Chapter 2: Light and Dark

Light and Dark

Longinus reached Xero, but the instant he tried to pick him up, vines exploded from the ground around him. The vines wrapped around the panther and dragged him underground, leaving the wolf very confused. He crouched to check the ground where Xero had been, but found nothing of use. Just dirt.

"Voco... Sero... INFRAGILIS!" called Xero's disembodied voice. Six black vines bolted from the ground and wrapped around Longinus's wrists and ankles.

"Don't you learn?" Longinus sighed. He lowered his hands, then pulled up sharply, but this time, the vines did not break.

"Aww, poor dog doesn't understand Latin." Xero teased. A black cloud exploded into existence before the trapped wolf. Xero stepped out, spinning his revolver. "Summon Unbreakable Plants." he translated. He stopped the revolver abruptly, making the barrel fall over. Xero emptied out the remaining bullets, then closed his paw. When he reopened it, metal dust poured to the ground.

"Don't you get it? YOU CAN'T KILL ME!"

"Don't be so sure." Xero waved his free paw over the gun, making six onyx bullets appear the chamber. "Even an Eternus can die."

"What are those, Dark bolts?" Longinus asked, craning his neck to see what was in the chamber as Xero flipped it closed.

"Shut up." Xero said before firing one into the wolf's left knee. The bullet did not do him any bodily harm. "Excellent. Now lets see if I'm right." He aimed at the door in Longinus's chest and fired. This bullet went through the door and hit the pocketwatch. "And now you die!"

Longinus's eyes bulged. The vines released their grip and the invader fell to the ground.

"Sero... Sepultura..." The black vines slithered over Longinus's body and pulled him underground. Xero fell into a sitting position on the ground with a heavy sigh and changed his revolver bullets back to normal ones before putting it away. "That was a little too close for my liking." He got to his feet and turned to walk away.

"YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?!" Longinus's voice thundered from everywhere. Xero turned sharply to see Longinus rising from the grave that the possessed vines had dragged him to.

Xero roared and drew his revolver again. Before he could take aim, Longinus dashed across the ground, summoning a pair of silver desert eagles. He knocked the revolver from Xero's hand and swung the gun in his right hand at the panther's face. Xero fell backward to dodge the blow while calling his gun back to his hand.

"Do you not understand why you can't beat me?" Longinus called over gunshots as he fired at Xero. Xero dodged the bullets by knocking the guns off target just before the wolf could fire.

"This'd better not be one of those 'Dogs Rule' things!" Xero called back, sweeping his leg under Longinus's feet. Longinus jumped and aimed his left gun right between Xero's eyes. The panther cartwheeled backward into a standing position, kicking the gun from the wolf's hand. He waved his left hand in the direction of a cluster of shadows, lifting them from the ground and waving them over his gun. The shadows slithered over the revolver, memorizing everything about it's design. Just as Longinus caught his other eagle, he found himself looking down the barrels of two onyx revolvers instead of one.

"No, but if you want to make such a point, HELL YEAH we do!" Longinus crossed his wrists between Xero's, then stretched them apart, knocking Xero's revolvers away just before he pulled the triggers. He hit Xero in the face with his forehead. Xero's head fell back, then suddenly came back up. He spit blood in Longinus's eyes and took aim at him, but when he pulled the trigger the wolf vanished.

"Really?!" Xero shouted sarcastically. He threw his real revolver in the air and reached over his left shoulder with his index and little finger's extended, poking Longinus in the eyes. "They eat grass!" The panther aimed the shadow revolver at the real one in the air and fired while it was pointing downward. The bullet hit the trigger on the other gun, making it fire downward at Longinus, who jumped backward, narrowly escaping the bullet. "They stink after bathing!" Xero caught his real revolver and aimed both of them at the wolf. "And worst of all..." He bent his knees and dropped backward to dodge another round fired by the wolf. "THEY SNIFF EACH OTHER'S ASSES!" He sprang back up and fired at Longinus, who fired in return. Their bullets stopped each other in mid air.

"I'll let that go for now." Longinus hit Xero's right hand with his left hand, making him drop his real revolver. "The reason you can't win," Xero fired over his head with the shadow revolver while he resummoned the real one, "aside from being a moronic feline," Xero cartwheeled backward, almost kicking Longinus in the chin, "is simply that you're hateful."

Xero gasped and fired right between Longinus's eyes with the shadow gun. Longinus fell to the ground holding his head.

"If I were hateful, I'd be torturing you right now." he growled.

"Oh no you wouldn't..." Longinus said just low enough for it to escape Xero's hearing.

"Now explain to my why is it that you're still alive? I SHOT YOUR ANCHOR*!"

"Well if I'm still alive, you must not've hit it!" Longinus moved to spring to his feet, but before he could get up, Xero's shadow revolver changed into a submachine gun.

"Give me your anchor, and I'll let you live." Xero holstered his revolver and held his hand out.

"As if that toy gun could." The wolf tried to kick the gun out of Xero's hand, but his foot just passed though it.

"If I keep shooting you with it, I'm sure you'll die eventually." Xero put a foot on Longinus's chest to keep him on the ground. "Give me your anchor and leave my forest."

"Then I'll die anyway."

"Not my problem."

"Like I said, hateful..."

"I'm not hateful. I'm just defending my home."

"By killing anything that isn't feline."

"Problem?"

"What is your issue with my being here?"

 

"You just answered that."

 

"What? Don't like canines? Racist."

Xero pulled the trigger and fired about thirty shots into Longinus's chest, then extended the claws on his feet and dug them into his fur.

"I will NOT be insulted by a creature of lower intelligence." Xero hissed.

"LOWER INTELLIGENCE?!" exclaimed the bleeding wolf. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" He closed his eyes and his body began to change into white light. Xero's foot fell through his chest and the wolf's body lifted from the ground, passing through the panther like a ghost. When he was on his feet, Longinus's body returned to its original state. "I'll be honest with you. When I came into this forest, I had no clue what I was here for. It was definitely not the stone. Perhaps I was sent here to destroy you..."

Reviews

[Forist.johnston]

Oh! You've already written Ch.2, who knew? Your still on a roll, most writer's work get's boring when they extend an occasion over chapters. They get Sloppy. But you've captured a it, tamed it, and delivered it nicely. I'm off to read Ch. 3!