The Turn: Chapter Eleven

The Turn

Chapter Eleven

~Blast!~

Three Years before the Turn

Time quickly sped back up. Deontay took the left flank while Chaud took the right. Zara continued on her path straight ahead. Simon was coming at her too. They ran to meet in the middle and at the last possible second Zara dropped to her knees. Her momentum and the loose smooth soil continued her forward. By the time Simon realized what she was doing it was too late. Zara raised her left leg and balanced herself on her right elbow. She kicked Simon just under the chin. He was lifted off his feet and fell back first onto the red dirt.

“Oh, ladies and gentlemen, those boots were made blindsiding!”

Zara swung her leg down and got to her feet. She took her right katana and attacked him on the ground. He rolled out of the way and onto his feet. His nose was bleeding but he didn’t seem to notice. He flicked his wrist and a long blade appeared in his wrist. Simon lunged at her, attacking her head. Zara stepped to one side. Simon took his other arm, flicked it and arced it across her midsection. Zara jumped back but not fast enough for her sweater to avoid being torn.

“To your left, Zara,” she heard Naru’s voice.

A girl ran at her and Zara ducked down as she punched at her. The girl, the one announced as Maddie, came to her brother’s rescue. She came at Zara with amazing speed. It took all her wits to avoid the girls flying fists.

A bullet of light shot past the girl’s head. She looked around for the source. Zara took her opportunity and kicked her in the stomach with her knee. She then took her katana and thrust the sword, point first, into the girl. Before the sword struck, Maggie glowed a blue and white color then vanished.

Zara wasn’t able to think about what had happened when Simon was upon her again. She kicked him in the stomach and tried to attack him with her weapon. He stepped back from the impact to the gut but managed to avoid the blade.

“Thanks, Chaud,” she muttered when she was able.

“Got you back,” Chaud responded.

Chaud jumped off a rock protruding from the lake of lava and back onto the main land. He was immediately engaged in battle with Walter, a fire wielder. Chaud crouched onto the ground as fire spewed from the pool. The sweltering heat was only a reminder of what would happen if he were to come in contact with it. While he was crouched, he raised his weapon. He fired several shots, one grazing Walter in the leg. Walker fell on his weaker knee. Chaud jumped up and ran toward him, his gun transforming into a sword. Walter raised a defensive hand and the ground between them opened sending a geyser of lava spewing into the air. Chaud jumped back.

“That was a close one if I’ve ever seen one! That could have been messy! Am I right folks?”

Deontay on the other side met with Lillian. She cracked her whip at him as a warning but Deontay continued his full on charge. Lillian, seeing that Deontay wasn’t backing down, raised her whip and cracked it down on him. Deontay saw the whip and winced when it struck him under the eye. He shot his hand out and grabbed the whip, the tip wrapped around his arm. Then he turned around quickly with the whip taut he flung his arm forward. There was a moment of silence as Lillian, unable to react in time, was pulled into the air by her whip and crashed on her back on the ground.

“Oh! Did you see that!? That attack by Lillian was RE-JECTED!”

Deontay started to turn around, thinking that either Hina or Vicky could handle her, when a punch to his lower jaw caused him to see stars. He took a few dazed steps back and shook his head to clear his vision. Rudy stood before him looking a little bit baffled as to how Deontay was still standing. By the impact of the punch, Deontay guessed that the skinny kid in front of him had super strength or something. He cracked his neck. There was a difference between super strength and rock. You can hit a rock as hard as you want but a rock can always hit back harder.

Deontay took a step forward and slammed his fist into the ground. A slab of rock under Rudy’s feet shot up, sending the boy flying into the stands behind them. An invisible wall seemed to shatter at the line of the arena and the stands. There were cries of panic and wild cheering as the crowd ran to the sides as Rudy hit the stands.

“He’s down but not out! Look at him get to his feet! Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first arena break of the day!”

Deontay slapped his hands together and nodded. If you exited the arena you had a certain amount of time, while the wall repaired itself, to get back in. If you didn’t, you ‘died’. Rudy was up on his feet but the break in the wall, outlined with a bright blue glow, was closing fast. The audience was cheering for him, calling out his name. He ran down the steps, people in the audience made sure to get out of his way. The hole in the invisible wall was getting smaller by the second. Rudy jumped though with enough time to spare. He landed across from Deontay. Rudy got to his feet and glared at him.

“You want a go?” Deontay assumed a fighting position, “Let’s go.”

Lillian had gotten to her feet and started to run at Deontay to help her team mate. Hina smiled and turned to Vicky, “I got this one,” she said with a thumbs up.

She ran after Lillian. Lillian happened to glance up at one of the screens to see Hina coming after her. She stopped turned and flung her whip and the coming threat. Hina slid to her knees and bent backwards, almost parallel to the ground. She saw the whip sail over her body and heard the deafening crack of the whip hit the ground somewhere over her head. As the whip retracted, Hina got back up to her feet. She was instantly attached by Lillian. Hina defended the first punch by raising both arms. When the blow was dealt, Hina quickly attacked with her palm outward.

The blow forced Lillian back a few paces. Momentarily she tried to figure out what the purple mist was but then she decided on a different tactic. She cracked her whip once and she vanished only to appear on Hina’s right side. Lillian punched Hina in the jaw, cracked her whip, hit Hina in the leg on purpose, and vanished. She appeared again in front of Hina and kicked her in the stomach. Again she cracked the whip, hitting Hina somewhere on her body, and vanished only to appear somewhere else around Hina.

“I’m going out on a limb here, people, but that has got to hurt!”

Naru suddenly stood up straight. Vicky thought it was the thought of his sister being treated the way she was but she noticed that his gaze was elsewhere. Chaud after the deadly geyser subsided; he started for Walter when the volcano in the distance started to rumble ominously.

“Looks like Mt. Tiki Tiki is getting revved up!”

“Vicky, you see Rickman over there in the shadows?” Naru said quickly.

Vicky looked. Just past Chaud and Walter was another figure. Rickman looked to be meditating with his eyes closed. Vicky nodded when she saw him.

“I need you to distract him,” Naru said, “I have a bad feeling about him.”

Vicky nodded, “What about you?”

“I think I’ll be needed soon,” Naru looked at the volcano.

Vicky ran forward as fast as she could. She pulled one of her shuriken by its handle and flung it at a slight angle. The weapon spun end over end and its track curved slightly toward its target. One of the four blades struck the wall inches from Rickman’s head. He opened his eyes shocked at the impact and looked around for the threat.

The volcano shook violently. Lava started spewing from its mouth. Fiery rocks were scattered all around. Some rocks flew into the crowd causing many to scatter. Vicky stopped in her tracks. A rock hurled its way toward the teams below. She took her second shuriken and hurled it at the coming threat. The coming boulder broke apart into smaller pieces.

Walter, the fire wielder, looked up at the impact. He hurled a fire ball at Chaud causing him to hide behind a stalagmite of rock. While Chaud was hiding, he gained control of a fire engulfed piece of rock. Chaud looked up in the sky. He sighed.

“A little help here,” he said as he saw the rock hurling in his direction and was unable to avoid the rock.

Chaud crouched low as he expected the worst. Naru came up out of nowhere, a bow and arrow made of water in his hands. He stood between Chaud and the coming danger, fired the arrow and crouched low. The arrow struck the rock putting out the flames that had once engulfed it. Without the fire around it, Walter lost control of the rock. The rock fell to earth due to gravity. It nicked the top of the stalagmite and made a splash in the lava pool a few feet away.

A drop of lava fell on Chaud’s pants and they instantly caught on fire. Chaud frantically tried to pat it out. He succeeded but not after the fire had eaten a large whole in his lower pant leg.

“Man,” he said in frustration, “I loved these pants!”

Naru glanced over his shoulder, “Is that all you’re worried about right now?”

Chaud didn’t hear him. He looked around the stalagmite and glared at Walter, “He will pay for ruining my best pants!”

Naru shrugged, “Whatever gets the job done, I suppose.”

Again Chaud didn’t hear. He jumped out from behind the stalagmite and fired his weapon, “Die, you mother—!”

His voice was drowned out by the rapid fire of his weapon. Poor Walter did his best to avoid being ‘killed’. He shrouded himself in fire, hoping that the bullets would ignite before hitting him. One bullet made it through. In a moment he vanished in a glow of blue. Chaud dropped to his knees and started reloading his gun.

“No one messes with my pants,” he muttered.

Naru sighed, “That’s good to know. Now help Vicky with Rickman.”

“Rich-who?”

“The guy hiding in the shadows,” Naru flicked his wrist. His two sai slid out handle first. He gripped the bladed end and flipped it so he held the handled end.

Chaud looked to where Naru had described. He looked painfully back at Naru, “Really? Can’t you deal with him?”

Naru glanced over his shoulder. His gaze was so harsh that Chaud shifted uneasily. Without saying a word, he ran back toward his sister.

Hina assessed her situation and frankly she was getting annoyed with the magical rabbit act that Lillian was doing. Even as it appeared that Hina was struggling to keep up with Lillian, she was timing the girl in her repetitive sequence.

Lillian appeared. That was at 5-43.

She struck Hina in the jaw and cracked her whip. That was 5-44 and 5-45.

When she vanished, that was 5-46.

She would appear usually a second later to repeat the process.

Hina guessed that she had about two seconds to change the tides. She feigned weakness and fell to her knees at the latest hit in the face. The whips tip struck her in the face as she fell to one knee. Lillian vanished yet again but this time Hina was more than ready. She focused her energy to the center of her body. Hina started to glow from the inside with a purple energy. When Lillian appeared, Hina screamed. She shot her arms out. A blast of energy shot from her in a circle around her. Lillian was blown back and sent flying through the air.

Naru ran up, both sai’s in hand. He saw the ring of energy coming for him and he jumped into the air.  In the same second, he took one of his sais and threw it in Lillian’s direction. The sai flew end over end and just as it was about to strike Lillian, she vanished in the same blue glow as her teammates. Naru landed on the ground and ran to his sister. Hina looked at him with a smile despite her battered and bruised appearance.

“That kid can move, people! And I mean, MOVE! Wasn't he just over there?”

Vicky’s weapon circled around and returned to her open palm. She saw Rickman again. He was back to meditating and looked to be muttering something. She ran with shuriken in hand toward him. As she ran, she felt a presence behind her.

“Get down,” she said as she stopped suddenly, spun and hurled the large shuriken.

Behind her, Chaud crouched as the blades spun above him. The shuriken flew straight and true but suddenly it stopped, spun in place, and retracted just as fast as it had been going before. Vicky stepped to one side, hand extended. She caught it with ease but the velocity it was going caused her to step back.

Chaud ran past her, his weapon a sword. Vicky followed close behind him. If they couldn’t attack him from afar, they would have to get up close and personal. Vicky grabbed two adjacent blades and pulled them together, creating a double ended spear. Her hand on the grip, she raised the weapon as if to throw it. While Vicky came in high, Chaud came in low, the tip of his weapon down to the right hand side for a slash from under.

The dual attack didn’t work. The end of Vicky’s spear shattered on impact of an invisible force, shattering up to the thick handle. Chaud’s sword seemed to strike something hard and broke into pieces. The shield surrounding Rickman glowed yellow. Acting quickly, Vicky jumped back, using the wind to carry her back farther. Wings sprouted from Chaud’s back and the strength of one flap of his wings sent him back and into the air quickly. The shield shot out an energy surge equal to that of the force that both Chaud and Vicky attacked with.

“That isn’t going to work, folks!”

Chaud landed on a small raised island in a large puddle of lava. Vicky landed on the ground nearby.

“Huston, we have a problem,” Chaud muttered.

Zara was on the offence now against Simon. She used both of her katana in a relentless attack. Simon repeatedly had to dodge, parry, and block and as he did so he retreated ground. Zara whipped her weapon across toward Simon’s face. He managed to dodge with only a scratch just under his right eye. The wave of energy from the force field washed over them.

Simon flew to one side. Zara felt the impact and winced. She released her grip on one of her katana as she fell to the ground. Quickly, she rolled to her feet and saw that Simon had done the same and was coming at her. With a frustrated groan, Zara changed tactic.

A blue flame engulfed her katana from her hand. She attacked him and Simon stepped back, a brief look of panic went past his eyes. He stepped back as Zara attacked wildly, frightened of the flaming sword. She glanced at what Chaud was talking about.

“Get someone else,” she almost yelled, “I’m busy!”

“Roger,” came the response.

Naru looked at the situation. He glanced over at Deontay, “I’ve got an idea.”

“Great,” Chaud said sarcastically, “care to share?”

Naru ignored Chaud’s comment, “Vicky, attack again at a 45° angle. Do it with all you’re might. Try to wedge it inside. Deontay, you think you can part from what you’re doing?”

Deontay caught one of Rudy’s punches, grabbed his arm and swung him into the wall, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Great, then get over here as soon as you can, Hina will cover for you. Once Vicky cracks the surface, Chaud, try to drive it in farther,” Naru continued his command.

“Fine,” thunder rumbled in the dark clouds above.

“Let’s break this thing!” Hina shouted.

“We start in 7-27, 7-28, 7-29, now!”

Vicky switched her grip on her spear weapon so the other end was available. She ran quickly toward Rickman and his shield. When she was close enough, she jumped with both arms on the weapon and the blade facing downward. She drove the blade into the shield and felt the impact of her weapon on the invisible shield. The blade pieced the shield only by an inch. She jumped back as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. A lightning bold shot down from the clouds and struck her weapon driving it deeper than it had been before.

Deontay ran toward Naru. Hina ran past him to keep Rudy occupied. The shield was already turning yellow in preparation of repelling its energy. Naru looked at Deontay.

“What you want me to do?” Deontay asked quickly.

“Throw me,” Naru answered.

Without question, Deontay stood a few feet behind Naru. He back flipped into Deontay’s hand, his stomach on Deontay’s hand. Deontay took account of Naru’s light weight before taking a large step and launching Naru into the air.

Naru sailed through the air. As he started his arc of decent, he shifted his body. The heel of his foot landed squarely on the weapon. The impact of his weight drove the blade in further, creating a substantial crack. The shield tried to repel its energy only to self-destruct and shatter. Energy was sent flying in all directions. A large burst of energy sent everyone fighting flying instead.

Naru, who was the closest, took most of the blow. He was sent flying all the way across the fighting arena and through the invisible wall into the stands. Audience members ran to avoid being hit as Naru flew into the stands and tumbled further up. For some moments he didn’t move.

Zara got to her feet after being blown to the ground. She looked around, volcano dust was still settling. The only person she saw still barely on his feet was Deontay.

“Naru!” he was screaming into the stands.

Zara’s vision cleared and she noticed the large gaping hole on the other end of the arena and the frantic audience members. She looked around frantically. She saw Vicky sitting and coughing due to the debris in the air. Chaud was getting up from his knees. Hina was squinting though the dust toward the stands. Rickman was nowhere to be seen and Rudy was working his way to his feet. She looked back at the gaping hole. It was starting to close.