Zangulus scanned the boy in front of him, though young man might have described him better. His build, his face and the way he held himself in preparation for battle.
"You must be Gabriev's son," Zangulus said coldly, drawing his black blade. Jolrael narrowed his eyes.
"Oh, do you know Gourry-san?" Tinuviel asked as the bounty hunter dragged her along behind him. "Hey, couldn't you just ask!?" The warriors were circling each other, waiting for the other to make a move.
"His father and I have a long-standing difference of opinion."
"Doesn't really matter, does it," Jolrael said. "Whatever problem you have with my dad, has nothing to do with us."
"You seem a little less....dense than Gourry," Zangulus noted. "Did his talent skip you as well?"
"And are you getting old that you have to hide behind a hostage?"
"Hostage? What hostage?" Jol and Zangulus face faulted.
"Fine then, let's get this over with," Zangulus snapped his blade forward as Jol got to his feet. Jolrael's own weapon blocked the other aside and spun out of the block into a slash that was in turn parried. Sparks of power flashed as the weapons collided.
"That was good," Zangulus noted. The older swordsman swung his sword away from the parry, trying to come in from another angle. Jolrael only just managed to get his block up in time. "Your father was better."
"I have a few tricks he doesn't," Jol assured him. Zangulus was pushed off his feet and back about ten feet by something he did not see. He rolled to his feet in time to avoid a swift downward strike held at the end of onne of Jol's leaps. Zangulus was no longer amused by this confrontation.
The swords clashed and sparked with strike and parry as the battle went on.
"Hey could you repeat that exchange?" Tinuviel said from where she sat with a little notebook and feather pen.
"WHAT?" both warrior's shouted.
"I think I missed some of the movements."
"What is that?" Xina asked as the necromancer's skeleton seemed to further dissolve.
"RA TILT!!" The blue-white flames flashed forward and surrounded the creature. Nothing happened. "His spirit isn't here!"
"White as the moon!" the twitching skull cackled. A blast of dark fiery power launched itself at the chimera.
"WINDY SHIELD!" the darkness swirled into the wall of air and dissipated. Xina sheathed her sword and ran forward at the cackling creature.
"Xina look out!" Xalan cut across and shoved her aside as another blast targetted her.
"We have to get the staff!" Xina snapped.
"FIREBALL," a wave of darkness batted dissolved Amethyst's fireball. The skeleton was now little more than a floating skull and arms. The rest of its body had been sucked into the flow of magic somehow.
There was a sudden rumbling that knocked all three living warriors to the ground, and then had them scrambling up to avoid getting hit. Xalan cursed that there wasn't anything he could do as he avoided repetive blasts of power. Into the room from the otherside, Zangulus and Jolrael tumbled in, still fighting a stalemate. Jolrael had tried to blind the hunter, and had gotten around his will enough to at least dim the vision. Overall though, now that Zangulus wasn't playing around, his skill made up the difference.
Xalan moved to help Jolrael and then noticed a section of ceiling about to come down on Tinuviel where she was following them. The kage-kitsune rushed and pushed her out of the, wondering if that was going to be all that he was doing this battle.
"The elf!" the skull shouted as its arms disappeared. A bolt of darkness launched itself at her and Xalan.
"Tinu down!" Jol shouted as he reached out with his mind and intercepted the attack. The sudden conflict sent him reeling, and he was pulled away from his duel with Zangulus.
"The place is falling down," Janus shouted as he appeared. "I think the dragon has already been crushed in the rubble.
"Val?!" Xina hesitated in her current rush to get the staff that had cluttered to the ground. Zangulus turned away from the psychic Gabriev and made his own rush for the staff, snatching it from the ground.
"Thanks for the help!" he shouted as he launched himself out the tower window. Xina rushed over and saw him descending smoothly on a blanket of darkness extending below the point of the blade. "But my mistress awaits!"
"Hey, Janus!" and if there was a hint of hostility in Xina's voice, they could attribute it too the hunter's escape. "Get over here and raywing me down!" The sorcerer acquiesed quickly.
"Xina-san wait for us!"
"None of you will escape!" the skull shouted, despite the lack of a jaw bone. A wave of darkness launched at the pair at the window.
"Stow it!" Xina shouted as she jumped at the window following the sorcerer. She formed a force bubble between her and the undead. The bubble, looking like a sphere of concentrated light held as the darkness shattered against it. Tinuviel watched and arched an eyebrow at the reaction.
"I will return!!" the undead Roquen promised as the last of its skull finally vanished and his spirit was pulled to wherever it would be stored for his final transformation.
"Xina!" Xalan rushed for the window, but the wall caved in around it, blocking that path.
"We have to get out of here now!" Jolrael shouted. The swordsman grabbed a thinking Tinuviel and rushed for the other window. Immediately outside he enacted a levitation to carry him above the path of falling stones.
"Xalan-san," Amethyst pleaded to the kage-kitsune who was trying to dig through the rubble as the rest of the tower was crumbling around him. "We can't help her if we die here."
"Let's go," Xalan agreed.
"RAYWING!!!" Amethyst shouted, and then navigated through the falling masonry to join Jolrael and Tinuviel outside.
"Where are they?" Xalan asked. Craning about for any movement he could see below. He couldn't see his sister, the sorcerer or the hunter they were chasing. What he could see didn't improve his mood. From the fields about the crumbling tower, skeletons and shades rose up in ranks and began marching south.
"They're heading for Zephilia," Amethyst said. "There are so many of them!"
"Zephilia is well known for repelling all attacks against them," Jol noted. "And nobody really knows how."
"You know, I bet a weapon of light would be useful when that thing comes back," Tinuviel noted absently.
"But where do you find one of those?" Amethyst asked. Below them the rubble shifted.
"I can't see any sign of them," Xalan said, trying to look through the twisted trees.
"Where's that damn sorcerer!" Val's dragon form roared.
"Val-kun!" Tinuviel shouted. They landed near the rubble. "Oh, we have to get you out of there!"
"That sorcerer is after Xina, where are they."
"They went after the staff," Xalan muttered as he started trying to clear the rubble.
"Oh I can get out myself," the dragon sniped. "Just go after Xina."
"No, you can't," Jol noted. "I suspect you were in human from when this all fell on you, and you're a lot more hurt than you're acting."
"But Xina..."
"Will have to take care of herself for now," Xalan said. "We have other problems." Xalan and Amethyst worked to physically clear the rubble, while Jol moved boulders telekinetically until Amethyst could get to a position that she could reach Val's injuries and heal them.
"They'll be heading for Zephilia and civilization," Jol said as Amethyst completed the healing. "If you can get us there ahead of the dead, maybe we'll see them along the way."
"I don't like this."
"Nobody does, Val-san," Amethyst said.