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The Heat of Battle
"Up everyone up!" I exclaimed in a frantic hurry as
Jown's creatures broke into a charge as they realized they were spotted.
Those around me woke up with groans, and
Kalzar started to curl up into a tight ball when I shouted again. "Get your
lazy tails up right now unless you want them cut off. Jown is coming!"
At that everyone bounded to their feet,
pulling weapons out. Dorono, Kalzar and Zana drew their swords, Shadow pulled
out a dual set of stilettos, and Kirin and I pulled out our daggers just as
Jown's creatures reached us.
Then, the battle started.
***
Dsupa didn't wait to choose his target. Flapping his massive blood red wings,
he dove straight at Dorono who also took to the skies. For a second they circled
each other, both growling, and both holding their swords aloft ready to slice
the other into ribbons.
Higher and higher they circled above the
battlefield, oblivious as to what was going on below them as all their intent
was focused on destroying the other. "Jown was a fool to ever think that you
could be one of our ranks. You're much too soft," Dsupa spat at Dorono.
He grinned. "Well, at least I don't have
a heart of stone to weigh me down in my flight."
At that the two attacked. Each with their
own separate war cry they dived at each other, their swords flashing together
creating a loud metallic ring. Dsupa pulled his blade away, and tried to slash
it across Dorono's belly, but Dorono flipped in midair and dived towards the
ground.
Dsupa growled as his sword hit empty air,
and he too folded his wings up to his sides to dive bomb Dorono, his sword ready
to pierce his flesh. Dorono gave a quick glance behind him and realized that
Dsupa was catching up to him. While he naturally had a quicker speed than Dsupa,
the Halloween Nimmo wore a suit of armor, which added weight to him making him
fall all the more faster.
Dorono knew that he could not keep up
the crazy dive towards the earth. If he did, either Dsupa's sword would cut
into him or else he would smack right into the ground, which would be even more
fatal. Thoughts raced through his mind for a second before he washed all of
them out and let his mind clear. He would rely on his instincts to guide him.
***
I barely gave Dorono a glance as he rushed up into the sky to meet Dsupa.
Even though I worried for him, I trusted that he would be safe. He was strong
and resourceful; he could, and would win. Besides, I had my own problems to
attend to.
The first creature to attack me was a
Kacheek. He was easy enough to overthrow, my dagger flashed like lightning and
he was down in the snow. I administered this justice to a couple more creatures
when he approached me.
"So here you are again, but this time
things will be different. You will die." Jown growled at me, twitching his half-tail,
which was mark of our last encounter. As he drew his blade I readied my dagger.
He attacked like lightning, and I was
more than hard pressed to keep my head upon my shoulders. Duck, weave, attack,
duck, weave, attack. It was a continuous repeatable of those same things; duck,
weave and attack. I got several good attacks at him, but he seemed prepared
for me and managed to either block or dodge all that I threw at him. I was loosening
ground, and quickly.
Jown rose his sword to slam it down at
me, and I rolled to the side, seeing a slight glint in the snow as I did so.
With a dark grin, I reached down, and pulled the dagger that had been dropped
by one of the fallen and faced Jown again, this time with dual daggers in my
hands.
I rushed forward at him, stabbing with
one hand and parrying his attacks with the other. I was putting all my speed
behind me, using my daggers like they were a part of my very soul, and then
grinning as I heard a roar from Dsupa and saw a streak of red appear. I went
to attack him again, but he used his quick Kougra reactions and twisted agilely
to the side and slashed down at me with his claws. I tried to twist out of their
way, but I still received five claw scores right down my side.
I winced as the pain bit into me, but
I couldn't give up. This was a battle I would win. No matter what the cost,
I would get Zana home safely.
***
Shadow grinned to himself as Jown's men approached. "I've waited much too
long for an excuse to do this." And with those words, he rushed forward at them,
his stilettos flying, finding various marks in the flesh of the creatures.
He was creating a lot of trouble for them
just on his own when a very large armored Lupe came forth to attack him.
His first guess was that with large size
came restrictions in movement, so he rushed at him ready to dig his blades into
the slits between the armor. However, the Lupe surprised him with an agile move
to the side, and a fast swing of his sword. Shadow dodged the attack with a
quick back flip, and he felt the wind from the blade ruffle his tail fur. It
had been a close call.
As he landed on his feet he faced the
Lupe again with a growl, this time he would not be taken by surprise. He ran
forward again, this time taking caution to dodge as he moved in. It took all
of his skill and speed to keep from having the massive sword cut through him
as the Lupe put on another show of speed he had kept hidden. It was seemingly
impossible that the cumbersome looking Lupe could move with almost the same
amount of speed as he could, and he was trained for his speed.
Shadow slit his eyes, and they looked
almost black like the rest of his fur when his scowl shed a shade over them.
The Lupe let out a snort of laughter, and Shadow attacked again, making a feint
with one blade, and stabbing in with the other. At a painful grown from the
Lupe he knew that his attack had made a mark.
Instantaneously, before he could pull
away, the Lupe lashed out with a paw, and it struck Shadow right in the gut,
making him fly back several feet to roll through the snow like a rag doll. The
Lupe grinned and moved in upon its mark whom was lying motionless in the snow,
his sword ready to destroy Shadow.
***
Kirin used his dagger to efficiently cut down the ranks of Jown's creatures.
He was mostly keeping to himself when he saw Shadow go soaring through the air
and land in a heap several feet away from a burly Lupe who was quickly approaching
to finish off the assassin.
Kirin rushed foreword, slashing his dagger
through a slit of armor in the Lupe's back, drawing his attention away from
Shadow. A good job at that he did, for the Lupe turned around and slashed his
sword down in an arc that Kirin barely managed to avoid with his tail still
connected. The speed of the adversary surprised him, too.
He made another dodge and tried to attack
the Lupe again, but each attack he administered, he ended up finding the dagger
in his way again. As the Lupe's sword came down and Kirin had to jump out of
the way, he was smashed in the gut by one of the Lupe's massive paws as well,
and slid backwards through the snow for several feet before painstakingly pulling
himself to his feet again as the Lupe charged.
Kirin lashed out with his dagger as he
jumped to the side, and through some means of luck he hit a mark between the
armor, and the Lupe fell to one knee for a second. Kirin was about to make use
of this momentary weakness on the Lupe's side, but the Lupe pulled himself to
his feet before anything could be done, and the attacks continued.
***
The ground was coming closer, Dorono had to act then or else ram right into
the cold earth. Without much thought to his actions, he suddenly rolled over
in his dive, and raked his claws at Dsupa as he pulled himself to the side.
The rancor sound of claws streaking across
metal armor rang through the air, and many a creature winced at it's painful
sound. As Dorono started to pull himself back up into the sky with furious beats
of his wings, Dsupa spread his wings as he lost control of his fall, barely
keeping himself from smacking into the ground. With a deep growl, he went back
up after Dorono, sword drawn and ready to attack.
Dorono led him into the air, his own sword
clutched tightly in his paw. When he judged that he was high enough, he started
to slow down in his assent fainting exhaustion. Just as he guessed would happen,
Dsupa took the bait, and picked up speed to catch up towards him. Dorono flapped
his wings in such a way that made it appear as if he was frantically trying
to get higher into the sky, and as he did so Dsupa neared even closer to him.
When it seemed that Dsupa would have his prey, Dorono flipped around in the
sky with a renewed vengeance, and slashed out at Dsupa with his sword.
Dsupa brought his own blade up to parry
the attack, but it still sent him back a few feet in the air with the strength
behind it. Even if the blow had struck his armor, he was sure that it would
have blown right through to strike a fatal blow. He growled as he dodged another
attack form Dorono's blade. He would have to resort to a different tactic, and
he knew what to do.
***
Kalzar managed to draw his blade just in time as the first creature attacked
him. Unlike the others who had trained long and hard in the use of weaponry,
he was not as experienced and was finding the various opponents to be a match
for him.
He took down his first opponent, and was
about to move over to where he could help one of the others when a red Kougra
slashed his sword at him. Kalzar brought his blade up to parry the attack, and
than thrust forward at the Kougra who easily blocked. Pretty soon he was locked
up in a battle like all the others around him.
***
Zana held her sword ready to attack, she was not afraid.
As the first creature attacked her, she
sliced forward with her blade and tried not to think much about it as she felt
her sword move deep into its mark. To stray in her concentration at that moment
would more than likely get her killed.
Another creature ran at her, but he was
much more careful as he attacked. He has seen Zana fight before and knew that
though young, she could still carry a lot of skill. He tried to rely on keeping
out of her reach, which was naturally shorter than any older creature, and than
attacking with a swift movement.
Zana was hard pressed to keep his blade
from cutting into her. She raised her blade to block an attack from him, and
than struck back herself. This process was repeated again and again when she
suddenly saw an opening in the defense of the creature. She dived forward slicing
her blade right up his side, and watched him as he fell into the snow, which
was already starting to become stained red in many areas.
Feeling a slight sting in her arm, she
turned her head to look where a shallow gash ran all the ways down from shoulder
past mid-arm. She had been a little slow in dodging his last attack.
As she looked at the wound upon her, she
did not notice as Dsupa's eyes fell upon her, nor when he suddenly twisted away
from Dorono's blade and dived towards her. By the time she heard his wing beats
and turned to try and fend him off it was too late, and he had picked her up
in his arms and carried her up into the air.
Zana kicked and fought, but Jown had her
firmly in his grasp. With a few quick flaps of his wings Dorono was just about
at Dsupa, but the Nimmo warlord pulled out his sword, and aimed the tip towards
Zana Taru's chest.
"Move one inch closer, and she'll never
see the dawn of tomorrow, Eyrie." Dorono stopped suddenly, deeply afraid for
his friend's life. "Let her go Dsupa. This is between you and I."
Dsupa laughed. "This brat has caused me
plenty enough problems, name a single reason why I shouldn't kill her right
now?"
Dorono stared at the pleading eyes of
Zana with wide eyes of his own. "No! I'll do anything you as of me if you let
her free!"
"Drop your sword then." At Dorono's slight
delay, his sword inched closer towards Zana.
Dorono let his sword fall from his paw,
and it landed in the snow with a muffled clatter of steal. "Now let her go free,"
he said.
Dsupa grinned a dark evil grin. Each one
of his many razor teeth gleamed in the light. "Okay. I'll let her go free. Free
into the realms of the afterlife!"
Time slowed down. Each millisecond an
hour, each second a lifetime. Dorono screeched a soul-tearing cry as he tried
to move forward. His green eyes were wide with shock and terror as he stared
at what he could do nothing to prevent. If he had tried to stop a speeding train
he would have been more successful to stop the attack. Before he could so much
as move a foot forward, Dsupa's blade flashed forward towards it's mark of Zana
Taru's stomach.
To be continued...
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