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"If you sully my divine work, I will have to do the same to mine own hands by wringing your neck, mortal!" This article, "ToTT: Chapter 11", is property of Mrs Sting Eucliffe, so please, hands off this file unless given explicit permission to edit. Thank you. |
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Forest Dragon Slayer: My resolve becomes my blade. |
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Chapter 11[]
July 19th X792 The sun was starting to set. A thunderstorm blocked the orange light however. Bodies were strewn across the torn up battle field; downed but not dead. Two figures clashed explosively in the sky, with such great force that a circle was formed in the cloud formation. One figure suddenly got the advantage, and punched straight through the chest of the other with a gruesome crunch, blood falling from the sky like a river as everyone was open-eyed, friend and enemy alike, watched in shock as the pained outroar of the losing figure echoed across the landscape...
2 hours earlier
The group landed on the remains of a field that had clearly been barren for many years. Ezra, Eugene, and the children all in a formation, with Sif and Hayden missing, as four of the Serpent members from the original battle stood in their own line in front of the castle about 100 metres off.
Cyrus. Dean Granger. Jessica Dove. Hunter Ikari. All of them stood with a few metres between them each, with Cyrus and Jessica grinning with smugness. They were all met with incredibly stern glares, from Ezra and Eugene especially.
"Go.", Cyrus muttered, and Jessica immediately launched a ball of light into the air that temporarily blinded all of the group. When it faded, the Serpents had surrounded the group, and the Magical Barrier Particle Cannon was already charging.
Everyone stood in silence, until... "NOW!", Ezra boomed out, launching numerous cards in Cyrus' direction that exploded. Alexander space-shifted his body towards Jessica, uppercutting the woman with a fist engulfed in spacial matter. However, Hunter and Dean managed to counter the attacks launched on them by Brianna and Brooke.
The cannon had finished charging, and was about to fire. Ezra and Eugene looked at each other, as Eugene bolted in the direction of the cannon as it launched. "Panzer!!" He exclaimed, anchoring himself to the ground. As he did this, he sealed his jacket across his chest, his Black Dragon Suit activated just before the beam collided directly with him. He pushed as hard as he could to hold his ground until the beam ended. Smoke blanketed the area from the explosive force. From that smoke emerged a gigantic silver wolf with a brunette rider upon its back. Hayden and Sif!
Hayden was sprinting at a blurred speed towards the castle and the cannon, as Sif was charging a spell in her sword. He leaped into the air, and Sif lunged off the wolf. "Demon Blade Crimson Blossom!", she casted as the Magic-enhanced sword striked the cannon, to little effect. But it did distract the Serpents: Hunter and Jessica were running towards Sif and Hayden.
And then...the smoke cleared. Ezra was knelt firmly on the ground, a humongous RPG-like weapon mounted on his shoulder. Even with a still partially-clouded sightline, Ezra fired the weapon with frightening accuracy. A large red beam erupted from the barrel, straight down the middle of the MBP cannon's own; destroying it from the inside out. The corners of Ezra's mouth tilted into a smirk for half a second. They did it. They averted the apocalypse. But there was still the battle to deal with.
This is going way too easily. It's getting suspicious... Eugene couldn't help but think as he prepared himself for the upcoming battle. He noticed how the enemy was for the most part unfazed by this. Is it arrogance? Or do they do have something else up their sleeve? He then turned to the kids. "Take Star Formation! Alex, keep a lookout for reinforcements! Akabane takes point in subformation Crane Wing alongside Brooke and Brianna!" He readied an arrow in his bow and fired it into the air before it split into multiple of them and landed right in front and/or beside the enemy. In the next second, they detonated.
Elsewhere across the battlefield, Hayden stopped at a cliff wall and morphed back to human, with Sif landing by his side gracefully. The two were met by Jessica and Hunter. "End of the line, kitty cats.", Jessica said with a malicious smirk slithering its way onto her face.
Sif clutched her sword, holding it parallel in front of her face, her gaze strong. Black light danced around Hayden's fingertips, as his hands began to shimmer with his Eclipse energy.
Electricity fizzed around Hunter, and Jessica did multiple in-place steps. The two sides charged. Sif brought her rapier down upon Hunter, being met with the man's own katana. Hayden used his speed to get behind Jessica, only to be effortlessly countered by the smirking woman.
Meanwhile, back with the others...
"Oy, Ren, how much do you need?" Eugene asked as he dodged attack after attack.
"I just need two-three more minutes!" Ren replied over the communication device.
"Oh boy, fighting 2-3 minutes like this huh? This'll be troublesome." Eugene said with a grim smile as he began to visualize the entire area and its combatants as if he were at a bird's eye view. Data from the battle rushed through his head at a high speed and the wave lengths, which were visual representations of a person's mental state which he became able to see due to his shinobi training also gave him a bunch of information. That's right, this is something only I can do! He thought to himself. He began to cool down, as if the battle wasn't right in front of him. "Let's do this kids." He said to the children from the future. "Sif, Ezra, Wolf, just take whatever opportunities that we open up. Who knows? Maybe we'll finish this fight before I need to use 'that'." The kids just nodded as they caught his eye and started to show their magic power a little more while Eugene did the exact opposite.Let's begin! He thought and completely in synch, as Eugene let loose a bit of a burst of magic energy, the others stopped showing theirs. To the enemy, they all of a sudden vanished with only Eugene being visible. "Now!" Eugene exclaimed as he gave glances towards the others. With just these glances alone, the kids were able to act in synch with Eugene and follow his intentions.
Back where Sif and Hayden were, all of a sudden Alex with Akabane had teleported inbetween them and the enemy. Alex let off some shots while Akabane did something. To the enemies' shock they had lost their balance and began to fall. Just as that happened, Alex and Akabane had teleported out. Not giving them any time to recover, Brooke and Brianna cut them from behind. When did they?? The enemies thought as they were hit over to Sif and Hayden. There was chaos on the other part of the battle too. They were almost moving on instinct, giving nobody, even Ezra enough time to get an idea as to what was going on and the enemy didn't have time to recover. They did manage to notice one thing. The looks in the kids eyes now matched Eugene's, all of them were in the zone.
It's been a while since I felt like this. My body feels so light. Brooke thought to herself as she moved in perfect synchronization to everyone else, engaging their foes. While the enemy was certainly fighting back, their reaction time simply wasn't enough.
It seems that Uncle was pretty much the same even now. Alex thought to himself after seeing the proof in action. If Dad's like an overwhelming light that presses down on people from above, Uncle is a dark shadow that supports them from below, bringing out each person's potential. Dad's still the strongest person I know, but he can't bring out other people's abilities and talents or bring us into the zone like Uncle can. Compared to the tempest the future kids were creating now, what everyone else had seen from them earlier was a mere breeze.
Ezra's irises flickered with a strange blue energy, and suddenly explosions occurred from nothing, knocking Cyrus backwards. Ezra launched himself at him, Requipping a shotgun. "Wide Shot!", he casted as a wide array of Magic Bullets launched from the barrel and hit the man. Cyrus recoiled, groaning in pain.
Cyrus retaliated with a mid-air leg sweep, knocking Ezra to the side. He released a torrent of silver light from his hands that impacted Ezra, sending him back along the ground, digging his feet in.
Ezra switched his shotgun for a pair of Magnum pistols. "Tornado Shot!", he said as he fired two bullets from the pistol. Right before they hit Cyrus, they exploded, unleashing a volley of powerful tornados directly upon him, sending him flailing around. Cyrus took to the air, growing six wings; three pairs of them from his back, looking for Ezra. When the tornadoes cleared, Ezra burst through the risen cloud of dust to deliver an extremely heavy punch to his face, sending him hurdling through the air. Flames appeared from the bottom of Ezra's boots; the boots themselves doing it rather than Ezra using Magic.
The two flew at each other in the air and when they collided, a shockwave of force shattered the ground beneath them.
Elsewhere, the clanging of metal ran out as swords collided. Sif's rapier, Hunter's katana. The two seemed to be on equal grounds in terms of both skill and strength. Hunter swung his free hand to punch Sif in the gut, sending her stumbling backwards. He moved to strike her down, only to be knocked away by Jessica being thrown into him by Hayden.
Jessica stood up once again, and lunged at Hayden, the two engaging in a physical brawl of punches, kicks and grapples. Jessica grabbed Hayden's fluffy tail and swung him into a rock, but he used the momentum as a spring, bouncing himself off the rock with bent legs, flying back at Jessica; tackling her along the ground. He moved his body to flip over her head, dragging her by her hair. He swung her overhead and smashed her into the ground, kicking up a field of dust and small debris.
Back with Eugene and the kids, Alex and Akabane were whirling around each other. Alex unleashed an array of explosions upon Dean Granger, whom Akabane was helping him against. Dean retaliated with a blast of Ice Magic. "Abominable Obliteration!", the masked Serpent yelled as a wide and also tall beam of Cryokinetic ice upon the kids, knocking them back and partially freezing them solid.
"This is nothing." Akabane said having had wrapped chains around his and Alex's bodies. When he made them disappear, this left space for them to break free easily. It didn't take much longer to get back into the zone and continue their assault on Dean, hitting him all over the place.
Eugene continued taking command of the situation while switching who he was aiming at all the while. He noticed that Sif was having a bit of trouble with Hunter. Hayden seemed to be fine against Jessica but Eugene knew that there were periods of time that Hunter could use to land a good hit on Hayden. Okay then, let's do this He thought to himself. Just as Hunter started to charge at Sif again, an arrow was fired right at his foot, prompting him to halt and jump out of the way. Eugene then came to engage him in sword play. Due to his analyzing ability, Eugene could out match Hunter in swordsmanship. But that's not why he was here. "Sif, switch!" He exclaimed. In a miniscule gap, Sif's rapier struck out at Hunter who was barely able to block it. What was earlier a more or less even match started to become one sided.
What the? She's faster now! And the look in her eyes is different. Hunter exclaimed in his mind. Eugene had decided to synch with Sif and bring her into the zone. In the case, their synchronization was at a higher level than the others due to their time together as partners. "Let's finish this up quickly!"
Sif's sword became enveloped in an aura of raw energy from Sif's own body. She moved her sword above her head for an overhead swing. Hunter raised his guard; bringing his katana up horizontally to catch Sif's rapier. Big mistake.
Sif smirked, as she darted sideways. A feint! She slid round behind Hunter with her free hand glowing with a gold aura. She pushed her hand out to impact the man's back. "Heavenly Palm!", she casted, as an invisible force was generated to launch him towards the incoming Eugene.
"Kofuna Shizen Ryu: Lightning Draw!" Eugene exclaimed as he drew his sword and cut Hunter multiple times in less than a second before putting the sword back in its sheathe. As Hunter was still airborne, Eugene took advantage of it by grabbing him by the collar and sprayed him with juices from a hell pepper which gave him an extreme burning feeling which was even worse on his wounds before throwing him back to Sif.
Sif launched herself upwards into the air with her sword shimmering. Raising it above her head, she spoke aloud; "Raining Sword of the Heavens!", she casted. Pointing her sword down as she fell towards Hunter, the blade shone with a minty-green light, when suddenly dozens of sword-like constructs of the same colour appeared around her, and the sky seemed to warp to a similar aspect to outer space momentarily. The many sword constructs rained down on and around Hunter, agitating his wounds further, with incredible damage, and shortly after, Sif crashed down into him with her glowing sword; an explosion rang out from the collision. Hunter was launched back, tumbling multiple times.
Meanwhile, Hayden and Jessica were still trading blow for blow, until Hayden's speed seemed to increase multiple times. He began to quickly overwhelm her. A ferocious hound-like growl emitted from his throat. Something was happening to him. Visible streamers of energy were flowing out of the ground and into his body. The tattoo over his left eye began to shimmer gracefully, and it become longer; to the point that it reached from the top of his eyebrow to the middle of his biceps.
Almost too fast to comprehend, Hayden swung a foot into Jessica's gut, knocking her flying into a boulder, shattering it. The woman glared at him as a white aura flooded her hands. "Congrats, you've made me need my Magic. A rare feat.", she said as the aura shone brighter and brighter. Hayden braced.
In the moments after Eugene threw Hunter back to Sif, he made a clone of himself that went to help Hayden. The clone also had one of Eugene's magic absorption armors on. Hayden, time to bring you into the zone too. Eugene thought before getting him into it. "I wonder how much better you'll be now that you'll brought to your limit."
After being brought "into the zone" by Eugene, Hayden stopped in his tracks, as if he were a statue. With incredible speed, Jessica was beating him senseless. Something wasn't right, Hayden still wouldn't move. The woman was clearly getting annoyed.
Jessica leaped back, and slid out twin Sai out of her cloak. She threw them at Hayden, who allowed them to stab him in the arm and chest. Jessica got even more agitated. Hayden simply stood in silence.
"Hayden, what's the matter with you?! Fight!", Sif yelled at her friend from where she was fighting Hunter. No response.
Jessica shrieked in frustration. "That's it, I've had it! I'll kill you here and now!!", she yelled at the man as her aura begin to build around her, with an azure blue colouration to it. "DRAGON SLAYER'S SECRET ART...!!", she screamed out loud as her power continued building.
"HAYDEN!", Sif yelled in worry, before being knocked away by Hunter.
"Oy, oy, don't start messing around now Wolf." Eugene said with a small grin as he engaged Hunter in sword combat to allow Sif time to get up. At the same time he began analyzing Hunter's techniques.
"Instant Erase." The clone said as he released magic energy, causing Jessica to lose her attention on Hayden for a short period of time. Now he would have the chance to attack.
A strange orb of light appeared in front of Hayden. He looked up with a red glow in his dilated eyes. The orb expanded itself around Hayden, and began to alter his appearance, catching Jessica's attention once again. What seemed to be an armour formed over Hayden's body, a brilliant white colour to it.
"Screw you!", Jessica yelled as she sent a huge wave of water to push Sif, Eugene and even Hunter away from herself and Hayden. After, she begin to channel her Secret Art again.
Golden shoulder pieces accompanied the armour. From the back stretched seven individual cape-like tendrils of material, with a spatial effect on the inside. "Geist Charge!!", Hayden yelled as a flash of light momentarilly occured as the transformation finished.
Even Ezra's attention was drawn to the feat Hayden just activated. Brianna begin to think out loud, "He's using...", she went quiet as another person finished her sentence.
"A Clad-type Geist Charge. Incredibly rare even for a Spirit Slayer at their peak..", Ezra said. Both he and even Cyrus were observing the occurance.
"Maelstrom Technique: Kraken's Breath!!", Jessica casted as walls of water metres thick rose around herself and Hayden. The walls formed a roof over the two, and it begin to barrel down towards the wolf. The front of the incoming water attack had been riddled with hardened, sharpened blade-like blobs of the element, gleaming with power.
Hayden snarled viciously. He leaped up towards the incoming attack. "Heart of the Lion: Call of the King!", Hayden himself casted as he released a massive, omnidirectional shockwave of Regulus light, belonging to Leo, the spirit his Magic originally came from. Alongside the light, there was an incredible roar bellowing across the landscape, seemingly that of an actual Lion. The light annihilated the water entirely, and sent Jessica hurdling along the battlefield, unresponsive from that one attack. The shockwave also took out multiple waves of the armies belonging to Leona, with Hunter also being caught up in it. He too was sent along the ground, also unresponsive. However, he, Jessica and the rest of the affected minions were very much alive. An added advantage was that Sif and Eugene, who had also been caught in the light, had actually been amplified beyond even their usual levels of skill and power.
After the light disappeared, Hayden crashed to the ground, landing in a crouch. He stood up, as the white armour upon him faded, and he dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.
"Wolf get some rest for now. Don't overdo it." Eugene said as he let the aroma of some herbs help him regain energy. "Sif, let's go back and help the others. I couldn't keep the kids in the zone as it requires eye contact with them so they'll probably need help. Well, Ezra's there too I guess but we should still go." He then headed towards the location of the other battle.
Promptly, Sif and Eugene could feel that their power had increased exponentially, however that added power was slowly ticking away due to the temporary effect behind it.
Sounds reminiscent of explosions could be both heard and felt from somewhere. Above. Sif looked up, to see her brother clashing repeatedly in the sky with Cyrus, with the former using his jet-propelled boots, and the latter using his dark wings. "Eugene, let's go. Right now, Cyrus is the most dangerous on the field. Let's kick everyone else's asses while my brother keeps him busy!", Sif said as she began to run towards a squadron, sword out to the side. Her speed was increasing.
The swordwoman began to glide along the ground. Her rapier was gleaming like a beacon. "Flash Strike!", she casted as a sonic boom rippled the air around her. Moving faster than the blink of an eye, she struck through almost an entire wave of soldiers, sending them all flying away. More were advancing from the castle as Sif held off multiple soldiers around her at once.
"Everyone, let's do this. We're not going to be using the Zone in order to conserve energy but we can still take them down." Eugene said to the kids before issuing commands to them. "Violet, let's blow them up." He said to his future daughter as they both activated their magics to summon a certain type of powder onto their foes. "Josh, we're going to need lightning!" Josh then let loose streams of lightning which covered the ground and their foes. "Akabane, Alex, Kai, light them up!" With a shout, they let loose their fire attacks and right when they made contact, a huge chain of explosions took place engulfing their foes. The explosions were also powered up by the electricity. Eugene then charged in at the remaining foes brandishing his swords. "Blizzard!" He exclaimed as he used the sword he got from one of his best friends, letting loose a powerful ice attack to freeze his enemies.
BOOM! Suddenly almost everyone from both sides had ended up flat on the ground. BOOM!! They were all sent away again, slightly. BOOM!!! Some who were attempting to stand were knocked right back down.
"What the hell is going on?!", Alex exclaimed, irritated as he kept attempting to stand, only to be sent down down. He looked up, and paused. Brianna some of the other kids looked at Alex, and then looked up also to see what he was witnessing. They all looked as if they were in awe. Sif and Hayden joined them also, as well as the rest of the Serpents, and many soldiers from the army.
What they were experiencing was not an attack. It was not collateral from collision. It was the concentration of pure, unrestricted Magic Power and force coming from the very body of Ezra himself. He was visibly, easily, overwhelming Cyrus as time went on. He swung vicious uppercuts, he swung his shotgun like a baseball bat, he kicked from all directions and angles. Cyrus was almost helpless to it all.
Cyrus got away from Ezra and flew higher into the sky with silver light engulfing his hands. He had bloodlust in his eyes. "Face the unrelenting fury of a corrupt Avian!! True, unlimited power!!!", he screamed as an incredible aura of silvery light formed around his body. "Tainted Annihilation! Ray of Satanic Judgement!", Cyrus casted as he unleashed a multi-ray attack of the same silver light.
It was so brilliant that people on the ground were covering their faces to block the light. It was obvious just by looking at it--albeit uncomfortably--that the light was actually burning through the very air itself as it traveled towards Ezra with incredibly explosive forces, with the actual ray began to grow continuously in size until it was the width of a building.
Ezra's pupils dilated, as his graceful blue irises glew with a strange bioluminesence that only Cyrus saw, and when he did...an expression of unbridled horror and terror was plastered on his face. Ezra raised his hand, and the air in front of him seemed to warp--no, the very Eternano around him, before obtaining the faintest of hues, red in shade. The warped Eternano effortlessly blocked the beam, causing it to split off in multiple directions and take out numerous squadrons of Leona's army.
When Cyrus stopped the attack, he looked down at Ezra, whose eyes still had the bioluminesence only Cyrus could currently see. The Avian began to quiver, absolutely petrified. A small pulse emitted from Ezra's eyes, and all of a sudden, Cyrus was hurdling out of the sky, and landed on the ground with a crash, as some of the soldiers looked in awe.
"I was getting worried about this..." Eugene said to himself with a sigh before he walked towards Ezra without showing much change in emotion unlike most everyone else. In fact, Eugene might have been the only one who could do this. "Oy, Ezra don't overdo it. Don't want you to become a merciless killer you know? What did you do to him anyway?" He said rather nonchalantly.
"I'm not so sure myself what I did. But he is very much alive, whatever I just did was not an attack, more of a disarmament technique of some sort.", Ezra said as he looked at the completely immobilised, fear-shivering Avian. "And those soldiers are no more alive than the clothes on our bodies. They are creations of that monstress behind all this. I can feel it from their energies; they are entirely artificial, created to be mindless, war-seeking minions.", Ezra continued as he cracked the earth beneath multiple waves of the minions just by raising his hand and swinging it down through the air. It seemed this was more of an actual feat of Geokinesis of some sort, rather than actual Earth Magic.
The cracked landscape either sent soldiers flying, or knocked them down into holes no more than a few metres deep, but they were nonetheless trapped if they were.
Dean Granger was now the last of the lower Serpents on the battlefield. He looked at his defeated comrades, and stumbled backwards in panic, as Alexander, Brianna, Brooke, Sif and Eugene were all glaring at him. "It's not possible...it's not FEASIBLE!!!", he shrieked, "Milady will be most displeased...she'll have our heads if we are defeated..!", he continued, but his voice decreased into a whimper that was almost pitiful. Then he looked up, the red eyes of his mask gleaming like torches, and then fading.
His mask dropped from his face, and his cloak fell from his body. His chest was bare, but he was wearing cargos on his lower body. All over his chest were various emblems, notably of other guilds, including even Sabertooth, Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail. "Ya know what these represent?! Wizards that I have personally spilt the blood of from pathetic little guilds across every continent!!", he yelled as he looked at the anger in some of the group's faces, especially those of Alexander and Sif; both of whom were looking at the Sabertooth mark. "Oh that's right...you are both kittens! Oh well, time to claim s'more!!", he screamed as a huge, purple Magic Circle appeared on the ground beneath Dean, with him in the centre.
Ezra took notice from the sky, where he was hovering. His face was visibly alerted. "Everyone, get away from him!", he said as he quickly moved down to get between the group, and Dean. "That's a form of Self-Destruction Spell, that one he is using is like setting off a nuclear bomb! MOVE!", he ordered as he slammed down in front, beginning to cast an unknown Magic that seemed to shift the air...except...
Dean suddenly stood still, shuddering as he struggled to speak, coughing up blood. He looked down while still hacking and coughing. A hole the size of a human head had been blasted in his chest. Even Ezra looked baffled, before he looked around for the culprit.
An `ojou-sama` laugh echoed. "Now, now, you masked bastard...let's not blow up half the continent with your stupidity...Master needs some land to rule.", an arrogant female voice spoke, seeming almost disembodied until it began to focus on one area - up a nearby cliff. Dean, however, dropped to the ground; rendered lifeless and still by the attack. He was dead.
"Looks like they're done playing around eh?" Eugene said as Violet hid behind her mother out of fear in what's to come. "Ren, is it ready?"
"I'm good to go here." Ren said in response. "Just give the word."
"Begin the download process. It'll take a few minutes right?" Eugene asked.
"Understood."
"Everyone, keep on your toes!" Eugene exclaimed.
"I didn't even see the attack...", Sif said softly, as she looked up to the source of the voice. There were eight individuals, all standing on different positions across the cliff, with the obvious leader being the raven-haired swordswoman in the middle.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves. You are witnessing the guild known as Midnight Reckoning, and we're hunters. And assassins. We do not play by the rules.", the swordswoman said. She slowly drew her sword, and when she did, an ominous pulse of almost demonic energy was emitted that made literally everyone below flinch, including even Ezra and Eugene. "Go.", she said firmly.
All of the members leaped from their positions, except for one. A woman with dark blonde hair. She was staring at the weakened Hayden in the distance, and she seemed agitated, yet also smug; her teeth were gritting, but with a smirk. She leaped through the air with incredible leg strength towards the Werewolf.
"She's going for Dad!", Brianna called out as her blade clashed with a dagger belonging to a brunette boy with neat hair.
The blonde woman was only metres from the dazed man now.
"Hayden!", Sif called out, interrupted by a sword swing from the raven-haired swordwoman.
- - - CHAPTER END - - -