Episode 50 The Doom Bells Ring
The newly-formed Avenger glows white-hot in Recelo’s hands, as he holds it up in the air. He swings it wildly in his hand, a maddening gleam in his eyes. “Here I come!”
Zack, still clenching tightly to his Angel Ray, turns to Cynthia next to him. “You ready, Cynthia?”
“Yeah,” Cynthia replies, a determined look in her own eyes. “Just remember to give me backup!”
Nodding, Zack flashes her a smile. “Will do!”
With a burst of speed, Cynthia jolts towards Recelo, her Kandine raised high in the air. At the same time, Recelo counters by hurling his Avenger with brute force to meet her. Like his Doombringers, the Doom Avenger is connected to a long metallic chain.
Cynthia dodges the first attack, sidestepping the Avenger. She knocks it away from its trajectory with her left fist resoundingly. It crashes into the ground with a roar. With another jump in speed, Cynthia bounds forward. She flicks her Kandine towards Recelo, hurling it forward like a throwing knife.
Too fast even for Recelo, the Kandine lands in his left arm, lodged in place. A narrow stream of blood runs down from his arm. Gritting his teeth, Recelo turns to meet Cynthia as she arrives within point-blank range at last.
Immediately, Cynthia jerks her dagger out of Recelo’s bicep and spins in midair, screaming at the top of her lungs. “Savage Blow!”
“Damn it!” Recelo curses, as he feels the six viciously fast blows hit him all at once. He recalls his Avenger with a jerk of his hand, yanking it back with his chain.
Unable to move away in time, Cynthia’s eyes widen as the Doom Avenger comes barreling her way. She raises her Kandine to block the attack, but not before Recelo shouts victoriously: “Weapon Explosion!”
The Avenger explodes in a burst of white smoke, damaging both Recelo and Cynthia. The latter bends over, coughing violently as the smoke gets into her lungs. She bites her lip, desperately searching through the smoke for any sign of her opponent.
Meanwhile, Recelo jumps backwards out of the explosion, recovering his original single Doombringer. But at that moment, a loud screeching noise sounds from just behind him. He turns, but not quickly enough, as Zack fires his Angel Ray from directly behind.
The arrow barrels into Recelo’s back, landing a direct hit. It goes straight through, leaving a hole through his stomach. Recelo clutches his abdomen, eyes widened, as he coughs up blood.
“Now’s my chance!” Cynthia cries, suddenly emerging from the smoke. She raises her Kandine, poised to strike. “Assaulter!”
At the same time, Zack fires another Angel Ray at Recelo from the other side. As the two attacks come at Recelo simultaneously, he reaches into the pocket of his robe. “Damn it!” he hisses again, raising a small stone in the air.
A clone of Recelo suddenly emerges after a brief flash of light. The clone darts forward with extreme speed, carrying a Doombringer of its own. It turns first towards Cynthia, knocking her back brutally and sending her crashing into the ground. She rolls several feet before popping back up, grass stains on her clothes.
In the meantime, Recelo jumps out of the way of Zack’s Angel Ray. He turns, raising his own Doombringer. Done with Cynthia, his clone flies at Zack as well, throwing its Doombringer forward like a dagger.
Zack sidesteps the clone’s attack, but fails to react in time for Recelo’s subsequent attack. The Doombringer crashes into Zack’s left shoulder, planting a deep cut into it. Blood immediately gushes out of his wound, sending Zack to his knees.
Recelo high-fives his clone as it returns to his side before disappearing in a puff of smoke. He breathes heavily, himself suffering from his wound from earlier. Reaching into his pocket again, Recelo this time draws out a small packet of medicine and places it in his mouth.
Immediately, the hole in Recelo’s stomach closes up, though it still remains stained with bright red blood. Still gasping for air, Recelo places his hand over his Doombringer. “Triplication!” A new set of three Doombringers forms in his hands.
Cynthia stumbles forward stubbornly. She looks over at Zack, who remains kneeling on the ground. “Zack!” she cries, taking another shaky step forward. “Are you all right?”
Slowly, but steadily, Zack returns to his feet, the wound in his shoulder delicately closing as a bath of green light engulfs him. “That was a hard hit…” he mutters, grabbing his shoulder and flexing it.
“This is why I don’t like fighting Bishops!” howls Recelo, bounding forward suddenly. He forms a new shuriken with his Doombringers. “Doom Avenger!” He hurls the shuriken straight at Zack.
Unable to react quickly enough, the Avenger connects head-on with Zack, sending him flying several feet backwards. Cynthia leaps forward to take Zack’s place in front of Recelo, but fails to reach Zack soon enough to do anything for him.
“Hmph,” Recelo sniffs satisfactorily, recalling his Doom Avenger with his chain. “You’re next!” Recelo turns to Cynthia, spinning the shuriken violently in the air.
The Doom Avenger comes barreling towards Cynthia. She flies forward as well to meet it, deflecting the hulking weapon with her Kandine. The shuriken flies off course, crashing into the ground nearby. Cynthia slices her way past the deflected Avenger, swinging up with her Kandine.
With a crack, the metal chain connecting the Doom Avenger to Recelo snaps. Cynthia then uses her momentum from the attack to leap into the air, continuing to head straight at Recelo.
Recelo dodges Cynthia’s attack, ducking as he slips past her. He sprints forward in a hurry, attempting to recover his Doom Avenger. Cynthia turns at the same time, her eyes narrowed with intensity.
“I won’t let you get away! Assaulter!”
With an added burst of speed, Cynthia flies at Recelo. But at the same moment, Recelo recovers his Doom Avenger. “Weapon Explosion!” he shouts.
The two attacks explode upon contact, knocking the two combatants backwards. Cynthia is thrown back into the air, landing in a heap on the ground and rolling several times before coming to a halt. Meanwhile, Recelo merely slides back from the hit, his Avenger having absorbed most of the damage.
Recelo’s weapon returns to its form as a single Doombringer as he stands wearily, his breathing ragged. However, he immediately spins around as he hears footsteps behind him.
Zack has returned to his feet, all of his wounds miraculously healed. Recelo narrows his eyes. “That damn Heal Shield of yours…”
Returning Recelo’s frown with a smile, Zack waves his Kage. “Premierin’…the new Zack Jr.!” he cries. A flash of light appears over the battlefield momentarily, as a large red dragon now emerges into the air. It flaps its wings merrily, a defiant, yet jolly look in its eyes.
“Annoying Bishop,” curses Recelo. But in the next moment, he is forced to dodge as Zack Jr. charges up an attack. The blast strikes the ground where Recelo had been standing moments before, leaving a miniature crater.
“Triplication!” Recelo recreates his set of three Doombringers, a brand new chain dangling from each of them. He takes a massive flying leap backwards to create distance between Zack and himself.
Zack Jr. pursues Recelo, its eyes squinted with concentration. Gritting his teeth, Recelo flings one of his Doombringers at the dragon. The sword misses wide right, as Recelo recklessly hurls another and then his third Doombringer as well.
All three swords miss as the dragon sails agilely through the air. However, the chains of the Doombringers gradually surround Zack Jr. Recelo gives a tug on his chain, causing the chains to tighten around and restrict Zack Jr. Smirking gleefully, Recelo gives a loud shout. “Weapon Explosion!”
At the same time, Zack finishes charging his next attack. “Big Bang!”
“Crap!” Recelo howls, his eyes widening. Several explosions engulf the entire battlefield, as Recelo’s Weapon Explosion erupts around Zack Jr., and multiple blasts of mana surround Recelo.
In the midst of the chaos, Cynthia reappears from out of nowhere behind Recelo. He fails to even notice her as she comes for him. “Assaulter!”
A whirlwind of fire explodes upon the battlefield as all of the disparate attacks collide at once. The flames lash out from Recelo at the center, greedily consuming everything in its wake. Both Zack and Cynthia jump back, raising their arms as shields as the fierce wind whips them.
Finally, the eruption of energy settles down again, as smoke and dust fill the air. The haze from the attack lingers in the air for several seconds, before finally settling to the ground and clearing away. From within the mass of smoke steps out the figure of Recelo, heavily injured, but still standing proudly.
Zack’s eyes widen. “No way…” he simply mutters, jaw quivering slightly.
Recelo’s kimono is shredded around the chest, revealing several open wounds dripping wet with blood. He breathes heavily, leaning upon his Doombringer for support. His ponytail has become undone, as his wild black hair falls low over his eyes and shoulders.
Cynthia responds by raising her Kandine again. She bites her lip. ‘Then I’ll just have to hit him even harder…!’
Suddenly, Recelo bursts out laughing raucously. “Hahaha! Nice try, but you’ll have to do even better than that!” He abruptly jerks his Doombringer out of the ground and springs forward again, coming at Zack with reckless abandon.
In alarm, Zack raises his Kage to defend himself, but Recelo merely smashes the staff out of the Bishop’s hands with his sword. He strikes at last, engraving into Zack’s left shoulder a grievously deep wound. Zack falls to the ground silently, his staff several feet away out of reach.
“Zack…!” Cynthia shrieks, stepping forward. But Recelo turns to her, his breathing still ragged, but clearly ready to fight.
“Dup…lication…!” he gasps, creating two duplicates of his sword. He holds each sword aloft in either hand, pointing them towards Cynthia. Victory gleams in his maddened black eyes.
In response, Cynthia holds her dagger aloft as well, bracing herself for Recelo’s next attack. The Fatalist charges. Cynthia awaits the attack.
As Recelo approaches, Cynthia moves into action. She steps to the side, aiming to slash her opponent as he passes. However, Cynthia fails to see the Doombringer coming her way. The jingling of the metal chain sounds in her ear right before she sees it. It slams into her on the side, the impact shattering several bones in her right arm with a sickening crunch.
Shocked by the impact, Cynthia stumbles to the ground, as Recelo arrives above her at last. The last thing she sees is Recelo standing victoriously above her, a wild smirk on his lips. In the next second, a second crunch sounds as the Fatalist buries his other Doombringer deep into her.
—END FIFTY—
Moar fites.