Mark of the Ranger

LIII. Lion and Jeff Fight Hard

          I wiped away my tears and forced myself not to look at Ko's melting corpse. "We don't have time to be sad," I said to myself. I recalled what I had seen in the dream--Elena had fought the geovore, Karen and David had gone against the man in armor, whom I assumed was Reginald, and since Jeff and I turned to stone, we probably fought the naga. I spoke to my crew the exact thing that I had recalled: "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,"I rambled, and my friends shot away.

          Jeff just chuckled. "When was the last time we ever used these?" He gestured to our weapons, which had been taken away from us, been useless, or just flat-out not been appropriate for the situation. Now, none of those things applied, so I could draw my lances. With a satisfying shing, my arms were now extended by my weapons. I looked at the naga and tried to start a conversation as Jeff drew his hammer, stepping up next to me.

          "So," I began to ask it, and it turned to me. "Is your name E or Kerigato?" The naga snarled. It had the ugliest face I had ever seen, almost enough to pull me from the sadness of mortal doom, which I knew from my dream was imminent. It seemed to not be a human face, or a snake face, but rather, a badly chiseled rock that someone put glowing green eyes on. Everything evil glowed. As it wasn't a gorgon, its looks couldn't turn us to stone, but one sting from the freakishly long talons on each finger could petrify a whole limb. Instead of legs, he had a snake trunk. 

          I was thinking about our certain doom when something occurred to me. Well, in my dream, Ko's body was solid, but in reality, it's been melted, I thought to myself. Perhaps we could have the ability to change reality more than that. Knowing that I at least had hope, Jeff and I drew closer to the naga. Jeff glared menacingly at the beast, and the naga glared menacingly back. Jeff raised his hammer and whacked the naga right in the head. 

          The naga must not have been expecting that, for it hissed in surprise. "My name is E," it finally answered, "and the whole of the universe is against you." The whole universe? That couldn't be possible. It was within the realms of imagination if half the universe was against us, but the whole universe? Not even close. I expressed my doubts by attempting to strike the first hit in the duel. E dodged it gracefully, which was strange if one considered its warped body shape.

          "Did you not hear me, boy?" E asked me furiously, spitting into my face. I swiped it off with my gauntlet, in case the spit was dangerous, too. I nodded my head with a grin, knowing that I was doomed for sure. I jabbed with my left lance, this time hitting its arm. Sparks flew from the point of contact. Interesting, I thought to myself, attempting a few more jabs with my lances. Its almost as if this naga has been partly turned to stone itself. I jabbed with my right lance, this time hitting E in the face. It hissed spastically, then spat some more.

          "Let me hit it this time," Jeff requested, wearing an insane smirk on his face. A strange thing, that: we were doomed, and yet we fought with a smile. Jeff traced his Mark of Strength, something I had neglected to do. I immediately disarmed myself so I could do just that. Once I traced, I looked at my childhood friend. He was leaping at the naga, his hammer raised above his head. He brought it down on E's head, and the head of the hammer broke. Jeff gazed at it in shock, then laughed.

           "DO NOT LAUGH!!" E cried, then, with a single talon, jabbed Jeff in his right arm. Jeff switched hands with the handle of his hammer before his arm was completely petrified. I ran in with my lances, but E quickly dodged the attack and stung me in my right arm. It was a strange feeling: I felt the pain of the sting, but then my arm went completely numb. All its nerves and muscles went completely dead. Knowing that my arm could no longer feel pain, I swung it at E.

          Crack! I heard something crack. I wasn't sure if it was my arm or E's head. I hoped it was his head as I watched Jeff swing his hammer handle, then his stone arm at E. "We will never be stopped!" I declared, jabbing with my left lance and swinging with my right arm, which was extended by my lance. E ducked and stung our arms. I felt the pain, then the numbness. "Curses," I whispered, then repeatedly kicked E with my stone leg while he was close the the ground. Jeff did the same, adding in the hammer handle for good measure.

          E rolled away and tried to slither with his snake trunk, but it was to no avail. His attempt to disable us had only made us better weapons. He chose to take the better option instead, sting us both in the cores.

          It was faster than the blink of an eye. Unbelievable, almost. However, I had to believe it, as I felt the pain of the sting, then the numbness of the stone. I fell to my knee, my numb leg laying behind me, and Jeff did the same. I watched stone creep up his neck, slowly and painfully. I would have sobbed, but stone was beginning to cover my eyes.

           "Strange how we can go from being so jovial," I began.

          "To turning to stone," Jeff finished. "Lion, I..." he broke into a sob, and I knew that he had lost almost all movement, and with it almost all hope of survival. I guesses that my dream was coming true. "...I can't see." I would have nodded had my neck not turned to stone, but Jeff wouldn't have been able to see me anyway. The last thing I saw was David being impaled by that knight over Jeff's shoulder. That was different from my dream, but David was still dead.

          "Well, this is the end," I muttered. "Good--" my lips turned to stone.

          I was dead.