🌸Lost in Memories🌸

Chapter 9: Moonstruck Blossom

Taranza trembled as he felt the sharp pain rush through his body. Stumbling backwards a bit, he was caught by Magolor and Susie. "Taranza, are you alright?!" He didn't answer and just kept staring at the portal where the attacker now stepped out of the portal. Before them stood a creature similar to Metaknight in white and golden armour with a pink lance in their hand and red eyes. "Y-you're not..." Taranza started, but the mysterious knight just jumped over them onto the middle of the battlefield without saying a single word. No one but Metaknight seemed to recognize him. "Galacta Knight... So we meet again." Metaknight mumbled before looking over to the others. "Make sure Taranza isn't too hurt, I'll take care of this in the meantime." "Uhm... Metaknight? You might want to... check on your opponent..." Magolor said as a single white butterfly with red tips on its wings fluttered down to Galacta Knight and landed on the lance. Right before their eyes, the Knight vanished into dust that gathered around the butterfly and morphing into an entirely new being. Before them stood a red creature that while still resembling Metaknight to a degree had huge butterfly like wings and two red swords. "What the...?! W-what just happened?!" Susie stuttered. In an instant the Knight grabbed his blades and charged at Metaknight. Managing to block every single attack, Metaknight glanced over to Susie, Magolor and Taranza. "The plan stays the same. Help him first, I have this under control." They hesitantly nodded and patched Taranza up with a bit of cooling and webs. He got up right away, seeing how even Metaknight was now struggling with blocking two blades simultaneously and got backed into a corner more and more by the second. Susie jumped into her Mech and charged at the Knight, drawing his attention away from Metaknight. However being unable to block the attacks she almost instantly realized that to have been a mistake as her Mech got damaged horribly in a matter of seconds. Magolor and Taranza quickly joined in by shooting both spheres and webs at the Knight, distracting him long enough for Susie to get out of her Mech and shoot at him as well with her pistol. With the attack power of all three, the Knight jumped back and bumped right into Metaknight, who immediately used the opportunity to slash at him. Unlike last time where Metaknight did at least some damage to his opponent, the morphed knight now blocked every single attack as if he know what he was going to do next. 'He learned my attack pattern already?!' Metaknight thought before getting hit by a sneaky attack the Knight had performed after yet another flawless block. While Metaknight recovered from that, the Knight started floating in the air before vanishing. ". . . ! Watch out!" Magolor pushed his teammates and himself to the ground not one second before the strange fighter appeared above them and sent a shockwave that would've hit them for sure. "He's teleporting around and attacking whenever he appears again. I doubt we'll be able to attack him during that, so let's just lay low for now." Magolor pointed out and the others nodded. Just like he suspected the Knight teleported around the room, sending shockwaves around whenever he did. After a few more missed attacks, he eventually stopped and reappeared. "Now!" Taranza shot multiple webs that held the Knight down as the other three charged at him. The Knight however effortlessly cut apart the strings of web and tackled Metaknight who was already starting to get tired from all the attacks he endured. A bit of dust fell onto his swords and it quickly morphed them into gigantic blades, which the Knight utilized right away to send Metaknight flying into one of the room's walls where he then collapsed. "Metaknight!" Magolor and Susie ran over to him as the morphed creature was getting ready to strike again. Taranza tried to run over as well, but suddenly he felt another painful sting in his wound, making him freeze up. "G-guys, watch out!" he screamed and Susie used her Mech, Magolor his shield to block the attack and also protect Metaknight who wasn't even able to get a grip on his sword anymore. As the swords collided with the mech and the shield, there was a flash that blinded Taranza and all he heard was shattering that almost sounded glass like and sparks of electricity. Upon opening his eyes he saw both Susie and Magolor heavily injured on the group, both the mech and shield in pieces. "N-no....S-susie! Magolor!" The Knight, still not content with his work, took another swing to finish all three of them of at once. This time however, he was prevented from slashing at them by a ton of webs holding down his blade. Looking over his shoulder he saw Taranza holding them down with all of his might, but gradually getting weaker due to the injuries. After uttering what appeared to be a scoff, he swung the blades around with enough force to lift Taranza off the ground and threw him against the wall as well. Holding on for a moment the Knight saw the spider boy, still trying to get up. With all the strength he had left to spare, Taranza got up and stood in front of his now unconscious allies and spread his arms as if he were a shield. "I won't let you hurt them anymore, you hear me?! I WON'T LET YOU!" The morphed knight, unimpressed by this, just took another swing before charging at the four heroes with the intention to end it all. 'All I can do is stand here and potentially reduce damage with a web shield, but... it won't be enough.' He thought as he spun a huge shield. 'Metaknight, Magolor, Susie.... I'm sorry... I wasn't strong enough to protect you... I was never strong enough to protect anyone... I can't do anything alone and now everyone I care about is going to get killed because of me! Sectonia, I... I need you now more than ever before... but it's all too late now..."

As the Knight was closing in and the blade came soaring at him, Taranza shut his eyes, bracing himself for impact, while a single tear rolled down his cheeks.