WolfGear Presents: Negima? The mage and the Gunslinger
Pairings: Negi X ku-Fei Kaede X OC
Chapter 58: A conflicting battle Negi vs. Blackjack! Negi's new power!
I don't own Negima
Author note "I know I said Kaede's injuries weren't that bad earlier, but I'm changing that."
Negi couldn't believe it… Jack did this? To Kaede no less! The woman he loved more than anything in the world! It… it was impossible. He looked at the thing that was once his friend and saw not a trace of the chain smoking easy going booze hound that was Jack McCoy. The dark skinned being that stood before him now was just an evil uncaring monster.
"What do you say Negi, ready to settle our friendly rivalry with a fight to the death? Because I sure know I am. In fact I've been waiting to do this since London. No, way before that, back when we first met I wanted to fight you. But then we ended up here, and your powers were greatly weakened, and then that fool Jack had to fall in love with that ninja girl! He didn't care anymore! All those years of training! And in a moment he abandons me! Left to rot away in the dark corners of his soul well he enjoyed the light. Well I'm out and I am not going back!"
Jack split his soul into two? How was that possible? Negi wondered. He began to think. He had heard of this before, it was something called light and dark separation. Something that happened when a person undergoes a rapid change of heart, in this cause Jack's love for Kaede over powered his desire to fight him. The result was Blackjack. And when that curse was placed on him, it must have weakened Jack to the point that Blackjack could take over, so if he weakened Blackjack, Jack could maybe regain control!
"Ne-g-i." it was Kaede. She struggled to sit up, still holding on to the strange silver gourd or maybe it was a flask? What a second! That's the soul Flask they've been trying to get! How'd Kaede get a hold of it? Never mind that wasn't important. What was is now that they had it, how did they use it?
"Take this," She said placing the flask on the ground by Negi's feet. "Jack's still in there I know it. This will help. I don't know how, but it will, so please take it with you." Negi nods and picks up the flask and attached to his belt.
"Thank you Kaede."
"Just bring him back." She begged before slipping into unconsciousness. She look so tired, Negi observed, and the wound in her stomach hadn't helped or her hands. Strange what could be preventing them from healing? But Negi didn't have time to ponder on that, because Blackjack was on the attack!
"If think I'll let you use that dammit think you got another thing coming!" He yelled, closing in with a blood spike clutched in his hand. There was no way he was going to give them time to figure out how to use the flask! Just then a white blur appeared between him and his target, a big scaly bur.
"Shiki!" Negi shouted alarmed as the big dragon took that hit. The spike easy pierced the dragon's skin, and punctured her heart! To make matters worse once Blackjack releases his hold on the spike it explodes! Making a hole the size of a door in Shiki's chest!
"Huh, serves you right you damn dragon." Blackjack spat. Suddenly lightning filled the air, Blackjack looked over the dragon's corpse to see Negi with long spiky hair and lightning dancing around his body.
"Magica Erebea lightning mode," Blackjack grinned. "That's what I'm talking about!" He yelled, and then suddenly he was sent flying in the air! In midair Negi appeared right in his face and delivered a powerful kick into the dark gunslinger's gut, sending him crashing into the area floor.
"AAAAARRRGGGG! I'll kill you!" Negi screamed. Blackjack smirked as he became enshrouded by black flames.
"Magia erebea: Deus Vulcanus vultus! (Fire god form) Oh rabidus phasmatis of flamma! Permissum thy ira perussi thy hostilis Rabidus abyssus incendia! (Oh raging spirit of flame! Let thy anger consume thy enemies: raging hell fire!)" A column of green flames engulfed the electrified wizard. The heat produced was hot enough to melt the stone base of the stadium! And force the bystanders including Ray and the others to runaway less they be burned to death. The one sitting in the front row however were not so lucky. Negi though was unharmed.
"Damn," Ray cursed as he and Konoka produced a barrier around them and the others. "A lot of people are going to die if those two fight here. Timaius, Rakan! Use this to send them away!" He ordered throwing the two a set of silver crosses. They were receiver charms. Set to Negi's and Jack's cross amulets. With these they could send the two away from the crowd at least for a little while.
"Leave this to me!" Rakan said taking the crosses into his massive hands. Winding up like a baseball pitcher he throws the crosses with all his might, while Timaius chanted the incantation.
Both Negi and Blackjack felt a tug at their necks and soon enough they found themselves a hundred miles away from where they were before.
"This is perfect don't you agree Negi? No innocent bystanders, so you can go all out now. I know how much you hate for people to die; like in Shang Hai." Blackjack smiled sickly, making Negi grit his teeth in anger. The young mage leashed out using his martial arts, palm forward he engaged the dark cowboy in a brief straggle. Attacking left, right, and from above, but all the attacks were rendered useless as Blackjack easily sidestepped and deflected each of the blows. His anger raising Negi charged at full force. Again Blackjack dodged and spun on his heel and summoned a spike from his arm and stabbed the mage in the shoulder!
"You're fighting style is sloppy. Let me show you how it's done." Using a basic boxing stance Blackjack waited for the mage to attack and he didn't have to wait long. Again Negi blindly charged him with a lightning enhanced fist aimed for his head. He easily slipped under it and unleashed a volley of punches into the mages stomach and then upper cut him in the chin, knocking him high into the air, and crashing back on to the ground.
"Come on Negi you have to do better than this! Get up and fight come on, come on!"
Negi grit his teeth, oh he would give him a fight, he thought, he would make him pay for killing Shiki, killing those people and hurting Kaede.
I think you better start calming yourself down before trying to take on Jack like this boy. A voice snapped in his mind.
"Abi?" He asked confused. What was Jack's mother doing in his head? Didn't she pass over already?
Yeah I did, but I continued to watch over you from upstairs like a guardian angel. Also I can you my hatch as a medium so I can talk to you. But enough of that your fighting like a noob. That's the nicest way I can put it. I mean what the hell do you think you're doing? Charging blindly, attacking in rage, wasting energy, that ain't your style kid. Take breath and settle down. Negi takes a deep breath and exhales. Good. Now listen, I know your upset about Shiki's death, but remember she didn't have that many years left anyway, and she thought you were worth giving that up for, so don't waste her sacrifice, ok? As for the people at the stadium they were just unlucky that's all. Your friend Kaede did what she could to save Jack and almost succeed. Now you have to finish what she started, and I'll be right here to help you.
"Thank you, Abi." Negi said softly. He realized he was fighting like a novice. Something that he was most definitely not, he was a Mistral Magi the highest level of wizard, and it was time he started to act like it. Standing firmly on his feet Negi stared down emotionlessly at Blackjack. Somewhere deep inside was Jack and he was going to bring him back no matter what!
Hey, Abi, do you know how to use this thing? Negi askedindicating the silver flask hanging on his waist. Sadly the ghost woman shook her head.
Sorry I do not. Abi answered sadly.
That's fine just thought I'd ask. Negi thought as he readied his stance. This time things would be different. The two friends stood silently across from each other, waiting for the moment to strike, and then by some unheard signal they attacked!
The met midair fist cocked and then slammed them into each other creating shockwaves from the force. Negi with his smaller body was unable to with stand the air pressure and was blown back; giving Blackjack the chance to strike with his iron blood spike but Negi was prepared. Summoning a blade of wind the younger man cut through the spike and then using his free hand he pushed of the ground and spun around Blackjack's side, leaving multiple slashes behind.
"That's better Negi, but let's see how you handle this, Adeat!" Dozens of glowing red swords appeared and flew themselves at the mage. Who skillfully dodged each one though a series of acrobatic leaps and jumps, only to find him completely surrounded.
"Oh crap."
"That's right you remember what these to right? (Clap, clap)" The swords exploded creating a huge cloud of dust and showering the area with falling rocks.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew the dust away, and revealed Negi completely unharmed. "Rabidus Levitas. (Trans: Raging lightning) " He whispered shooting a beam of white lightning at the dark cowboy. The beam pieced his shoulder leaving a hole the size of a quarter. But instead of yelling in pain Blackjack started to laugh.
"Finally you get serious! This is great! Now I can finally use this!" Rune marks appeared over the ground in a circle around Blackjack. Negi jump out of the circle just as nine skulls of fire blasted out of the ground and attached themselves to Blackjack's back. "Behold Negi, Novem Animus of Damno (Nine souls of the damned) and now using the excess energy from that ritual can use it to active this one! Phoenix resurrection!"
The tattoo marks on Blackjack's skin glowed with power and then disappeared and formed two black wings on his back along with three black tails of fire.
"This is my ultimate form Negi. I've been saving this just for you so please don't disappoint me." Blackjack said gleefully. Stretching his wings Blackjack tested the new limbs with wonder less curiously. So this is what it was like to have wings, huh. They felt strange, yet natural at the same time.
Damn it can it be.
"What is it Abi?" Jack's mother was shocked. It was different, but the idea was the same as her and Rubi's nine lives resurrection spell. Only this spell was actually completely unlike the one she and her sister had tried to create years ago.
That form, that spell, it's a completed version of the spell me and my sister had tried to create under the pretense of that old saying about cats having nine lives. We figured since we were fire cats that we could create a spell to actually make that truth; in the end though it proved to be impractical for battle. The reason was because of the golems we used as the subs for the lives that were supposed to be taken in our place. You see it worked. But if we even got a little nick or something non-life threatening the golems would disappear making the spell use useless and a waste of time and energy. Jack though, he found as way past that I think. Using the phoenix traits of recreation after death and the soul skulls he literately has given himself extra lives. Like those video games, you like Pac-man. Abi paused to take a breath. Only he can take a lot of damage before using the lives. So you will have to kill him that number of times. I would suggest using lethal techniques only, instant kills, you know that kind of stuff.
Negi turn the information over in his head, it was a lot to take in all at once, but the gist of it was Jack was now immoral to an extent. For some reason that just didn't seem like the cowboy he knew style. Jack would rather create a technique to destroy the earth then make a cheap bad guy's spell like this one. Wait, Jack was a bad guy right now. They were always afraid of dying, and they always come up this these fucking annoying spells!
"Alright, let's get this over with!" Negi proclaimed. He had a little surprise for the dark gunslinger. He wasn't the only one with an ace up his sleeve. "Magia Erebea Ventus deus modus (wind god mode)."
Wind surrounded the mage's limbs like a tornado. His hair had lengthened just as his lighting form, but it was now the color of silver rather than purple.
"Rabidus ventus," Negi whispered. Wind spiraled out of his hand like a tornado; little blades of wind inside the cyclone delivered numerous deep gashes the dark gunslinger flesh. One skull disappeared. Before Blackjack could recover from the sudden attack Negi rushed with two blades of wind and curved an X shape into his chest. Another skull disappeared.
"What is this?" Blackjack gasped. "With Jack's power we should be on equal footing so how are you so much stronger?"
"Because," Negi punched Blackjack straight into the air and jumped up after him fists cocked. "You are weaker then Jack!" He yelled punching him in the face. "You think your (Smash 1 skull) stronger then (kick 1 skull) Jack! He's been (crush! 1 skull) holding back his true power (crack! 1 skull) from you all this time! Now take this! Tri-spell Rabidus ventus, Rabidus Levitas, Rabidus Incendia!"
Wind, lightning, and fire crashed down on the dazed gunslinger, destroying his final soul skull, and his extra lives gone. Blackjack was defenseless against the crashing impact of the ground as his body continued to be ravished by the sneering flames and electro shocks from Negi's spells.
"Are you done already?" Negi asked as he landed next to the downed gunslinger. He would force out this evil and get his friend back. How he was going to do that was still up in the air, but with Blackjack incapacitated he would have time to figure it out.
"You… don't… think I… don't have… one last… spell to play… do you?" Blackjack gasped weakly. He grabbed hold of Negi's ankle and smirked, "Supernova."
A huge blast of energy exploded from Blackjack, destroying the surrounding area and turning the once rocky terrain flat. Roughly fifteen feet away lay Negi you had taken the blunt of the attack. Sluggishly Blackjack rose to his feet, but his eyes were void of life. The curse that he and Jack had resisted had finally taken hold. Jack was now under the control of Shihime. His orders: kill Negi Springfield.
Abi franticly tried to shake Negi awake, but her body's less hand simply passed through the boy. She watched in terror as her son gathered a small blade of flame in to his hands, reading to kill his best friend. If only there was something she could do, she thought as Jack raises his hand ready to finish the mage's life.
In a spur of the moment decision Abi grabbed hold of the soul flask, which surprisingly stayed in her hand. It was made of the hide of the beast, so it should be able to stop this attack at least she prayed, throwing the flask in front of Jack's attack. What happened next amazed her. The flask broke! A bright light exploded from its crumbling form and into Jack, freezing him in place.
"What in the world."
Inside Jack's mindscape
Jack, the real Jack, was chained down in the darkness of his own mind. In front of him was the battered from of his alter ego Blackjack, who was no under Shihime's curse. He feared what would happen when he woke up. What would Shihime tell him to do? What would happen to his friends and loved ones? Would he be forever damned to this hell? Questions like these flouted his thoughts, so much that he didn't hear the "clunk, clunk" of someone's heavy footsteps till they were literality right in front of him.
"Hey there," a voice said. Jack recoiled he hadn't seen the man approach. "Looks like you've had a run in with that bitch Shihime? Am I right?" The man asked.
"Yeah," Jack dumbly replied. The man before him was plain looking his book. Brown hair, blue eyes, scruffy looking, yet there was an undercurrent of power that flowed from him. One so large if felt like the ocean was crashing down on him.
"Tell you what," The man said. "You let me take control of your body for let's say two to three days and I'll get rid of this little rodent problem."
Surprisingly Jack willfully agrees with the man's term, but of course not without adding his own.
"Fine, but you have to protect my friends."
"That's alright." The man said lighting smoke. "By the way my name is…