Moonlark Turned Evil

Inktober Special: Shallow

Merry christmas eve everyone!

Alice peered around the corner, squinting in the bright sunlight. The casual shifting of her fingers around the hilt of her sword spoke of ease, both with the situation and the weapon. She looked back, making sure Emmy was in position beside her, and nodded. They burst out from their hiding spot in perfect sync, Alice leaping into the air on a square of blue light to let Emmy open fire.

The sound of gunfire rang loudly as Emmy raised her weapons.

Alice spun around midair, rebounding off another square, her sword greeting another with a sharp clang of metal against metal—Fitz had leapt off the roof of a nearby skyscraper to come down upon her in a well planned attack.

Their swords clashed a few more times before they both jerked back in unison, changing their trajectories with more squares. Two bullets whizzed through the space they'd occupied just seconds before, coming from different directions.

The one that had been aimed at Alice had likely been fired by Wylie Endal.

Sophie had finally decided that her friends' training should step up a bit from riding fire breathing creatures and swinging swords at a certain ogre princess, so she'd enlisted the help of the older Phoenix members.

Thus, Alice and Emmy, along with Irily (who wasn't an 'older Phoenix member', exactly, but she had enough fighting experience to be classified as one) and the members of the Sea Dragon Guild who wanted to beat up the weak (read: all of the members of the Sea Dragon Guild) were out in the training room at 2AM in the morning.

"Less tension in the wrist," Alice instructed Fitz as they continued fighting, heading towards a nearby building, using their squares as footholds.

Fitz adjusted his grip accordingly, and found his next strike to be much smoother. He began to experiment a little, and Alice hid a proud smile at how quick he was to learn.

Above their heads, Rayli Foh and Wylie Endal were having a fierce competition, firing bullets through their respective weapons, changing positions, and shooting again. Wylie's gun was heavier, so it was harder for him to move around, and Rayli, with her easy Lighting, was pressing her advantage.

Down on the ground, Blaze was taking on Maruca and Linh at the same time, Everblaze in one hand and swords, guided by the wind, whizzing around him to form a shield.

The rest of the battle was unseen from where Alice was, but last she'd heard, Maruca, Biana, and Dex had teamed up on Fayn. Having a three versus one would spell doom for most, but she doubted the Cryokinetic had gained even a scratch on his avatar.

Serena Alfindale flew past them, breaking through Fitz's concentration as his eyes naturally darted after her. Alice struck out, narrowly missing his arm as he twisted out of the way. Tam darted after Serena on the same blue squares they were all using, the daggers in his hands glinting. Bringing up the rear was Irily, riding on a horse made of shadow. It apparently didn't care that it was galloping through the air.

"Tam is going against both of them?" Alice murmured, almost to herself, as she blocked Fitz's next strike.

But she was wrong.

Like a sudden gust of wind, Keefe was there, sweeping out his sword in a perfect arc. Serena's arm, from the shoulder down, burst into cubes of light as the sword sliced straight through. She moved to strike back with her other hand, but Fitz darted forward, snagging Serena's attention. While she was distracted, Tam stabbed a dagger into her back.

"Not fair!" Serena complained as her avatar dissipated.

Fitz exchanged smiles with Tam and Keefe—and Alice chose that moment to catch up to him, severing his head with one flick of her sword.