Bandit's Revenge

by Max Jager

  Bandit panted heavily before he continued.

  "Even if you do blame me for everything, look around you, damn it!There are no extenuating circumstances; no one's life is on the line, and no one's making you do this! You have all the choice in the world, Red…! You don't need to do this!"

  "Yes, I do!" asserted Red emotionally.

  Bandit swallowed nervously as he looked into his brother's eyes. To his surprise, slight tears were forming in them, as though his older brother actually felt some small amount of sadness and guilt about what he was about to do to him.

  "I am so sorry…" began Red as he closed his eyes, "but you…must…die…"

  "Say hello to our mother for me…Car…"

  What Has Become

  Rachel's eyes squinted as she crawled through the vast expanse of dust and dirt. She was terribly exhausted, and her clothes were drenched in sweat and blood, but she knew she could not stop moving.

  She knew she had to find her friend and make sure he was okay.

  She groaned as she began to climb over a large rock that was both in her way and blocking her line of sight. She struggled quite a bit as she did so, but she knew going any other way would waste time, and she knew she had no time to waste.

  She had no idea at all where her friend was, and she did not want to risk finding him a moment too late, considering that he had been in the direct center of the enemy's ultimate attack.

  She gritted her teeth when she climbed to the top of the rock, and slowly lowered herself back to the ground. Unfortunately, her hand slipped from where it was positioned, so she ended up landing flat on her bottom.

  She grunted as leaned against the rock, and panted as she rubbed her eyes, for some of the dirt floating in the air had gotten into them when she crashed to the ground. She rubbed her eyes for about a minute, and slowly opened her now slightly teary eyes.

  She saw two figures before her, one standing and one lying down, but they initially were not clearly visible to her because of her teary eyes. As her vision slowly cleared up, however, she recognized the two people before her, but it took her slightly longer to register what had happened to them, for the dust in the air was insurmountable. She squinted her eyes to get a better look at the two beings in front of her, and her eyes slowly widened when she slowly realized what had happened between the two men.

  One of them, a fair-skinned man with crimson red hair, stood up, while the man's foot rested on the skull of the other man.

  Her mind initially did not register who the other man was, that is, until she saw his dark red hair, which was covered in ice and blood.

  A shadow passed over her face when she realized that the other, motionless man…

  …was the friend she had been searching for, and she looked at his seemingly body with her mouth agape.

  No…

  More tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at them, and she became incomprehensibly morose as the fact that her friend was more than likely lying dead before her began to sink in.

  No…!

  It was becoming too much for her, and her mind was beginning to crack.

  As memories of her beloved friend raced through her mind, her breath rate began to increase, and she held her head as she began to scream in anguish.

  "No!"

  She now seemed to be truly inconsolable.

  Her cry was so powerful, so forceful, that it could be heard throughout the entire land.

  Red turned around when he heard her scream, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw Rachel in the distance.

  What the…? he thought as he looked at her with slight trepidation, This scream… It's…

  …inhuman…

  Tears rapidly streamed down Rachel's face, and Red gasped as he watched as the debris around her float into the air.

  Her body began to shake uncontrollably as she thought about just how much she had loved her best friend.

  She growled as the veins in her neck throbbed in a most unsettling way.

  She was becoming angrier and angrier as the reality of the situation sunk deeper and deeper into her mind.

  She looked up at the sky with eyes filled with fury, and once her anger peaked, she truly and completely snapped.

  She took in a deep breath, and roared the most powerful roar she had ever produced, a roar of truly epic proportions. This roar rang in the ears of everyone in the annihilated city, and quite possibly, all of the Ice Lands. The ground itself began to shake because of the intensity of her roar, and Red's jaw dropped as he looked at her, unable to comprehend what the hell was happening to this girl he had known for over ten years of his life.

  Wha…? What is this…?

  Her body suddenly began to release a massive amount of Manna in the form of black energy, and the power of the energy radiating from her body was so great, Red covered his face, and found himself slowly pushed back by the sheer force of the energy.

  Where is all of this Manna coming from…?

  As Rachel's screams became more and more inhuman, the ground began to shake even more violently than before, more violently than any earthquake possibly could, and a beam of black energy shot out from her body and into the sky.

  Red grunted as he struggled to keep his balance, and gasped as he looked at Rachel with more fear than he had ever experienced in his entire life. It did not take long for him to find the answer to his earlier question, but it took him slightly longer to remember that he had seen something like this happen to someone before, someone he loved, and whose death he had never quite gotten over.

  His mother.

  It's just like that time…! What's happening to her…is just like what happened to Mom…! All this time…I thought that if she didn't turn out like this after what Dad did to her…it would never happen… But it is! I… I can't believe it…! Dad's experimentation on her…worked…! I never thought I would ever see something like this ever again…!

  He watched in complete shock and awe as Rachel's body underwent a number of physical changes.

  Her irises turned black, her pupils turned red, her dark hair began to glow and floated in the air, her muscles increased to hulking proportions, her skin became metallic in texture, and her veins began to glow.

  She began to pant heavily, and sweat dripped down Red's face as he watched her make direct eye contact with him. She balled up her fists as tight as humanly possible, and roared at him so powerfully, Red's eyes twitched furiously in fear as he gritted his teeth irritably.

  "Red!" she roared, "You've taken your last life! Do you hear me?"

  Red's heart rate increased when it became clear that he was about to be the target of all of Rachel's wrath, agony and anguish. He watched with fear as the veins in her neck and head bulged violently.

  "I'm going to kill you so brutally; you'll beg me to end your life quicker! You will never…walk upon this Earth after today!"

  Red grunted as he looked at the wrathful demon that stood before him.

  This is what she has become…? This isn't good… She has far more power than anyone I've ever dealt with… The strength of her Manna is completely incomparable, even to that of my mother's when she turned into a monster!

  What is she?

  What indeed. If only Red had realized that it was his entire fault he was about to meet his demise this way.

  He killed her parents, and now that he had ripped the one man she had ever truly loved away from her, he had awakened demonic power within her body that had the potential to bring about the apocalypse.

  Lost in her sorrow, Rachel, no…this monster had the power to destroy everything in this world, but at a terrible cost. As its fury grew more and more, it slowly but surely lost everything that had made it Rachel Thomas, including her soul, her mind, and her humanity.

  The best way to hurt someone is to take away everyone and everything they love, but by doing so to Rachel, Red had inadvertently created a demon unimaginably powerful, and whose mind only craved one thing…

  …venge
ance.

  Goddess of Vengeance

  Rachel the monster blurred at Red so quickly, he did not realize she was right in front of him until it was too late.

  Unable to defend himself quickly enough, he yelled in pain when she kicked him right in the stomach, and gritted his teeth as he went flying through the air.

  "Ah!" he screamed as he closed his eyes in pain.

  When he opened his eyes, he gasped when he saw that Rachel had jumped into the air after him. He nervously gritted his teeth when he saw her raise her hands into the air, and quickly produced a circular barrier of lightning around his body to protect himself from whatever attack she was about to assault him with.

  Damn it! he thought, This power takes up too much of my energy…!

  But I'm too weak to do anything else…!

  After holding her hands in the air for several seconds, Rachel lowered them and pointed her fingers right at Red.

  In that instant, a massive amount of purple lightning rained down from the sky and struck the area Red was in mercilessly. The lightning rained down on Red with incomparable intensity, and spanned a wide area, for it struck every building within in a five mile radius, setting them all ablaze.

  Thankfully, the buildings were completely devoid of life, so no innocent people got hurt by the unimaginably powerful attack.

  Rachel shot jets of black energy from her feet in order to hover in the air, and silently watched the five mile area she had struck, waiting to see if her enemy had survived. After a few seconds of watching, she saw a figure near the edge of the five miles radius jump high into the air, and gritted her teeth angrily as she balled up her fists and went after it by propelling herself forward with the Manna she shot out from her feet.

  Red gritted his teeth as he looked back to see if Rachel had spotted him, and balled up his fists when he saw her flying towards him at high speed. When he landed on the ground, he quickly jumped into the air again, and stretched out both of his index fingers in preparation for what he hoped would be the coup de grace.

  This…is my final attack...! he thought seriously, After this, I won't have enough Manna in my body to do anything of significance… I have to make this count!

  As soon as he turned his body around to aim at her, however, he gasped when he saw her right in front of his vulnerable self. She kicked him hard in the face with inconceivable power, and he yelled in pain as he went flying through the air.

  Rachel watched as Red held his bleeding face in pain, and proceeded to spin around in the air at high speed, creating a large, threatening tornado of bright, purple lightning around her in a matter of seconds.

  She launched the blinding tornado of lighting at him, and a sightless Red screamed in anguish as he got sucked into the tornado, causing him to suffer excruciatingly painful electrocution.

  He swirled around in the tornado for about fifteen seconds, when it finally sent him flying far away upon its sudden dispersal.

  He yelled as he helplessly flew through the air, and grunted when he crashed to the ground.

  He screamed as he writhed in pain on the ground, for the lighting-induced burns all over his body were very severe, but unfortunately for him, he had no time to dwell on the anguish that radiated throughout his being.

  He gasped when he saw a huge ball of black energy fall from the sky and at him, and looked at it in horror as he struggled to get up as quickly as he possibly could.

  He grunted as he leapt into the air, and lucky for him, he managed to escape the attack by jumping away before it could strike him.

  He gasped as he looked back for a moment at the destruction the energy ball brought to seven city blocks.

  Thankfully, the people in the area were already dead, so they had no need to fear the havoc that engulfed their bodies.

  He ran as fast as he could for twenty blocks, and grunted as he used his great speed to scale up the side of a building without falling. When he jumped onto the rooftop, he pointed his index fingers at Rachel and shot two of the most ferocious lightning bolts he had ever produced at her, who was hot on his trail. Unafraid of the attack, Rachel suddenly vanished from his line of sight, and he gasped in shock as he watched his final attack fly into the sky, having missed its intended target.

  What the…? he thought as sweat dripped down his face, She's even faster than she was a moment ago!

  He gasped in fear when Rachel suddenly appeared before him, and quickly jumped off the rooftop of the building he had been on. When he landed on the street, he began to blur all over the place as quickly as he could to make it harder for her to aim her attacks at him.

  Unbeknownst to him, however, it mattered not how fast he moved. She was becoming even more powerful with every passing second, and now, she had the ability to track every move he made, no matter how fast.

  Infuriated, she shot a blast of purple lightning from her index finger, and sent it flying at him at high speed, but Red did not pay it much attention…until he realized that the vicious blast of lightning was following him.

  By the time he realized that, however, it was too late.

  He tried to jump away from the attack, but the blast completely engulfed him nevertheless, electrocuting him, and leaving him weak and exhausted on the ground afterwards.

  I…can't…move…! he thought as he struggled to stand.

  He slowly managed to get on his knees, but before he could attempt to stand up on his feet, he was struck by Rachel so hard; he tumbled miles away in the direction where their fight, or rather, Rachel's destruction, had begun.

  Elsewhere, Brayne grunted as he struggled to lift the stone that had incapacitated his redheaded friend off his body.

  Damn it! he thought as he gritted his teeth, What a pain in the ass!

  After a few moments, he managed to get the stone completely off his friend, and used the last of his strength to throw it aside.

  Truly exhausted, he fell to the ground, while his friend groaned in pain as he rubbed his head.

  "Thanks…" said Bandit tiredly.

  Bandit Lane should have been a dead man when his brother stomped on his head, but he had encased his head in ice right before Red did so, which kept him from losing his life.

  The two panted in exhaustion as they looked at each other solemnly.

  "It's bad…" he began as he furrowed his eyebrows, "Isn't it…?"

  "Oh, yeah…" confirmed Brayne as he looked at the devastation around them, "It's bad."

  Before either one of them could make the mistake of saying it could not get any worse, they heard something tumble towards them.

  "Oh…crap!" yelled Bandit as he slowly stood up, thinking his brother had sent something tumbling towards them to crush them.

  He and Brayne watched as the unidentified tumbling object skidded on the ground before them, and they both gasped when they saw what, or rather, who had been tumbling.

  "Red…!" they said at the same time in shock.

  "What the…?" asked Brayne, confused, "Where the hell did he come from? And why was he tumbling?"

  "I think the question is who sent him tumbling," said Bandit as he created a cane of ice to help him stand up, "It's not like he did it of his own volition."

  "But…" began Brayne as he scratched his head, "everyone seems to be down for the count. Everyone… Who could possibly send him flying like that?"

  Red grunted as he held his head in pain, but he suddenly gasped in fear, for he knew that his enemy would not be far behind.

  He looked back out of the corner of his eye, and gasped when he saw Rachel flying at him, and getting closer and closer with every passing millisecond. He gasped in fear, and gritted his teeth as he stood up as quickly as possible, desperate to get away from the monster that followed him wherever he went with the goal of wiping away his very existence.

  Damn it! he thought as he trembled, I…can't move fast enough…!

  Both Bandit and Brayne looked at him in awe, for he had blood all over his body, and they could not believe
someone had beaten him so brutally.

  Who…? thought Bandit as he gritted his teeth, Who could do this to him?

  He received an answer to his question within the next millisecond, when Rachel suddenly appeared before them, wrathful beyond belief.

  They speechlessly watched as she grabbed Red's shoulder, and covered their faces as she began to release so much Manna from her body, she released a massive amount of wind from her body as well.