Chapter 10: Death

Arra Neea promptly grabs her breastplate and throws it on, quickly latching the buckles, as Cendi draws up next to her. If the sight of seven summoners disheartened them, they did not show it. As the summoners dismount their beasts, Arra Neea readies her whip slapping it across the ground as she rolls her head around her shoulders to crack her neck.

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Cendi takes one last look at Sylex, still convulsing on the ground, then turns towards the summoners and starts a spell. Arra Neea feels the radiating heat coming from Cendi and knows the magic instantly and she starts her own spells to paralyze those who would dodge it. -

After dismounting their beasts all seven summoners went into their own spells calling forth their minions. On by one, starting in the middle the summoners ceased movement and just as the fourth summoner was paralyzed, pillars of fire rained down on them, setting them aflame.

No better time than the present, Arra Neea charges to the left stopping short of the first summoner, and calls forth her own summons. In seconds, a spear shoots from thin air at the summoner and impales him beneath his chest. The summoner moves to break the spear just as Arra Neea’s blood whip explodes and curses the summoners in the immediate area.

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Coming out of her spell, Cendi sees the aftermath of the flames still burning the summoners in the center of their party. To her right she sees a summoner throw his hands to the ground and a blue aura surrounds him as a huge creature appears behind him. Horns protruding from his head and arms almost reaching to the ground, the summoner’s minion charges Cendi.

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Wasting no time after her spear attack, Arra Neea rushes in on the summoner with the spear protruding from his belly. Lightning quick she brings her nails in on him and drives them five times in his chest then brings her last blow up under his chin, raising the summoner into the air as she pulls him over her body and slams him to the ground dead. Standing now, blood dripping from her claws, Arra Neea hits the ground hard as a summoner, still warm from the fire brought down on him by Cendi, drives into her back.

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As the summoners minion draws near, Cendi swings her mace in for a direct hit to the side of its head, and it falls to her left. In the same moment, she releases a bolt of fire towards the summoner and makes a direct hit. Returning her attention to the minion, Cendi jumps atop him and puts her hands around its neck, snapping it like a twig in one fast motion. The moment she snapped the minion’s neck, another summoner puts a foot into the side of her head causing her to roll sideways. The summoner keeps coming, bringing his two blades down at her left then right, and again left then right. Cendi can do nothing but continue rolling away as the summoners endless thrusts swing only inches from her body.

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Falling forwards with a summoner on her back, Arra Neea twists her body around to face him long before they hit the ground. In the air, she draws her knees up, drives her heels into the summoner’s chest and thrusts her legs out in time with the impact to the ground. Thrown backwards, the summoner bleeds from the two holes Arra Neea’s boots make. Without hesitation, Arra Neea stands up and lashes the summoner with her whip repeatedly until there is nothing left of his face but blood and bone. Surveying the battlefield she sees, one summoner making for Cendi and four more just coming to their senses. After paralyzing the summoner attacking Cendi, Arra Neea turns on the remaining four summoners.

Swiftly jumping to her feet, Cendi bashes her mace against the summoners cheek, and then backhands it across the other side. As if the blows awakened him, the summoner swings out a blade directly into the center of Cendi’s chest, just below the breastbone. With a gasp, she can barely call out the words, “Arra Neea”! The summoner brings in his second blade, drives it into her right eye, and then pushes her to the ground. The world goes black and white.

Hearing Cendi call out her name, Arra Neea turns from the four summoners still dizzy from the flames, to see her friend die from a dagger through her eye. Arra Neea swiftly lets loose a spear towards the summoner and immediately goes into a resurrection spell.

From her black and white world, Cendi feels her new body fade; being drawn back to her physical body. She watches Arra Neea conjure the spell as four summoners make their way towards her from behind. Trying to call out to her friend, Cendi finds she has no voice.

Nearly completing the resurrection, Arra Neea stops cold as two blades drive into her back and she falls to the ground.

“NO” Cendi tries to scream but the words just wont come. Out of nowhere comes Sylex, bashing into the summoner with the bloody blades, tossing him fully ten feet away. He then turns on the remaining three and throws his hands to his sides and shouts, knocking two to the ground. The summoner left standing moves in on Sylex only to meet an earth-shaking blow to the face, dead on impact.

Now feeling a pull of a different kind, Cendi can no longer move. She feels the world fading around her and she realizes this is the end.

Moving to the two summoners thrown back by his shout, Sylex grabs them by their necks, one in each hand, and brings them together hard, splitting their skulls. Dropping their useless bodies, he then turns on the summoner that drove his blades into Arra Neea, who has already made his way halfway to Sylex. Planting his feet, he readies himself for the bladed attack.

Arra Neea struggles to heal herself just enough to have the strength to resurrect Cendi. Only half-alive she moves towards the magician and begins her spell, hands rested above the body.

Four feet away from Sylex the summoner raises his blades above his head, ready to bring them down on the warrior. Huge but agile, Sylex lets his feet slide forward and he falls into a sitting position as he raises his hands to intercept the summoner’s thrusts. Catching the wrists with ease, Sylex looks into the summoners eyes and laughs as he moves his legs between his foe’s and then thrusts them upwards hard as he flips him backwards, never coming to a stop until he is on top of the summoner. Sliding his grip from the wrists to the bladed hands and squeezing hard, Sylex brings the summoners own blades down into his chest, and watches as his eyes open wide. Standing, still in rage from the battle, Sylex raises his foot into the air and brings it down on the hilts of the two blades, forcing them through the body and into the ground.

Finishing her spell, Arra Neea watches as Cendi gasps a breath. Satisfied she turns the healing back onto herself and at that moment a summoner comes at her from the side and slices her neck wide open. With his last breath the summoner falls back laughing as the spear in his chest finally finishes him off.

Standing now, Arra Neea sees a new world, a world drained of color. She watches as Cendi sits up and reaches for her physical body, trying to compress the wound on her neck. She watches as Sylex moves in to help. She sees dead summoners struggling with their new form. Knowing nothing can save her now; Arra Neea waits to depart from this world. She feels her new colorless body start to fade and then, Blackness…..Nothingness…..Red…..Then a rush of bright colors that fade away quickly and Arra Neea finds herself at the foot of an empty throne.

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