by Justin Parks
Chapter 24
Closure
Once again, they moved from cover, surrounding the abomination. The creature had begun to fight with a more vicious tone. It wasn’t going to stand around and let the fighters attack it anymore.
It charged Sky. He formed a crystal in his hand and stabbed it into the abomination as it got close. The creature hit Sky, knocking him back. The crystal burst into a bright light, blinding the creature.
While it was blinded, Jin and Saga ran up on opposing sides and hit it with an energy palm. The creature’s body began to melt and become misshapen. It reacted by firing its beam at random. Saga and Jin jumped back to avoid it. The creature began to reform as Liz fired two pink slashes of energy at it. They exploded upon contact with the creature pushing it back. It retaliated and fired a beam at Liz. Saga came up beside her, as a wall of shadows rose in front of her, temporarily blocking it. The wall gave way and exploded, throwing them back.
Sky began firing charged energy crystals, while Jin fired balls of energy at it. It broke away from the barrage. Its arms stretched out, grabbing them and smacking them together.
Saga and Liz regain their bearings. The creature began to head toward Jin and Sky. Saga’s shadows wrapped up around it. He began to focus his energy as it sparked through his shadows into the creature. Liz wrapped her snake around the shadow, feeding her energy into it as well.
The creature’s body began to contort once again. It used this to squeeze out and escape. It reformed as it closed in on them. It grabbed them tossing them to where Sky and Jin were. They hit the ground, and the creature fired its beam at them, causing a large explosion. The four managed to survive, but they had taken damage.
As the fight continued to rage for hours, it begins to take its toll on the fighters. They had tried various attacks on the creature. Energy attacks took the biggest toll on it. It made it unstable but not long enough to do significant damage. And it could regenerate faster than they could hurt it. They all reconvened behind nearby cover. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up; nothing’s working,” Jin said.
“The energy attacks are hurting it, but it’s not enough power to finish it,” Saga explained.
“Then we need to hit it all at once,” Liz suggested.
“Yeah, a combined attack may work,” Sky agreed, “but you’ll need time to prepare. I’ll have to distract it to give you time to prepare,” he said.
“But isn’t that dangerous?” Liz asked.
“Well, you can do it if you want,” Sky replied jokingly.
“Never mind,” Liz responded, as she gripped his shoulder. “Try not to die,” she said with a sarcastic tone as well.
Sky jumped out, dashing away from the cover. He began throwing crystals at it. It was swatting them away, but he managed to draw its attention.
“All right, I’ve got an idea; follow my lead,” Saga said. They moved into an open space. Saga summoned shadows and they twisted together, forming shadow cannon.
“I see,” Liz said. She wrapped her snake whip around the barrel of the cannon. Saga turned to Jin as he formed a large blue energy ball in his left hand. Jin nodded in understanding, as he formed a large ball of red energy in his right hand.
“Sky, get clear!” Saga yelled, as he aimed the cannon at the abomination. Sky jumped back from it and began rapid firing crystal shards from his hands. Sky mixed his crystals up. Some of them made flashes of light, blinding the creature, and the others exploded, causing damage.
Saga and Jin fired their energy into the cannon as Liz ran her energy through it. The cannon shot a large ball of spinning energy made up of magick from the three. It hit the abomination. A large explosion destroyed the creature in a flash of light. All that remained was the core that fell to the ground. The rest of the creature burst into magick and was absorbed by the fighters’ cores.
The tension left the situation and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s over,” Jin said, leaning down with his hands on his knees.
“Thank goodness, I poured my all into that attack,” Liz added.
Sky walked over to the crater. “Hey, what are you doing?” Saga asked him.
“This is why we came,” Sky began, “not just to destroy the monster, but to recover the core,” he said, bending down and picking up the core. “This belonged to one of our comrades and they disserve to be honored,” he explained, looking at the group.
The group returned from their mission shortly after. There was a large meeting that day. All apprentices and masters attended. Jin made his way to the large auditorium. All the apprentices were on the ground level and the masters were on stage at the other end. They were all lined up except for Odin, who was standing behind a small pedestal with the recovered core on it.
Silence fell over the room as Odin raised his arms. “Silence!” he bellowed. His voice echoed throughout the hall. “This is truly a dark day for us all. Our fellow comrade has fallen in battle. Ann Beron died a hero. She gave her life protecting her team, and because of her sacrifice, they are alive. Today we gather to remember her . . . to honor her. She maybe gone, but she will never be forgotten,” Odin continued.
There was a sad aura that flushed over the hall. Some people cried, while others stood strong in a sense to show respect for their comrade. After the ceremony, the core was taken and placed into the memorial hall.
Afterwards, Liz, Saga, Sky, and Jin were walking together. “So is this how it ends?” Sky asked.
“Yeah, this place has never seemed so real to me until now,” Jin said.
“What do you mean?” Saga asked.
“I don’t know since I got here, everything was so new and exciting, but it seemed like a fantasy,” Jin explained.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Liz added. “It’s easy to get lost in the idea of being heroes, helping people, fighting monsters. But it’s times like this that pull us all back and lets us see the true risks involved—what it really means to do what we do,” she explained.
“Yes, it’s not some game. We were born like this for a reason. We have the power to change things, the power to make a difference even though it seems like we’ll always be fighting,” Saga said.
“We do have the power to make a difference, but a difference doesn’t always mean absolution. If we can stop one kami; if we can save one person, haven’t we made a difference?” Sky asked.
“Yes, I suppose, but still . . .” Saga answered.
“It’s always in us to want more and to be able to do more, but you can’t let the want out-weigh the reason. We do what we do to help people. That’s why we’re heroes,” Sky concluded.
ToC
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