seep into the skin as though Viktor were a living sponge, and he saw the skin start to revert to normal. Slowly, but surely.

"Alpha's magic is something to be feared, all right," Epsilon commented darkly, watching the healing process take place. "Normally, this process would be done already, but this will take some time. I fear that this is only the beginning of what Alpha can do."

"Yeah. Sorry if I got taken down that fast," Viktor admitted, feeling a little stronger. "We're going to kick his ass soon enough."

"I wouldn't mind that," Epsilon grinned.

Meanwhile, Alpha had a challenger step forward. He warded off the attacks thrown at him, only amused by their futility. He easily swept aside the spells the kids cast at him, and even took down Sarkhan's dragons by himself. Venser held his arm out as a sign for everyone else to fall back and stay out of danger.

"What are you going to do?" Kelly asked the Planeswalker.

"I'm going to take him on alone. I know how to get some results," Venser said doggedly, his eyes fixed on the waiting Alpha. "Just watch." He took a few steps forward, cracking his knuckles.

"But how will -" Makoto started before Venser vanished and re-appeared in front of Alpha in a light blue flash of mana. He had just teleported, his specialty. Alpha blinked in reaction of the Planeswalker suddenly before him. Venser didn't wait; he grinned and threw a fast punch at Alpha's face, his gloved hand whooshing through the air. Alpha sidestepped and blocked the punch with his open palm, but Venser was already moving again. The Planeswalker shifted his footing and retracted his fist, throwing his other fist in a sweeping blow at Alpha's head. Alpha turned his head to dodge the blow, but Venser's other fist came forward, slugging Alpha on the gut. Alpha staggered back, stunned at the strength of Venser's blow.

"Not too bad," Alpha admitted before Venser teleported again, re-appearing right at Alpha's right flank. Venser swung his foot in a quick move, and Alpha backed up a little too late, allowing Venser's booted foot to graze his shoulder and throw him off balance. Venser advanced in a flurry of martial arts, his fists and kicks going everywhere as his body moved as fluidly as a water elemental's. Alpha fought back with considerable skill,, but he was too slow to stop Venser's attacks. With a combination of punching speed and teleporting, Venser rained at least a dozen blows on Alpha, sending the Hunter sprawling across the dirt.

"Come on!" Venser shouted, advancing with his fists raised to chest level. He pounced on Alpha, who looked up at the approaching Venser. "Double speed," the Hunter said quietly.

"Huh? Watcha say?" Venser demanded, and he threw his leg down in a fierce drop kick. Alpha brought up his own leg to block it faster than Venser expected, and his booted foot caught Venser's ankle, stopping the attack cold. Alpha brought up his other leg and whipped it in a blur, catching Venser's outstretched leg on the thigh. Venser was thrown off balance by the blow, and had to teleport away to avoid falling over. The Planeswalker re-appeared behind Alpha to attack from behind, but the Hunter had already gotten up and blocked Venser's punches, more easily than before.

Hmmmm. Something's wrong here, Venser noted, pressing his attack. With centuries of martial arts training guiding his actions and teleports to boot, Venser maintained the upper hand, but Alpha's guard had gotten tougher. Venser even took a blow to the jaw after Alpha had parried a blow and teleported to Venser's flank for an ambush. Venser backed up, panting as he brought up his fists in a defensive position. He had landed more blows on Alpha than Alpha had hit him with, but he got the feeling that this was about to change.

"Triple speed!" Alpha declared, rushing forth in a blue-black fastwalk, appearing almost instantly before Venser. It took a lot of energy for either Venser or Alpha to teleport, and Venser was starting to feel the price he paid for all the teleport-enhanced blows he had landed on Alpha. Alpha's teleports were always five seconds apart at the fastest, clearly an in-built limitation. Venser had no such limits, but that advantage was wearing out fast.

Venser took a heavy kick to the stomach, Alpha's leg moving near blindingly fast. Venser stumbled back, gasping as he clutched at his aching stomach. Alpha darted forth and swung a gloved fist at Venser's head, but the fist whooshed through empty air as Venser teleported away. Venser appeared in the air right above Alpha and landed a drop kick on the Hunter's head, only for Alpha to teleport away before Venser could do anything else. Alpha re-appeared right above Venser, thrusting his dagger at the Planeswalker. Venser teleported yet again, this time even higher into the air above Alpha. He tried to kick Alpha's head, but Alpha caught the kick with his bare hands, his grip unnervingly strong.

"Too slow," Alpha said simply, and he threw Venser to the ground. Alpha teleported right in front of Venser's flight path and threw a punch, using both Venser's velocity and the punch's own power to hit Venser hard on the face. Venser was thrown back and he teleported away at the last second, scrunching his face as he strained to use his magic.

"Guh... damn it!" Venser spat breathlessly, appearing among the ranks of the kids and Sarkhan. He winced, holding his face in his hands.

"Hold on!" Ashley told him, seeing that Venser had a broken nose and his face was bruised. Her Holy Day mended the Planeswalker's face, earning his gratitude. Venser was already revved up for another attack.

"Okay. Now I'm going to destroy him," Venser growled, a fire in his eyes as he hit his open palm with a fist.

"Just a second! We should back you up. We can't afford to keep fighting Alpha one-on-one," Kelly argued. "Give us a second."

Venser waited until everyone was ready, and then he teleported out of sight and re-appeared a dozen feet in front of Alpha. He charged at Alpha with his fists, and the blue-black Hunter prepared his defense. Right before contact, Venser vanished again, startling Alpha. Venser re-appeared right behind Alpha in mid-air, sweeping his leg in a powerful kick. At the same time, Devin's Giant Ambush Beetle charged at Alpha, attacking with its huge insectoid legs. The Beetle was backed up by a Yamabushi's Flame.

"Now the teamwork begins," Alpha commented, and raised his arm to block Venser's kick with his forearm. He grabbed Venser's leg and swung the Planeswalker at the Giant Ambush Beetle with shocking strength. Venser teleported out of Alpha's grip, and the Beetle tried to finish its attack. However, Alpha dove right to the ground, making the Beetle pounce on him, foolishly getting in the way of the Yamabushi's Flame. The insect screeched as the fire washed over its back, but Venser teleported on top of it to help out.

"Come on, big bug," Venser urged the insect, and now a Drag Down from Kelly trapped Alpha in place, with swamp tendrils and vines gripping his limbs. Alpha tried to teleport away, only to be stymied by Ashley's Overrule. Alpha was stuck as the Beetle and Venser smashed into him, throwing him deeper into the swamp muck with a loud splash.

"I'm not done with you!" Venser roared, jumping down and pulling Alpha out of the brackish swamp water by the arms. He pounded Alpha's face with his fist, bruising Alpha's cheek. He hit Alpha's face again and again. "Raaaaaah!"

Venser was aided by Devin's Volcanic Dragon and Makoto's Ronin Houndmaster, both red creatures hitting Alpha too. Venser held the limp Alpha in his grip, glaring down te Hunter face-to-face.

"What now? You're going to die, you know," Venser leered. Alpha glared back.

"Am I?" the blue-black Hunter asked, and his forehead emerald suddenly glowed bright for a second. At once, Venser felt a strange tingling sensation on his hands, and then his whole body. He blinked, trying to tell what was going on. The air seemed to waver as though heated, but Venser felt no heat. His vision was getting fuzzy, and his body felt heavy.

"Wh-what?" Venser gasped, dropping Alpha. He stumbled back, his legs trembling from the effort of holding his body up. Then, his knees buckled and Venser fell to his hands and knees at the edge of the mini-swamp, gasping and wheezing for breath. The dragon and Houndmaster were feeling much the same, both falling to the ground when they got near Alpha. Venser squinted, and saw that a spherical aura surrounded Alpha, over ten feet in diameter. The aura's air was gray and roiled, and made a static-like sound. The swamp water under Alpha's feet dried up, and the ground cracked and withered away.

"You've finally pushed me too far," Alpha declared, taking a few steps toward Venser. The ground under his feet continued to crumble wherever he went, leaving a trail of death and decay behind him. Devin's Branched Bolt arced through the air, and Alpha didn't make a move to dodge it. Instead, as soon as the lightning bolts passed through the deathly aura, they slowed down and fizzled out of existence, their energy drained away. The Volcanic Dragon and Houndmaster got up to attack Alpha again, yet as soon as they passed Alpha's aura, they crumbled away, succumbing to the leeching power.

"No... no!" Venser cursed, getting to his feet again. Sarkhan rushed forth, throwing dozens of fire bolts at Alpha but to no avail; the bolts all withered and fizzled out withing Alpha's aura. Alpha pounced, kicking Venser in mid-flight. Venser fell to the parched ground, tumbling for a few feet before coming to a halt. He lay helplessly on his back, and Alpha knelt over him, seizing the Planeswalker's right arm and pulling it back. With a loud crack, Alpha shattered the bones in Venser's right arm, with white bone tearing through the skin.

"Aaaaaarrrghhh! Uuuugh..." Venser shouted in agony, then felt lightheaded. He gritted his teeth, clenching his eyes shut against his perilous situation.

Alpha produced his long dagger and flourished it. "And now, you die," he said, holding Venser down with one hand and lowering his dagger for the kill. In a flash, Epsilon was on the scene, his ivory sword blocking Alpha's blade with a metallic clang.

"Epsilon! Again you oppose me," Alpha commented to his former comrade, seeing the look of determination and loathing on Epsilon's face.

"Yeah, well, you know how it is," the blue-white-green Hunter gritted.

"Indeed I do," Alpha said simply, and then his booted foot exploded on Epsilon's face, sending him flying away at high speed. Desperately, Epsilon summoned a few plants to cushion his impact to the ground, and the leafy plant warriors caught him without harm. Still, Epsilon's sword had been knocked out of his hand, and now the ivory-bladed weapon lay a few feet away from Alpha on the ground.

Alpha was about to retrieve the weapon, but before he could do anything, a massive shadow loomed over him. Alpha froze in his tracks, not expecting a Simic Sky Swallower to be over his head. Indeed, the 6/6 Simic beast was right overhead, and it plowed its head right at Alpha like a battering ram. Alpha jumped into the air and stopped the Sky Swallower with his hands, but after teleporting so often, he was growing tired. He held the Sky Swallower in place, his arms starting to tremble. The Sky Swallower rumbled in discomfort as Alpha's mana-leeching aura touched its teeth, and the beast withdrew before its teeth were rotted away.

"You're not going to kick us around anymore, you hear me?" Viktor shouted down from the Sky Swallower's head, wearing his jacket. His friends and Sarkhan were on the Sky Swallower's back, and Ashley dispatched a Battlegrace Angel to collect Venser and Epsilon, making sure to retrieve Epsilon's sword. Alpha allowed that action, clearly confident that he could obliterate his foes even if they were armed.

"You recovered? I thought for sure that you had died by now from my enchanted blade," Alpha called up to Viktor, but Viktor could hear the hidden taunt in Alpha's tone. Viktor could tell that Alpha had not yet unleashed his full repertoire of abilities, and this mana-leech aura would make things only more difficult.

"You're going to be okay, just hang on," Ashley comforted the injured Venser, laying him down gently on the Sky Swallower's scaly back. Venser groaned in dull pain, the muscles on his neck bulging as he clenched his teeth. His face was ashen, but he wasn't about to go into shock just yet. Ashley numbed his maimed right arm with a Withstand, then carefully moved the arm back into its normal position. Her Holy Day started to mend the injuries, the flesh writhing and flowing back into shape little by little. Venser relaxed, certain that he was out of danger for now.

Then, Alpha was in the air, right in front of the Sky Swallower's snout. "Attack, or I will," he challenged Viktor. "Now."

He sure rushes this business, Viktor grimaced. If we're rushed, we make mistakes. Time isn't on our side; every second Elena still lives, she grows in power. And then there's Nicol Bolas! What are we going to do about him? Viktor looked down at the slumbering elder dragon, still unsure how that Planeswalker would play into this battle, but he'd have to figure that out as he went. Alpha wasn't going to wait.