CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE DARKSENT, PART 3
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“SLIPSTREAM DANCE!”
The wind vortex trapped Arkanis within it, sending him spiraling around uncontrollably, which was exactly what Megan wanted. She slipped into the vortex itself, landed a powerful blow and before Arkanis could retaliate, she’d slipped back into the vortex that had surrounded him.
Megan emerged again just a moment later, delivered two swift crushing blows and then remerged with the vortex just as Arkanis sent forth another shadow slash. She continued to do this, slipping in and out, delivering blows quicker than Arkanis could react to. After all, it was impossible to catch wind.
Each blow did considerable damage, with the monster already bleeding purple out of his nose. But she timed her next hit wrong. She emerged from the vortex to strike and knew at once that she’d gotten it wrong when Arkanis regarded her, his eyes glowing brighter in that moment.
Her eyes widened and breath stilled; time seemed to slow to a crawl. She saw the shadow move, and attempted to shield herself with the wind. It wasn’t enough. She felt the sting of the slash as it cut across her, the impact sending her flying through the air; her blood trailing behind her as she flew.
She plummeted toward the ground, eyes struggling to remain open. However, a few feet before she hit the ground, she generated a strong enough gust of wind to break their fall and landed gently on both feet.
Megan stared at her hands – which were covered in grazed abrasions. Their last-ditch effort to shield themself with the wind must have negated much of the slash’s power because it should have been more than strong enough to cut straight through them.
She felt some relief, genuine relief at having survived that. Once she’d caught her breath and regained her composure, she sent herself flying through the air, right back at Arkanis.
This time, they were joined by Daniel who propelled himself alongside her. He glanced sideways at them and took note of their wounds.
“This guy’s starting to irritate me,” he muttered. “What the hell even is he?”
“I don’t know but he’s been dealing with our attacks pretty well,” Megan responded. “But he’s not invincible though,” they pointed out. “He’s bleeding. I think Dang and Dante did significant damage before we got here. We just have to finish it somehow.”
“Any ideas?”
“We need to hit him at the same time,” Megan answered. “With our strongest attacks. We need to maximize the damage each attack does before he can fire off one of his shadow slashes. I think his power has a delay.”
“A delay?” Daniel queried. “What do you mean?”
“What’s stopping him from just slicing us in half right now?” they asked, getting closer and closer to Arkanis. “I think he has to wait every time he uses a shadow slash, he needs to charge up the next slash. It’s like a cooldown mechanism from a game. He launches a slash, takes a few hits, launches another. When he’s not using the slash, he’s fighting with the shadow constructs but those are harder to deal with.”
“So that’s it then,” Daniel smiled, his eyes lighting up. “We just need to time it, figure out how long the interval is. How long does he need to charge up a slash before it’s strong enough to cut us? If we can figure that out–,”
“We can avoid the slashes,” Megan continued. “And we can deal the most damage during his cooldown.”
“It’s just like playing a video game,” Daniel grinned. “You ready?”
Megan nodded. “I’m ready.”
The both of them shot forward at Arkanis who snarled and slammed a palm against the ground. In response, spikes made of shadow exploded from the ground. Megan reacted quickly enough and generated a gust of wind to launch both themself and Daniel higher, enough that they sailed harmlessly over the spikes.
She slammed a powerful blast of wind into Daniel’s feet, launching him at Arkanis like a projectile. Arkanis materialized dozens of arrows made of shadow with the simple wave of a hand, and with a finger flick, sent them hurtling at Daniel.
Daniel’s eyes glowed. “GYRO PYRO SPHERE!” he roared. A sphere of flame engulfed him at once, radiating the sort of intense heat that no projectile would be able to get past.
The heads of Arkanis’ shadow arrows did manage to get through the sphere but they vaporized almost immediately, failing to get to Daniel. Daniel dispelled the sphere just in front of Arkanis and slammed a fist into the monster’s stomach, the impact knocking the wind right out of Arkanis.
He followed it up with another blow to the face, one that staggered Arkanis backward. Arkanis snarled and started to materialize a sword out of shadow but before he had, Megan yelled loudly:
“WIND BLADE!”
She made a slashing motion with her hands, generating two slashes with the wind, slashes directed right at Arkanis. The slashes connected with each of Arkanis’ shoulders, and his blood sprayed out upon impact before he went flying.
As he flipped through the air, Daniel went at him again.
“BLAZING JUSTICE PUNCH!” Daniel growled as his flames engulfed the entirety of his left arm. His fist connected with incredible force, sending out a shockwave and launching Arkanis even further back.
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Arkanis hit the ground hard and bounced off it, flipping a few times in the air before hitting the ground again and rolling to a stop.
Neither one of Daniel nor Megan waited for him to get back up. They surged at him, intent on putting an end to the fight before he could fire off another of his cursed slashes. They got to him just as he’d managed to get back on his feet.
Daniel’s fist crashed into his stomach at the exact same time Megan crashed a foot into the side of his face. Together, they went at it, delivering crushing blow after crushing blow. Daniel’s blows landed with scorching impact, Megan’s with enough force to blast a steel door right off its hinges.
Arkanis summoned shields made of shadow in either hand, but Daniel’s fist broke straight through and connected with his face, sending him hurtling once more. Arkanis hit the ground hard. When the monster tried to rise, purple blood gushed out of his mouth.
He was bruised and bloodied all over now, and the damage done to him was evident in the manner in which he struggled to get back up. Daniel and Megan exchanged looks, nodded at each other, and then went at him again.
Arkanis rose and turned to face them as they approached. He aimed a hand at them and both their eyes widened.
“Now!” Daniel yelled.
Both he and Megan changed course suddenly, propelling themselves out of the way in anticipation that a slash had been coming. But nothing happened. A frown of confusion spread across both their faces.
Arkanis cracked a smile at the both of them. And then, he vanished.
“Huh?” Daniel’s eyes went wide.
“What just happened?” Megan demanded, their tone a little frantic. They clenched their fists firmly and narrowed their eyes, looking from left to right as if expecting Arkanis to try to pull off a surprise attack.
Arkanis reappeared just beside Daniel and spun, throwing a powerful kick at the boy. Daniel saw him far too late to have been able to dodge or do anything at all, so instead, he braced for impact. But the kick never connected, not with him at least.
There was a blur of orange, followed by a powerful shockwave that knocked both he and Megan back a few feet in the air. Hovering in front of him now, jets of flames from his feet keeping him in the air, was Dante. The doppelganger had taken Arkanis’ attack with his hands and looked at first glance to have been left unfazed by it.
Daniel noticed the blood running down Dante’s hands. The kick had done some damage, damage that would have been Daniel’s to bear had Dante not intervened. His eyes widened in the realization that he’d been close to death.
But Dante didn’t look to be bothered by the wounds or the pain they must have been sending through every nerve in his body. He cracked a smile.
“Did you think I was done?” he asked. His eyes glinted as flames exploded from his hands, launching Arkanis backward by a great distance.
Arkanis regained his balance in the air and looked like he’d been about to charge at them again when chains of flame materialized around him, wrapping firmly around him in an instant.
“What is this?!” he demanded, eyes going wide.
A length of the chain shot toward Dante who caught it perfectly, then yanked at it, pulling Arkanis toward him. He met Arkanis with a devastating blow to the face, one that knocked him backward again. He yanked at the chain once more, pulling in Arkanis again. He slammed a foot into his face this time. He yanked again. Another blow.
Finally, he spun around, swinging Arkanis around with the chain, and then he let go, letting the boy plummet toward the ground. Arkanis hit the ground hard, the impact sending up a cloud of dust and debris.
Dante held up a hand and generated a small spark just over his fingers. Another spark came seconds later, a larger one.
“What are you doing?” Daniel queried.
“Keep him busy,” Dante said while gritting his teeth. “I’ll charge up an attack that’ll finish him off. But the two of you need to keep him busy while I do that.”
“Oh,” Daniel smiled. “That works.”
Arkanis got to his feet with a groan and was immediately met by a piercing blast of wind from Megan. He’d managed to raise his hand to shield himself just in time from the attack but the wind had pierced straight through both his palms, sending blood in every direction. He cursed under his breath and glared at them.
Megan was hovering just a few feet over the ground, suspended by a mini-vortex. They aimed one hand at Arkanis, a smile on their face. Arkanis growled and started in her direction. After taking a few steps in their direction, he paused, a frown spreading across his face as though he’d just sensed something was off.
Megan smiled widely at him. “Gotcha,” they winked.
Arkanis spun around and saw a swarm of flaming batlike creatures shooting right at him. Instinctively, he shielded himself with his hands just as the flaming bats swarmed him. From every direction, the bats struck, biting and clawing away at his skin; stinging him with intense burning pain.
Finally, he let out a furious roar and let loose a blast of shadow that got rid of the creatures. He stood for a moment, drawing deep breaths. His skin was bruised and bloodied all over now.
He heard quick movement and spun around to see Daniel coming at him. Daniel swung at Arkanis, but his fist found nothing but air. Arkanis had vanished into nothing.
Daniel winced his right eye as he curled his lips down looking a little afraid too. “What the hell was that?”
From where Dante remained in the air, he scanned for signs of Arkanis but saw nothing. His heart raced a little as he had a rather bad feeling about all of this. He’d charged up a powerful, concentrated fireball one that he intended to unleash when he had an opening. But he needed to be careful about it…Daniel might have been able to survive being caught up in a blast like that but he wasn’t sure the same could be said for Megan.
Arkanis then reappeared just behind Daniel.
“Daniel!” Megan yelled.
Daniel spun around quickly but not quickly enough to avoid the blow Arkanis delivered straight to his ribcage, striking with a fist that had been coated in shadow. Daniel went flying through the air.
“No!” Megan shrieked.
Arkanis smiled at them, and then vanished again.
Megan flew straight toward Daniel, eyes wide with concern. They examined him. “Are you okay? That looked like a pretty huge hit.”
“I’ve taken worse,” Daniel grinned, although he was clutching his side in a way that indicated he might have broken or fractured something. He looked around. “Where do you think he went? He hasn’t run off, has he?”
Megan glanced around; eyes cautious, wary. “I don’t know.”
From above them, Dante watched, an unsettling sensation washing over him. Something was wrong here.
It was only when Arkanis reappeared behind Daniel and Megan that he realized it. By then, it was too late.
“RUN!” He screamed, but there was nothing either of them could do.
Daniel and Megan spun around as Arkanis extended his hands toward the both of them. They made to defend themselves but the moment his palm touched their foreheads, they both went still.
Arkanis smiled evilly. “Shadow Drain,” he whispered.
At once, shadow seemed to pour out of the two of them. Pure blackness, erupting from their nostrils, ears, mouth and chest and flowing right into Arkanis. Whatever it was that he was doing sent out an intense gust of wind that whipped against Dante and forced him to shield his eyes with a hand.
By the time Arkanis stopped, both Daniel and Megan had gone a ghastly pale, as if all of the color had been sucked right out of them. Strands of white now ran through both their hairs, and their eyes had gone pitch black. Arkanis let go of them and they both dropped to the ground, landing with hard thuds.
Neither one of them moved. They simply remained there, limp, trembling.
Arkanis grinned. “Nighty night.”