A beam of light flew through the sky and crashed before the face of the dragon. Upon impact both it and Azala yelled out, the dragon flapping back as its roar filled the air. Eyes shifted to the rear right, a man in sight.
“Father!” Holly shouted out.
“Hold position! I’m taking that dragon down myself, you all handle the rest!”
A figure appeared in the sky at once with sparkles shattering away, Shadow. He dropped down and landed before Maxwell, grabbing hold of him, “How I have waited for this, you’re mine King!”
At once the two of them disappeared with an explosion of Light Energy and Dark Energy. Wesley returned his sight forward, “Damn, now what?”
“Caldori, your team will handle Toby over there. Elise I’m putting you in charge of Azala,” Holly spoke.
“That was my plan before you even said anything Holly,” Elise chirped standing ready, “Zoey, Mark, you guys protect the clan.”
“Copy that!”
“Wes, Mother, both of you need to occupy Azala’s Dragon Form until my powers return. Until then I’ll occupy Dustin if at all possible,” Holly stated again.
“Alright but what about Basilisx and Chino?” Wesley murmured.
“Alice can likely keep them in line. Everyone good on the plan? If so let’s move.”
Holly shot off towards Dustin, who immediately shot away from Azala, the two disappearing off in the trees. Toby shot away as Callie took charge with Sora and the rest close behind. Elise glanced and watched as Alice tore off towards Chino and Basilisx. With that she looked ahead and readied her own sword, “Well Azala, are you ready for this?”
“Mwahahahaha, to crush you with my true power? Alone? This should be good for a starter,” he cackled.
Vulper stepped close to Elise, only for her to extend her right arm out, “Vulper. Please stand back, I know what this means to you but I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“At the very least allow me to watch your back and jump in if I see an opening,” Vulper replied.
“Very well. Sephiroth, let’s do this,” she murmured returning her right hand to her blade which let off a literal flame.
“Be careful, this guy probably knows a few spells like Dustin,” Sephiroth’s voice echoed.
“{I doubt that. He’s too proud a warrior to use magic. Those weapons of his and that Dark Energy is probably all we need to worry about.}”
Elise quickly shot forward as twin beams clashed above, light and dark. Azala’s broadsword was raised and slammed down against Elise’s katana. Light and Dark Energies blew outwards from the strike, both stepping back to then swing again and clash. The sound of their metal clashing for the third time could be heard, then the fourth, then a fifth. One more time their swords clashed with their sixth swings.
Elise quickly flipped back and took a quick jab at the ground with her foot, propelling herself ahead. Azala on the other hand took only a few steps back and then charged forward swinging his sword down. For the seventh time they exchanged blows against one another, darkness glowing around Azala and light around Elise.
Azala’s left fist swing, parried by the hilt of Elise’s weapon as it turned, a hit which sent her back again. At once Azala began to hover up with his left hand out and his palm flexed, a dark blue glow around him, “I call upon the Dark Moon’s Blight!”
From above him came an energy beam dark blue in color heading down at Elise, shredding clean through a few birds that were flying overhead.
“Blast it immediately,” Sephiroth commanded.
Elise flung her right fist out and shot out a blast of Light Energy. Her attack and his quickly slammed into each other, resulting in a flashy explosion of their respective powers. As she looked back to Azala she witnessed as his arm flung out again.
“Inchantium Gantisium,” he called.
Vines shot clean through the ground and quickly slapped around Elise’s wrists and ankles, then one around her throat. Azala chuckled as she was suspended, her katana falling from her hand. She gagged, her head slightly moving in defiance trying to pull away as her hands and feet struggled. At once she felt herself falling back as Azala growled.
Below the katana had spun with a white light and acted like a buzz saw. The vines quickly released Elise as her katana flew back and landed in her hand, “Thanks Sephiroth.”
At once more vines blasted out of the ground in front of Elise, vines she swung at and cut right through with multiple strikes. Holding his palm beneath his mouth he breathed out, a breath of fire that quickly swelled into a cloud heading right at Elise. With both hands on the hilt and a swipe down a slash of energy flew forth and cut through the cloud of fire.
As it branched away the two foes caught glance at each other and held their weapons firm, both flickering out of view. Again their weapons clanged as both appeared in the middle of the fire, light drifting beneath Elise’s feet and darkness from Azala’s shoulders as he shot up. Over he flipped and landed, swinging wide with his sword only to miss.
Elise swung next, quickly blocked by the armor. Light and sparks blew out from the sword as it began to cut through. Another clang. Both skidded away from each other, a slight cut in Azala’s armor as his sword came back down. Elise looked forward holding onto hers with both hands.
“You nicked him, that’s a start. His bulk is slowing him down. While it might make him hit harder and block more he can’t keep up. Splendid master-”
“Not quite what I’m looking for though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember what Dustin said? This isn’t his real body. If I had to guess what that means the real body is either the dragon or inside the dragon. What we’re fighting is a red herring.”
“Ah yes, I do remember. What’s the plan then?”
“We cut down this fake and find a way to that dragon,” Elise murmured as Azala slowly stepped forward.
“And then what?”
“I just need to coat you with a little Wolfsbane and Hemlock. If I can get to a soft spot and pierce the flesh of that behemoth, I’ll both undo the transformation and paralyze Azala.”
“Brilliant. And how do you intend to get by big, tall, and creepy?”
“Charging your blade with Light Energy put a slight cut in his armor. I just need to get a strong enough hit in and hope he doesn’t regenerate right away. Then I can use my power to fly up there.”
“Keep in mind I refueled you to the best that I could. Getting that high up might drain you and leave you vulnerable.”
Light flew by overhead at Azala, his eyes going huge as the attack crashed clear into him. Elise turned around to see light glowing around Holly who was now surrounded. She glanced up as the dragon came at her and fired a blast straight into its face. With a roar it pulled back and with that roar a shock wave flew out of her, blasting the Undead away by the dozens, “My power is back at long last.”
“Holly, a favor if I might!” Elise called out.
“What is it?” she asked turning to Elise.
Elise pointed up to Azala’s true body, “Get me on its back and I can put an end to this if you keep him occupied!”
“Gotcha, consider it done. Come at me and jump, I’ll give you a boost with my own power. I have a gift for you too.”
Elise quickly ran at Holly and jumped, at which point light flew from Holly’s hands and into Elise’s feet. She propelled up and flew, her sword in hand as the broke through the sky like a rocket. In Elise’s hand flew another object, one tossed by Holly. The blast that engulfed Azala faded to which he stepped out, looking up seeing Elise fly high.
“Little brat-”
She flew up for several seconds more until she got up to the paw, then up further until she passed its head. Up a little further and then she flipped off, descending down. Elise landed on the back of Azala with that single move, as Holly then redirected her aim back to the face of the dragon, “Good luck kid.”
Elise stood now, smiling as she turned around, “Best place to strike would be the eyes-”
Darkness burst out of the dragon’s back, Azala’s body from the ground appearing at once as another figure bolted down right beside him. Dustin.
“-though it would seem as though I need to get by you two first.”
“If you can that is,” Dustin chuckled stepping forward while Azala held his broadsword out.
“I have a lot of people counting on me. Consider it done, the both of you,” Elise said confidently with a smile looking at both foes.523Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81qYIrohyb
