Hey guys. I wanted to apologize if I sounded a bit rude in the last A/N. Was pretty heated, honestly.
Enjoy!
"Takeover..."
"TAKE HIM OUT, BEFORE HE...!"
"...Demon Mortavius." A cold chill went down Nashi's spine as a dark black magic circle appeared on Gin's raised hand. After this, the area around them became to darken considerably. Many of the Hunters just seemed to stunned to react as the circle began to glow. After a while, a few bursts of white magic flew towards Gin, and they exploded as they struck him.
Once the smoke cleared however, it became obvious those few bursts had not done much.
Standing in Gin's place was a man at least a foot taller than Gin was. His silver hair was tied up in a bun, and he was clad in armor that looked as though it had been carved out of human bones. On his back was a gigantic sword, and it's sheath also looked rather bony.
"ATTACK HIM!" Quinn shouted. At this, the Hunters launched their offensive, countless bursts of holy magic flying towards Gin. Nashi watched as he reached for the sword on his back and slowly swung it downwards.
The sword cleaved through many of the bursts, causing them to explode on impact. Once the smoke cleared, Gin still stood as he had been, totally unaffected. Before any more attacks could come, Gin looked to his left and swung the blade.
Nashi jumped as the force from the swing carved a crevice into the earth and sent many Hunters in that direction for a good twenty meters flying. Gin then turned right and repeated the attack, sending even more people flying. Once he'd done this, his bony wings unfurled from his back and launched him into the sky above everyone.
In the blink of an eye he rocketed back downwards in between the Hunters, Nashi and everyone else. As the Hunters tried their best to recover from the attack, Gin turned to them, and Nashi felt her spine tingle from his murderous glare.
"Uh...Gin?" she asked weakly. At first, she got no reply. But after this, Gin's arm shot up and pointed behind them. Nashi looked back to find the pathway cleared out of Hunters.
"Take Damien and get out of here." he said, voice huskier than before. "This'll get ugly."
"What about you?" Elise asked. "You'll end up like Damien if we leave you here by yourself!"
"No, I will not." Gin replied.
"How do you figure?" Simon demanded. Gin furrowed his brow.
"I won't let it." With this, he unfurled his wings once more and took off into the sky. Nashi watched him go before looking over at the others.
"Well, let's get out of here!" She said.
"Help me with Damien!" Steph shouted. Drake bent down and helped support Damien's other side, and together the two did their best to drag him down the path away from Gin and the Hunters. He looked to be in bad shape, but his eyes were wide open still and his face even whiter than before.
"You'll be okay..." Nashi heard Steph whimper under her breath. "You'll be okay...Please be okay..."
Although she was silent at this, Nashi felt the same.
It wasn't very often Gin was in control of the takeover, often because he never activated on his own free will. But when he was, he sure did feel the power flowing out of him.
Swinging his sword at another group of Hunters, Gin spared a look to see if Nashi and the others hand managed to get away in time. Not able to see them, Gin hoped they were.
Because as he said, this would get ugly. Looking around, Gin found he was abut to be wading through enemies, and probably for a while. He sighed and stood straight up, sheathing his blade.
"I'll give you all one chance." he said. "Get out of here and leave. Return home, and I will spare you the pain I inflict when I takeover into my Demon Lord." A few faces in the crowd seemed scared, but no one ran off. Gin sighed at this.
"Fine," he said, reaching for his sword. "I suppose we do this the hard way."
Blasts of holy magic came for him, but Gin quickly angled his blade to take the hit and redirect it towards the casters. He twirled in a circle and did this to many attackers, knocking them flat out. He wasn't aiming to kill.
He never aimed to kill, and as long as he retained control, never would.
Gin jumped away from another attack into the sky and brought his blade down on the ground, the shockwave sending more Hunters flying. He turned and did this again, knocking more away. The Hunters learned right quick that getting to close seemed like a bad idea, so now many hung back and shot at him this way. Gin took to the skies and flew over them swinging his blade, knocking everyone in the vicinity back. So far he'd dealt a massive blow to the army present, and it wouldn't be much longer before the remainder of it was-
"Everyone still up, gather the injured and evacuate the area." Gin made a face and stopped in mid-air to see what was happening. Standing atop a rock was Quinn, staring up at Gin calmly. "Make sure you don't come back, and wait for my orders."
"Sir?'
"Are you sure?"
"This guy could kill you!"
"We won't let you fall to this monster!" The army seemed to be in quiet an uproar over the evacuation order, but Quinn grinned and raised a hand to his chest. he pulled out what appeared to be a necklace of a Cross hanging from his neck.
"Have you forgotten, Demon Hunters?!" he roared. "I bear the mark of the Cross! I cannot fall in combat, no matter how deadly the foe!" The Hunters angry cries soon became elated cheers.
"Oh, right!"
"I totally forgot about that!"
"Get him, Master Quinn!"
"Show this demon who means business!" Gin kept his eyes solely on Quinn as he turned to his army.
"Now go, I shall return when I'm finished here." At this order, the army gathered up their wounded and started to leave the area, and soon it was just Quinn standing on the rock and Gin flying in the air.
"What does the Mark of the Cross symbolize?" Gin asked, curious. Quinn simply tucked it back under his clothes.
"Nothing you need to worry about." He replied, looking up at Gin. The blue eyes that had seemed very easy going beforehand were now deadly serious. Gin felt his stomach knotting up. The brawl was coming.
"I'll give you the same chance I have your men." He said. lowering his blade a bit. "Leave. Tell your men you killed me, and I shall leave as well. No one has to get hurt."
"No one..." Quinn growled. "Has to get hurt, you say?"
"What do you mean?" Gin asked. Quinn clenched his fists and stared up at Gin.
"You massacre an entire scouting party. We go after you, two more men end up fatally injured after finding you. We manage to track you down again, and now you've got backup. I try to get them to leave, they don't. You give yourself up, but soon after your backup ambushes us and hurt more of my men." Quinn laughed coldly. "I tell the army that hung back to go after you, and this squabble ends with more injured soldiers. And you have the stomach to tell me no one has to get hurt? You're the reason anyone's hurt at all!"
"I am truly sorry for your men I've hurt." Gin said, frowning. "I was protecting myself."
"Oh yeah?" Quinn asked, whipping his cloak back to reveal his left hand. "And now I'll protect everyone. From you!" Gin watched as a bright white sword made of magic appeared in Quinn's hand, and the glow made Gin's stomach turn. It must have been the same blade that impaled Damien. From the looks of the thing, it was made of highly dense holy magic taking on the form of a sword. If Damien survived at all, he was lucky as hell. A lesser demon probably wouldn't have made it past the blade being removed from them.
"Then let us decide the winner of this battle." Gin said, drawing his own sword. "Shall we?" Quinn glowered at him.
"Yes, let's." Quinn rocketed up towards Gin, and Gin flew down to meet him. As their blades connected, a shockwave of holy and demon magic flew off of them, and the two separated. Quinn landed back on his rock, and Gin stabilized in the air.
"I'm sure Neptu won't care of I take you out myself." Quinn said. "After all, you're the not the one he's after."
"If you can kill me," Gin said, readying himself. "You may."
"Do you think we're far enough way?" Ultear asked. Although Nashi could hear the sounds of battle coming from the direction they'd come from, she was certain they were pretty far.
"Yeah, we are." At this, Steph and Drake slowly put Damien down on the ground. He had since fallen unconscious from his wounds, but he still looked pretty bad. His skin was nearly translucent, and his breathing slow and no where near assuring.
"What do we do?" Steph croaked out.
"Can we do anything except get him to Wendy?" Drake asked. No one said anything, but soon Steph reached forward and ripped open her brothers shirt. She only reached the center of his chest and stopped.
"There's no hole..." She whispered.
"Steph?" Simon asked.
"That guy impaled him, but there's no hole." Steph spoke up. "It must have been a spell or something..."
"If it was holy magic, we might be in trouble." Elise said. "Damien can't take hits like that. If the leader of that army struck him..." Elise didn't need to finish her sentence. Her worries were well apparent.
"We... We just need to get him home." Nashi said, standing up straight. "You guys take Damien and try to make some ground."
"What're you doing?" Elise asked.
"Going back for Gin." She said. "I'm worried he bit off more than he can chew."
"I'll go with you." Drake said, standing up too. Nashi nodded at him.
"Thank you." She said. He simply nodded. Nashi turned back to the others.
"Just get as far as you can, we'll catch up."
"Okay, you guys be careful." Simon said, taking Drake's place as the one supporting Damien along with Steph. "We don't need any more injuries."
"We know." Drake said. "Now get going." The others got back on track and walked away from Nashi and Drake, while they steeled themselves and started to run back towards where Nashi could hear Gin and the Hunters fighting.
"Think he's okay?" Drake asked, breaking the silence. Nashi didn't reply right away, listening to the explosions in the distance.
"Sounds like he's holding up." She replied. "i just hope he does until we get there..."
Gin reared back and dodged the explosively large holy spell, watching it fly into the sky and explode. He instinctively rose his blade and blocked another swing from Quinn, who had charged behind his attack to swing at him. Forcing Quinn backwards, Gin swung his sword in a vertical motion, throwing Quinn back down to the earth. Without letting up, Gin sailed after him and pummeled him with short swings, forcing Quinn on a heavy defense. It was rather incredibly watching Quinn actually repel a lot of his hits. Lesser men would've been knocked right out but Quinn kept at it.
"You're impressive, I'll give you that." Quinn grunted as they locked blades. "For a monster. Use that blade to kill my men?"
"Wouldn't know." Gin replied. "I don't remember I thing."
"Do you block out memories of killing men with families and children?"
"No, I personally have never killed." Quinn looked disbelieving, so Gin sighed. "The monster inside me, however..."
"Don't act like he controls you.' Quinn hissed, gaining control in their locked blades. "You're the wizard, control the takeover!" Gin glowered at him.
"Don't act like you understand." he whispered, his blade shuddering from his strength as he began to push at Quinn harder, forcing the man to one knee. "Don't act like you could even comprehend the struggle I go through...Because you will never know."
I suppose not." Quinn said. "But I do know this." His other hand began to glow, and Gin's eyes widened. He tried to get out of the way, but he was too slow.
Another blade protruded from Quinn's other hand and pierced the armor on Gin's shoulder, cutting into his skin. Once it did, Gin roared in pain and stumbled backwards as his skin began to smolder. He hadn't even been hit that hard and he was barely able to keep a handle on the takeover. Quinn's power was insane.
"That hurt?" Quinn asked, twirling both blades. "It should. I'm one of the strongest Hunters in Fiore. I'm surprised you're conscious." Gin needed a plan, because Quinn was out for blood now. Charging forth, Gin did his best to block both blades at once, but it was extremely difficult. His takeover, at least to his knowledge, had not many long rang attacks, so he needed to stay short range in order to do anything. But in doing so he put himself in extreme danger.
Backing up a bit, Gin swung his sword downwards, cleaving through the ground. The crevice went right for Quinn, who jumped out of the way as the ground below him crumbled.
"Those swings are so powerful they create shockwaves and cleave through solid earth." He said, starting to shoot holy magic from his hands. "You're living up the Brute title quite well!" Gin didn't reply, he simply countered the blasts by redirecting them back at Quinn. The man covered his head with his arms to protect himself from the blows. Gin flew in without waiting, swinging his sword every which way in an attempt to gain an upper hand, which he wasn't able to. He was being to cautious to manage that. The two locked blades again, and Quinn smirked.
"What?" Gin demanded.
"Oh, I just remembered something about my blades." He said. Before Gin could say anything, he felt a searing pain in his lower body. Staggering back, Gin looked down to find two more holes in his armor. Looking up weakly, he saw that the hilts of Quinn's makeshift blade had twirled and cut him. "They bend as I want them to." Quinn finished.
And with this, he went on the assault.
Gin felt himself get slashes a few more times during the following skirmish, and each time his reactions slowed, which allowed even more hits. His vision was starting to go black, and he cold barely stand. This was bad. If this kept up, he'd be in a bad place.
"Gin. I have something to tell you.
Oh God...Please not now.
"Do you know what happens when a man reaches a point near death in battle?"
Gin ignored the voice in his head and continued to parry Quinn's blows, trying to ignore the searing pain in his body as well.
"As a man fights for his life, he starts to become desperate, panicked. An animal trapped in a corner."
No no no...
"And when a man reaches this point, he fights without restraint. After all, he's in danger of dying."
Gin's vision started to go from black to red, and his hands began to shake violently. Quinn backed up in surprise.
"Do you know why I have been dubbed The Brute, Gin?"
Please don't!
"I fight without restraint."
"NO!"
"And so should you."
BOOM!
Nashi stumbled as an explosion rocked the ground beneath her. Drake did as well, and they both looked forward from where the sound had come from.
"That doesn't sound good." Drake mumbled. As the two finally reached the fight scene, they were greeted with quite the sight.
Standing at the edge of a crater was Gin in his demon form, sword poised over the crater. He was panting heavily, but otherwise looked alright. At the bottom of the crater was a white sphere. Slowly the sphere faded, revealing Quinn looked battered and bruised. Nashi watched as Quinn stumbled backwards and landed spread eagle on the ground, unmoving. He'd been defeated. She slowly looked back at Gin, who'd stumbled back as well.
"Gin?" She asked quietly. Slowly the man turned and sheathed his blade, returning to his normal form.
"...Yeah?" He asked weakly, eyes drooping.
"Uh, are you alright?"She asked. Gin swayed on his feet.
"...Yeah. Great." Once he said this, he slowly blinked. "I'm kind of tired." With this, he started to fall backwards. Drake rushed forward and caught him before he hit the ground, and shifted to carry him.
"What the hell happened here?" Drake asked.
"Don't know." Nashi said, looking back down at Quinn in his crater. "But whatever happened, it looks like it hurt." Nashi sighed and turned. "Let's just get home to Magnolia, Damien needs it."
"And after that I think we should pursue our leads he...Elizabeth?" Neptu turned and looked at Elizabeth to find her staring down at something. "What is it?"
"It's Quinn." She said, showing him what she was looking at. It was the Cross necklace that she and the other Members of the Cross had. The top and the two arms were still pearly white, but the base had turned black. '"He's been defeated." Neptu made a face.
"Has he now?" he asked. "He was after the boy from the East, right?"
"Right." Neptu nodded.
"Well, do you're thing, get him up." Elizabeth nodded, and clenched the cross in her fist. She funneled magic power into it, and Neptu watched as it started to glow and hover above her chest.
"Good for nothing Quinn..." The man muttered, digging out the cross from under his cloak. "Getting himself defeated. Jackass." Focusing, he funneled some of his magic power into the cross and watched as it started to glow and hover in front of his face. "Get up, ya dumbass."
"Lady Abigail, is something the matter?" One of the sailors asked. Abigail turned to him, showing him the darkened Cross.
"Yes, but I won't be long, continue sailing." She replied. Turning back to the open ocean over them, She gripped the Cross tightly and concentrated. Soon, it began to glow.
Quinn coughed as he sat bolt right up. Growling as it stopped, he got to his feet and began to brush himself off. Once he'd done that, he raised two fingers to his temple.
"Took you guys long enough." He said.
"Shut your mouth, dumbass." Another voice said. "Having us save you like that. What happened?"
"Easy now, boys." Elizabeth said. "We're not talking to fight. Quinn, are you okay?"
"I am now, yeah."Quinn replied. "Got my shit pushed in by that boy, but otherwise I'm all right."
"The Demon Lord, right?" Quinn gulped. He hadn't been aware that Neptu was on the line. "He defeated you?"
"Uh, yeah. Sorry." Quinn said.
"No need to apologize, he could have killed you." Neptu said. "Now, are we all here?"
"I am." Quinn said.
"As am I." Elizabeth added.
"I'm listening." Abigail's voice said. The other male voice grumbled.
"What's up?" He asked.
"I'm rerouting our efforts to catch this Demon Lord. If he could defeat Quinn, we aren't dealing with a pushover. Quinn, do you have any idea where he might be?" Quinn made a face.
"Well, I was in and out for a bit there." He said. "But one thing stuck out to me."
"What was it?" Neptu asked. Quinn took a deep breath.
"Some chick said, 'Let's get home to Magnolia.'"
And another chapter down. Fast update, huh? I hope you guys enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!