Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero No Tsukaima Darkness Rising ❯ Drawing Near ( Chapter 18 )

Drawing Near

 

As the sun rises Saito opens his eyes and finds that Louise, while isn't right next to him but at least she is sitting under the same tree which causes a sigh of relief and a placid feeling wash over him, “Thank god, she didn't run away.” Saito looks down at his shirt it has been torn to shreds by Sara and other various fights it seems that this will be one of the last days his signature blue jacket will be with him or at the least on him. While looking at his destroyed coat he notices that there are black strips of fabric wrapped around all his body. Saito glances back at Louise's cloak, hardly anything is left of it.

Saito gets up and though it hurts he takes a long big stretch. As he finishes he knows that there is a problem that is going to need handling. He looks back at the camp and notices that Rain is laying in the same place as she was but Seth isn't there, “Wonder where he went.....”

The sound of a stick snapping draws his attention away from the camp, Seth is standing almost defiantly, away from Saito. He lifts his arm and makes a simply gesture with his hand prompting Saito to follow him. After five minutes Seth stops walking, they have arrived at a floor plan of a destroyed building. It looks like a poor man's fighting arena, if this is the place Seth chooses then why question is.

“Saito, I know you are still very angry at me. I understand but you need to understand that I look at you as a kind of rival in many different ways. You came to this world the same way, you have saved the world without the need for Airo and Zion, something I have never done.” Seth looks down at his left hand and slowly clenches it into a fist, “I don't hate you, I just want you to know that.”

Saito takes off his torn blue coat revealing a white tank top and a bunch of black strips of cloth around his shoulder and his right forearm, “This wouldn't have happened if you didn't nearly kill Louise.”

“Allison.....”

Saito draws Derflinger, “Louise.”

Saito charges at Seth and brings the blade down missing Seth as he rolls out of the way. Seth stands up and whispers something. His hands begin to glow until the light fades and his gauntlets are back around his hands again. Seth removes his black coat and draws his blade. Saito charges again and this time both of them slam their blades into the other, the blades shooting off sparks and a loud screech like sound echoes from the blades clashing. Seth pushes Saito back and tries to hit him with a kick but Saito spins around the blade and slams the handle bottom of his sword into Seth's gut. Seth steps back and smirks.

Satio stands back up, “Well, are you going to take this seriously?”

Seth slams his blade into the ground, “Yes.”

Seth charges in and blocks Saito's blade with his gauntlet but the strength from the attack forces Seth to the side and effectively misses his counter punch. Seth slams his fist into the ground to stop his skidding and quickly gets within Saito's swinging distance. Seth slams both of his fists into Saito's gut with saolin like strike. Seth stands up and plants his feet and blocks the next swing without skidding and spins connecting with a heel kick knocking Saito off balance. Seth follows up with a leg sweep making Saito fall to his back. Seth goes to punch Saito in the gut but he quickly kicks Seth in the gut giving him time to stand back up. Seth flips backwards creating more space and whips his left hand forward releasing a snaking blast of energy that slams right into Saito's blade. At first he struggles but he quickly forces the blast away from his body and it crashing into the ground behind him. As the smoke hides his body Saito gets his breath as that attack was very difficult to fend off. Seth suddenly rushes into the smoke and rams into Saito knocking out of the back of the dust and smoke cloud. Saito rolls with the momentum and ends up back on his feet. Saito raises Derflinger above his head and swings down creating a blast of wind, something he has never done before, and blows away the cloud. Seth isn't inside the cloud though Saito quickly looks up and moves away from the free falling Seth who slams his fist into the ground. Saito runs at Seth while he is getting his fist out of the ground and spins gaining momentum for his horizontal slash. The blade slams into Seth free arm, his right arm and the impact sends him slamming and rolling across the whole expanse of the destroyed floor they are fighting on. Seth slowly stands up, his arms covered in cuts from the destroyed ruble and glass from when the building fell. Seth kneels down and spits out some blood from his bleeding lip and then stands back up. Saito runs at Seth again and this time jumps into the air and releases a powerful roar. Seth looks up at Saito as Derflinger begins to glow a bright blue and he, smiles. Saito brings the blade down and the path of the slash creates a blast of blue light that slams into Seth who slowly overpowers the blast and causes it to dissipate.

Saito looks at his blade surprised by what just happened, “What was that.”

Before he has any more time to ponder on the happening he is struck across the face and he falls to a knee, “Are you gonna take this seriously?”

Saito whips his blade upward nearly catching Seth's jaw. Seth rolls backwards so that he is outside of Saito's reach.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

The two of them look away from each other and find Rain and Louise are both standing only a few yards away and are both clearly out of breath. Rain walks up to Seth and slaps him across the face the strike appearing much worse do to his already cut lip, “What are you doing attacking Saito?”

Louise walks over to Saito slugs him right in the chest, “What is wrong with you BAKA!?” Louise grabs hold of his shirt and pulls him closer to her and she wraps her arms around his midriff, “I was scared.”

Saito looks at Seth who is in turn looking at him like he had done this on purpose.

'He couldn't have, we could've killed each other'

Seth walks away for a moment and retrieves his sword from the ground and picks up his coat. As he is walking back he also picks up Saito's torn up coat and tosses it to Saito, “Here.”

Saito catches the coat and drapes it over his shoulder, “We where just sparring girls, really.”

They both look at Saito, hand on hips and eyebrows raised, “Really.”

Seth answers back with a, “Really,” and they look at each other with stern eyes but they still nod in agreement.

Rain grabs Seth's hand and starts walking back to camp, “Well you to should really tell someone when you are gonna go off and do that.”

Louise doesn't take Saito's hand but they follow Rain and Seth, together.

 

 

 

Once they make is back to the make shift camp they “apologize” to everyone and the group continues north. The further they go the more destroyed villages they end up coming across smoke has begun to darken the early morning sky making it seem like the sun has already set.

After another hour they come to a town that still seems to be fine, none of the building are burnt down and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary beside the lack of people walking the streets. Only one of two every couple of minutes which seems strange considering the size of the town.

One woman notices the travelers and drops what she is carrying and runs into a nearby house.

Suddenly a large group of men come out of the house and stand in a line that crosses the entire road. A man with dark red hair walks in front of the line and removes his spear from his back, “Are you the Holy Knights?”

Seth looks across the group to Zion and he shrugs back at him. The idea that some random man knows their name when so few people do and the majority of the people who know is in fact in the group. Seth shrugs and replies, “Yeah that's us.”

“Ryu sends his condolences, he says we should be more than enough to take care of you weaklings.” Seth finds this information to be very troubling if Ryu who has Kai's body tells all of Germania who the Holy Knights are then they would lose a large amount of the secrecy that they are so used to.

The man takes his spear off his back and points at the group, “Surround!”

A bunch of large groups of people start coming out of allies and houses until they completely surround the Knights.

Seth steps forward and draws his sword. Saito walks up next to him and draws his sword as well the unique ringing of both blades fill the air. Seth looks back of the rest of the group, “Me and Saito got this bunch you guys divide up the rest okay?”

The group of ambushers charge into the group. Louise quickly reaches for her wand but finds that she doesn't have one anymore. Rain steps in front of Louise and releases a blast of wind slowing the attackers in that direction allowing Airo to use the wind to take down four on one pass through them. Zion and Tabitha stand back to back and with her wand and his magic they launch a ball of ice that explodes stabbing into the men within its' range. Hina kneels down and puts her wand on the ground and turns the hard dirt road into soft sand drastically slowing the oncoming attackers.

Seth ducks under a slash and connects with an uppercut while Saito cuts down a man about to stab Seth in the back, “Seth did you do that on purpose?”

Seth blocks a knife thrust and slams his fist into the attacker's jaw, “Did I do what on purpose?”

Saito scoffs at the questions as he shoves a man away from him and cuts his down. Seth jumps up and lands on Saito's shoulder just long enough to jump even higher. He removes his gauntlet and aims his palm toward the middle of the group of attackers. A blast of flaming energy slams into the middle of the group and explodes taking care of a lot of the enemy with one attack.

Airo pulls out is knifes and stabs to men that where running behind him Airo falls forward dodging two men who in turn decapitate the two men that Airo stabbed earlier. Airo kips up to his feet and spins cutting open both of the men's throats and he lets them fall to the ground as he has finally finished his group of attackers.

Zion makes use of Hina's sand ground attack and launches a bunch of condensed air pockets and hits a large group of men with one each. Hina then re-hardens the ground trapping them in the road. Tabitha uses her wind specialty to create a whirlwind lifting the remaining attackers into the air and rather unceremoniously she releases the magic making them all fall back down to the ground.

After the last man hits the ground the red haired leader slowly gets back to his feet a large gash allowing blood to cascade down his forehead and down to his jaw, “What are you people?”

Seth looks at the man with a look of tolerance, “I'm surprised you are still alive, more so that you are still conscious.”

The man begins to spins his spear over his head creating a powerful wind around his body. Hina steps ahead of Seth and launches a blast of air into his whirl wind and Airo throws his knife right behind the air wave. Her air hits his whirl wind and creates a small pocket. Airo's knife goes through the pocket like they have practiced this before and the blade sticks into the man's chest and he falls backwards to the ground.

Seth looks at Hina and Airo and finds what they did very impressive, “That was really cool.” Hina's face turns red at the odd compliment and Airo just shrugs and goes and fetches his knife.

Seth turns back to the rest of the group, “We are almost there.”

Saito puts his sword back into its holder, “How do you know that?”

Seth points up and with a smirk he says, “Because all the smoke is behind us now. Why would he burn down the living quarters of his soldiers?”

“But we just beat like fifty guys you said he only keeps one hundred soldiers.” Saito's point makes a lot of sense but this time Tabitha has an answer to that.

“The men from that deserted town, if would be foolish for any leader to only have one hundred soldiers, he has obviously been using magic to force normal people to join his army.”

Saito nods in agreement, “Yeah I guess you are right those guys where kinda unskilled and besides that last guy none of them seemed to know any magic.”

Rain walks up to Seth and rubs her finger across a new cut on his cheek, “It would seem that he has his one hundred best closest to him. Maybe even the ones that were ranked that come before where actually ones that had been replaced by more powerful warriors. If that is the case then this might be even more difficult.”

Seth rests his arm across Rain's shoulders, “Well I actually have an idea for that but we really need to find Louise a wand for this to work.”