Chapter 5: Teamwork

 

        The three soon arrived at the old lady's place. The old lady was currently standing near the edge of the cliff, looking down at the field below. When the sounds of hastened footsteps reached her tiny ears, she turned around to see them running towards her. A smile came onto her face as she looked towards her granddaughter.

        “Ah, Jessica, you're all right,” the old lady said a little happily.

        “Yeah, and it's all thanks to Spike and Skylar,” she said.

        “Those blasted bandits didn't hurt you, did they?”

        “No, I'm fine grandma.”

        “Good.” The old lady turned to face the two boys now. “As promised, I will return the gem.”

        The gem appeared in the palm of her hand and she handed it to Skylar. The amateur warrior looked it over for a couple moments to make sure it wasn't damaged in any way before slipping it into his pocket.

        “Sorry to break up such a happy reunion, but there is something I have come to get,” came a familiar deep voice.

        The teens turned around upon hearing the voice to see the man they had encountered only moments ago.

        “Steele . . .” the old lady hissed.

        “Give me the information about the swords,” demanded the large man.

        “I'll never tell anyone about them!” the old lady screamed. “You wasted your time coming here. You can just leave!”

        “I won't be going anywhere without that information!” Steele shouted.

        A broadsword appeared in Steele's right hand. With a quick leap forward he closed the gap in between him and the old lady. When the blade was swung towards her, some invisible barrier seemed to block the sword. The gargantuan man was immediately pushed backwards afterwards from a reflecting effect the barrier possessed.

        The flute appeared in Jessica's hand and she quickly brought it to her lips. Before she could play it though, Steele had already advanced towards her while swinging his broadsword. While going straight for the girl though, the blade soon started to reshape into that of a giant war hammer. It struck Jessica in the side and with a gasp of pain she was sent flying to the side.

        Seeing this, Skylar tried to rush forward. Upon doing this though, he was grabbed by the back of the shirt and yanked backwards.

        “Hey, let go!” Skylar demanded angrily. “We need to help them!”

        “We don't need to do anything,” Spike told him calmly. “We were only supposed to save Jessica. This isn't any of our business; it's theirs, so we should probably just leave now. Besides, you would only get in the way anyway.”

        A low growl emitted from Skylar's throat as he watched the old lady getting smashed by the hammer this time. Both her and Jessica now laid unconscious on the ground as their attacker slowly approached them. This only angered the blond-haired boy further. Breaking free of the other male's grip, he charged forward towards the large man.

        “Leave them alone!” Skylar shouted as he drew his sword.

        Once he was within striking distance, Skylar swung his weapon towards Steele, not even aiming anywhere specifically. The blade made contact with the man's muscular arm. However, to Skylar's surprise, the arm had turned to steel and was completely unharmed by the attack.

        “Fool, don't underestimate me!” shouted Steele as he pushed the blade away from him, knocking Skylar off balance. He then tried to swing his war hammer at him, but before he could, he was knocked to the side by a blast of energy. Quickly rising to his feet afterwards, Steele looked to see Spike lowering his hand before unsheathing his twin blades.

        Steele let forth a battle cry as he now charged towards the brilliant warrior. Spike stood there calmly with his weapons out in front of him, preparing for the battle that was about to take place. As soon as he was in range, Steele swung his hammer downwards with tremendous force. Spike quickly moved to the right before thrusting one of his twin blades towards the man's chest. However, the area was turned to steel before the sword struck and Steele remained unharmed. Before Spike could even respond, the large man delivered a metallic elbow to the face with enough strength behind it to knock Spike backwards a few feet.

        Skylar was now rushing in for the attack from behind. When he was just several feet away, he leaped forward to cover the rest of the distance while making a slash to the man's back. Before it could hit though, Steele spun around while the war hammer changed into a large shield. As soon as the blade collided with the shield, Steele pushed forward, causing Skylar to be shoved into the air. The shield then changed into that of a giant battleaxe. The elephantine man swung it sideways towards Skylar. Right before it could hit, the blond-haired boy just managed to block. Due to the large amount of strength Steele had though, Skylar was sent backwards, sliding on the ground a few feet upon landing on it before coming to a halt.

        Once he was on his feet, Spike mumbled a chant for a spell. Afterwards, stalagmites shot up from the ground all around Steele, the points of them trying to stab into him. However, the man's entire body turned into steel and the stalagmites cracked from the impact. Steele swung his battleaxe at them to crumble them into pebbles as his skin changed back to normal.

        The battle raged on. Spike and Skylar continued taking turns to attack the giant of a man. Unfortunately, they were unable to land a single hit on him that would inflict pain. Instead they were the ones that ended up getting hurt. None of the injuries were major though. The sharp edges of Steele's continuously changing weapon never got into the skin deep enough to give any life-threatening gashes.

        Damn it, there's no way we can keep this up, Spike thought to himself as he watched Skylar attempt an attack to only get knocked backwards. At this point Spike was panting quite rapidly. Spike was a talented warrior, but this man was impossible to hit with that steel skin of his.

        Skylar made another attempt of an attack by thrusting his double-edged sword forward. It struck the steel-covered stomach before the man sent a metallic fist to Skylar's face. The amateur warrior was sent backwards from the punch before landing on the ground. The steel surrounding the stomach faded and right when it did, Spike attempted to use the stalagmite spell again. This time though, only one stalagmite came forth, which was from behind. Steele was unable to form the steel skin again and was struck by the stalagmite. It didn't go in deep enough to do anything fatal though.

        Yes, a hit! Spike thought to himself as he watched the man dislodge himself from the stalagmite. Now only if Skylar can just keep him distracted enough so I can land a few more hits. . .

        Skylar rushed forth to hopelessly attempt another stab. Steele stepped to the side before harshly smacking Skylar to the side like a rag doll. The boy skidded to a stop at Spike's feet.

        “Skylar, can you keep attacking him?” Spike asked as his eyes remained set on their enemy.

        “Of course I can!” the blond-haired boy said. It could be told that he was even exhausted from this fight – probably more than Spike was.

        “Good, keep doing that then,” Spike said. “And try not to let up, got it?”

        Skylar's eyes widened a little when he heard what Spike first said. Was that some kind of compliment? However, there was no time to think about it now. The blond-haired boy gave a nod of his head in response before slowly rising to his feet.

        “I don't know what you two weaklings are scheming over there, but it's not going to work,” Steele taunted as he remained where he was, deciding to let his prey come to him.

        Skylar rushed forward at a slower pace than what he had been going at in the beginning of the battle. When he was within striking range, he unleashed a barrage of slashes, desperately trying to wound the man before him. Steele blocked all the attacks with his sword though.

        Spike watched for a few seconds. Hoping this would work, he would use the same exact spell again. Several stalagmites emerged from the ground behind and to the sides of Steele. A yell of pain escaped Steele's mouth as the sharp points stabbed into his flesh. They went in a bit deeper than the previous ones, but they still weren't enough to cause a quick death.

        Skylar stepped backwards a little as the stalagmites slowly sunk back into the earth. Steele stumbled a little before collapsing onto his stomach, blood practically pouring out of the deep wounds that were all about the top half of his body. He grunted a few times as he struggled to stand back up, but was unsuccessful in doing so.

        Suddenly, a person appeared next to the weakened man. He looked to be in his early twenties – somewhere around the same age as Steele. He had spiky black hair with red streaks in it and blood red eyes. His attire consisted of dark red boots, black pants, and a black short-sleeved shirt. On the left side of his waist was a sheathed sword.

        “Gore, you came,” Steele said weakly. “Give me a hand with these twerps.”

        “You have failed in your duty, Steele,” the newcomer said in a voice that was just about enough to send chills down someone's spine. “Blade is disappointed in you.”

        Spike's eyes widened when he heard Gore mentioning Blade's name. He froze in place as anger started to fill him after hearing the name.

        “I can still take care of it,” said Steele. “Just give me a hand.”

        “You no longer serve any use for Blade, Steele,” replied Gore. “This is farewell.”

        “N-no, please!” cried Steele.

        Gore didn't respond. He stood there calmly with his arms resting at his sides. Suddenly, black flames rose up from the ground and engulfed the large man. Blood curling screams escaped the man's mouth as he thrashed about violently, trying to scramble free of the fire. Gore stood there and watched his comrade, not making a single movement to help him.

        Skylar watched in shock as the scene unfolded before him. The yells ended seconds later and the burning corpse laid motionless in the flames. Skylar's jaw hung open, not able to even move after witnessing something such as that. How could someone be so cold as to hurt a comrade like that? The thought of it sickened Skylar greatly. Gore looked towards Spike and then at Skylar, who felt as though Death himself was staring at him. The man and the burnt corpse then disappeared from sight.

Author's Note

Gore is apparently an actual Old English name...That would be such a sick name to have!

Reviews

[Clark]

Umm...small question. You say "metallic blow to the face" in reference to Spike getting a faceful of warhammer, I'm presuming. That's not a major wound?

Also..."causing Skylar to be shoved into the air" - eliminate the extra words. work for conciseness; "shoving skylar into the air" works a lot better, and you can make similar changes all over. try reading some of your stuff out loud to get the flow and figure out where things get really awkward.

"The battle raged on" - Is this really on the same scale as a battle? maybe a fight. I don't think this small skirmish is raging, though. That implies that a lot more is happening, in terms of time as well as the physical fight.