11:50pm, Atop the Athenian Acropolis
Aaron found himself inexplicably beset with an unshakable sense of dread. Heping, some twenty feet in front of him, looked up with the same expression, her laughter falling off as if stolen from her. Rider moved swiftly, seizing his Master into the crook of his arm and leaping away from the epicenter of the falling colossus.
The Marble Giant fell like a meteor in the space between Aaron and Heping, the axe cutting into the ground, the stone and gravel exploding among a cloud of crackling lightning as the thunder, which had been so distant before, tore the earth asunder in less than a moment. Time slowed in this moment, as if each bolt of lightning were dancing around the marble giant and reaching towards Aaron, beckoning him into the release of death...
Rider took Aaron in his arms to the front of the Parthenon in his single bound, turning sharply to face the front of the Acropolis.
-Just in time to see the colossus charging them, matching their speed with ease, with his axe bared towards them in mid-swing.
Rider jumped vertically, allowing Berserker to go under him, before kicking off the back of his head and charging into the distance like a comet, covering ungodly ground in mere seconds before landing on a distant mountain and setting Aaron down.
"Remain hither, mine Master."
Overcome with fear and sensation, Aaron could only nod with bated breath.
Rider nodded back, and charged back towards the Acropolis, a streak of gold on the black skyline, the shadow of the colossus visible even from here, the full moon behind him. He could vaguely make out the crashing of Lancer's rake.
.....
Berserker's axe was held above the pig's head. Pigsy could only quiver helplessly as the colossus moved with speed that it shouldn't possess, without even enough time to bring his rake into a defensive position. Just as Lancer accepted his incoming death, Rider, the golden comet that he was, came between them and planted both feet squarely in Berserker's marble teeth. For the second time in either fight between the two, Berserker budged. The force and speed of Rider's kick sent Berserker's head back, breaking his attack. Rider rode the head as it went back, bending his knees and gathering golden bands of light around his shins. The moment Berserker faced the sky, he jumped up a second time, doubling down on his attack and sending the colossus firmly out of footing.
-Rider flew up into the sky like a rocket.
Berserker turned with feline agility, landing on all fours. He looked to the sky to see the golden comet that had used its face as a trampoline. He charged with electricity, his thunderous aura building with his rage.
-Eclipsing the moon, Rider turned in the air as he lost his momentum, spreading his body wide and gazing down on the colossus below. Light coursed through his fingers, forming into a long spear of ethereal gold.
Berserker prepared to chase Rider into the sky, building energy in his legs as deafening thunder encompassed the hill-
And stopped.
Around Berserker's legs was a long, bronze chain ending in a golden rake. It bound his legs to one another and locked them in place by binding the shins and thighs.
"Hahahaha! Good luck breaking the Divine-Iron chains of Heaven, asshole! Rehehee!"
The thunder grew in intensity, colored by sudden bursts from his thighs as Berserker used all his divine strength to try and break the chains that bound him, as if out of spite for the pig's gloating.
-The light in Rider's hands began to solidify, ribbons of gold circling the tip as the whole spear started to change hue, darkening to a blue color.
Berserker grabbed the chain that bound his leg, and pulled in an wide motion, yanking Lancer up and threatening to slam him against the ground. But as the now-flying pig began to arc-
"Woah, woah, woah WOAH!"
-The chain extended further and further from the shaft like a fishing line, flinging Lancer across the hill and into the horizon. The head of the rake, as if possessed, began to unfurl from Berserker's thighs and fly back towards it's now-distant shaft.
Heping, huddled near the entrance to the Acropolis couldn't but cry, "Pigsy!"
-In the distance, "Don't call me Pigsy!"
She felt Berserker's electric focus shift to her even as he faced away.
-Rider- no, Lugh's spear had settled on an electric violet as energy coursed and swirled around the tip.
"Fancily done, my porcine Lancer! Ibar!"
Without moving his arm in the slightest, the spear of purple energy disappeared from his hand and moved, fast as light, straight down and into the small of Berserker's exposed back and between his obsidian shoulder blades.
The natural grinding of the colossus grew into what could only be called a cry, a scream made of stone and thunder; the clash of immovable object and unstoppable force creating an unmistakable shockwave. Heping, magical circuits glowing with effort, had to grip the gates to the Acropolis just to keep from being flung off the mountain. Atop the slick marble, it took all her effort just to stay afoot.
-Rider fell into a dive.
Berserker began to stand, the spear of violet plasma still stuck in his back. His movements were slow and encumbered, and his giant body twitched with convulsions that shook his ivory form. Rider landed atop the back of the colossus, grabbing the spear as he did to shove it deeper into Berserker's body and making full use of the only wound they had managed to inflict upon him thus far. Violet and blue lightning crawled across the form of the colossus, clashing against each other, competing for power and territory as if a small-scale war were occurring over a single moment.
-But the war was short lived.
With a roar that rattled the ground they stood upon, the blue lightning overcame the violet and cut its way to the spear in his back. Rider was flung back as Berserker stood straight with sudden strength, an explosion of lightning like a thin tree exploding from his wound and swallowing the spear. As the light faded, no trace of weapon or wound remained, except for Berserker's renewed rage. His speed and strength returned, he turned with a wide arc, swinging his axe to intercept the Rider that had begun to charge in once more.
...
In the previous moments:
As Lancer flew across the sky, farther and farther from the hill, the head of the rake still snaking its way to the shaft, he contemplated briefly whether he should return or not. He saw the purple spear sticking out of Berserker's back in the distance like a Christmas tree.
Surely the beast was defeated, no?
Surely he was safer back here, no?
-But wait-
If Berserker was defeated now, he would get no credit!
Unthinkable!
As the head of his nine-tooth rake returned, instead of returning to its place, Pigsy cast it up and out, the rake and chain spinning at incredible speeds above him. He lost his momentum, lifting himself up into the air, and cast his rake back at the Acropolis, snagging the head on the Parthenon and retracting, pulling himself back towards the battlefield. As the rake went to meet its head, he adjusted his small, childlike wrist so that the momentum bounced him off the rake-head, slowing him down and granting greater altitude as he flipped through the air with grace that most would consider beyond his small, round body.
As he approached the colossus, currently engaged with Rider, he cast his rake once more, sending it far below him and swinging up towards Berserker's exposed side as the rake became alight with flame that emerged from nowhere, a mighty flame like condensed wildfire.
...
As Berserker went to bring his axe down on a charging Rider, Heping couldn't help but notice his side exposed to her. Perhaps it was her soldier's instinct, or a misplaced sense of duty, but her body moved on its own to seize the opportunity. She charged the circuits in her fist as much as she could while she sprinted across the marble. Taking a deep breath and preparing for the pain that to surely follow, she pulled her arm back and yelled the command word: "Yehuo!"
Fire exploded from her forearm, encompassing it completely as pyromantic magecraft burst from her charged circuits and moved towards Berserker's exposed side alongside her fist.
....
Fire on his left.
Fire on his right.
Two attacks made contact with his exposed sides, dealing no damage, but the way he braced himself regardless slowed him down, and left him unprotected against Rider charging him from the front with golden energy encircling his wrists.
But it was they who were unprotected.
Berserker released a blast of force from his body, a blast of thunder that knocked back each of the assailants, even the Rider who was most capable of resisting it. All his momentum was lost, and though he wasn't flung as were the other two, he left visible imprints in the marble underneath him from the way he grounded himself.
Lancer was flung back towards the Parthenon, tumbling unceremoniously across the ground with his rake skidding and bouncing away from him, chain rapidly retracting while the flames shrunk just as they grew from its head.
It was Heping who was in the most danger. The shockwave easily tore apart the entrance of the Acropolis, sending chunks of marble stone into the sky to fall off the cliff face into the garden below, and Heping with them. Her light body had far more momentum, and as she bounced off the stone behind her, she couldn't help but find herself falling. Falling with the ground no less than fifty feet below her.
There were four who were her witnesses.
Rider, who saw her in the periphery of his vision and was already calculating whether he could save her.
A second observer and his Master, watching from afar.
And the Berserker who caught this observer in his animal eyes as the gateway collapsed.
As she fell, Rider immediately went to her aid, moving as fast as he could from his position. But the uneven ground and awkward positioning slowed him down, and he was racing against gravity.
Just as she began to disappear below the crest of the hill, surely to her doom, a new form revealed itself behind her, a bird made of black flame with three long tails.
This 'bird' grabbed her by her collar and yanked her up, flinging her back to the relative safety of the Acropolis as it crested up towards the sky.
Berserker, already in motion, backhanded the incoming girl behind him, sending her flying back towards the Parthenon, and swung with his axe to send a lightning bolt to smite the bird. It struck true, and the bird of black flame, identical to the one which had struck him before, burst into a cloud of red fire.
Rider rushed to the girl, jumping up and catching her in his arms. She was hurt. There were burns across her forearm, and he could feel the bruising in her back from the marble of both the Acropolis and the colossus. She was in pain and barely conscious, but while he wanted desperately to help, there were more immediate concerns.
Berserker began to move towards the edge of the Acropolis where Heping had flown mere moments before. Energy cracked around him, and he roared as he hadn't before, causing the mountain to shake and marble blocks to fall.
It occurred to Rider as he stood there.
Despite being a Berserker-
Despite being so violent-
Despite the permanent snarl carved into his face-
Berserker was now angrier than he had ever been before.
Berserker leaped with hardly a movement, soaring in nearly a straight line like a cannonball towards a point on the horizon.
"Master!"
Rider placed the half-conscious Heping on the ground as gently as he could, Lancer just starting to push his small body off the ground.
"Take care of the lady, mine porcine cousin, and remain hither."
Lancer coughed, "Whatever you say, bruv, but don't call me porcine -oink-".
Rider ran to the edge of the Acropolis just as the hill his Master was standing on exploded in lightning and earth, and a vague shadow, just barely visible, appeared as if plastered on the skyline.
...