"So what do you want to watch this for? She has no chance at all."
"She has my staff again, the Shroud is weaker, I can talk."
"But that's all you can do, and only a little at a time at that. Though I guess you can teach her the ins and outs when she comes over here."
"I'll have passed on by the time she dies," he laughed.
"And how can you be sure of this, you seem rather stubborn about that subject."
"Sore wa himitsu desu."
The mazoku smiled as Xina prepared for battle.
"You don't use a staff the same way you use a sword, little-girl," the mazoku smiled.
"Look who's talking, you're worse developed than I am." Sherra stomped her feet angrily.
"Shut up!" she shouted. "Its not my fault that Dynast didn't wait until I got older."
You were freezing to death, how long could he have waited?
"YOU SHUT UP TOO!!!" Sherra snapped at her sword. "Forget the talk I'm going to kill her NOW!!" The mazoku was suddenly surrounded with a cold white light as she blurred forward with a speed that just barely left Xina enough time to dodge. The light confused Xina, until she realized that her opponent wouldn't have a shadow as long as she held that aura.
"Oh shit," Xina breathed as the mazoku turned around a launched a blast. Xina raised a field of force in front of her and the mazoku's blast collided with it sending both constructs into shattered fragments of energy and light.
Form shadow, meld shadow
"Huh?" then Sherra flashed into existence behind her. Xina instinctually surrounded herself in darkness as she dodged forward into a roll. The sword flashed over her.
"Where's the magic you Inverse's are so famous for?" the mazoku sniped. "You can't cast it can you?" Desperate, Xina melded with her own darkness and snaked it out to another shadow. She came back into existence there after a blink of time.
"So that's what he meant." Xina mumbled. She encased Sherra in a force bubble, only to watch the mazoku teleport out with a laugh. Xina saw the mazoku appear above her and launch a barrage of blue circular energy blasts. Sherra watched as an amorphous shadow rocketed up into the sky.
The mazoku couldn't see through the gate into the pocket dimension formed by Xina's meld, but she didn't need to. The young looking mazoku laughed as another bubble of shimmering force, almost like moonlight, launched from the shadow.
"Trying to trap me again?" Then the bubble shattered into numerous spears of force all heading for her. Sherra choked on her laughter at the surprise and then released a blast in the shard's path that scattered them.
Xina knew she wasn't really flying, she was just moving the gate back to the real world higher into the air. Still, it was a wonderous sensation. She liked this, usually she was limited by where a shadow was, and if something happened to get rid of the shadow, the real object falling down for example, then she was kicked back out. This new twist opened a whole world of possibilities, which she vowed to explore. Assuming she survived this battle.
Sherra snarled as one stray shard slashed past her, cutting her face open. Xina gulped as an energy disk passed into her little pocket dimension and exploded. The force of the blast forced Xina flying out of the floating shadow, and suddenly she was falling.
"Any ideas!?" she shouted at the staff.
Let the dragon catch you.
"The what?" then something swooped under her and she landed hard, but safely on a great reptillian back.
"Hey you! Get back here!" Sherra shouted flying after the dragon that had rescued her opponent.
"Val?" Xina gasped. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, who's the brat and where's that traitor?"
"Janus is dead," Sherra snapped a barrage of energy blasts at them. Xina managed to blcok most of them with a wall that quickly crumbled under the onslaught. Xina felt Val shudder as the blasts she couldn't block struck him. "I can't block them all!" She shouted in apology."
"Its nothing serious," the dragon roared. Xina grasped for dear life onto his back as Val swooped around to face Sherra and release a fiery breath at their attacker. Sherra teleported out just a mite too slow and appeared behind them looking a little charred.
"I've killed dragons before!" she snapped before attacking again. One of the blasts that got through Xina's shield as it crumbled again, struck the dragon in the head. Val began descending rapidly toward a town below, obviously knocked senseless if only momentarily.
"Val!!! WAKE UP!!! VAL!!!" The dragon's eyes blinked open, and he managed at least enough maneuvering to avoid landing in the town and crushing a building or two. So when Xina was tossed clear, at least she didn't have to deal with falling rubble. Xina slammed into a wall and was dazed for a moment, barely managing to climb out of the hole she had made flying through the stone.
"I can't believe a weakling like you had the great Xellos as a father!" Sherra laughed.
"Its a mazoku!" somebody yelled. "Get her!" Xina decided she must still be shaking off the hit, because she could have sworn she heard five different voices shout "FLARE ARROW!" and maybe four other such spells.
"Damn minor spellcasters! Get out of my face!"
"A PMSing, adolescent mazoku!!" Someone shouted.
"WHAT!!?!" Sherra started turning her attention to the various sorcerers the town had somehow managed to produce against her. Xina stumbled out into the street and saw that Val was unconscious, at least she hoped he was just unconscious. She wasn't feeling good herself, her head hurt, she was dizzy, and her stomach kept wanting to toss up whatever food was left inside. She didn't really care at the moment though.
You're injured, let them handle her, they're enough of them.
"I'm not helpless," Xina gasped, clutching her head.
There is a line between foolishness and bravery. Xina ignored the voice she suspected was her father.
"HEY YOU LITTLE BRAT!!!" Xina spat forcing herself to stand straight and still, despite her desire just sit down and rest for a little while. "YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT THE DAUGHTER OF LINA INVERSE AND XELLOS METALLIUM CAN DO!!! FINE!!" She unleashed a wave of force spears mixed with shadows, obscuring the barrage.
Sherra laughed and blasted the spears away as before and then noticed that Xina had vanished. The mazoku turned around and saw one of the shadows hanging above her in time to see a force spear slash down and into her arm. The mazoku was carried down into the ground where she was pinned like an insect in a collection. The mazoku waited for the death blow to come, then the shadow faded away and Xina fell limply out of the sky. Sherra smiled as the force spear vanished and she stood up, left arm hanging limply while it healed.
Sherra saw some waitress raywing up and catch the fainted kage-kitsune.
"Gee everybody can cast magic in this place," Sherra complained.
LUNA!!! she looked to her sword confused.
"What?"
LUNA!!! LUNA INVERSE!!! THE KNIGHT OF CEIPHEED!!! THE BLOODY KNIGHT OF CEIPHEED!! Sherra's eyes shrank into her skull as the purple-haired waitress landed on the ground carrying Xina. All the other villagers shrank back from her in barely withheld terror.
"Oh shit, I'm in trouble," Sherra whispered.
"I work there," Luna pointed to where Xina had been through the wall, and Val and had crashed through what may have been a garden at one time. The woman did not sound happy.
"Bye now." Sherra said suddenly, before vanishing away, far, FAR away.