Chapter 14

Boss Fight

The crystal clear chord echoed through the misty darkness as Sayaka brought down her hands, white-gloved fingers splayed. She held it, concentrating, shifting to a minor chord that cut hauntingly through the perpetual twilight. Another shift, an octave lower, and she thought: Now!

The thinning fog was rippling almost like the surface of a still pond that had been disturbed by a thrown stone, seeming to billow away from her location with ebbs and flows. The view revealed a small span of land, several meters wide, stretching across what appeared to be bubbling black liquid. The red-clad figure further up along the land bridge was already moving, hurling herself backwards with a powerful leap, cartwheeling through the air and hitting the ground near her partner. Sayaka let go; dozens of shimmering, glass-like swords radiating blue light seemed to hover over the spot her friend had just vacated.

Like a pack of bloodthirsty dogs straining at their leashes, the radiant azure blades streaked toward the ground, hitting a group of the nearly solid mass of wriggling, wiggling leech-like familiars that had swarmed up on land. The bright, clean light illuminated twisted maws with gaping mandibles, sprouting from all over the things, working furiously even as they were annihilated.

Kyoko stood next to the white-caped girl, admiring her handiwork. Sayaka looked at the red-head out of the corner of her eye, whispering "Watch this." The crystalline swords remained imbedded, humming in the ground. Kyoko raised an eyebrow, but the younger girl had begun doing something with her arms, concentrating.

Getting a little cocky, she thought, shouldering her spear.

Watching the graceful, almost serpentine movements of those arms, admiring the sinuous interplay of muscle and bone in her exposed shoulder, the veteran's attention was drawn to a strange haze that had begun to blur the oncoming horde of the black familiars. Like the shimmer across a parking lot on a scorching hot day.

Then the swords exploded.

Kyoko instinctively closed her eyes and raised her arms to her face, but Sayaka was quicker. She flowed in front of the her spear-carrying friend, drawing the cape across her body. A wave of shrapnel, spinning razor-sharp shards of glass that seemed to crackle, exploded from the place where the swords had been. Dozens of the remaining wriggling shapes disappeared in a shockwave of annihilation, electric blue arcs of lightning blazing through the debris felling the remainder.

Feeling chunks of flesh from her still-exposed legs being shredded, Kyoko gritted her teeth and opened an eye a fraction to sneak a peek over her upraised, unharmed arms. The assault had ended as quickly as it had begun. Pretty much instantly.

Sayaka stood between most of her and the blast, cape extended with her left arm. Gazing at the back of her friend's shoulder length blue hair, she imagined that storm of broken crystal tearing into the girl's face. What had happened? She watched, concern turning to something heart-stopping as she watched the blunette fall to her knees, slumping forward.

What have I done?

Sayaka collapsed, shame and fear overwhelming the strength of her knees. She had just made a huge mistake-it had felt right, like she knew what she was doing... even though some of these things were just, kind of, coming to her.

She glanced back, eyes on the ground, afraid to look at her partner. She'd barely been in time-she knew instantly that the blast would be far more powerful than she'd imagined as soon as she'd let go of control...

Steel grey-blue eyes widened in shock, seeing the ripped flesh and exposed tendon of Kyoko's ankle and shin. She gasped, dismay coursing through her veins, chilling her heart, as Kyoko looked at her in disbelief, grave concern etched in her frowning face.

"Oh %&# , #$^ I'm sorry! I'm so sorry," the blunette began, crawling on her knees under Kyoko's wide-eyed grimace. She's going to hate me, Sayaka couldn't help thinking, even as she pleaded for forgiveness. "I didn't-" She felt the older girl grab her hair, yanking her head back. Here it comes, she thought, eyes closed tight, ready to receive her penance.

The iron fingers released their grip. "Goddam, you're not even scratched," the red head breathed, voice raspy and harsh. Sayaka kept her eyes closed, still waiting for, anticipating even, the punishment the older girl was about to dish out. I'm such a fool!

"What the hell was that, Sayaka? Hello... Sayaka? Are you okay?" A pause. "You look okay..." As she opened her eyes, the blunette blinked back moisture, gazing at her friend. Then down to her shredded legs.

"Oh god Kyoko, I'm so sorry, I thought-it felt like I knew what I was doing. It was like I knew what would happen, until the second I actually did it and it..."

"Blew up in your face?" Kyoko supplied, smugly pleased with her pun. Until she saw those bare shoulders slump.

"Whoa whoa whoa, Sayaka you need to keep it together. Whoops! That's what you should be feeling right now, girl, not some self-loathing 'I hurt my friend' crap." Sayaka felt the other girl's warm, calloused fingers try to lift her chin, but she felt so, so bad she didn't want to meet her eyes-

The gentle lifting became a rock-hard grip, and Sayaka found her gaze forced upwards to an angry, crimson stare. Kyoko drew back her hand, sharp canines displayed in a snarl, and-

SLAP!

"No more messing around, Sayaka!" the veteran muttered angrily, redfaced. Sayaka blinked slowly. She got to her feet, letting out a long breath, before reaching over to touch the damaged red boots and what they contained. Kyoko sighed.

"Much better. I'd thank you if you hadn't caused the dam-" Kyoko halted the sarcastic thought just a little late, and saw the fresh wave of hurt darken the blunette's eyes. I just ain't good at this, she thought more angrily than ruefully. "I'm kidding. Look, its not your fault, you're just learning your how to use your abilities; its not like there's a way to really prepare for being a Magical Girl. School was of no use; that's why I quit." She nodded sagely. She kept going when she recieved a blank, sky-blue stare. "You need time and practice, like I did. You gotta learn what your abilities are, and also your limitations. It was a long time before I was able to do lots of the stuff I take for granted, and that was with Mami's help." Whoops.

Blue eyes narrowed. "Mami-san was, like, your trainer or something?"

"Yeah," the red head said, making a show of scanning the horizon. "She taught me some stuff."

Sayaka's whole face lit up. "Really? You can learn things from other Magical Girls? Do you think, well, could you teach me some of those things? I mean, if you have time, I wasn't the best student in school, but if it's really sweet combat moves or something, I'd be way more into it..." Why is she so flushed all of a sudden?

"Ahh, hmm. Yeah, the thing is, its kind of different for everyone. People work... differently. We could try some things, see if we could figure out what works for you..." Kyoko knew that they were holding entirely different conversations, and was having a hard time keeping a straight face. If they'd been on the same page, she would have said something like Hell yeah I'll teach you things.

"Even though you almost blew us up-pretty amazing attack there, Sayaka." Kyoko tried changing the subject, using her old double-edged compliment trick. It worked. She quickly continued when Sayaka began to open her mouth. "We still got work to do. First lesson: kill the Witch first, everything else later."

She turned toward the immense black tower that dominated the deep purple sky. It had a twisted, warped appearance, and at the top appeared to be an enormous hand, grasping at the heavens.

"Looks like this should get interesting."

The tower loomed above them, grasping hand still somehow visible despite the vertical perspective. It appeared to float several meters above the ground.

There was no plan. There as only the basic intention: destroy the Witch, hopefully the last one in this mindscrew of a maze.

Sayaka was worried, but worked at not showing it. She even managed a little strut of bravado as they approached the sinister pillar of shadow. There was something exciting about heading back into the lion's den, she thought momentarily.

Then they were both being pulled into the immense doors that seemed to open in the side of the tower, sucked up and into the Witch's inner sanctum.

Get ready.

I am ready. Then: This means she knows we're here then, right?

Yup.

Okay, then.

The interior of the tower was a vast hole surrounded by a circle of stone. Pulling her flailing blue locks out of her eyes, Sayaka gazed upward and winced. It was like a roller coaster ride at Mitakiland, but inside of a tunnel-the path curved and bent, and she couldn't see very far ahead-which is why she was startled at her abrupt expulsion into a large, ornate stadium.

An epically-sized circle of black stone, a city block wide in diameter, surrounded the hole she'd come up through. Dropping fast, she steadied herself with a nudge of energy, sword out and glancing around feverishly, trying to take everything in.

Tier after tier of circular stone rose up, encompassing the base in a vast inverted dome. Looking up, she saw towering things like fingers, clawing at the sky... or ready to crush everything within the arena with a clenching of the immense hand.

Kyoko rolled up and away, slightly paler than normal, gaze taking in the details of the scene before her. She pointed, and an azure gaze followed.

Halfway up the tiers of stone, an immense, evil looking platform hung. Something waited up there. Watching, unseen from below.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sayaka caught movement. She turned, thinking that the shifting blobs of light had returned-she hadn't noticed them since the land bridge. Instead, she saw slightly different, rippling shapes, reminding her of the silvery liquid that she'd not been allowed to play with after breaking a thermometer as a child.

It looked kind of like a squid, moving backwards. Glancing around, she noticed another one seeming to swim lazily through the air. Toward them. She began to take in the scale, noticing they were quite a bit larger than the floating lights. "Uh, Kyoko..."

The older girl glanced over her friend's white-caped shoulder, cursing. With a burst of thoughts, she quickly conveyed her fight against the things' sibling under the lake, notably the fact it could reattach heads if they weren't destroyed, and the bites hurt. Sayaka was almost overwhelmed by the amount of detailed information flooding her thoughts, but felt like she grasped the important parts.

A few quick hops and the girls were flying through the air, their trajectory taking them to the raised platform. Once they were high enough to see above the ledge, Sayaka finally laid eyes on their quarry.

A long, shadowy figure coiled around the base of a white marble slab of rock that strongly resembled an altar of some kind. The blunette noticed chains attached to the corners and sides of the rough table, black iron seeming to faintly glow with a variety of colors, each chain different. Green, blue, red, orange, yellow.

Suddenly, she noticed another glow-vivid green-this time from the shadowy shape encircling the white slab of stone. She looked down into four enraged eyes staring out of the face of a monster-then it struck.

Sayaka knew Kyoko could fend for herself, honestly might not even need her help, but still felt a flash of worry as shadow spikes seemed to reach up, sharp spines ripping through the air in an attempt to impale her midair. She brought her cloak around her, sword humming with ferocity. As the Witch below her slid up, the blue-eyed girl noticed the long claws of darkness, wild flailing tentacles encircling the thing's evil, glowing green eyes. What she had first taken for a tail had appeared to split, a series spidery legs unfolding from the shadowy torso of the enemy she had sworn to kill. Sworn foolishly, in a moment of bravado and immaturity back outside the barrier-so long ago-but she had sworn to protect the people of Mitakihara from this menace, and she meant to fulfill her promise.

Still falling toward the Witch, she watched Kyoko fall like a burning meteor, waves of heat and magical energy blasting out as she hit the ground, stabbing the Witch's body with her spear. A wave of flame burst forth from the tip of the blade sticking all the way through the thing's chest. The arms and many legs of the thing seemed to disappear, fading in the fiery furnace of Kyoko's assault.

With a certain fatalism, Sayaka watched the shadowy limbs reform around the dark core of blackness. I knew it wouldn't be that easy. The shadow-tentacles surrounding the things face whipped out, grasping and stabbing at the red-clad Magical Girl below, who deftly rolled backwards, bounding away to regroup.

Sayaka came down behind the spider Witch, a whirlwind of chopping and slashing magical steel. The head didn't turn, but emerald eyes seemed to somehow emerge from the thing's shadow-face, glaring down at her as she cut a leg, another leg, then an arm in a sweeping series of attacks. The humming blade sliced through the figure with ease, but like smoke the shadowy appendages reformed before her eyes. She caught her cloak with her left hand, bringing it up just in time as a literal handful of long spikes were driven at her with terrific force, hurling her backwards dozens of meters. Skidding to a halt, she got down in a runner's stance and in a burst of speed dashed back toward the waiting Witch.

Kyoko had timed her next attack well, intending it to coincide with her partner's assault. As the blue blur closed in on the Witch, the older girl leapt up, murmuring under her breath. At the apex of her jump, one became five and a quintet of spear-tipped Kyoko's dropped down from the sky.

The blunette watched her friend-lots of her friend-pierce the body of the Witch clean through. The head, with its flowing tentacles, seemed to shift out of the way, but the five spears sunk through the body and into the black stone. For a moment their opponent appeared to be pinned; Sayaka wasted no time in following up with a series of slashes to the Witch's head. Frustration burned within as the thing seemed to flow around her sword, until a final cut severed its neck.

The black, shadowy spider body seemed to dissolve, pooling and whirling into nothingness.

Watch out! came Kyoko's desperate thought of warning.

The Witch's head seemed to grow, expanding almost balloon-like. It as almost comical, until the thing turned and Sayaka's attention was drawn to the massive, circular mouth that gaped open before her. Rimmed with tiny, jagged teeth, the thing reminded her of those disgusting lampreys she had refused to eat while growing up. It looked big enough to swallow her whole.

Incoming! Kyoko shouted mentally, and the first mercurial hydra familiar approached the blunette from behind-

Part one; i didn't want to admit that in the chapter title.

Thanks for even more posts. I am extremely grateful. Please continue, or start-old chapters, new chapters, good things, bad things, all info is appreciated!

About the whole # %$ deal... two things. First, I dunno, but Teen feels a bit more pg13 than r to me, but perhaps my problem is thinking in terms of movies. Swearing is conversation is frequently used as kind of filler adjectives and adverbs, overused and unnecessary, although not always the case as when it is used to convey extreme emotion. (I'm talking about real life conversation, not any particular written dialogue) Sometimes I find them necessary, like during some self-chastisement, or when startled...

The reason I like the "censored" version can be summed up in two words: Arrested Development. I've always thought the bleeped out words phrases were way more hilarious-especially when they last several seconds of conversation: it makes you wonder, and for me at least that thinking of which word was used is sort of fun. Someone, Jimmy Kimmel or something Falon had something where they just bleeped out regular dialogue, and the results were (for me at least) pretty hilarious.

That said, if three or more people request full on swearing, I'll do it, and go back and fill in the blanks.