The Sketch: The Voyage of Soal

"Know Your Enemy, Know Yourself"

Despite not knowing where Shadow Hand was, the three supposed idiots chased around the Dark Hand swarm, even though they were much faster than they were, and they were still attacking Flameberg and the kiwis. It was at that time that a group of Dark Hands pushed down the Archer's Overpass, the bridge in the middle where Anter was situated, and some more destroyed the left side, exposing the Sword Hall. Many kiwis were inside, but thankfully many of the last Dark Soldiers were too. "No!" Soal shouted, knowing he was the one responsible for all these deaths. But Soal remembered Porter's words... Know your enemy, know yourself, and you shall not fear the outcome of thousand battles...

Then, when Porter and Retna had found Shadow Hand lurking deep inside the cloud, Soal chased after it, away from his friends. His Interloper powers tingled on his back, and he bounded up high onto a Dark Hand near the outside of the colossal sphere. Its black ridges attempted to shake him off, but the Un-Character had excellent balance. The hand just ignored him instead, as Soal rode him to another hand, and another, until he reached the inside of the sphere- It was more like a room layout, the hollow insides of a giant ball, a platform inside made of flattened Dark Hands, Shadow Hand hovering by himself above it. It looked inviting, as though Shadow Hand was just waiting for him to come inside and fight him, like that glove was the obvious winner. But as the spherical cloud caused more damage to the landscape, Shadow Hand held out his palm to say 'stop' to his minions. Then the whole cloud halted, causing Soal a good jolt that nearly knocked him off. The swarm was hovering, stationary above the flat valley, and the Un-Character was still climbing into the structure of hands, finally making it to the platform. The hands beneath him trembled under the presence of the Pure Light sword, but they could not escape, for they had to endure that fate- the punishment of being a floor for all eternity. Shadow Hand turned to Soal and snapped his fingers.

Know your enemy, know yourself, know your enemy, know yourself... but I know myself! Soal tried to hide his panic, as Shadow Hand was the first, and most powerful so far, monster he had met in the Great Sea- and now it was their final showdown. Soal knew he could at least injure this glove as before, but he knew that if he got away without being hit by the Pure Light sword, this war could be a lot longer. Soal sighed, and then roared with anger as Shadow Hand slowly floated towards him.

Soal scowled, and Shadow Hand clenched a fist, and the two just stayed there without moving for a moment that seemed like eternity. The tension was intolerable, and Soal struggled to think, but then Shadow Hand charged forward with amazing speed and knocked over Soal, into the floor of hands. That had really hurt! Looking at his arms, they now had a large scar on both of them, caused by certain fingers of the glove that were more forceful than others. This just made Soal more angry, and made him remember Retna's battle training, too. Because he had such bad memories on earth, his attacks with the sword were extremely ruthless, and had dealt more damage than Moth had used with that sword. If Moth could do this, then so could he. But then he remembered that Moth didn't fight Shadow Hand or his army, which made Soal tremble once more.

As Shadow Hand quickly floated back into their dim arena, Soal was ready as he ever was to strike back, and so was that black glove. When it lunged at him to grab and squeeze, Soal, who was faster than a leopard, drew the Pure Light sword and swished it at his enemy, who was surprised and flew backward, just barely avoiding the attack. Shadow Hand didn't dare go near the Pure Light sword, so Soal used it to taunt him. By now. he was holding two swords- the broken Sickle, and the irregularly shaped blade that he had just pulled out of the sheath. Now his swords were his shield, and he needed to use both of them to expose the beast.

Now, though, Shadow Hand was bravely edging near the Un-Character, staying clear of the swords though. By now, not even Soal was fast enough for it, as the mighty shadow grabbed him and wouldn't let go. As it squeezed, he began to choke. Know your enemy, know yourself wasn't working anymore. So I guess it'll end where it started, he thought. The hand started to carry him high into the sky above the valley, out of the Dark Hand swarm.

Soon, it was tossing him about onto other Dark Hands, and more squeezing ensued. There was nothing anyone could do; and there was nothing Shadow Hand could do either. For Soal's strength, and his Interloper powers, rendered him immune to this kind of choking, and so for about ten minutes a majority of the Dark Hand swarm destroyed Flameberg as several were throwing the Un-Character about, above the valley. A small squad of kiwis and a Voltale was seen running down into the rocky plains to the east (where Soal was), but no attention was paid to them.

As Shadow Hand and some others set up a sort of ball game, with Soal as the ball, much crashing and yelling was heard; Soal knew that kind of devoted shouting could only come from the mandibles of Porter. Looking down when he could, he saw the battalion of kiwis and Porter himself, away from the kiwi army that was running away towards the crumbling Flameberg. And it did end just as it had begun after all; because the hands stopped moving and there was an eerie silence. Below them, something fiery and red was moving towards Shadow Hand. Then Soal could remember no more.

Shadow Hand looked down in fright, and suddenly let go of his grasp on Soal. Then his body fell, and fell it did into the group of kiwis. There was a splat and the Un-Character landed a very hard landing on the smooth, rocky ground. In the sky, many Dark Hands shuddered and every single one gathered to form the sphere around Shadow Hand once more- but they were not fast enough for the kiwis, and the entire army at that, to see a sight.

Shadow Hand had been hit by Retna's flaming dragon from her dragon crossbow, and was burning in the fire that he could not escape from. Writhing and trying to shake it off in the sky, it was of no use. Gradually, the entire black glove burnt away, the evil fabric from which it was built not enough to protect it from its sworn enemy, fire. Then its true self was revealed... a tiny, floating cloud of ash and soot. Seconds after it was exposed, the spherical swarm of Dark Hands reformed around it and carried it away, faster than believed possible, into the heavens and out of vision.

The battle for Flameberg was over, and the army of kiwis cheered in gratitude for Porter and Retna, as well as their fellow soldiers who killed off the Dark Soldiers, and, of course, for the Un-Character. But he was not there to rejoice with them.