The downpour of rain fell with a vengeance onto the once lush green sea of grass, now pushed into a flat muddied mess of a battle field. A strong mix of iron and rain water filled the air with a vile stench, Blood from a freshly slain rebel fighter splattered against the ground soon trampled upon by the boots of the Dracht army advancing onto them. The soldiers of the rebel army had been forced to re-gather into one big unit again, those who had not met their unfortunate end or who were to injured to fight, stood to the front swords, spears and shields at the ready, their faces began to fill with doubt as the enemy surrounded them.
The loud sound of metal scrapping against each other, rang through the air, within that moment Grahm's injured body flew through the air, as he landed a few dozen feet away from Zack, who was looking pretty rough himself, his red hooded jacket had a few slashes and tears on it, bruises and cuts could be found on his faced and all over his body, with a steady stream of blood covering the side of his face and his ear,
"Uggghhh, fighting you and fending off these damn soldiers is a pain", Zack exclaimed, taking a deep breath and standing tall once more, resting his Battle Axe on his shoulders, which was also looking quite haggered as the blade of the axe was now chipped and it had a slight crack running through it, he looked upon his former bestfriend,
"i'll call this even now", Zack stated, As even more soldiers encroached upon him,
with bard and the rebel army
Bard stood to the front of the remaining rebel fighters, nearly half of their original numbers had been either injured or slain, he, himself was looking battered from the constant use of his blessing, right now he could barely form a coherent thought without the trapped souls in his swords trying to get a word in, Bard knew he had cut down dozens, nearly hundreds of soldiers, he knew the damage that Barak and the other three did, yet it felt like the soldiers just kept coming, One soldier rushed in, his spear aimed for bard's chest, Bard gripped the spear, crushing it in his hand, he swung the other hand cleaving a chunk out of his side. The voices riled up again, Bard was on the verge of loosing his sense of self,
"at least spare my daughter", one said,
"yes yes yes, a glorious end", another spoke,
"why you, why did it have to be you", another stated,
"i'll see you in the underworld", he heard from another,
As the voices began subsiding, with one or two whispers still there, bard held his head, trying to remain intact with his own sanity,
"commander Bard are you okay", one of the rebel soldiers asked,
"yeah, I'm fine, just a nasty little side effect that comes with these swords, bard said, his gruff yet warming voice was comforting to the worried soldier,
Bard inhaled a huge breath, straightening out his slumped over back, as his muscles could be seen in detail through his shirt, and he drew both of his hands to his side, his stature, now, did not look worn out, tired or down trodden, his stature gave off an air of confidence and competence, which inspired the soldiers looking at his back,
"Don't worry my friends, we shall achieve our goal here today, Let us prepare to finish the fight of our lives", Bard's voice rang out loudly throughout the battlefield, as he threw his fist into the air, with a loud, "OOOOOOHHHHHHHH", followed behind it, the soldiers rallied behind him, they all stared down the Dracian forces, the excitement took over the rebel fighters bodies, with a rallying war cry they all charged in.
A high piched shriek rang through the skies, over heard blurred shadows danced and darted underneath the rain clouds, a flash of lightning illuminated the mysterious avians, Gryphons, a flight of them, numbering nine or ten strong soared overhead. Bard hacked away at another incoming Dracian soldier letting out a hearty laugh, his eyes relit with joy,
"MEN!!!!!", he shouted, "Backup has arrived", Diving head first into the oncoming Army,
"that big Oaf never changes", The man riding atop the bast rhino smirked, "jhaldir looks like we made it in time, some of them are still alive",
"I don't think that classifies as making it in time Captain Demitr", Jhaldir said, scratching his cheek
"it does to me", Demitr said, raising his spear towards the sky, " O' thunder bringer, Smite my enemies with your Divine wrath, ShaSet's Spear", Soon after a streak of lightning struck down from the sky into the group that Bard dived into.
back with yumi Amon and Aluric
Aluric collided with the wet stone pavement, sliding through the street, stone bricks flying all over, Yumi felt a sharp burning pain rip through her leg, she looked down to see three tears into her calf, blood flying out as her body plummeted from the sky, she was met a sudden stop, her body sliding along the clay tiles on the roof, she scrambled for a holding trying to catch her footing but the freshly wounded leg buckled under her weight as she rolled and tumbled towards the edge, her hand grabbed the ledged just as she went over, there she held on, pulling herself up from the edge, laying on her back she stared up at the gloomy grey skies, the rain drops softly pelting her face. She rolled over onto her side, pushing her self to sit up, down on the ground she looked on at aluric's seemingly unmoving body, for a moment she began to breathe a sigh of relief, until, she saw Aluric push himself to his feet. His white and gold coat was now in tatters run abound in rips, tears, dirt and blood.
Amon drew in closer to his little brother, He he his sword to his side the tip mere widths away from scraping the stone street, Aluric looked behind him, his eyes falling onto his older brother who made his way towards him, the way he walked, the way he held his sword, his eyes were cast in a shadow, only the feint green of his iris' were illuminated by the brief flash of lightning dancing across the sky., Aluric straightened his posture, ripping the useless coat from his body, revealing underneath it a dull golden armor marked with tiger stripes, Amon looked on a smirk forming on his face, he watched as the Golden glow from Alurics eyes faded back to their olive green color.
A particularly nasty siicker escaped from Aluric, he looked on at his brother with an amused look in his eye, "have you finally caught up, finally realized the only way to stop me is to kill me", Aluric said, brushing the red strands of his hair out of his face, he had regained his composure, for the most part.
"it was really bothering me as to why you brushed off our attacks so easily, I guess that armor has been taking the brunt of our attacks for you", Amon said, raising up his sword, "but, still, I'm not going to kill my brother, I won't go to your depths of depravity",
"you may see it as depraved, brother, but it is what's necessary for our survival, not just Dracht, but the entire continent", Aluric said,
"You and Ea taking this continent by force can't be good for anything or anyone, you two are like any other war monger in history, hungry for power and conquest, with how far you've gone I don't even think you two would stop at just this continent", Amon said,
"you always loved your stories growing up, you and your rebels against your bad brother and evil prince, what a story", Aluric said, "you and yumi aren't as good as you think you are",
"it's a pity that all you have left to fight us are, vicious words and some golden armor", Amon said, "you burnt through Yumi's powers, instead of conserving them like you usually do, and yumi isn't any where close by to replenish them",
"your point being brother",Aluric answered, his labored voice echoed,
"your affection for her is your undoing in this fight, in the past you refused to use them even when she offered, and it became a rule for you to never use them, and now in pursuit of power you've abandoned even that, and the funny thing is if you'd been using them all along they would've lasted way longer", Amon said, stepping in closer to aluric, who in turn pulled his fists in front of him preparing for an attack, their stance mere mirrors of each other, A strong smile grew across Amon's face, both of their eyes locking.
"as much as you blame our parents for being self righteous and sacrificial, you still can't unlearn what they taught us", Amon exclaimed,
As those words left Amon's mouth Aluric squinted his eyes, almost closing them, rejecting what his brother was saying to him, when he opened them once more his expression shifted, steeling himself, Aluric rushed forward, launching himself towards his brother, Amon shifted his weight on to his backfoot, planting it into the ground, bracing himself for the impact,
Aluric sped forward, quickly appearing in front of his brother, who was on guard against the incoming attack, Aluric slamming his lead foot into the ground, as he landed a extremely strong punch on Amon, or so he thought, looking down he saw his hand being held in Amon's palm, looking back up at his brothers grinning face,
"looks like we're finally on equal footing, who would've thought", Amon gleefully exclaimed, grabbing ahold of Aluric's fist, forcefully pulling him in even closer, Amon, struck his chin with the bottom of his palm knocking his view upwards towards the sky, Amon pushed him off of him, as he spun around landing a kick to Aluric's side,
However he realized after he couldn't pull away, aluric had grabbed onto his leg, clutching it tightly with his arm,
"funny that you thought we would ever be on equal footing brother, I'll let you in on a secret, I'm able to take more than someone's blessing or natural blessing now", Aluric explained,
Amon felt his strength began to leave his body, as the feeling of weakness grew within him, when, Aluric violently pulled him in towards him, punching him in his face, which sent him, rocketing towards a wall, blood spewing from Amon's mouth onto Aluric's tattered jacket,
Aluric stood there standing in the middle of the street as the rain poured onto his body, he looked up into the sky, slowly bringing his gaze back down onto the broken and bruised body of his brother,
"Let's put an end to this", he said solemnly,
Amon could feel his consciousness slipping away, his eyes barely opened, his vision shakily looking on to his brother, one side of it slowly turning red, his breathing had become labored, pushing his hands onto the broken wall, he pushed his body up with all of his might, upon doing so he felt is shoulder hit something flat and hard, glancing around he saw his sword stuck into the wall, reaching around with his other hand he placed his hand onto the handle of his sword,
Aluric made his way towards his brother, watching Amon trying to gather himself and muster his strength to get back into the fight, seeing him reach for his sword, When an all too familiar voice rang out,
"ALURIC", Yumi shouted at the top of her lungs, crouching on the roof top, in Aluric's direction, the giant's blood armor was cracked, with many fist sized dents in it, wounds were placed all over her body, drips of blood coming from her leg, as she gritted her teeth, clenching and compressing her legs under her body as much as she could, she pushed off with every last bit of strength she had left, rocketing her small frame towards Aluric, the roof giving away and crumbling with the force she pushed off with,
Aluric watched as this small but powerful person rocketed towards him, he spread his legs apart dropping his weight onto them, pushing one of his arms out towards her and pulling the other to his side folding his hand into a fist, Within an instant she had already closed the distance between them,
"yumi, I truly am sorry that you couldn't see things my way, this wont kill you but by the time you wake up this war will be over and I will be the victor", he spoke to himself,
As she drew in closer and closer until they were about to collide, Aluric let loose his fist,
"HOLY MARTIAL ARTS: Reversal", Aluric shouted, landing his attack into the middle of her stomach, going through her armor shattering it completely, the shockwave from the attack shook the surrounding buildings, as Yumi flew through the corner of one building into a stone pillar in the towns square, causing a large crack to appear on it,
Amon heard yumi's voice ringing out, as he too mustered all of his strength pulling his sword out of the stone, spinning it and placing it back in it's sheath, as he crouched down gathering as much strength as he could, when he looked up he saw a horrific sight as yumi's body was rocketing away from Aluric,
"YOU BASTARD", Amon shouted, propelling himself towards aluric at blinding speeds, "HOLY BLADE ARTS: Blinding Cut", Amon shouted,
Aluric was caught off guard with Amon's sudden and very fast attack, as he threw his hands in front of him to block the attack he felt the divine energy surrounding him pull close onto his body, followed by a searing hot pain going across both of his arms,