Chrono Continuum Chapter 17

Medieval Battle

By Cain

602 AD

Drissom cursed, "Damn," as he dove behind a tree. He felt more than heard the thud as the blast slammed into his "protection." A creaking noise alerted him to the fact that he was still in trouble. He jumped again, this time away from the tree, as the trunk fell to the point he had just been ducking behind. He landed as the tree slammed down to the ground, and began to reload his special crossbow with three bolts. He found himself wishing that he'd gone with shot distance over quantity. The fact that the girl could shoot at him from afar, and that she had better vision, proved to make her much more troublesome than he'd thought. He should have expected this from one who helped to defeat Lavos.

Lucca was actually just getting warmed up, a lot of time having been spent since she had last fought. She was now very glad that she had taken the time to charge up the Wondershot before leaving her time. It was as good as ever, and perhaps better. She had made some adjustments, tried to tamper with the unpredictability the gun sported. She thought that it was possible it had worked. It didn't seem more powerful than it had been, but she was seeing less weak blasts than she remembered. And the recoil had been lessened, cutting down on the stinging sensation prolonged shooting brought on.

Her glasses were on top magnification, making her eyesight not only perfect, but better than normal. The distance between her and her target weren't as important as the fact that Drissom understood projectile weapons as well as anyone she had ever met. He always seemed to know exactly where her blasts would strike, at least since he had gotten a feel for them by getting hit once. Since the first hit, Lucca had yet to hit him again, such was cunning. She didn't worry, however. They were both human, but while he was dodging back and forth, trying to get close enough to fire, she was simply standing there, firing, expending no energy whatsoever. (I'm pretty sure that's one word.)

Finally, Drissom had had enough. He jumped into plain view, and Lucca took advantage of it, firing perfectly at him. He stood his ground, the yellow ball of energy rocketing toward him. He made not a move, until the ball was iminently close. He aimed his crossbow, and fired, a blue bolt accompanied by a blue flash, directly at the ground in front of him. Lucca was surprised at the power of the simple crossbow as the bolt blew away earth, sending a wall of dirt and stone directly at the projectile energy racing toward him. As the ball hit the dirt, they could both see dirt and dust and stone, all dissappearing in short, bright sparks, being obliterated by energy, while at the same time weakening it.

Still, the energy moved quickly towards Drissom, but Drissom move faster. He raised his weapon and fired again at the ball, and the blue bolt stuck in it. The ball seemed to slow to a crawl, as if the arrow was pushing it away, and slowly began to turn blue. Finally, it stopped, directly in front of Drissom. Lucca was dumbfounded. This simply defied all laws of science. Drissom slowly pulled his remaining bolt out of his crossbow, and stabbed it into the blue ball of energy. It stuck, and as he moved the bolt, the ball moved with it. He reloaded into his crossbow, and took aim at the amazed woman so far away. His vision narrowed, blocking out peripheral and eventually everything but the thin vertical line of vision that held his adversary. His vision lengthened at the same time, until he could see her perfectly. A surprised look filled her face. She was very pretty. Drissom smiled. I'll have my fun with her. If she survives.

And he fired. The ball of energy flew out in a beeline toward Lucca. She just had time to snap out of her stupor and bring her gun to bear when the ball slammed into her.

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Same Time

A tremendous *thwack* sounded, and Glenn was tossed down into the ditch. He opened his eyes and pushed himself off the cold earth just in time to avoid the highly muscular form above, which slammed instead into the ground. He staggered back, and Clairdena turned to him. She flinched and looked down, and saw that her ankle was misshapen. She twisted it against the ground, and Glenn heard a sickening snapping sound, accompanied by a grunt from the deadly woman. She pointed her finger at the area, and her arm began to glow a dull red. Her ankle soon glowed in unison, and Glenn could see the ankle twist and reform itself, until no injury was noticable. She looked back up at him and smiled at his surprised expression. Glenn soon recovered, and stood up straight, looking regal.

He pulled out the sword, the Masamune. His first instinct had been to defend himself until Lucca won her battle and was able to help him drive Clairdena off. He couldn't hurt a woman, and so he put away the sword. But the woman could definitely hurt him. With fist and magic, she had beaten him away, away, away from Lucca's battle, separating him from his ally. He had come to realize, however, that this was no lady. And evil besides. And if he didn't kill her or drive her off himself, she would come after Lucca, and her friends, and anyone who opposed the Kingdom. His eyes took on a distant look. Clairdena saw it, and anticipated a coming challenge. Glenn was commited.

Glenn soon noticed that the sword was glowing a soft blue. It was hard to see in the daylight, but was growing brighter by the moment. Clairdena looked truly surprised. She hadn't anticipated a magical weapon! This might complicate things. As Glenn stared into blade, he felt something inside it coming to him, and it did. He soon heard to voices, distant. Not with his eyes, but with something else, he listened. To two voices, similar in tone, but slightly different in pitch.

Hey, what's up, Frog?

Mune, that's not Frog. Or is it?

Hey, it's Glenn! I remember him from Cyrus's fight with Magus. But didn't he get turned into Frog, Masa?

Yeah, I thought so... Hey, I know. We'll check his mind. A pause. Well, this is just great! We're probably never going to get back to Frog. This Glenn has no idea how to use us, Mune!

Darn! Oh, well, we'll just have to help him out... Right, Masa?

Yeah, yeah. Hey, Glenn, since you didn't earn us, I wouldn't recommend using us excessively if you can help it. We'll act as a shield for magic and all, but I don't think you can use some of our better powers.

Yeah, like the wind!

Uh, yeah. Anyway, try to use your skills unless she starts fighting dirty. Man, she's creepy. There's something really wrong with her aura. Oh, yeah, good luck.

Be like the wind, Fro- um, Glenn! And the voices left. Glenn pondered this. He felt that while an entire conversation had passed for him, the outside world had moved quite differently. It was obvious that the sword was named after these two. He'd have to get the rest of the story from Lucca. He looked to Clairdena. His jaw clenched. Back to battle. He raised up the sword, and plunged it halfway to the hilt into the earth. The glow intensified, and the area around them grew darker, until all either of them could see was the other, and the sword, in between them. Glenn pointed over the hilt at Clairdena, accusingly.

"Come on, Demon! Let us finish this." Clairdena smiled.

"My thoughts exactly."

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Same Time

Drissom walked up, very pleased with himself. As he looked down, he saw that the girl had been hit in the left shoulder. The cloth from the dress was burned away there, exposing burnt skin. He smiled. It would make no difference to him. He was pleasantly surprised to see that she still breathed. A dead woman would have been little fun. He hooked his crossbow to his belt, using the custom-made clasp. From the other side of the belt, he pulled out a whip. One of the other Hellbound had been trying to teach him how to use it as a weapon, but Drissom found that it worked best as either a torture device or a binding instrument. Both of which kept him awake on a dull night. He bent at the waist.

"Come on, girl. If I don't make this quick, Clairdena will have my head." The gun snapped up, and inch from his nose. His eyes bulged as Lucca's eyes opened. She sneered.

"If I don't have it first, sicko." She pulled the trigger. There was an impact that threw her back, a few feet, but she was largely unharmed. Drissom, on the other hand, was largely harmed. He landed with a thud on his back, almost a dozen feet away. His face was a dirty black, and the top half of his shirt was gone completely. His arm slowly began to move, and then he was rolling onto his stomach. He slowly rose up, and turned to Lucca, who was very surprised that he was alive at all, let alone standing. It must have been one of the weaker blasts. Drissom reached to his belt, fumbled for a moment, and he smiled as his hand brought back a small ball. He threw it over his shoulder, and it landed with a flash. A circle of white light soon opened up behind him, and he turned around leisurely. (I hope that's how it's spelled) He began to walk away, and called out, his voice amplified by magic, "Until we meet again, my pet."

He looked back at her, over his shoulder, as she began to stand. He smiled again, "And we will meet again." He licked his lips, to Lucca's disgust, and turned to walk into the portal. It vanished immediately after he did.

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Same Time

This time it was Clairdena who slammed onto the ground. She got up, rage in her eyes, and charged Glenn again. She was skilled in the art of kickboxing, unknown to anyone in this time period, and he was merely a knight. One would think she would have him outmatched. One would think wrong. But she was still determined to defeat him hand-to-hand. She threw a flying side kick at Glenn, which he sidestepped, stopping behind Clairdena as she landed. He quickly punched her in the spinal area of the lower back, and she fell to her knees. He raised up one foot, placed it against her head, and kicked forward. She was pushed forward, her chin slamming into the hard ground, jarring her and cracking one of her teeth.

He quickly bent over and grabbed both of her arms. He pulled her up, and got her into an arm lock, pinning both arms behind her. He spoke into her ear, "Dost thou recognize thine defeat?" She turned her head to him, smiling, blood running down her chin.

"Recognize this." A wave of electricity surged over her body, throwing Glenn backwards with a flash. He slammed hard into something, and it fell over with him lying on it. He rolled over to his right, and looked back, to his right. (It's right. Do the math.) A blue glow filled his vision. The Masamune. He looked up to see Clairdena preparing to throw a ball of fire at him. Glenn braced for the impact, but was surprised to find himself standing, with the Masamune clenched in his hands, one edge of the blade to each combatant. Clairdena threw the fireball, and Glenn instinctively gave the blade a quarter turn, and held it by the hilt and the blade.

The fireball slammed into it, and Glenn held his ground. The fireball twisted and struggled, trying to get past this barrier, but finally stopped. Glenn noted this, and pushed the sword forward, toward his enemy. The fireball flew off, and slammed into her. She was thrown back into something, but Glenn couldn't see it, due to the supernatural darkness created by the glowing Masamune. Clairdena didn't move for a long moment, but finally raised her head. Blood ran down her chin onto her scorched armor, which now had huge holes in it, a few in indecent places. She didn't seem to care. Out of nowhere, she produced a small silver ball. Expressionless, she threw it to the ground between her legs. A flash occurred, and then a blinding light filled Glenn's vision. When Glenn opened his eyes, he could see the sun, and the tree Clairdena had been sitting against. The Masamune's darkness was gone, as was his opponent.

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This weapon represents considerable power...Your actions may either save or destroy life. Wield your sword with full knowledge of the consequences!

- Melchior

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Hey, everyone. I noticed that I had a lot of compound sentences in this chapter. Do I ususally have this many? Please, you guys, send me some notice that you're reading my stories. I enjoy recognition as much as the next guy. Feel free to send in criticism, (I think that's how you spell the word.) constructive or otherwise. Such as criticism about my use of parentheses. (Like so.) This is my first and hopefully not last fanfic, and help would be greatly appreciated.

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