Chapter 32: Double Team
“What the…” started Thyker.
“Thyker, you are about to see the next generation of combat. I couldn’t do it while you had that cursed sword, but now that it’s gone… Well, now you can see a technique I like to call soul unison.” Dave and Minoxo’s bodies began to transform. Dave became more demon-like and Minoxo became more human-like until the two looked identical, looking somewhat like a slender demon. The one distinguishing feature is that Minoxo still retained his broken horn.
Having lost his Darklight, Thyker pulled out his dragonite shortsword. At least now he’d be fighting with a tougher weapon. “Big deal. So instead of just acting like a freak, you look like one, too.”
“Ha!” replied Dave. “You fail to understand what you’re up against. I’ve obtained the strengths of a demon; Minoxo’s obtained the strengths of a human. One of us alone was more than Malak could handle. You, however, will have the pleasure of fighting us both. Let’s go Minoxo!”
“Right behind you!” shouted Minoxo.
Thyker started charging towards Dave. If he was going to win, he’d have to take out one of them quick.
“See, in this form, we pick up a few other useful attacks. Like this one, I call a fire driller.” Dave’s body suddenly was engulfed in a swirl of flames, which seems to revolve around his extended arm. Suddenly, he shot towards Thyker like being shot out of a cannon. The speed caught Thyker off guard. He jumped to one side and barely dodged the attack. However, in the process, he tripped and fell to the ground. Hitting the ground forced him to look up, and he saw Minoxo high in the air, surrounded by flames, suddenly falling towards Thyker. Thyker rolled to the side of Minoxo’s fire driller crashed into the ground.
Even though Thyker hadn’t been hit, the shock of the impact into the ground sent him a few more feet back. He noticed that the attack had left a small hole in the ground. He jumped back up to his feet and looked for the next attack. If it could do that to the ground, he knew he didn’t want to be hit by it. However, as soon as he got to his feet, Dave was right in front of him slashing with his claws. Having just stood up, Thyker couldn’t react in time, and got hit with three, four, then five slashes from Dave before the final one sent him a few more feet back.
Instinctively, Thyker took the brief pause in Dave’s attack to counter-attack. Thyker swung his sword at Dave, but before it was even halfway to making contact, Dave jumped out of the way. Thyker had the wind knocked out of him as he felt a burning pain in his side. It was only a split-second later that he noticed he had been hit directly in the side by Minoxo with a fire driller. Thyker landed on his back. Assuming that more attacks were coming, Thyker immediately started rolling when he hit the ground. He saw a human-surrounded by fire whisk past where he had hit the ground. He assumed it was Dave, but wasn’t able to tell for sure.
Right after the attack went by, Thyker stood up but immediately fell to one knee, using the sword to keep himself half-standing. He could see Minoxo standing to his left; that last attack must have been Dave. To turned his head to the right to see Dave. This was impossible. They were double-teaming him so fast that he didn’t even have time to launch an attack of his own. Still looking at Dave, he said, “I’m not going to give up… do you hear me Dave?”
“That’s good to hear. I don’t want you giving up yet. I want to hear you beg for mercy before we finish you.” Dave extended his arm and started becoming surrounded by fire. Thyker quickly looked to his left. Minoxo wasn’t attacking; not a surprise, they probably didn’t want to risk their attacks colliding. Still, this was Thyker’s chance. The brief pause had given back some of Thyker’s strength. Dave started flying towards him like being shot out of a cannon. Thyker quickly grabbed a bunch of runes required for a hurricane spell and launched the same spell that had quenched Dave’s fireball attacks. The spell was too fast for Dave to dodge, and it hit Dave directly.
“Dead on!” shouted Thyker. “That should cool you off.” Thyker grabbed his sword again and started to charge into the hurricane. Suddenly, the hurricane split in half and Dave, still surrounded by the Vortex of fire shot out. Thyker shifted his weight to try to jump to the side, but there wasn’t enough time to move far. The fire driller hit him in the left chest directly. Thyker was knocked a few feet into the air and landed on his back.
Looking up, he saw Minoxo surrounded by the vortex of fire only several feet above Thyker. In under a second, Minoxo’s attack crashed into Thyker. Thyker let out a scream of pain as he was trapped between the ground and Minoxo’s fire driller. Thyker felt the earth give way underneath him as he sunk into the earth that was cracking below him. Minoxo’s fire died out and he jumped a few feet back. Thyker continued to lay on the ground; burned, clawed, and crushed.
“Poor Thyker,” said Dave. “I’m afraid it would take a much stronger water spell to cool off the fire driller. So, are you ready to beg for mercy yet?”
“No…” said Thyker pulling himself back to his feet. The process hurt immensely, but he put up a tough front; he wouldn’t let those two see the pain he was in. “Many people gave there all to stop Ansa’s plans. I have to do the same.” After saying that, Thyker leaned over and cough several times. Blood spilled on the ground from his mouth as he coughed. So much for the tough front.
“Let’s finish him off, Dave,” said Minoxo. “Ansa will be mad if she finds out we toyed with him.”
“Don’t worry,” said Dave. “There’s no rush. You haven’t had a chance to fight in a while. Enjoy it.”
Thyker could see they were preparing to attack. Thyker readied himself. His strategies hadn’t worked so far, but he had gained an advantage. He had seen their attack several times, and it seemed to follow the same pattern. Water spells wouldn’t work, and simply dodging wouldn’t work. He’s have to split them up if he were to have any chance at all. Thyker looked carefully. Minoxo was to his left; Dave was in front of him. He gazed both ways. Which would be the first to attack?
Apparently, it was Minoxo. The human-demon extended his arm and started to become engulfed in the swirl of fire. Thyker noticed Dave seemed to be preparing himself as well, as expected. Minoxo launched at him like being shot out of a cannon on a direct path towards Thyker. Thyker grabbed a bunch of earth runes and slammed the ground. A slab of earth a few feet thick jutted up from the ground; from what Thyker had seen so far, they didn’t seem able to change direction in the middle of the attack. Thyker heard something slam into the wall of earth. It cracked but held it’s shaped. Thyker looked up into the air. As he expected, Dave was in the air raining down towards Thyker with a fire driller. Thyker jumped a few steps back, letting Dave crash into the ground. The impact made Thyker lose his balance a little, but he didn’t fall. Instead, Thyker grabbed Karil’s crossbow, placed in a bolt rack, and let it fire at Dave. The impact with the ground made Dave unable to move, and the bolt rack hit directly into him with an explosion.
Not giving Dave time to react, Thyker jumped forward a few steps and slashed at the human-demon with his dragonite shortsword. The attack hit into Dave’s ribcage but didn’t penetrate deep. It didn’t feel like a prayer barrier; it seemed that Dave had obtained the hard skin that demons often possessed. By this point, Dave seemed to figure out what was happening, and slashed at Thyker with one of his claws. Thyker drew his sword back and deflected the claws. Dave slashed several more times, and Thyker managed to block most of them. While Dave was still slashing, Thyker noticed a flash of light above him. Glancing up quickly, he saw Minoxo had gotten past the wall and was now in the air, the fire driller vortex started to surround him. As the attack started to come down, Thyker jumped out of the way, not wanting to get hit by it again.
The impact of the attack into the ground made Thyker lose his balance as normal, but once again he didn’t fall. However, as he stumbled, he noticed Dave’s hand was stretched out with a group of runes. Fire began to appear in his hand. Not the fire from the fire driller, though; it seemed like the fireball spell Dave had been using in his human form. Still off balance from Minoxo’s attack, Thyker wasn’t able to dodge it; however, he put up a prayer barrier before the attack could hit. The fireball was launched at Thyker, and while the spell hurt little thanks to the barrier, he did get knocked to the ground again.
Thyker quickly started to sit back up only to get punched in the face by Minoxo. Thyker’s head jerked back and slammed into the ground behind him. Everything spun for a moment and he dropped the sword out of his hand. Minoxo slashed at Thyker with one hand. Being pinned on his back and having no sword in his hand, Thyker put up his arms in front of him in a futile attempt to keep the claws away from the main part of his body. It worked somewhat, though one of his arms got slashed. Minoxo clawed at him with his other arm, to which Thyker once again held up his forearms in defense. Minoxo’s claws continued slashing at Thyker relentlessly, but there was little he could do other than try to use his arms as a shield.
Dave watched from a few steps back. “So, this is how the battle between choosing your own path and embracing the darkness ends? Well, I think we see which path is the stronger one now.”
Thyker began to sit up, but Minoxo’s clawing knocked him back to the ground. This was looking bad; thanks to Karil’s armor, his arms had been an effective shield so far, but he could feel the armor being torn to shreds. Suddenly, Thyker saw what he thought was a lightning bolt hit Dave, knocking him to the ground. Minoxo was by a similar lightning bolt, knocking him to the ground several feet to Thyker’s side.
Thyker sat up and looked around. About 20 feet away, he could see a figure running towards the combat field. The figure spoke. “A 2-on-1 fight, huh? You don’t look like you’re fairing so well Thyker. Need someone to even the field?”
“Yeah,” said Thyker standing up, blood dripping from his arms and face. “I think you could be of help here, Janrok.”
Chapter 33: Evening the Field
“How did you beat all those demons by yourself, though?” asked Thyker.
“Actually, I didn’t,” said Janrok. “You know how you said that place was a pirate hideout? Turned out there were pirates there at the time. The demons were attacking them as well, so they helped fight back. I explained the situation and they gave me a ride here, though they have no interest in helping in the fight. Here,” said Janrok throwing a first aid kit to Thyker. “Use that. I used up one of them after fighting the demons, and the one you have now is my last one. So make it count.”
Thyker used the first aid kit on himself. It healed the wounds he had sustained and refueled his energy. “What are those demons?” asked Janrok. “I’ve never seen one like them before.”
“The one with one horn is a demon named Minoxo. The other is Evil Dave.”
“Evil Dave? Are you sure you know who you’re talking about?” asked Janrok. “I’ve seen Evil Dave before, and he doesn’t look like that.”
“He used some kind of transformation technique,” said Thyker. “It turned them into a combination of a human and demon.”
“They look like freaks to me,” said Janrok.
“So,” said another voice. Janrok and Thyker turned around to see Dave and Minoxo standing again. “If I heard correctly, you’re Janrok?” asked Dave. “So you’re the one who Ansa crushed. You should feel honored. She rarely goes to fight someone herself. Of course, from what I heard, she barely did anything at all.”
Janrok growled. “Stay here Thyker, I’ll take care of this.”
“Wait, stop!” shouted Thyker, but Janrok was already charging at Dave. As he ran, he grabbed several knives and threw them at Dave. Dave simply moved out of the way of them as they came in. As this happened, Thyker noticed Minoxo powering up a fire driller. This one was aimed into the air, not at Janrok, however. The attack started propelling into the sky. So, that’s how they were getting into the air for their attacks…
As Minoxo started to fly into the air, Dave started to power up a fire driller of his own, aimed at Janrok. At the same time, Janrok began reaching for another set of knives. He threw them at Dave just as Dave started explode towards Janrok. Unsurprisingly, Janrok’s knives simply bounced off of the fires surrounding Dave as he flew towards Janrok. Janrok seemed to realize an attack was coming, however, and jumped out of the way of it. Thyker knew what was going to happen next, though. He looked up quick and verified that Minoxo indeed was in the air and beginning a second fire driller aimed at Janrok while Janrok was still off balance. Thyker grabbed a group of air runes and launch a strong gust of wind towards Janrok. Having not gathered his balance yet after jumping out of the way of Dave’s attack, Janrok was easily blown backwards by the attack. The gust of wind moved him just in time as Minoxo came crashing into the ground right where Janrok had been standing.
“What was that for?” shouted Janrok towards Thyker.
“You can’t just rush in there like that!” shouted Thyker. “They launch their attacks in sequence so that you can’t keep dodging them! If you try to take them on alone, you’ll just be walking into their trap!”
“So, you’re not quite as stupid as I thought,” said Dave. “No worries though. It’s only a matter of time at this point. You can’t keep up.”
“You have to stop this, Dave,” said Janrok. “This isn’t some game. This isn’t the time to make everyone think you’re ‘evil’. There are real stakes here.”
“You’re wasting you’re time,” said Thyker.
“You don’t seem to understand the situation,” said Dave. “I’m not here to prove that I’m evil. I’m here because I’ve found a mentor who can bring my powers to their fullest, who can teach me how to be evil. I’m not here to prove it… I’m here to be it. I must say, I’m enjoying this situation. A warrior of balance and a warrior of the light, trying to tell me how weak the darkness is. Well, no you have two opponents of the darkness. It’s time to put your theory to the test.”
By this point, Thyker had walked over to Janrok. Minoxo and Dave were standing on either side of the two of them. “Do you understand now?” asked Thyker. “There’s no swaying him. The only way to Ansa is through him.”
“Right…” said Janrok. “No holding back. Well, you saw them fight. Do you have a plan?”
“Well, they’re not going to be simple,” said Thyker. “But a great deal of their power comes from acting as a team. If we can separate the two of them, we might be able to take them out one on one. Just watch out… even one on one they won’t be simple.”
“Ok,” said Janrok, turning to face Dave. “I’ll take Dave.”
Thyker turned to face Minoxo. “I’ve got ol’ one-horn. I think these will be more effective,” he said as he pulled out a dragonite dagger and a runite defender, holding them both in one hand.
“What are those for?”
“Those claws are fast. It’s too hard to keep up with a big weapon.”
“Good call,” replied Janrok, pulling out his own defender and readying a few knives in the other hand. The two pairs stared at each other. Waiting for the right time to move…
Janrok launched a couple knives in Evil Dave’s direction. As usual, Dave dodged the attack easily, but Janrok took the chance to get closer and release a few more knives. As that was happening, Minoxo was powering up a fire driller. Thyker didn’t plan to let that happen. He quickly grabbed runes for an earth spell and launched a boulder at Minoxo. The flames that Minoxo had powered up were enough to break the boulder apart but not enough to stop it. The force of the boulder hit into Minoxo, sending him backwards. Thyker pursued Minoxo and lashed out at him with his dagger. The first slash caught Minoxo off guard and did damage. Not a lot of damage, but it was more progress than Thyker had had so far.
However, but that time, Minoxo had recovered and slashed back with his own claws. Thyker blocked the slash with his defender, and a flurry of slashes, blocks, and counter-slashes ensued. Thanks to the smaller weapons and not being distracted by Dave, Thyker was able to keep up with the slashes plus a little more. Still, it was hard to land a solid hit. However, in the flurry, Thyker suddenly noticed an opening. Thyker reached deep into the power of the dragon dagger to unleash a special ability. Two lightning-quick strikes came out of the dagger, both damaging Minoxo. Thyker could feel the attack had drained some of the power of the dagger, but it was worth it; both strikes had hit.
The force of the strike had sent Minoxo back a few steps. Thyker lunged to keep up the momentum when suddenly he felt the wind knocked out of him. As he was knocked forward off of his feet, he looked behind him to see Dave ending a fire driller that had struck him in the back. As Thyker was falling forward, Dave grab him around his waste and pinned his arms to his side.
“Going up.” Dave launched another fire driller into the air. Thyker didn’t see the point. Being this close to Dave, Thyker wasn’t even affected by the attack. However, from the air, he could see Janrok standing up from the ground, ready to continue fighting.
Dave ended the fire driller after flying high into the air. “Now you die,” Dave told Thyker. Thyker still wasn’t sure what Dave was planning. At that point, Dave started another fire driller, this one pointed to the ground. The two started speeding towards the ground. Ah! Especially with Thyker not able to use his arms, if he hit the ground at this speed.
“Great…” said Janrok. He pulled out his crossbow and shot a bolt in Thyker’s direction. Unfortunately, this one missed and hit the ground below him.
As they got close to the ground, Dave released Thyker and hit the ground several feet away. He hit the ground forcefully and cracked it, but the flames of the fire driller protected him. Thyker was another story. With not time to react, Thyker slammed into the ground, unable to protect himself.
Chapter 34: Two-On-Two Rumble: New Attacks Revealed!
Thyker stood up a few moments after hitting the ground. He felt sore, but he wasn’t dead. Thyker looked down at the ground. It had been turned to mud, cushioning his fall greatly. So, Janrok hadn’t missed with that bolt after all. He must have launched a water bolt to soften the ground.
“Good job, Janrok. Now I’m covered head-to-toe in mud.”
“I could just save the bolt and let you hit the hard ground next time. These bolts aren’t exactly common, you know.” Thyker pulled out a few earth and water runes, and casting a simple spell, removed the mud from his body. It may have seemed trivial, but the mud could have made things quite slippery for him, one might say. Still, the whole thing hadn’t been useless. He had felt Dave hit into him with the fire driller, and it was starting to feel a good deal weaker than at first. That was a good sign. Dave and Minoxo must have limits to their powers too, even if they weren’t showing it outwardly.
Thyker ran over to Janrok. He whispered to him, “Hey, I think we should try focusing on Minoxo. They’re supposed to be the same, Dave seems the stronger of the two for some reason. If we put enough pressure on Minoxo, we might be able to take him out.”
“What are you two whispering about?” asked Dave.
“Perhaps they’re trying to figure out some way to escape,” said Minoxo. “We
should finish them now.”
“Agreed,” said Dave as he started to power up a fire driller.
“Ok, you know the plan,” said Janrok, as if it had been his plan. Thyker grabbed a few runes and Janrok readied a few knives. Dave launched forward with his fire driller. As it passed by, Thyker and Janrok jumped out of the way without even turning to watch Dave. The two immediately released a barrage of spells and knives at Minoxo. The demon dodged a few of them but wasn’t fast enough to dodge them all and was pounded by the attacks.
Thyker felt a flame on his back that knocked him forward. He could see Janrok falling the same way. Thyker turned around to see that Dave had recovered. He was still far away but was launching the fire spells at them. Thyker turned to Janrok. “I’ll distract Dave. You take care of Minoxo.” The two jumped to their feet.
Dave launched another fire spell, but Thyker launched his own water spell that fizzled it. Thyker countered with a fire spell aimed at Dave, but Dave just dodged it. Thyker couldn’t see Minoxo, but from what he could see of Janrok, Janrok seemed to doing fine with his knives. Thyker and Dave launched more spells at each other, but neither was able to land any good hits. Dave launched another spell, which Thyker dodged. Suddenly, Dave launched a gust of air low to the ground. The spell hit Janrok’s legs and tripped him to the ground. As Thyker landed, he looked to see that Minoxo was in the air hurtling down at Janrok.
“Great, no chance of Janrok dodging that,” Thyker growled through his teeth. Thyker jumped in the way and activated all of the prayers he could think of: defensive prayers, strength prayers, prayers that would protect against the melee attack. Thyker got in the way just in time to grabbed Minoxo as he was coming down. Thyker’s legs bent under the stress, but he didn’t fall. Minoxo still tried to burn his way downward with the fire driller, but for now, Thyker had brought Minoxo to a stand still. Struggling against the force of the attack. Thyker spun a little bit to pick up some momentum then threw Minoxo off in Dave’s direction. “You take him!”
As Minoxo flew above the ground, he de-activated the fire driller and went crashing into Dave. While Dave was surprised, he wasn’t caught completely off guard and caught Minoxo in his arms. He stumbled back a few steps and then dropped Minoxo to the ground.
Thyker huffed and puffed. “Nice catch,” said Janrok, returning to his feet.
“Yeah…” replied Thyker. “That’s probably a one-time thing, though. I think I used up most of my prayer abilities doing that. They’re definitely getting weaker though. There’s no way I could have done that with the power that their first fire drillers had.” Thyker continued to breathe deeply.
“We can’t let this go on, Minoxo,” said Dave. “It’s time to do something they won’t easily dodge.”
“Are we going to make it a double?” asked Minoxo, standing to his feet.
“Exactly,” replied Dave.
“What are they talking about,” asked Janrok.
“No clue,” replied Thyker. “But whatever it is, I say we stop them before they get the chance.”
As they were saying that, Dave and Minoxo stood closely side by side. The two of them started to become engulfed in flames that swirled around both their bodies like a vortex.
“Wait!” shouted Thyker. He turned to Janrok. “Does that look like what I think it is?”
“Looks like it to me,” replied Janrok. “That’s one BIG fire driller.”
“Great…” replied Thyker. The two of human-demons were somehow combining into one enormous fire driller. And it was a lot bigger than two fire drillers put together. “Well, I’m going to take it out!” he shouted as he grabbed a bunch of runes from his pouch.
“Wait!” said Janrok, putting an arm in front of him. “The fire drillers burn themselves out after enough time. That thing is REALLY big. Let’s just keep our distance and hit them when it wears out. They’ll both be off guard at the same time.”
“Yeah… good point,” replied Thyker.
The double fire driller began to fly towards Thyker and Janrok. Luckily, it was slower than the normal fire driller, though still a lot faster than Thyker would have liked. However, now the attack was much bigger, and the earth was being torn up as the double fire driller passed by it. Thyker and Janrok ran to opposite side of the attack to get out of the way. Even running, they still barely managed to dodge the wide-radius attack.
Thyker and Janrok turned, readying runes and knives. “Get ready, Janrok. They’ll have to end the attack to turn around.”
As the two watched, the attack started to turn into the air. The flames didn’t dim in the least while that happened. “Well, that’s going to be a problem,” said Janrok. “Apparently that big hunk of fire change directions mid-flight.”
“Yeah…” said Thyker. “This could be bad.” The double fire driller started heading back towards Thyker and Janrok.
“Got any ideas?” asked Thyker.
“Yeah… move!” The double fire driller had reached the two of them again. They ran to opposite side but weren’t completely able to dodge it. The edge of the flames scorched their back and sent them flying apart. Hitting the ground, they quickly jumped to their feet and turned to face the double fire driller. Once again, it was turning around in the air to come back at them.
“Thyker, I don’t think we’re going to be able to outlast this thing. Got any REALLY big water spells you can launch?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s strong enough to take out that thing.”
“Maybe not, but I think I can help a little bit,” said Janrok as he loaded a pearl-tipped bolt into his crossbow. “Besides, they’ll get us eventually at this rate. We don’t really have much choice.”
“Ok, let’s try a water wave,” said Thyker, pulling a few more runes out of his pouch. The double fire driller was now heading towards them again. Thyker started pulling magical energy through the runes. With his magical abilities, it would take a few seconds to power up something as strong as a wave spell. By the time he finished, the double driller would be too close to dodge. It looked like it was a last stand, one way or another.
“Ok, go!” shouted Thyker. Janrok released the pearl-tipped bolt and it erupted in a stream of water. Thyker released the pent-up power of the water wave and another gush of water flew through the air. The two water attacks slammed into the double fire driller. The double fire driller slowed to a halt against the pressure of the water attacks. For a few seconds, the fire driller and water attacks were suspended in mid-air. Then, movement began. The double fire driller started pushing forward slowly as the water attacks began to give way. Then, suddenly, the fire just vanished as the force of the attacks exhausted Dave and Minoxo. With the fire gone, the water rushed forward slamming into the two. The two human-demons were thrown backwards in the air and slammed to the ground a few seconds later.
“Come on, Janrok, this is our chance!” Thyker shouted running towards where the two had fallen.
“I’m right behind you,” replied Janrok, thinking the same thing at the same time.
Dave was the first to get up, though it appeared to be an effort to do so. He held out one of his hands. The swirling vortex of flame started to engulf him but suddenly fizzled out.
“What the…” he said. As that happened, Thyker released a burst of flames of his own, striking Dave and sending him back to the ground. Minoxo got up to one knee only to be hit with a shower of knives.
“Well, look at that,” said Janrok. “It looks like you’re too wet to use your precious little fire technique. I recommend you two give up. Without that attack, you’re finished.”
“You would think that… wouldn’t you… Minoxo, quickly, let’s try the Kutan-Rin” said Dave, slowly standing up again. The short reprieve in the fighting gave Thyker a chance to notice how battered Dave and Minoxo were. One more good shot might finish either of them. Still… Thyker looked at Janrok and at himself. They only looked slightly better themselves.
Thyker looked back towards Dave and almost jumped back in astonishment. There was a ring of light on the ground around Dave. Dave himself was just standing there in a trance. “Janrok, should we stop Dave now?”
“No,” Janrok replied. “Let’s finish off Minoxo now while Dave can’t defend him. Whatever Dave’s doing, I think we can finish him off in a two-on-one fight.” Janrok grabbed a bunch of knives from his back as Thyker grabbed some runes. Thyker unleashed a fire spell as Janrok unleashed a flurry of knives. The two reached Minoxo and through where he was standing until they hit the earth behind where he had been; Minoxo was no longer there.
“Janrok… what just happened? I could have sworn we threw those at Minoxo.”
“We did… or at least it looked like we did. I’m not sure what happened, but I can’t see Minoxo anywhere. Let’s try Dave while he’s distracted.” The two unleashed another round of knives and fire towards Dave and the strange ring of light. However, as they approached Dave, a strange blur suddenly appeared in front of the attacks. The knives were knocked to the ground and the fire spell seemed to dissipate upon hitting the blur.
“Did you see what happened?” asked Janrok.
“I’m not sure,” replied Thyker. “Let’s try that again. Maybe we’ll figure out what Dave’s attack is doing.”
Thyker reached into his pouched for more runes. Suddenly, he felt a strike hit into his side and he was knocked off his feet. He could see Janrok moving too; whatever had hit Thyker had hit Janrok, too. The two landed on the ground, and Thyker looked around him. Nothing was there. The two stood back to their feet.
“How can he be doing this!” shouted Thyker as he pointed towards Dave. “He’s not even moving. Look at his eyes! He looks like he’s in some sort of trance, or even asleep!”
“I don’t know,” said Janrok. “But I know how I can find out.”
Chapter 35: The Kutan-Rin
“Wait… what are you doing?” asked Thyker.
“If Dave’s using some kind of illusion, I’ll see right through it. If it’s some strange attack, I’ll see it clearly. Either way, no more games.” Janrok closed his eyes for a moment. “Try the Gaze of Saradomin!” Janrok’s pupils had been replaced by blue crosses… Saradomin’s symbol.
Janrok looked around for a few moment. He looked left. He looked right. However, he didn’t say anything.
“So, did you see any…”
“Duck!” Janrok shouted pushing Thyker’s head down. Thyker didn’t see what he was ducking from, but he felt the breeze of something whisking by him. Janrok released Thyker’s head, grabbed a bunch of knives and threw the, horizontally at nothing. Janrok jumped a step to the side and threw a few more knives at nothing. “Drat, a can’t get him…”
“Have you gone crazy?” asked Thyker.
“No,” said Janrok, “but I did see what’s going on. Dave’s not doing anything. Everything so far has been Minoxo. He’s just moving fast. REALLY fast. So fast you probably wouldn’t notice him unless you knew what to look for. Here, look over… there!” he said as he pointed. “Do you see him?”
Thyker focused in the direction that Janrok pointed. He saw it. He had to move his eyes quickly to keep up, but he could see a blur running across the landscape.
“Yeah, I see him. So that’s what that blur that deflected our attacks were.”
“Great,” said Janrok. “We see him, but I’m not sure what we can do. He’s too fast to hit. We can probably dodge his attacks for a while, but it’s only a matter of time before he hits us.” Thyker understood what he meant. As that was said, the sprinted towards the two of them again. Thyker jumped towards the side, then back, then to the side. Every time, he could feel the breeze from the claws that would have hit him had he not moved. Thyker swung at the blur then swung again, but didn’t even come close to hitting it. Janrok threw a few knives at the Minoxo, but once again they didn’t even come close to the blur.
Janrok growled. “Well, let’s look on the bright side. Dave must be so over-confident that he’s just going to let Minoxo do all the work.”
“Yeah…” said Thyker, moving his eyes furiously so as to not let Minoxo leave his sight. “Wait a minute!” shouted Thyker suddenly. “I get it. Dave isn’t being over-confident. He’s not sitting out of the fight to let Minoxo do it. He’s sitting out of the fight because he CAN’T.”
Minoxo dashed at the two again. Thyker fired a fire spell at the blur, which easily dodged it. Janrok released a few more knives, which once again hit nothing but the ground. The two released a few more attacks, all of which came as close to hitting Minoxo as the first had. However, the attack caused Minoxo to simply retreat again without having ever gotten close enough to attack them.
“What do you mean?” asked Janrok.
“I mean that Dave must be powering up Minoxo. It’s so simple! Minoxo’s getting super-speed, but the downside is Dave can’t fight. He can’t even defend himself. Look at him. He hasn’t moved once since he started the attack. That’s why Minoxo blocked the attacks; because he’s the only one who can.”
“Ah…” said Janrok, nodding. “So then… I guess we found a weak spot.” Janrok unleashed a handful of knives at Dave, but Minoxo knocked them to the ground. Janrok unleashed a second handful, then a third, but they were all again knocked to the ground.
“Wait,” said Thyker, grabbing Janrok’s hand as he went to grab more knives. “You’ll run out of knives before Minoxo misses once. Let’s use a little more strategy.” Thyker reached to his back and pulled out Karil’s crossbow. “This should do it.”
“I get it… nice thinking.” Thyker shot a bolt at Dave, but Minoxo blocked it. He shot a second, and a third, but Minoxo knocked them both out of the air.
The blur started to sprint towards them, but it almost instantly fell to the ground. Suddenly, Minoxo no longer appeared as a blur. However, having tripped with the speed he was moving at, he bounced and rolled across the ground for a few seconds before coming to a stop.
“What’s wrong, Minoxo?” asked Thyker. “Feeling a little dizzy?” he said as he patted Karil’s crossbow. The ring of light suddenly dissipated around Dave as he started to run towards Minoxo. He looked quite angry. So… Dave might not be able to react while using the attack, but it looked like he could still see what was going on.
“Hurry up, Thyker!” shouted Janrok. “Get Minoxo while we have the chance.” Janrok grabbed a few knives while Thyker aimed a spell at Minoxo. Dave was trying to run towards Minoxo, but he was too far away. There’s no way he’d get there in time. Janrok unleashed a flurry of knives at Minoxo as Thyker unleashed another fire spell. Dave punched one of his hands into the ground, and a wall of earth jumped up in front of Minoxo, blocking the knives and fire spell.
“What’s wrong, Dave? Can’t think of anything original?” asked Thyker. “You have to copy the same defense I used on you?”
“I am somewhat aware of the folklore on the Mort’ton armors, you know,” replied Dave’s muffled voice from behind the wall of earth. Well, it looked like Dave had reached Minoxo. “And I know that all of the armors have special powers. I didn’t know what Karil’s powers were. But now I see… some kind of nausea effect. Well done, that will effectively keep Minoxo from moving for a while. But don’t worry… We know what the armor does now, and we won’t fall for it a second time.”
“Too bad you won’t have a chance to correct it,” replied Thyker. The wall of earth began to sink back into the ground. Thyker readied his sword. This would be his chance to finish the fight. As the wall reached eye waste level, Thyker started to run forward. However, his face got whipped back by the impact of a blur smashing into him. He could see that Janrok was in the same situation; the blur had hit each of them with one arm as it ran by. Well, that’s what they get for standing so close together…
The force of the impact slammed both Thyker and Janrok into the ground. Thyker was starting to get used to it, but after this much fighting, it was getting harder to recover.
“How can Minoxo still be moving like that…” said Thyker. The two stood up and looked at the human-demon standing in a ring of light. He only had one horn.
“Wait, so that blur wasn’t Minoxo… it was Dave,” said Thyker.
“Great,” said Janrok. “They can both use that blasted attack.”
“Come on Janrok. Chin up. This is what it all comes down to. Minoxo can’t move because of Karil’s abilities, even if he powers down the attack. They’re both battered. This fight is practically over. We just need one more good shot.”
“Yeah, you’re right…”
Thyker felt something smash into his back. As he fell forward, he looked backwards, even though he already knew what had hit him. He saw the blur going after Janrok. Janrok kept jumping back and dodging the attacks, though not by much. Still, Thyker saw something he liked. From what he could see, it seemed like Dave was moving a little slower than Minoxo had been. He didn’t know if it was because Dave was slower or because Minoxo had less ability to power up Dave, nor did he care. The point was, even though Dave was lightning fast, he should be easier to hit than Minoxo.
“Well, let’s see if this works again,” said Thyker as he pulled out his crossbow. He aimed a bolt at Minoxo and fire. The blur appeared in front of Minoxo. “He may know what the bolts do, but he’s either got to touch them or let Minoxo get hit.” A ball of fire shot out of the blur and incinerated the bolt.
“Or he could do that…” said Janrok.
Chapter 36: Speed vs. Speed: A Victor Emerges!
“Yeah… forgot about the magic…” replied Thyker. Heput his short sword away and pulled out his dragon dagger. “There’s no way I could keep up with a sword that big… best to try with the dagger.”
“Agreed,” said Janrok, who pulled out his rune defender and wielded it in his left hand while holding a few knives in his other hand. The blur dashed at Thyker. Thyker tapped deep into the power of the dragonite dagger and unleashed its special ability, causing a quick one-two strike. Despite the speed of the dagger, it still missed its target. Thyker jumped backwards out of the way of one of Dave’s claws. Janrok wound up to throw his knives at Minoxo, but the blur slashed his hand. The knives dropped to the ground.
Thyker jumped at the blur and unleashed another of the dragonite dagger’s special attacks, but once again they both missed. With his momentum still going forward, Thyker was unable to dodge the lightning fast claw, which cracked him in the jaw. Janrok slashed at Dave with the defender, but missed like all the other time. The blur retreated to a farther distance.
“They keep retreating,” said Thyker. “Moving at that speed must tire them out. I think they’re getting some distance to recover.”
“Great observation; too bad it’s kind of pointless as we can’t get near him anyway.”
“We just have to stay calm,” said Thyker. “We can hold him off for a little bit like this as long as we don’t do something stupid. Let’s cover each other’s backs.” Thyker turned around, and the two got back to back. Thyker held his dragon dagger ready to strike; he could use its special ability one more time. Janrok held the defender in his left hand still. He had a few knives in his right hand, but the last attack had wounded his right hand. If he couldn’t hit Dave with his knives before, he likely wouldn’t be able to now.
Thyker felt Janrok moving and turned around to see Dave’s blur striking at Janrok. One of the hits must have been successful. He saw Janrok collapse to the ground. Unlike before, he didn’t get up immediately. The blur came in to attack Janrok on the ground, but Thyker jumped in the way and stabbed with his dagger. Like all the other times, the attack missed, but he got Dave to stop his attack in the process.
The blur retreated a little bit but quickly came in from Thyker’s side. However, the blur had never left Thyker’s vision, so he saw the attack coming. He waited to the last minute so Dave would think he was catching Thyker off guard. Thyker move slightly so that the clawing attack would only be a glancing blow but did it in such a way that it looked accidental. As soon as he felt the claw touch his shoulder, he launched the dagger’s last special strike at Dave, who wasn’t expecting a counter-attack. The first slash of the dagger caught Dave on the arm. With lightning fast speed, it came back towards Dave’s torso. Dave didn’t have enough time to completely dodge it, and the dagger caught flesh. And then suddenly Dave wasn’t standing there anymore. It was a moment before Thyker realized that Dave had partially dodged the second slash, and it had only caught Dave’s leg. He may have done damage, but nothing major.
Thyker heard something behind him. He started turning to see the blur barreling straight towards him. Janrok was still on the ground. Thyker was turning around as fast as he could, but he wasn’t in a good position and couldn’t turn fast enough to meet Dave. Thyker did the best he could to protect his vital spots with his back still turned. And then suddenly Dave didn’t look like a blur anymore. He was suddenly moving at normal speed, and within arm’s reach of Thyker. Thyker, however, was still trying to turn to face Dave, and his hand ended up swinging around and smashing the no-longer fast Dave in the face. Dave stumbled and then fell to the ground. He wasn’t moving.
Thyker turned around to look at Minoxo. He saw Minoxo falling to the ground. In front of him was the person who had struck him. The weapon used: a dragonite warhammer. It was Marik.
“Marik,” said Thyker. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, old Ned gave me a ride here on his boat. He’s a pretty fast sailor.”
“So,” said Janrok, standing up. “I guess that’s who Tiffy made me get that hammer for.”
“Yeah,” said Marik, “I got this dragonite warhammer from Tiffy.”
“While it would be nice to stay here and get to know each other,” said Thyker, “I think we’d better go get Ansa.”
Thyker heard a hushed laughter coming from the ground. He turned in Dave’s direction. “After all this, you’re still intent on fighting Ansa? Oh, what an amusing waste of time. You weaklings are a joke compared to her.” It was somewhat ironic that as Dave said this, he wasn’t able to move an inch.
“It looks like we did fine against you two,” said Thyker, ignoring all the wounds he himself had endured.
“The five of us combined would be little more than amusement for Ansa. But go ahead! Rush to your deaths!”
“Ignore him,” Janrok said, grabbing Thyker’s arm. “He’s just trying to frighten you.”
“… Yeah…” said Thyker. Thyker, Janrok, and Marik walk towards the cave. Thyker walked partway into the entrance then turned around to look at Janrok and Marik. “Why did you two stop?” asked Thyker.
“I’m not sure,” said Janrok. “There’s something stopping us.” Janrok started to walk forward but then suddenly stopped as if he had run into a wall.
The hushed laugh started again. “Oh, this is amusing.”
“What’s going on?” Janrok asked as he turned towards Dave.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just a magical barrier. Those with weak magical abilities such as yourselves are unable pass. It looks like Thyker is the only one worthy to see Ansa. It’s quite fitting, actually, given his past with her.”
“What past are you talking about?” Janrok asked.
“Oh, nothing. I guess that’s just for Ansa, Thyker, and myself to know.”
Janrok paused for a moment, then shook his head as if it wasn’t worth the effort. “Thyker, you can’t go in there alone. Not in the condition you’re in. At least rest up.”
“Can’t,” said Thyker. “Whatever Ansa’s up to, it could start any minute. I don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
“I understand,” said Janrok, “but you’re only useful if you can beat her. The three of us alone might be fine, but I’ve fought her. You’re too injured right now to go in and fight her alone.”
“Don’t worry so much,” said Thyker. “This is me you’re talking about! I’ll be fine.”
Janrok paused for a moment. Thyker seemed intent on going in. If he couldn’t stop him, he might as well boost his confidence. “Yeah, you’re right, silly me. Go get her. Just don’t do anything stupid. I want to make sure I get another crack at you. Which means you have to come out alive.”
Thyker nodded and ran into the cave. Janrok and Marik continued to stare into the cave.
“You know, you really should finish off your enemies when you have the chance.” Janrok and Marik turned around. Minoxo and Dave looked half dead, but they were standing. “This is why darkness will prevail. Pathetic light-followers like you are too weak to follow through to the kill.”
“Give it up, you two,” said Janrok. “After all that, Dave’s got to be too injured to fight, and Minoxo can’t move because of the nausea.”
The white circle of light appeared around Dave. “This is pointless,” thought Janrok. “We saw it a while ago; Minoxo can’t handle the speed because of the dizziness…” Unless… how long ago had that happened!? Ugh, time moves so fast in the middle of a fight! The effect probably wore off by now!
Janrok sloppily grabbed a few knives with his injured hand and threw them at Dave. However, Minoxo turned into a blur and deflected the knives.
Thyker continued to run deeper into the cave. There were several caverns, but he could feel a single magical presence inside the cave. He wasn’t sure what it was doing, but it pretty much had to be Ansa. Thyker ran into a relatively large open area inside the cave. It seemed to be cluttered with random junk. Inside stood a single figure. The figure was clad in Ahrim’s clothing. It had to be Ansa.
Ansa had her hood down. She turned around to see who had entered the cave, allowing Thyker to get a good look at her face. “Ah, Thyker. I must admit, I’m impressed that you’re here.”
Thyker looked at Ansa with shock. He recognized that face from a long time ago. “After all this… you’re Ansa!?”
Chapter 37: Finishing Blow
Marik took a swing at Minoxo, but the warhammer hit nothing but air. Marik doubled over as the wind was knocked out of him from a fast-moving strike. A second hit sent Marik back a few steps. Off-balance, he swung with his hammer again but hit only air. Janrok grabbed a knife with his left hand and flung it at Minoxo. Minoxo retreated to a safe distance well before the knife even got near him.
This was bad. For one thing, while Janrok could still use his right hand, it was too injured to throw knives effectively. That reduced the number of knives he could throw at one time substantially. Then, there was Marik. Marik seemed to know how to wield the warhammer better than a random person would, but he was far from an expert. On top of that, hammers were slow weapons, and a slow weapon was essentially useless against the attack Minoxo was using. So basically, neither of them had much offensive capability.
There was a little bit of good news, however. The Gaze of Saradomin enhanced Janrok’s sight enough that it allowed him to see Minoxo’s motions, even if they were too fast to react to effectively. Minoxo seemed to be moving slower than he had the first time he had used the Kutan-Rin. That didn’t seem too surprising. Minoxo had seemed heavily injured and the Kutan-Rin had to be demanding on the body. Despite Minoxo being injured, Janrok wasn’t in much better condition physically. And the Gaze was draining to maintain. It would give out eventually. But Janrok had to keep it up as long as possible. If he lost the ability to track Minoxo, it was basically over.
Minoxo began closing the distance again in another attempt to attack. Janrok grabbed a knife with his left hand and threw it at Minoxo, but Minoxo once again simply dodged it. “Hey, Marik,” said Janrok. “What kind of special attack does that weapon have?”
Marik faced Janrok. “What do you mean?”
“Keep your eyes on Minoxo!” shouted Janrok.
“Who?”
“The thing that’s attacking us! You don’t want him sneaking up on you. You don’t have to look at me to talk.” Marik’s head snapped away from Janrok and locked onto the blur. “Anyway, strong weapons have special attacks that are imbued in them. Those attacks can be activated by the person wielding the weapon.” Minoxo began heading towards Marik. Janrok threw a knife at the incoming human-demon, but Minoxo simply dodged it. “Anyway, every dragonite weapon I’ve ever seen has one, so I’m assuming that warhammer has one, too. I’m not sure what it is, but maybe it could be useful.”
Janrok threw another knife at Minoxo, who once again dodged it. Minoxo came rather close to Marik. He swung at Minoxo with his hammer but completely missed as the human-demon easily dodged it. Minoxo once again retreated to a farther distance. Marik began swinging his hammer strangely. “Special attack! Special attack!”
“What are you doing?” asked Jarnok, angrily.
“I’m trying to activate the special attack.”
“That’s not how you do it!”
“Well… how do I do it then?” asked Marik.
“You… uh…” Janrok thought for a minute. “I’m not sure how to describe it. For me, it’s kind of like clicking a button. You know, simple. Um… try reaching deep into the weapon. Become one with it. Find the power and unleash it.”
Marik stood there for a minute. He then started swinging the hammer. “Special attack! Special attack!”
Janrok sighed. “I had kind of hoped my death would be a little more eloquent than this…”
Minoxo once again headed in towards the two. Janrok threw a knife at Minoxo, then a second knife, both of which he easily dodged. Marik took a swing at Minoxo but once again missed. Minoxo countered by striking Marik once, then twice, then a third time. Janrok threw a knife at Minoxo, which made Minoxo jump back, but he immediately jumped right back in and continued the beating. Realizing that throwing a knife at Minoxo wouldn’t make him retreat, he grabbed a knife from his pouch and threw it. However, the target wasn’t Minoxo; it was Dave. Of course, Minoxo jumped in the way and deflected the knife, but at least it got Minoxo to back off of Marik for a moment.
“I’m tired of this,” said Marik. He started to run towards Dave.
“What are you doing, fool?” asked Janrok.
“I’m going to throw a swing that Minoxo can’t dodge.”
Janrok watched as Marik ran across the field. “He’s going to get himself killed out there…” Janrok thought. Then he realized the situation. Minoxo can easily dodge any of Marik’s attacks, but he can’t block them. Which means that if Marik were to attack Dave instead of Minoxo… But still, he’d never get there. Janrok grabbed a few knives from his pouch. Maybe he could help Marik get close.
Janrok started running after Marik. “Keep going Marik! I’ve got your back!” By this point, Minoxo seemed to realize what was going on, and headed towards Marik. Janrok threw a knife at Minoxo, which was easily dodged as always. However, it did waste a split-second of Minoxo’s time. Janrok waited for the right moment to throw the second knife. Suddenly, the world began fading, spinning, and going blurry. Janrok was familiar with that. The Gaze was starting to drain him too much. Janrok shook his head, and everything returned to normal. He just had to keep it up a little longer.
Marik continued to run towards Dave. Minoxo charged towards Marik from the side. Janrok threw the second knife at Minoxo, forcing him to sidestep it. However, Minoxo didn’t let that hold him back for long, and immediately went after Marik again. Janrok reached into his pouch and immediately threw another knife. Minoxo jumped out of the way. This time, it seemed to have more effect as Minoxo didn’t immediately go after Marik again. Instead, Minoxo ran to the other side of Marik. Janrok knew what Minoxo was trying: he thought if he could put Marik in between himself and Janrok that Janrok wouldn’t be able to range at him. Heh… Minoxo was in for a surprise.
Janrok reached into his knife pouch. Well… this was a problem… no knives left. The world began distorting again, and the Gaze of Saradomin flickered out. Well… now things were worse. And Marik was almost at Dave. Janrok reached into his inventory and pulled out the last thing he could throw. Taking his rune defender, he threw it like a knife at Minoxo. With the Gaze of Saradomin gone and Marik in the way, it was a hard shot, but Janrok was a good ranger. Unfortunately, being unused to throwing something as heavy as a defender, he didn’t put enough strength into the throw, and it fell low. However, even landing at Minoxo’s feet, it still halted Minoxo for a split second, and that was what Marik needed.
Marik was now in range and began swinging his hammer. Minoxo was forced to choose between jumping in the way of the attack or letting gave get hit. Minoxo was in no condition to take a bone-shattering blow like that, and if Dave went down, then Minoxo lost his speed. Checkmate. Now it was just time to see what Minoxo would choose.
Minoxo ran towards Marik as he was swinging the hammer at Dave. Minoxo made his choice: with all his strength, he hit Marik with an uppercut to the jaw. The strike was so hard and fast it knocked Marik off his feet and he landed close to Janrok. Well… Janrok sure hadn’t expected that. Janrok sighed. He wasn’t sure what else to do at this point. He was out of knives, which were the only weapon possibly fast enough to hit something as fast as Minoxo. His defender was gone, and he couldn’t even track Minoxo’s motions very well anymore. He had his crossbow, but a crossbow would be much too slow in a situation like this.
Marik stood back up. Minoxo paused for a moment and looked at the two. “Well, it’s been fun, but I think it’s time to finish it.” Minoxo turned to a blur as he dashed towards the two with lightning speed. Janrok put his fists up. Better to go down fighting. Maybe something would end up working his way.
“Um, Janrok…” said Marik.
Janrok growled. It wasn’t the time. “What?”
“Um… I can feel it.”
“Yeah, I can feel death, too. That’s life for ya’, I guess.”
Minoxo came closer, getting ready to attack.
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean….” Marik swung his hammer. “Special attack!” The hammer struck the ground and cracked into the earth. It sent a shockwave out that pushed up the earth several inches and spread outward in front of him, like a tidal wave. The wave of earth hit Minoxo. With the speed he was going at, Minoxo tripped over the tidal wave of earth and lost control of his motion. Janrok saw his chance. Dashing towards Minoxo, he grabbed his crossbow and loaded a bolt into it. As Minoxo was falling to the ground, Janrok got as close as he could and unleashed the bolt, which lodged itself into Minoxo’s chest.
Minoxo hit the ground. Janrok told him, “You like flames, huh? Try dragonfire.” The dragonite bolt lit ablaze, followed by Minoxo’s body. As that happened, Janrok turned to see that the light around Dave was going away, allowing Dave to move again. If previous experience told him anything, Dave had seen what had happened and was getting ready to react himself. However, before the light could fully go away, Dave received a smashing blow in the chest from Marik’s hammer.
Janrok turned back to Minoxo to see that flame-ridden body crumbling to ash. That was a common occurrence for a dying demon. He was finished. Janrok ran towards Marik and Dave, incase Dave tried to pull anything else. As he approached, he saw Dave’s body transform out of the human-demon state that the soul unison had created. In its place was now the body that Janrok was used to seeing Dave in. Janrok leaned down and examined Dave. No doubt; he was unconscious. It was over. For him and Marik at least. Thyker might be a different story.
http://www.runevillage.net/ThePub/viewt ... 82#3067982
Shadow did have something a little lame at the end. 
