"Alright, listen up! Here's the plan, I'm only going to say this once so you lot better pay attention!" Elizabeta barks out as she stands atop the third tier of the building, looking down on the gathering of around fifty or so men and women. Behind her, her war council stands, tall and proud, if a bit of an odd lot.
The people below, Alfred has learned, are the heads of the clans of Daská. Each one of them willingly defers their power to Liz as the unifier of their land, and will follow her lead, no matter what.
Alfred looks out quite curiously at the sea of faces, wondering what exactly Liz did to gain all of their trust. If the business of the Order is only known to them, how did she get so many people to follow her? He'd asked Gil, but he said it was just cause she was a good leader, Matt didn't know and he doesn't really know Antonio well enough to feel like he could ask him.
What he does know, is that they made a big fuss about him —or more specifically Arthur— standing up here behind her for this speech, and now he can see why. Since he's been here, he's only seen a handful of these people, as most have come from all across the kingdom, but now gathered he can see the stares and pointing and whispering at the sight of the wolf.
Arthur, however, was lest than pleased by it. Al could tell even without the wolf voicing it, he could just feel the unease, something he could understand. And when he whispered as much to Mattie beside him, his twin just smiled, "Don't worry, their just impressed." He reassured.
That certainly helped to inflate Al's ego just a little bit, and when he passed the message on to Arthur, the wolf blinked, before standing straighter, clearly exuding pride.
Alfred is no stranger to war tactics, and by the end of it, he understood his part clearly. His and Arthur's presence is a morale booster, but they are also key to taking down this Blood Viper. Of course, he was already filled in before coming out here, which he's grateful for. 'Cause if he didn't know it was Mattie who came up with this, he sure as hell wouldn't have agreed to it.
Come morning they move out, the clan heads will gather their men, and the fight will begin. He's not big on stealth, but now he understands Gil's mad training. The Viper, much to his name, has surrounded his territory with Acreta's; large, man eating, venomous snakes, roughly the same size as the relatively more harmless Sandworms he's spent the last three days killing.
His job is simple really, since Arthur's heightened senses can pick up on movement in the sand, they're tasked with going ahead and clearing the way of the snakes.
Easy.
"This is not easy!" Al shouts, narrowly dodging the fangs of another Acreta as he rolls out of the way.
Nearly two weeks of marching to reach the edge of the Viper's territory, and as planned, he and Arthur are the first to go in.
All he has to do is just kill snakes, how hard can that be?
When there's six of them trying to kill you at once? Very.
This is what he gets for thinking they had the easy job.
"Al!"
At the wolf's warning he plants his right foot and twists, swing his sword up and back as he rotates, "Argh!" He cries as he forces the blade up into the neck of a striking snake, spinning fully to put his full force behind it and shove the sword up through it's skull.
Behind him, while his sword is currently imbedded in the snakes head, Arthur jumps another that makes to attack him, pinning it to the sand with his weight and ripping into its flesh at its eyes. The snake thrashes, tail wiping to strike the wolf.
'Arthur!'
They time it well, Arthur jumps back and releases the writhing beast, causing the tail to miss him, and Al pulls his sword free from his to drive it through the mangled eye of Arthur's, killing both within seconds. But even as the two fall still, Arthur warns him of more approaching, and sure enough, moments later three more burst out to surround them.
"Damn it! Just how many of these stupid things are there?" He complains, using the body of one of the dead to vault over and slide under the next one that aims for him.
As it's head is lowered from the miss, Arthur uses that opportunity to pounce, pulling it down to the ground and ripping its neck open. Alfred doesn't stop either, running and jumping on top of the tail of another, using it to throw him at the farthest away one, driving his blade down on it's head.
He thinks their doing well, that is until he hears Arthur cry out and feels four points of pain explode in his back.
"Aaarggh!" He cries, almost doubling over, but fights through it to look back in time to see one of the Acreta tossing Arthur through the air.
"Arthur!" Al cries, bolting down the dune to where the wolf landed.
Adrenaline courses through him as he runs as fast as he can.
He starts to panic when Arthur doesn't get up, and the Acreta turns its attention to the prone wolf.
Alfred pushes himself harder, sliding down the dune just in time to block the snake as it makes to strike the stricken wolf, driving his blade hard down the beasts throat.
"Arthur!" He calls urgently, pushing the dead snake aside as he looks over his shoulder to the wolf.
'Rrrugh...' Arthur groans, his fur turning red with his blood, sending another jolt of panic through the knight, but Al is forced to keep fighting as the last two snakes make to attack. He hates that he has to leave the wolf's side, even for a second, but he has to draw the beasts away.
Running up under one, he draws them to follow back up the dune, ducking down behind the body of a dead one to set an ambush. He waits for his moment, listening closely to the crush of sand under them as they sliver, before he springs up, swivelling his body and carrying his sword swing with it, he cuts off both snake's heads in one go.
Finally, all is quiet, and Al pauses for only a second, before he's vaulting over the snake bodies and sliding back down to kneel by the wolf's side.
"Arthur!"
The red patches have grown as he's continued to lose blood, and Al's hands hover uselessly over his friend not knowing what to do.
'Urgh...' Arthur groans, panting from the heat as he rolls to lie on his stomach, 'Fucking...snakes...'
"Artie! Thank the Gods, your alright." Alfred breathes in relief, slumping.
'Mostly.' The knight worriedly watches as Arthur winces, shifting his position, 'Al? Do you think you can freeze the wounds? I would but...' Arthur trails off, looking away.
The knight blinks, looking the other over. It's rare for Arthur to admit any weakness to him, so he knows he must be bad if his asking for help.
"I'll try."
Frowning in determination, he hurriedly sets his hands over the wounds along the wolf's back. As he focuses on creating a layer of ice to seal and try to stop the blood loss, Al is relieved to find the wounds not nearly as big or deep as he had first feared. He can still see some crystals of ice in the wolf's fur, and he realises Arthur must have frozen his fur over before the bite to protect himself.
"There." He sighs, feeling the drain of using his magic —something he's still far from good at, especially in this heat— as he looks over the lumpy and uneven patches of ice, "It's not perfect, but it'll have to do."
Arthur nods, grunting as he stands, Alfred right along with him.
With the Acreta in this area now dead, they can move on to phase two.
Pulling a mirror out of a pouch on his belt, Al climbs his way back up the hill, turns east and raises it above his head, angling it back and forth to flash with the reflection of the rising sun. He waits, and sure enough a few moments later he sees the flash of reply.
Plopping down in the roasting sand, he sits and waits for the group to make their way over, Arthur finally climbing up to lie next to him, panting heavily.
By the time he sees Gilbert leading the two dozen men with him, the air has turned foul with the stench of the slimy innards of the snakes cooking in the heat, thick black blood drying into the sand where they lie, and he's had to refreeze Arthur's wounds twice, though thankfully the bleeding has stopped for the most part.
"Ooh, good job kid." Gil whistles at the sight, grinning proudly.
Al smiles back, pleased at the rare praise, but Arthur makes his continual dislike of the albino clear by growling at the man —one meal won't buy his favour— not that Gilbert pays the warning any heed.
"Let's move."
They're now crossing into enemy territory, so they have to keep their guard up all the time.
Several hours of skulking their way up and over the dunes, making sure not to be seen, the sun is sitting high in the sky as they finally make it to their next target; the caves.
The Vipers nest, in a place call Vosil Cël, is heavily fortified.
But, there is a way in.
At the entrance to the old cave system set in the rocky hills of Vosil, the group pause, pulling out torches to light and prepping weapons.
While the group prepares, Gilbert turns to look up at the sky and lets out three high pitched trill like whistles. Al is about to ask what he's doing, when the distant screech of a bird makes Gil grin, and watches with wide eyes as the man holds his left arm out and the biggest eagle he's ever seen descends out of the open sky to land on it.
"Holy crap Gil, that bird's like half the size of you." Al gasps, only serving to make the man grin wider in pride.
"He's a beauty, ain't he?" The man coos, petting the large predator under the beak, "Raised Gilbird from a chick myself."
While Alfred is still gawking, Gil pulls a piece of parchment out from his pouch and slots it into the small cylinder on the bird's leg.
"Now be a good boy, and take that to Liz." He let's out another series of trilling whistles, and watches as the eagle takes off, flying up into the sky, off to deliver the message.
"Alright, listen up." Gil whisper shouts, as he turns back to the group, commanding everyone's attention, "These caves are old, but their tunnels are not well known, so they should be unguarded. But don't let your guard down now, if the Viper has somehow found out about them, expect traps, and lot's of them."
With that rousing pep talk, they go in.
Alfred and Arthur take up the rear as Gil leads the men up front, following an old patchy map, and every so often he'll stop and his eyes will shine as he uses his magic to look for the route to take.
Luckily for them, the tunnels are large and spacious, so Arthur doesn't have to squeeze his way through.
For a while, everything is silent. This should relax them, but it only works to set everyone more on edge.
It's not until Al notices Arthur sniffing the air that he realises something is up.
'Artie? What is it?' Al asks, using his mind to speak so as to not draw any unwanted attention.
The wolf frowns, looking out into the light of the group ahead, 'I don't know. This smell...' he lowers his head, sniffing at the ground, 'It's coming from inside the rocks.'
Sensing something is amiss, Al calls for the group to stop.
"What's up?" Gil calls back, and that's when it happens.
Arthur barely has time to warn Al of the distant sound of a rock cracking, before the hiss of rushing gas, and suddenly, the torch flames catch and the tunnel fills with flames.
The fire rushes and burns everything in it's path, scorching the cave walls, the force causing a cave-in as the lit gas ruptures the rocks. Back at the entrance, dust, rubble and flames spew out.
A fire tunnel trap, and they set it off.
And within the heart of it all, Alfred stares in awe as Gilbert holds his sword out, his Flame Blade, using it to absorb and redirect the raging fire around them, the flames from their torches rising up to the ceiling to spiral around the walls and disappear out behind them.
There's a collective sigh from the men, all clearly relieved to have Gil with them, and when the fire ends, as suddenly as it started —the torches extinguishing as a result— they're left in total darkness, only lit by the red-orange glow of the albino's sword. The entrance is now blocked by the cave-in, their pocket of space being the only thing spared from the destruction, large holes having opened up both above and below through out the tunnel, littering it with rocks.
"Well," Gil sighs, his eyes shining once more, "at least that answers that question. Be on the look out for more traps!" He calls, once again heading off down the only direction left to them, forward.
Deciding that lit flames are too dangerous to carry incase of another fire trap, two of the men quickly create a light orb with their magic. But doing so is draining, especially for long periods of time, so they move to the centre of the group, the most well defended area and take turns maintaining the orb.
As they go, now cautiously traversing the rubble filled tunnels, they run into more traps along the way; poison darts in the walls, spears set to drop on them, and worst of all, toxic gas. But Al is surprised to find the group is more capable than he thought, each in some way or another able to neutralise the threats.
It feels like they've been down there for days, but really, it's only a few hours until the reach their destination. Vosil Cël, or at least the cliff tops over looking it.
Al and Arthur remain in place at the cave exit as everyone else goes off to do their bit. They bide their time, waiting for the signal. Their group is the diversion, with three main tasks; disabled the church alarm bell, open the valley gate, and most importantly, locate the Viper. While Elizabeta's main forces should now be in position, ready to launch their attack from the valley any second now.
He hears a distant shout and suddenly, everything goes wrong as the bell starts to ring.
"Damn it!" He curses.
They were supposed to take that out, something must have gone wrong down there. He's now left with a dilemma, does he act now, or do they retreat?
'Can you see anything down their?' He decides to wait it out, hoping Arthur might be able to see what's going on.
The wolf frowns, squinting down at the valley, 'Humans running about.' He lies down, leaning to look over the edge, 'hmm, the uh, gate thing? It's still blocking the valley entrance.' Arthur sounds unsure, still not used to all these human names for things.
"The gates still down?" Al asks worriedly.
When Arthur nods sluggishly, he frowns.
"Hey, you feeling okay?"
'Mhh,' Arthur hums, panting heavily, 'it's too hot here.' He complains, leaning more on the rocks as he lies looking down.
That's something Al can agree with, he can't imagine how hot it must be for him, with all that fur. In the back of his mind Alfred wonders if maybe they should consider cutting it, though he doubts Arthur would be too thrilled with that.
Instead, he focuses back on the task at hand. If the gate is still down then Liz's forces can't get in. And if they can't get in, their group'll be wiped out in minutes.
Making his mind up, Al turns to Arthur.
"Stay here Artie, I'm going to go open the gate."
'What? No, I'm coming with you!' He protests, but doesn't make to get up.
"No way. Sorry Artie, but your too big for stealth in somewhere as dense as this. Besides," he grins, "I need you up here as my eyes. You can tell me when the coast is clear or if something goes wrong."
Arthur tries to protest some more, but eventually gives in, much quicker than Al thought he would.
He frowns at the wolf even as he starts to climb down the cliff. Honestly he doesn't want to leave Arthur's side any more than he does, but they don't have much of a choice. He's still worried about the wolf's injuries, the ice he made has long since melted but the wounds have thankfully stopped bleeding completely now.
But if they want this attack to work, they need that gate open.
Still, he can at least still keep in contact with the wolf.
'Artie? How's it looking?' He asks as he drops down onto a ledge only a few dozen feet above the valley now, glad that the climb is an easy one.
'No one is looking this way yet, but hurry.' The wolf's voice sounds distant, as if he was speaking from far away, but still clear enough to be understood.
'Right.'
It occurs to Alfred now that he's only a few feet above the ground, that they haven't really had a chance to see from how far they can still talk to each other like this, and a seed of worry sprouts at the thought he might just have stuck his foot in it, but he can't back out now.
Jumping down from the cliff, he quickly dives behind a nearby wall and looks out. The gate house is about half a league away, but there's little cover between him and it, plus, more guards have gathered to defend it as the confusion of the alarm bell has set everyone on high alert.
'Al, there's someone coming your way!'
He faintly hears the shout in his mind in time to move around the wall, wait, them leap back to attack. He grapples with one of the Vipers men, knocking the man's helmet off before managing to pull him into a choke hold, struggling with him until he falls unconscious. Setting the man down in the shadow of the building, he realises they're about his size and he grins as he gets an idea.
At the edge of the rocky valley outside Vosil Cël, Elizabeta taps her foot worriedly as she waits, her men all set for the attack.
Gilbert may says she's a good leader, but she hates all this sitting around. She's a woman of action, and she simply can't stand waiting. But even though it goes against all of her instincts, she forces herself to stay put, or risk jeopardising Matthew's plan.
She trusts him, even though he's young with no actual battle experience, the teen has more than proven himself to her. She knows, with the upmost certainty, that Matt is the best tactician there is.
But, as if the Gods were playing a cruel trick, just as she's reassuring herself, the distant sound of the alarm bell rings out.
"Something's gone wrong." She gasps, immediately jumping to her feet and spreading her wings, ready to run in and take matters into her own hands, to hell with the plan.
"Be patient Mistress." Antonio smiles, leaning on his battle axe, looking completely unfazed by the sound.
She frowns angrily at him, opening her mouth to argue, but huffs and sits back down instead, waiting for the signal from the lookout.
Antonio is right, they must be patient. Like Gilbert keeps telling her, plans can change and she needs to be able to adapt. Sure, alone she's strong, but even she can't take on an army by herself. She needs her men, and they need her.
Looking to the cheery brunette, she gives a weary half smile, and he nods back; it's at times like these, that she's glad to have him around, Antonio is far better versed in this than her.
She returns her gaze to the distant cliffs, where she knows the lookout, Matthew, is waiting.
It's an agonising wait, but finally the signal is given; the gate is open.
As soon as they have the all clear, she's up and leading the charge, Antonio right beside her.
"Aaaarrh!" They cry as they run through the valley, cutting down sentries and confused guards who get in their way.
Once inside the old cliff ringed citadel, all hell breaks loose.
The sound of metal clanging and grunts and cries of fighting fills the air as the surprised Viper soldiers rush to meet these new intruders.
Alfred grins wide from his place in the guard house as he watches the Vipers become out numbered.
"Heeyaah!"
"Waaah!" He cries out, narrowly dodging an axe to the head.
Spinning around, he's met with a fierce looking Antonio, axe raised, ready to strike again.
"Whao! Antonio, it's me!" Al cries as he pulls the snake head styled helmet off.
"Huh? Ohhh!" Toni gasps, lowering the axe, "Sorry, didn't recognise you there. Why are you wearing the Viper colours?"
"Never mind that!" Al huffs, feeling the heat as he hurriedly strips them off the change back into his own, "I need to get back to Arthur, he's still up on the cliff."
"Ahh," Toni nods, cheerful once more, "Then I'll cover you, hurry."
"Right!"
They head back out, and Toni does just that, taking out anyone that tries to come near the cliffs.
'I'm coming back up now. Artie?' Al frowns when he doesn't hear a reply, wondering if he's just too far away now, given how loud the fighting has become, he's not surprised.
But as he climbs and tries again as he get's closer, he grows progressively more worried when he still doesn't get a response.
'Artie!'
He sweating as he races up, but his ascent is interrupted by a crossbow bolt imbedding itself in the rock mere inches from his head. Luckily, Antonio still has his back and he's saved from any more bolts as he climbs.
"Artie!"
Alfred shouts up as he scrambles over the edge to the cave, eyes widening when he's met with only emptiness.
"Arthur!" He shouts into the depths of the cave, voice echoing back at him.
He doesn't understand it, there's no way back out thanks to the cave-ins, and Arthur would have come straight to him if he'd climbed down.
He looks out over the fighting wildly, but he sees no sign of the large wolf.
Forcing himself to calm down, he closes his eyes, trying to focus on their bond, and block everything else out. If everything he's been reading in his Dad's journals with Mattie these past two weeks is right, he should be able to use it to locate Arthur, if their bond is strong enough that is, and he prays that it is.
His eyes snap open and he finds himself staring down at an inconspicuous looking building that most of the fighting is taking place around, and he just knows Arthur is in there.
He's never climbed down a cliff faster in his life, jumping to the ground and drawing his sword, he charges into the fray.
All around him there's fighting, and he runs into Gilbert as he slashes and cuts down two men that try to stop his advance. The albino doesn't need an explanation for Alfred's sudden attitude, he only nods and moves to fight back to back. Al is so caught up in the fighting to make it to that building, he's taken by surprise when what appears to be part of a stone pillar, drops seemingly out of nowhere and lands a few feet away, crushing at least four men to death. He blinks and looks up to the sky, mouth dropping open as he gapes at Elizabeta, wings spread, she flies over the battlefield, ripping of parts of buildings and throwing them at the enemy as if the were as light as a feather. And beside him Antonio suddenly reappears, swinging his axe and taking out three men at once as he joins them.
Gil, not one to be out done, kicks away the soldier he's fighting, turns and cuts another down as he pins them to the ground with his sword.
"Toni!"
As if it were choreographed, Antonio pushes away his quarry to spin and throw his axe at a soldier aiming for Gilbert, before crossing his hands over the hilt of Gil's sword.
"By the wings of the Fire God Skeedia, burn!" He slams his hands down on the hilt and the blade glows as all the fire Gilbert had absorbed into it bursts out to engulf every Viper soldier.
Just like that, the fight is ended as every single enemy cries out and screams, burning alive.
As the last of the bodies drop, Toni lifts his hands from the sword and the flames instantly go out.
Alfred stares as he is both awed and horrified.
He had suspected it with the fire netting, but he never really believed it until now.
Antonio is a Fire elementumuser.
The shock of this almost distracts him from his search, but when he feels the shadow of something squeezing his lungs, he snaps right back to it.
The three others look on in confusion as Al dashes through the field and slams open the doors, charging inside.
He roars in frustration as he's met with a two way corridor, whipping his head back and forth, not knowing which way to go.
"Kid?"
Gil and the other two come in behind him, but Al ignores them as he feels like it's getting harder to breathe, but he knows it's not him, it's Arthur.
"Alfred." Gilbert snaps firmly, grabbing the panicking knights shoulders and spinning him around to face them, "What's going on, answer!" He barks and Al is just about able to get out something rushed about Arthur before the world seems to tilt and his legs give out.
"Shit! Kid hold on!"
"Give him to me." Liz orders and Alfred limply hangs from them as Gil passes him over.
He gets slung over her in a odd piggyback between her wings as he ponders the weirdness of it all. It's like his lungs are being crushed from the inside and the world flipped upside down. He can't even put up any resistance as Gil lifts his head to look him in the eyes.
"Where is he kid? Where's the wolf?" He demands.
"W-wolf?" He's so dizzy he can't think straight, but a name does come to mind, "Artie?"
"Yeah him. Where is he Alfred? Where did they take Arthur?"
It's odd he thinks, as suddenly the world is like a tunnel, pulling him towards that name; Arthur.
Most of what he manages to gasp out around his restricted lungs is gibberish, but he does at least manage to send them in the right direction.
They know they're close when Alfred is suddenly sick down Elizabeta.
Alfred's not aware of much around him, but he does know that Gil is the one to kick open the last door at the end of the hall, and that there's some sort of fight, but all he really knows is Arthur.
Oh, and the fact that Liz just through him at someone beside the wolf.
Through his blurry vision something purple seems to break, and suddenly clarity returns to Al's senses.
He blinks, as he sees Gil, Toni and Liz fighting a fare sized group, and winning too. The ground beneath him groans and he looks to see he's sitting on someone.
But none of that matters in comparison to seeing Arthur, lying on some sort of golden altar in the centre of a magic circle, struggling to breathe.
"Artie!" He scrabbles to get off the person, and rushes to the wolf's side.
"Artie say something!"
Now that his focus has returned, he can still feel that crushing sensation in his lungs, but it's only a shadow to him, the phantom pain.
'Artie!' He pleads, shaking the wolf's shoulder.
Arthur's green eyes are glassy and unfocused, but they find Alfred, and he whines. The sound cuts the young knights heart, and furious, he spins to look around for the culprit.
"Aargh, bunch of pests." The man Alfred had been thrown at spits as he stands, glaring at Al.
Drawing his sword, Al points it at the man, "Blood Viper." He spits back, guessing this to be the man based on his looks.
Unlike the soldiers, this man is much older, with deep set wrinkles and greying hair, his silvery eyes hard as he looks down on everything as if they we're all beneath him, and his cloak, made of the head of an adult Acreta, all tell Alfred exactly who this is.
"What have you done to Arthur?"
The man sneers at him, unfazed by the blade pointed at him and ignoring the question in favour of his own, "Who are you boy, to speak my name?"
"I'm the Knight of Truth, now tell me what you've done?!"
Still, the man ignores his demand, "Truth? Ha! What nonsense." He turns his head, looking over to the desperate —and losing— fight of his last few remaining men, and regards it as if he were watching grass grow.
"ANSWER ME!" Al near screams as he charges the Viper.
The man barely looks at him out of the corner of his eye, frowning in displeasure before returning his attention to the ongoing fight. He doesn't even look as Al raises his sword to strike, or when a snake, body as thick as his arm, shoots out from under his cloak to wrap around the knights neck and lift him off the ground.
Unable to breathe, Al drops his sword as he claws at the snakes choking him.
"Such a nuisance." The man sighs boredly, looking back at Al with complete disinterest. "You do not interest me," his eye's flick down to the snake as he calmly commands, "kill him."
The snake hisses in Al's ear as it tightens it's hold and black spots start to dance across his vision.
"Kiiid!" He knows Gilbert is near by, but the shout sounds so far off, he could be miles away.
With no air he quickly loses his strength, and his arms drop as he cannot keep up his struggle. He can hear his heartbeat roaring in his ears as darkness takes over and everything tunnels out.
...
...
...
...Al...
...Alfred...
...do not give up...
...son...
...fight back...
...awaken the power...
..that sleeps within you...
...live...
...fight...
...breathe...
...FIGHT!
...
...
Alfred gasps for breath, eyes snapping open and lifting his hands to the snake, ripping it apart with ease. Now free, he drops to the ground, coughing and gasping for air as he pulls the dead body from around his neck.
Above him, the Viper raises and eyebrow as he looks down at him, giving the young knight his full attention, "Now, that's interesting."
He crouches, roughly grabbing Alfred by his chin as he continues to splutter for breath.
"You were dead. Yet you came back. How?" When he doesn't get an immediate answer, he squeezes the blondes face, "How did you do that? Tell me!" He shouts in the teens ear.
With bleary eyes, Al looks up defiantly, "Fuck. You." He rasps out, grinning as a Flame Blade is plunged through the man's back.
The Viper's eye's widen almost comically as he stares down at the blood soaked sword piercing him.
"You...pests..." he growls, flicking his hand and causing a blast of magic to throw everything around him away, including Gilbert behind him. The blast causes Al to roll across the circle and slam his back into the altar Arthur is on, while Gil is thrown through the air to be caught by Liz and Toni.
Even with a sword through him, the Viper is still dangerous.
"How...dare...you..."
As Al lies trying to get his bearings, the Viper turns his attention on Gil, and the three of them are forced to fight back, though it's clear the Viper's magic is much stronger then theirs, who are tired from the constant fighting. Still, even if he can barely stand, he know's he has to fight, he has to help. It's then that he notices his sword next to him, and grabs it as he uses the altar to pull himself to his feet.
'Artie?' He hardly even has the strength to use his mind to talk as he leans over the wolf.
Arthur is still spacey looking, and his breathing is getting worse, but he's clearly looking at something.
Following the wolf's line of sight, it's then that it dawns on him. The circle, the magic it holds, it's affecting the wolf somehow. Realising this, Al frantically studies it, hoping to understand it.
But he only grows frustrated as it's clear this level of intricacy is beyond him.
'Artie, Artie, what do I do? Please, just tell me what to do, anything, something, please!' He begs, holding the wolf's paw.
'...p...po...is...on...' It's weak and broken, but Al get's the message.
Poison...
Poison!
Snake venom, the Acreta that bit him, how could he not have realised that sooner.
The circle must be magnifying the effects, so, logically, if reversed, it'll reverse them too. He doesn't know how to reverse a spell though, but like Arthur taught him, he doesn't need to know how, just do it.
Holding his hands out over the wolf, Al closes his eyes and prays to the Gods to lend him their strength, and unleashes his magic.
Cool ice energy flows from him and the circle begins to glow, resonating with him.
The sudden activation of the circle distracts the Viper, if only for a moment, but that's all the other's need. In the exact moment of the opening they had been hoping for, Gil kicks the feet out from under the man, causing him to lose balance as Toni swings his axe up and Liz jumps, kicking the man down into the axe.
Head and body land separated as the fight ends.
As the three are catching their breath, they look over to see the circle slowly dim and stop glowing as Alfred collapses.
"Shit!"
Gilbert is the first to make it to him, with Liz right behind while Toni looks between the knight and the wolf. They sigh in relief at finding them both still alive, but Al is out cold and Arthur, while looking somewhat better, is still very clearly sick.
"Get a healer here now!" Liz barks and Antonio dashes off.
Authors notes: Sooo... yeah...
Good news is they're not dead, but, well, not good either...
This was a loooong chapter, so, yup, that's about it. One enemy down, and that nearly killed them, and this is just the first.
On a lighter note, please imagine Gilbert raising a golden eagle from a chick to a 40 inch tall, 7 foot plus wingspan bird of awesomeness, that is all.
R & R people.
And as a side note, I'll be going on holiday soon, so I probably won't be updating until I get back, so I hope this extra long chapter can tide you over for now.
Until then, stay awesome!