Chapter  19

Each step closer to the enemy saw Xandria getting paler and paler.  She could see them, not as individuals but as one great big undulating mass of evil and darkness that made her feel sick to the bone. Her mum sensed her distress and grasped her hand and squeezed it before letting go. Xandria’s lips smiled faintly at the comfort before she gagged and twitched her nose from side to side, the very scent of evil cloying all of her senses. Xenia stared at her daughter and did the only thing she could in this situation and patted her on her back and offered a few words of comfort before turning her attention the disaster awaiting them. They both set their faces into identical looks of determination and fierceness as they faced their long awaited foe.

Step by step the distance between them was getting smaller and smaller. When there was a mere ten feet between them everyone paused. Even the enemy had frozen.  The vessels wearing torn and soiled clothing like they had already been to battle before this one had even began  They eyed the camouflage clad group with distaste as they growled in protest but it was like some silent agreement, a still before the deadly storm they were about to unleash.

Each person besides Xandria, was startled to see a familiar face standing opposite them, their friends and frenemies standing before them with their lips curled into a snarl as drool leaked from the corner of their lips. Their blackened eyes stared at them unfocused but completely savage; the dark circles around the black orbs giving them a feral appearance.

Both sides stood there, bodies tensed just waiting. The tension was so thick that it was difficult for them to breath, each person’s chest barely managing the rise and fall that was necessary for survival. A flash of light blinded everyone for a moment as the heavens rumbled in rage and anger. As the first drop of rain fell from the blackened clouds, every eye followed its path to the floor. Silence reigned for a moment, not every a thump of a heartbeat could be heard and then quite literally all hell broke loose.

With a mighty battle cry each side broke formation and charged at one another. It was like something out of a movie, everything pausing momentarily a moment before bodies collided against bodies, the slap and thud of flesh hitting flesh coming from every direction before cries of pain as people became wounded. In less than a minute over 30 people were lying dead on the floor.

Magpie and Xenia were the first to get separated from the group, the two of them back to back as they face their twelve opponents snarling and growling as they circled their prey.

“You ready Xen?” Magpie questioned pulling out her blades and holding them readily at her sides. She was already feeling the high of battle, and her confidence was higher than it had been to begin with as they had already taken down a vast majority of the other side without gaining any casualties.

“Whenever you are,” Xenia shook her wrists before rotating them so that her blades swept through the air artfully.

Both of them were completely focused on the beast around them but they could sense each other in an inexplicable way and no sooner had they thought it, the two of them were lunging at the enemy, their blades flying through the air cutting ribbons of red through the nearest bodies. The next minute was non-stop chaos, swords clanging against swords, grunts and cries of pain as the wounded gained back some of their true selves before being released into oblivion as their life blood gushed from their bodies. What startled the duo was the fact that every time they cut someone down, it was like the potency of the darkness became stronger in all of the others that advanced on them. The spirit of evil itself one sentient being that had been spread through the masses and as one vessel died the concentration of evil in another vessel became larger. It made everything that much harder as they fought to keep their lives.

With a sweep of her sword, Xenia decapitated  two elderly women who now looked peaceful and frail, victims of the massacre when moments before they had looked like an extra out of a horror film. She was grateful that she had had to cut down anyone young so far, Xenia didn’t think she could cut down someone who was the same age as her daughter. Shaking her head back and forth she was too distracted to notice someone advanced on her with their own blade raised though they only had a kitchen knife. Magpie jumped in front of Xenia and threw her sword like a javelin at the man in overalls who looked every bit the creepy janitor. It didn’t stop him though as he continued forwards and slashed at Magpie with the blade. Before he could take another swipe, Xenia thrust her sword around Magpie, straight into the janitor’s heart. She didn’t even watch as he crumpled to the floor, she was too distracted by the sight of her friend falling to the floor right in front of her.

Magpie’s hands went to her throat as she laid there awkwardly on the ground staring up at the sky as black spots danced in her vision. Pulling her hand back from her neck she tried to gulp as she saw the copious amounts of blood dying her hands red but she couldn’t get her throat to work. Sheer panic worked its way through her system as she tried to take breaths or talk but found both night impossible. As she glanced into her friends eyes she knew in an instant the reality of the situation.  

Xenia paused as she stared down at her friend who was gasping for breath as blood bubbled from a slit in her neck. Bending down beside Magpie, she stroked the blood spattered hair from her forehead as she choked out words that were nothing more than garbled spluttering.

 “Finish it.” She mouthed, her vocal chords no longer working having been sliced through with the blade.

Xenia brows drew together as she stared at her best friend in pain. Blood had bubbled over her lips showing that her airway had been cut and the amount of blood cascading down her neck and out of her mouth displayed that she didn’t have long left on her own and the way it was going, it would painful. It was the hardest thing she ever had to do but after placing a kiss on Magpie’s forehead, Xenia grasped either side of her friend’s face and gave it a sharp jerk snapping the spinal cord. The light in Magpie’s eyes faded as her fingers that had been desperately digging into the sloshy soil, relaxed and lay flat against the floor, her eyes sightlessly starting into Xenia’s.

Bending forwards Xenia placed a kiss on her friend’s bloody lips before pulling away, a new strength of determination in her body. “Don’t worry Mag, you will be avenged.”

Picking up the blade that she had discarded in her moment of emotion, she pushed herself to her feet and faced the enemy with fire blazing in her heart. Raising her sword over her head like a woman on a mission she marched into the fray.

“For Magpie,” she whispered, her voice getting lost over the sound of bloodcurdling cries of death.

Colton and the seven grouped together. Everywhere they looked their friends and family were going at it ceaselessly, never halting in their hacking at the enemy in case they might miss an attack and die. They had lost each other during the initial campaign but Colton had whistled to his group as planned and they had managed to gather together on the edge of the fighting. Luckily none of them appeared to have been harmed, and Colton let a sigh a relief pass his lips that blew his hair from his face as his whole body deflated.

Having no idea where Xandria was, he could only hope that she had managed to achieve her mission, but there was really no telling in the utter madness that rained around them. It was becoming difficult to keep upright as the rain that had started off as a light shower was now bucketing down on them, turning the solid earth beneath their feet into mush. It was lucky that Caliban’s training had covered different terrains or the battle might have been lost with the very first drop of rain. No even outnumbered they had an advantage, they had a plan.

It was now or never, Colton thought as he eyed the hideousness advancing towards them, their very presence setting every ounce of his being on edge.  Nodding to his friends, they quickly ran outwards from him, creating a huge circle that encompassed the battle in its entirety, friends and foe alike.

They still hadn’t figured out what all of their powers were but they didn’t need to know, at least not for this. Standing in the middle of the large circle, he felt it when they all began. Colton’s head titled back as he accessed his own powers, the powers of Excalibur and fuelled it with the powers of his friends that were being channelled towards him. He continued to gather the energy to him, the heat of it burning into the palms of his hands making him long to let it go but he held on tight knowing that the time had to be accurate.

He worried briefly over Xandria; he hadn’t seen her since they had arrived. As soon as the battle begun she had run off to do her bit and he hadn’t seen one glimpse of her since then. He could only hope that she was okay.

A voice, one that he had heard before in his dreams, echoed within his head causing him to startle slightly so that he almost lost his hold on the huge amounts of energy between his palms. He listened for the voice and he was glad that this time when the voice spoke, he barely flinched. Face set with determination he listened to the instructions being given to him as his eyes flickered to the vessels ambling towards him with limbs disjointed or completely missing and the orb growing within his palms. It was roughly the size of a large beach ball at the moment but it was steadily getting bigger and bigger with each passing moment. It was exciting but terrifying to hold something so powerful within his grasp, he knew how much it could save the people around him but also it’s great power to devastate the world around him.

His eyes widened in awe as a bubble started to form from the ball within his grasp. It had never done it in practice but then again they hadn’t put this much energy into rehearsals for fear of exposing their location to the opposition.

The bubble stretched until it was thirty feet in the air and he was pretty sure thirty feet below his feet too and ran to the perimeter of the circle created by him and his followers. Their energy cut off from him abruptly and he noticed that all seven of them were outside the circle, along with a few of the evil minions that they quickly dispatched. When they returned their attention to the bubble however, no matter how hard they tried, they could not get back inside.

Colton sent them a smile showing them that everything was fine when in reality there was nothing fine about it. The energy in his hands was nothing pleasant, every snarling person in front of him would be obliterated as soon as it was released and that would probably include him.

Glancing around he was glad to see that the only ones inside the bubble were the opponents. He double checked before the bubble above him fizzled and crackled before turning transparent, the only clue it was still there were the bodies rebounding off of it on the edges and the slight distortion in the air. He listened for the voice as his eyes fluttered shut, his heart pounding as he felt rather than saw every single being note him as the cause of their imprisonment and turn their attention to him. The ground began to tremble under his feet as they advanced, one hulking mass of evil focused on him.

When they were close enough to touch him, the voice whispered through Colton’s mind and with a smile, he did as she said, he let go. With a roar that burst from his lungs, he drew in all the energy he could before propelling it outwards the energy expanding and crashing through the bodies as it went quickly turning them to ash. The black wisps of evil that leaked from their bodies were quickly obliterated by the energy that was bouncing off of the bubble and re-entering the fray.

Colton kept his eyes closed a smile of satisfaction on his face as he focused to keep the bubble intact. He could feel that it was almost over. The energy would reach him soon, it had only brushed him so far singing the hair off of his face so that his eyebrows had burnt away but he still kept on with the smell of death cloying his senses. I just have to hold on a little longer, he thought to himself as he bit his lip against the pain as a strike of energy caught his arm setting it alight.

“Now Colton,” the heavenly voice he knew so well ordered him and as he opened his eyes, he saw her there right before, a mirage of an angel in the middle of this hell for she surely couldn’t be real.

Xandria glared at his as he smiled giddily at her but she was getting more frustrated when he did nothing but stare at her with a stupid smile on her face. She noted the man she had managed to force inside the bubble before the bubble formed was advancing on them.

“Crap,” she muttered to herself as she watched the mass of black coming towards her, occasionally being swept from her vision by sweeps of energy but never stopping in his progress. Glancing back at Colton she did the first thing that burst into her head. Stepping into his body she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Putting her lips next to his ear she whispered so that only he could here, the roar of energy around them drowning out the sound so that even she couldn’t hear it. “Let go Colton.”

Doing something she never pictured herself having the guts to do, Xandria kissed him firmly on the mouth, putting everything in that kiss that she was sure was going to be their last. His arms came to wrap around her and he relaxed into her embrace, his mind quickly forgetting about the bubble.

The cry of outrage and anger echoed behind the two of them but they were completely oblivious to the stooped old man with the black eyes. He pulled a gun from his waist band just as the bubble started to collapse inwards. Aiming, he pointed the barrel straight at the couple and with one movement, he pulled the trigger. The sound was completely lost to everyone but the old man’s lips curled into a smile when he saw the dark haired girl stumble slightly before the red haired boy caught her. They did not break the kiss though even as tears of pain leaked down Xandria’s cheeks. She knew it was their end anyways.

With a roar and a rush of wind, the bubble rushed forwards to its origin and then with a mighty bang of energy, it exploded. The old man was completely obliterated every part of his being torn limb from limb.

Xandria and Colton continued to kiss even as the wall of power came towards them, their lips only parting when the energy crashed into the pair. Yelps escaped both of their lips as they were yanked apart and thrown fifty feet in the air before crashing back down as a huge wave of heat rolled across the field singing everything within the crater that had formed where the bubble had once been.

Xenia who was battered and bruised, rushed forward only to be pulled back by Caliban. She fought against his arms but he only held on tighter, refusing to let her go by an inch.

“You can’t Xen, you have to wait until it stops before we can look for them.” His voice had lost all of it normal sternness and instead was filled with sorrow as he faced the burning pit before him. His eyes spoke a thousand words. The chances of the two surviving were low, very low indeed. “Come on, we need to get out of here before the police arrive.” 

With that he ushered her away from the site of her daughter’s destruction, praying that it all hadn’t been for nothing.

this is not the best i've written I know, it will probably get a major edit and such later on and some more action will be added but I hope you like it. The epilogue left to do and that will be it I think.