Rogue Light

by Brian Nyaude

  39

  In every direction, I saw hordes among hordes of new allies fight against her army. The castle was falling fast, being taken down into the ground. We flew further up high until I felt Katarina Fox’s presence. She was still down in the broken dungeons of Pitto, probably waiting for us.

  “Paul get ready,” I whispered to him as I stopped flying, free falling into the dungeons through the hole I had destroyed before.

  “Impossible how did you escape?” the princess looked up and screamed in shock. “No one has ever escaped from my mother’s worm hole.”

  “It is one of the powers of the gauntlet,” Katarina commented coming out of the shadows. “I expected no less from those who wield the two ultimate treasures.”

  Seriously! What was with her and the shadows? This was almost like the second or third time I had seen her emerge without notice from the shadows. In a strange way, she sort of reminded me of Suzanne because she also liked to stay in the comfort of the shadows too.

  “Round three Katarina,” I hissed at her with in a rude way. “This time I won’t hold back at all.”

  As I finished talking, I called upon the power of the forth blast, dashing first towards her. No longer could I take any chances with her, she was too devious to underestimate. In both my hands, two guns appeared; however, different in two ways. The hilt had broadened in size while the body of the guns had gotten longer and smoother. Behind me, two white sashes appeared, coiled and fused together. The power raging inside me was incredible; it was so dense and a bit hard to control.

  “Rid is that really you?” Paul asked in amazement. “How and when did you get this strong?”

  “Of course it’s me,” I replied in an immodest manner while flexing my arm muscles a bit. “I will explain later. Right now I want you to keep the princess busy. Can you do that buddy?”

  On no, he was smiling diabolically again like every time he came up with a stupid idea. It was somewhat bad to leave him alone when he was like that.

  “Yes I can,” he chuckled, looking towards the princess with uncertain eyes. “It’s time I paid you back for all those times you tortured us.”

  What was he thinking? Paul moved closer to her, changing the color of his whole body. It was amazing, he turned into a dense metal humanoid right before my eyes. The princess smiled like a maniac and sprinted forth to meet him head on. Trading blow for blow, it looked like their strengths were almost on par with each other. I moved further away from them and turned my attention towards my true enemy, Katarina Fox. Stomping my legs quickly, I dashed towards her with my guns extended in front. She didn’t move at all from her position which was fine with me. I sprinted beyond my normal pace and leaped up at her, aiming for a quick blow to the head. She looked up at me and chuckled, not even trying to duck away from me. What was she doing? I hesitated for a bit at the sudden realization that this could be a trap. Too late to withdraw, I felt her breathe gently on my forehead and raised both my guns to fire.

  “I’ll show you not to look down on me,” I yelled at her face, grabbing the middle part of her trident firmly.

  As expected, she was rather strong too. I tried to shake off the weapon from her grasp, but it didn’t even budge at all.

  “Is this it? How boring,” she sighed, lashing me in the stomach with a powerful kick.

  I bent over in pain, feeling as if my stomach organs had been rearranged into one direction. I felt like I was going to puke my guts out. Never had I felt such a painful blow to the gut. However, I didn’t let go off the trident as I reinforced my grip on it and whispered a few incantations beneath my breath.

  “Are you giving up already?” Katarina giggled, placing her left down on the ground. “That was barely even worthy of a warm up.”

  True indeed, this was not considered a warm up for someone of her caliber. Her energy was so gigantic it masked everyone else’s completely from me.

  “Chains of time,” I whispered with a smile, looking up into her cold heartless eyes. “I knew you would drop your guard down eventually. That kick was free, but from now onwards things will play out differently.”

  Two chains emerged from thin air on the trident, sealing its power to control time. Once I saw them, I let go of it and moved back. So far, everything had gone according to plan, although I had not anticipated that she would kick me this hard.

  “This enchantment, it couldn’t be!” she rattled while observing the chains on her weapon. “Where did you learn this?”

  I looked at her while massaging my throbbing stomach and snickered, “my mentor taught it to me in anticipation of this encounter with you. I’m sure you know him. You’ve fought him before.”

  The confident expression she had before completely vanished as a dark, hallow, and menacing look took over her eyes. Oh no, this was not good. Perhaps, I shouldn’t have told her that. I had a feeling she now knew who I was talking about now. Tilting down, I bent my back whilst massaging my stomach slowly.

  “How is that old pervert still alive?” she asked while unbuttoning her cloak off.

  The chains on her robs fell off and then suddenly disappeared into thin air. The wind cried out loudly in every direction. What was going on now? The weather began to change drastically for the worse, like falling rocks wasn’t enough to worry about. Katarina’s inner energy was rising up to epic proportions. It was far stronger than anything I had ever felt before. How could she control such power? What kind of mist power was this? Was she even human?

  Beneath me, the ground was trembling slowly, being suffocated by her power alone. I sensed her body movements get tenser, she was about to get really serious. Apparently she knew my mentor Ebi too well if she referred to him as a pervert too.

  “I was going to toy with you until you were dead, but now I’m not going to hold back since you are Ebi’s disciple,” she finished while removing her hood from her entire body.

  Whoa, I wasn’t expecting this at all as I looked at her. I took back everything I said about calling her a disgusting monster. For an old lady, she was rather stunning and pretty. If Paul saw her, he was going to flip on me. In a different life, I really think I would seriously fall for her. And I don’t know why, but she appeared to be half naked as portions of her legs and arms were exposed to the outside elements. Her hair was longer than mine and the color of her eyes was mesmerizing. The amount of energy she was emitting now was a hundred times stronger than before and that was a lot. Upon seeing her true face, I finally understood why my mentor Ebi lost. Like any man, he had his weaknesses and I think now I knew how he was defeated. I had spent a decade with him in the yellow world enough to know every one of his strengths and weaknesses. I moved away, guns gripped tightly in each arm. Katarina smiled slowly, starting to move closer to me. She moved away from the shade of the dungeons and began to move closer towards the light of the sun.

  “The sun is perfect, don’t you agree?” she asked me, looking up into the sky while taking a deep breath. “Prepare for your demise Riyo son of Rogue.”

  Darn it! I didn’t know whether to attack or drool all over her. No, I shook away all my dirty thoughts and focused my mind on defeating her. Tilting my body to my side, I stomped one foot into the ground and raised both flintlocks at her.

  Looking around, I noticed that my surroundings played against me. There wasn’t much room to latch on or even fly fast through. I heard a loud clash of weapons and looked back. Behind me, Paul and the princess were fighting to their heart’s content, causing much unwanted destruction everywhere. In a second, Paul stopped and turned towards Katarina, almost freezing in his steps. Oh no, I had forgotten that Paul had a disturbing obsession for older women. Paul looked like a statue, almost like he had been enchanted in a living stone. What was the idiot doing? The princess smiled, raising a large ball of dark energy into the air.

  “Paul duck now,” I yelled, running towards him.

  Grabbing his neck, I pulled him down to the ground, nearly avoiding
what looked like a fatal attack. I looked down at him and saw that he was still in the trance or hypnosis, not responding at all. At first, I yelled at him, shaking him up wildly. At least, he was still breathing, just not blinking or responding at all. Out of desperation, I slapped him hard on his left cheek twice, bringing him back to reality somehow. Paul coughed up loud, rolling his eyes in every direction. It was obvious Katarina had done something to him when he looked up at her. But what exactly?

  “What happened?” Paul asked as sweat dropped down from his face. “I looked at Katarina’s arm and the light from the sun reflected from it into my eyes. After that, l lost all control of my body, like it had turned to stone.”

  I see, it was finally starting to make sense. Looking slightly back, I was now aware of what her second mist power might be. It seemed she had the ability to stun her opponents if they looked at her sunbathed skin. If I looked at her too in the sun, it was over. I helped Paul up to his feet and looked back, watching everywhere the light from the sun came through. There were many parts inside the dungeon still shaded from its reach which I could use to my advantage. This was not going to be easy as I had expected.

  “That old pervert never had a chance,” I laughed to myself thinking about Ebi.

  Katarina was fast, strong, and agile and while I was. Well what was I? Compared to her, I was as harmless as an insect. How could I think I had a chance of defeating her?

  “What are you lowlifes rumbling about?” the princess shrugged as she threw a huge ball of black energy at us without a moment’s spare.

  Quickly turning around, I deflected her attack with a bullet of rage, causing a small air tremor in the process. Paul and I both moved back, hiding behind the shade of a large pile of rubble.

  “Paul, avoid looking at Katarina at all costs,” I whispered gently nudging him up. “I don’t know exactly what kind of power she has, but we shouldn’t look at her directly.”

  “I will try, but she is simply too stunning,” he replied in a joking manner.

  He might have looked like he was just playing, but I think that idiot was serious and would probably stare at her again. Knowing that, I was starting to have doubt about my decision of bringing him with me as my backup. “Paul trust me don’t, I might not be able to bail you out again next time.”

  “Alright already, don’t have to tell me twice,” Paul looked away.

  So, how was I going to do it? I couldn’t look at her at all too. My eyesight was my greatest power and now it was my greatest weakness, sort of ironic if I might add. I moved back towards her with my eyes half closed. With my arms extended in front, I stopped, realizing something Ebi had said. Thinking back, it was all a blur to me. I remember him saying something along these lines. “Use all your senses to fight. Feel your enemies’ presence and energy. Yadayada.”

  If only I had listened to him, well it was too late now to ask him. I sighed out loud, clearing my mind of all thoughts. Everything was silent, almost resonating to the darkness. Excluding my eyes, all of my others senses seemed fully purposeful. Oh what am I doing? This was useless, I just couldn’t do it. Opening my eyes again, I placed one hand in front of my face to avoid her gaze.

  “Are you two done fighting?” Katarina whispered in my ear placing her arm in front of my face trying to grab my neck.

  Paul backed away from her without gazing in her direction, barely missing a frontal kick from the princess. It was too late for me, one of my eyes had been open when she placed her arm around me. Rolling out of the way, I got away from her, landing on one knee. To my surprise, half of my body had been frozen. I couldn’t move the left side of my body. Even with the sphere of the fourth blast protecting my body, she had still found some way to get past it, attacking without me even noticing it. What was I going to do now? I was hungry, injured, confused, and to make things worse outclassed in power.

  “Don’t give up,” a voice whispered to me, followed by a swift brush of clean air.

  Who was that? I didn’t recognize the voice at all or where it came from. It wasn’t Paul or anyone I knew. Nonetheless, they were right, giving up meant my demise. I struggled slowly until I got up, barely shaking in my knees. The sphere of the forth blast was still covering my body although it seemed to be getting weaker. I didn’t have much time until I ran out of energy and it looked like Katarina Fox was still barely even trying. I felt slight fear inside my heart, and a tingling strange sensation of doubt and regret. In the face of my greatest enemy, everything started to come together like a puzzle. Ebi must have faced her in her true form, probably being stunned by this bothersome power of hers. If that was the case, then it explained how he lost the battle. Still can’t explain how his soul was sucked into the gauntlet. Was it the gauntlet’s doing or another one of the Rainku’s power?

  “I hate to ruin your parade, but I have a schedule to keep,” Katarina giggled manically raising her trident up in the air. “This time it’s over.”

  Yet again, there was a shift in the weather, beyond anything she had displayed thus far. The wind burned, howling like a small storm was about to erupt. Something bad was about to happen, I could feel it in every fiber in my body. Realizing my impending demise, I moved away from her, trying to evade anything she could throw at me, but something went wrong

  A terrible numbness on left side stopped me from moving. Panicking softly, I sat on my right knee unsure of what to do. In an instant, Katarina was right on top of me. Looking up at her, I was surprised at the fact that I didn’t freeze completely. Probably, her power only worked whenever sun light hit her skin, and her frontal side wasn’t facing the sun.

  Yes, that had to be it. Katarina descended down again, placing her free arm on her waist while her other arm was raised up. The trident in her right arm was glowing with vibrant blue energy. Shrieking loudly, a rip in the air formed. Out of it, two wild beasts rattled out, moving towards me slowly. Growling hard, they looked terribly powerful and fierce. Just what were they? They looked like a mixture between a hard skinned fox and a swift wolf. I gripped my arm tightly, sensing the growing danger. I jumped up into the air to give myself an advantage. For some reason, the numbness in my arm and leg had receded, allowing me to maneuver at little bit better.

  “Where are you going Riyo?” Katarina appeared in front of me barely missing my face with her trident. “The fun’s just getting started.”

  Whoa! I didn’t sense her or see her move from her previous position. She was just so fast and stronger, almost scary. By far, she was the most powerful opponent I had ever faced. Just what was she? As I ducked and fell to the ground my right eye accidentally looked at her shoulder, causing my right side of the body to freeze too.

  “No! No! This is not happening,” I said biting my lip.

  Was this really happening? How could I win against her if I couldn’t even look at her? One of the two beasts jumped onto my back and was quickly repulsed back by my forth blast sphere. I rolled back and made my stand at the dark corner of the dungeons. My chances of coming out of this alive were slipping by faster than I could grasp. She was definitely tough, but even the strongest opponent had to fall at some point. To my right, I felt a sensation of bloodlust in the air. The other monster Katarina had summoned was right on top of me, jaws out and claws extended out. Instead of being pushed back, it broke through my sphere barrier slightly, scratching on my arm hard. Such power and agility was beyond belief. My word, I never thought it was possible for any animal to push me back this far when I was using most of my power and yet this one had. How could this be?

  “These beasts are not of this world,” Katarina said, descending from the air in an untimely fashion. “Your power is merely nothing when compared with my creatures.”

  “So it seems,” I chuckled and readjusted my body, putting most of my weight into my left leg. “They are indeed powerful; however, power isn’t always everything against someone with agility and speed.”

  Having said that, I knew I had to back up my
words with sheer brute effort or face utmost defeat. Longer this fight dragged on, the more likely it was for me to fall to her. I took my eyes off her and looked up. The meteors were still falling above, destroying everything within the castle. Just what was that bunion thinking? And to my right, the monsters were getting ready to strike again. It would have been favorable to fly up towards the surface; however, that only increased Katarina’s second power too, making it far too difficult to face her. Around me, I felt the sphere barrier start to flicker slowly. It seemed my forth blast’s power was about to run out. In that instant, the savage beasts sensed my desperation and attack me relentlessly, aiming for my neck and chest. Out of hope, I took heed Ebi’s words and closed my eyes.

  “Ebi you better be right about this,” I said to myself focusing as hard as I could.

  To my surprise, it worked. Everywhere around me, I sensed movements from the creatures and from the people above the surface. I had only tried this particular power twice back when I was still to the yellow world. Since, I thought it was a stupid thing to master, I stopped practicing it. However, I wish I had mastered it now.

  There! I began to see without really using my eyes. Dodging to my left and then to the back, I sensed it all. Every one of their movements was clear as day. I felt one of them lunge for my neck and I kicked it away, jumping upon a dented stone. How was I doing this? It felt weird, having to feel them and attacking without using my eyes. Well whatever I was doing, I hoped I could keep it up for a while. Above me, I sensed the meteor storm stopping. It was growing quiet on the surface, like the battle had been decided. What was going on? There was no way Dashe could stop this attack by himself. Something must have happened to him but what? I started to worry about the others as I kept evading the two monster animals. Without thoroughly thinking, I took off for the skies, firing bullets rapidly into the creatures beneath me. Using both guns, I finished them off with my two of my most powerful green bullets, destroying the ground underneath them at the same time. Oh no, Paul was still down there. I opened my eyes slowly, only to see the dungeon fall to rubble. A cloud of dust was rising up from below, covering anything down under from my sight. I descended down onto the surface ground, trying to sense their presence. Shockingly, Katarina Fox’s large energy had just vanished, along with Paul and the princess’s presence. Had I pulverized her too? No, that would have been too easy. After all, she was one of the Rainku and not someone easy to annihilate. Instinctively lowering my head, I rolled out of the way at the first feeling of coldness above me.

  “You truly are Ebi’s student,” a dark voice hissed, coming from above me. “But it looks like you didn’t inherit your mentor’s perverted ways too.”

  I looked up and saw her dark lingering shadow. For a second, I felt a dread of fear clutch further onto my heart. Despite all my attempts, it appeared I could not vanquish this evil. I had tried almost everything and nothing seemed to be working. She was just too powerful and I was no match.

  “Enough! This has gone too far,” Katarina screamed breaking the chains of time from her trident easily. “I am tired of playing around with you, clearly this is the peak of your power so there is no point in wasting any more of my time.”

  Impossible, Ebi had said that the chains of time could not be broken by mere hands and yet she had done it with ease. That old geezer had misinformed me again. With all her powers back, did I stand a chance anymore? My body ached and my inner energy was weakening and yet she seemed to be getting stronger and powerful, far beyond my comprehension. It was now obvious, if she wanted she could have finished me off a long time ago, but she hadn’t. Why was she taunting me so deeply? Darn it! I moved out her of path, covering my eyes from looking at her. All above me, I felt her dark energy, like a large storm was swarming above me. Such a foul presence was beyond my wildest imagination. I clearly doubted she was even human at this point. Up above me, I felt her energy shift like she was moving. Moving to my left, I ran out of harm’s way as soon as I felt a chill in the air. Katarina’s shadow grazed behind me, forcing me to turn my back around. I fired two green bullets into blank air, opening one eye to look around. Somehow, she dodged and kicked my ankle hard. I fell to the ground, feeling an unimaginable pain rush into my leg. Ouch! Ouch!

  It felt like she had broken a bone in my left leg. Again she lingered up above, causing me to roll over on one knee without looking up. It was difficult to fight her without looking her in the eye. Getting back up on one knee, I limped off to the side and looked all over the castle. Her citadel was in ruins, destroyed down into the ground by the combined force of my friends and their allies. Screams echoed in every direction, the fight was still going on. The tide of the battle had been changing in our favor; however, with Katarina joining the battle, nothing was certain anymore.

  “Why do you still get up?” Katarina asked me as she landed a few yards away from me. “Don’t you realize you can’t win? We the Rainku are the ultimate rulers and our power is unchallenged. Having courage and determination is no substitute for true power. Mere weaklings like you should just give up and die right now.”

  Deep down, she was right. Power did make a huge difference in the outcome of any battle. Nevertheless, nothing was certain in life. Things had a crazy way of turning for the worst or for the better, even if something was carefully thought through or planned.

  “Just because you are powerful it doesn’t make your life more important than anyone else. Tyrants like you will never understand, but I will soon make you see the error of your ways,” I yelled dashing towards her in a profound manner.

  She smirked softly, moving in closer to me with her trident up above, aiming it towards my head. Taking two steps back, I moved out of her way and fired two more green bullets at her, hoping to land at least one good shot before my forth blast ran out. To my surprise, I finally landed a hit on her, throwing her off course in the opposite direction. I heard her gasp before falling into a crater of rubble on the other side. Without hesitation, I fired a few more good shots in her direction, taking advantage of the opening I had created. Large storms of dust erupted from her direction followed by small tremors in the ground. Falling to my knees, I sighed heavily, firmly holding my leg which ached terribly. That last combination attack had taken every ounce of power and focus I had. A cloud of dust blinded me from seeing her. She was still much alive, but I could tell that I had wounded her a little.

  “You are definitely starting to become an eyesore Riyo,” she panted holding my shoulder from behind. “Now I will show you the true power of the white water mist.”

  I felt a cold chill behind me and slowly looked back. On her belly, I saw a red marked bruise probably caused by my last attack. Something was strange here; I did not freeze upon look. And I think I knew why. The sky had turned grey, roaring with thunder and lightning. She was no longer invincible because the sun had been hidden behind the grey clouds or so I thought. Before I could free myself from her clutch, Katarina Fox grabbed my neck and threw me into the ground with all her might. My head scrambled apart, feeling painfully numb. It seemed over now finally for me. Despite the pain, I grunted out loud as I looked at her. Katarina laughed terribly and even louder than before. The evolution of her laughter echoed throughout my body causing massive pain throughout my head to toe. Her energy felt raw, raging further out of control. My word, I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. She was morphing, growing bigger, and furrier than before. How could it be? Just what was she? In her arms, I bore witness to her weapon disappear after glowing blue in color. The marking on her trident suddenly appeared all over her arms and legs. Slowly, I got to my feet and looked up, filled with fear and anxiety. All my hopes of victory seemed in vain now.

  “Well this was new,” I chuckled to myself looking towards her. “So this is what my demise looks like?”