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Three Fiends Again Over the next few days, as Vince and the others traveled across the country, they watched the seasons transition from winter to spring. The snow was melting. Flowers began to bloom. The warm sunshine made Vince feel less depressed. It was a few days after their loss at Fort Adamant. Vince was flying the hovercraft, and Stephanie was completely absorbed in a book. It was in a language Vince didn't recognize, but Stephanie read it perfectly fine. The rest of the books were sitting in the back seat with Mindy, who was still tied up. Out of the corner of his eye, Vince saw something dark and purple shoot across the sky, but by the time he looked, it was gone. Probably not important, he thought. Suddenly, Robert shouted over the radio, "Help! I've been attacked. Lightning--" He heard a loud crack in the radio transmission. Then, it was silent. "Robert! What happened?" Vince shouted back. There was no response. Instead of Robert, Mindy spoke next. "Vince, look out! In front of you!" A purple blur flew past, narrowly missing them. The hovercraft shook violently in its turbulent wake. Then, they heard an explosion behind them. "We've lost an engine," Vince yelled. "We're gonna have to land. It's gonna be rough. Brace yourselves!" With only one engine left, Vince brought the hovercraft down as gently as he could, but it still slammed against the ground and scraped along for a few hundred feet. Suddenly, the purple blur shattered through the windshield. "Lydia!" Vince shouted as he struggled to unfasten his seat belt. The Dark Fiend of the Air shot out a pulse of wind in all directions, expelling Vince, Stephanie, and Mindy from within the hovercraft. "Lydia, what do you want?" Vince asked. "To kill you," Lydia said. "The Quantum Saviors asked me to, and personally, I thought it'd be nice and fun. As we speak, Steve is attacking your other friends." "God damn you!" Robert shouted, struggling with the steering wheel. The Dark Fiend of the Blitz had sent a jolt of electricity through the jeep, knocking out all the systems. Robert lost control of the jeep, and crashed into a tree. The Blitz Fiend then tore the driver side door off and ripped Robert's seat belt up. "Don't worry," Steve said, grinning. "I'll do you fast. Lydia promised me I could help her kill Vince if I killed you guys off fast enough." An energy shot hit him in the chest. Steve dropped Robert and staggered back. Alice had pulled out her particle blaster. "You're not going to kill us," she said firmly. Alice pulled the trigger again. Magma covered Vince completely, and his body underwent the metamorphosis into the Dark Fiend of the Inferno. Soon, he emerged with red armor and black hide. Then, Vince saw a flash of light far to his right. "Stephanie," he said. "The others are down that road. Go and help them. I can take care of Lydia by myself." Stephanie nodded, then ran down the road. As she ran out of sight, Lydia laughed. "What's so funny?" Vince asked. "I can beat you. I've done it before." "Not quite," Lydia replied. "In case you forgot, last time, there was one tactic I used that you couldn't beat. You only escaped because your friends came to help you. And it's this very strategy that I will use to kill you today." All of a sudden, Lydia flew around so fast that she became a purple blur. Before Vince could react, something attacked him from behind and pummeled him to the floor. "Do you wonder why I'm so fast?" Lydia asked. "It's the air. Everything that moves is enshrouded by the air. The air is our medium of existence. All I have to do is to manipulate the air so that it favors me, and I'll move faster than everything else." Vince threw a cluster of fireballs at her, but she dodged it, then blurred across the landscape. She came back and pummeled Vince some more. Robert and Alice stood on opposite sides of the Blitz Fiend. Both carried a pair of handguns, and both fired frantically. However, Steve simply and effortlessly blocked all their shots with an electric net. "Is that the best you can do?" the Blitz Fiend asked. "This is way too easy." Shortly after his initial attack, Steve had chased Robert and Alice into the nearby woods. Now, Steve shot a jagged bolt of lightning toward Robert, who leapt out of the way. As Alice ran from tree to tree to get to a good attacking position, she tripped on a root and fell. Steve turned around and saw that she was in the open, struggling to climb to her feet. Grinning, he fired a bolt of lightning at her. Alice still couldn't get up. "Alice!" Robert yelled. Stephanie ran right in front of Alice, right in front of the lightning bolt, and held out her hands. Something blocked the lightning bolt right in front of her. "What the--" the Blitz Fiend said. "What's that?" Alice said as she climbed to her feet. "Holy magic," Stephanie explained simply. Robert leapt out from behind a tree and fired a few shots into Steve's back before rolling behind the trees again. Steve turned to attack, only to take a Holy shot in the back. He spun around and caught a second Holy shot with an electric net. However, Stephanie cast a spell, and an Angelhair Snare appeared from the air and caught him. With an angry shout, Steve tore through the Angelhair with a torrent of electricity. However, by then, Stephanie, Alice, and Robert had hidden themselves behind trees. Then, they started running from tree to tree, firing energy shots or Holy shots at Steve from between trees. "Stupid trees!" Steve shouted. "I'll knock you all down!" He fired bolts of electricity in all directions, aiming for trees. Some of the trees caught on fire. Many of them fell, making loud crunching noises as broke. Carefully, Stephanie cast a low-power beam of Holy energy and pushed the falling trees, one by one, so that they would fall onto Steve. It was a while before the Blitz Fiend realized what was happening. He roared as a few dozen trees fell on him. Then, with the Blitz Fiend buried under a pile of lumber, all was silent. "Is he gone?" Alice asked, still pointing her gun. With a shout, Steve shattered the fallen logs into wood chips with a giant bolt of lightning. "Nope!" he said. "I'm still here." Alice and Robert fired at Steve. Stephanie cast a cluster of Holy shots. However, the Blitz Fiend ran, and his body became as a bolt of lightning. It shot across the burning forest, stopping about a hundred feet away. Then, momentarily becoming the Blitz Fiend again, Steve turned around. Becoming lightning once more, he shot toward Alice. The Dark Fiend of the Inferno fell to the floor. He had taken such a beating that his armor was full of dents. Slowly, but resolutely, he climbed back to his feet. "With the air itself at my command, there is no air resistance," the Air Fiend said. "There is only pressure, pressure pushing me from behind and pulling me from in front, pressure that I can control and bend to my will. I am simply faster than you'll ever be." Lydia flew around again at incredible speeds. Vince could barely see her. Then, she ran into him from the front and pummeled him with a series of punches. Vince groaned as her final attack knocked him down, but he stood right back up. "You're a lot more resilient than I thought," Lydia said. "I didn't expect you to be able to stand up after what I put you through. It must be your armor." Lydia shot off into the sky again. This time, Vince didn't care from which direction she came. He focused his mind and focused the flames. Then, he released the massive heat as a shockwave, expanding around him in a spherical shell, reaching in all directions. The Air Fiend was immediately knocked out of the sky by the attack. "Not bad," Lydia commented. "You figured out how to beat my tactic after I had only used it about a dozen times on you. Now, let's try mixing it up a little." She shot into the air again. Vince was hit by a slicing gust of wind. Then, Lydia rammed him as she flew past. Moments later, Vince was pulled into the air by an upward current. Lydia caught him, then slammed him to the ground. Vince tried to counterattack, but Lydia protected herself with a swirling bubble of wind. Immediately, she was flying again. She hit Vince so quickly and with such a variety of attacks, that Vince simply had no way of counterattacking. Pummel, ram, cyclone, slam, cyclone, ram, slam, pummel, and finally, Vince collapsed, unable to take the beating any longer. The Blitz Fiend, moving so fast that he appeared to become lightning itself, rammed into Alice, who screamed as she flew through the forest and slammed into a burning tree. Robert tried to shoot him, but Steve moved much too fast. Steve then turned and dashed toward Stephanie. As he arrived, he punched her with an electrified fist. Stephanie screamed and fell backwards. Climbing back to her feet, she saw Alice stagger back into the battle. Then, she saw the Blitz Fiend shoot her with a bolt of electricity. Alice screamed as the electric current ran through her veins, then fell to the floor. "Alice!" Stephanie shouted as she sprinted over to the wounded Alice. "Come on, heal spell! Ah, how did it go? Think, Steph!" She tried to remember the proper spell. As she slowly repaired Alice's body, she looked toward the Blitz Fiend. Steve was trying to attack Robert with his lightning-speed, but Robert was agile. Over and over again, he dodged the Blitz Fiend's attack. "Hey, whenever Steve goes lightning-fast, he can only move in a straight line," Stephanie observed. "Turning around like that is way too slow. When he comes at me, he'll come in a straight line, and that's the perfect opportunity to attack." Finally, the Blitz Fiend knocked Robert into a tree. Then, he ran up to him and zapped Robert's hands, forcing him to drop both his guns. With his hands, he pinned Robert to the tree by the neck. As Robert groaned and struggled, Steve grinned sadistically. Suddenly, yellow threads caught Steve's limbs again and pulled him back. Shouting with rage, the Blitz Fiend tore through the Angelhair Snare with lightning arcs. "You stupid little bitch!" the Blitz Fiend roared as he turned to face Stephanie. Then, he went lightning-fast again and dashed toward Stephanie. This was exactly what she wanted. Just as the Blitz Fiend was about to reach her, Stephanie opened her hands. A mass of Holy energy came out transformed into gallons of white feathers. Steve, unable to stop himself, ran into these feathers, which exploded with bursts of light. The combined might of the explosions knocked Steve off his feet and through the air. "God damn you," he muttered as he climbed to his feet. His black hide was covered in bruises and open wounds. "You're a lot stronger than I remember, Steph. I'll be waiting for Lydia at the base. She's stronger than me. She can finish this without me." With that, the Dark Fiend of the Blitz ran away. "What was that you just did?" Alice asked. "Something I came up with on my own," Stephanie said. "I didn't think it would be that effective." "Come on!" Robert shouted as he ran back to the road. "Let's go help Vince!" The three of them ran down the road only to find Vince being brutalized by the Dark Fiend of the Air. Quickly, Stephanie cast a spell, and when the Air Fiend tried to ram into Vince again, she instead slammed into a Holy Shield. "Vince!" Stephanie shouted. "Stephanie?" Vince asked surprised. Then, more surprised, he saw Lydia in front of him, momentarily stunned. Immediately, Vince ran at her and pummeled her with flaming fists. Lydia lifted her arms to create a shield, but Stephanie cast the Angelhair Snare again, and the yellow threads grabbed the Air Fiend, ruining her focus. Slowly, as Lydia called forth a slicing wind to cut away the Angelhair, Vince gathered fire energies into his hands, and Stephanie summoned masses of Holy energy. Then, as Lydia broke free, Vince threw the large fireball at her. Stephanie fired away the enormous Holy shot. The projectiles slammed into Lydia, creating a massive red and white explosion and sending her flying down the road. Vince then sprinted down the road to meet her. The Air Fiend was badly bruised and bloodied. Her black wings were disheveled. Suddenly, she stretched out her hand, and Vince was caught in an ensnaring wind. "Why, Vince?" she asked. "Why must your friends always interfere in our battles? You should have died a long time ago." Suddenly, a Holy shot hit Lydia, and she staggered back. "Because Vince's friends always protect him," Stephanie shouted, "unlike your friend Steve, who ran away after we creamed him." "Don't worry, Lydia," Vince said. "You don't have to worry about friends in hell." With that, he fired a blazing inferno at her. However, something stopped him just as the flames were about to incinerate her. No, this isn't right. He can't kill. But he has to kill. Otherwise, the Dark Fiends will destroy everything. Still, Tina won't want him to kill anymore. The Dark Fiend of the Air laughed. She shot spiraling drill-winds at Vince, who quickly blocked with a flame shield. "Lydia!" Stephanie shouted. As Lydia turned around, Stephanie dropped a cluster of white feathers on her. These feathers exploded into bursts of light, knocking Lydia back to the ground. She climbed to her feet, glared for a moment at Vince and Stephanie, then flew away. Alice and Robert fired their guns at her, but the Air Fiend was soon out of range. Finally, Vince's armor became magma and drained away, revealing the human underneath. "Stephanie," he said. "How did you know Holy magic?" "I've been studying it," Stephanie said, "ever since I got into Omicron. Do you remember when there was an explosion in my tent? That was me experimenting." "But you didn't start studying until after Tina... left us," Vince said. "I was studying, but I didn't go all-out twenty four-seven until after," Stephanie explained. "I just wanted a Resurrect spell, so I tried my hardest to find one." She looked disappointedly to the ground. "No luck, though." "It's all right, Steph," Vince said. "I'm just glad you weren't avoiding me." "You thought I was avoiding you?" Steph said, surprised. "It was my fault that Tina..." Vince said. "I thought you'd hate me for it." "Vince, it was an accident," Stephanie said. "Don't kick yourself so hard over it." "But Stephanie--" "How about this?" Steph interrupted. "I won't spend so much time with my books anymore and I'll spend more time with you. Do you know why I'm doing this?" "Why?" Vince asked. "Because I still love you," Stephanie answered. "And I don't blame you for Tina." Vince looked to Steph. As he began to cry, he took her and held her in his arms. "I love you, too," he whispered through his own tears. The Dark Fiend of the Air was tired and exhausted, so she landed. Winds wrapped around her body and took away her broken wings and bloodied hide. Lydia sat down by the road in the shade of a tree. "No, I need to get back to the Quantum Saviors," Lydia said. "I can still get at least some reward for what I pulled off." She tried to stand back up, but immediately collapsed again. "I sensed three sets of Dark Fiend energy, but instead I find only you," came a sudden voice. "I find only one pathetic little weakling." "Who are you calling weak?" Lydia yelled. "Who do you think you are, anyway?" "I am the Dark Fiend of Doom," the man replied. "I'm the leader of the Dark Fiends," Lydia said. "So you listen to me--" "The Dark Fiends have no need for a leader," the Doom Fiend replied. "You insolent, insubordinate fool!" Lydia shouted as she stood up. "You--" "There's no need for yelling," the Doom Fiend interrupted. Suddenly, all existence pressed against Lydia's body. She screamed in pain as the fabric of reality slowly crushed her. Without warning, the layers of reality turned inward, becoming long and sharp. These reality spikes impaled Lydia, as if she were inside an iron maiden of ether. The ether then slowly tore apart her flesh and blood and dissolved her away until nothing was left but a purple glowing orb of energy. With a wave of his hand, the Doom Fiend pulled over the energy orb and absorbed it. "Ah, now I have two sets of Dark Fiend energy," the Doom Fiend said. "I only need four more." |