Drea and Alka met in the middle with incredible force. Their weapons clashed, orange sparks flying in all different directions. Alka towered over her, putting all his weight on his weapon.
She pulled away, knowing direct clashes would be detrimental to her. She changed her weapon to a shuriken as she jumped back and threw it straight for him. He dodged and came in close, quick as lightning.
Her eyes caught his movements though, and she drew a new weapon, her needles, to throw. Up close it would cause an incredible amount of damage. She felt Korena take control of her arm as her spirit moved throughout her body.
Drea threw the needles at four pressure points on Alka’s body, slowing him down enough for Drea to pull out a flaming spear, which she plunged into Alka’s gut. He roared in agony, but she knew that wouldn’t be enough to stop him. She felt the spear crunch into him, but she released it and jumped back quickly, sliding to a stop.
Alka increased his energy and forced the spear to fly out. It dissolved in a purple light. Drea had known he would be tough, but she never knew he could do something like that. His stomach reformed suddenly, without even a scratch where she’d stabbed him.
It unnerved her that he could heal himself like that when she couldn’t. She had Zen to help her, but Zen could only go so far. She took out another spear and threw it as quickly as possible, but in a flash, Alka appeared behind her. She was able to sidestep out of the way quickly, though she almost wasn’t fast enough. He threw his knife, just missing her leg, but that wasn’t why he threw it.
Drea saw the aura gathered around the blade and barely had a second before she realized what Alka was doing. She threw up a shield of fire just as it exploded in a cloud of purple, leaving the air smelling acidic.
As the smoke cleared, Drea saw Alka staring at her through a wall of fire.
She stepped back and dissolved the shield, using her hands to absorb the fire.
“You’re doing alright I suppose,” said Alka, “but let’s see how well you do when I’m actually trying.”
He moved faster than he ever had, appearing behind her. Drea barely had time to roll forward and when she did, he was there. He was about to rip open the skin near her collar bone when he hit something hard with a clang. It was her black armor.
It appeared on her body, shimmering like the ashes it was made of. It hadn’t even been scratched by Alka’s claws. In the brief moment of his surprise, Drea was able to send an orb of fire right in his face.
She used that opening to step back and form a huge shuriken in her hand. She set it on fire and hurled it in his direction, but didn’t stop there. She rushed towards him with a dagger right after the shuriken hit, but to her surprise, he was able to grab her by the throat and stop her in her tracks.
Drea stared down at him in contempt as he held her above his head. He still wasn’t hurt, but she noticed a huge decrease in the amount of his aura. Healing himself was taking up a lot of energy. He smiled at her menacingly and threw her across the plains.
She rolled over the hard rock until she came to stop, feeling dizzy. The armor had protected her from a lot of damage, but her cheek had a long narrow scratch on it. Her head had been gashed by her hairline too, the warm red blood dripping down her temple and onto the cold stone. She rose, wobbling a little. She was running out of ideas on how to get the upper hand.
She was panting. Alka was losing energy, but he would still be difficult to beat. Use our weapons Andrea, said Shawn. We can lend you our skill.
She nodded and took out a sword, using it to get close. In an effort to distract him, she took out a dagger and threw it with lighting speed while she charged in, but he didn’t take the bait. He sidestepped the dagger and met her with his sword. They skidded and sparked again before she used her smaller frame to jump out of the way and whack Alka in the back of the head with the staff.
Shawn moved his spirit into her. She used the staff as a pole to spin around as she kicked him straight in the face to knock him down. He fell with a thud, dust spewing everywhere.
Drea took out her scythe and chains and backed up a few feet. She threw the scythe, feeling the disgusting rip as it bit into flesh. She felt him pull on the scythe to try and get her next to him, so she released it, waiting for his figure to appear once again.
Before she even knew what happened, Alka was behind her with his claws raised. She didn’t have time to react as his claws neared her back. Her heat beat frantically as she thought of her friends finding her dead body. To her surprise though, her back shot flames out from where her shoulder blades were, pushing him back far enough for her to get away and surprise him.
She formed her spiked gloves on both hands and went in close, setting both her hands on fire. They glowed orangey-red as she did an uppercut in his ribs, sending him flying into the air. Drea jumped up after him and sent a flaming kick down on his head, watching him hurdle down to the earth.
He landed with a boom as Drea landed lightly about ten feet away. She waited to see if he’d rise, but she knew he would. He had too much aura left to be done for.
Now she started to feel strain on her body. She’d used a lot of energy trying to take down Alka and her body was feeling it. She had to end it quickly if she would end it at all.
In a flash, before Drea’s eyes could even register it, Alka had her throat in his hands and her feet were lifting off the ground again. He stared at her with evil swirling in his eyes. She tried to throw a sword straight at him from her vantage point, but he didn’t give her time.
Alka threw her onto the rock and charged forward. Her sword stuck in the ground somewhere. Drea was able to find her footing, but she couldn’t counter Alka fast enough. He tried to slash up her chest, but the torso piece stood strong, so instead he grabbed her arm like a twig and threw her so far she hit the edge of the force field.
It rippled where she hit. Drea lay there for a second before she tried to get up. Even without any cuts, she was pretty bruised up and a lot of her energy had been drained from attacking. Her legs barely supported her as she stood.
Suddenly Alka was in front of her again. This time when he slashed her, she felt the armor weaken as ashes blew off. Then he grabbed her and threw her head first into the rock. She put her hands out and spewed fire to break her fall, but it only sent her flying in another direction.
She found herself lying on her stomach and looked at her hands. The chainmail gloves had dissolved, leaving her hands with scratches and scrapes. Drea forced herself to her hands and knees, her arms shaking as she slowly rose to her feet and took a stance.
She felt wobbly now and knew she was running out of time to kill him with her diminishing strength. A dark thought then occurred to her. Kaien, she thought. If I must seal him in the end, won’t he once again reawaken with the artifacts?
He will, said Kaien, but as soon as the seal takes affect all seven artifacts will disperse into random places once again. That is how they work due to the seal.
But if I seal him, someone else will have to do this job centuries from now. Unless the seven can find and destroy the artifacts, nothing will change.
Kaien paused. Unfortunately, there is no other way out of it. But know that even if you did succeed in killing Alka, the other Lori would only continue their work in order to avenge his death. It would never end for the Weaponsmaster or the Kaienshi Andrea. You must know that.
I know, but how can I force this burden upon someone else? How can I condemn someone to this same fate?
She felt him sigh. He understood what she was talking about. After all, when he sealed Alka so long ago he condemned her to this fate. You must fight for the battle at hand. We lose the luxury of considering what the future may hold. If you must seal him, then make sure someone else finds a way to keep the artifacts hidden.
Drea knew he was right, but she didn’t want to accept it. All she could think about was her undead soul meeting up with the one who had to fight Alka next.
Right now Alka was advancing toward her, waiting for her to draw a weapon. She took out her combination of scythe and chain and spiked glove. Her next move might be a suicide mission, but it was the only move left.
Drea walked towards him slowly, but didn’t set her weapons on fire. Then she ran straight for him. No tricks. She extended her fist straight to his chest, hoping to sink her knuckles deep into his muscles.
He did exactly what she’d thought he’d do: he raised his knife and slashed straight across her stomach. She felt the ashes dissolve and the blood begin to drip, but she wouldn’t let the pain stop her. She threw the scythe at close range, catching him on his shoulder. Then Drea pulled him in close, as the blood finally spurted in waterfalls from his shoulder.
She plunged her fist straight into him and changed her weapon to another scythe, which cut through his body like butter. Finally she set the both of them on fire, his shoulder and belly spewing ashes mixed with blood.
Alka then raised his claws up her chest, piercing the armor at her shoulders and near her collarbone. More blood flowed down her torso, but she ignored it, trying to keep hold of her weapons.
Drea couldn’t hold on. Alka was about to use his sword to stab her through the stomach, so she had to let go, but that didn’t mean she escaped entirely. His sword made a clean slash on her leg from her ankle to her knee, letting more blood flow out.
She stepped back considerably and fell to her knees. Now she’d been hit in her stomach, chest, and leg, and the blood was beginning to pool around her. Her torso piece had disappeared now, leaving only her chainmail skirt and steely boots, neither of which would last long.
They were getting weak now, both of them approaching their end. Drea had caused a lot of damage to Alka feeling his aura dropped drastically. Now she could see that his shoulder was bleeding tremendously along with his stomach and chest, both of which were bloody and torn up.
They both panted, waiting to see if the other would attack. Instead, Alka began to speak between ragged breaths, “You’ve… done well little one… but there’s… no way you’ll win this… you know I have more strength than you. I… must commend you though… for causing so much damage to me… I never thought… you’d be such a pain.”
Drea knew he was right. She felt the pain blossom and bloom throughout her body and knew she couldn’t keep fighting. She’d bleed out before she could kill him. That only left her one option, the one option she didn’t want to do, but that she resigned herself to from the very beginning.
“I… won’t let you win,” she said slowly as she regained her breath. “I have one last trick up my sleeve.”
Drea stepped closer to him slowly, watching the blood drip down her body and onto the hard ground. She formed a sword in her hands and raised it above her head, stabbing it straight into the ground where her blood pooled.
Alka stared suspiciously while Drea went on, “Maybe you remember this move from your earlier fight. There’s no way I’ll let you go free. Sealing you and me away has become my only option.”
He smirked in her direction and laughed. “What seal? You’ve only stabbed that one sword into the ground. You cannot make a seal like that without the necessary elements. I would’ve thought a fighter like you would know that.”
“I made the seal,” Drea said with the utmost confidence. “I did it throughout out battle, or did you not notice the four other weapons that I didn’t dissolve?”
He looked around to see himself in a circle surrounded by the giant shuriken she’d thrown at the very beginning, the spear she’d thrown, the dagger she’d tried to distract him with, the sword she tried to throw when he had her by the neck and finally, the sword she just put into place.
Alka narrowed his eyes and tried to discount it but Drea could tell that he was getting nervous. “They aren’t all swords, your seal won’t work.”
“You’ve got it wrong,” she said. “The seal only needs five weapons in the right spot, but they don’t have to be all the same.”
Just as she said that, a blue light shot up from around the five weapons, forming the circle of the seal. Drea stepped in. She knew that one step sealed her fate, for now it was impossible for her to step out.
“Let’s die together,” she said without emotion as she stared into his devilish eyes and the blue light rose up into the sky.