Zayn stares at Amelia's head at her feet, slowly looking up with tears in her eyes at the beautiful woman glaring down at Zayn with disinterest.
Zayn tries to breathe, but she can't seem too, plunging her fingers through the stone ground so hard, it cracks the earth under her finger tips. She's trying to say something—anything—but she can only taste the salt from her tears on her tongue, and that shuts up her.
"Kid, you need to relax!" Excalibur said, "I can't help you if you don't relax!"
Zayn shakes her head, crawling backwards as the beautiful lady steps forward, swinging her blade up before she hammers it down to take off Zayn's arm. Zayn screams, closing her eyes, but it's the blonde man who saves her again, taking a thick sword and using it to parry the attack, only for the beautiful lady to lift her leg and swiftly use the tip of her toes to fling the blonde man to land in nearest set of trees.
"Zayn," Excalibur softly said, "we need to fight."
"Exi," Zayn cries, snot dripping from her nose as she shakily stands up, "Exi! Exi-I-can I really-?"
"Kid, I know you can do it." Excalibur said, "I'm right here with you, Zayn. Although you're annoying, and you wear a really weird helmet."
Zayn snuffles, nodding her head, summoning up whatever resolve she can muster, and she wipes her helmet's nose as she looks up, shakily putting her fist up near her face.
"Now you're going to fight? Stupid." the beautiful lady said, "I'll tell you what. Strip your armor and if you prove you're not a nisf daw, I'll kill you swiftly. I'm tired of dragging this out."
"N-no." Zayn gulps. "N-no. I'm really scared, a-and you're really scary, b-but I don't want you going after Amur and Chase. So, no."
"Suit yourself," the woman said, before lunging in to attack.
The woman swings her large snake blade, aiming for Zayn's side; but Zayn uses her forearms to block the attack, taking her wrist and putting in as much weight as she can to swing the sword away, causing the woman to stumble back in surprise. Yet the woman doesn't dwindle on the attack for long, using her foot's heel to tilt herself back before she lunges forward, using her armored leg to strike Zayn's head, but Zayn parries again, smacking the woman's leg away and clenching her fist, biting her lip and clenching her eyes close as she throws a punch forward, barely missing the woman's shoulder, but it's enough to surprise the woman and throw her feet backwards, tumbling on the stone, creating craters in her wake, and finally landing so hard on a tree, a row of them fall like dominoes behind her.
"H-holy crap," Excalibur stutters out, "nice kid! Didn't know you could do that? Holy Gods! Who knows how really strong that strength is!"
"Yeah…" Zayn blinks, out of breath, breathing heavy as she looks at her fist, which are now letting off steam by the intense attack. Her lungs burn, and her eyes burn worse, and she looks at the reflection of her metal hands to see her Heterochromia eyes—one a bright gold and one a soft mix of browns, silvers, and greens, glow.
"Ms. Zayn!" It's the blonde man with long hair from before, waving in the bushes with a large grin.
"A-are you alright?" Zayn asked, turning her head and worriedly looking at the man. The man smiles, nodding his head.
"We've never met," the man said, "but I'm Chase's clone, Rin! I've come to fetch you and get your location! You've been spotted, so let's get back!"
Zayn opens her mouth to oblige, but she sees the beautiful woman slowly walk their way, her ruby eyes glowing, menacing and angry and focused on Zayn.
"Please tell Amur and Chase where I am, and to get help," Zayn said, stepping back as the woman steps forward. "I t-think I can hold her off until then."
Rin doesn't say anything at first, looking between Zayn and the woman before he smiles, showcasing his fangs.
"Will do, Ms Zayn," Rin said, "please come back in one piece, or my master will kill me
effectively! Chao!" Rin said, before he swiftly disappears, like thin air.
"You sure you want to take her on kid?" Excalibur asked, "you put up a good fight, but we could have escaped."
"I want to make sure at least Amur and Chase are okay," Zayn ponders in her thoughts, "i-in case I die."
"You will not die." Excliabur said, surprising Zayn. "I'll make sure of it kid. Your death is my sleep. No thanks. I'd hate to miss another thousands of years because of some crazy wrench."
"Well then, um…I-m-m-May the Gods be with us." Zayn said, taking in a breath before she takes a step forward, watching the beautiful woman raise her blade, her eyes glowing as she stares straight at Zayn.
"مطاردة حمراء," the woman said, and her snake sword burst into a massive red and white flame, causing a world wind of energy to move the large trees and push Zayn back by the massive gust of energy. Zayn grits her teeth, taking a step back, watching with wide eyes as the woman fiercely screams with her fire sword.
Zayn closes her eyes, swallowing heavy before she reaches a hand forward, feeling Excliabur's spear body form in her hand as the woman swings her heavy blade, the energy of the red and white flame hurdling at her like a boomerang.
Zayn grips Excliabur and screams, holding the spear with two hands as she uses his body to hold back the massive magical flame. Zayn steps forward, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, keeping her wide eyes on the flames until everything becomes white.
...
"There you are." Chase said, watching as Rin appears, all smiles and fangs, but with no Zayn. "Wait--you didn't find her?"
"That I did. She's near the village entrance," Rin said, "she told me to let you both escape and to retrieve help as she holds off the demon woman-."
"She said what?!" Chase roars, gripping Rin by the collar,. "I told you to bring her back you punk!"
"Or locate her." Rin said, casually shrugging, "I have fulfilled your request, master-oof!"
Rin falls to the ground, Lin quickly kneeling down to check on Rin with worried eyes, but Rin just grins, ruffling Lin's hair.
"Let's go," Amur said, "I refuse to let Zayn fight off that woman!"
"I agree," Chase said, "but we should have a plan-."
"Fuck a plan!" Amur exclaims, "Zayn is-."
"Amur," Chase said nervously, "I understand that you..."
A small crowd of footsteps cuts Chase's words short, as he and Amur look ahead, spotting very famaliar pairs of armor walking through the forest. A man--very familiar and very tall--looks all ways before he looks ahead, spotting Chase and Amur, sighing in relief.
"C-Captain!" Amur stutters out as Jeremiah rushes forward, Clarke soon after and Lia staggering behind. There's another man next to Lia--and he's tall, with light blue hair and matching eyes, but neither Chase nor Amur recognize him.
"Chase, Amur." Jeremiah nods his head, "I'm glad to see you're in one piece-."
"Oh my baby knights!" Clarke cries. "I'm so sorry! Are you both hurt? Where's everyone else?"
Chase and Amur share a look before it's Chase who steps forward.
"Me and Amur were the first to escape. We got separated from Zayn, but she's still alive. I do not have word regarding Ramon nor Amelia, but the rest are…uh…"
Clarke blinks away tears, looking dejectedly at Jeremiah who's holding his hands behind his back, clenching his finger together and softly banging his wrist together, causing the black metal chains to clank.
Lia looks away, not knowing what to say while the man next to her blandly stares ahead, not seeming affected by the news.
Chase goes to say more, but he surprisingly looks up, pointing to something behind Jeremiah, Clarke, Lia, and the man. They all turn there heads to come face to face with a nine-tail fox, who's whining in pain, keeping its head down.
"I-I-is that a cursed demon?!" It's Lia who screams, eyeing the injured fox, "I've only seen this one in story books! Who's strong enough to summon a nine-tail fox-."
Suddenly, the fox opens his mouth, dropping its jaw to the floor to reveal a bloodied, tired and passed out Ramon to roll off its tongue and on the ground.
"Knew it," Amur mutters, her blue eyes looking away, "color me surprised."
Clarke yelps, rushing over to the girl and using her knight robe to cover the passed-out girls shoulders. Clarke looks up, meeting eyes with Jeremiah, who meets eyes with Clarke and Amur.
"Where is Zayn?" Jeremiah asked. Chase opens his mouth to respond, but he cuts himself off, staring at the sky with wide, horrified eyes.
"Probably wherever that light came from," Chase said, pointing towards the bright light from far away, a hall of white light shoots up to the clouds, while a gold light circles the beam like a halo. "That's where she is, Captain."