Tale of the Twilight Warriors

Chapter 8~ Part two, The battle with the Green Soul.

The arrow nicked Shadow and Gabriels ears', somehow they were perfectly aligned for a double headshot. "Shit.. I missed again, what's up with me today.. no matter.." He walked into the room along with them, "Let the game, begin!" he yelled as he drew a hammer made of air, "be crushed by the might of my soul!." He cried out, waving his left hand the air around the room seemed to start whirling at a maddening rate, the fight had begun. The water from the pool floated around in the tornado as they fought, Shadow dodged two quick hammer swings, it seemed the hunter had no trouble recovering quickly. But as he dodged the second, the hunter waved his off hand and a wall of air rushed out of it slamming Shadow up against a wall, holding him down as the wind slowly ground the back of his armor against the wall then it started tearing at his flesh as he was whipped around the room violently. X kicked the hunter in the chest, Gabriel drew his newly found Aurora blade and cut the hunters calf, "bahahahah, you expect petty cuts like this to destroy me?.. funny.." He then drifted to the ground, Shadow flipped his body and smashed his face off a column, but his rage was far superiour to the pain he was experiencing, he moved his knee out stuck his old katana into the wall it grinded loudly as it tore it apart. Tearing at his soul, he felt the water of the pool regenerating him quickly, but it seemed that the other water drained him equally as fast. He kicked off the wall and got back into the gravitational force of the tornados pull, the hunter rapidly cast several wind spells, sending razor sharp winds after walls of force into Gabriel, then X. Ultimatly forcing them into the same position Shadow was forced into, being violently smashed off the wall at high speeds.

However, X quickly recovered and ran with the wind, it seemed impossibly to maintain her balance running sideways on a wall but the outgoing force of the wind held her perfectly still, Gabriel just bounced a few times, put his shield up and used it as a surface to kick off of.

The hunter vanished like the wind, he re-appeared infront of X swiftly bringing his hammer into her stomach, she choked and gasped for air.

"You leave her alone!" Gabriel bellowed loudly enough for the entire room to go silent, paired not only with a swift kick to the hunters throat but a cut so deep into his stomach that his innards should have fallen out, but instead he faded away.

Re-appearing near Shadow, who had drawn his other Katana and prepared to make an attempt at Duel weilding, his hammer clashed with Shadows offhand Katana, but Shadow swiftly brought his main Katana down on the hunters shoulder.

Once again, the hunter faded away, like the wind does, re-appearing behind Gabriel smashing his hammer into the back of Gabriels head sending him half concious, and woozy into the swirling tornado.

"Gabriel!" X and Shadow cried out, they both stopped running, grinded their blades into the walls until they were at a standstill, perfectly parallel from eachother, Gabriel floated by for a moment, regained his senses and he too stopped his movement.

"hmm.." The hunter started to ponder, then he laughed again like a madman, "Ha AHaha Ahahahahahaa.." He started to blink, vanish, re-appear, vanish, swiftly laying several quick strikes on each of them, "Shadow, Gabriel, to the center!" X cried out. They all dove out making an attempt to hit the small eye of the storm, plung downwards and drink from the pool, they punged down blades out, Gabriels Helix blades' edge caught the hunters shoulder. Blood shot out from it, as he cried in agony for just a second, then he returned to his malicious gameplay. X swiftly drank from the pool fully healing herself, then dived out again. When the hunter targeted her, she put away her duel longswords, drew her busterblade, kicked off the wall and spun around in a circle with it. The blade connected with his ankle, ripping straight through it.

"Arghh.." He cried out in agony.

"Guys, it's not that he's not there, he's moving so quickly that our image of him is faded, shrouded just like this whole place, remember what the Guardian said.." X yelled, she sheathed her buster blade and drew Pheonix, "Everything is not always as it seems." X closed her eyes and waited, waited for the sound of an arrow, or the hammer the hunter held to cut the air.

Shadow had already dranken the water and was back into the fight, Gabriel stood there for a second watching X as she stood still, awaiting the mans strike. She timed it perfectly, he appeared around a foot above her, making an attempt to bring the hammer down apon her skull, she stabbed upwards in a diagonal motion to the right, Pheonix cut through him easily, like butter, she swung her blade smashing him against the wall. Shadow noticed him evaporate into the Tornado, then he started running around the walls building up a tremendous amount of speed, "I am the Desert Hunter, Last of my kind, I will not fail to such feeble warriors, you are not even one with the winds." He sounded insane, in his tone and he appeared it in his irrational actions. Finally, at the end of his run he dove off the wall and smashed Gabriel in the chest with his hammer sending him flying against the wall. Somehow Gabriel recovered the second he hit it though, and Shadow caught the Hunter in the back plunging down apon him, he jammed both of his Katanas through the hunters thighs, pinning him to the ground. The finishing blow, came from Gabriel who kicked off the wall and lunged his Helix blade through the mans Chest, not even two inches away from Shadows' face did the tip reside.

X kicked him away from the pool of water, the man spat blood, chuckled, "It seems... you have won the game..." he could hardly bleed, as the junction between his lungs was just partially severed.

"It seems, you are worthy of the deserts Grace.. I will now ask it, to calm itself, as my last dying wish..."

The tornado in the room faded away, the water dropped back into place.. as the light faded from the hunters eyes, he smiled "I had finally, been bested.."

"Huff.." Shadows' lungs hurt from the beating he had recieved, the same thing with X and Gabriel they were panting.

"That was a good fight.." X proclaimed.

"I agree, such a tricky little shit too" Gabriel laughed, they all sat down next to the center pool, took a drink and lay on the ground staring up to the celing. They haden't noticed it before, but the only reason they couldn't see the light peering through the glass celing was because the storm above, had darkened their perception.

They stayed on the ground for a while, pondering, Gabriel holding X's hand, Shadow sort of let out a half hearted laugh, "He was awefully fast, I can't imagine actually fighting him... like we did Thaddious.." Gabriel simply nodded his head, "Oh yea why are we here again?" Gabriel asked.

"I dunno, want to use these two types of water to strenghten our souls?" Shadow looked at Gabriel, they let out a hardy laugh.

"But, that's why we're here anyways" X chuckled.

"We know.." Gabriel Smiled, X finally let out a real laugh, Gabriel found it adorable.

They sat up, looked at the room that they had just put to shambles, "Well, lets start!."