Author's Note: Today's artwork of our noble knight Leo is brought to you by Lucid_fantasies_, or @lucid_fantasies_ on Instagram!
I just love how regal Leo looks in her art and and I just love the pose!! (And the sparkles!! I love him!!) I just love how he looks in her art style hhh and I really love the calligraphy she did as well! Please check out her amazing art on her Instagram, or check out her Zodiac High series or her 'Chess' series (consisting of the prequel An Assassin's Faith and the story Valerie's Interest) on Wattpad!! I've been following along her series for a while and you guys should check it out if you're interested :D
On that note, thank you for the reads, votes and comments! I appreciate you guys taking time out of your day to read Daybreak's Crest; you all really motivate me to continue writing. I hope you enjoy the story!
-x-x-x-
"This is boring," Gemini complained quietly to Aquarius, "How long have we been walking already? I miss the sun."
"Be quiet, Gemini," Aquarius murmured back, "It shouldn't be long now."
"Can't we just ask –"
"No, Gemini. This isn't a good time."
Gemini's chance at 'relieving her boredom' came very quickly in the sound of a horribly familiar roar that shook the entire cave itself, making the river slosh over even more and splash over their shoes. The cave floor trembled again with echoing shriek, and there was a heavy thud and growl.
"We've been followed?!" Capricorn spun around, the light from the torch held by Pisces just barely casting his features in light as he unsheathed his lance. "Those – it must be one of those–!"
"Those beasts." Aquarius finished off, drawing her weapon as well. "I'd recognise those roars anywhere."
"The Eirean Church must've followed us down here." Taurus growled, turning around as well. "They want to get rid of us here and now? They'll have to get through me first."
"Aries? Aries!" Scorpio shouted, his voice ricocheting off the walls. Even in the dim light of the single torch carried by Pisces, his anger was clear to see. "Stop running off yourself! It's unsafe – dammit!" Scorpio swore sharply as he squinted out into the darkness. "Where is he?!"
Pisces held up the torch behind her into the darkness beyond. The growling, huffing noises from the beast was getting louder, but the echoes of its snarling were drowning out any other signal of its presence. She swung the torch around. "Where is it?!"
"W-wait – everyone, I'll try –" Virgo's voice echoed out from the darkness. "Phos!"
The blast of light lit the entire cavern for a split second, imprinting everyone's eyelids white. However, what was much worse was the split second of vision they had acquired – and the split second of gnashing teeth that were awfully close and beady, dark eyes squinted against the light. The cave fell into darkness again.
"THERE!" Pisces shrieked. "Thun–"
"Pisces, not now!" Capricorn warned. "The river's right there, and every surface of this cave is wet –"
"Right," Pisces interrupted him, whipping out another tome. "Fire!"
The blazing flame sputtered out instantly against the damp, scaly skin of the creature, but it did light up the area once again. Everyone backed away, their feet scrabbling for purchase against the slippery ground.
"We're right next to the river – this is no place to fight!" Scorpio snapped. "Everyone, we need to find a larger area –"
There was a whistle of something rapidly moving in the darkness and a crash. Somebody shrieked.
"Everyone, retreat this way! Now!"
The sounds of the monster didn't grow any quieter as everyone turned and ran. The single torch lighting the way and the roar of the river to their left was their only guidance as they thundered down the corridor.
The creature, clearly noticing the absence of its prey, roared again and began its pursuit. The sounds of its horns and scales scraping dissonantly against the rocky walls echoed back down at the eleven of them as they fled.
"What – what is that thing?!" Leo shouted.
"You haven't seen them before? They're the favourite tools of the Eirean Church," Capricorn growled back. "They use them to ruthlessly massacre –"
"They're creatures of dark magic summoned by the Eirean Church!" Gemini called as she was running. "You have to get it –"
"– in the neck." Aquarius finished for her.
Strangely enough, the area was getting lighter as they ran, too – Aquarius could actually see her hands in front of herself without the torchlight now.
"Is this daylight–?!"
"Here – this is where we make our stand!" Scorpio's voice echoed. The cave walls that were nearly brushing their shoulders widened out almost immediately as they stumbled out into a cavern, panting for breath.
The pale, cool light was not daylight, but it was emitting from what appeared to be large, gleaming crystals embedded into the ground, the walls and even the ceiling. The ethereal glow made the foaming river glitter pale blue and purple, almost making it look habitable by river life. The cavern itself was even larger than a house and expanded across both sides of the river, with several tunnels appearing to lead off to the sides of the cavern. However, what the group was more concerned about was with the space it provided.
"Quickly – we need to move out." Virgo ordered, her usually soft voice firm as she gave commands. "Taurus; I need you at the front to intercept it and give everyone the chance to strike."
"Understood."
"Pisces, Sagittarius and I will be at the back. We will use magic – and in Sagittarius's case, her arrows – for far range while Cancer and Gemini sneak up behind it to strike the killing blow from the back of its neck. Capricorn, Aquarius, Scorpio; back up Taurus and distract the beast."
Virgo's eyes darted towards the entrance to the cavern; where they had all escaped the beast from. The sounds of the creature's snarling was getting closer by the second, echoing all around the cave.
"Taurus; if you need to, retreat to bring it into the center of the cavern for more room. Libra, Leo; I need you two to immobilise its back legs to give Cancer or Gemini to chance to strike without being attacked."
"Guys?!" Virgo spared a glance behind herself at the sudden call. Aries hurried up to them, his torch in one hand and his sword in the other. His previously dark mood had evaporated to become sheer determination. "I'm s–" He paused, then shook her head. "I'm here now."
"Aries..." Virgo trailed off.
The roar of the beast shook the cavern itself.
"Aries, you're at the front with Taurus." Virgo finished off, just as a hulking, dark creature – which was so large it filled up the entire passageway with its body – lumbered through the entrance they had come from.
"Now!"
Taurus thundered forwards, immediately meeting its sharp horn with the blade of his axe. Aries didn't hesitate to throw himself forward as well, swiping his sword across the plated snout of the creature.
With a horrible cry, the creature flicked its head. With strength that matched its muscular form (it was much larger than the previous ones they had fought, they noted), it managed to send Taurus skidding back several steps. Aries let out a furious cry and jabbed the sword into its mouth, only for the creature's razor sharp teeth to snap down on the metal and start shaking his head, tossing Aries and his sword to and fro like a branch in a dog's mouth.
"You're not getting past me." Scorpio drove his spear up between the scaly platings on its hefty, muscular leg. The creature let out a shrill cry and attempted to kick Scorpio away, but was distracted by Capricorn diving under its swinging head to stab it in the other foot with his lance.
"SCREEEE!"
Scorpio grunted as the creature managed to swing Aries (who was still clinging to his sword, which was between the creature's jaws) directly into him, sending them both flying. With the two annoying pests gone, the beast turned to Aquarius and Capricorn and immediately tried to snap at them. The two of them ducked past its drool-flecked teeth at the nick of time, only for the creature to attempt crushing them with a swipe of one of its paws (claws?) into the ground.
"Phos!" "Wind!"
The blaze of light startled the monster. Capricorn and Aquarius dived away from its stomping feet, stars flashing behind their eyelids from the blast of white light. Pisces' blade of wind cut into its face, causing it to howl and recoil, nearly running over Cancer and Gemini behind it with its two hind legs.
With a hefty swing of his battle-axe and a cry – "In a blaze of glory!" – Leo promptly smashed the creature's back leg with about enough strength to break several bones at once. The heavy metal made a loud thunk on the scaly platings instead, ricocheting off and scraping against the narrows walls. This only served to anger the creature rather than impediment it. Its spiked tail swept out in a curving arc at Leo and – luckily, because the spikes didn't catch Leo – or rather, unluckily – pinned him to the wall between two spikes. Leo yelled out in frustration and thwacked the blunt edge of his axe against the tail, feet kicking at the ground, but the creature didn't even flinch.
Libra turned his attention from trying to hit the creature's other leg with his sword and slammed his sword down against the creature's tail tip with as much force as he could muster.
Which apparently, in moments of need, was quite a lot.
The tail tip came off in an explosion of black powder. The monster howled in agony and Leo freed himself from the wall, following the thrashing tail tip with his axe and slashing the blade against the open wound.
"You need to bring it forwards! We don't have space!" Gemini called from behind, throwing a dagger at the beast's hind leg in more of an act of defiance rather than for effectiveness.
"Got it!" Sagittarius's voice echoed back. The auburn-haired girl split up from Pisces and Virgo, running up to the river's edge (despite the danger; well, Aries was too busy to yell at her for that anyway) and turning her flurry of arrows against the side of the creature's head while Capricorn and Aquarius were out of the way.
"GRAHHH!" It flicked its head to and fro, taking a shuddering step to its left, where Sagittarius wanted it to go. The arrows continue to ping off the creature's scaly face; more of a hinderance than to injure, but they did its job. The creature took a few more stumbling steps towards the center of the cavern, thrashing in an attempt to get the pesky Leo and Libra away from its injured tail tip. Taurus took the chance to tackle the creature again, beating at the side of its head with the blunt side of his axe.
"Incoming!" Aries, propelled by a leap off the side of one crystal, pounded his sword (which was still covered with the creature's saliva but thankfully intact) into the side of the beast's head. He plunged the tip against the scaly snout, sliding the blade through the gap and clinging on for dear life.
With the creature occupied from the front, as seen by its ghastly screams of agony, Gemini and Cancer made their move. After a glance at each other, as if to telepathically decide who to strike; Cancer leaped first, scaling one hind leg and grasping on to the plates on its rear. Her shoes scrambled for a foothold, to which Gemini rushed over to help her up – only for one hind leg to kick back in its enraged stomping and send Gemini flying into a wall.
Gemini groaned from the impact, but waved on Cancer with as much energy as she could muster from having the wind knocked out of her. "Go on! Quickly!"
Cancer nodded and kept her head down as the creature tossed and turned wildly. More blades of wind struck the beast in the grotesque face (Aries had lost grip of his sword and it now was embedded in the beast's face, causing it great distress).
Virgo approached the beast for more accuracy (and to avoid hitting the other people), sending blazing light across its underbelly. The beast howled in agony again, turning beady, coal-black eyes to her.
"Virgo, careful!" Aquarius blocked the swiping claw with the blade of her sword. Virgo gulped and scurried the other way to fire off more blasts of magic at a little farther off to give Aquarius the space she needed to clash with the weight of the beast's paw.
Cancer quickly scaled the beast's back while it was distracted, digging her daggers between the scaly plates to keep her grip. The beast – with a sharp noise – suddenly crashed to the ground, nearly crushing Libra, Leo and Aquarius.
The moment of victory was rather abruptly ended as it began to roll on its back. Cancer was tossed off, her daggers still embedded in its flesh. Cancer let her knees buckle and her roll absorb the brunt of the impact, though this didn't stop gravel and other debris from digging hard into her skin as she pulled herself back to her feet.
Capricorn jumped on its underbelly while it was on its back and started trying to stab the beast in the throat as it rolled to and fro, legs kicking at the air. Gemini jumped on from behind, plunging her daggers into the scaly hide.
"Watch out –"
The beast rolled back over again with a cry. Capricorn yelped and was bowled off the twitching underbelly by its shuddering movements, just in time to avoid being crushed. Meanwhile, Gemini found herself being ferried upwards by clutching her daggers – which were buried in its side – for dear life as it rose to its feet again.
Virgo's eyes widened at the sudden cry that cut the silence.
"SCREEEEE!"
"H-huh?!" Libra yelped and rolled to the side again as another huge, scaly creature thundered out from the entrance to the cavern. "There's two?!"
Virgo's eyes widened in horror as she found Libra, Leo and Cancer – who had been on the back – trapped between the head of the second creature and the back legs of the second. "My plan...!" She gritted her teeth. "No... this isn't the end." Already, the pieces were rearranging themselves in her head again – tiny, wooden figures on a circular board shifting into place to meet the enemy pieces. "Sagittarius, separate the two beasts! Fire arrows at its face and force it back! Libra, Leo – you're on the front of the second one this time. Cancer, you're in charge of killing the second one. Leave the first one to the others."
Sagittarius yelled something back as she did as ordered. Her arrows peppered the second creature's face, managing to strike it in one beady eye. It howled in agony, tossing its head like a horse.
"L-leo! Watch out!" Libra shouted, subconsciously lifting his sword and blocking the paw that lashed out at them. It cuffed the blunt edge of Libra's blade and knocked him aside almost immediately, not unlike a rag doll, though it did give Leo the chance to duck and swing his axe up beneath it.
"Capricorn, take the first one's back legs and back up Gemini. Aquarius, Scorpio; run around the first beast to take on the second. Taurus, Aries; go distract the first one. Gemini –"
The pink-haired girl shrieked, her daggers slipping from between the scales. She hit the ground with a thud, knees buckling beneath herself, but rolled away from its feet with a shout of "I'm fine!"
"And Pisces –"
"Gotcha!" Pisces was off in an instant, circling around the first one to make her way towards the second while putting enough distance between herself and the first beast. Virgo nodded to herself, watching the events play out as she had strategised – then remembered about the tome in her hands and forced herself to muster her strength again through the pounding of her head.
"Phos!"
In the glow of light she had cast, the dark figure in the startlingly white mask standing serenely behind the second beast, directly behind Cancer, became abruptly clear to the group.
"CANCER, BEHIND–!"
Cancer whipped around, meeting the 'gaze' of the figure behind the blank white mask.
"You...!"
The mysterious figure didn't say a word or even bat an eye at their discovery. However, the second beast suddenly swung around to face Cancer, teeth gnashing. Cancer ducked underneath the thrashing head and was forced to skid underneath the beast's underbelly to avoid being pincered between the two hostile forces, leaving the figure in the mask standing alone in front of the beast. The dark, scaly creature turned back around again, having done its job of protecting the masked figure, and roared again.
"We need to capture that person!"
"We need to keep ourselves from dying first!" Scorpio retorted. Now with nobody behind the second beast to attempt an ambush, they could only struggle to land blows against the scaly, armoured face of the creature. Aquarius's sword could only do so much in beating back the razor sharp teeth, but with a toss of its head, her sword was sent spinning away – thankfully away from the churning river, but leaving the female defenceless.
The first beast stumbled forwards a couple of steps. With Taurus's axe between its jaws, it was somehow being dragged forward like an unwilling dog on a leash. Taurus fought the creature's head valiantly, pulling at the hilt of his axe and bracing his feet against the ground. Now with the first creature split up from the second one, this gave the others the space to strike. Gemini took Aries' route and leaped off the side of one creature, landing on the muscular shoulder of the beast and plunging one of her daggers into the flesh. With a battle-cry, she dragged the blade of her second dagger across the heavyset neck and her blade hit the mark: it sank down deep between the scales as if it were butter.
There was a horrifying, grating scream as the creature promptly exploded into black dust, which drifted down to land on the ground like falling petals – if petals were ashen and the colour of soot.
"We got one!" Capricorn called, eyes glinting victoriously. The people who had been focusing on the first beast – Gemini, Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus, Aries – turned their attention to the second beast, which was thrashing underneath the ministrations of Sagittarius's and Pisces' flying projectiles. Of course, there wasn't much they could do now they were all stranded on the front side of the beast, with the masked figure giving it directions from the back; there was no space for Scorpio, Libra or Leo to attempt stabbing it, lest they were hit with one of Pisces' or Sagittarius's projectiles. Aquarius had ducked off to the side to retrieve her fallen weapon, but it looked like the second creature wasn't going to fall anytime soon.
"We need a change of strategy!" Leo called. Gradually, they were being forced back by the beast towards the larger cavern, which was now free of the first monster. However, the creature they were fighting seemed to be moving with an almost human intelligence; aware that moving towards the larger area would give the Zodiacs more fronts to attack it from, it stayed back in the passageway, protecting the masked figure and fending off the attacks from the front with its armoured scales. With a flick of its head, it managed to catch Libra's sword between its horns and tear it out of his hands, while it maintained a solid guard by only using its head and jaws to beat back the attacks and keeping its stance narrow to keep anyone from slipping underneath.
"Come here, dog!" Taurus bellowed, sweat trickling down his face and arms. Even though fatigue clouded the brunette's eyes, it didn't stop him from running straight at the creature and slamming his axe against its face.
The creature caught Taurus's axe in its jaws. Taurus immediately began to pull back, like how he had done with the second one, dragging it one step, two steps –
– he fell back as the creature let go of the axe, hissing angrily. Scorpio and Aquarius moved to cover him, jabbing and slashing at its snout.
Pisces took a couple of steps back, ceasing the glow of magic from her hands. Sparks of magic fizzed from her fingertips as she paused, breathing heavily. "Alright – what do I have..." She pulled out another tome from her belt and flicked through it, sweat trickling down her face and her palms. "Guys, to the river – Ice!"
However, instead of turning her magic towards the beast, she cast the glowing white beam towards the churning water. The river froze over where her magic touched, though the water beneath it churned angrily at having been stopped from its rampage.
Libra – now with his retrieved sword – recklessly leaped for the icy surface. The ice cracked and splintered beneath his weight, but with a skidding, stumbling run, he had tumbled his way around the side of the beast – which had originally been blocked off by the river – and out behind the beast.
"Get the conjurer!" Aries shouted, waving his sword from where he was stuck at the front of the creature. Libra forced back whatever his gut instinct told him to do and leaped at the masked figure with his sword outstretched.
Caught off guard, the conjurer only stumbled back to avoid the blade, gloved hands outstretched. The beast that the others were fighting attempted to turn around, but Leo forced it to turn its attention back to its front now that its summoner wasn't directly giving it instructions. Libra wildly swung the blunt edge of his sword and missed. His overestimation of his attack and the space that they had made him lose grip of his sword as it clanged against the wall and bounced straight off. The conjurer scrambled backwards on their rear, an almost comical sight – if not for them struggling to pull out another tome to defend themselves. Now defenceless, Libra didn't even think about retrieving the weapon; Libra jumped on top of them, pinning down their arms with his own and doing his best to press them against the rocky surface.
The figure shrieked. It was a distorted, deep noise, crackling through the pristine white mask in a horrible parody of the beast's cry.
"Who... who are you?" Libra asked, keeping the hooded figure's arms from flailing and shoving his knees against the figure's legs to keep them pressed to the ground. "Why are you trying to kill us?! Please, just call that creature off – we can talk!"
"No... that cannot happen."
The response surprised him; Libra hadn't realised they could talk. (Thinking about it, why wouldn't they be able to talk? They were humans like they were, right?)
"You... you are meddling with the divine plan," the figure hissed. "You... you should be honoured to be a part of it. Why... why are you with them?"
"What... what do you mean?" Libra stuttered. For some strange reason, their words seemed to cut straight into his heart like an icy knife, even though the figure hadn't actually done anything.
"You... are worthy. You have been chosen by the goddess herself. So give up. Submit... submit to our new world! You don't need the impure, the blackened – those people who accompany you... they are worthless beings in the face of the light. Only you –"
"N...no! They're not... they're not worthless! They're my friends – you... you are the ones that are blackened! You've murdered people and hurt people, you... you liars!"
With a cry of rage, he launched an open-handed slap against the cold, hard mask. His hand throbbed with the hit – it felt like slapping a marble wall – but the crack that laced up the edge of the mask seemed to prove otherwise. (In time, Libra would wonder how he was able to break part of the mask by a slap; he was never the strongest out of... well, anyone). He reached for the edge of the mask and attempted to tear it off –
The figure screamed as if the mask were fused to their face when Libra's fingers dug beneath the edge. In Libra's fury, his grip had loosened on the figure's arms, and they didn't hesitate at the opportunity and tear their arm out of his grip and pull out a tome.
"ņ̶̮̭̳̳̩̲̘̲̆ớ̷͎̫̱̜͙̏S̶̡̡̧̹͖̮͈̰̠̟̱̱͉̗̜̝̀̎̈̇̊̑́̈́̀̓̚̚̚ͅf̵͖̓̀͛̈̀̂͊́͛̿̆͠͝͝͝Ȩ̷̤̱͚͕͐̊̐̔̏̋̔͗̚R̸͖͚̤̙͚̲̜͛̄̓̈͆̐̅̆̔̔̄̀͋̄͠a̴̛̤̭̰̱͐͑̃̎̓̂͂̀̎͒̋̆͠͝ţ̷̞̰͚̟̟̼͖͎͔̤̤͈̠̫͖̊̽̆̈͌̇̋̊̒̚͠ͅü̴̢̯̰!"
Libra's breath caught in his throat. Completely forgetting about the masked figure, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and clenched his eyes shut, bracing for the blow that would surely catch him straight in the face and fling him across the cave like a rag doll –
Instead, the dark purple blast of magic arced past his head and struck the cave ceiling. Shards of rock exploded from where the magic had struck it.
"LIBRA!"
Libra turned his head. Aquarius was running across the freshly formed ice at top speed, her sword held before her as she lunged at the masked figure –
– then everything collapsed in a thunderous roar of dust, rock and debris.