Chapter 14: Destinies Clash

Victor collapsed on the floor, his body wreathing in pain.

Parker hmph-ed in discontent. Such an inferior specimen. Never in his entire life had he had to put up with so many fools. And all for what? A prize which was rightfully his for the taking? How pathetic! No matter; sooner or later, the job would be done. Madison lunged for Parker. SHHHHINK! Sarah charged towards him. SKRAK! Texik leaped at him with an insane man's face. SLAM!

One by one they kept coming, one by one he knocked aside.

He would kill them, but that would be too much work. Besides, Jewel was trying to get away. Poor thing; he'd have to comfort her later. With reluctance, he notched an arrow in his bow, and let it fly. Jewel felt the tipped arrow of weakness plunge into her, as she fell towards the floor. The last thing she saw was Parker walking toward her, as she slipped into unconsciousness.

One last bit of business to take care of.

His golden sword had really been worked to its limit. It could only be used one more time. He could just smelt it and save the gold nugget for later… but he had other plans. He stood above Pickaxe, who was still trying to recover from the painful blow Parker landed on him. Parke scoffed in disgust, and plunged his sword through Pickaxe's back. "GHHHKK!" was all Pickaxe's mouth could sputter. It would be too painful to yell. Parker let a small grin upon his lips in satisfaction, before bringing out his golden axe. Pickaxe wasn't the only one who was going to die.

The miner walked towards Victor, fiddling with his axe out sheer anticipation.

Rosetta's vision was limited, her consciousness desperately trying to penetrate its barrier. She heard the sounds of footsteps and groaning, only further fueling her desire to awaken. For a moment, her vision lit up, as she saw Parker looming over her father, an axe in his hands. Her vision blacked out again, and she heard a scream in the darkness. When her vision lit up again, she saw her father being hacked alive by Parker, as he slashed his axe over and over, trying to kill him.

With much effort, she managed to pull out her bow.

The bow had been heavily damaged at this point. Rosetta could only afford one shot. She pulled out her bow, doing her best to take aim. She couldn't wait any more if her father was to make it through this alive. When she felt the time was right, she released her arrow. It launched from its starting point at unimaginable speed… only to be left sticking out from the wall right beside Parker's head.

Rosetta's heart sank as Parker began advancing towards her.

Parker was done with these interruptions. A simple slice of the axe would be enough to send Rosetta to the grave. Such a shame, though… she was such a nice girl. He rose his axe to finish the job, when something grabbed his ankle. Shocked, both Parker and Rosetta turned to face… Endre!? I thought that idiot was unconscious, Parker recalled. The very ticked look on Endre's face said otherwise.

He yanked Parker's ankle upward, causing him to lose balance.

Parker fell to the floor with a CRASH!, his back suddenly overcome in pain. He tried getting back up, but Endre slammed his iron shovel against him, already back on his feet. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Endre screeched in utter rage. He knocked the golden axe out of Parker's hands, and hit him on the side of the head, effectively knocking him out. He prepared to deal the final strike, when someone grabbed his arms.

That someone was Rosetta.

"It's not worth it," she told Endre, "Not for him. If anything, we're doing him a favor." Endre though about this. Parker was a terrible person, that much was certain. He deserved a terrible punishment, but what if Rosetta was right? If anything, killing Parker would end his suffering, not start it. He brought down his shovel back to his side. He turned to face Rosetta. "Go get your father," he advised,"out base isn't that far from here. If you can get him to the village, he should be fine." Rosetta nodded, walking toward Victor and slinging him over her shoulder. She was heading towards the exit when…

"Take these," Endre said, tossing her several healing and regeneration potions.

As Rosetta left to find the base, Endre went back to check on the other miners. Other than Pickaxe, everyone seemed to be unconscious with a few bruises. Well, Jewel was just unconscious with an arrow in her right arm. Endre walked towards her, kneeling down to get a better look at her arm. "Brace yourself,"he whispered, even though Jewel couldn't hear him. He grabbed the arrow, and pulled it out of Jewel's arm.

She only flinched a little before resuming her unconsciousness.

Endre sighed from relief. He caressed Jewel's face, as he fed her a potion of regeneration. The gash where the arrow used to be already started to close back up. He slowly placed her head back down, and went to go check on Reed. Like the others, he was also unconscious, though it seemed Parker had hit him a bit harder than the others. He sighed, taking out a potion of healing.

Someone began crawling towards the golden axe.

With some struggle, Parker reclaimed his weapon. Silently, he rose back to his feet, tip-toeing towards Endre. This would end now. He rose his axe, prepared to finish off the "pitiful" miner. Unfortunately, he was unaware of a third person in their presence. Endre looked to see who to help next, only to see Parker towering above him. He swung down his axe, while Endre was too paralyzed with shock to do anything. K-CHNK!

Some people never go down without a true fight…

Pickaxe was still alive, somehow. The golden sword was still lodged in his chest, though that didn't seem to concern him. If Endre looked ticked earlier, well… Pickaxe looked like an enraged bull. He slammed Parker into the fortress' walls with his pickaxe. He quickly backed away, preparing an arrow in his bow. "My turn!" he declared, launching the arrow at Parker. Parker slashed the arrow in two before it made contact with him.

Game on.

Pickaxe and Parker rushed towards one another, pickaxes in hand. The began rapidly exchanging blows, usually canceling one another out. Eventually, Parker got sloppy, allowing Pickaxe to slam him to the side of the wall again. When Parker tried to retaliate, he ended up shattering his golden pickaxe. "NO!" he screamed, "GrAaAaH!" He once again donned his golden axe, ramming Pickaxe into the wall. He tried to charge again, but this time, he wasn't so lucky. Pickaxe cut straight through his armor, causing him to stumble backward.

When he tried to regain his balance, his throat was met with an iron sword.

Jewel looked at him with discontempt, still holding him in this position. "Jewel...why…?" he croaked. Jewel's unforgiving glare hardened; "You're too far gone. We can't let you hurt anymore people. Not for this…" Parker wanted to unleash his fury upon all of these miners, but at the moment he was badly outnumbered. The others had recovered, and, much to his chagrin, Blade had betrayed him. Within several minutes, Rosetta had returned with Stan and several miners from the village. It was over.

...and at that moment, Pickaxe collapsed.