Showdown
Xero sat on a tree branch in his forest, listening to the animals around him who were not lucky enough to be the same manner of beast as he was. Xero was a panther, but not like other panthers. This particular one could walk on two legs like a human (though he did not do too much of it, as he traveled running on all fours and swinging on branches). Today, Xero was wearing a black hooded robe, a plain white mask with two eye holes cut in it, and a pair of old black boots.
The panther was working on finding an intruder that he had heard his underlings talking about. They had said that it was a wolf, which only served to enrage him. He sniffed around for an unfamiliar scent, as no wolf had ever lived in his forest long enough to have a common scent there.
Xero was, by all means, a psychopath, but not by the standards of most people. He was a paranoid sorcerer who could kill a normal person with just a glance, making him a danger to any manner of life. He also tended to go through his forest casting random spells while blindfolded. There were many dangerous plants in the forest now due to his boredom.
It had been seventeen hours since he had heard about the intruder. Once he was certain that the wolf was not in that area, he leapt from his branch to another, then he swung under it and to a lower branch. He ran along it and jumped to a tree trunk a few meters away and stretched his claws out and effortlessly climbed the tree to the top he looked around, then jumped and slid down a branch as a surfer would on a wave. The branch curved upward at the bottom. When he reached the curve, he caught sight of a gray wolf’s tail on the forest floor. He hissed and hit the curve, doing a backflip in the air and landing on another branch.
“Alright, you mangy mutt.” Xero hissed to himself. “Let’s see what you’re up to.” He started to follow the wolf. This one was much faster than the last wolf that he had encountered, and he could swear that as the lupine ran, he could make out flashes of clothing on it.
Finally, the wolf slowed to a stop before a stone wall with symbols carved on it. Xero stopped on a branch behind him and looked down. To his dismay, this wolf was just like him, able to stand and walk like a human and was wearing clothes (a leather collar, a black T-shirt and khaki pants). He gave the wolf a quick analysis and determined that he could kill him easily, as the wolf was not very muscular and seemed to still be oblivious to the fact that he had been followed. Xero smiled behind his mask and turned around on his branch and fell backward to hang upside down on the branch and face the wolf.
“Hey, you, with the collar!” Xero called. The wolf turned around and looked at Xero and smirked.
“Piss off, you flea-bitten stray.” The wolf said before casually turning back to face the wall.
Xero was now furious. He kicked off from the underside of the branch and lunged at the wolf. The wolf simply sidestepped, letting Xero hit the ground, then placed a foot on the panther’s back and continued trying to decipher the symbols on the stone.
“You know, being short-tempered will be your downfall.” The wolf said calmly.
“And believing everything you see will be yours!” Xero said before exploding into a pile of leaves. The real Xero was behind the rock. He leapt out, but in while he was in midair, the wolf flicked his wrist and three throwing knives appeared between his fingers. He threw the knives at Xero, but two of them narrowly missed as he slipped out of his robe, revealing a black leather vest and baggy black jeans. On his back was a longbow, a quiver full of arrows, and large, leather-bound book. The third knife was in the top of his mask, right between his eyes. The mask slowly fell apart, revealing the panther’s face. He had yellow eyes and a small blue scar between his eyes.
Xero hit the ground and drew his longbow and four arrows. He loaded all four arrows and fired at the wolf. The wolf dodged and bolted toward Xero.
“Too slow!” Xero exclaimed. He placed a hand on the wolf’s head and flipped over him, knocking him to the ground, then put his bow on his back and took the book from under it. He turned the pages madly, then suddenly stopped.
“Umbra Flatus!” Xero called out, holding his right paw, pads down, toward the wolf. Shadows from the forest floor began to slither toward him and lift to form a swirling dark sphere under his paw. The wolf jumped up and dashed toward Xero, drawing a dagger from his side. The panther chuckled and lifted his paw, unleashing the darkness he had gathered on the intruder.
The wolf was blasted backward and into a tree trunk. While he was dazed, Xero turned another few pages and found another spell, this one took up a full two pages and was written over an image of a man bound to a stone with instructions on how to perform it in the margins of the pages. He slowly waved his right over the pages, making the letters ignite in an eerie blue light as the magic in the book itself started to show itself as blue lightning on the pages. The words on the pages lifted and trailed at his fingertips.
“Gelamen umbra, pareo meus decretum, termino!” He hissed before thrusting his paw forward. The spell following Xero’s paw threw itself at the wolf. When it landed, five bands of words and symbols bound the intruder to the tree. He walked over to his opponent. “Who are you?” he asked. “I’d like to know the name of my victim.”
“Mmm, Longinus.” The wolf said. Xero picked up a note of pleasure in his tone.
“What kind of freak are you?!” Xero replied, taking a step back. As Longinus opened his mouth to answer, Xero held up a paw and cut him off. “Nevermind, I don’t wanna know.”
“Well, I gave you my name, why don’t you be so kind?”
“Xero.”
“Well, Xero, today is your lucky day.” Longinus said, fidgeting slightly under the binding spell.
“And how is that? I had to spend my valuable time hunting you down. I hardly consider that lucky.” Xero replied, turning his back as he looked for a spell to finish the wolf.
“You get to die by my paws…” Longinus said. Before Xero could react, the wolf effortlessly broke the binding incantations and sent Xero sailing with an open pawed strike to his back. When he hit the panther, Longinus took his bow and an arrow. He loaded the arrow and fired.
Before he could hit the ground, Xero put down one of his forepaws and flipped to his feet, then turned around. He quickly raised a paw and caught the arrow between his fingers when it was exactly one half of a centimeter from his face. He looked at Longinus and let out an enraged roar. He held his right paw forward and drew his left back as if loading an arrow in an invisible bow.
“Atrum Inflecto…” the panther hissed. A longbow made of dark energy formed around his right paw. “Umbra Telum!” he shouted. A shining black arrow appeared loaded in the dark bow. Xero released the arrow. Longinus dodged and bolted toward Xero. “Telum!” Another arrow flew toward Longinus. The wolf dropped to the ground and ran on all fours to dodge the arrow. Xero dismissed the bow when Longinus was about twelve steps away, then raised his hands high. “Voco Sero!” He shouted. Six vines darted up from the ground and wrapped around the wolf’s wrists.
Longinus snapped the vines and tackled Xero, pinning him to the ground. “A cat like you could never beat me.” The wolf said before trying to bite Xero’s face. Xero dodged to the left, then the right. When Longinus lifted his head again, the panther drew in a deep breath and blasted fire into the wolf’s face.
Xero kicked the yelping wolf off of him, then sprang to his feet. “Aw, puppy doesn’t like fire?” the panther said. “Too bad.” He drew in another deep breath and blasted more fire at the wolf. Longinus dodged the flames and jumped onto a tree branch. “Umbra Flagello!” Three bands of shadows slithered down Xero’s right arm and braided themselves into a whip in his paw. He cracked the whip and lashed out at Longinus, catching him by his right ankle. Xero pulled back on the whip and slammed the wolf on the ground. The panther then dashed across the forest floor and stabbed his claws into Longinus’s back. He dragged the wolf up a tree, then threw him to the ground once more. Xero landed on a branch and looked down at the wolf as he staggered to his feet.
“I see the kitty has claws.” Longinus said.
Xero could tell that his attack had done nothing to the wolf. He twisted his hand and the black whip in his hand changed into a black sword.
"Oh no, kitty, it's my turn." said the wolf.
Xero took his stance, but the instant he blinked, Longinus had vanished.
"You know, usually, I try to avoid magic when I can." said the wolf from behind him. Xero quickly turned around to find that the Longinus had vanished again. "But you forced me into it." He was standing on the underside of the branch that Xero was on. He crouched on his side and punched through the branch and sent Xero flying once more.
Xero quickly regained his balance and darted toward the ground. He managed to catch fur, but when he reached the ground, Xero found that he had grabbed a plush wolf holding a red lollypop with the word 'SUCKER' on it in white letters.
"Liver." said an ominous voice behind him. Before he could turn around, a glowing gray paw had been thrusted through his mid back and out the front. Xero gasped and coughed up blood. The black blade vanished from his hand. The shock had paralyzed him. "Left kidney..." This time, the wolf's silver blade went through his slender body through his lower back. He fell backward, trying to draw up enough energy to switch his body with leaves. It took him a bit, but he managed to do it just before Longinus went for his other kidney. Longinus removed his paw from the panther's liver and put it through his kidney, but the instant he did, the panther let out a scream and changed into leaves, then fell apart.
"Alright, kitty." said Longinus, cleaning the blood from his knife. "Where are you hiding now?"
Xero was up a tree a few meters away from where the battle had started. For the first time in his life, he had met his match, and he was terrified. The panther reached into his vest and pulled out a vial of a curious red powder and popped the cork with his thumb. He pressed it against the wound in his upper torso, mixing his blood with the power. The vial glowed and all of its contents turned to liquid. He drank the liquid and gasped when the vial was empty. The wounds in his torso glowed black from the inside, then black smoke issued from them. Through the smoke, the holes could be seen shrinking and finally vanishing.
"Found you." said the wolf from above.
Xero looked up to see Longinus's silhouette falling toward him. Quickly, he reached to his right leg and drew his revolver. He whirled the gun around on his index finger and caught it so that it was aimed at Longinus.
CRRRACK!!!
The bullet when through the wolf's left shoulder, but seemed to have no effect on him. Longinus seemed to feed off the terror in Xero's eyes. Xero holstered his revolver and jumped from the branch, vanishing in a cloud of smoke.
"I can't kill him!" he screamed to himself. His next thought required boldness since he would not dare doubt himself. "Am..am I going to die?..."
He thought his question was answered when his cloud vanished and he was still under the destroyed branch. The panther could feel a presence other than his own. Longinus was falling face up under him. Suddenly, another scream was ripped from Xero as the wolf's cold knife went through his back again.
"Left lung." Longinus said before snatching the blade out and vanishing. He reappeared above Xero and swung his heel downward and into the panther's chest, kicking him to the ground and making a small crater. Xero was unconcious.
The wolf landed on his feet and walked over to Xero, his tail swishing lazily behind him. He took his right paw and flipped his hair out of his eyes, then cracked his neck both ways.
"I'm not done with you, kitty." he said, reaching down with his left paw. As if Xero was nothing more than a rag doll, Longinus picked him up by the black leather straps that crossed his chest, then pulled him close and bit into the panther's throat, rupturing his jugular vein and draining out some of his blood. When he was done, the wolf drew his right paw back extended his claws. Electricity flowed down his right arm and his claws began to glow white. In one quick thrust, Longinus had implaled Xero with his paw. "Heart..."
Something inside Xero's body pulsed. It was like a heartbeat, but definitely not from the heart, and far too strong. Longinus moved to remove his paw, but was stopped when Xero's bolted up and grabbed it.
From the panther's right wrist, symbols tattooed under his fur began to erupt in blue light, twisting up his arm and across his chest. Blue light shined from inside the wounds on his neck and around Longinus's paw. With no thought from him, Xero's unconcious body commanded the right paw to constrict. When the command was carried out, Longinus let out an anguished howl as the sleeping panther broke, no, shattered his wrist.
Xero's eyes opened, they were glowing in the same eerie blue color. When Longinus managed to get his mangled paw away from Xero's body, the panther did not fall to the ground, instead, he hovered above it. He was producing so much energy that his feet could no longer stay on the ground.
"Would you like to know why that little poke in the ribs didn't kill me?" Xero asked as he floated toward the wolf. "Take a closer look."
Longinus tore himself away from his wrist and examined the hole he had put in the panther's chest. To his horror, Xero had no heart to destroy.
"Thats right. I carved it out years ago to see if I'd live."
The horror left Longinus's face. It was replaced with a sick smile.
"I suppose we have something in common." The wolf said. He shook his paw tumultuously, bringing forth several seconds sickening cracks from his wrist before stopping abruptly and making a first. He had repaired the broken bones. He unzipped his shirt, revealing a small, fist-sized, metal door. He turned the small lock on it and opened it, revealing a hollow space with nothing but four metal walls and a silver pocket watch inside. "This fight just got a whole hell of a lot more interesting..."
Xero's wounds healed and the panther dashed toward Longinus. Longinus extended his claws and took his stance. When Xero was close enough, Longinus took a swing, but in the blink of an eye, Xero was gone.
"Too slow!" Xero exclaimed from behind. Longinus drew his knife again and swung it behind himself. Xero was gone again. "C'mon! I know you can do better than that!" Now he was standing on a branch in a nearby tree. He drew his revolver again and fired at the little metal door. He was off by one centimeter and the bullet went through the wolf, but still had no effect on him as far as causing pain. D****t, now he'll know what I'm up to...
Longinus looked to the panther and howled loudly. Xero felt his body tremble at the sound. What the hell?! He dropped his gun and fell from the branch. He hit the floor hard, then sprang to his feet a quickly as he could, but it was not quick enough. Longinus howled again, shaking him to the ground again, just long enough to get over to him.
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