Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya

11 - The Black Death Terror

Seiya managed to reach the bottom of the valley without being attacked and noticed, in the distance and behind him, a strange phenomenon. Someone was fighting, he thought. When everything had calmed down, he could hear clearly, albeit very low and far away, the sound of a bell ringing.

"She's fine..." thought Seiya, guessing that was the direction Saori had gone.

He was relieved. Only to be stopped the next moment.

"I was waiting for you, Pegasus!" said a Black Saint to Seiya.

When looking at whoever spoke to him, Seiya was surprised by the armor of that warrior.

"What? Is your Cloth the same as mine?"
"All right, boy, I'm Black Pegasus."
"Is this a joke?" but the woman laughed.
"Yes, and you die at the end of it!"

Black Pegasus attacked Seiya with a series of punches and kicks that the Pegasus Saint knew how to neutralize. He dodged a last straight shot that stopped on the boulder behind him, sinking the rock. She was strong.

"Where's the Gold Cloth?"

The girl placed a part of the Cloth carefully on top of a boulder.

And again she jumped to attack Seiya, who was able to use the woman's attack against herself, hitting her with a kick that threw her against the wall, letting her helmet roll to the ground and loosen her hair.

"You'll pay for this!" she said, jumping into the sun. "Black Arrows!"

Seiya saw raining hundreds of arrows that stuck to the ground; he dodged as best he could, but ended up getting hit by many others. And yet he landed standing in front of the Black Pegasus.

"How can you... Have you dodged all the arrows?!"
"No, some actually hit me, but thanks to my Pegasus Cloth I didn't get any scratches." he explained, thinking of Shiryu's sacrifice.
"Well, let's see if you'll keep being this lucky all the time. Black Arrows!"

And again the shower of arrows fell on Seiya, but this time he chose to counterattack rather than just dodge. He leapt towards the Black Saint and unleashed his Pegasus Meteors Stars which, in midair, swallowed the arrows and finally hit Black Pegasus decisively.

Her armor shattered against the stone and she fell, defeated, covered in blood.

"I didn't hit any of your vital points. You'll survive, don't worry." Seiya said.

He turned to take the part of the Golden Cloth the girl had left there and noticed something strange.

"What?"

Stuck in his spleen was a small arrow; he easily removed it and resisted only the throbbing pain he felt as he took the metal off. He felt good, but he reflected that he needed to be more careful going forward.

Her enemy couldn't get up anymore.

"You won't go very far." said the woman's choked voice. "Soon you will discover the Black Death Terror." She let out a smile followed by a choke.
"What do you mean by that?" Seiya asked, confused.

But Black Pegasus passed out and Seiya didn't want to waste time there. He swung his fist ringing his bell across the valley and forged ahead.

He descended another cliff, passed the entrance to a cave, and then began to feel very bad.

At first he felt a lot more tired than he should have been with that descent; and then he started to feel very dizzy. He braced himself against the wall to keep from falling. The wound from the small arrow that had hit him throbbed and burned too.

He tried to move forward, but finally dropped to his knees, losing his balance. The burning sensation he was feeling wasn't only in his stomach, but spreading to his legs, arms and neck.