Chapter 12
Pisces
Nisemeisho, Thom, and Kitra all rushed forward, their weapons being short ranged. Skan, Deric, Tad and Teron remained behind, unholstering their guns and bow.
Nisemeisho was the first to act. With a running start, he leaped onto his hand, the other tightly gripping his naginata. Without a second's paused, he leaped off his hand high into the air. Then, naginata first, dove into Ixtchil like a hawk.
Fast as he was, Ixtchil was faster. He swatted Nisemeisho out of the air with an almost casual backhand swipe of the scythe. Nisemeisho flew ten feet, slamming into the mirror, so hard that he bounced back five. The mirror shattered where he hit, and cracks ran through the rest of it, threatning to fall with the slightest pressure. But he got up to his feet, however slowly.
Ixtchil lifted his arms, pointed them at Kitra. The spikes streaked toward her, slashing through where she stood a moment ago. But in a blur, she had rolled under the venomous spikes and brought her sword up an arc. It oepened up a gash along Ixtchil's side, though small enough to be called nothing more than a scratch.
Deric brought up an arrow and fired it at Ixtchil. Before it struck, he fired another, and as it struck, a third. Despite the well placed arrows, all side by side, the demon didn't break stride in the slightest.
An Archaic Demon lunged at Tad. The demon had small, stunted, unusable red wings, a cream colored skin, huge jaws that took up half of its face, and red hands and feet that both ended in claws instead of fingers and toes. It swiped at Tad's head, but Tad ducked and sidestepped smoothly. He brought up the gun, pointed at the demon's head, but before he could fire, the demon knocked the gun away with a swipe. The backhand caught Tad in the chest. Tad staggered back, clutching at the three bloody stripes in his vest and shirt.
When Tad went down, Teron opened fire against the demon. Bullets from twin pistols rained on the demon's skin as it took slow, pain filled steps towards Teron. Teron bravely held his ground. Meanwhile, Tad rolled to his gun, brought it up as he stood, and fired at the demon's back. Wounded, it whirled to face Tad. Teron lunged at the demon with his gunblade, dropping a pistol to reach in his vest, pulling it out. The long blade plunged into the demon's back.Teron leaped away as Tad fired his third blast, at the demon, this time blowing it's body from it's legs.
Thom was driven back and fought back to back with Skan. Skan had given up his gythka for the whips, the comfortable red leather being gripped tight enough for Skan's knuckles to crack. Skan yelled wordlessly as a demon attacked him. Thom left Skan's back to join Skan's side. His spear caught the demon in the side, barely fazing it. It still rushed at Skan. Skan sidestepped and tripped it. As the demon hit the ground, Skan lashed out with his whips. They caught the demon around the neck, wrapping and holding it fast. Skan put his foot on the Archaic Demon's back and tugged tighly on one of his whips. The demon's neck twisted unnaturally, creating sick crunching sound. Skan had broken the neck. Thom may or may not have noticed, but he plunged his spear into the back of the demon's neck anyway.
Ixtchil turned smoothly from Kitra's slash, knocking her aside as he did. He folded his arms against his opposite shoulders, then pointed them at Tad and Teron. "Here's a drop of evil!!" he roared.
Skan didn't see anything happen, but suddenly, Thom and Tad fell to their hands and knees, turned a sickly shade of green, retching over and over, and when nothing came out, they heaved emptily. Finally, after a good deal of their convulsing, they lapsed into unconsiousness.
Nisemeisho shook himself, then came up from behind a demon. His clawed hand gripped it's neck as his naginata plunged into it's spine. It shuddered, and tried to turn around, but couldn't; it was paraliyzed. Deric took this opportunity to fire two arrows, almost simotaneously, both of them plunging deep into the demon's eyes. It shuddered again and fell limp in Nisemeisho's hands.
Ixtchil acted again in another attack of evil. He spun around to face Nisemeisho and Deric and didn't pause at all before plunging his scythe into the ground. "Say goodbye to your souls!!"
Black lines sprung from the ground. They shot high into the air, all seeming at random, all around Deric and Nisemeisho. Black dots filled the air between all of the lines, becoming denser, and when they were dense enough to block the vision, they exploded. Unlike the white explosion that blinded Skan earlier, this one was pure black, darker than Skan had ever seen, darker than midnight. Nisemeisho and Deric were both caught up in it, and thrown several feet, bloodied and broken. Skan had no doubt that they were both dead, but they still moved, if weakly, when hitting the ground.
Ixtchil wasted no time. As soon as his scythe left the ground, he pounced at Deric's unconsious body. A scythe arm lifted high, ready to strike, and Skan's crimson whip wrapped around it, pulled it back. However, it didn't stop it from striking, though did pull it from the vital areas. The scythe plunged into Deric's leg. Skan was proven wrong, Deric wasn't unconcious, when he roared in pain.
Ixtchil rounded on Skan, angered at having such a score miss. But he laughed when he saw Kitra and Thom jump to Skan's side, Skan holding his whips in front of him with a grim look on his face. He was ready to fight, and ready to die.
Ixtchil barked an evil laugh. "Three left. Who will survive? None, but especially not you Skan! I want you to feel pain like none other have!! What would hurt you more? Killing you in front of your friends, or killing them in front of you??"
The Pisces Demon gave Skan no time to answer. He fired a poison sting at Skan, who was too slow to dodge it. Very fortunately, Thom swung his spear, clipping Skan's heels with the butt of it. Skan fell, and the spike flew harmlessly over him.
Thom left no time for though, with a roar, he leaped at Ixtchil, who knocked him away with a slash of the scythe. Thom jumped back, barely avoiding being cut, but was knocked unbalanced, hitting the ground hard.
Kitra held up her Ken 'Oh, pointed at Ixtchil. It pulsed red several times. Then she opened her fist, and from her palm blasted a blazing hot fireball. She shot her other hand out and opened her palm, and another fireball followed the first, a second behind. She put her hands together, and the Ken 'Oh pulsed red once more, then two fireballs spewed out, crisscrossing, right behind her first two fireballs. They all connected solidly.
Ixtchil screamed, no longer in indignation or annoyance, but for once in sheer pain. He turned slowly to face Kitra, and just before he could bring up his scythe hands, Thom managed to get up and skewer Ixtchil from the back of the chest. The spear point, now green with the demon's blood, protruded and was pushed a foot or more before the Pisces Demon reacted. He twitched violently, and the spear was torn from Thom's hands.
Skan, now a bit cocky at seeing so much damage to Ixtchil being delt, lept at him, whips swinging. But the monster, tired of being damaged so much, swiped at Skan with a horizontal slash of the scythe.
Skan flew back several feet, and slid across the ground. He almost retched, fingering the gash along his belly. Had that been an inch deeper...
Skan didn't want to think about it. He got up as quickly as he could, while Ixtchil raised his left arm preparing to shoot Thom, who was wide eyed in fear, and on his back. Skan's gythka flew true, completly slicing off that arm.
The scream Ixtchil made dwarfed all the others. He whirled about to face Skan, snarling. "Die, Skan, DIE!!!!" he roared, and a poison spike spun through the air. Skan twisted to avoid being hit, but it sunk deep into Skan's shoulder.
With a strangled cry and a gasp of immense pain as the poisons flooded through him, Skan hit the ground hard, the wind being knocked out of him. He hardly noticed.
Thom made several unsuccesful attempts to pull his spear free. Kitra fired a green bolt, striking Ixtchil. It did absolutely zero damage, but did the distraction Thom needed. With a powerful tug, the spear slid free. Ixtchil stared down at the crouching Thom, ready to deal a final blow.
But Kitra fired another bolt, but this time, an extremely thick and powerful bult of lightning. It hit the unprepared Ixtchil directly in the back. He frozed, unable to do anything but twitch violently as the electricity shot through his body in blue arcs. He was also helpless for Thom's spear.
It was a lethal blow. Thom thrust it up through the demon's neck, and it popped out the top if Ixtchil's head with a sick sound. The demon lurched, then roared,
"THEY'RE ONLY HUMANS!! HOW COULD I LOSE!? I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOST TO THIS SCUUUUUUM!!"
An explosion roared from Ixtchil, from inside of him where Skan knew the Zodiac Stone was. The demon was ripped apart. The explosion also picked Thom up and threw him several yards.
Skan's last sight, after seeing Thom thud hard into the wall, and Kitra throw up her hands to protect her eyes, was the Zodiac Stone hanging motionless in the air, and the deep groan of the Lucavi being killed.
Then, darkness....
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