Darkness Falz
Chapter 2:
Battle for Ragol

Standing in the garden, the team looked around. Mike started walking toward the massive monolith in the center of the garden. When he came to the steps leading to the base of the structure, he stopped and looked at the blade of his weapon, the Elysion. The intricate light blade shone brighter than he had remembered, as if it were reacting to something in this structure. Lara, Buffy and IceDrop joined him at the base.

"There's something in here," the HUmar tells his allies, "The Elysion's reacting to this monolith."

"You think the creature's in this structure?" Lara asks, "one would think that a creature capable of destroying four teams of hunters would be bigger than that."

"Never underestimate a smaller enemy," Buffy advises Lara, "You forget that even a small mothmant can be deadly."

"of course."

"Let's stay close," Mike says, "For now, at least. We don't know what's coming once this creature appears."

The others nod as they walk up to the monolith. When they get up to the base, several hundred thin creatures with spinning blades appear out of nowhere. Mike and Lara put away their hand weapons and pull their sidearms from their holsters. IceDrop sticks to her pick, as she takes out two of the spinners easily. The other two hunters blast away, taking out several more of the spinning darvants. Buffy's rabarta finishes off a large number of the spinning blades, as several of them, which were mere illusions fade into non-existance.

The huge monolith begins to explode with immense power as a enormous creature with three dragon-like heads appears out of nowhere. One of the heads lowers, releasing darvants to attack the hunters. Lara keeps her varista out, shooting the spinners while Buffy blasts away with Grants and Foies, as well as keeping up their Shifta and Deband. IceDrop's Imperial Pick slices several gashes in the draconic head, while Mike makes a rush for one of the other heads. He makes a leap, high into the air, the glowing Elysion flashing with power as he brings it down upon the monstrous dragon-like creature.

The dark creature brings all three heads up into, and raises it's monstrous arms. Bolts of energy shoot down from on high. The three hunters gather around Buffy, who casts a high level Resta, healing her comrades.

Another head drops to the ground, releasing Darvants. Realizing that close range combat was preferable to using the long range of the imperial pick, IceDrop straps the pick to her back and takes the saber off her belt. She rushes back toward the dark monster, Buffy close behind her. Again, Lara's varista deals with the spinners, while Buffy's spells and IceDrop's attacks deal substantial damage to the monster. Mike watched the Elysion, and then looked to the monstrous head that was on the ground. He ran right toward the enormous draconic creature, slicing faster than he has ever before, hitting numerous slashes in just a matter of seconds. The Elysion flashed with power every time it made contact with the monster.

Soon, the draconic heads were no more, as the creature now floated above the perimeter of the fighting arena. "Mike," Buffy tells the hunter, "Switch to your handgun. You won't get close enough to use the Elysion this time."

"Got it," Mike responds back, then turns his attention to IceDrop, "Switch to your gun. We need to respond to each situation as it comes. This thing looks fast."

"Understood," IceDrop answers, putting the saber back at her belt, and pulling her raygun from the holster.

The creature makes a run for one end of the arena, while the hunters give chase. Buffy casts another Grants, making the creature shriek in agony. It rises from the ditch around the arena, revealing a bulbous belly. Mike, Lara and IceDrop stay close as they fire round after round into the large target. It drops back down on its belly, and points its left arm toward the hunters, casting multiple Rafoies within seconds. The hunters fall to the ground from the powerful magic attack, but Buffy is quick to recover and casts another Resta, restoring their strength.

Once again, the monster heads for the other end of the arena, and drops down on its belly. This time, when the hunters give chase, it points its right arm at them, releasing numerous rabarta fields. Lara and Mike are frozen in place. IceDrop starts firing again, when the opportunity presented itself and the monster raises up from its perch. Buffy healed Mike and Lara, while they were still frozen. The two were suddenly released from their icy prisons, and they started once more firing on the demon's sweet spot. The monster lowers itself again, after a few more shots and runs again for another end of the field.

Meanwhile, back at the BlackHawk's home in Skyly sector of the residential ship, Mota, Amelia BlackHawk watches over her niece. As if the child knew what was happening to her parents, she started crying. Amelia picked the small girl up, and walked around the room, singing a lullabye to her, but Jessica Lynn BlackHawk wouldn't stop crying.

This time, as the hunters were giving chase to the monster, the demon raised up higher than he had before. He slammed down into the ground, causing a ripple in the ground, and disrupting the hunters equilibrium, slowing them down. It raised its arms into the air again, bringing down another lightstorm from on high. This brought the hunters down once more. Buffy slowly got up, and healed her comrades, before opening up a trifluid, and restoring her tech power. The diminuative FOnewearl then resets the party's enchantments as the three hunters get up. Three handgun shots impact at the same time as Buffy's Grants as the creature fails its arms and it's head falls to the ground.

"Is it over?" Lara asks, "That can't be it."

"I wouldn't think that would be the end of this monster," Mike tells his wife, showing her the Elysion, still glowing, "The sword is still reacting to this demon."

Sure enough, the creature was still alive. This time, it took on a whole new form. Buffy tried a grants but it did little damage to the beast. Lara tried to shoot the monster, but the demon turned itself translucent, and the gunshots did no good. IceDrop tried her imperial pick, since she was right in front of the demon. The partisan went straight through, and hit nothing.

The demon flew up high into the air, pointing toward Lara. It started releasing energy balls at the HUnewearl, but Lara ran around the new ring-like fighting arena. The demon tries a Megid, but the hunters are able to avoid the spell by running to one side or another. The creature then cast multiple grants techs. Mike had to open up a trimate, while Buffy healed IceDrop and Lara.

The demon then descended toward the hunters and turned solid once more. This time, though, Mike had the Elysion ready, and leapt up and landed on the monster's head. The HUmar sword master brought the Elysion up and plunged the blade into the head of the enormous demon. This caused the demon to flail its arms into the air and begin to disappear.

The four hunters were standing once again on solid ground in the dark arena, as a single red ring dropped to the ground where the demon had once been. Lara bends down and picks up the ring, before looking up to the opposite side of the arena, noticing a lone human standing there, with a hoard of dimenians and delsabers behind him. The white haired human is carrying a DB's saber.

"Mike," she says, "Look over there."

"Dansen," Mike says, putting the Elysion away, and drawing his katana, Hiryu no ken, "Not him again. Lara, IceDrop, Buffy, leave Dansen to me. You three take care of those monsters. They're blocking our way to the teleporter out of here."

"Be careful, honey," Lara answers, "We'll be waiting at the teleporter."

Mike nods as he charges right at Dansen. The HUmar sword master watches Dansen hold his ground, waiting. However, instead of running head-long toward his opponent, Mike uses the intense speed of his sword style, going airborne before Dansen knew where he was. Mike's diving attack is blocked by Dansen's DB's saber.

Lara watched the Dimenians closely. Her Vjaya flared to life as Buffy reset their enchantments. "Fight hard, and come back alive," Lara tells IceDrop, "Other than that, do what you have to."

"Understood," IceDrop says in a cool voice.

"I'll start us off," Buffy remarks, casting a rafoie, which sears the skin off of a good number of the monsters. Lara and IceDrop join the fray, slashing away with their partisans. The wild beasts attack furiously at the two HUnewearls, only to have the long reach of the partisans holding them back.

"What's it going to take to beat him?" Mike thinks to himself as he watches Dansen approach slowly, "He took that beating I gave him after he killed Master Zoke, and is still coming back for more."

"Ready to accept your fate yet, BlackHawk?" the dark warrior inquires, "Your master put up a much better fight."

"Not by a long shot," Mike answers, parrying a strike from Dansen's saber, "I'll put an end to your madness, Dansen. Master Zoke couldn't stop you, but I will."

"Shane Dansen no longer exists," the dark warrior yells, "When I joined with the consciousness in this ruin, I was reborn as Shade Stalker." Stalker charges, giving Mike the chance he needed. The blonde hunter holds the katana, Hiryu no ken, parallel to his body, and rushes right at his opponent. His attack hits several different places on Stalker's body at almost the exact same moment.

Two partisans tear through the last of the dimenians. However, that still left the delsabers to deal with.

"IceDrop," Lara advises her partner, "I'd switch to either your gun or your saber. I doubt we'll get any shots in with partisans against these things."

IceDrop nodded switcing to her saber. Lara activated her twin brand, and the two Hunters entered the fray once more. IceDrop's attacks manage to take out two or three of the monsters, before a leaping attack knocks her down. Buffy casts a Razonde to stun the beasts while the blue haired hunter gets up and heals herself with a Resta.

Lara's twin brand had already taken out several of the delsabers. Using skills she had learned from watching a battle between her husband and Seifer Angelus, she tore a swath of destruction through the hoard of beasts. Buffy's Rafoie and Rabarta took out the last of the enemies as the three approached the teleporter.

"You two go on through," Lara advises her partners, "I'm waiting for Mike."

"We'll wait at the guild," Buffy replies, as she and IceDrop teleport back up to Pioneer 2. Their goodbyes said, Lara turned her attention to the battle her husband was fighting.

Mike BlackHawk breathed heavily, slowly wearing down from the long fight with Shade Stalker. Stalker ran right at the HUmar, hitting a lateral attack which knocks the katana from Mike's hand. As Stalker comes around once more to attack, Mike parries the attack by drawing and activating the Elysion. BlackHawk lunged backwards, picking up his katana, and placing it in its scabbard. Another long breath and the blonde haired warrior once again goes into the air.

"I've already seen through that attack, BlackHawk," Stalker yells, lunging upwards to meet the warrior in mid air. BlackHawk goes into a mid-air spin, holing the Elysion at his side. As the two warriors met in mid-air, Mike attacked laterally, slashing through his dark adversary's chest and abdomen. Stalker falls to the ground and disappears in a flash of black power. Mike lands on one knee, and puts the Elysion away, as Lara runs up to him, helping him up to his feet. With nothing needing said, the two take the teleporter back to Pioneer 2.