10 ~ Winning Road
Shard was doing well in
fending off her attackers, better than well. Anna was unconscious, Misty was
out of arrows and tossed to the side, DJ was struggling to stay conscious, and
who knows where Christina disappeared to. Jester and EDJ were the only ones she
really had left to take out. Jester was about out of the fight, having been in
it longer than his ally. Most of her enemies were taken out and she didn’t even
break a sweat defeating them. She was doing very well, until about five minutes
ago. Shard was in the middle of blocking an attack when she suddenly felt her
power leave. It felt like someone had sucked the energy right out of her.
Shard fell to her knees, eyes
wide with disbelief. “No. It can’t be…” she muttered.
“What’s the matter? Too much
awesome for you to handle?” EDJ said with a smug grin.
DJ and Misty winced as their
memories flooded back.
“Not you, blockhead! Them!”
Shard pointed at Lui and Hanna as they entered the hall, still holding hands.
“Well, it’s about time,”
Misty said with a huge grin.
“I’ll say,” agreed DJ.
“You couldn’t have waited
five more minutes?” EDJ complained. “I almost defeated Shard single-handedly!”
“As if that was ever going to
happen.” Jester yanked EDJ out of the way. “This is her fight now.”
Nodding to Lui, Hanna stepped
up to Shard and drew her sword. Shard herself stood up and smirked. “Evening,
darling. Growing soft?”
“Hardly,” Hanna said as she
began circling her opponent. “I have nothing to fear now. You can’t touch me.”
“Everyone has a weakness.”
Shard nodded in Lui’s direction. “Yours is him.”
“False.” Hanna smiled. “He
helped me see my greatest strength. They all did. Now that strength will defeat
you and put an end to all the suffering you’ve caused. You’ve been living in
this fantasy world for far too long.”
“Perhaps.” Shard’s confident
smirk faded. “I’m glad you’re here, Hanna.”
Hanna stopped circling and
looked at Shard in confusion. “What?”
“I’m glad. You wouldn’t
believe how useless power is with no opposing force. I left the others alive in
hopes that, some day, someone would help them. I’m glad you came to stop me.”
“Technically, that was Anna’s
doing… and I don’t know which alien race kidnapped you, but this mellowed out
version is starting to grow on me…”
“That’s nice,” Shard said
with a smile. “I’m sorry we can’t be friends.” With that, Shard sent a barrage
of icicles toward Hanna.
Hanna stopped them with a
wave of water. “We might be able to if you quit attacking.”
“It’s more fun this way,”
Shard said before creating a sword of thick ice and attacking Hanna with an
upward slash. Hanna dodged and blocked another slash with her sword.
“Besides,” Shard continued as
she pressed her sword against Hanna’s. “This is my nature. Do you really thing
I’m going to make this any easier for you?”
Hanna shoved the attacker
away and brought her sword down in Shard’s, shattering the icy weapon.
“I was hoping so.” Hanna
raised her sword and Shard bolted for the throne room. She took flight and
headed for the portal. Hanna swooped in and cut off her exit. “It doesn’t have
to be like this, Shard. You can stay and-”
“Stay? With you for an
eternity? I could never stand it. I’d rather…”
“Rather… what? In the moment
of death, you traded me for an eternity of evil. I know what you fear, but what
other option do you have?”
Shard sighed as she thought
about the situation. “Fine.”
“You’ll have to stay in the
tower.”
“But then I’ll never be let
out!” Shard objected.
“Never is a long time.” Hanna
moved aside so Shard could see the painting.
“So is eternity,” Shard
grumbled as they both entered the portal.
No comments:
Post a Comment