Soul Crossers | Wattys 2024

Chapter 18: Flames of Resolve

Zira's feet skirted along the morass, swinging at and dodging from the beast's fireballs. Sol shot up the detritus from the ground, lining them up for her to swing it like a baseball. It struck his nostrils and face. Blinded and unable to properly use the Animalia's strong smell, Harlen ran amok.

Sol whipped vines around, connecting the playground to the school walls, creating a jungle gym of binding nets that tripped the beast up. As the Bulgae tried to rise, Vulcan took over, rushing in with a strike to his chest. 

Zira regained control, sliding onto a vine rope that supported her maneuverability while they flew towards him firing more shots at his temporary weak spot.

She jumped on the fusion's back, when Harlen's chest ignited and untangled his hind legs from the vines. Their solar shots diffused the flames, allowing Zira to spring off and injure his leg.

Harlen crashed to the ground as Sol latched a vine for her to hold on, diving down to deck him in the face. It only quelled the flames as he was ready to exhale a fireball when Zira swung along the vine through the jungle gym to slam his head with the fire lance into the ground.

The fireball imploded and Vulcan formed the hook shield for Zira to protect them all from the flaming pillar ejected out his mouth. She had to wipe sweat off her face.

"You have fights like this all the time?"

They offered her a leaf to do so. "Ehh, we're new at this, but yeah, pretty much. Ready to play tag?"

"Yes and no! I have an alteration to the plan," whispering it to them. Sol agreed.

The fae-humanoid spread their wings to bounce around on the vines faster, hurling a barrage of smaller blasts to blow out Harlen's flames.

Meanwhile, Zira sprinted throughout the playground, throwing the dao at his vulnerable spots, catching the blade and rolling under the seesaws, slides, and monkey bars. Every time Harlen attempted to grab her, Sol doused the flames, allowing her to strike.

She struck his neck, they kicked the back. They drilled into his face to counter the giant sword in his face and raced up the slide to knock it out of his mouth. The fusion's rapier swiped at his attempts to eat them both, allowing her to smack the hook shield into his head. He sauntered, tired and weary of the string of attacks.

Just as they were going to finish him off, Harlen grunted, spreading fire pillars around to burn the vines, trapping him inside as his body was deteriorating. It was only a matter of minutes.

At the same time, Sol and Zira yawned, running out of steam. She was only at five percent and both agreed they couldn't keep this death of a thousand cuts up for long.

"Think us, there has to be a," slowly reflecting on their previous encounters and morphed their hand into the hilt. "Wait, Zira, channel your sword's blade into a hilt, but leave an open space inside for water to come out. Use your demon to tighten the aura around it."

"Like, make a water blade?"

"They nodded. I'll strike his back and leave him open for you to target his front, and finish him off in the sky!"

Vulcan took control again. "The only move you have strong enough for a finish blow is a Solar Buster. But it's not fast enough for you to charge. What if he recovers?"

"If we could compress and condense the blade into a rapier, what about a beam into something smaller, like a sphere? That's it!"

Sol gathered something from the pile, as Harlen leapt over the entire playground to target them. They fired a pollen blast in the air, which he attempted to burn away. Flying away to give Zira and Vulcan time to prepare, they hardened the sphere into a glowing ball of solar power and flung it.