Chapter 42: Doorway to Destiny (Part 2!)

“Next time-time, don’t talk.” Lunging forward, Vega swung toward Sabere. Not one to be out done, he too dashed at her. Clashing with pickaxe and dagger, the two ricocheted off one another. Upon landing, Vega once again flipped around with her pickaxe, using her relentless endurance to wear down Sabere.

In incredible pain, Sabere’s eyes weren’t on her weapon, but her hands. He parried her two strikes, feeling how she held the weapon. On her three strike, he parried with his off hand but grabbed the head of the pickaxe. An opportunity arose, so he plunged the end of the knife into her shoulder.

Noticing that she hadn’t immediately expired, he repeated, not coming any closer to killing her. His brows bent and his eyes narrowed, Sabere wished to ruin her. Vega could feel his poisonous anger and offered a cheeky smile as recompense.

Swinging the scimitar seaward at Skaldi, the ground exploded into fragments. One such piece sent Skaldi flying across. In a state of nearing being knocked out, Skaldi awoke to his head hanging a few feet above the splashing water.

“Can’t stop. Need… to keep going.” Pushing himself up, he put his hand on his chestplate. Indented in four places by the fragments, one shard broke through the armor but didn’t piece through the padding underneath. “I’m alive?! Thank the spirits!”

Suddenly, hot water rained on him. As he continued to run from the genii, he saw one of the geysers, out of tune with the others and firing off with greater intensity.

“Maybe it’s a chance!” He turned to see the genii striking at the ground, breaking open the harbor and bringing in more water from the sea. “Over here!”

He threw a few daggers to the genii, planning to hit his arm. With his bruised body, his aim went wide and only one pierced his fingers. A great roar was heard as the Genii was not pursuing the elf with his scimitar, he was reaching and grabbing at him, trying to pin him down and squeeze him into a bleeding ball.

A few yards ahead, Skaldi was so close to the geyser. He could feel the bubbling heat close. His back was to it, and his face was to the

Hundred feet.

“Come on!” He shouted, goading the genii closer.

Sixty feet.

Keeping an eye on the geyser, he could see the water building up.

Twenty feet.

Closer and closer still, the genii was charging at him. Now or never.

Zero feet.

Jumping back away, Skaldi saw the genii’s vicious expression for a moment. He closed his eye, feeling his back hit the ground. As he opened his eye, he saw the rocketing of burning hot water boil its face!

“Ah! You’ll pay for that!” Sending its wagon sized fist into the ground, he shattered the geyser apart, sending fragments everywhere. Hiding behind a wall, Skaldi held firm and waited.

A particularly strong shock hit the ground. Skaldi turned his head to the port, seeing the looming head of a Blight Elf that had been hit by the shrapnel of the genii.

“~Cruel demon. Destroy the smoke.~” A Blight Elf roared, punching the ground using both fists repeatedly. Shockwaves hit them all, all the fighting stuttered and ceased as all struggled not to fall down. Headbutting together, Sabere and Vega bounced a few feet away. Even the genii was affected, exerting great might to maintain his current form and not return to smoke.

“Yes!” Skaldi cried out, ecstatic that he had finally got their attention. “Let’s get out of here.” The moment the shockwaves weakened, the party prepared their retreat.

“I’ve let you live long enough.” Sabere coldly remarked and fired arrows nonstop at Vega. The scarecrow slid, grabbing the backpack in one hand. She jumped on the broken ship, putting vertical distance from her attack. Sabere followed, firing off whenever he jumped. Reaching one end of the ship’s wall, Vega broke it open in two swings and ran to Skaldi, having seen two arrows hit a few centimeters from her foot.

Upcoming was a boxed garden near her, with the same plants that strike at spores. Crouching behind one of them, she reached out for a potted verison of one.

“Get back here Vega.” Sabere ran to where she was, with soft spoken rage in his voice. Using both of her hands, she chucked the plant at him like it was a bomb. He dodged it easily but as he turned to confront her, the plant’s tongues whipped him hard and rapidly, forcing him to take out his blade and do some weeding.

As he muttered madly to himself, Vega continued to run away.

“Foolish shroom head. Tell me how you wish to be buried.” The genii challenged the Blight Elf motioned for it to attack.

“~Genii in life. Dust in death.~” The Blight Elf answered, hissing out spores as a warcry. Sabere looked around, searching for the rest of the Assassins. The were oryx had been badly wounded, its arms squeezed into paste by his foe. However, the Blight Elf he had been fighting clutched at its mushroom face as it poured foul blood around.

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The second hadn’t been so lucky, as the were horse had been pinned in under some wreckage. Clapping his hands between the were horse, the Blight Elf pinned him between his hands and his teeth. In one awful motion, he tore the assassin in half, like he was eating jerky.

Amir noticed their escape and gave one last good shove to Runtaii, sending him skittering on the water soaked ground. Rolling to his feet, Runtaii caught up only a couple seconds afterward. Tossing a javelin at him, Amir slowed him enough to keep him from striking distance.

“~Boy! The time has come!~” He raised his spear in his left hand and beat his chest twice. Skaldi saw the signal and turned his heel back at the action. “~No mercy!~”

“No mercy.” Taking three daggers from his bandolier, he juggled them in his hands, waiting for the right moment. He wouldn’t have the time to improve his sight, it was his call. Breathlessly, he held out his hand of daggers over his shoulder. Tentative and unsure, the elf knew he had to take the chance.

“~Time to go to sleep, old man.” Runtaii rushed with all his might, catching up with Amir. Only then did Skaldi throw his daggers. Arcing beautifully, like a lady’s hair in the wind, the daggers met their target and two buried into Runtaii’s sword arm while the last missed.

“~Emperor damn it all. Sabere!~”

“~Good on you boy.~” Amir continued to run, unimpeded by his coughing. He was functioning on pure grit and excitement.

Drawing his bow on Vega, Sabere heard the cry of Runtaii. Moving to his position, he changed his target from the scarecrow to Amir. Firing the arrow, it sizzled through the air and cracked into his back. He kept running, for although the arrow broke through his scale armored robes, it made but a tiny prick in his muscle.

“Might want to help your friend there, scarecrow.” Sabere shouted, baiting her knowing that she’d never keep running without aiding Amir. And he was, wait for it… was wrong!

“Skaldi! I’m going after him.” She threw her backpack over any debris, only ten yards from where Amir was.

“What?” Sabere didn’t expect this, fumbling his aim as he had planned to shoot Skaldi after. Vega skipped across pools of water and ran through burning buildings, moving faster than a speeding arrow.

“Got it.” Moved forward to Amir’s position. The old Tripolian kept running but he lurched over his knees as his coughs grew raspy. Eventually forced to kneel down by a horse cart, Amir caught his breath with Skaldi right beside him. “Stay here.”

“~Whatever that means, I’m not giving up just yet.~” Heaving himself up like he weighed a ton, Amir stood unsteady on his feet. Right behind the elf, they ran to the backpack.

“~Gah! Damn elf.~” The daggers cut his skin like knives in soft fat. He ripped off the side of his shirt and wrapped it around his wound, daring not to pull the blades and risk bleeding out. “~Sabere. We have to retreat.~”

“~I cannot follow this order..~” Choking up, his next shot failed and went far off target. Vega undeterred moved faster with a look of calm determination.

“~It isn’t one.~”

“~Sire, I-~”

“~Sire nothing boy!~” Runtaii screamed from across the battlefield, with the voice only a fellow young man could give. “~Failure and victory are but two paths that head in the same direction.~”

“~We can win, we can-~”

“~Four assassins. I took four of you. Don’t let that number go down.~” Runtaii ordered him with no logical persuasion but emotional reasoning. “~If I fail today, I’d rather fail with you alive than win without you.~”

Hate. Hated this, Sabere did. Runtaii wasn’t treating him like a soldier. He wasn’t treating him like the hidden blade he was. He wasn’t even treating him like a tool. The phrase human being came and went into Sabere’s head. He would show him the truth. A believed truth. A false truth.

“You won’t best me. I don’t lose.” Sabere fired off another arrow, puncturing Vega’s stomach.

“~Damn it boy!~”

“Keep moving, I’ll cover you.” Skaldi threw daggers like he was a cloud of blades. Some missed but they successively hit the young assassin. One to the shin, another the forearm. Pushing on through the agony, Sabere fired arrows in seconds flat. One arrow to her shoulder, another to her chest.

Unable to bear taking any more hits, the assassin sent three arrows to Skaldi’s position. The first glanced off his helmet, burning a hot spark off it. The second crashed into his waist and shoulder, tearing a hole in his tunic.

“Fuck. This doesn’t feel all that good.” Skaldi laughed, in a mixture of shock and cynicism. Amir went to work quickly, clipping off the wood of the arrows and patching him up with whatever he had on him.

Sabere’s hand dropped down to his quiver, but all of his arrows were gone and spent. Unhooking his dagger, the assassin charged at Vega.

“~Sabere. Give it up. I don’t care if you're an Assassin or not, you can’t do it alone.~” Runtaii yelled to Sabere’s back, despite this he didn’t reply. Sabere wished not to acknowledge the truth.

“Voice.” Vega gazed up to the stormy sky, as a serene feeling in her body emerged within her.

“I’m weak. I am a fool-fool, at times. And right now, here, I’m scared.” In the rhythm of the waves of the ocean and the breaking of the port, a guitar’s strings are heard by her. Strings that she felt had a place to her. “Now, more than ever before, I want to know! About you and everything, the people I love and myself.”

“You ready to die?” Sabere was but forty feet away, holding his dagger in two hands.

“No, I'm ready to live. Live for more than others.”

“~Well, time to seal the boy’s fate.~” Rising up and getting a running start, Amir pulled a javelin from his back. “~If you can hear me Vega, give him hell~!” Amir, storming with furious kindness, hung onto the back of the shaft, and hurtled the javelin across the starry scape. Amir fell onto the backpack full of documents and was consumed by coughs. Instead of fainting, he picked it right up and scooped up Skaldi as he ran.

“Want to fight the Emperor’s finest?!”

“Yes!” Kaliba screeched, diving bombing its beak to Sabere’s cheek. Flying off quickly, Kaliba left Sabere in a daze. Vega took the bag of ball bearings, opened it, and threw the contents to the ground. Sabere stepped and stumbled on the bearings, unable to stand properly.

Only a second after recovering, he saw the javelin impact his chest plate directly, knocking the air and momentum out of him. Vega knew in her heart that this was her chance to perform beyond her limits.

“Take this! My anger, my sorrow, and all my love!” Hanging her pickaxe on her side and leaping up at Sabere, she unleashed and swung skyward! Her attack broke open his armor and his chest.

Knocked high into the air, Sabere collapsed onto the wet ground below. Only one of his eyes lay open, breathing hard and slow. Vega landed at his feet with one end of her pickaxe bloodied.

“Go to sleep now. Ya fight is over.” Extending her hand on his opened chest, she patted him as if this were a sport.

Runtaii crawled to Sabere, holding his head in his lap. He couldn’t spare words for his dying comrade, only trying to make his death a bit more comfortable.

Vega wished not to disturb him or to fight Runtaii. In fact, using one of the holes Sabere had made, she pulled out a set of flowers. Handing it off to the wounded man, Vega smiled and bowed to him, the custom she had learned from Cold Cavern.

Runtaii analyzed Vega, as a warrior would to another. He too bowed in respect and placed the flowers on Sabere’s body.

“You… are unbearably kind.” He admitted.

“Well… I wasn’t born yesterday.” Running off back towards her friends, Vega, exitted as a new person.