Salem, Queen of grimm. A mere pretender to the title who held a bit of influence over the familiars. The grimm only recognised one being. And she simply overpowered their will to control them.
Today was the day an immortal would die.
Having launched herself at the throne room, Summer came flying in through the window. The shattered glass nor even nicking her skin in the slightest. Summer just stared at her. Staring deep into those apathetic eyes.
"Summer Rose. So you return. Eager for another torture session I assume?" Standing up from her throne, the porcelain queen looked down at her former prisoner.
"No, I'm here to make sure that you never kill again. For the sake of both my children, and all the children of the world. This wars already taken my daughter's spirit from me... she... might already..." Summer quietened her thoughts. Shaking her head, Summer stared defiantly at Salem.
"Never kill again? And how do you think you'll achieve such a thing? As much as it pains me, I cannot die." Summer flashed her eyes, petrifying everything in sight.
Yet Salem had raised her arm, preventing her head from turning to stone.
"A cute attempt, but you've tried this before. How will you try and beat me this time?" Salem detonated herself, her body just mending itself back together with none of the stone layers around her.
Yet the room was also stone now.
"Curious, have your eyes mutated in the time I haven't seen you?" Summer didn't respond, simply launching one of the two kusarigama into Salems' neck, cleanly decapitating her.
Salem was bored, her face wasn't even fazed.
"What are you even trying to do? You are aware that you can't kill me?" Summer smirked, not that Salem could see that.
"I'm aware. But he can." Momentarily, the false monarch grew confused. For a singular moment, it felt like the god of darkness was present. It all made sense when she saw her body.
There stood the thorn in her side, her heart in his hand covered in darkness. Salem felt his shadows trying to cover her soul.
"Not a chance, youngster." Once again, Salem detonated her body, hoping the resultant explosion would've at least harmed him.
Unfortunately, she was not so lucky. There he stood, his coat sewing itself back together. Completely unfazed bit doused in her own blood, Salems body started to reform from the pooling blood.
"How fun, I finally get to remove the pest." Salem raised her hand, a blast of magic spurring forth. Hans covered himself in darkness, using his arms as a shield from the magic.
The blast had torn his arms apart, flesh and muscle parted to reveal bone. Yet it started to pull itself back together, aided by the shadows, Hans body stitched itself together with an inhuman level of precision.
"Is she alright?" Hans didn't know how to respond, but Summer knew all she needed from that response. "Get ready." The captain nodded, Lowering his stance.
Summer ran into a full sprint at the Queen, leaping into a dropkick. And with the loss of humanity came immense strength. Strength to easily blow a normal person's body apart with a strike.
And Summer flew through the queen's torso. Her corpse aiming a hand at her. Yet a distortion occurred, their places had swapped.
Now, Hans was on the other side, Summer knew he could react in time. All that's left was for him to kill Salem.
Grabbing the Queen by the throat, it wouldn't even take a second for shadows to cover her soul.
If she were a normal person.
"Good try, boy. But against a magic user like myself, you'll have to try harder. Now, let's make our little spat private, shall we?" With a thundering quake, the castle shook. Hans felt the room elevating.
They were going up.
"I made this castle atop an ancient grimm, a whale. It took a while to get it under control... and quite frankly, I hadn't intended to use it yet. But today seems to be a day where I can eliminate the lot of you. No matter, you've gathered all the fodder for elimination." Much like Salem, Hans could feel the grimms being.
This thing was easily miles long.
It would be catastrophic if it hit anything.
Hans dashed to the side, striking for Salems brain.
"Trying to disrupt my focus? How pretentious. I've experienced pain beyond belief." If that wouldn't work, then he would try something else.
Summer leapt in, noticing the focus in his eyes, easily striking Salem. Specifically, in the liver. Pain tolerant she may be, a body still has biological responses. Her shin struck the queen's liver.
Nothing.
"I've long since altered my own body, I couldn't remove the pain sensors. They simply regrow. But I've managed to dull any biological responses." Grabbing Summer by the neck, Salem exploded it. Her head flew with a grin as another distortion occurred.
In an instant, Summers head was reattached.
"So you gave up your humanity? Then who do you fight for? That man over there? You've merely become what he is. An outsider in this world. It only occurred to me recently, but he is not of this world. I've observed humanity for a long time, and never seen anyone like him or with his skill set." Summer appeared beside her, striking for the neck and completely snapping it back.
"So? I don't care where he's from. All that matters right now is the present! He's been good to me, to my daughter and her friend's. THATS ENOUGH FOR ME!" Summer launched her head away, and this is when Hans acted.
Hans was never a man with great ambition, yet all this... this new world had reignited his will to live.
"You fool! You think you-" Summer struck the head again. Allowing him the singular moment to direct the whale grimm. Having diverted the impact from his allies, his attention was now split.
"A crafty one you are, just as much as you are skilled." Hans donned his shadowy gauntlets, painting a pair onto Summer who grasped them.
"These are smooth... I can't even feel they're their." Summer dropped her weapons, they wouldn't do much, but maybe these would.
Hans, for once in his life, smirked at the situation.
Summer saw it, smirking as well.
"Don't think I'll forget this, I'll make sure to tell everyone that you finally cracked that poker face of yours!" The exuberant Summer appeared behind Salem, striking her back and blowing it open
Salem felt that.
Hans moved forward, shattering any cognisance she had with a focus disrupting knee.
Salems thoughts were rattled.
'What happened? Why is this so painful... ah... I might be dying. With each strike, they stain my soul with darkness. I see, he'd planned this ahead of time. He's quick. Better...' her body wouldn't budge, something was holding it together.
'Crafty... actually... why... don't I let them kill me? That's what i want... isn't it?' Like a film reel, Salems like started to flash before her eyes, and that's when she remembered.
"My children's death... ah... my ambition caused it all..." a burst of magic shot from her body, pushing the two warriors back.
"But why didn't he go along with it? Isn't... that what a good husband should do?" Salems eyes were lost, yet something had changed. Launching a strike for her chin, Salen barely Dodged, slashing his chest open.
Summer was alarmed.
His healing had slowed, meaning one thing.
Magic.
But the grimm had almost reached it's destination.
Hans started sewing his chest back together, but with how split his focus was, it was a bit sloppy.
Guiding the grimm
Holding Salem together
The Gauntlets
And his soldiers back at the front
All of it was weighing down on him.
Moving still, Hans swapped to jeet kun do. Quickly, launching a barrage of strikes. It was once nothing more than a hobby, but quickly developed into something more serious thanks to Max. And he was thankful for that.
Viciously striking at the Queen, only a few of many hit. And it was then that he realised.
She was taking his shadow armor and doing her own thing with it. Instead of creating armor, she was shifting her flesh.
But finally, the moment had arose.
The grimm was over beacon.
'Arise.' Hans felt as though his organs had been crushed. Blood pooled in his mouth, his body spat blood out against his will. Salem, in her maddened state, saw an opening.
An opening that Summer saw too. In a singular moment, several things happened.
First, the dragon grimm was broken and resurrected from its petrification flying straigh for the whale that two or three times bigger than it. The grimm roared at the dragon tearing into it, shaking the entire castle.
Secondly, a distortion occurred, Summer had swapped with Hans. And due to the immense different in height and build, Salem had missed. But Hans wouldn't.
Having leapt from behind, taking advantage of the quake he'd caused, Hans punched through her chest. Using his shadows, Hans covered her soul and heart. In one fell swoop, both were crushed.
The fragments of her soul were crushed to nothingness.
Her heart was crushed in his hand. Slowly, the grimm womans body fell to the ground. First, her knees, then her body slumped. The castle was still shaking, the dragon tearing through the whale and its head slamming into the throne room.
Hans collapsed, but before he could fully fall to the floor. Summer caught him.
"I'll get you out of here. After all that, I think I see why my daughter fell for you... I..." Summer grabbed Hans, lifting him to his feet. Both of them exhausted and bloody, they headed for the dragons head.
They slid down its thick neck, and Hans didn't have the strength to make them any accommodations. Summer was forced to hold them both onto the dragon.
"I'll get us both back. I promise." With that, Hans' vision blurred as he passed out.
Summer merely held on tight, the dragon hadn't disappeared. For that much, she was glad. But it headed straight back for the dragon Isle.
"We did it Hans... we did it..."
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Well, that was fun. It wasn't quite 2000 words, about 1700 but still. That was a great fight scene. Probably the best I've ever wrote.
Join the discord, and I'll see ya for the next chapter.