Disclaimer: Zatch Bell is copyrighted to Makoto Raiku (characters, series, and concepts). The only things I own that are currently revealed in the story are E, Nylon, Shine, Angelica Tsukoro, Curtis Herrakoro, Gretchen, Harumi Kisamaru. Izo Uramori, Myriam, Mystrael, Metallix, Professor Linda, Orion, Jade, Shine, and Zale Schwazden.
Chapter 8: The Struggle Continues
"Go Diamonruk."
Shine grinned ferociously as the same white light covered his entire body. Then light gained a light bluish hue as a transformation began. "Zatch…" Kiyo said sternly as he eyed this scene with an equally stern look, "The real battle begins now. Don't get hurt." Zatch nodded, "Right."
The light finally died away to reveal the effects of Go Diamonruk. Shine's whole body had crystallized as a layer of light bluish diamonds turned into his something feral and ferocious. He was somewhat bigger in size, the diamonds adding a touch of girth to his lower legs and arms. Every single one of his quills were erect and sharp. Only the whites in his eyes are now visible, adding a touch of viciousness to him. And lastly, he did not exactly have hands anymore—rather, he had stiff but sharp, flat, and long claws extending from a mass of diamonds where his hands would be.
"Whoa, that's a dramatic transformation." Kiyo observed as he opened up the red spellbook, preparing for the worst. "No kidding, Kiyo…" Zatch mumbled pensively.
The Go Diamonruk-induced Shine took a menacing step forward, the added weight making it sound like a stomp rather than a step. "Now…here I go!" Shine instantly sprinted for Zatch; his transformative spell also gave him a boost in speed. "Zakeruga!" Kiyo cried out, pointing directly at the charging Shine. Zatch's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fired a concentrated beam of energy to him.
"Don't make me laugh!" Shine sneered and then jumped up to dodge the Zakeruga spell. "Zatch, come on!" Kiyo stated as he grabbed the blonde Mamodo by his blue mantle and dashed off to the side. Shine wound up missing his target, slamming a claw onto the floor and picking up rusty golden dust from the impact.
"So not only does he get a change in appearance," Kiyo mused in hushed tone; he and Zatch were positioned behind a slab of rocky rubble, "He gets a boost in speed and power, just like Rauzaruk." Zatch looked at Kiyo and asked in an equally quiet tone, "Then, Kiyo, how do we take him down—"
Suddenly, the sound of slashing was heard as the rubble was reduced to bits, revealing Shine to be on the other side. "You guys suck at whispering." He hissed, flexing those claws of his. "Zakeruga!" Kiyo exclaimed with such calm quickness that it shocked Shine. Taking this in stride, Zatch unleashed his Zakeruga spell again and nailed Shine square where he stood.
"Got him!" Kiyo cheered.
"Look again." Came Zale's toneless objection.
From the smoke, the Go Diamonruk-induced Shine came out and tackled Zatch, the two were jettisoned into the wall with Shine obviously being the aggressor. "Zatch!" Kiyo cried out in concern. Then came a cry of pain from Zatch as roughly thrown away from the wall and into a slab of rubble on another part of the battlefield.
"Get up, you sorry excuse for a Mamodo!" Shine hissed vehemently as he began approaching the struggling Zatch. "Come on, Zatch, you gotta get up!" Kiyo shouted encouragingly. Gritting his teeth, the blonde boy managed to rise back to his feet. "Great job!" The dark-haired male said before reciting, "Now Rauzaruk!"
A rainbow-colored lightning bolt struck Zatch as he charged for Shine. With a grunt of effort, the blonde boy threw a punch for Shine's forehead…only for pain to shoot through his arm. Shine snickered mercilessly, showing his serrated teeth again, as he stated, "I would say don't hurt yourself, but you already did." With that said, Shine delivered several successive slashes, causing bits of blue fabric and blood to hit the floor.
"No way!" Kiyo gasped. "It seems you forgot that I told you that you were dealing with diamonds." Zale said as he watched Zatch get kicked away brutally.
Zatch was finding it considerably harder and harder to get back up with each devastating blow made by the Go Diamonruk-enhanced Shine. It was almost like he was reliving those harsh defeats at the hands Bari and Brago when he first fought them. Right when Zatch was about to rise, Shine stomped his foot onto Zatch's back. "You say you want to defeat Zofis and shatter the Stone of Moonlight," Shine said as he added light pressure, "How can you do that if you can't even harm ME?" After that, Shine removed his foot only to kick Zatch again.
"Don't give up, Zatch!" Kiyo encouraged, "Don't let him get to you! We've been in these situations before!"
"Quit your groveling, human. It's incessant." Shine berated as he started approaching Zatch again. Suddenly, Zatch looked straight to the anthropomorphic porcupine, eye-to-eye, and Shine got his first glimpse of that raw fire in the boy's golden-orange eyes. The look that expressed utter determination and power that made all of his opponents think twice. "What the…?" Shine's eyes widened in shock.
"ZAKERUGA!"
Zatch stood on his feet and fired Zakeruga to the shocked Shine and was awarded with a direct hit. Zale raised an eyebrow as Shine was engulfed with electricity, "How odd…Call me crazy, but I think every time Zatch is getting hit, his will to fight and power rises. Shine better be careful."
The Zakeruga died down to reveal Shine still standing but in a defensive position as residual electricity crackled on his diamond-encompassed body, "Tch." He sneered as he glared at the panting blond, "I'm through playing around." He then charged at Zatch again, the next phase of the battle beginning, "Time to perish, small fry!"
"Riogras Roggan!"
Nylon, Ponygon, and Gretchen frantically scurried about, avoiding both attacks from Riogras Roggan and Ganjasu Maborose. The battle had grown increasingly difficult thanks to Mystrael and her two spells, but they knew they had to find a way to win. They certainly did not want to end up like poor, manipulated Orion.
Izo, Curtis, and Sunbeam had discovered that Ganjasu Maborose only affected Mamodo enemies and not humans thankfully, and there a two-second window before the spikes would come up, allowing them to be able to dodge if they had good reflexes. Before that, they found out that the lock on Orion controlled Chanigras Maborose.
"We need to end this now." Sunbeam said to his companions, the light orange book in his hand glowing brightly. "Yes, we do, but trying to do so is a big hassle." Izo replied, the dark brown spellbook glowing ecru. "Whatever we do, let's make it count," Curtis said, still using Izo as a support, "I only got enough heart energy for one spell, and I wanna used it for our new spell—seems like it would work here."
"WILL YOU STAND STILL!" Orion roared in irritation, "You know what, I've had enough of this! Jade, my strongest spell! It'll be enough to wipe these guys off the face of the earth!" Jade tensed up slightly as he cautiously asked, "Whoa, Orion. Isn't that overkill—" Orion shot a venomous glare at to his bookkeeper, "Don't patronize me, human!" Jade winced audibly; that was the first time Orion ever verbally lashed at him. He silently cursed those two women for ruining the great relationship they had, "Fine, fine…" Jade flipped a couple pages in the spellbook before stopping, a great bistre glow emanating from it, "Dioga Rogganruno!"
Cannon openings traced the lining of Orion's ribs, his arms and shins turned into three cannon barrels, and two large cannons appeared on his shoulders. "Dioga Rogganruno is meant to blow all of you away! Think you can stop it?" Orion yelled maniacally as each cannon began charging up energy.
Nylon, Gretchen, and Ponygon gasped in horror, but later cried out when some spikes pierced their body for showing apprehension. "Not good!" Sunbeam gritted his teeth, "Does any of us have a spell that's as powerful as it?"
"Nylon has the closest one…" Izo answered pensively, "But I have no clue if it's the strongest…"
"L-…Let's…find out, Izo!" Nylon drawled painstakingly, "I'd rather die trying to defeat an opponent than just sit here and get blown to dust. That would offend my pride as a knight, and it would certainly offend the rest of my friends!" Out of nowhere, the spikes piercing his body disappeared, for the apprehension he formerly displayed was replaced with determination.
"N-Nylon's got the right idea…" Gretchen murmured as she started straightening her body, "If we work together…we can beat these two spells! None of us are weak, we're tough as nails!" Although the spikes were going to disappear, Gretchen opted to completely straighten her body with all her strength, breaking them like glass. "MERU MERU ME!" Ponygon neighed determinedly, doing the same thing as Gretchen did.
Unbelievably, Ganjasu Maborose disappeared. The darkness covering the floor went away to reveal the actual floor. Nylon, Gretchen, and Ponygon had all passed Mystrael's Test of Strength. "It's gone!" Izo pointed out. "Yeeah! That's what's up!" Curtis hollered, rejoicing.
"Alright, here's the game-plan!" Sunbeam spoke firmly, "Nylon, you take of that spell! Gretchen, destroy the lock to Chanigras Maborose! Ponygon, you and I are going for the book!"
"RIGHT!/MERU!" The three Mamodo responded fierily and started performing their tasks.
"Switch spells, Izo!" Nylon yelled to his partner. "Gladly." Izo responded alacritously as Garudo Shigeru disappeared, "Satetsu Shigeru!" Nylon raised his arms up as small silver lights appeared around and near his body. "Prepare to die, all of you!" Orion roared as he unleashed a tremendous and highly powerful energy blast from his cannons. At this same time, Nylon unleashed these lights as a seemingly endless barrage of stainless steel blades.
The two spells collided and were at equilibrium for a second until Dioga Rogganruno slowly began gaining supremacy. "Don't you dare give up, Nylon!" Izo egged his partner one, "Show that guy the power of your pride as a knight!" Nylon grunted loudly and full of effort as he inputted all of his strength into Satetsu Shigeru, forcing Dioga Rogganruno back to an equilibrium point.
"Some of these cannons are in the way, and it would help Nylon out a lot." Gretchen said, already in position. She then shouted to her partner, "Yo, Curtis! You said you enough heart energy for it, right? Then do it!" Curtis grinned as the battleship grey spellbook in his hand glowed, "Ask you will receive! LIGARUK!"
Upon it being said, dark energy coated the blade of Gretchen's scythe; the cuffs and collar of her jacket also were laden with flowing dark energy. The now Ligaruk-induced Gretchen gripped the shaft of the scythe with both hands and swung, releasing a wave of dark energy that sliced clean off the two cannons on Orion's shoulders. This dramatically decreased the power of Dioga Rogganruno, and Satetsu Shigeru was now pushing it back as a result.
"Excellent!" Izo exclaimed elatedly, grinning. "Heh. That's Ligaruk for ya. Gretchen's speed, power, and effectiveness of her scythe get a good boost. You shoulda seen that smirk on her face when she got it and whupped Jizuro's ass." Curtis explained, proud to see her take care of business.
"And now for the lock." Gretchen said as she got underneath Orion and swung again. Almost instantly, the powerful dark slash disintegrated the lock and Chanigras Maborose disappeared. "Oh man! Orion!" Jade shouted in shock, now fearing for the worst since Mystrael's spells were both gone, "I'd better help him with a spell." He turned to flip pages in the book, only to find that it was not there, "What the?"
"Checkmate, my friend."
Jade turned to see Sunbeam holding Orion's bistre spellbook while on top of the Go Shudoruk-induced Ponygon. "It seems you forgot that Ponygon is the fastest member of our team here." Sunbeam said and then tossed it up, "Gretchen! Take it away!"
"With pleasure, Mr. Sunbeam!" Gretchen jumped onto a part of Orion's body and then jettisoned herself off, going straight for the book. At that time, Dioga Rogganruno was overpowered by Nylon's Satetsu Shigeru, and Orion was now bombarded by a silver plethora of blades.
"Ha!" Gretchen grunted as she swung her scythe and sliced the spellbook in half. "Groovy!" Sunbeam exclaimed, posing coolly. "Meru me!" Ponygon said, doing his best to imitate his bookkeeper.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Orion roared in defeat as he turned intangible and eventually disappeared, signaling his elimination from the Mamodo Fight. Now with his Mamodo gone, Jade decided it was best to escape before he would suffer further wrath from Orion's conquerors.
"That settles that." Nylon said victoriously as he stopped using Satetsu Shigeru. "Phew. You can say that again." Izo sighed in relief as he and Curtis closed their respective spellbooks. Ponygon, Sunbeam, Nylon, and Gretchen all regrouped with these two. Sunbeam closed his book as Ponygon reverted to his normal form, "Kiyo went on ahead. So, we need to hurry up and catch up to him!"
"And if let's hope we don't encounter Mystrael and her troublesome spells again." Nylon stated as everyone nodded. Then, they all went off in hopes of catching up to Kiyo and Zatch.
The lavender-grey spellbook in Myriam's hands stopped glowing. Mystrael noticed, "So they passed and defeated Orion…Interesting; those three have King-material potential."
"Hm." Was Myriam's indifferent response.
Mystrael closed her white eyes as she smiled enigmatically, "You're more concerned about him, aren't you?"
"You mean I haven't made that clear already?" Myriam replied sternly. Mystrael giggled a little before looking ahead, "There's the next entrance." The two mysterious women stopped the entrance itself and peeked in to see what was going. May it be luck or otherwise, the ladies were now spectating the battle of Kiyo and Zatch versus Zale and Shine.
"There's your brother…" Mystrael muttered, her voice less than that of a whisper. "Yes, at long last…" Myriam spoke in the same quiet. She was so grateful to have finally gotten a chance to catch up with her brother. But, she had to wait until he was finished with the battle before she could try to make amends to him.
"Zaker! Zaker! Zaker!" Kiyo shouted the spell three times, pointing at their moving target. Shine was currently curled into a buzzsaw-like ball and rolling around the walls and ceiling of the battlefield. The diamond-hard quills that gave his spinning state its sharpness left indentions in the paths he was taking. The Zaker spells that Zatch was currently shooting at him constantly continued to miss, causing rocky debris to fall where they hit.
Then, Shine jumped from the wall and diving to Zatch, claws to cause more damage. "Zakeruga!" Zatch fired another concentrated beam of electricity, but Shine curled back into his ball-like state and start slicing through Zakeruga, all the while getting closer to Zatch.
"You're finished, blondie!" Shine shouted after successfully lasting through the Zakeruga. He then drove his claws into Zatch's body, almost to the base."ZAAAATCH!" Kiyo screamed bloodcurdlingly. Impulsively, he began running for his partner.
"St-Stay over there, Kiyo!"
Kiyo stopped in his tracks as Zatch grabbed those heavy, diamond arms of the Go Diamonruk-enhanced Shine. "I will…I will…defeat Shine…Zofis…and the others…until I become a kind king." Zatch stated tiredly but resolutely, his blond locks shadowing his eyes.
"A kind ring?" Shine sniggered until bursting out laughing, "You're kidding me, right? How do you expect to become king in this state? You can't say you're going to become without anything to back up those words! Why do you think the weaklings are the first to go; the strong ones who do back up their words take them out! Guess what, Zatch Bell? That's what's about to happen to you! Once I'm done with you, I'm leaving this place and resuming my ambition to become king! You will never get the chance to become the king, I'm afraid!"
"I will become a kind king!" Zatch retorted, gritting his teeth harshly, "I promised Kolulu and every one of my friends and allies!" Shine frowned, "Hm. Then I guess it's true that the weak ones always stick together."
"Call us weak all you want, Shine…" Kiyo spoke emotionally, "But our so-called "weak" friends are what gave us our power. They are who keep us going!"
"Too bad they aren't here now!" Shine said, "Now time to end this." The anthropomorphic porcupine was about to rip his claws out brutally but somewhat they wouldn't budge. "What the?" Suddenly, like a bullet, Zatch's golden-orange eyes, full of raw fire, glared into Shine's eyeless sclera. Shine was absolutely surprised and even froze up. Because of that, he failed to notice that Zatch used his strength to pull his claws out of his body.
"I'm going to do it! I will become a kind king!" Zatch shouted fierily. "L-Let go, you bastard!" Shine roared but his arms wouldn't budge again because of the Lightning Blonde himself. "Take this, Shine! Zaker!" Kiyo shouted passionately.
When Shine was Zatch's eyes roll to the back of his head and lightning beginning to form in his mouth, he shouted to his black-haired bookkeeper, "Zale! Give me something to counter this!" Zale replied, looking at the Millennium Mamodo, "Sorry, you'll have to endure. You're better off in a state of Go Diamonruk than your regular form taking it."
Shine gritted his sharp teeth as he prepared for the worst. Zatch then released a powerful Zaker at the Mamodo from a thousand years ago. The yellow lightning completely enshrouded Shine for at most twenty seconds before dying down.
Although Shine continued to stand on his feet, he had suffered damage from the Zaker, even though his diamond armor was still pristine. He glared at the blonde boy who glaring back. "Shine, now it is time for you to approach more cautiously. Understand me?" Zale said firmly. Shine nodded, "Hmph; okay then." He then charged at Zatch again with his claws ready to go at it, "Then let's see if this will be any different!"
"IESHUN!"
An orbicular field of psychic energy suddenly appeared in between Zatch and Shine with the latter being the recipient. "WHAT THE HELL?" Shine screamed as he was blown into multiple slabs of rubble. "Who in the world…?" Zale muttered disapprovingly, eyes narrowing dangerously as he looked around.
"Whoa, what a technique!" Kiyo said in a shocked but impressed tone, "It knocked him right away!" Kiyo then heard someone step up beside him, along with a semi-bright, purple glow. Zatch at this time also noticed the cause of that attack was floating off the ground indefinitely. They smiled brightly when they found out the people were the telepathic duo—Angelica Tsukoro and E.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." They apologized sheepishly.