Familial Hunt (Zorolo)

“This has to be the most stupidest thing you’ve done, boy.” An explosion threw all three fighters back, but it wasn’t a normal blast. It was just a burst of light, designed to blind. Elea heard two other thuds, as she slammed into a tree. She began to cough, and stayed on her back and kept her eyes shut, since she could feel that her eyes were stinging due to the flash of light.

The child felt the edge of a sword come to her neck, before her father spoke, “You can’t win…” The blade pressed into her neck more, but didn’t draw blood next, until Hydra tore out of her grasp. It pushed him back with the blunt edge of its blade, before turning into a bear. It clawed towards the light warrior, who barley jumped away from the attack.

“Noah, now!”

Her brother came out of a bush nearby, with his sword already drawn, as he walked towards the swords-girl. Her sight was coming back, but slowly.

"Well, you fail," Monroe's voice echoed out as the light warrior turned, only to get an arrow to the chest. The swordsman slid back as the Quincy, who's eyes were still closed, kicking the man in the chest and used that attack to move him into a quick sidekick to the head. As the demon hunter soared into the ground not too far off, the dark clad man formed his bow and fired off another shot at the boy, again, stopping the boy effectively. For a moment at least.

Zachary stood up, still rubbing his head from the attack, and created another pair of short swords as he looked at the two. "Well, he brought backup too. Well, looks like you didn't give him enough credit."

"I'm sorry, I thought the useless kid wouldn't be here, all right?" Monroe asked as he moved towards Elea and picked her up, moving her from the two demon hunters that were now standing. "After all, if my son was that weak and useless in a fight, I wouldn't bring him around. In fact, I don't think I'd let him out of the house in Rubato. That would probably end poorly," Monroe stated as he thought about it.

"You have the most random and misplaced thoughts in combat. You're reminding me of Z after that bit of genius. Now then, can we end this already?" Zachary asked as he charged forwards and began to slash wildly at Deacon. The swordsman moved quickly and blocked the attacks as best he could against the onslaught of slashes.

Suddenly, the Replicator stepped backwards and smiled as arrows rained down suddenly towards Deacon. The light warrior quickly raised his arms to guard as the arrows impacted on him for a few seconds and causing him to stumble back, his body smoking from the attack. Zachary gave Monroe a quick thumbs up and spun his blades in his hands. "Let's get this over with. Someone is waiting for me."

"Same here," Monroe replied as he drew his Seele Schneider from his blade belt and prepared to make his next move.

Her sight came back finally, and just in time to duck under a light crescent that her father threw at both Monroe and her, Monroe just vanished when he dodged however.

Noah came at her, with his sword raised. Unfortunately, he swung a little early, and Elea countered with the blunt side of Hydra to his head. She watched him fall to the ground, out cold, again. Her sister piped up in her head, He’s pathetic. Why did Dad bring him here?

I don’t know, sis. Deacon vanished, before four copies came into view, one slashed towards her. The child managed to block it, and countered, but was blown backwards due to the explosion. It was more blade like, however and dug into her skin, cutting her left shoulder down to her right side.

The wound wasn’t deep, but when she landed on the ground, the wind was knocked out of her. Hydra was torn out of her hand and became lodged in a tree, about eight inches into the trunk. As she tried to recover and breath again, four more copies appeared around her and slashed down towards her.

"Not gonna happen!" Zachary yelled as he jumped in front of the clones and ducked down as he landed, stabbing his swords into the ground and spinning very quickly. Dust kicked up fast, forcing the clones to shield their eyes as they tried to foresee the oncoming attack. Before they could even respond, however, Zachary pulled his blades from the ground and slashed all four.

Quickly dropping his blades, the Replicator scooped up the young girl and leapt away as explosions went off from the clones. "That guy is really lazy. Using clones to keep us busy while he tries to kill you. After all, that's a technique that Z said only cowards and weak assassins used," Zachary stated as he created another pair of short swords. As he looked around, he realized one thing: they were surrounded by clones.

"You've gotta be kidding me. This is insane... there's like... a lot of them," the ice mage said as he looked at the clones scattered about. "Anyway, I wonder how Monroe's doing? Hopefully better than we are."

o=)---------- ----------(=o

In fact, Monroe was not better off than Zachary and Elea were. He found himself facing down clones left and right. The Quincy quickly slashed down a pair of charging clones and watched them explode behind himself as another clone leapt at him and took the offensive. The dark clad man found himself quickly sword fighting at least four clones at once before he fell back into a defensive form of combat.

The archer did a powerfully backflipped away and placed his blade back on his blade belt before recalling his bow. Quickly, he released a multi-shot that quickly shot down the four clones with one shot each. Still, that victory wound up short lived as another clone leapt at him from behind. The dark clad man quickly blocked the sword with his bow and kicked the clone's feet out from under it before delivering another kick in the head to the clone.

The clone quickly slammed into a tree and Monroe scattered his bow, allowing him to draw his sword weapon again and looking around. "Well, I hope things are going better for Elea and Zachary."

Elea sat against a tree, slowly stopping her gasping for air. She pulled some water out of thin air, and then formed a ring with it around her body, lining up with the wound on her chest. It stung a bit, before she noticed that all of the clones charged the two of them. Zachary’s swords began to blur, before a mass of explosions almost threw him back.

The child noticed that her father had popped up again, and realized that she didn’t have Hydra with her, before he picked her up by the neck and slammed her back into the tree. The Union’s eyes blurred momentarily on impact, while she began to gasp for air again, due to his hand was pressing into her neck.

Meanwhile, more explosions rang out all over the forest.

"I'm sick of this!" the two warriors yelled as they brandished their bladed weapons for a moment before rushing through the lines of clones that had lured them away from Elea and attempting to over power them. In the next set of seconds, they cut a swath of the demon hunter clones away as they charged at Deacon with an intent to stop him. They arrived as fast as they could, and that meant bad things for the swordsman.

Monroe arrived first and, in a brilliant move, slid in and kneed Deacon in the side. The demon hunter winced as he released the girl, who the Quincy quickly caught and put back down. The light warrior stumbled a few feet back and looked at the archer with an intent focus. The Replicator placed his hands on the ground, taking a running start, and rushed forwards. With a quick upward kick from a near crouching position, the demon hunter shot into the air.

Monroe smiled as he looked at Zachary and placed his hands on the ground in the same manner as the ice mage had moments before. "Time to show off some of the stuff we practiced. Namely, a bit of unarmed combat," Monroe said as he stabbed his sword into the ground and blurred as he shot upwards into the air and spun a few times, throwing a powerful kick into Deacon's back and pushing him up a bit further.

Zachary did a quick backflip before sliding to a stop and rushing forwards. Monroe mimicked this move and the two leapt into the air and over Deacon. "Might as well show Z wherever he is just how well we can work together!" the ice mage yelled as he brought up his fist.

"Yeah, after all, this is only possible if we work together!" the Quincy stated as he lifted up his leg. With precise timing, the two forces struck hard into the demon hunter's chest and launching him into the ground. The two warriors began to fall towards the ground as the watched the plume of dust erupt from where the man hit the hard earth like a rocket.

"Now stay down!" the two yelled as he landed on opposite sides of the swordsman.

A massive explosion threw both of them backwards, before Elea’s father appeared a few feet in front of her in front of her again, as she gasped for air. Despite being beaten and battered, he walked towards her again, his katana glowing a bright white now. “See how weak you are, daughter? You need someone to help you through a fight.”

The Union managed to sit up and look at him as he came towards her, light began to spark on both of her hands all of a sudden. Her sister spoke up in her head, nearly shouting, We are not weak!

“So you have our magic, no big worry. You’ll be safe soon,” he said as he raised his weapon slightly as he got closer to her. Light magic continued to spark in her hands, before she slowly stood up, looking right at him.

“Dad. Stop,” she said, as she pointed her right hand at him and focused. In a split second, a trident spearhead appeared around her hand, before it shot towards her father.

“What…?” He didn’t have any time to dodge, as the trident hit him. It actually pierced through him; one prong stuck out of his head, through his heart, and stomach. It forced him back, before he finally stopped, having the prongs impaled through the tree. The trident stayed in place still, before Elea collapsed, sitting on her knees, just looking at her father.

His katana finally came down from being thrown into the air, and landed off to her left, before water spun around it all of a sudden. Hydra appeared a moment later, and her father’s weapon vanished, and her sword glowed white from within the center. It then fell flat to the ground.

Monroe looked in shock for a moment before standing up, holding his slightly burned right arm and moving towards Elea. He quickly moved in front of her and took off his damaged jacket and placed it over her and picked her up. "Let's get out of here, Elea," Monroe told her as he held her up in one arm, his other arm slightly mangled from the blast, but slowly healing.

"Monroe, are you okay?" Zachary asked as he slid Elea's weapon into her sheathe, his arms not covered in his gauntlets. "After all, that blast was pretty powerful."

"I'll be fine. My wounds will heal... but for now... let's get out of here," the Quincy said, trying not to let Elea look at her father. "The fight is done, so let's get out of here before anything insane happens."

The Replicator smiled slightly and nodded. "You get out of here. There is one last thing to wrap up quickly," the ice warrior stated as his arms were covered in Fenrir again and he created his short swords. "For now," he said, moving towards Noah, "get out of here. We can discuss the other matter we've got at hand when I get back."

Monroe nodded and started to walk away, but was having trouble, being tired from the day of fighting. For Zach, all that was left to do was to kill the boy. That'd throw off the possible trail the three had left.

Elea’s sister knew exactly what happened, He’s dead, sis. Her sister tried to say something else, before her voice faded from her mind. Her hair was even starting to change, the black part of her hair was turning the same gray as the small stripe that originally kept the white and black parts separate. I… killed… my father…?

Light spread over her, making her glow white, as her hair continued to change. The glow also spread over to Monroe, and began to heal the both of them slowly. The child’s eyes seemed to dim slightly, as ice began to form on her shoulders.

----- Meanwhile -----

Noah lied on the ground, still unconscious, as Zachary walked towards him. “Can’t have you live, kid…” An arrow suddenly hit the area in front of him, a blinding flash came out of it.

“You are not killing my child.” In an instant, Noah was gone, seemed to vanish into thin air. Elea’s mother, Braelyn watched the entire fight, yet stayed out of the fight. “You won’t win next time, demon.”