Hetalia – Of Magic and Might
18! Wooooo. In this chapter we are wrapping up the first mini crisis arc! Disclaimers: I do not own Hetalia or its characters.
Enjoy!
1 Kilometres from the floating isle known as 'Whale-Tail Island', The Air Ship 'The Fair Lady', The Pilot and Control Room.
As Alfred felt a splatter of boiled blood fall against his cheek, he heard the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor. Just in front of him, Alfred saw the fresh corpse of the co-pilot fall to the ground, a small throwing knife impaled into his forehead. The room was dark and the first lingering scents of blood came creeping from still bodies. At the centre of the room in front of the helm wheel, Hyde stood with Arthur hostage. Alfred's eyes darted across the room
The control room was structured with a large glass concave window in front of the helm wheel. For some reason the lights were out and the only light present was natural. On the right side of the room were sprawled out navigation charts, rulers and compasses littered across them. Opposed to popular opinion, it seemed air ship courses were manually planned out by navigators and their charts. Opposite the charts was a small basic kitchen which was used by the crew and pilot, dark red strains coloured the wooden cupboards. A body was slumped against the kitchen unit, breathing shallowly with their head bowed. Beside them laying on their front was another unmoving body, though Alfred could not let if they were the pilot or a crewman. Or if they were even alive.
Over by the wheel Arthur attempted to break free from Hyde in such a way that didn't result in his throat being slit.
"Pity that" Hyde sarcastically remarked to Alfred as he inclined his head towards his dying victims. It was like he didn't even care he had just murdered someone. Alfred hated it, he hated this man's complete disregard of human life. This war was taking enough lives as it was, the world didn't need more blood on its hands! It was his whole reason for joining the resistance, to reduce the casualties rate. To become a hero. So why was he so weak?
Rage boil up inside of him, rage he had not left since his parents' death. Back then, he could only watch helpless on the sidelines as his parents burned. He had failed. He hadn't be there, hadn't been strong enough to change anything. He had failed. Again. Now, because of his weakness, more death was on his shoulders.
"Why can I never do anything right?!" Alfred silently screamed as tears whelmed behind his glasses. "You bastard!" Alfred in blind rage screeched at Hyde as he ran towards him, fists clenched. Hyde crudely threw Arthur to one side, Arthur smacking his head on the hard floor with a sickening thud. Turning back to his attacker, Hyde shook his finger condescendingly and tutted as Alfred closed the distance between them.
"You know four eyes, I don't like to ru-urgh!" Hyde was about to finish as Alfred's right hook connected with his face. Hyde rolled with the punch and stumbled right. Bringing in his elbow up to block Alfred's follow up uppercut. Absorbing most of the impact in his arm, Hyde retaliated with a wide kick sweep. Catching Alfred below his rib cage and knocking the wind out of him.
Now it was Alfred's turn to put some distance between them. Alfred shuffled back a step to dodge the next kick Hyde sent his way, good god he had long legs. Running over to the navigation table, Hyde grabbed one of the many brass compasses. Leaping forward Hyde feinted left before going low and stabbing Alfred's right leg with the compass. Alfred hissed in pain, shoving at Hyde and knocked him back onto the table with the charts. Alfred bit his lip and examined his wounded leg. Hyde had drove the compass quite deep into his leg and while the compass blocked the wound from massively bleeding, it didn't mean it hurt any less. Alfred dragged his leg over to where Arthur lay, Arthur's eyes fluttering as he regained consciousness.
"Alfred?" Arthur asked weakly as he opened his eyes, brows drawing together as he tried to focus on his surroundings.
"Hey buddy, I'm here" Alfred replied reassuringly, despite how tense he was as Hyde predatorily circled the duo. Clutching his head Arthur unsteadily rose beside Alfred, scanning the room and assessing their situation.
"He needs to be stopped Alfred. If this continues, we won't be walking out of here alive" Arthur whispered under his breath, Alfred nodding subtlety in response.
"He got my leg, I won't be as quick as I usually am" Alfred returned not taking his eyes off Hyde who watched their conversation with a bemused expression crawling into his face.
"I have a plan. If you distract him for about 10 seconds, I have a way to bring him down" Arthur murmured, Alfred turning to look at his friend with a raised brow.
"What do you have in mind?" Alfred inquired a mischievous gleam behind his glasses.
"Well, I can safely say that you'll never of seen anything like it" Arthur vaguely said grinning. Stepping a few steps back and closing his eyes in concentration, Arthur began to do what he had not in a very long time. Taking Arthur's silence as his cue Alfred as best as he could, darted forward trying to wrestle for the element of surprise. To his benefit, Hyde was staring at Arthur in confusion and was completely oblivious until Alfred slammed into Hyde like a bull. Pushing Hyde off him, Alfred raised his arms in his heavy boxer's stance.
When Alfred was growing up General Ludwig had oversaw all combat training. It was when Alfred was around 17 when Ludwig had discovered his natural talent at boxing. Long days and longer nights had led to Alfred developing a stable strong boxing style, 'ground and pound' as Alfred had used to name it. Of course though, Ludwig knew it was reckless and foolish to stick with one fighting style. So naturally, he made Alfred memorise and develop a ridiculously wide range of styles. Alfred both loved and hated Ludwig for it.
Keeping his face low and rib cage protected, Alfred went for two quick jabs aimed for Hyde's exposed face. Hyde keeping his ground, leaned slightly back out of reach before returning his own jab to Alfred's injured leg. Swinging his leg out of the way. Alfred brought his left knee up and jammed it against Hyde's open soft stomach, earning him a satisfying gasp of breath from Hyde. Not breaking tempo. Alfred proceeded to slam his elbow against Hyde's nose. Hearing a loud crunch as he broke it. Hyde's head snapped backwards from the impact. Causing him to retreat a few paces back.
"You think you're so bloody smart, don't ya kid? Think a few fancy moves will save your backside? Think againn- what the hell is in his hand?!" Hyde yelled pointing to Arthur. Following Hyde's stare Alfred saw Arthur standing palm turned upwards, crackling with white lightening. Alfred's tongue started to taste weird and the hair on the back of his neck began to stand up as Arthur charged his palm, opening his golden highlighted green eyes when he had finished.
"I bet I don't need to say this, but this might be a bit 'shocking'" Alfred chuckled as Arthur without warning sprinted over to Hyde. Not sparing him even a warning, Arthur pressed his charged palm against Hyde's chest and discharged the immense voltage he held. Expertly electrocuting Hyde as all volts ran through him to the ground. When the charge ran out, a slightly charred Hyde slumped to the floor unconscious. Arthur side stepping so that Hyde's face took the full impact of the floor. Pleased with his work Arthur turned to Alfred with a sarcastic look on his face
"Really? 'Shocking'? That was the best you could come up with?" Alfred grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
"It's not like I had much time to think of a good pun. Next time tell me what your going to do and I'll think of a good one in advance" Alfred returned, walking over to and kneeling beside the slumping body by the kitchen. Checking for a pulse. "That's the real deal isn't it?" Alfred said seriously this time. "Your magic"
Arthur sighed and looked down at his palm. "It is, I thought I might be a little rusty. After all this time and all"
"Doesn't seem it dude. That was totally amazing. As much as I hate to see eye to eye with the Emperor, I understand why The Emperor sees magic as a threat" Alfred grimly admitted as he felt a gently pulse on the pilot's neck. Arthur didn't reply to that, or perhaps he didn't want to. Alfred couldn't blame him, instead he focused on checking for pulses.
The pilot and his navigator had survived however barely, while the co-pilot had fallen. Alfred and Arthur covered up the co-pilot's body and gave their apologises and condolences to the pilot and navigator. The pilot while he mourned, knew that without him, the ship would never arrive at its destination. Being unable to move, the pilot had Arthur pilot the ship as he watched and gave occasional helpful directions. Through in the pilot's mind, Arthur was a natural at the helm and hardly needed any prompting in the right direction. After applying first aid to the navigator, who stayed with Arthur and the pilot. Alfred exited the control room to see a slightly bloodied Francis and Kiku conversing, while sitting on top of a hog-tied Dodger and Skipper. As Alfred drew closer, Francis spotted him and frantically rushed over. Meeting Alfred with a crushing embrace.
"Alfred! Thank god you are safe. Are you hurt? Ah Your leg! Is Arthur hurt to?!" Francis near cried as he fretted over Alfred. Alfred smiled tiredly over the over-dramatic Frenchman.
"Relax dude, Arthur and I are fine. Lets go and get patched up. There's medical supplies in the control room" Alfred explained as he lead Francis and Kiku back through the door to catch Arthur joyfully singing as he manned the spinning helm wheel.
"Yo-ho, yo-ho a pirates life for me. We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, we loot. Drink me hearties yo-ho. We pilfer the seas, we're really a fright! Drink up me hearties yo-ho! Yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me! We're beggars, we're blighters and very well dressed. Drink up me hearties yo-ho! We pilfer and ravage, and don't give a hoot!" Arthur continued to sing, turning to throw a confident radiant smile over his shoulder to his astonished friends.
"Drink up me hearties, yo-ho"
It's a pirates life for me mate :) so this chapter was quite fun to write. I feel like this was very much Alfred's time to shine. We learn about his style of combat and we learn his reason for joining the Resistance. I imagine Alfred to be more of a brawler, while Arthur observes from the sidelines before choosing the prefect moment to strike. We also got to see Arthur using magic for the first time, using it as a finisher. It makes you realise, that these men can really hold their own in a fight. So being unable not to give a wink towards Arthur's pirate side, I included 'A pirates life for me' song to leave the chapter on a high note. Little reminder though, the last time Arthur sang happily was with his brothers *wink wink* I can't wait to continue and showcase off Francis and Kiku's fighting styles as we progress along with the story.
Thank you for reading and if you are enjoying this story, please give the time to leave a review to tell me what you think. If you want to keep updated with this story, please follow for upcoming chapters!
Untill next time folks!