Zahira fought Sorako hand-to-hand while dodging each of his summoned plants. Sorako controlled them with a swift twist of his wrist and the vines moved like waves through the air. Suddenly, a thick branch waved down below and wacked Zahira off her feet. As she stumbled over, she fell into a row of vines that proceeded into wrapping around her. She groaned in pain as the vines grew thorns and stabbed her in multiple places.
On the other side, Jane faced off Soubiyo in a taijutsu stance. She kept one leg in front and it twitched slightly as she awaited the Time Magician to make the first move. Soubiyo had the same thoughts and stood still with his watch flipped open. They stared at each other until he slowly released his clock and let it fall on its chain while smiling at Jane.
"How I love our fights, Janet," he sneered. "Only you manage to entertain me in battle!" Soubiyo had loosened his stance and offered a chance with wide arms. "Come on now, and come stab me!"
Jane wasn't a fool but being called 'Janet' struck a nerve and she lunged forward. With her short blade, she swung her arm. Before it reached him, he had lifted the watch into his hand and pressed the button once making all the time stop around him. Jane stood there floating with the blade and he clicked his tongue.
"You always fall for this, Jane!" he grinned while pushing the blade out of her hand and examining it. "Why don't you taste your own blade!"
He was about to ram it into her chest but somewhere under her clothes, a charm, shined brightly and blinded the magician. That moment gave Jane time to unfreeze and step away from any danger. She glared at him in anger and full concentration while her hands formed a few quick symbols before a katana was summoned. She drew her sword at the time master while pulling out a charm-tag from her army coat jacket.
"I won't lose to you if I have this," she explained while stuffing it into her pocket. "A charm that was given by a friend. It disables any magic that has anything to do with the concept of time and space. Your magic won't work on me now!"
"Well, I'm not going to lose to a girl in hand-to-hand!" He smirked while leaping towards her with the chain of his watch growing into the size of a formable weapon.
The battle against those two was terrific. The sound of clashing blades and chain filled the air and Zoe moved her eyes back to Zahira. She realized the bunny girl was going to die due to the lack of air and she tugged on Rickys' coat. Ricky glanced at the fight and swallowed the remaining parts of her snack before jumping into the battle an elbowing Sorako in the gut, making him lose control of his vines and released Zahira. The bunny girl coughed in pain a small thanks before joining forces with her younger sister against the Nature Boy.
Zahira sensed something in the ground and lifted Ricky into the air as the ground began to crack and vines darted in their directions. A thorny vine managed to scrap Ricky's cheek and she grunted in pain as blood slipped down her neck. She wiped it quickly and glared at him before jumping off a thick branch towards him. With a swing of her arm, she punched aiming for his chest. Sorako was fast and covered his right arm with rough wood while blocking it. The wood absorbed the impact and he was pushed slightly away.
Sorako got up almost immediately to return the attack, only to be swept off his feet by Zahira who managed to sneak up behind him in bunny form. She locked him down under her feet and lifted a fist to punch his face, only for a tree branch to appear out of nowhere and grow around her hand while roots held her body back by force. Zahira tried to pull the roots by force but the number of them kept repeating until she was completely covered.
As Zahira muffled for help, Sorako scrambled out her grasp and stepped back to catch his breath. His mind was wary due to the impact of his fall and he needed oxygen to cool down. The time he took to cool down, Ricky sprinted over to Zahira and pulled out a pocket knife, and began slicing them up. Eventually, she managed to free her elder sister and rolled away from the plants to catch their breaths.
Jane and Soubiyos' fight hadn't progressed much. Jane had a black eye and a bloody broke left arm while her right was holding her fractured ribs in place. Soubiyo had sprained one ankle and the other leg was bleeding heavily around the thigh muscles. His lip was cut and blood was dripping into his right eye, making him temporarily blinded. They were both exhausted but Jane was clutching the charm with every inch of strength she had left. She knew that if she dropped it even for a second, Soubiyo would advance and win.
Between the others, they knew either side had won yet and all that was left was their leaders. Their gazes returned to the first fight and they didn't seem surprised by the current situation. Zoe had been watching the battle and both sides were equally injured. They both were bruised horribly. Blaze had blood dripping out neck as it trailed from her lips. She had apparently overused her powers and suffered the after-effects. Her shadow was trying to retaliate against the light from her flames yet were failing. Mobious on the other hand was fluttering around with the last of his strength. His legs seemed to have given way and were being dragged around and one wing was injured. His sword was reduced to the size of a pocket knife and one arm was scorched by flame. But even with their current conditions', neither side wanted to forfeit.
Zoe noticed a bug sucking on Blaze's neck and she fell to her knees. Mobious took that chance to attack and Zoe couldn't stand it. It was so unfair. What a cheat! She jumped in the battle and everything happened so fast. Mobious' sword hit a transparent force field and shattered into dust, while a pure white blade appeared in her hand out of nowhere. Zoe's body moved on its' own as if she knew what was happening and what she was supposed to do. She swung the sword, aiming for his chest and Mobious barely escaped. The cut was deep and blood poured down his chest and formed a puddle beneath his feet.
His eyes darted to her and shrunk at the sight of the weapon she held. 'She didn't have that just now. Where did it appear from?' Sudden realization hit him insight of the sword and his feet staggered at the thought.
"How… How do you have the Sword of Light? It has been said to be gone from this world fifteen years ago! Where did you find it?" He gasped
"Sword of Light? I… I've never heard of that term before!" Zoe spluttered, also confused about how she managed to summon or even obtain such an item. "What is this exactly?" She asked while looking around at the others for an explanation.
Blaze had managed to stand up with her wobbly legs and gape at the legendary item before speaking; "The Sword of Light is an ancient relict of the Light Kingdom. Back in the days, the Flame Kingdom was divided into two parts, The Light and Dark Kingdom. This was before they chose to combine their differences, thus making this kingdom. The weapons and powers have been held shut in a vault I the Ancient Museum for years."
"As the fiftieth generation of the Dark Kingdom's ruler, I managed to summon the power of darkness and obtain the gem of Dark, giving me powers to control shadows and dark emotions," Mobious said while slowly dispersing his wings. "The Light gem is still supposed to be in the vault. Unless…" he slowly concluded his own thoughts.
The others had ceased attack at the sight of the relic and slowly read out his thoughts, "You're a descendent of the Light Kingdoms' royal bloodline?"
Zoe stared at them all in equal shock before returning her gaze towards the weapon. It made sense in a way since her mother was from this world. 'But why didn't mom tell anyone? The Flame sisters and Queen Arlina don't know about this. Did she not want anyone to know?'
Before she could continue her thoughts, Mobious stomped towards her and grabbed her collar. "Why are you interrupting our 900th battle?" He asked in anger. "I'll kill you for doing that!"
"You cheat! I won't just stand by and watch you win cause of cheating!!" Zoe yelled back with her own equal anger. "You planted something on Blaze to weaken her! That's cheating!"
"Huh? What the heck are you saying? I always follow the rules. We fight with our strengths only!" Mobious said while wincing at the pain developing in his chest. The light sword had left flakes of lift remains in his wounds and its power was not cooping with Mobious's dark powers and it was forcing his heart to cease pumping blood to his brain.
"Then explain the bug that decreased Blaze's strength!!!" She asked as anger rose in her chest. She knew that interfering with their fight would end badly but Zoe couldn't stand a cheater.
Before Mobious could reply, white smoke filled the air and they all began to cough as their eye-sights were being blurred. Zoe in particular began to see things' the others' wouldn't understand…