Mark of the Ranger

LI. An Asmerian Fish Fillet

          David watched Lion wipe the tears from his eyes. "We don't have time to be sad," Lion muttered to himself. David silently agreed, then turned to the three new opponents. "What are we going to do?" He asked, to nobody in particular. Lion cleared his throat. "Elena, you go for the geovore. Karen, David, you fight the man in armor. Jeff and I will fight the naga. I know from my dream that this spells certain death, but I don't think I can have a choice." David accepted this as fact. Even if Lion had told him to do otherwise, he would have fought the man in armor--whom he assumed was Reginald.

          Karen ran up to David. The two Outland Rangers looked at each other in determination, then charged Reginald. The armored man unsheathed a sword as tall as Karen and brandished it fiercely. His eyes--which glowed blue from underneath his helm--glared with a look that could turn the naga into stone. "The universe is against you," he uttered, seeming to unnerve Karen. However, she steeled herself and drew her daggers. "I don't care whose side the universe is on," she growled back before tracing her Marks--those of Agility and Strength. David decided to follow her example.

          David also remembered to draw his echo blade. He would have been severely humiliated if he had forgotten that. He leaped and drew his echo blade down in an arc. His blade bounced off without a scratch, and David ended up, lying on his backside on the ground. He groaned in pain as Karen mounted Reginald and began furiously stabbing him. Reginald cried in pain with each stab, and Karen stabbed harder. She obviously was more determined than David was. David chose he would strive to reach that much determination, and stood back up again.

          While Karen was stabbing Reginald in the back, David chose to hack at the front. He was making scratches this time, white marks across the man's breastplate. He increased his determination, swiping and swiping again. However, something occurred to David. Say, he thought, Where is Reginald's sword?" Right on cue, the blade came swiping from the left. Karen tried to cry out, but nothing came out except for "Dav--!" Before its pointy edge swept across David's chest. With a cry of pain that could rival Reginald's, David fell to the ground for the second time. Karen leaped off of the armored adversary's back and ran over to David.

          "Are you okay?" She asked him. David nodded, then pointed at Reginald's swinging arc, which was heading straight for the both of them. Karen turned and held out her daggers in an "X." How's that going to work? David asked himself before he saw it with his own two eyes. The swinging arc met with the two daggers, and the swinging arc stopped right in its tracks. Karen's arms shook violently, but she stopped the blade. Reginald pressed harder, but Karen continued to press back, trying her best to stop David. The certain Asmerian she was protecting scrambled out of the way, then swung his own blade at Reginald.

          The swing made a gash across the armored man's breastplate. Reginald gasped, as if he wasn't expecting his armor to be broken. Karen took this choice to stab right in the gash. Reginald cried out loudly. Dark green liquid began seeping out of the stabbing point, just like the blood that was slowly oozing out of David's chest. Speaking of which, David's chest stung like insanity. He put the thought of that pain away, and raised his blade again. He charged Reginald again, this time aiming for a strike that would be perpendicular to the last one he had made. His plan worked again--all that slicing must have weakened the armor!

           Karen seemed to be waiting for an opportunity, for she didn't leap until David had struck again. She leaped in the air and began to stab along Reginald's arm, which had been raised, ready to swing the blade at David. However, it seemed Karen had other plans. She hovered in the air, putting gravity on hold while she littered Reginald's arm armor with holes, which green liquid seeped out of. Must be his blood, David thought morbidly. Once Karen reached Reginald's shoulder, she stopped the stabbing and spun in midair, making multiple swipes across Reginald's chest and left arm.

           "This is over!" Reginald shouted as his left arm fell off. He somehow, against all laws, disregarded his missing limb and swiped for David. He swiped again and again, not daring to stop. David tried to block with his echo blade, but it was simply knocked out of his hands. He didn't dare retrieve it. He decided to run, but that only earned him a large blade in the center of the chest.

*****

          "WHAT?" Was the only thing Karen could manage. She ran over to David's body. "You're most definitely not okay," Karen ensured, and David could only agree. He opened his mouth, and his speech came in between patterns of choking. "Av...eckkk...enge...cakkkk...meeee..." he muttered as Tears streamed down Karen's face. A few dripped onto David's bleeding breastplate. 

           She stood and turned slowly towards her friend's killer. She pointed a furious dagger. "This is over," Karen growled. "For you." She rolled up her sleeve and did something that no Ranger should ever do: she re-traced her Marks. One, two, three times she swiped the two bright slashed across her forearms, and with each time, her power grew. She leaped for Reginald with blinding speed. Before Reginald could even react, his entire torso was missing from all the times Karen struck him, and Karen was standing behind him, covered in thick green liquid. She wiped across her face, then stomped on Reginald's core, which was lying on the ground.

          "I win," were her last words. She knew it--she had traced her Marks too much. The magic required would turn her core to ash. And she felt herself fade away. Her skin turned a sickly gray before succumbing to the wind. Karen gave up, and hoped that her friends could win.