9-Ninja – Druid – Hyper – Mega – Battle – Explosion – Bloodbath – 2005

9

Ninja – Druid – Hyper – Mega – Battle – Explosion – Bloodbath – 2005

They stood across from each other in the trees, the stale cave air was quiet and nothing moved as they sized each other up for the coming battle.  Cathleen held her saber in front of her in a standard defense, while Kahn couched low holding her ninja sword in a  back handed fashion.

“I really feel like we should be trying to stop this,” Zachariah said to Mel as they both watched intently.

“Stop this, what?” Mel came back, rather frustrated.  “They haven’t done anything.”

Zachariah shook his head.  “Don’t you see?  They are fighting the battle in their minds.”

Mel raised his eyebrow.  “Their what?”

“You know?” Zach explained.  “Haven’t you ever seen those old Kung-fu movies?”

“Can’t say that I have,” Mel replied.

“Well, they are considering the coming battle in their heads and considering every move that could possibly happen in the fight, then coming up with the best way to attack.” Zachariah said, very sure of himself.

“They are doing all that?” Mel asked, sarcastically.

“Yes.  They are mind fighting.” Zachariah said, overdramatically.

Mel turned toward Zach.  “Are you retarded?”

“Hey, assholes!”  Cathleen’s voice returned Zach and Mel’s attention to her.  “If you don’t mind shutting up for ten seconds, we have something to finish.”

When Cathleen spoke, Kahn saw her opening and moved, clearing the distance between the two of them in a matter of seconds with a quick hard side kick to Cathleen’s abdomen sending her backward through the air.

Zach and Mel groaned in sympathy pain for Cathleen.

Cathleen hit the grass and rolled backward to her feet.  She back-peddled as the ninja sprinted forward to press her advantage.  “You should be focusing on me, Druid.”

Kahn lashed out with the blade and Cathleen managed to get her own blade up, parrying the first slash, but only barely.  While she defensively scrambled backward, Kahn quickly attacked two more times, becoming a whirling tornado of blades.

The druid’s speed did not fail her and she managed to block all of the attacks as she backed into the trunk of a tree.

Kahn looked to finish it, whirling into an attack with the backhanded sword.  Cathleen had other ideas, however, and stepped in timing a head butt to strike Kahn as she spun in with her sword.

The blow caught Kahn on the temple and she staggered.

“Holy shit, she just head-butted her!” Mel yelled, watching intently.

“This is getting ugly.” Zachariah said as the two watched while commentating to themselves.

As Kahn staggered, Cathleen rolled forward coming up to her knees into a perfect thrust her blade sinking deep into Kahn’s chest.

Cathleen grinned.

“She got her?” Zachariah said in shock.

“Not yet,” Mel muttered hoping for more.

Suddenly Cathleen’s smile faded as she realized that her blade was not sunk deep into Kahn’s flesh, but instead into that of a tree trunk.

Cathleen frowned, “Damn ninja tricks!”

The druid heard a rustling of leaves and looked up just in time to see Kahn dropping out of the branches, blade first, looking for the kill.

Cathleen had to release the blade in order to escape.  Her tattoos began to dance and the robin’s song could be heard in the wind.

Cathleen vanished just before Kahn’s blade entered the top of her head.

Kahn landed and came back to her feet trying to pinpoint the druid and where she had teleported to.  She spun in a circle, catching a glimpse of the druid before she was struck in the face.

Cathleen’s right cross sent the ninja reeling.  Kahn still had the presence of mind to reach into her gee and, upon drawing back, throw a slew of ninja throwing stars through the air.

The move caught Cathleen off guard as she was reaching for her sword.  One of the stars caught her in the shoulder.

She grunted and staggered, pulling the star from her arm.  Blood began to flow behind it.

Kahn used the opportunity to do a series of quick ninja hand gestures before touching the ground.  The ground instantly became mud in a line between her hand and Cathleen’s feet.  Cathleen sunk into the ground, the quicksand taking her in.

Kahn smiled and charged, looking to finish it.

The thorny vines began to dance on Cathleen’s shoulder and suddenly, vines exploded from the ground catching Kahn’s foot.  It wasn’t enough to hold her.  Instead Kahn stumbled, her forward momentum taking her into Cathleen who caught her around the waist and bent backward, hurling Kahn through the air.  Kahn spiraled out of control before crashing sideways into a tree.

“This is literally the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life.” Mel said, watching in awe.

“It’s like a dude walking into the road in front of a car.  You know you should warn him, but you can’t help but watch,” Zachariah mumbled.

Kahn came back to her hands and knees trying to shake off the force of the blow. Cathleen pulled violently to free herself from the mud, desperately trying to get her sword back.  Kahn looked for her weapon but it had been hurled somewhere into the forest.

She heard the robin’s song.  “Damn it!”

Kahn turned her head as Cathleen appeared over her, sword in hand and fire in her eyes.

She reacted, barely rolling out of the way as Cathleen stabbed for the kill.  Kahn reached into her robes again and hit the ground with what appeared to be a ping pong ball.

Smoke exploded everywhere, clouding Cathleen’s attack and making her cough.  She choked on the cloud.

Kahn used the time to strike, kicking Cathleen in the gut then following with two quick forearms to Cathleen’s face.  Cathleen staggered, feeling her lip cut and beginning to bleed.

“What is going on?” Zachariah said, trying to see into the cloud of smoke.

“Fucking ninjas and their smoke bombs.  Just when it was getting good.” Mel complained.

Cathleen gritted her teeth and rolled backward, narrowly avoiding another barrage of attacks.  She rolled again and came out of the smoke, finally able to see again.

She vaguely heard Mel and Zachariah clapping.

“Man, this makes everything with the troll worth it,” Mel commented.

“I wish I had some popcorn,” Zachariah replied.

She turned back to the cloud and another group of ninja stars came whizzing out in her direction.  With a sweep of her blade, she knocked two of them out of the air.  The third however, found its mark in her gut.

Yet again, she grunted in pain.  This time she had no time to pull it out as Kahn exploded from the smoke in a blur.

Cathleen stepped in and thrust her blade at Kahn as she charged.  Kahn nimbly leapt into the air somersaulting over Cathleen’s head and landing behind her before spinning and snap-kicking Cathleen in the spine.

Cathleen staggered forward and Kahn advanced.  Cathleen, however, fought through the pain and spun, stabbing into Kahn’s neck.

Again, it was not Kahn.  It was a tree.  The ninja’s hypnotic tricks worked on Cathleen once more.

Kahn dropped from above Cathleen again.

Cathleen would not be fooled a second time, grabbing the ninja star out of her own gut, she spun and hurled it upwards at the descending ninja.

Kahn was completely taken off guard by the attack and the star imbedded itself deep into her abdomen.

Cathleen then called all her remaining adrenaline to catch Kahn on her shoulder before charging the ninja back first into a tree.  All the air escaped Kahn as she crashed into the trunk.

Cathleen stood up and struck Kahn with a devastating right cross.  Kahn’s face took the full brunt of the blow and her mask sailed into the air reveling her bruised and beaten face.  Cathleen wound up and put everything into a left hook, the blow catching all of Kahn’s head.

The ninja woman rocked back and forth with the blow and then toppled to the side, crashing to the ground.

Cathleen stood there for a second, the blood freely flowing out of her shoulder and abdomen.  “I… win…”

Cathleen’s eyes rolled back in her head and she toppled backward crashing to the grass.

Mel began a slow clap.

When he finished, he looked at Zachariah with a smile.  “Looks like your problems just killed the shit out of each other.”

Zachariah didn’t answer.  His problems were far from dead.  They waited for him back home.  They waited hungry and eager for him to return to his life of pathetic mediocrity.

“So, I’ll show you the way out and we can-” Mel began but Zach interrupted him.

“Can you take me to Zersch?” Zachariah asked.

Mel’s eyes went wide in confusion.  “Why in God’s name would you want to go there? Jesus man, have you been listening?  Do you understand what’s going on?”

Zachariah turned.  “I want to see it.  I have to see it with my own eyes.”

Mel stared at him.  “But it’s going to kill you.”

“Maybe.”  Zachariah shrugged.  “Maybe not…  I’m starting to believe I’m indestructible.”

Next week:  Is Zachariah trying to get himself killed or does he really believe he’s indestructible?  Either way, his resolve to face the wyvern known as Zersch seems to be an absolute, but is this lowly dishwasher really ready for the final challenges?

Zachariah descends next time!

Stranger Things.

TO BE CONTINUED….