There he lie.  Li was battered and beaten.  Barely alive from last nights
confrontation with the evil being.  The wandering Prophet was what he was called
by.  But Li was not thinking about that right now.  He couldn’t move, couldn’t even concentrate.  It was almost like he on the outside of his body looking in.  He knew he was there.  He knew he had to go.  But there was nothing he could do about it.  He was in a daze.  An almost limbo like state. He couldn’t even tell if he was conscious.  But he didn’t think so, otherwise he would be able to move or at least control his thoughts.

    Li was unable to do anything while images passed through his mind.  Flashes
of images from his life.  His mother, sisters, Meilin, Sakura, and everyone else
who has played a part in Li’s life.  Li thought about all the people he would let down if this wind could not be stopped.  Then abruptly the images stopped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Sakura was worried.  Li didn’t call her last night when he was supposed to.  She even called Li’s house and know one answered.  It was 7 o’clock in the morning now, and Sakura hadn’t slept a wink all night.  She was a wreck.  Sakura couldn’t handle in anymore.  She was going to go look for Li.

    She approached the door when her father stopped her.  "Sakura where do you
think you are going young lady.  It’s only 7 o’clock.  And look at the rain out there.  It’s horrible."

    "I know dad, but I have to go.  Li is out there some where I can feel it. He’s Hurt dad!"  Sakura eyes start to water.  "I am going to go and find him.  I don’t care how early it is!"  By this time Tears were streaming freely down Sakura’s cheeks.   "Weather is of no importance to me!  I don’t care about me.  He is out there in the rain too.  I am going to find him good bye dad." Sakura was crying so hard she could barely talk.

    "Sakura I know that you care for Li, a lot but..."  Sakura cut him off right
there.  "No dad I LOVE him and I would do anything for him."

    "Sakura...hmmm.  Please be careful my child.  Go now, before i change my
mind."

    "Thank you dad, and good bye." And with that said Sakura went out the door
and into the rain, in search of her precious Li.

    She had looked for about an hour when Sakura had noticed something.  Where
were all the people?  People would still be outside going to work and what not.
For all they knew this was only rain.  But she put this thought out of her mind
for now.  Li was more important, so she set off in search again.

    Sakura was starting to tire of walking and jogging around so she brought out
the key of clow.  No one is around right?  So she might as well.  She would
cover a lot more distance in a shorter amount of time right?  So she cast the
fly card and started to scan the town looking for any sign of Li.

    After looking for about 10 minutes she spotted him.  There he was.  Lying on
the ground with his back against a wall.  A pool of blood was under the warriors
body.  Sakura started to fly as fast as she could.  Li needed help now.

    When she finely got to him she examined his body.  "Oh my god!  Li, look at
you.  Oh my Li what has happened to you.  I need to get you home now.  Oh Li,
please be alright!  Please stay alive!"  Sakura was crying her eyes out hoping
that Li wasn’t dead.  She couldn’t here any breath from his lungs, but his heart was still beating.  Sakura needed that hope.

    A mysterious figure appeared.  She was wearing an all black trench coat.
Something seemed to be concealed on the inside of it but Sakura couldn’t seem to make it out.  She began to speak.  "Hello Sakura.  How are we today.  Oh what’s that.  Is our precious little wolf hurt?  I wonder who could have done that to such a skilled warrior?  Oh wait maybe it was my superior, the wandering prophet.  Ha ha ha."  A menacing laugh emitted from her mouth.

   "The Wandering Prophet did this to my Li?  And you are his underling.  Then
I will destroy you.  I will take revenge for you people hurting my Li."  Sakura
stood up from her kneeling position beside Li.  She brought her Wand out in
front in a protective stance.

    "Oh and Sakura, I am not much of a magic person so I’ll take your cards for this battle.  Ha ha ha."  She raised her hand and all the card in Sakura’s pocket floated out and into the warriors hand.  All but the Sword card.

    Sakura didn’t hesitate.  She used the sword card and took an attack stance and waited for the mysterious warrior to make a move.

    "My name is Ryong.  I am a warrior of the sword."  At that moment She removed her trench coat to reveal a sword and sheath hanging from her battle
outfit.  Sakura could tell that she was a great warrior.  Her chiseled muscles gave that a way from the beginning.

    Both of the fighters stood there staring there opponent down.  Sizing each
other up, and waiting for the other to attack.  Sakura knew she didn’t have time to waste.  She had to help Li.  Sakura made the first move.  She really need to get this fight over with.  There was no telling how long Li, would last in his condition.

    Sakura jumped at Ryong at sliced at her neck trying to go for a quick and
easy kill.  she should have none better.  A fighter of Ryong’s caliber was able to deflect the blow with her own sword easily.  Ryong brought her sword down in an arc at Sakura’s head.  But Sakura had one thing over Ryong. She had the advantage of speed.  Being the smaller of the two she could naturally move quicker.  Sakura dodged the sword with a graceful roll toward Ryong’s feet.  She attacked at the knee of Ryong but Ryong saw this coming and Jumped over Sakura’s blade and on the way down produced a counter attack of her own.

    Sakura brought her sword up in defense just in time to stop the sword from
impaling her.  But Ryong’s attack didn’t stop there.  She Jumped back a few feet and charged Sakura.  Swinging when within reach.  Sakura telegraphed this move and easily parried the attack.  Sakura spun to her right and slashed at Ryong’s abdomen.  Ryong just barely dodged this attack. Sakura’s sword came so close to cutting her it slashed her battle suit.

    Ryong gained her balance quickly and tried to attack Sakura but once again
she spun to evade Ryong’s blade.  Ryong was ready this time.  She had anticipated that Sakura would try to spin to get closer to her again.  Ryong kick Sakura in the gut with one of her huge boots.

    This glancing blow was enough to send Sakura sprawling to the ground in pain.  Sakura knew she had made a great folly but letting her guard down.  The blade of Ryong Came down at Sakura in a wicked arc.  Sakura tried to roll out of the way but the sword still caught her in her left  shoulder.

    "Ahhhhhh!" Sakura screamed as blood started to stream down her shoulder and
onto her arm.  She knew that this would greatly affect her ability to sword fight.  She was right handed though so she could still go on. It would be harder to swing her sword but she would manage.  She would do it for Li.

          "Well Sakura, I must admit you are a lot more skilled in the ways of battle than I anticipated.  But you are no match for me.  Even when you had two good shoulders you stood no chance against me.  Ha ha ha.  Just give up and let me kill you."

    "Never!  I will destroy you for what your people did to my Li!"  Sakura ran
towards Ryong her sword held in her hand.  She took a swipe at her as soon as
she was close enough. Ryong just knocked the sword aside with her sword.  This
left Sakura open.  Ryong took advantage of the situation with a swift boot to
the abdomen once again.  But Sakura learned her lesson and did not go down.  She
backed away from Ryong and tried to recover for a few precious moments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Li’s self-conscious started talking to him.  Li, I know you can here me Li.  Sakura needs your help, Li.  You must help Sakura, Li.
   "What!? Is Sakura in trouble!?  Oh no.  But what can i do to help her in this state.  I can’t even regain consciousness.  I can’t do anything to protect her this time."

    Li, I’m ashamed of you.  How could you give up on your love like that. You have no right to wield the sword or the power that you carry.  You are a pathetic waste of talent.

    "You don’t understand.  I want to help Sakura more then anything on this earth.  I would protect her with my life.  But how am I to do that when I am unconscious."

    Li you must believe in yourself.  You must believe and you must concentrate.
Then it will all become clear to you. The voice started to trail off.  It will all become clear to you...  It repeated this over and over fainter each time until the voice was gone completely.  And Li was alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Sakura was beginning to tire from the sword fight.  She was no seasoned fighter like Ryong was.  Her body was beginning to ach every where.  All her muscles hurt, but some how she must keep going.  The moves where like routine now.  Feign, parry, dodge, attack, parry, dodge.  It was all like one huge pattern.

    Ryong never slowed her attacks.  each becoming closer and closer to
Sakura’s body.  Ryong knew it was only a matter of time until she got a
clean open shot.  Ryong brought her sword down in a deadly ark.  Sakura
couldn’t get completely out of the attacks way and it grazed her cheek.
Ryong stepped back to watch Sakura’s reactions to the new wound she had
suffered.

    Blood trickled off of Sakura’s face.  She looked down to wipe the blood off of her cheek.  She then caught site of Li, lying behind Ryong, unconscious and still not appearing to be breathing.

    Something inside of Sakura sparked.  She looked at the blood that came
flowing from her cheek.  She looked up at Ryong slowly.  Then She smiled.  A
wicked Smile.  Ryong didn’t know what to think of this.  Mostly she was
surprised.  It almost scared her.  She took a step back to examine Sakura again
to make sure that it was really a smile that she saw.   It was.

    The situation took an abrupt turn from there.  Sakura drove her sword into
the ground and raised her hands above her head.  She started chanting ancient
invocations that not even she understood.  Sakura began to float off the ground
and her body went aflame.  She pulled her sword out of the ground and flew
toward Ryong with blinding speed.

    "What the hell!  This must be the girl’s innate abilities.  Ahh" Ryong barely dodged Sakura’s first attack.  Sakura’s new found power made her incredibly fast.  She attacked Ryong again right after her first attack not giving her any time to recover.  This attack didn’t miss.  Sakura sword sliced into the soft flesh of Ryong’s side.  "AHHHHHH" Ryong screamed out in pain.  She didn’t have time to scream long because Sakura was starting another attack.

    Ryong back flipped to dodge Sakura’s swing.  Sakura came right in at her again.  This time Ryong back flipped onto a wall and pushed off the wall to propel herself toward Sakura.  Sakura was not expecting this and suffered a glancing blow to her head via Ryong’s boot.

    Sakura’s power ended abruptly.  It quit just as fast as it had come. Ryong now walked up to Sakura knowing that she was finished.

    "That was a neat little trick there, Sakura.  You really gave me a workout
back there.  I’ll admit it, I was even starting to get scared.  But you didn’t stand a chance."  Ryong put her sword up to Sakura’s neck.

    "And now my pretty little cherry blossom, I’m afraid you die."  Sakura
waited for Ryong to drive the sword home into her neck.  She turned her head so
that she may see Li.  So that her love may be the last thing she sees before she
is killed.  She looked over but Li was no where.  Just a pool of blood where Li
had been lying.  She turned her head just in time to see Li stabbing Ryong in
the back.

    Ryong fell to the ground beside Sakura.  Li battered and beaten nearly to
death collapsed into Sakura’s arms.  She held him for a while just whispering in his ear that everything would be ok.  She went over and got her clow cards out of the pockets of Ryong now lying dead on the ground.
    She smiled that even though Li had been beaten and broken many bones he
somehow conjured up the strength to kill Ryong.

    Sakura cast the fly card and put Li on her wand.  She got on and held him
close on the way home.  Li would be unconscious for a while Sakura could tell.
"This Wandering Prophet must be extremely powerful to be able to take Li down
and beat him as bad as he did" She thought to herself.  As she flew toward the
Avalon home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A person was laughing.  It was an evil laugh.  It was so disgusting.  This
man had watched the battle from the top of a near by building. "Ha ha ha.  To
think that Sakura defeated Ryong with out the help of her cards is quit amusing.
Maybe there is some hope for those two.  Li was quite remarkable also.  To be
able to walk and to kill someone in his condition was miraculous.  I was highly
impressed.  And to think that Sakura was able to release her innate power this
early in her life is quite interesting.  I will be watching those two.  Ha ha
ha."
 
 

    wow I had a lot of fun writing that chapter.  I am really enjoying writing
this fan fic but not very many of you guys are responding about it.
what’s up with that.  i need to know what you guys think.  my email is
neomagus15@aol.com   I use aim to and my screen name is neomagus15
and i am on yahoo chat 2.  and once again my name is neomagus15
so please let me know