A gust of wind blew across the crater’s depths, through the form of Elise and around the bulk of Vulper. Leon’s coat tail and sleeves flapped, just as Holly’s lengthy hair and robes did. Wesley stood tall, unmoved even by the wind which seemed to have absolutely no affect on him in any sort of way. Snake-like eyes aglow with fire burned their way through to both Tribe leaders who stared shakily back.
Elise stepped way, looking back and forth with subtle motions, tensing. The wind ceased immediately, the air all around her growing still. Her right hand moved to her mouth, fingers pressed to her lips that now had begun to chap. A glance down as she pulled her hand from, then back to the appearance of the three.
A sudden chill shot through her spine, her whole body sent shaking for the briefest of moments as she took one more step back, “{This… this is bad-}”
Leon turned afull, his attention to Vulper now lost. The latter of the two launched himself with a single leap, flying clear backwards through the air like an arrow until he came down, landing down right near Elise with hefty puffs escaping him soon after.
“Vulper,” she murmured, “Are you-”
“I’m fine, ugh… these old bones can take a lot more than what he dished me out, trust me. This though- geh, I don’t like this. This feeling though,” he replied.
“I know.”
“So,” Leon began with half closed eyes, a coldness emanating from his voice, “You’ve finally come. I’m surprised to see you up so suddenly, Earth Dragon. Have you learned nothing from before?”
A low growl left Wesley swiftly, “Grr, I remember you son of a bitch, I remember damn well!”
The collapse of rock, the explosion of a reactor. An arm and a leg gone, a hole through his body with missing organs. A stretcher to which Wesley lay, tubes and wires running through his strapped down body. Screams lept from his mouth, body thrashing around.
“Heh,” Leon chuckled once, “After that beat down, I’m surprised to see you eagerly approaching me so soon. It’s been what, six months? Seven? Though the doctors appear to have patched you up significantly well. Perhaps I should have vaporized your limbs when I ripped them off.”
“Mother f-”
“That’s enough, Wesley,” Holly replied as she glanced to her comrade, “Don’t let him get to you.”
“I know.”
“Mmm, Holly Bell. Heir to the Tribe’s throne, daughter of Maxwell. It’s been what, twenty-five, twenty-six?” Leon began.
“Twenty-seven thousand, eight hundred and seventeen; but hey, who’s keeping track right?”
“Heh heh, so true. The last time I saw you on the battle field, I was still apprenticed to Cortez. Well, the fact that both of you are here means one of three things. You’re either putting on a show for your troops, you’re arrogant as can be thinking you have the power to face me… or could it be that you’ve rekindled your inner power to actually oppose the Phantoms? Which is it?”
“Why don’t you come over here and find out, you dastard?” Holly chuckled.
“Perhaps I will.”
Rock crackled, sands drifted away despite a lack of breeze. Dirt crumbled from the crevices inside of the crater. Vulper and Elise both stood in place, a distance from the trio. Vulper’s head shifted around to the left slightly, then the right, his teeth gritted. Elise glanced to him at once, an eye slightly raised before the other joined.
“What is it?”
“The air… can you feel it? It isn’t just still, it’s rife pressure and energy.”
“Tch,” she stuttered, looking back to the three, “Looks like they’re about to start. We should move, quickly.”
“Right!”
Neither moved. Both of the Tribe stood side by side, Holly a little over Wesley in height. Below them near the bottom of the crater stood Leon who stared back. A pure white glow erupted around both Light Warriors, while an abyss of emptiness rose around Leon. Still, all was still, the glow and the abyss soon fading after only a moment’s breath.
Far up above, Jarrajod looked over the edge, down below. Many soldier stood round him, Tribe and Canadian alike. Domino Squad drew close, as did many others including Vulfax.
“Good luck to you both,” Jarrajod murmured.
Rock shattered like broken tile. Wesley shot forth first, Leon right then after, Holly hanging back only momentarily. His hands crashed together as he moved towards the darkness, voice booming, “Machine Gun Blows!”
The ground around Wesley erupted, dozens to hundreds of spikes of rock sent spewing forth into Leon’s path. Slabs of earth caught in the path shattered as the needles struck, single needles punching large holes straight into the ground as they struck. A smirk spread, his feet skidding to a halt as the needles came near. A dome of darkness washed quickly around Leon’s body, acting in defense as the earth needles struck and turned to dust.
“Tch-”
“Too easy! Abyssal Serpents!”
The dome broke way, revealing Leon standing with his upper arms drawn back, the forearms parallel to the ground. Twin dragon heads forged of dark energy stemmed from both forearms, or rather his hands, black electricity surging around. His arms flung forward, launching the heads.
They flew from Leon’s fists towards Wesley with twin monstrous howls, serpent bodies of dark energy forming behind to which the electricity surged around.
“Earth Wall!”
A large wall of rock shot up before Wesley, one two-thirds of a meter thick. With roars the two attacks struck, exploding immediately. The wall shattered, pieces of rock flying everywhere as a cloud from the blast climbed the air, electricity dancing inside of said cloud.
“Not bad. You almost blocked the attack… almost,” Leon murmured.
The sparks of electricity surged, turning from black to yellow surrounding a bit of white. Swiftly the electricity surged back down to the ground and flew straight into Wesley’s body. An aura of electricity raged around Wesley, who in turn let out a howl of agony. A smirk spread across Leon’s face yet again as he gazed upon Wesley’s situation.
“Heh. And that’s what peace time will do to you when you allow yourself to grow soft, Lightonian fool.”
All color immediately faded way from Wesley, leaving a body of brown that had begun to melt like wax. Leon’s eyes puckered as all features left the form, the electricity breaking off moments later.
“A Mud Replacement, he did it again,” Leon growled.
“Erupt!” Wesley’s voice called out, echoing.
Leon’s focus shifted downward as the ground cracked, splits spreading out from beneath. Flames spewed out straight up into Leon followed by the burst of lava to the surface. It went up like a geyser right beneath him, rocketing dozens of meters into the sky. Far behind the geyser the ground split again, from which Wesley jumped out to land upon the surface.
“How’s that you cocky son of a bitch!?”
No sooner than it had erupted out did the lava begin to lose its glow. Wesley’s eyes popped from his skull as the molten rock returned to harden rock right above in the center of the pillar. The rock split, a large black blade the size of a truck ripping its way out sending rock and debris flying, water pouring clear out of the cut along the sides. The pillar collapsed to reveal Leon with an aura of blackness around, tire sized spheres of water and darkness surrounding him.
The blade itself extended from a massive skeleton-like arm connected to one of the spheres now orbiting Leon. The blade, the hand, and the arm all contracted, pulling itself back into the sphere in seconds while another moved out in front between both warriors. A grin widened and his sight showered with pride.
“Not a bad attempt, allow me to return the favor with an eruption of my own. Water Prison!”
Black spheres appeared all around Wesley. A simple blink and the realization came forth, dozens and dozens simply surrounding him. Water blew out of all of them, the spheres themselves ripping apart as twisting jets crashed into Wesley, throwing him around. Gallons and gallons poured out and wrapped around, a massive bubble of liquid imprisoning the general swiftly.
The water twisted and thrashed with the general at the center of the bubble. It spun and roared inside, twisting and spiraling with powerful current force. His arms quivered, fingers twitching, eyes shut.
“I find myself already disappointed with the good general. Holly, are you really going to just stand by and wait?” Leon chuckled with a slight turn of his head.
Holly remained in place with wind coursing around her once more. Her eyes narrowed as those words crossed her, to which a jolt of white aura emerged around her form.
“Hmph. She’s indecisive about how to jump me. Wesley can’t focus his energy so long as I keep the currents flowing like that, nor can he make any signs to command his magic. Still, better safe than sorry. I’ll drown the whole lot of them like a bunch of monkeys in the river.”
Dark spheres multiplied all around him, spanning outwards across the floor of the crater. As swiftly as they had begun to appear, water began to roar out and slam upon the crater’s floor. Dozens and dozens, soon turning to hundreds, all of them converting the energy into water. Waves and waves flew, crashing rapidly into the sides as they spanned outwards.
“This is-” Holly growled before leaping back, waves of water sweeping forward to where she had stood.
In no time at all the water level had begun to rise with more and more spheres forming to convert. Five centimeters, twenty-four centimeters, thirty-eight, sixty-four. In just ten seconds dozens of meters worth of water had begun to show up from the converted Dark Energy, all gradually filling the crater. Holly shot high and above, scaling from the lower area to the middle, then to the upper lengths of the crater. There she stopped, looking out as the water level continued to exponentially grow.
Higher above, soldiers looked over the edge in shock and awe. Mouths hung, eyes shook, bodies twitched. Even the likes of Tony and Jarrajod stared back at the growing abyss of water with sweat dripping down their faces. Elise stumbled away with her own teeth gritted.
“The scale of this- Leon is creating an entire lake out of the darkness of the night,” Tony mumbled.
“No way can any mortal do something like this-” a soldier nearby choked out.
“He’s right,” Jarrajod spoke in response, “And neither can Leon.”
Vulper turned his head looking straight at Jarrajod, “Then what the hell are we looking at down there?!”
“An illusion. There does not exist a spell of any sort that can create a lake like this in seconds. Even if there were, Leon did not utter a command or form any seals. Lady Bell retreated not because of the water illusion itself; but rather because of what it can hide.”
Holly’s eyes shifted, left to right, watching as the surface continued to climb higher. Rocks did not move, deposits of dirt did not muddy or shift. Everything remained as it was.
“Wesley… you told me you could handle him. Don’t tell me that he has you beat already.”
Far beneath the waves at the bottom of the crater, Leon remained standing. The bubble of water containing Wesley hovered just behind him as he gazed upwards at the sight of Holly. His smug grin had faded way as several more spheres formed up around him.
“I would expect no less from the heir to the throne. Holly is a clear cut above the rest of the trash gawking from up there. The fact that she’s still just keeping a distance and waiting though,” Leon mumbled.
Slowly he turned round to face the bubble and Wesley trapped in the middle, eyes narrowed. The form no longer twitched, simply it sat inside of the bubble, amidst the current.
“It’s not him,” Leon growled.
The water bubble splattered, splashing down in multiple places, drops sent flying. Wesley’s form dropped to the ground, shattering on impact. All color faded and this time a bunch of rocks stayed behind.
“A solid clone this time. So he’s still under the ground!”
Rock shattered beneath Leon once more, two hands flying out and grabbing immediate hold of his ankles. Leon’s face shot downward, sight locked to his grabbed ankles.
“You won’t escape this time!”
The ground in front of Leon shattered with yet another Wesley launching out and landing. His right arm outstretched, palm deadset to Leon’s direction, teeth gritted. A spark of white appeared, then a sphere of white that quickly swelled. As it stretched, it shattered once, then a second time, reforming with jumps in scale.
“The Liger bomb!” Leon choked out.
“Have it!” Wesley spat as it fired.
The sphere flew straight into Leon, closing the gap in no more than a second as it slammed into him. A roar left Leon, turned to a yowl as the blast went off, Light Energy completely filling the bottom level of the crater in a split second. The water illusion shattered, blinding light and pressure racing outwards. Another bubble formed, this time of pure light energy which pulsed continuously. Holly looked downward as the winds screamed around her.
Soldiers up top moved way while others such as Elise and Vulper held arms before their faces, blocking much of the light and wind. A vortex of wind raced upwards at the center of the crater, towering higher and higher, spreading. It formed like a tornado, spinning like one as well- only the entire twister had begun to suck in the light energy alone. Wesley’s form launched from the side of the bubble of light, launching high above with the twister.
His hands slammed together as he once more called out, “I’m not done yet! Now contract!”
The bubble collapsed, shrinking at an exponential rate. The twister burst, a rocket of light energy flying high now in its place as the bubble contracted to the epicenter. The sky itself had begun to turn yellow, a mighty flow flooding the entire forest area for miles. In seconds the bubble had faded with only the pillar of light remaining, now flowing high into the sky.
“NOW! HAMMER!”
Down it all zipped in a mere second, compacting at the epicenter of it all. The final blast rang out, rock along the face of the crater absolutely shattering and ripping apart. The floor of the original crater then collapsed, more of the walls sinking in as the forces impacted. A bright white sphere is all that remained outside of the ripping forces of the wind. People up top were flung back, blown from the edge.
Holly looked on, still in place as the ground around her collapsed. Dust roared up and out into the air currents as they danced. The latter lasted many seconds more, subsiding after a total of twenty seconds of fierce flow. Dust scattered with the smoke, clinging to the bottom of the crater itself.
Wesley hovered in the air, huffing away, the glow of Light Energy still around him as he looked down. Sweat dripped from his face, streaming in fact. His descent had begun, slow with many meters between him and the ground.
“Huff… huff… heh, haha! That did it. What do you think of that now you son of a bitch?!” Wesley called out.
“Wesley,” Holly called out.
“What?!” he spat back, turning round to look at her as he flew down passed.
His gaze turned back round, returning to the epicenter of the blast. His face froze, jaw hung slightly, eyes bulging. Laying upon the ground sat half of Leon, his upper half. Darkness clung around the lower wound where his lower half had been, around his arms, even around parts of his face. Said darkness had begun to pool away off of the body.
“Not bad, General,” Leon murmured staring up at Wesley, “I actually felt it this time.”
ns 15.158.61.21da2
