Excalibur Rising

Let the battle begin

Chapter  19

Each step closer to the enemy saw Xandria getting paler and paler.  She could see them, not as individuals but as one great big undulating mass of evil and darkness that made her feel sick to the bone. Her mum sensed her distress and grasped her hand and squeezed it before letting go. Xandria’s lips smiled faintly at the comfort before she gagged and twitched her nose from side to side, the very scent of evil cloying all of her senses. Xenia stared at her daughter and did the only thing she could in this situation and patted her on her back and offered a few words of comfort before turning her attention the disaster awaiting them. They both set their faces into identical looks of determination and fierceness as they faced their long awaited foe.

Step by step the distance between them was getting smaller and smaller. When there was a mere ten feet between them everyone paused. Even the enemy had frozen.  The vessels wearing torn and soiled clothing like they had already been to battle before this one had even began  They eyed the camouflage clad group with distaste as they growled in protest but it was like some silent agreement, a still before the deadly storm they were about to unleash.

Each person besides Xandria, was startled to see a familiar face standing opposite them, their friends and frenemies standing before them with their lips curled into a snarl as drool leaked from the corner of their lips. Their blackened eyes stared at them unfocused but completely savage; the dark circles around the black orbs giving them a feral appearance.

Both sides stood there, bodies tensed just waiting. The tension was so thick that it was difficult for them to breath, each person’s chest barely managing the rise and fall that was necessary for survival. A flash of light blinded everyone for a moment as the heavens rumbled in rage and anger. As the first drop of rain fell from the blackened clouds, every eye followed its path to the floor. Silence reigned for a moment, not every a thump of a heartbeat could be heard and then quite literally all hell broke loose.

With a mighty battle cry each side broke formation and charged at one another. It was like something out of a movie, everything pausing momentarily a moment before bodies collided against bodies, the slap and thud of flesh hitting flesh coming from every direction before cries of pain as people became wounded. In less than a minute over 30 people were lying dead on the floor.

Magpie and Xenia were the first to get separated from the group, the two of them back to back as they face their twelve opponents snarling and growling as they circled their prey.

“You ready Xen?” Magpie questioned pulling out her blades and holding them readily at her sides. She was already feeling the high of battle, and her confidence was higher than it had been to begin with as they had already taken down a vast majority of the other side without gaining any casualties.

“Whenever you are,” Xenia shook her wrists before rotating them so that her blades swept through the air artfully.

Both of them were completely focused on the beast around them but they could sense each other in an inexplicable way and no sooner had they thought it, the two of them were lunging at the enemy, their blades flying through the air cutting ribbons of red through the nearest bodies. The next minute was non-stop chaos, swords clanging against swords, grunts and cries of pain as the wounded gained back some of their true selves before being released into oblivion as their life blood gushed from their bodies. What startled the duo was the fact that every time they cut someone down, it was like the potency of the darkness became stronger in all of the others that advanced on them. The spirit of evil itself one sentient being that had been spread through the masses and as one vessel died the concentration of evil in another vessel became larger. It made everything that much harder as they fought to keep their lives.