"Mama! What about this?!"
A little girl with blue hair run-up to her mother and gave her a yellow flower that she took from the garden.
"It's great, just don't pluck every flower you see."
The little girl hums in agreement and continues humming as she walks back into the garden, Her mother looks at her with glisters of happiness in her eyes.
The world goes dark.
The light then went back and one's perception noticed that the place you are standing is different.
You're inside a house.
The same little blue-haired girl, now squatting beside a wooden door with tears going down her cheeks while hugging her ankles.
Loud banging can then be heard behind the wooden with a man's voice shouting slurs at someone.
Behind the loud voice of the man, a voice can be heard crying and sobbing as a sound of a fist thrust out hitting the woman, knocking her down to her feet.
As she falls, a pot full of rice drops along with her and angered the man even more.
The man grabs a rod close to him and proceeds to beat her with no remorse.
The world goes dark again with the sounds of beating slowly fading away.
The sounds went silent and the world went bright a new.
Ray, sat next to her ill mother as she held her arm.
"Be good out there."
Ray nods.
Ray stood and suddenly the door behind her opens.
She turns around and found her father standing outside the door with a half-full chug of rum on his left hand and whiskers of red dots on his cheeks.
"Hey! You're going out again?! Why not work at the tavern?"
Said her father.
She held her staff tightly in fear.
"You got a good body, use it there, you'll make more money over that adventuring shit."
Her father spoke as he wobbles in a drunken pattern.
As he got close enough to Ray, he grabs her shoulder.
Struck by fear, a sudden weft of cold went down both the spine of her father and mother as fear switched places with their emotions.
Just as her father lets go of her shoulder out of pure panic, a small icicle pierced through his palm, stabbing it just enough to bleed.
He screamed in shock and pain as he falls along with his rum.
She saw the opportunity to escape and run out of the door and the world went dark once more.
"Ray."
A familiar voice spoke in the darkness.
"Ray."
Once again, it spoke in the void.
"Ray!"
Ray opened her eyes and saw Luke facing Clark with bright red light fest the floor and the pillars.
"Luke…I'm sorry, I'm trying so hard…"
She frowned.
"I'm sorry, Ray, I shouldn't have brought you here."
"What?"
"You'll survive this, but…"
"But what?"
"I don't think I can hold it no longer."
"I don't understand…"
"What now, Luke?! What are you going to do!"
Taunted Clark.
Luke grips his staff.
"Bye Bye!"
Luke swipes his hands across and pitch-black mist appears in a thin wall-like structure, overlapping Luke.
The traps began to explode.
At the top, Cecilia and Toru stood and waits, as the trapped trio slept with the other snoring.
"What's taking Luke so long!?"
The bored Cecilia spoke.
Toru let out a big sigh.
"Right!, I'll go after them."
Cecilia stood up.
"You don't even know where he went."
"Yes I do, he went there."
Cecilia pointed to where Luke went.
"Yeah, but you know, there's a lot of ways there. You'll get lost."
"It's my dad they got, I'll take the risk. I don't care if Luke gets angry at me."
Suddenly, Cecilia's tattoo began to glow.
"What the?"
She then feels something warm on her right hand and looks over.
She saw an image of a sword, burning in flames.
"Woaw, cool."
She grabs the sword and turned into her sword.
"Wow!"
Shouted to the shocked Toru.
"This what probably what Luke meant."
Suddenly, a strong earthquake began to rattle down under them, and the two tried to stand in balance.
"What's happening?!"
"I don't know!"
The ground burst in flames next to them as they screamed like little girls and hugged each other.
Another burst up, then another, and another.
The ground beneath then crumbles and they fall.
They fall and fall and screamed and screamed and closed their eyes as they are now too close to the ground.
Just as they fall to the ground, they stopped a few inches above the ground.
They opened their eyes slowly and drops.
"Ouch!"
"Awh!"
They stood back up on their feet and pat down their clothes.
"What the hell was that?"
Questioned Toru.
"Earthquake, maybe."
"Damn…"
Just as Toru was about to stand back up straight, he bumps the top of his head into the ceiling.
"Ouch! What the-."
He looks up and saw what he assumed as the "ceiling" was the floor of the arena floating above them with dust and debris flowing down.
"How the-."
They then looked over in front of them and saw a familiar someone with bright piercing white eyes, in front of a dark mist that reached barely half his height, he has both his hand up pointing up the large floor, ready to crash them.
It was Luke.
The mist was then dragged away like wind drags smoke away.
Blood flows down his forehead till it drips down on his chin and continues to do so as he breaths slowly but ever deeply, as bright glaring eyes continue to look at them blankly
"Luke?"
"Luke?"
Asked the two.
"You two…"
The bright light on Luke's eyes went back to normal and shifted his arms and hands towards the right and the boulder above them floats away to the right.
He drops his hands and arms and the boulder drops as well as it flushed out dust as it hits the ground.
"Dude, are you good?"
Asked Toru.
"I'm fine…"
Luke falls to his feet but Cecilia caught him by her arms.
"You don't seem, good."
"Better than not being good."
Cecilia puts Luke on the ground and leans him over the pile of rumbles.
The blood on Luke's head then began to steam and turns pitch black as to slowly disappeared.
Then something popped like a bubble and turns over to see what popped.
They then saw Ray covering her eyes, with Arthur and Merlin laying on the ground.
"Dad! Merlin! Ray!"
Shouted Cecilia and runs over to her father.
"Cecilia?"
"Don't worry, I'll patch you up."
Cecilia closed her eyes and a glow of orange and red light flew out her and towards Arthur.
The wound on Arthur then heals back in pinch and sits back up straight.
"What?! But I'm…"
"Luke taught me."
"Luke? Wait, Luke! What happened to Luke?!"
"I'm okay, patch up Merlin as well."
"Okay."
The flow of bright orange and red went to Merlin and healed him back to health but he still lies unconscious.
"Is he ganna be alright?"
Asked Toru.
"I don't know, he's not waking up… am I doing something wrong?"
Arthur then rushed Merlin and began to tap his face softly.
"Hey! Wake up, you fuck! We need you right now!"
"his knocked out, get him as far as possible."
Said Luke.
Arthur nods.
Just as Arthur came could grab Merlin, an explosion of rubles erupts in the distance.
"Oh? What's this? Still alive?"
In the distance above the pile of rubles and boulders, a silhouette of a man with two identical horns sticking out of his forehead, large wings, and claws was standing.
The smoke disappears and they saw Clark with half of his skull exposed.
"You survive that, Ey?"
The exposed skull then heals back to its crimson skin color.
"You…Bastard..!"
Shouted Luke.
Luke stood up from the pebbles and began to wobble towards Clark with his staff in hand.
"Hey, you're badly injured."
Toru spoke in a worrying voice.
Luke continues to wobble towards Clark and loses his balance and tips over.
Toru caught Luke with his left hand and laid Luke's left arm over his shoulder.
"Oh? What this? Are you hurt?"
Taunted Clark.
Cecilia then runs towards Luke and stops in front of him.
"I'll patch you up, just sta-."
"No, use your abilities to get out of here, I can-."
Clark then leaps and lands down in front of them as a wave of dust and small debris scatters away.
Cecilia took her stance.
"He, what are ganna do? Cut me?"
"Erm, yeah, what else is this sword use for."
Toru then laid Luke in the boulders next to them and stood next to Cecilia.
"Ey, big guy! Take on someone your own size!"
"You? My own size? Pathetic."
Blood came out of his shoulder and out of his skin and formed a sphere of blood above his shoulder.
"Eww."
Said Cecilia.
"Now that's just gross."
Said Toru.
"You think you can stand up against me? Why don't you surrender and I'll give you a less painful death."
"Like hell, we will!"
Shouted Toru.
Toru then smashes his hammer to the ground and an eruption of fissures starts to rush out towards Clark.
Not ready for the attack, the fissure hits Clark and flew him off, and hits the boulder behind him.
"RAAH!"
Toru throws his hammer with great strength and pins Clark down ever more on the boulders.
"Woh, I thought he was strong…"
Said Toru.
"HAAA!"
With cries of battle, Cecilia starts running towards Clark to finish him off.
Just as she reached halfway, a blood lance flies close to lightning speed towards Cecilia with her not having the reaction time to dodge it.
Suddenly, she was pulled down by an unknown force with the lance barely scratching her chin and went past over her.
The lance still flies and was about to hit the petrified body of Ray.
Luke stepped in front of the blood lance stopping it with his right hand.
The blood lance drops in a pool of blood and another crack forms on Luke's ring.
"Ah..."
She got back as fast as she could and right as she got up, she heard a noise that smashed the air and turns around to look.
She saw Toru's hammer flying over above her and was heading towards Toru.
She then looks straight and saw Clark's claw just a few inches from her face.
Suddenly, another unknown force pulled her back greatly and dodges Clark's claw and with the hammer hit Toru in the shoulder.
"What the?"
Questioned Clark on his mind.
Clark then looks over to Luke and saw his hand pointing toward Cecilia.
"Of course, Luke."
Clark murmurs irritatedly.
Cecilia then gets up fast and with Toru taking his hammer back in his hand stood back to their stance once more.
"What the hell!?"
Said the confused Toru questioning his own strength.
"I guess we know now how he injured, Luke."
"No kidding."
"Hee, having someone as a cover is annoying but it brings the fun out at least."
Another sphere of blood came of out Clark's palm and formed into a blood lance.
The lance then flew towards them with great speed with them getting ready to dodge it.
Then, a ball of fire came out of behind Luke's shoulder and hits the blood lance, causing it to explode.
"Don't you forget about me."
They then looked over and saw Merlin standing up with balls of flames circling over his shoulder.
"Merlin!"
Said Cecilia and Toru.
"Damn, sleeping is annoying."
"Argg, you're up, great, that makes the fun twice as ever."
"You want fun? Here, have it!"
The balls of flames then flew towards Clark and wraps around Clark, engulfing him while burning his flesh.
"What are you waiting for? Get him!"
Shouted Merlin towards Cecilia and Toru.
The two nod and starts running towards Clark.
"You think this is enough?!"
Clark's strength overpowered the flames and broke free.
Toru swings his hammer at Clark and hits his face, Clark looks back at Toru and glares at him with a smile.
Toru swings another and Clark catches the head of the hammer and tossed it over to the side.
"Shit."
Clark grabs Toru on the neck and lift's him.
Clark then saw Cecilia running toward him with her sword up and slaps the sword out of her hand and then grabs her by the neck.
"Is that all you got?"
An icicle then hits Clark on the chest and made grunts in pain a little.
"That's it?"
Suddenly, another icicle flew and hits his stomach, then another hits his chest, and then another.
A barrage of icicles flew towards Clark and made Clark let go of the two.
He tries to cover his body using his arms as a form of shield and it took the whole barrage of icicles.
As the icicle stops, Clark lowers his arms and grins, and then another icicle much larger than the rest pierced through his stomach.
Clark grunts in pain as he grins again as if he felt nothing but an itch.
"Is that all?"
"No, not really.
Merlin snaps his finger the icicle explodes, creating more icicles forming inside his body.
"AAAAARRHH!"
Clark shouts in pain.
Clark had enough, blood started to gush out rapidly with each side of the icicles, to where each and every icicle melted and vanish in the thick raw blood.
"I have enough of this!"
The blood covering his body then glows upwards and took flight above his shoulder and forms his own icicles of blood.
"Die!"
The hundreds of blood lances flew in lightning speed towards Merlin.
Merlin smirked.
Merlin gestures his fingers in a form of fire towards the elemental plain lighting in perfect arcane accuracy.
As he finishes, his fingers point toward the small lances, and the flow of electricity starts to surge out of his fingertips and creating a wall of electricity and catching the lances.
The electric wall then shuts and starts to surge towards Clark in a slow paste.
Clark then uses his wings to cover himself and uses it as a shield and blocks the surging electric magic.
Merlin took forms his fingertips and called upon the earth mother.
He crashes his palm on the ground two jade golems erupt from the ground in front of Clark.
"Ha? What?!"
Clark punches one of the jade golems and pushed it back but still, it stood its ground.
The jade golems then attack Clark.
"That should keep him busy."
Merlin then runs toward Luke and held him over his shoulder.
"You learn fast."
Said Luke to Merlin.
"I have a great teacher."
Luke smiles.
Luke then opens his hand towards his staff and it flies towards his hand and grabs it.
"The two of you, get out of here, Merlin will get us out of here."
The two nod and grabs their weapons and start running toward Merlin and Luke.
"Wait!"
Shouted Arthur.
"What is it?"
"Father's sword! I need to find it!"
"With all of this chaos, you want that sword?!"
"He is correct."
Said Luke.
"The sword is too sacred and powerful to be left behind, if Clark finds out what's the sword's abilities, he can use it as an advantage."
"At least, we can get out alive!"
"No, we can't leave it. Take the three with you and Arthur and I will find the sword."
"With that condition?!"
"Are you doubting me?"
"Yes!"
"We have no time with this, his alone and theirs six of us, we can take him head-on."
One of the jade was then tossed over and thrown and hits the debris in the back and the Excalibur was then visible as the jade's body continues to roll.
"Hmm, pretty convenient."
Arthur then runs towards the sword.
"Ready the teleportation spell!"
Arthur shouts and he runs towards his father's sword.
"Good, grab on!"
Shouted Merlin.
A circle of magic glows beneath them as Merlin starts to chant.
"Got it!"
Arthur grabs the sword and starts running and stops at the teleportation circle.
"Let's get out of here!"
The circle then glows even more as Merlin finishes his spell.
Suddenly, the head of the jade was thrown with great strength and hits Merlin in the stomach and flew Merlin in far enough length and timing that teleported Merlin off but took none but himself.
"No!"
Shouted Luke.
In the castle, a magic circle opens in the throne room with the maids and a few nobles on the sight awaiting the king's arrival.
Merlin came out of the circle and was pushed and pinned to the wall with the head of the jade golems he made.
*Spinning circle eyes*
"HEHAHAHAHA! Do you think you can escape me!"
He laughs as he steps onto the body of the jade golem and crumbles into a fine dust as well as the jade's body in the back.
"Umm…ahhhh, can we settle this in a game of rock, paper, scissors?"
Toru spoke.
Clark pounced with his powerful leg as he flaps his wings for an extra bust with claws open, ready to claw out Toru.
A few meters close to Toru, Luke stumps his staff and a thick earth wall erupts from the ground, blocking Clark as he hits the face of the earth wall.
"Umm... I guess that's a no."
Luke pushed his hand towards the thick earth wall and it falls down crashing Clark as blood splatters beneath.
Luke drops to the ground as his ring cracks with a string of metal holding the ring together.
Arthur then held Luke to comfort him as he saw a blood splatter below Luke's head with his jaw dripping blood.
"Are you okay?"
"Better…than not."
Luke pushed with all his might to stand up and balance himself with his staff.
"Will that be enough to kill him?"
"No, they don't die from that."
Luke coughs and the earth wall then crumbles to dust as it slowly reveals Clark's body.
Clark stood up behind the dust as the silhouette of his large wings unfurls once again overlapping the dust cloud itself.
The two gather close to Luke.
"What do we do?"
Asked Toru.
"We run, right?"
Asked Cecilia.
Arthur then steps in front and draws his sword to Clark's silhouette.
"Take Luke and Ray with you, find a safe place, and run."
"What? Are you planning to stay!?"
Cecilia shouts at her father.
"We'll all die if you don't, it's better one than all."
Clark then steps out of the cloud of dust.
"Runaway? You think you can run?"
Arthur stances his feet.
"Hahaha, humans are all so dumb, why don't you just lie down like a dog and I'll ripe you to shreds as painless as I can do."
"Over my dead body."
Said to the unprovoked Arthur.
"And what are you ganna do? Cut me? HAHAHAHA! Didn't you see what just happened? You can't kill me! None of you can! It would take a power of a demon lord to kill me!"
"You think I don't have that much power?"
"What? You do? You want to die a hero or something?"
"Maybe I want to, what are you going to do about it?"
Clark smirks and leaps at Arthur with his claws wide open.
With the right accuracy and timing, Arthur slashes Clark's left arm clean from his shoulder.
Pain overtook Clark as he wobbles back.
Clark grins.
"As expected of a king, you know how to use a sword."
Clark waits for his hand to heal but the pain then began to grow sharper and pain with every second he waits.
He looks at his cut-off arm and saw a ring of fire that matches the size of his wound with no blood gushing, not even a drip.
"What this hell!"
Shouted Clark.
He looks across and found his arm and also saw the wound having a ring of fire around the wound Arthur cuts.
"What is this?!"
Luke smiles.
"The Excalibur, a sacred holy sword forge to for the Grand Archangel, however, the sword failed its expectations and was thrown away only to be found by a dwarf with skills and talent rivals the god forge himself."
"What?!"
Shouted to the confused Clark.
Arthur then looks at his father's sword with awe.
"He reforges the sword and fixed its imperfection giving purpose once again with the properties of a holy sword upgraded with dwarven technology."
"Passes down by many generations, with each generation of souls powering it, even more, it became sharper, more durable, and deadlier."
"Wow."
"I want one."
"The Fuck! Nobody told me that thing was full of that shit!"
The frustrated Clark shouted.
"Alright then, I have a chance."
Arthur's ego was busted.
Meanwhile, at the back, Toru held Luke to stop him from falling down with Cecilia held the panicking Ray.
"Does that mean Arthur is ganna win?"
Questioned Toru.
"No, Clark still has the upper hand, with his range and long grasp, Arthur stands no chance."
"What? We have to do something!"
"Yes, you should, but if you stand with him, you'll just be a hindrance, as Arthur will not only focus on fighting, he will also try to protect you two."
Luke coughs.
"But to stay put is begging for death and we have no means for escape. That is of course if we can get up there, which we can't under my condition."
"What do we do?"
"Hope, hope for the best."
Arthur locks his gaze at Clark as Clark locks his gaze back at him.
"AARGH! To hell with this!"
A blood lance then came out of Clark's palm and flies toward Arthur with dashing speed.
Arthur blocks the lance of blood as it splatters and burns away as it touched the sword.
"AARRG!"
Multiple lances of blood dash out of Clark's palm and flew toward Arthur with Arthur completely blocking the lances of blood as he took steps closer to Clark.
Clark then flaps his wings to get away and blows Arthur in the process as the strong gush of wind pushes him off for a few feet but still, he stood his ground as he is the only one who's protecting them.
Clark landed a few meters away just enough space to attack once more.
Now angered, his skin spews blood out with a ghastly, slushy noise as it flew up and floats above Clark's head and forms hundreds of blood icicles, and flew toward Arthur.
Though a lot was blocked by Arthur's sword, a few slips pass and cut his from his biceps to arm, from leg to thigh, and his cheeks.
Clark grins as he pulls his right palm back as if his grabbing something.
As he pulls back, the blood from his small freshly opened wound spews up and flew back to Clark like long red strings, and sips it from his chest.
Arthur then pulled and run back as strings of blood cut off.
"Ahhhhhhh… refreshing. A human is still a human, you still have a lot of weaknesses ready to be explored."
"Bastard, what the hell was that."
"That was Blood magic, called blood sip, all blood demons can use that, but from that range, he is a master of it."
"Yes, I am, I am what's known as Grand blood demon, it's not easy to get that title, took me hundreds of decades to get. You're not the only one with surprises."
"Bastard."
"Now then, let's continue, as long as I don't get too close, I'll be put in harm's way. Hahahaha! What will you do?"
Clark began to walk closer.
"RAAAH!"
Arthur runs towards Clark with his sword up ready to cut open Clark.
And again, hundreds of blood icicles forms out from his body and flew toward Arthur.
Many are blocked by his sword but a few once again slip past Arthur's defense and proceeds to cut and wound Arthur as strings of blood flew out of his small wounds and into Clark.
Though it was painful, Arthur continues to run toward Clark with his sword up.
As Arthur was in range and slashes his sword, Clark hopped back with his wings flapping towards Arthur, pushing him back.
The strings of blood continue to sip his body with Arthur's body visibly turning pale from the loss of blood.
"Are you about to pass out?"
Suddenly, Toru's hammer hits Clark's face and cuts out the sipping threads as Clark falls down.
Arthur turns his head around to see Toru and Cecilia running towards Clark while screaming their battle cries.
"No, let me handle this."
Cecilia stops for a moment close to Arthur as rays of warm orange and red light wrap around Arthur and heal him back.
Clark then gets up and Toru's fist hits his left jaw and swayed his head for a little and looks back and glares at Toru.
"You little shit."
Clark grabs Toru's arm and grips him tightly and broke his wrist.
Toru grunts in pain as a punch hits his face and knocks him down.
Then, Cecilia drives his sword into Clark's palm and came out back at his hand.
For a moment, Clark grunts in pain, as his palm began to bleed.
Clark's blood then drips from Cecilia's hands and burns her hand to which he lets go.
He steps back as Cecilia's sword to began to burn Clark's hand.
Blood covers the sword and the burning stops and disappears into ashes.
"Shit."
Suddenly, Arthur came in and slashed his sword.
At the moment, he reacted but fell short and cost him the tips of his fingers.
Sliced off clean, rings of fire in-circle each wound as the fingers flew up in the air.
He flew back with the wind from his wings pushing and tumbling Arthur on the ground and gets up on his feet as fast as he could.
He saw Clark's cut-off finger in the ground and his burning fingers on his hand.
Clark grunts in pain for his lost fingers as he glares back at Arthur.
"YOU LITTLE SHIT!"
Arthur smirks and runs at Clark to try and finish him off.
Clark then bites a chuck on his right shoulder and rips off.
Confused, he still runs at Clark as he spits out the chuck of his flesh.
"You fucking asked for it!"
Then, a surge of blood came out of the bitten-off flesh of his shoulder and starts to circle Clark.
It then surges down and towards Arthur and made him stop in his tracks and blocks the surging blood coming.
Just before it hit the blade, it curves to the side and pierced his shoulder.
"AAAAH!"
He screams.
Arthur then tried to cut it off with his sword and the surge of blood pulled back just as he could cut it.
Arthur drops to his knees and held the wound on his shoulder as the surge of blood starts to fly back towards Arthur with blazing speed and whips back and drops close to Luke.
"Ahh…"
Pain covers his shoulder as he tries to suck up the pain.
On his back, he rolls for a little to see the wound on his shoulder and saw blood gushing out and in a need of treatment immediately.
He thought of Ray to heal her and tries to look for her and saw her sitting down on his backside and curling up in a fetal position.
Frost and a very small shard of ice in-circle her as she looks up again to see the monster in front of her and look back down again.
"Ray!"
Arthur then hears a loud noise on the back and turns around to fund Toru on the ground far from Cecilia and with her backing away with her sword and Clark's massive grin.
"Shit."
Though it was painful, he gets up and draws his sword.
Just as he starts to run back, he saw Luke with his eyes shut forcefully with thick veins on his neck, his right hand on his chest, and forcibly gripping and balancing on his staff.
He walks at Luke and grabs his shoulder and asked.
"You okay?"
*Silence*
Arthur has no time to see what's going on with Luke and run back at Clark the with sword.
"Cecilia!"
"Father!"
She then turns around and runs back at Arthur.
They stopped next to Toru as Cecilia grabs Toru back to his feet Toru took his hammer next to him.
"Ah shit."
Said Toru.
"I told you to just lie down and just let me kill you...but now, I'll saver your last final breath."
The surging blood then cuts off from its shoulder and floats in the air.
It splits into thousands of spheres and then took the form of small icicles.
"Don't worry, you'll live, this is only a taste of what I am about to do!"
It then flew at them at speeds like a bullet with noises matching an arrow cutting air.
For moments, Arthur thought that this will hit them and kill them but tries anyway and tried to block it off with his sword.
The three close their eyes in hopes of a miracle.
*Cracks*
…
*Silence*
…
They felt a cold breeze on their spine and their knees began to weaken.
They opened their eyes with deep feelings of despair and fear.
The uncanny feeling of doom and death corrupts their soul as they up lookup.
They saw a wall of mist above them holding back the thousands of blood icicles.
In the most, a familiar man with dark robes held the mist that was coming out from his hand.
Upon seeing the man, their rational sane mind was overshadowed by feelings of dread as sweat poured down on their head and their heartbeat beating down as fast as ever.
The wall of mist then swallows the thousands of blood icicles and disappears inside the man's palm.
"Lu…Luke?"
Said the terrified Cecilia.
The familiar man was Luke.
He then lowers his hand.
"Luke?! How are you still up? And why the hell are you floating?"
Said Clark.
Luke then opens his eyes a bright light illuminates upon his gaze.
"What the!?"
Luke then gaze upon Clark's way as his cracked ring falls and shatters on the ground.