Post by spyder on Jul 23, 2006 6:24:04 GMT -5
Chapter 30 - Guess Who
Rose's P.O.V
From the moment I opened my eyes I suddenly had this feeling inside of me that something wasn’t right, like something bad was going to happen. There was almost like an ambience to the room I lay in, that matched the feeling inside of me. Something in the air, just didn’t feel right, and with the thoughts and images of Scythe brutally murdering not only myself, but also Jake in my dreams the night before I was very observant to the intense burn that was once again running up the Huntsmark around my wrist. This only raised the tension and wonder inside of me…
‘What does this mean?’ I thought to myself, staring up at the blank, bare roof above me
I decided to try and ignore it and pulled myself from out of the bed, walking over to the window and brushing a few stubborn hairs out of my eyes so I could stare out of it.
A lot of the day had already passed and I could see that looking through the window, seeing the setting into the semi-darkness of the mild, late afternoon. I was surprised when I saw how long I’d slept for, and how much of the day had passed. In a way, it felt almost wasted. I guess after everything I’d been through, every second of life to me had become precious and I was frustrated for losing time that could have accounted for maybe a few extra seconds of life I had before…It ended…
Just thinking about that, felt weird. Death, the end of it all, the most puzzling piece in the jigsaw puzzle that is life…I’d never have thought that I’d have to consider death in such a great way before (well, not at this age). Not until now.
I hated having to run this same thoughts over and over again through my mind but
But then suddenly I heard a sound that made me freeze and stop completely in my tracks. From what sounded like a few floors above I could hear the sound of footsteps against the ground. It was hard to pick up, because these people (whoever they were) we walking slowly and seemed to be concentrating on putting as little weight and force into their steps as possible.
They were coming closer…There was definitely more then one. There had to been at least three or so of them, and as they grew closer I swore I could hear voices, voices of men.
I crept slowly across the room and carefully opened the door, trying desperately not to make a sound. I opened it carefully just enough so I could peak my head out and look down the hall, trying to find some help.
‘Jake?’ I said calling the first name that came to my mind down the hall ‘Jake!’ I called louder and more desperately this time, but still I got no response.
‘Where could he be?’ I thought, opening the door even more and actually stepping out into the hall, staring around it ‘Could Jake have been captured by the Huntsclan as well?’ I thought
It all made perfect sense, another little devious scheme pieced together by the Huntsman. Somehow, he managed to clear the shop of Jake, Jeff and even his grandfather and now that they were all gone I was trapped inside of the shop, nowhere to hide as his henchmen made their way down towards me.
I didn’t know what would happen if I was caught, and didn’t plan to find out either. In desperate times you call for desperate measures, so I ran over to the bottom of the stairwell and raised my fists up in a combat stance waiting for the Henchmen to come down. I wasn’t going to get taken out of here without a fight, and hopefully, if I found a way through this, I would not have to get taken out of here at all…
The footsteps soon began to trail down the stairs ahead of me, and before I knew it there they were. Three armed Huntsmen making their way down the stairs, towards me. They’d covered the last few steps and were a few feet within me, sinister smiles on their faces as they held their staff’s up and pointed them in my direction, ready to call.
‘Hey Huntsies!’ I heard a voice call and they are jerked there heads up the flight of stairs where the voice had come from. Which was when Jeff (still about ten or so stairs up) lunged out, covering every step and lashed his right foot out in an attempt at a kick, but ended up ‘coat-hanging’ the Huntsman around the neck, knocking him off of his feet with all his weight, making hi him smash the side of his head hard against the ground, knocking him unconscious, and all that happened before you could even blink an eye.
Jeff had taken a pretty rough fall after launching himself from the top of the stairs. He’d hit the kick alright but had put a lot of energy into scaling every last step to the bottom, and a lot concentration into trying to accurately strike the Henchman in the side of his head (which wasn’t so accurate in the end anyway). That didn’t leave him much time to think about how he’d land. But I guess he wasn’t really thinking, Jeff was just seeing an option and taking it without even wondering what the consequences of it might be.
All Jeff could do when he hit the floor, was instinctively shield his face with his hands and do the best he could to cover up. But it still wasn’t enough. He came crashing down hard into the ground all the weight from his body landing on his right hand. He pulled himself up to his feet as fast as he could, after hitting the ground, shaking his hand which he seemed to have hurt after his ugly landing from the several flights of stairs up he’d just leapt from and tore off the glove he still wore on his hand to examine it momentarily, forgetting about the other two Huntsman stood behind, their weapons raised, ready to strike.
‘Look out!’ I called out, as the remaining Henchmen stood behind him, one slightly to the left, one slightly to the right, both looking to drive their staffs into Jeff.
‘Oh parc,’ he said in shock, side-stepping a downward thrust of one of the Huntsman’s staff’s. He lunged back, back-flipping away from a shot driven at his chest but once he landed on his feet he had to be quick to duck another staff from the second Huntsman.
Jeff leaped back narrowly avoiding another shot taken at his chest by that same staff that had already been driven at him various times before. The Huntsman holding the weapon within in his hands, glared at Jeff who was now a fair distance back from him, arms raised, taunting for him to strike with his next move. He was fast to accept Jeff's challange and ran in at him immediately, the serrated edge of his staff targeted squarely at Jeff, as he charged forward, looking to drive it into his chest. But Jeff had expected this and quickly took a high jump over the Huntsman's shoulders (as he was bent down slightly, concentrating a large ammount of his energy into the force he was putting behidn the staff).
Jeff landed gracefully on his feet behind the Henchman, who noticed this and was quick to turn and have another attempt at cutting Jeff down to size. But this time, Jeff was ready to fight back and when the Henchmen throw out his staff, trying to drive it into Jeff's side again. Jeff was able to block it, grabbing it around the middle where it was more of a handle, then a blade. He grabbed it with his right hand and with his left, drove an elbow, hard into the side of the head of the Huntsman. He grabbed a hold of the Huntsman’s left hand and wrenched it, hard, making him loose his grip on the Huntstick, causing him to drop it to the ground and once he was unarmed it was fair game, well, sort of. The Huntsman still hadn’t recovered after Jeff almost breaking his wrist, wrenching and then sandwiching it between his knee and his own arm, he bent down on one knee, holding it and writhing in pain. He couldn’t even get his hands up to cover the kick that Jeff slammed hard, right in the side of his temple.
And as that guard collapsed onto his side on the ground, Jeff had forgotten about the other Huntsman who was now behind him, his Huntsstick raised ready for him to drive it into Jeff’s back. Luckily though, the Huntsman seemed to have completely forgotten about me too.
So he had no time to even see what had hit him when I lunged over and kicked him in the back. He dropped his staff, his back bending against the force I delivered. He let out a cry of pain, which Jeff heard and turned round to see the Huntsman behind him and once he’d seen him and the fact that he was already venerable he was quick to take advantage of the surprise the Huntsman was still recuperating from, throwing out a kick his own.
He jumped up into the air slightly, before lashing out hard and aggressively with crescent kick right into his forehead which knocked him flat on his back upon the hard timber floor.
He landed gracefully his feet and then looked down upon the Huntsman laid out upon the ground, slowly lowering his hands once he thought it was safe. He then looked across to me and gestured up to the stairs
‘C’mon,’ he said ‘we’ve gotta get out of here. Jake’s waiting…’
And with that he lead me past the fallen bodies and slowly up the stairway. Unsure of what might await us outside, beyond the door at the top of them.
Jake’s P.O.V
I lashed around and threw my fist out at one of the Huntsman who’d been standing behind me, catching him hard in the side of his face, knocking him off his feet from the unexpected attack. I felt a hand on my shoulder, as another of the Huntsmen grabbed me from behind. I was quick to retaliate though, elbowing him in the jaw twice, out of complete desperation though.
I was acting strongly on instinct during this fight, it wasn’t even a fight for me, it was more like just trying to survive. There were at least five of these Huntsmen and just one of me. American Dragon or not, I was still handicapped, and the numbers game was slowly starting to catch up, the longer this fight lasted the less it would be in my favour, I knew I had to end it fast.
After catching the Huntsman attacking me in the jaw with my elbow, I pivoted around him so we were face to face. He then lashed at me swiftly with a front kick, trying to get when I didn’t expect it. But I saw it coming and caught his leg and spun round, catching him in the back of the head with an elbow. Then I lashed out fast, sweeping the leg he was standing on for support and tripping him to the ground.
I ducked under a spin kick that was thrown at my head by another of the Huntsmen, who recovered after missing the kick and followed by slashing his staff across at me, trying to connect with the side of my head. But I caught around the middle with right hand, stopping him from sending it any further and elbowed him in the side of the head repeatedly, trying to get him to lose his grip on the staff. We continued to fight over the staff, eventually activated it and sending shots of green fire in all the directions.
I tried to direct the shots and the other Huntsmen surrounding me, but with the Huntsman still gripping it tightly and struggling against my will, I was unsuccessful. I eventually gave up, and elbowed the Huntsman in the jaw once more, before throwing down the Huntsstaff and using that force against the Huntsman, throwing him over shoulders.
He landed hard on his back and I locked across and saw one of the Huntsmen I’d taken down return his feet. Once he was standing again I threw the staff at him, it was only natural that once he saw the staff flying at him that his reflexes told him to catch it, and he did, and after catching the staff he was completely unprepared for the kick that I followed up with, cracking him right in his forehead and knocking him back to the ground.
After having taken that Huntsman I was suddenly hit from behind hard, and I lost my balance from the unexpected attack, collapsing to the ground. I turned around and then saw that the Huntsman who delivered that kick into the back of my head, hadn’t been a Huntsman at all. It had been the Huntsboy, Scythe.
‘What?’ he said ‘Did you really think I was gonna pass up another opportunity to slay my first dragon? I wouldn’t miss this for the world,’ he added with an evil grin.
I glared at him angrily (still with revenge on my mind for what he’d done to Rose) and got back up to my feet and raised my hands, ready to fight again. Scythe came in closer and glared back at me, his hands also readied to fight, as we took a moment to ‘face off’, expressing the hatred with the simple looks in our eyes.
It was at that moment I suddenly heard footsteps coming up the stairs fast, and it wasn’t much longer before these footsteps were followed by the door bursting open as Jeff with Rose clutching onto his hand came running out.
But Scythe noticed this too, and the moment they’d made it outside he immediately raised his Huntsstick and took a shot at them.
And when that immense ball of green flame left the end of Scythe’s staff, everything was in slow motion again. A split second or two melted away and I saw Jeff’s slowly widen as he noticed the shoot come from the end of Scythe’s came closer and closer to him. He slowly continued to watch it, as it sailed slowly over towards them, and within split seconds it was within inches of, not him anymore, but Rose.
Jeff was once again quick to pick up on this, and the last thing I saw was another look of shock, flash in his eyes as they darted over to see the fireball about to hit Rose. That’s when everything went back to normal.
Faster then you could blink in a span of, what to me had seemed about 15 seconds or so, but really hadn’t even been one, Jeff had thrown himself across, just managing to shove Rose out in the way in time and shield her from getting him from Scythe’s fireball. He couldn’t save himself though. It caught him right in the neck (while he was still in midair, leaping in front of Rose) and he collapsed in a heap on the ground, clutching his hands around his neck, making desperate gagging noises that sounded almost like he was choking.
Rose and I watched in horror at the sight of Jeff spasm on the ground, still clutching his throat, as what look like blood seeped from, well somewhere…I couldn’t really see what was going on, and wasn’t given much more of a chance.
‘Hey dragon,’ I heard Scythe’s voice call ‘I wouldn’t stare too long, or you’ll be next.’
I glared across at him, feeling anger burn up inside of me. The desire for redemption and revenge rising in me as well as I stood to my feet, my hands raised, ready to fight.
‘On second thought,’ he continued walking over ‘I guess that’s going to happen anyway...’ and after he covered the remaining distance between us in one step and lashed out at me with his staff. I leant back, feeling the edge of it graze my chest and when Scythe lunged at me with his weapon again, looking to drive it into my shoulder, I side stepped out of the way avoiding the staff.
I beat him to the punch this time; before he could take another swing with his Huntsstaff I was able to trip him off of his feet with my tail, throwing him hard onto his back. I kicked at the staff in his hand, knocking it out of it and then out of his reach completely.
But after a few seconds of wasted motion, Scythe kicked me hard in the gut raising his foot while he was still lying on the ground. He threw a couple more kicks at my chest to try and by himself some time so he could regroup and pull himself back to his feet.
After springing back up he launched into another attack, striking fast with a swift kick into my patella causing me to fall on my left knee, once I was down Scythe was able followed up with a high knee to my jaw, knocking me onto my side. Once I was down and out he took that as an opportunity to leap for his staff (some people never change), but I lunged forward while still on the ground and grabbed at his ankles tripping him before he could get any closer to it.
I continued to hold onto his ankle as he continued to try and struggle against my grip, but it was hopeless, I was too strong for him in my dragon form. Eventually Scythe gave up and kicked me in the head a couple of times until I eventually let go.
I held my head where Scythe had kicked me and as I maintained my composure I sort of lost focus on Scythe and didn’t realise that he was slowly crawling over toward the staff just a few feet ahead of him.
He dragged himself along the ground until the staff was within his reach and he stretched out his hand to grab it, and I very well could’ve been done if Rose (who was still sitting across from a somewhat motionless Jeff watching) hadn’t warned me.
‘Jake!’ she called and I looked up and saw Scythe’s fingertips wrap around the middle of the staff. Once I was aware of what was going on, I was quick to leap to my feet and kick the staff even further out Scythe’s reach (second’s before he’d gotten a hold of it).
But he was quick to react to that, throwing out his arm and chopping the back of my legs knocking me and my feet yet again.
Scythe was quick to spring back up to his feet after knocking me to the ground, he pulled himself up fast and then (not wasting a second) went straight after the staff again. I tried to stop him by tripping him up at the ankles again, but this time he saw it coming and lunged out into a forward roll, outstretching his hand and taking the staff in his grasp, he was just a second too fast for me at that time.
He pulled himself back to his feet, a socky smile upon his face as I too stood up to face, knowing wait was coming next, arms raised, my eyes not moving from eyes, anxiously awaiting what I knew was coming, waiting for him to strike.
Scythe made his first attempt to cut me down a lot faster then I’d expected. I was thinking he was gonna take his time and try and get me when I least expected, but no. Straightaway he came in slashing the staff at my chest (as if it were a sword) I jumped back slightly and felt that familiar feeling of the blade narrowly graze my skin, releasing how close he’d come to hitting me.
I side stepped his second shot and pivoted around him, rendering us back to back. I broke into a run and covered some of the distance between us before taking off into the air again. By now, Scythe had turned back around and had his staff raised and began firing at me while I was flying through the air.
I moved left and right avoiding the heavy fire of Scythe, and retaliated with a few fireballs of my own. Scythe dove out of the way as the ground beneath his feet cracked and exploded. He avoided the last few shots by lunging into the air and somersaulting into a roll, leaning up against the wall to catch he was breath (once my firing had stopped)
I could see that he was tiring so I landed onto the ground and ran over at full speed charging towards him. He this and quickly raised his Huntstaff and took a shot at me as I continued to charge forward. He acted fast, I almost didn’t see it, and even when I did I was too late.
It was another of those moments were everything seemed to be going in slow motion as I leapt into the air and dove across to avoid the shot and shot a fireball into my right hand, preparing to throw it at Scythe. But I hadn’t move my left leg up high enough to avoid the shot from Scythe’s Huntsstaff and the second I threw the fireball from my hands, I was hit and fell hard to the ground, powering back down into my human form because of Scythe’s shot. My eyes darted up as I watched the fireball slowly sail towards Scythe, who managed to duck down and avoid it from hitting his head.
I hung my head in dissapointment and suddenly felt an incredible burn running up my left leg where I’d been shot, I clutched it, writhing in pain, only know realising what had happened, that I’d been hit.
Scythe held his staff his hands again, and smiled evily looking down at me, I looked up at him as he got ready to make his way over to me, looking to drive his staff into my back.
‘It’s over dragon,’ he began ‘say good-’
And then suddenly, I guess when the fireball I threw hit the wall it must’ve knocked out some of the bricks or concrete, or something. I wasn’t too sure. But basically, a few of the bricks fell from the wall behind Scythe (due to the damage my fireball had caused on the wall) and came crashing down on the back off his head, knocking him to the ground, before he could finish.
‘Man,’ I said ‘that was close.’
‘Jake!’ Rose said running over to me, she sat down on her knees across from me and held me to her, locking her lips onto mine, and after a moment or two of shock and getting use to what was happening, I returned the kiss. Putting my hand around her neck and running it gently through her hair. Eventually, Rose broke off and couldn’t help but smile when she saw the grin written on my face.
‘Are you okay?’ she said, a look of concern returning to her face
‘I am now,’ I replied, still grinning
I struggled up and struggled to my feet, despite the antagonisation running through my leg.
‘Yeah, I’m fine. I think…’ I replied
‘It’s not anything he hasn’t heard before,’ I heard a voice call from the other side of the roof.
‘Jeff?’ I said looking across, to where he’d been lying.
‘Yeah…’ Jeff replied sitting up from the ground, staring at the necklace in his hand, which was now broken after being hit by the blast from Scythe’s huntsstick (which was intended for Jeff’s neck) ‘It turns out, it really does bring good luck…’ he added with a slight smile before he pulled himself slowly to his feet and stuffed what was left of the necklace into his jeans pocket.
‘Are you okay,’ I asked pulling myself up to my feet as Jeff came over, there was a fresh gash upon his forehead, due to one of the pieces of necklace that went flying when it was hit. That must’ve been where the blood that I thought was flowing from his neck had really come from.
‘Relax Jake, I’m fine.’ Jeff replied, who (now that he was recovered) seemed keen to get back into the action. Or at least that’s what I thought he was doing.
Once he was standing again, he walked over to the fallen Scythe and bent down on one knee, almost like he was examining him or something.
‘What are you doing?’ I said to Jeff as I saw him put his hand over the mask covering Scythe’s face
‘I had to find out someday…And I think now’s the time…’ Jeff replied before peeling the mask off of Scythe’s face from behind, I leant forward and strained my eyes trying to get a view of his face, but all I could see was the back of his head. Scythe slowly pulled himself up on all fours and Jeff kicked him hard in his upper right leg and then in his lower back, butting him forward. He picked up Scythe’s Huntsstick off of the ground and raised it, pointing in Scythe’s direction as he crawled further into the shadows off this darkness spilling upon the rooftop.
Eventually, Scythe reached the end and was right up against the edge of the building and was cornered, nothing stood between him and Jeff, except a twenty foot plunge. That was when he slowly pulled himself up to his feet and stared out onto the fall, in front of him, almost as if he was talking a moment to contemplate whether or not he really should jump. I assumed that he heard or seen Jeff make a snatch for the weapon, because he seemed to be aware of what he was doing.
‘Are you going to kill me now…’ he began before slowly turning around to face Jeff ‘Jeff?’
I looked across at Jeff who suddenly now had a shocked expression locked upon his face. His eyes were wide, his mouth was even open slightly and he lost his grip on the Huntsstick, dropping it solidly to the ground. I suddenly realised what it was Jeff was staring that had got him so shocked all of a sudden. It was Scythe’s human face…But why?
I looked over at it myself and took a moment to study, it was anything too suspicious.
He looked to be about eighteen years old or so, had thick jet black hair, dark brown eyes and in a weird way looked a lot like…A lot like Jeff, a little too much for it to be coincidence… That’s when it hit me…
‘Shaun?’ Jeff said in total, utter disbelief…
Rose's P.O.V
From the moment I opened my eyes I suddenly had this feeling inside of me that something wasn’t right, like something bad was going to happen. There was almost like an ambience to the room I lay in, that matched the feeling inside of me. Something in the air, just didn’t feel right, and with the thoughts and images of Scythe brutally murdering not only myself, but also Jake in my dreams the night before I was very observant to the intense burn that was once again running up the Huntsmark around my wrist. This only raised the tension and wonder inside of me…
‘What does this mean?’ I thought to myself, staring up at the blank, bare roof above me
I decided to try and ignore it and pulled myself from out of the bed, walking over to the window and brushing a few stubborn hairs out of my eyes so I could stare out of it.
A lot of the day had already passed and I could see that looking through the window, seeing the setting into the semi-darkness of the mild, late afternoon. I was surprised when I saw how long I’d slept for, and how much of the day had passed. In a way, it felt almost wasted. I guess after everything I’d been through, every second of life to me had become precious and I was frustrated for losing time that could have accounted for maybe a few extra seconds of life I had before…It ended…
Just thinking about that, felt weird. Death, the end of it all, the most puzzling piece in the jigsaw puzzle that is life…I’d never have thought that I’d have to consider death in such a great way before (well, not at this age). Not until now.
I hated having to run this same thoughts over and over again through my mind but
But then suddenly I heard a sound that made me freeze and stop completely in my tracks. From what sounded like a few floors above I could hear the sound of footsteps against the ground. It was hard to pick up, because these people (whoever they were) we walking slowly and seemed to be concentrating on putting as little weight and force into their steps as possible.
They were coming closer…There was definitely more then one. There had to been at least three or so of them, and as they grew closer I swore I could hear voices, voices of men.
I crept slowly across the room and carefully opened the door, trying desperately not to make a sound. I opened it carefully just enough so I could peak my head out and look down the hall, trying to find some help.
‘Jake?’ I said calling the first name that came to my mind down the hall ‘Jake!’ I called louder and more desperately this time, but still I got no response.
‘Where could he be?’ I thought, opening the door even more and actually stepping out into the hall, staring around it ‘Could Jake have been captured by the Huntsclan as well?’ I thought
It all made perfect sense, another little devious scheme pieced together by the Huntsman. Somehow, he managed to clear the shop of Jake, Jeff and even his grandfather and now that they were all gone I was trapped inside of the shop, nowhere to hide as his henchmen made their way down towards me.
I didn’t know what would happen if I was caught, and didn’t plan to find out either. In desperate times you call for desperate measures, so I ran over to the bottom of the stairwell and raised my fists up in a combat stance waiting for the Henchmen to come down. I wasn’t going to get taken out of here without a fight, and hopefully, if I found a way through this, I would not have to get taken out of here at all…
The footsteps soon began to trail down the stairs ahead of me, and before I knew it there they were. Three armed Huntsmen making their way down the stairs, towards me. They’d covered the last few steps and were a few feet within me, sinister smiles on their faces as they held their staff’s up and pointed them in my direction, ready to call.
‘Hey Huntsies!’ I heard a voice call and they are jerked there heads up the flight of stairs where the voice had come from. Which was when Jeff (still about ten or so stairs up) lunged out, covering every step and lashed his right foot out in an attempt at a kick, but ended up ‘coat-hanging’ the Huntsman around the neck, knocking him off of his feet with all his weight, making hi him smash the side of his head hard against the ground, knocking him unconscious, and all that happened before you could even blink an eye.
Jeff had taken a pretty rough fall after launching himself from the top of the stairs. He’d hit the kick alright but had put a lot of energy into scaling every last step to the bottom, and a lot concentration into trying to accurately strike the Henchman in the side of his head (which wasn’t so accurate in the end anyway). That didn’t leave him much time to think about how he’d land. But I guess he wasn’t really thinking, Jeff was just seeing an option and taking it without even wondering what the consequences of it might be.
All Jeff could do when he hit the floor, was instinctively shield his face with his hands and do the best he could to cover up. But it still wasn’t enough. He came crashing down hard into the ground all the weight from his body landing on his right hand. He pulled himself up to his feet as fast as he could, after hitting the ground, shaking his hand which he seemed to have hurt after his ugly landing from the several flights of stairs up he’d just leapt from and tore off the glove he still wore on his hand to examine it momentarily, forgetting about the other two Huntsman stood behind, their weapons raised, ready to strike.
‘Look out!’ I called out, as the remaining Henchmen stood behind him, one slightly to the left, one slightly to the right, both looking to drive their staffs into Jeff.
‘Oh parc,’ he said in shock, side-stepping a downward thrust of one of the Huntsman’s staff’s. He lunged back, back-flipping away from a shot driven at his chest but once he landed on his feet he had to be quick to duck another staff from the second Huntsman.
Jeff leaped back narrowly avoiding another shot taken at his chest by that same staff that had already been driven at him various times before. The Huntsman holding the weapon within in his hands, glared at Jeff who was now a fair distance back from him, arms raised, taunting for him to strike with his next move. He was fast to accept Jeff's challange and ran in at him immediately, the serrated edge of his staff targeted squarely at Jeff, as he charged forward, looking to drive it into his chest. But Jeff had expected this and quickly took a high jump over the Huntsman's shoulders (as he was bent down slightly, concentrating a large ammount of his energy into the force he was putting behidn the staff).
Jeff landed gracefully on his feet behind the Henchman, who noticed this and was quick to turn and have another attempt at cutting Jeff down to size. But this time, Jeff was ready to fight back and when the Henchmen throw out his staff, trying to drive it into Jeff's side again. Jeff was able to block it, grabbing it around the middle where it was more of a handle, then a blade. He grabbed it with his right hand and with his left, drove an elbow, hard into the side of the head of the Huntsman. He grabbed a hold of the Huntsman’s left hand and wrenched it, hard, making him loose his grip on the Huntstick, causing him to drop it to the ground and once he was unarmed it was fair game, well, sort of. The Huntsman still hadn’t recovered after Jeff almost breaking his wrist, wrenching and then sandwiching it between his knee and his own arm, he bent down on one knee, holding it and writhing in pain. He couldn’t even get his hands up to cover the kick that Jeff slammed hard, right in the side of his temple.
And as that guard collapsed onto his side on the ground, Jeff had forgotten about the other Huntsman who was now behind him, his Huntsstick raised ready for him to drive it into Jeff’s back. Luckily though, the Huntsman seemed to have completely forgotten about me too.
So he had no time to even see what had hit him when I lunged over and kicked him in the back. He dropped his staff, his back bending against the force I delivered. He let out a cry of pain, which Jeff heard and turned round to see the Huntsman behind him and once he’d seen him and the fact that he was already venerable he was quick to take advantage of the surprise the Huntsman was still recuperating from, throwing out a kick his own.
He jumped up into the air slightly, before lashing out hard and aggressively with crescent kick right into his forehead which knocked him flat on his back upon the hard timber floor.
He landed gracefully his feet and then looked down upon the Huntsman laid out upon the ground, slowly lowering his hands once he thought it was safe. He then looked across to me and gestured up to the stairs
‘C’mon,’ he said ‘we’ve gotta get out of here. Jake’s waiting…’
And with that he lead me past the fallen bodies and slowly up the stairway. Unsure of what might await us outside, beyond the door at the top of them.
Jake’s P.O.V
I lashed around and threw my fist out at one of the Huntsman who’d been standing behind me, catching him hard in the side of his face, knocking him off his feet from the unexpected attack. I felt a hand on my shoulder, as another of the Huntsmen grabbed me from behind. I was quick to retaliate though, elbowing him in the jaw twice, out of complete desperation though.
I was acting strongly on instinct during this fight, it wasn’t even a fight for me, it was more like just trying to survive. There were at least five of these Huntsmen and just one of me. American Dragon or not, I was still handicapped, and the numbers game was slowly starting to catch up, the longer this fight lasted the less it would be in my favour, I knew I had to end it fast.
After catching the Huntsman attacking me in the jaw with my elbow, I pivoted around him so we were face to face. He then lashed at me swiftly with a front kick, trying to get when I didn’t expect it. But I saw it coming and caught his leg and spun round, catching him in the back of the head with an elbow. Then I lashed out fast, sweeping the leg he was standing on for support and tripping him to the ground.
I ducked under a spin kick that was thrown at my head by another of the Huntsmen, who recovered after missing the kick and followed by slashing his staff across at me, trying to connect with the side of my head. But I caught around the middle with right hand, stopping him from sending it any further and elbowed him in the side of the head repeatedly, trying to get him to lose his grip on the staff. We continued to fight over the staff, eventually activated it and sending shots of green fire in all the directions.
I tried to direct the shots and the other Huntsmen surrounding me, but with the Huntsman still gripping it tightly and struggling against my will, I was unsuccessful. I eventually gave up, and elbowed the Huntsman in the jaw once more, before throwing down the Huntsstaff and using that force against the Huntsman, throwing him over shoulders.
He landed hard on his back and I locked across and saw one of the Huntsmen I’d taken down return his feet. Once he was standing again I threw the staff at him, it was only natural that once he saw the staff flying at him that his reflexes told him to catch it, and he did, and after catching the staff he was completely unprepared for the kick that I followed up with, cracking him right in his forehead and knocking him back to the ground.
After having taken that Huntsman I was suddenly hit from behind hard, and I lost my balance from the unexpected attack, collapsing to the ground. I turned around and then saw that the Huntsman who delivered that kick into the back of my head, hadn’t been a Huntsman at all. It had been the Huntsboy, Scythe.
‘What?’ he said ‘Did you really think I was gonna pass up another opportunity to slay my first dragon? I wouldn’t miss this for the world,’ he added with an evil grin.
I glared at him angrily (still with revenge on my mind for what he’d done to Rose) and got back up to my feet and raised my hands, ready to fight again. Scythe came in closer and glared back at me, his hands also readied to fight, as we took a moment to ‘face off’, expressing the hatred with the simple looks in our eyes.
It was at that moment I suddenly heard footsteps coming up the stairs fast, and it wasn’t much longer before these footsteps were followed by the door bursting open as Jeff with Rose clutching onto his hand came running out.
But Scythe noticed this too, and the moment they’d made it outside he immediately raised his Huntsstick and took a shot at them.
And when that immense ball of green flame left the end of Scythe’s staff, everything was in slow motion again. A split second or two melted away and I saw Jeff’s slowly widen as he noticed the shoot come from the end of Scythe’s came closer and closer to him. He slowly continued to watch it, as it sailed slowly over towards them, and within split seconds it was within inches of, not him anymore, but Rose.
Jeff was once again quick to pick up on this, and the last thing I saw was another look of shock, flash in his eyes as they darted over to see the fireball about to hit Rose. That’s when everything went back to normal.
Faster then you could blink in a span of, what to me had seemed about 15 seconds or so, but really hadn’t even been one, Jeff had thrown himself across, just managing to shove Rose out in the way in time and shield her from getting him from Scythe’s fireball. He couldn’t save himself though. It caught him right in the neck (while he was still in midair, leaping in front of Rose) and he collapsed in a heap on the ground, clutching his hands around his neck, making desperate gagging noises that sounded almost like he was choking.
Rose and I watched in horror at the sight of Jeff spasm on the ground, still clutching his throat, as what look like blood seeped from, well somewhere…I couldn’t really see what was going on, and wasn’t given much more of a chance.
‘Hey dragon,’ I heard Scythe’s voice call ‘I wouldn’t stare too long, or you’ll be next.’
I glared across at him, feeling anger burn up inside of me. The desire for redemption and revenge rising in me as well as I stood to my feet, my hands raised, ready to fight.
‘On second thought,’ he continued walking over ‘I guess that’s going to happen anyway...’ and after he covered the remaining distance between us in one step and lashed out at me with his staff. I leant back, feeling the edge of it graze my chest and when Scythe lunged at me with his weapon again, looking to drive it into my shoulder, I side stepped out of the way avoiding the staff.
I beat him to the punch this time; before he could take another swing with his Huntsstaff I was able to trip him off of his feet with my tail, throwing him hard onto his back. I kicked at the staff in his hand, knocking it out of it and then out of his reach completely.
But after a few seconds of wasted motion, Scythe kicked me hard in the gut raising his foot while he was still lying on the ground. He threw a couple more kicks at my chest to try and by himself some time so he could regroup and pull himself back to his feet.
After springing back up he launched into another attack, striking fast with a swift kick into my patella causing me to fall on my left knee, once I was down Scythe was able followed up with a high knee to my jaw, knocking me onto my side. Once I was down and out he took that as an opportunity to leap for his staff (some people never change), but I lunged forward while still on the ground and grabbed at his ankles tripping him before he could get any closer to it.
I continued to hold onto his ankle as he continued to try and struggle against my grip, but it was hopeless, I was too strong for him in my dragon form. Eventually Scythe gave up and kicked me in the head a couple of times until I eventually let go.
I held my head where Scythe had kicked me and as I maintained my composure I sort of lost focus on Scythe and didn’t realise that he was slowly crawling over toward the staff just a few feet ahead of him.
He dragged himself along the ground until the staff was within his reach and he stretched out his hand to grab it, and I very well could’ve been done if Rose (who was still sitting across from a somewhat motionless Jeff watching) hadn’t warned me.
‘Jake!’ she called and I looked up and saw Scythe’s fingertips wrap around the middle of the staff. Once I was aware of what was going on, I was quick to leap to my feet and kick the staff even further out Scythe’s reach (second’s before he’d gotten a hold of it).
But he was quick to react to that, throwing out his arm and chopping the back of my legs knocking me and my feet yet again.
Scythe was quick to spring back up to his feet after knocking me to the ground, he pulled himself up fast and then (not wasting a second) went straight after the staff again. I tried to stop him by tripping him up at the ankles again, but this time he saw it coming and lunged out into a forward roll, outstretching his hand and taking the staff in his grasp, he was just a second too fast for me at that time.
He pulled himself back to his feet, a socky smile upon his face as I too stood up to face, knowing wait was coming next, arms raised, my eyes not moving from eyes, anxiously awaiting what I knew was coming, waiting for him to strike.
Scythe made his first attempt to cut me down a lot faster then I’d expected. I was thinking he was gonna take his time and try and get me when I least expected, but no. Straightaway he came in slashing the staff at my chest (as if it were a sword) I jumped back slightly and felt that familiar feeling of the blade narrowly graze my skin, releasing how close he’d come to hitting me.
I side stepped his second shot and pivoted around him, rendering us back to back. I broke into a run and covered some of the distance between us before taking off into the air again. By now, Scythe had turned back around and had his staff raised and began firing at me while I was flying through the air.
I moved left and right avoiding the heavy fire of Scythe, and retaliated with a few fireballs of my own. Scythe dove out of the way as the ground beneath his feet cracked and exploded. He avoided the last few shots by lunging into the air and somersaulting into a roll, leaning up against the wall to catch he was breath (once my firing had stopped)
I could see that he was tiring so I landed onto the ground and ran over at full speed charging towards him. He this and quickly raised his Huntstaff and took a shot at me as I continued to charge forward. He acted fast, I almost didn’t see it, and even when I did I was too late.
It was another of those moments were everything seemed to be going in slow motion as I leapt into the air and dove across to avoid the shot and shot a fireball into my right hand, preparing to throw it at Scythe. But I hadn’t move my left leg up high enough to avoid the shot from Scythe’s Huntsstaff and the second I threw the fireball from my hands, I was hit and fell hard to the ground, powering back down into my human form because of Scythe’s shot. My eyes darted up as I watched the fireball slowly sail towards Scythe, who managed to duck down and avoid it from hitting his head.
I hung my head in dissapointment and suddenly felt an incredible burn running up my left leg where I’d been shot, I clutched it, writhing in pain, only know realising what had happened, that I’d been hit.
Scythe held his staff his hands again, and smiled evily looking down at me, I looked up at him as he got ready to make his way over to me, looking to drive his staff into my back.
‘It’s over dragon,’ he began ‘say good-’
And then suddenly, I guess when the fireball I threw hit the wall it must’ve knocked out some of the bricks or concrete, or something. I wasn’t too sure. But basically, a few of the bricks fell from the wall behind Scythe (due to the damage my fireball had caused on the wall) and came crashing down on the back off his head, knocking him to the ground, before he could finish.
‘Man,’ I said ‘that was close.’
‘Jake!’ Rose said running over to me, she sat down on her knees across from me and held me to her, locking her lips onto mine, and after a moment or two of shock and getting use to what was happening, I returned the kiss. Putting my hand around her neck and running it gently through her hair. Eventually, Rose broke off and couldn’t help but smile when she saw the grin written on my face.
‘Are you okay?’ she said, a look of concern returning to her face
‘I am now,’ I replied, still grinning
I struggled up and struggled to my feet, despite the antagonisation running through my leg.
‘Yeah, I’m fine. I think…’ I replied
‘It’s not anything he hasn’t heard before,’ I heard a voice call from the other side of the roof.
‘Jeff?’ I said looking across, to where he’d been lying.
‘Yeah…’ Jeff replied sitting up from the ground, staring at the necklace in his hand, which was now broken after being hit by the blast from Scythe’s huntsstick (which was intended for Jeff’s neck) ‘It turns out, it really does bring good luck…’ he added with a slight smile before he pulled himself slowly to his feet and stuffed what was left of the necklace into his jeans pocket.
‘Are you okay,’ I asked pulling myself up to my feet as Jeff came over, there was a fresh gash upon his forehead, due to one of the pieces of necklace that went flying when it was hit. That must’ve been where the blood that I thought was flowing from his neck had really come from.
‘Relax Jake, I’m fine.’ Jeff replied, who (now that he was recovered) seemed keen to get back into the action. Or at least that’s what I thought he was doing.
Once he was standing again, he walked over to the fallen Scythe and bent down on one knee, almost like he was examining him or something.
‘What are you doing?’ I said to Jeff as I saw him put his hand over the mask covering Scythe’s face
‘I had to find out someday…And I think now’s the time…’ Jeff replied before peeling the mask off of Scythe’s face from behind, I leant forward and strained my eyes trying to get a view of his face, but all I could see was the back of his head. Scythe slowly pulled himself up on all fours and Jeff kicked him hard in his upper right leg and then in his lower back, butting him forward. He picked up Scythe’s Huntsstick off of the ground and raised it, pointing in Scythe’s direction as he crawled further into the shadows off this darkness spilling upon the rooftop.
Eventually, Scythe reached the end and was right up against the edge of the building and was cornered, nothing stood between him and Jeff, except a twenty foot plunge. That was when he slowly pulled himself up to his feet and stared out onto the fall, in front of him, almost as if he was talking a moment to contemplate whether or not he really should jump. I assumed that he heard or seen Jeff make a snatch for the weapon, because he seemed to be aware of what he was doing.
‘Are you going to kill me now…’ he began before slowly turning around to face Jeff ‘Jeff?’
I looked across at Jeff who suddenly now had a shocked expression locked upon his face. His eyes were wide, his mouth was even open slightly and he lost his grip on the Huntsstick, dropping it solidly to the ground. I suddenly realised what it was Jeff was staring that had got him so shocked all of a sudden. It was Scythe’s human face…But why?
I looked over at it myself and took a moment to study, it was anything too suspicious.
He looked to be about eighteen years old or so, had thick jet black hair, dark brown eyes and in a weird way looked a lot like…A lot like Jeff, a little too much for it to be coincidence… That’s when it hit me…
‘Shaun?’ Jeff said in total, utter disbelief…