Chapter Text
Chapter 10: Torrent
Both me and the Matt-imposter flinched as a flash of light emanated from Nick as he used his Metronome attack.
Crap! Not again! He can't get Explosion again! We'll be taken out of the fight if that happens!
As the light dissipates, I saw Nick flopping on the ground on his side.
It might have been completely out of context to do so, but I laughed. I nearly fell on the floor it was so funny. But that laughter quickly turned to pain. The imposter attacked us with a sphere of black energy, like at the start of our fight. Me and Nick were thrown backwards by the blast.
Nick got up first. He rushed our foe and started using his barrier move to both hit the imposter and push him back.
"NICK!"
Joey! I thought he was out for the count!
Nick turned back to face the voice after putting up one last barrier to protect himself.
"Don't use that technique too much! It has a high chance of failing when used in succession!" He shouted across the room.
Nick smirked, dropped the barrier protecting him, turned and rammed into the imposter. That one hurt. I could tell even from where I was. This launched him airborne but he quickly recovered and shot loops of dark energy at Nick.
Nick threw his arms out to create the barrier again but, just as Joey had warned him of, the barrier didn't appear.
I could feel Joey wince as the imposter's attack landed dead on Nick.
Nick fell to the ground again, but this time I could tell he was unconscious.
I was angry now. This monster had beaten both of my friends into submission. I was done. I prepared my Razor Shell technique as I dashed towards him. The blade of my scalchop extended and I slashed horizontally to my right. He jumped back to dodge the attack. I stepped forward and slashed to my left but he dodged again. My plan was to push the imposter to a wall and nail him with one of my attacks.
At first my plan was working. Once I got him close to one of the surrounding walls, he noticed what I was doing and quickly countered me. As I moved in to hit him with my scalchop, he quickly formed a black sphere of energy and threw it at me point-blank. There was no way I could have dodged it. The attack exploded in my face and tossed me backwards onto my back and, once again, onto the cave's ground.
As I landed, the rest of the air in my lungs got sucked out of me. That really hurt.
The imposter jumped towards me, stopping just short of my feet.
I sat up, placing my scalchop back onto my chest. I was hardly able to breath and barely managed to get to my feet. I had no energy left whatsoever.
I looked back at my team. Nick was facedown on the ground, out cold. Joey was conscious, but hardly able to move, watching everything go down. I couldn't believe it. It was over. We'd lost. I felt tears start to stream down my face. I didn't want to give in; I had too much pride to do that. But yet I didn't have another choice. I faced the imposter again.
"Aww, what's the matter? You worn out? Can't fight anymore? Good. That makes it even easier to finish you off."
He started preparing another sphere of darkness. In that moment, I felt sick to my stomach. I struggled to focus; everything was getting blurry. I tried to stabilize myself, but it didn't help. The last thing I remember seeing was my foe lowering his guard, confident that he had beaten us. After that, I blacked out, falling ever deeper into darkness and the realization that our team had been defeated by that monster.
(^ Note: This transition shows a change in perspective. ^)
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This can't be happening... I kept telling myself.
Jake had fallen over onto the ground and made no attempt to catch himself. He had to have been knocked out. I glanced over at Nick, but he was also facedown in the dirt, not moving. Though, I could see that he was breathing, barely.
The villain laughed.
"Is that seriously the best the Federation has to offer? Pathetic." He started walking towards the entrance of the room, I'm guessing to leave and face the Federation. He almost walked by Jake, but stopped before he passed by.
"Ya know, you served as a pretty good challenge. You'll become a great explorer one day. But I doubt you'll ever surpass me." He laughed as he purposefully stepped on Jake's arm to deal his last bit of damage before he left.
I was seeing red. How could he do that? I can understand his reason for wanting to take revenge, but there was no reason to deal damage to someone who can't even fight back.
I felt my tail's fire grow in size. I couldn't help it. It just happens when I get angry. Through that he must have noticed me.
"Hey." He yelled to me. "Always remember that the lone wolf, Uziel Zorua, was the one to single-handedly beat your team. And the one who will finally take out the Federation."
Uziel Zorua. That was his name. I'll have to remember it for later.
As he started walking away, a hand reached out and grabbed Zorua by his ankle. It was Jake. I couldn't believe it. After all of this he could still move.
"Heh, you sure are a resilient one, huh?" Zorua said to Jake.
Jake didn't answer. Instead he responded with a tighter grip on Zorua's ankle.
"AH! Hey! Let. Me. GO!" Zorua said as he started stomping on Jake to make him let go. After a few painful seconds of that, Zorua stopped, out of breath. The fight really did take a toll on him too.
Then, the strangest thing happened. Jake began to give off a bright blue aura and stand up.
Zorua and I were dumbstruck. I couldn't see his face, but I can only imagine what it looked like. Only, the thing is, Jake didn't look like himself. His eyes had changed. Instead of being able to see the natural color of his eyes, they were bright blue, like the aura he was giving off.
Jake said nothing but shot a burst of water at Zorua which hit him square in the face. As Zorua fell back, Jake grabbed ahold of Zorua's other ankle. He spun while holding onto Zorua, making it look like a very large top.
Jake threw Zorua directly above him and surrounded himself with water. I almost didn't see him jump and rush Zorua it was that quick. He flew around the room crashing into walls and the ceiling with the imposter in the front of his water jet. This made rocks fall down from the ceiling, but I honestly didn't care. Seeing Jake do this much damage was breathtaking. After everything that had happened, it was glorious.
Eventually, he aimed himself straight up and broke apart the water midair. With that small explosion, that boosted Jake up just enough to be above Zorua. He then removed his scalchop and created the largest blade of water I've ever seen. With a mighty swing, he struck Zorua down and threw him to the ground onto his back.
Jake reformed the water around him and rushed down toward the imposter. My body tightened up. If he missed he would hit the ground with enough force to do a lot of damage to himself.
Thankfully, he didn't miss. He hit Zorua dead on. After impact, Jake jumped up, landed, and faced the imposter. Though, that feeling of happiness was short lived.
Jake suddenly collapsed and, to my absolute dismay, Zorua started moving to get up.
It seemed impossible. How could he have enough strength left to get up? The aura Jake generated no longer glowed and a knot grew in my stomach.
Zorua stood up, but only for a quick second. He fell to the ground on his gut, shook, and began to change. He started shrinking and his fur coat changed from a light blue to a dark gray. The last thing to change was a red tuft of hair that appeared on his forehead. He was now about the same size as Jake, maybe even smaller.
"Jeez..." He said weakly. "Where did you manage to get that burst of power?"
Then, I heard a group of footsteps start to approach the entrance to the room.
What now?
I turned my head to see who it was. I couldn't believe it.
Our so-called rivals had entered the room. Team Dark Sword was here.