Apex Rising

Beginning of the end (finale)

— 3rd person POV—

Echo and James both glared at each other with both of their weapons drawn. Echo with his mechanical arm and sting blade; and James with his mysterious red knife that was emitting a black fog from it. Echo didn't seem to notice Moon's reaction when James brandished the knife, her face a mix of horror and shock since she knew what knife that was and where she had seen it before.

(This but bigger)

James cocked his head to the side and laughed. "Do you really think that you can beat me with that little toy?" He jeered at Echo. "I don't think that I can beat you, I KNOW I can beat you. You act like some smoking knife can save you from what I'm about to do to you." Said Echo, with venom in his voice and energy cracking around his frame.

(Play this song)

The two enemies rushed at each other so fast that the author had trouble trying to write about it. James tried to deliver a diagonal slash to Echo, and he tried to block it with his blade, but the strangest thing happened. James knife phased through Echo's blade and cut directly into Echo's shoulder. (SAO reference if u get it.) Everyone was shocked at what they just saw. The two fighters flew away form, each other and Echo stared at the bleeding cut on his shoulder. James laughed and said "Not just a smoking knife now, is it?" He said. Echo hid his surprise with a stoic face. "Ok, so you got a magic knife and landed a blow on me. Good for you. But one slash doesn't compare to the three that you have." Echo said as he stared at James. "What three?" James questioned. He didn't get to continue when he received three blows in rapid succession to his mid-section. He looked down and saw three grey objects sticking out of his chest. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT!!!!" James shouted, now infuriated at Echo's attack. "Something that you will never live to find out." Said Echo as he ran at James and launched a spinning back kick towards his head. James narrowly dodged and jabbed upward ad Echo's exposed back. Right as the knife was about to connect, Echo heard a voice say in his head say "Don't move or think, just stay still." Confused, he did what the voice told him to do. He didn't feel the knife in his flesh, or anything for that matter. He opened his eyes to see that he was now behind James. Not wanting to waste his moment for an open strike, Echo thrust his sting blade forward, directly towards James neck, when he felt an intense pain in his chest. He then heard multiple people cry out in alarm and he looked down at himself. He saw James' knife in his chest, through his own body, cutting through straight through both of them.

(Stop playing the song)

"Heh, you wouldn't really think that it was going to be that easy, now did you?" Asked James with a sadistic voice. Echo pulled himself off the blade and coughed up blood and collapsed on the ground. James pulled the knife out of his body, and to Echo's horror, watched as the wound closed back up, if it was never there. "Wha-what are you?" Echo stuttered as he was trying to keep consciousness. "You know, I don't like it when people lie to me Echo. You of all people should know that. So tell me why, I felt this cute thing trying to attack me?" Asked James as he shot his hand foreword and caught Ion by the throat. "How did you find me?" Ion choked out as she was slowly losing air. "LET HER GO!!!!" Echo shouted at James as he tried to crawl towards him. James laughter and slammed her into the ground, knocking her unconscious and making several loud cracks heard. "I'LL KILL YOU!!" Roared Echo, almost reaching James with his hair flickering bright orange. James threw his knife into Echo's arm, pinning him. Echo shouted out in pain, making his hair glow even brighter. "I'LL. KILL. YOU. YOU. MONSTER!!!" Echo growled. "Really? And how do you suppose that you are going to do that, since you are the one who's about to die." Scoffed James. He pulled out another knife and hurled it at Echo's head. The sound of a chain snapping was heard and Echo looked up to see Nova standing in front of him with the knife poking out of her back. "No..." Echo stammered. Nova turned around and smiled at him. "It's ok Echo, don't worry." She said with a kind voice as she collapsed. Echo ripped the knife out of his arm and threw it at James, catching him in his right eye. He ignored his screams of agony as he crawled over to where Nova was lying on the ground bleeding out. "No...Nova...you can't die....I WONT LET YOU!!!!" Cried Echo as his friend lay there, barely clinging onto life. She reached out a hand and Echo grabbed it. "Don't worry about me Echo, I'll be fine. It's the least I could do, since I betrayed your trust. Don't forget me." She said with her last breath and her hand fell limp out of his hand. It fell silent, besides the screams of pain coming from James clutching his eye. Echo picked up Nova's lifeless body and hugged it, his tears running down his face and falling onto hers. "Why Nova? You just had to get yourself killed you dummy..." Echo cried, not noticing that James screams had stopped. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that this bastard pays for what he's done." Said Echo, putting on a determined face and turning back to James. But what he saw made all of his confidence leave him. James was standing in the middle of all of his friends dead bodies with a grin on his face. "These people thought that they could attack me when I was down. Big mistake. Too bad for you though, now you'll die alone." He said with a maniac grin. Echo exploded. He lost all sense of restraint and rushed at James and thrust his arm that had turned into a giant cleaver straight through James' body, causing him to throw up blood.