Stro’gol Passing [bridge], Velhall Palace
Oitylon [capital city], Ravelous [planet], Despæ [star system]
22 December; 21:22:10 Hours
Shink - crunch cut through the tense air before lightning cracked overhead for what felt like the millionth time, the puddle of water slowly went from clear to crimson, and Gabe huffed and puffed as his grip was so tight it felt like his hands fused to his javelin. His eyes were half dollars with the intensity of the Emerald crowning itself within what was once brown. He could only hear the sharp ringing of the staff cutting stone with muffled rumbling around himself. Though Gabe could feel nearly everything; from the cold raindrops to the hairs on his body on end under his mail, and then the sharp pain from every wound Theo had dished out.
Gabe’s vision that had been overcome in a fury of blur slowly was returning, and there under him, he could see Kaendra facedown and no longer moving. His left eye twitched before he saw the pool of blood and rainwater around them in the glow of lightning that arced overhead.
“Ga-Gabe?” a faint voice called. “Gabe? Ga-Gabe?”
Slowly, Gabe looked over his shoulder with only his emerald glowing eyes visible in the shroud of the storming night. “Wha-what?”
“We,” Mya stood ten yards away from him where she lowered her hand from over her mouth, urging him, “um, we, we have to get out of here!”
He blinked, the glow leaving his eyes as they returned to brown and he again saw Kaendra’s lifeless body beneath him while he stood over her. Gabe’s eyes sunk at first as he looked down at her, but then his nostrils flared several times as glimpses of their encounter flashed in his mind. The moment of her arrival played like a film on the silver screen, seeing her save Theo.
“Gabe!” he heard Mya call to him again, he yanked his javelin free before he stumbled backward and turned to see her motioning her hand for him to hurry.
Lightning cracked just beyond the tower in front of Gabe as he limped his way toward Mya, using his staff as a walking stick, the rain still pouring down atop him as the bright burst of color made him wince. He raised his other hand to shield his eyes the best he could but there was a silhouette that blocked out a portion of the flare. Gabe followed it as it arched through the sky, his eyes narrowed in confusion before they quickly opened wide with the realization of what it was.
He tried to adjust himself, taking his staff in both hands to raise it but before he could, Talius came flying down on him. Talius struck Gabe with a vicious elbow that sent him tumbling backward, his javelin slid across the stone where it stopped beside Kaendra’s body. Gabe struggled to push himself to his hands and knees, feeling exhausted and in excruciating pain from his fight with Theo, but he managed and looked up to see Talius standing across from him with his arms out of his sides.
“<I told you,” Talius laughed as the tails of his peacoat flapped in the gust, “Watch your bloody back! Karma is a very real thing in the Uni! And now look at you - Pathetic! You could barely keep up with your mate, and from what I could tell… Beelezika wasn’t even trying!>”
“Coward!” Gabe groaned as he stood up only to fall back to his knee. “Same old Talius! You could never just come at a threat straight on, always blindsiding!”
Talius whipped the left side of his peacoat back, drew his spark-pistol that he twirled around, and yelled through his teeth, “<It’s called strategy!>”
“Strategy?” Gabe laughed, “Where was that when I so easily took Shaomhav right out from under you?”
In a moment of fury, Talius aimed his pistol at Gabe and squeezed the trigger three times. Deep purple charges shot from the spark-pistol, shooting through the air while a whistling let out as the rain evaporated against them, though Gabe raised his hand causing the stone to morph and rise in front of him where it blocked each charge. They struck the barrier, cracking it off the first charge and then proceeding to break it on the second and third. Talius fired several more with each one continuing to destroy Gabe’s defenses.
“<You’re weak! Your hold on the Terra Crystal can’t sustain what you normally could, thanks to Beelezika! You only ever think the immediate game and NEVER the long!>”
He took a step forward with each shot and once he was three feet in front of the stone shield, Talius kicked the crumbling obstruction with it breaking into hundreds of pieces. Though Gabe was gone and Talius’ eyes grew large before he spun around and found Gabe swinging a vicious right hook that caught Talius on the left side of his face. The force and followthrough sent Talius to his back where he now looked up at his old partner.
“That’s the thing - There’s never a long game with you, Talius!”
“Gab’otosk!” he hissed at Gabe who chuckled.
“That’s what you called me the last time we were in this exact position - Ah, fond memories!”
“<You betrayed our oath! We were supposed to tame the Uni! We were supposed to reel it in from itself! And you and all of the weak-spine Fangs couldn’t stomach such a mission!>”
“Listen to you! You’re sounding just like some lite version of one of the many dictators that you, Barret, and I formed Shaomhav to rid the Universe of!”
“Gabe,” Mya hurried up behind him, begging, “please! Please, we have to get out of here! We have to now!”
Gabe slowly glanced over his shoulder at her, nodded, and then began to turn away from Talius who yelled, “<What I told you still stands, Gabe! I won’t rest! I won’t!>”
He wrapped his arm around Mya’s shoulders as she helped him walk, the two slowly making their way back toward the tower. “You’re a lost cause, Talius. Barret would be disgusted at the man you’ve allowed yourself to becom—” but Talius pushed himself up to his feet, clenched his fist with a gauntlet that constructed around it and his forearm as he clocked back and a deep purple charge surged from his elbow to his knuckles.
Mya saw him out of the corner of her eye, shoving Gabe forward and turning into Talius as he unleashed the soul-charge. She screamed, “NOOOOOOOO,” and thrust her left palm at Talius’ fist with the two meeting and the purple charge bounced back.
A booming, high-pitched screech erupted as the soul-charge redirected and engulfed Talius’ arm while spraying him with sparks of purple. He was thrown back, screaming in agonizing pain with his hand, forearm, and part of his bicep all scorched. Talius grabbed it, tossing and turning on the ground, he cried, “<Damn you! Damn you! DAMN YOU!>”
“W-what was that?” Gabe asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder, and they for a moment watched Talius.
She slowly looked up to him with big eyes. “You have your blood ability… and I have mine.”