Diamond Wings

Chapter 14 Familiar Faces

   "What! How is that possible?" Sarena asks, in her great shock and confusion.
   "Well, you did not actually see Arthur fall, did you?" replies Amir.
   "Well . . . no, but I . . . just assumed that Ba lin . . . "
   "He is not as evil as you make him out to be Sarena. I mean, did he torture and toy with him for a while? Yes, but he was upset and hurt. He was not happy about how things turned out, and blamed Arthur for causing everything that happened that day.
   "After a few days though, Ba lin saw that everything that unfortunately happened, happened for a reason. He still saw Arthur as the cause, but instead of hating him, he began to be thankful to him. He decided to keep him around forever, so that all could show praise and remember the man who helped to start us onto our righteous path."
   "Are you saying that, after all this time, Arthur is still alive?"
   "Well, that is arguable. Ba lin turned him into stone. He remains as a statue and monument to this day."
   "What! So he did not murder him by way of the blade, but by turning him into stone? How is that any better?"
   "It is not clear that he is dead, or cannot possibly be turned back from stone. We can take you there to see him Sarena. Join us, and I am sure we can find a way to turn him back."
   She bends down to slowly pick up the small, round blue shield, as she falls deep into thought, contemplating her next move. Sarena rises to her feet, as Amir extends an open hand towards her.
   "Join us Sarena."
   "I am starting to think you might be right Amir. Sometimes bad things must happen for the greater good. Sometimes you must give up the things you want the most, to do the right thing."
   Amir allows himself a sinister grin, as he wins his sister over to his cause.
   She quickly raises her sword and points it at his neck.
   "What are you doing Sarena? Are you crazy?"
   "No Amir, I am not the crazy one. I do not wish to kill you, but I will if I have to. Stand down and leave this world to it's people, now. Alot has changed, but somethings never do, like the fact that I can still kick your ass!" Sarena declares and threatens, as she steals a page from Max's book.
   "Oh sister, you have grown vulgar and even more foolish in your absence. I have grown more powerful than you can possibly imagine, time to teach you some manners!" Amir declares, as he leans back from the sword, lifting his foot, and sending her back with a powerful kick.
   Sarena quickly recovers and comes at him, slashing across with her sword. He ducks under the swinging blade and gets in close, rising up hard and fast, headbutting her in the jaw. The savage blow leaves her dazed, as he unleashes three rapid punches to the midsection and finishes the vicious combo with a big and powerful kick, sending her flying back through the broken double doors, and out into the hallway.
   Max and Glik look around, wondering how their friends are faring on their covert operation.
   "They've been gone for too long," worries Glik. "They should of been back by now, something's wrong."
   "Relax," Max says. "Give em' some time. They're probly' just tryin' to slow roll it, and not alert any a' these guards."
   Glik's worries become validated, as they hear the castle guards begin to call out.
   "Assassins! Assassins at lord Amir's bedchamber! To arms!"
   Max and Glik turn to each other.
   "Let's go!" from both in unison.
   Sarena lands onto her back, looking up at Scarlet and the rogue soldier standing back to back, breathing hard with weapons drawn, surrounded by guards. Sarena struggles to rise onto her feet, after the brutal barrage of blows from her strong brother. Steel starts to ring out again, all around her, adding small sparks to dim torchlight on the curved balcony hallway.
   Scarlet blocks two swords from two different guards with her curved daggers, before she parrys them away, spinning and then burying the blades into their chests.
   Pulling the daggers out from the two skewered soldiers, she charges between them. Taking a few running steps before jumping up, and landing a kick in the midsection of another guard, then a kick in his chest, and finally a kick across the head, before returning back to the floor into a crouched position.
   While crouched, she sweeps her leg into another guard, dropping him to the floor.
   A charging soldier moves on her flank. She responds by finishing her leg sweep to face him, and springing up into a flip kick connecting with his jaw. The kick to the jaw knocks him out, as he flies back over the balcony railing, and she finishes a full rotation up into the air, and back down to the floor.
   After clearing out the soldiers around her, Scarlet looks over, to see Sarena helping the rogue guard dispatch the last of the guards on their side, with her superior swordplay. The three look around at each other, breathing and panting heavy, hearing more guards on the way.
   "Well done," offers Amir, as he walks out of the dark bedchamber and into the doorway. The torchlight now dancing off of his shiny, silver and gloriously majestic armor, as he holds a large and grand sword in his right hand.
   "My rebellious sister, leader of the insurgency and a traitor. It's my lucky day."
   All three grip their weapons and stand in defensive stances against Amir. Sarena stands in the middle, with Scarlet on her left, and the rogue guard on her right, the direction they came from.
   "Those guards were well trained, this might be fun after all. But remember Sarena, I told you, I have become much more powerful than I was."
   Amir places his left hand onto the shattered door. A purple radiance and glow begin to emanate from his hand, and spread throughout the broken door. Once the purple has taken it over, he effortlessly rips it off the hinges, and levitates it over his hand. It hovers a foot over his open palm, as it slowly spins in midair. He grins maniacally, as the three before him look on in awe, shock and worry.
   A new squad of soldiers charge down the balcony hallway, coming towards Scarlet.
   The broken purple door launches foward at the rogue guard with great force and speed. He tries to brace himself against the flying purple board, but to no prevail, getting pushed back violently over the balcony railing with the board. Sarena and Scarlet look on in horror, as the soldier who was helping them falls through the center of the grand circular room, and down three stories.
   Both of them are barely able to look back in time to face the combined onslaught.
   Amir goes after Sarena with a heavy overhand swing, from his mighty two-handed sword. She narrowly raises the small blue buckler to meet the forceful strike coming down, bringing her onto one knee.
   Scarlet blocks and parrys multiple incoming blades from the squadron of attacking soldiers. She lands a powerful kick into the midsection of the middle guard, sending him back and staggering the group of them.
   Flipping the daggers down, she takes two steps foward before leaping up onto the middle soldier, a foot on his chest and a knee in the neck. Bringing both daggers foward, slicing two adjacent necks, as she rides him to the floor. Crushing the soldiers neck with her knee as they land, before flipping the right dagger up, kicking off of her back foot, that sends her spinning foward in a clockwise whirlwind of deadly blades. Her spin sends her slicing through a forest of legs, followed by stomachs, chests and finally necks, as she rises in a violent tornado of bloody, gory death.
   Using the momentum from the thrusting spin, Scarlet starts to unleash multiple consecutive roundhouse kicks to clear out the farther guards, until no one else remains on their feet.
   She stands in the center of her fallen enemies, as they lay all around her, leaving her bloodied, but not by her own blood. Looking back, she sees  Sarena struggling to hold her own, versus her strong and powerful brother.
   Amir pushes his sister back against the balcony railing with his mighty blade. As their swords meet again, he thrusts a powerful kick into her torso. Sarena blocks his forceful foot with the blue buckler, but still it drives her through the railing, sending her falling off the third story.
   Amir looks over to meet Scarlet's worried and horrified gaze. He smiles sinisterly before leaping through the broken railing, flying after his falling sister, not viewing Scarlet as a threat.
   Sarena slows herself with her wings, and manages to land onto one foot, one knee, and her sword wielding fist, to steady herself. The rogue guard lay in front of her, still and lifeless. Seeing the purple reflection grow in his bloodied armor, she rolls left before Amir smashes into the floor where she landed.
   Sarena rises and stands stoically, gripping her sword and shield firmly, as the blue barrier grows larger into a medium-sized but still round shield.
   Amir meets her stare with his own, along side a wicked grin, gripping his larger sword with two hands.
   He comes down with diagonal slashes towards her, as she dodges, rolling her body slightly side to side. Sarena ducks under a horizontal slash, before attempting a stab, unable to connect before he swings back at her, crashing into the blue shield and sending her into a pillar. A heavy vertical swing demolishes parts of the pillar, as she rolls under it and onto his backside. Another stabbing attempt fails, foiled by a great sweeping swing around, causing her to jump back.
   Amir takes a hand off his blade to face it's palm towards the pillar debris. The hand glows purple before the broken stone begins to share the same color. The purple parts of the broken pillar start to rise in the air, as Amir's smile grows. He rolls his hand around in front of him, as the rocks start to move in a circle before him.
   Sarena hides behind the blue barrier and enlarges it to cover her entire body, before Amir holds his palm out to face her, launching the purple stones. They shatter and smash against the large shield in a meteor storm of violet rock.
   Amir laughs before placing his hand onto the rest of the pillar. The purple light spreads across it.
   Sarena moves the shield to the side, trying to see her brother through the clouds of dust, from exploding rocks. The amethyst colored radiance shines through the stone fog, as it rises up the pillar, making it to her eyes just in time, allowing her to roll to the side, as the giant purple pillar comes crashing down.
   Clouds of amethyst dust fill the room, as Sarena looks for her brother, unable to see through the purple fog. Ominous laughing sends her clues to his whereabouts, as she lunges towards the laughs, piercing nothing but air. From the other side of the room he cackles, as she rushes to attack, but hits nothing.
   Shattered bits of the pillar on the ground begin to glow purple and rise into the air. Sarena backs into a wall, trying to cover herself with the large shield, as the violet rocks begin swirling around the room like a whirlpool. She braces against the Cyclone of stones as they fly around. The dust and fog begins to funnel into the center of the room, and up like a tornado.
   Sarena tries to position her shield to catch the flying rocks as they rotate the room. Suddenly Amir springs out of the tornado, coming from the other side of the room, and onto her with heavy overhand swings. She buckles down to one knee as he swings onto her, over and over, sending blue sparks exploding into the air from the impacts. Small flying rocks begin to smash into her side, as she gets pinned down from aggressive vertical strikes.
   Sarena gets stuck between a barrage of rocks and a storm of blades, until Scarlet drops down onto Amir's shoulders from a balcony one floor above. She tries to stab and penetrate his full armor with either dagger, before having to deflect wild swings. He shakes and rocks his head wildly along with desperate swings to try and knock her off.
   Purple rocks fall back to the ground as they lose their glow. The dust tornado dissipates up into the air as Amir bucks wildly with Scarlet riding him.
   He finally reaches up to grab her, as she stabs his arm through a gap in the armor. It still doesn't stop him from ripping her off with great strength, and launching her against the wall.
   Sarena stabs him in the side, during his distraction. He lets out a painful yell, before reaching his hand out to grab her shoulder. He looks at her enraged, as she looks at her now growing purple shoulder, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. The amethyst color doesn't spread far before he throws her into the rising Scarlet, sending them both crashing down to the floor.
   He looks at his blood, as it starts to come from his side and arm now, angered and enraged by it.
   "A small victory from a coward's surprise attack. No matter, all out of surprises now. And it will take a whole lot more to defeat me. Something that you two cannot do alone!"
   "They're not alone!" yells Glik, walking up stairs and into the room at Amir's back. "But you are," he declares, holding up both of his blasters.
   Amir turns to face him, laughing maniacally.
   "That is what you think. Any minute now, this place will be swarming with an army of my loyal soldiers!"
   "Ya, about that," says Max, walking up the stairs and into the room at Glik's side. "They're not gonna make it, but they did ask if we can fill in for em'," he declares, resting his still smoking gun onto his shoulder as he grins.
   Amir tightens his gaze, as he glances over his shoulder to see Sarena and Scarlet rise to their feet. He keeps one eye towards Max and Glik as they move apart and start to circle him. He grips his sword with both hands, turning his head back and forth, trying to keep an eye on the four surrounding him, as Sarena and Scarlet move apart.
   "Give it up brother," Sarena demands. "You have already lost, don't make us kill you."
   Amir looks around at the four, spread out and completely surrounding him.
   "Wrong again sister. It does not matter how many weaklings you gather, you will lose all the same," he declares, as a small round object rolls across the ground and stops at his foot.
   It steals his gaze, as he looks down at it curiously, before it explodes. The fiery explosion sends him flying up into the air, leaving parts of his armor peeled back and shattered.
   Red blasts of energy reach him in the air, sending him back against a pillar and crashing down to the floor, face down.
   Scarlet steps onto his wrist, and kicks the large sword away.
   Sarena reaches down, grabbing his shoulder and leaning him back against the wall.
   "What were you saying brother?" she asks, as suddenly an ominous crack of lightning goes off above them.
   All five look up into the center of the room, as blue sparks appear in the air. The sparks crackle and crack, turning into a ball of lightning. The electric blue sphere grows into a large circle, shooting loud sapphire lightning all around it.
   Finally, once the portal is big enough, a figure starts to emerge. A black and gold figure floats through the door. Large gold and black wings aid his levitation, as he hovers out of the blue lightning crested portal.
   "Ba lin," says Sarena, in shock and terror.
   Ba lin looks down at her, as the blue portal begins to close behind him.
   "Hello sister."