by Samuel Small
They couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
As if on cue, there was a giant explosion coming from the direction of the prison. Jake felled the Malice in front of him, then turned his head. There was a steady line of Dante’s blue energy, being carried off and twisted by a torrent of wind like a snake swimming up a waterfall.
Jake turned back toward the Malice bearing down on him, aware of the loud crashes and booms going on just behind. This wasn’t the only battle being fought today, and backup would be arriving once Dante and Lennon took care of whatever was going on there. Jake lunged toward the horde of beasts, his will renewed.
***
Lennon didn’t say anything when Dante turned his wide eyes on him. He damn near shat himself when the guy was waiting at the top, but once his shock subsided he took a better look at the room. There was a guard, presumably the receptionist Dante was planning to beat up, face first on the ground. Dante drew back at the sight, then looked at Lennon, but the guy raised his hand and Dante tensed up again. Fighting a guy like that in this small room was no good. He wasn’t sure he’d have anywhere to dodge.
But Lennon didn’t point his hand at Dante. Rather, he extended toward the open doorway and waited. A few seconds passed with him just staring at it, and Dante kept looking from him back to the door. Did the guy go fucking insane or something? Just before Dante asked him, he saw the guy’s eyes narrow further, then he shot his energy out and blew the damn thing into an even bigger hole in the wall. Dante tried to cover himself as debris flew out toward him, and the air filled with thin white dust.
“What the – ack – fuck are you doing?”
Lennon turned to him, looking genuinely confused. “What do you mean? I’m breaking you out.”
The sum of the circumstances swirled around in Dante’s head and pissed him off.
“What!? You couldn’t of showed up, like, five fucking minutes ago!?” But that wasn’t even the worst of it. Dante pointed at the guy, who didn’t seem to give a shit, which only pissed Dante off more. “And you coulda said that earlier too, instead of standing around looking all intimidating! This—” Lennon’s head jerked back to the destroyed entrance, and his soft features hardened. There, the ninja bitches – along with the robed assholes – stood at the ready.
“I was a little busy,” Lennon mumbled.
“Oh, I get it,” Dante said, and walked to Lennon’s side. He guessed he could forgive him for not showing up earlier if he was being tailed by the entire fucking military. They both brought their palms down and gathered energy, stepping out into the fresh air. Their opponents didn’t try to stop them, only tensing up and readying for their attacks. Dante allowed his eyes to pass over each of them. He recognized quite a few. The tough captain was there, the guy the nerd fought, and even the ninja bitch leader who Dante thought he put out of commission for a few days. Lennon’s hysterical wind energy rushed through the area, batting Dante’s hair and sending his jacket slamming against his hips. But he didn’t mind, he could practically feel the massive explosion they were about to make and he could see it in the drained faces of their adversaries.
Feeling a sense of calm before the storm, with the energy swirling in his own hand and gathering more and more power, Dante peeked out to the side. The casual glance turned to shock as he saw that black dragon, flapping the wings that also seemed to be its arms. It wasn’t attacking, nor did it see Dante. It almost seemed like it was studying something, completely entertained. It was eerie, and Dante didn’t like it one bit. He should take these guys out as quickly as possible then deal with that thing. He looked toward Lennon, whose eyes shifted away from the creature to meet Dante. They both nodded in sync, then raised their hands into the air.
Their opponents were lifted clean off their feet and into the swirling vortex of wind above Dante and Lennon. Despite the fierce gale directly overhead, Dante felt none of it, his hair and jacket completely unruffled. As far as he could tell, Lennon made some kind of air bubble that kept them out of the blast zone of the assault. Dante continued to stare up at his enemies being tossed around like ragdolls. It was the first combination attack Dante had ever done with Sol, and it was insane to witness. He wondered how many would be lost in that terrible storm, probably all but the best. Dante clenched his fists, the image of Floff and the ninja bitch flashing into his head. He’d have to fight them both.
Their awesome attack died down, and the unconscious bodies fell to either side of Dante and Lennon like broken tree branches after a storm. Dante ignored them and watched as two people slowly drifted to the ground, their clothes tattered and blood running down their faces. Floff and the ninja bitch. As soon as their feet hit the ground, Dante tore forward, brandishing his fist. Floff leapt forward at the same time, matching Dante’s movements. Out of the corner of his eye, Dante could see the woman staring daggers into Lennon, and he was happy that they didn’t have to draw straws to decide the matchups.
The energy contained in Dante and Floff’s fists clashed, and the pressure it released sent Dante’s clothes into a flap. He braved it, and immediately came forward with another attack, Floff matching him. They clashed once again and the force blew back Floff’s hood, revealing his teeth clenched tightly. Dante had a good idea of why.
“In our last fight I wasn’t amplifying my attacks with Sol, so you were able to blow them back pretty easily. Now that I know you’re actually tough, I won’t be holding much back!” Dante shouted while concentrating, gathering as much energy as he could into his fist. Floff met it, but not with enough force, and Dante plowed through his attack, slamming right into his head. Dante was sure to release the energy just before he made contact so that he didn’t snap the guy’s neck outright, but it was still enough to knock him off his feet.
Floff slammed into the ground and struggled to raise himself back up but Dante slowly walked over him and extended his arm. Floff, eyes closed as he struggled against his body’s natural reactions to taking such a hit, didn’t notice Dante until he opened them. Dante shook his head. Floff was a good fighter and a decent guy, so he didn’t want to hurt him, but he would if he did anything stupid. He seemed to the get the memo, and scoffed while looking away, then lied down on his back. Dante put his hands in his pockets, turning to look behind him where Lennon fought his battle against that ninja. He wasn’t afraid of Floff doing a sneak attack from behind, the guy was way too honorable to do something like that.
Lennon’s fight was weird. The girl lashed out, throwing her hands and arms in an erratic display while pressing forward. It was something Dante knew all too well: the technique of a fighter using all heart and no head. The way she was now, even bedhead could probably take her out, which didn’t explain why Lennon was taking so long. Dante focused on him, where he glided around her attacks as if flowing on fixed currents of wind. His face was somber, almost sad, and Dante didn’t understand that at all. Wasn’t that girl one of the people who treated him like shit? Probably for his whole life?
Dante could never feel bad for those people.
Although Lennon clearly didn’t share that opinion. He flowed through her attacks, keeping that same pitying look on his face the whole time. Finally, she roared, letting out one last fierce attack, and Lennon caught it with a powerful hand. Tears reflected in the girl’s eyes as Lennon stared into them. She tried to keep her glare, but her tears overtook her and she dropped to her knees, sobbing. Lennon fell with her, wrapping his arms around her, and muttered some soft words as she desperately tried to wipe away the tears. Dante turned his back on the scene, as he couldn’t deal with that mushy shit.
He heard some soft murmuring and a few sniffles. Dammit, Dante wished he could plug his ears too, but then Floff would think he was really fucking weird. He toughed out the awkward exchange, confident it was over when he heard the grass shift under Lennon’s weight. The girl was still on the ground, looking down, but Lennon seemed renewed. Whatever issue he had with the girl, he had worked it out, and she wasn’t trying t
o fight them either. Dante turned away from Lennon and back toward the creature floating in the air. It beat its wings ferociously, then raised its head back. Dante’s eyes widened as he realized what it was doing, and he ran forward with Lennon closing in behind him. He watched helplessly as the thing jerked forward and puked up a stream of black gunk – the origin of what Dante called ‘the shit monsters.’ No doubt bedhead and the others were there fighting, but since he hadn’t seen any actual attack thrown at that thing, he doubted they were being very effective. Obviously, they needed him to bail them out.
***
One Malice. Two. Three. Four. Jake cut through them like butter, not stopping for breath or looking back. He knew by now that Sara and Elizabeth could handle themselves, and as he brought down the last Malice before him, he glared up at the sky, unable to think of a way to prevent what would happen next. Sara had the same idea, and launched some icicles at the creature before it could begin its torrent of wind again, but it did little damage to such a fearsome thing. The wings began to beat faster and faster.
Once again, Jake had to find cover. He ran forward, but something was wrong. His movements were sluggish, and each step seemed to take an eternity. It wasn’t because he was tired, he was in decent shape and the last fight hadn’t left him too drained. It was the pressure bearing down on him. That creature wasn’t flapping its wings like it normally did, now it was going absolutely mad, and the rush was enough to drive Jake down to his hands and knees. Each monumental beat of its wings brought forth a burst of energy that pushed Jake down, and every time he struggled to stand up it forced him to the ground again. He pushed against the wind to turn his head and make out what the thing was doing, and his eyes widened as he realized that it had pulled its head back once again, no doubt ready to unleash more of that black liquid – the black liquid that created new Malice. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if a human was hit with it directly.
He cried out, the sound lost in the torrent of wind all around him, and he forced his palms into the ground and pushed with all his might, but it wasn’t enough to fight against the attack even a little bit. Inevitably, he would be hit.
But then the wind stopped abruptly, followed by a piercing cry of pain from the monster. Without the force bearing down on him, Jake leapt to his feet, glaring upward. The dragon was reeling backward, as if it had just been attacked, and upon closer inspection Jake saw there were little wisps of smoke floating in the air. He searched frantically for Dante, only to hear some more vicious attacks shoot by. The dragon jerked back as if hit by several large-scale attacks then cried out once more. Wind attacks, meaning Lennon—
“You guys couldn’t do anything?” Dante said as he rounded the bend, running toward them along the street. “Jeez, it looks like it hasn’t been hit at all!” He raised his hands to the sky and gathered energy there, then let out a monumental blast, which tore into the dragon’s belly and sent it reeling back into the sky. It screeched once again, then beat at the air with its ferocious wings. “Like hell I’m gonna—” Dante began, but stopped, his eyes widening as he focused on something. Jake followed his gaze to see a silhouette of a human in robes flying through the sky and chasing after the monster. Dante scoffed and muttered something about showing off, then raised his hands to the sky again. He turned to Sara as the particles of light gathered in his palms.
“Well? You gonna help me? We’ve got four people here, and two of ’em can’t even use ranged attacks. I at least need you do some shit.”
Sara was still laying on the ground from the effect of the dragon’s pressure attack, staring at Dante as if in a trance. At his words, she shook her head and stood up, dusting off her dress. “Of course I’ll help. It just looked like you guys had it covered.”
“No way,” Dante muttered, narrowing his eyes at the dark silhouettes in the sky. The one that Jake presumed to be Lennon was flying all around the large dragon, which snapped and twisted to try to hit him to no avail. Dante’s body tensed, and another wave of blue energy streamed out of his hands, the force so powerful that he had to take a step back to recover. As the energy rushed out of his hands, Dante’s foot dug deeper into the earth, sliding the grass and dirt into a mound. The attack hit its mark and the dragon roared out in pain. Dante jerked his head toward Jake and shouted, “Spread out now!”
Jake immediately complied and ran as fast as he could, aware that the giant dark shape in the sky was now hurtling toward the ground courtesy of Dante. He heard the thing’s body tearing through the air as it rushed downward, and his muscles tensed in anticipation of inevitable explosion it would create when it landed. Right on time, there was loud crash and a rush of air hit Jake’s back and sent him to his knees. He got up and turned around, brandishing his sword, and was ready to lay into the wounded creature.
It lay on its side, Dante running along the length of its body and punching fist-sized orbs of light into it at every opportunity. He laughed manically as he weaved around every part of the creature, sparing nothing. Jake brandished his sword in front of him, running at full speed, and drove the edge into the creature’s belly. He heard a squish to his side, and turned his head to see Elizabeth following suite. She glared at the creature’s mushy hide and tore her sword out as if it’d been buried in a pile of garbage. Jake followed her example, and wound up to make another slash, but heard Sara call out that they should once again retreat. He didn’t get it, the creature was done for, and he looked around for what the heck she was talking about. His eyes focused above him, where Lennon rushed toward the creature, his arms outstretched and pumping wind that propelled him downward at a frightening speed. Such a speed, in fact, that they’d be collateral damage if they stayed too close.
Jake shouted that Elizabeth should run, then said the same to Dante who was frantically punching at the creature’s crotch and having a blast doing it. He turned to Jake, confused, and gave the creature one last punch. He looked up and took in the impending threat, then turned and bolted.
“Run for your fucking lives!” he shouted, and Jake agreed, kicking up dirt with Elizabeth at his side. He realized he wasn’t getting far enough away as he had to take so much time to warn the others and he dove to the ground just as there was a giant splat. Something rushed overhead, and Jake looked forward to see black bits of Malice spray all over the nearby buildings. He was shocked, and slowly got back up, looking around at the remains of the creature that was once such a fearsome opponent. The blackness had exploded out from a single point, a wide circle where there were no stains, wherein stood Lennon giving a playful salute, his body dripping black.
It was an unreal sight. The last one took all of their combined effort, but this one was easily dispatch by essentially Dante and Lennon alone. He continued to look around, trying to confirm whether or not this was some strange feverish dream, but his eyes locked with Elizabeth’s who was doing the same. Seeing her disbelief seemed to reaffirm his own, and he knew this was real. They both smiled at each other, the moment would have been tender if it hadn’t been for Dante shouting insults at the piles of black innards. Jake hated that he ruined the moment, and he glared at the boy.
He was leaning in, a ridiculous smile on his face, flipping off a particularly large pile of gunk while calling it an ‘asshole.’ Jake opened his mouth to yell at him, but then he saw the playful demeanor drain from Dante’s face, his eyes focused on the pile of vile remains. Jake focused on them too, then saw them twitch ever so slightly.
What the—?
But that was all Jake could manage to think of before the remains rushed back toward Lennon. He blasted himself into the air just before all of the black chunks smacked together into the impact point. They writhed and twisted, growing bigger as they recovered more remnants of the creature. It rose up to full size, and the big black ball began to stretch out. Jake could hardly believe his eyes, but after only half a minute the giant dragon was restored to full health, standing and poised to attack once again.
It f
licked its tail forward, and the entire four-man team was caught in the attack and sent spiraling across the market place. Jake hit the ground and rolled, aware of the dim pain but ignoring it for fear of the thing’s counterattack, and he quickly rose to his feet brandishing his sword. The monster stomped toward them and Jake bent his knees and readied himself to plunge headlong into the creature’s throat.
“How is it still alive?” Elizabeth called at his side.
“It just… regenerated,” Sara added.
“That attack wasn’t enough to kill it. We’ll need to hit it harder,” Dante concluded dryly.
But what attack could be stronger than Lennon diving from high in the sky and slamming into it, an attack powerful enough to leave the creature a mess of liquid? Jake added this to the conversation, but Dante shut it down as if he already knew the question was coming as he ran toward the enemy.
“The pieces that are left of the creature will just reform. We need to vaporize the thing completely!” he called and unleashed his energy into the creature’s snout, causing it to screech and withdraw. Even Dante’s potent energy wasn’t enough to fully vaporize the creature, so what else could they do?
Jake became well aware of the additional weight bearing on his back.
“Dante!” he called. The boy leapt out of the way of the dragon’s mouth as it attempted to bite him, and turned his eyes to Jake. “Use as much Sol as you can!” He swept a look at Sara to his side and then to Lennon, who was coming at the creature from behind. “All of you!”
They all responded by unleashing a coordinated attack, Sara sending countless icicles into the monster, Lennon lashing into its back, and Dante clocking it on the snout. The creature reared at the onslaught, raised its wings, and took to the sky.
“It’s trying to flee!” Elizabeth called.
