Chapter 19: Victory
Diane had been calmly observing the situation. She knew a few bones in her body had been broken, and she couldn't move, but she had to do something. She was still watching when a shadow appeared not far from her, approaching at a blinding speed. It was a clone, with a grim stare and sword raised.
She had a split second to calculate before her head would be lopped off. Her pupils constricted. She remembered what Swift told her about not giving up even in certain death. Diane made a quick decision.
Swift had only noticed that the clone had reappeared when it was barely upon her beloved student. She tried to break away from her adversary and come to Diane's rescue, but he withstood her. Beads of sweat had appeared instantly.
'No...' She thought.
A thin layer of water appeared under the menacing attacker, and before it noticed the change, it's fast moving leg slipped, throwing it off balance. The clone fell forward, the sword in its hand was unconsciously pointing towards its neck. The clone fell through its sword, which impaled its throat and turned into black smoke.
A wave of relief washed over the dejected Swift, while lionface grimaced. His plan had failed, because he underestimated the little girl. Swift took the opportunity to connect a kick to the distracted lionface. He merely staggered back a few feet.
"Are you alright?" Swift asked, not looking away from lionface. She had realised that this version of lionface was a sneaky, two-timing, evil pain in the heinie. Diane grunted an affirmative.
Swift applied energy and was upon lionface with renewed killing intent. Lionface swung his sword, hoping to lop off the metallic leg, but he got a shocking discovery. The sword didn't leave a chip in the metallic contraption, while he was rattled by the impact.
Lionface was distracted again. He was about to recover when a water whip grabbed his leg. He looked down and instantly regretted that decision. He saw Swift's leg whip upwards with a blue hue. He tried to defend, but he could only accept the kick, which threw him up in the air, flipping uncontrollably.
While still airborne, Swift flashed into the distance, and returned at a blinding speed, much faster than her usual speed. She jumped and delivered a tornado roundhouse kick. The impact launched lionface far into the distance. But Swift knew she wasn't through yet.
A shadow tornado appeared a few feet away from her. Lionface walked out. He didn't come out renewed this time. The upper part of his robe had disappeared, leaving a ragged remnant. His chest had been embedded, leave a hole the shape of Swift's metallic foot. Black blood was dripping from his head. His now red irises were giving off bright red lights.
He looked less angry than before. His mouth was moving strangely as if it was glued together, and that he was having difficulty opening it. His mouth actually tore up, revealing a nasty maw with much black blood and white spit, his human face didn't look very human again.
His mouth was moving In a pretty creepy fashion, and the noises he was making sounded like the grunts and growls of a lion, but strangely, they could understand what he was saying.
"I have existed in existence before the first humans walked on the green world, and I am the king of this realm. No mortal has seen this form of mine and survived to tell of it. You are a worthy adversary." Lionface communicated.
Swift didn't let her guard down, fearing that the two-faced opponent was resorting to flattery to get her guard lowered. She only stared at the talking lionface, watching for any sudden action.
"I have decided to let you go, for your match I have not found, and it shall be a pity to end your existence here. The little one, however, must be destroyed. Go now, before I change my decision" Lionface said. Eyeing Swift, somewhat hoping she would accept.
Lionface would never have made such a concession if he wasn't sensing an impending danger. However, he couldn't allow the puny one to go Scot-free. He had made his mind to slowly torture her, beginning from her soul to her physical body.
Swift bent forward, one arm raised and one leg trailing slightly behind. She took the battle stance that earned her her renown; the blitzkrieg. She blew away the stray hair that was covering her eyes. She was emitting a huge amount of energy now.
"Never." She said coldly.
Lionface took a crude sword stance, allowing the shadows to condense into a very solid full armour. the holes in the helm were shining red. Everything was silent as the two forces engaged in a staring battle, plotting strategies of most guaranteed victory.
The two parties burst into a dash at the same time. Swift performed a dozen back handsprings, generating a huge amount of force, before leaping into a super spinning back flip. Lionface muttered strange words and his sword shone as he dashed forward, leaving afterimages.
Swift was flipping downwards so fast, that it was as if she became a blue circle. Lionface had become a 10 metre tall giant holding a huge sword. The forces collided. And a huge shockwave spread over the landscape as everything quaked.
When the noise and the shaking finally subsided, save the black mountain, everything was flattened. Diane was buried in the dust. She didn't feel the heavy pressure from the moon anymore. She struggled out of all the rubble and dark soggy sand.
Her eyes combed the horizon, searching for her teacher. There was a crater at the centre of the collision. Swift was there sitting weakly. The blue lights that usually could be seen through the many crevices in her mechanical legs, had all disappeared. She had been worn out by the blitzkrieg aerial saw.
Dian dragged herself to a better vantage point, where she soon spotted Swift listlessly sitting at the nearer end of the crater. Diane was going to approach ,when an arm pushed out of the debris at the other side of the crater.
Lionface emerged from the debris. He was roughed up real nice. He had lost his right arm and his sword, a part of his head had gone missing. He painted a very sorry sight. His eyes carries the manic rage he had when he was a beserk lion.
He had never suffered to this point in his entire life. He had to make them pay for what he had gone through. Lionface observed Swift and saw she was sitting there tired. His mad eyes flashed with delight.
He burst out laughing crazily as he dragged himself towards his opponent's tired form.
"You mortals would have to pay in full for all the damages you have inflicted on me. You shall wish for death, but you will never receive that luxury." He screamed as he dragged on.
Diane couldn't keep looking. Her hands turned blue as she began to weave a light blue blob of water. The blob turned golden, in sync with the appearance of Diane's word.
"Angel stirring waters..." She spoke quietly.
The blob of golden water shot at the listless Swift, and encapsulated her. The now injured Lionface was nowhere as confident as he was before. He got spooked when he saw the golden blob. His eyes shifted towards Diane and he caught sight of her.
"Perhaps it is you I should get rid of first." Lionface mused. His attention moved to Diane as he drew near faster.
Diane started retreating slowly, she was injured and she couldn't escape, so she could only close her eyes and pray that Swift could recover slightly with the healing water she had administered.
There was a loud sound like a thunderclap. Both Lionface and Diane turned to look. Swift wasn't where she had been. There was a steaming hole where Swift previously was. Lionface had a premonition, his injured face scrunched up like crumpled paper. He knew where Swift was headed.
With a very loud roar, Lionface dashed towards Diane with all his might. He put two and two together and figured Swift had discovered his altar and she was on her way to destroy it. How right he was.
....
Swift had received a little bit of healing, but she converted the healing energy into fuel for one last race. While she sat, she had been calculating how to get to the mountain top. Had her student not assisted her with the healing water, she would have died at the hands of lionface. She gave the last run her all.
In a split second, she had arrived at the altar. It was crude, and and it seemed to be gathering energy from the realm. Blood seemed to gurgle up from nowhere, but she didn't care about that.
She applied all the energy she had reserved, performed a front flip and slammed down on the alter with enough force to cut through 20 blocks of the toughest metals stacked together. The altar broke into pieces, and exploded into a red mushroom cloud.
.....
Diane had lost all hope, Lionface had arrived. She stared death in the face as Lionface's bloodied hand reached for her head. He was already grabbing when he explodes into black smoke.
A grey thread shot towards the defenceless Diane, and entered her body. Diane panicked, expecting some terrible thing to happen, but she felt fine. She checked herself and saw nothing wrong. She shrugged.
"Hey!"
A loud call came from the mountain above her. Her teacher had discovered the secret of the enemy, and outsmarted him. Diane smiled. She was glad it was finally over. Swift sat down weakly. She had expended all her energy.
A huge portal began to open at the top of the mountain behind Swift. A huge pillar of light shot into the sky, as if signalling the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.