Happy New Year to everyone. Farewell to the old year and hope you all have a great 2008.

Episode 101 No One Can Die

‘Darkness…why is it so dark? I want to save my sister. No, I want to see my sister. No. She is gone. I have to beat this Fatalist. But…why is it growing so dark, and so cold? I can almost feel her presence…’

As Shuriken plummets towards the ground, his cold, blank eyes do not register the ground approaching him. Instead, he falls flat on his face, falling into the spider’s nest of oblivion.

‘There is no more hope…’

Zack starts as Shuriken hits the ground without any sign of resistance. “Sh-Shuriken!” he cries, showing signs of panic for the first time. He steps forward to run to Shuriken’s side, but stops as Ryuu holds out an arm.

“Don’t,” he mutters under his breath, “there’s…nothing you can do.” Zack meets Ryuu’s eye resignedly and notices that Ryuu’s arm is shaking. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get here in time.”

“I hope ya got a battle strategy t’get us outta this one,” Zack murmurs in reply.

“No,” Ryuu retorts, “unless you count beating this guy to a pulp. Back me up, Zack!”

“Gotcha!” Zack whistles, raising his Kage despite obvious signs of apprehensiveness.

“Oh?” Fain snorts, calmly taking in Ryuu’s flaming sword. “Another one shows up. You’re one of those humans who was with these two traitors in Kerning City. How interesting.”

“I knew I had a bad feeling when I first laid eyes on you,” Ryuu growls angrily, “but I’m here to set things straight now! You’re gonna pay for killing Shuriken!”

“So says the man who intrudes upon a private battle,” Fain shoots back skillfully. “What are you, a caveman? You have the sophistication of one to barge in with that fiery toy of yours.”

“Shut the hell up,” Ryuu snarls, “I’m gonna wipe that smirk off your damn face.”

In a reckless motion, Ryuu cuts the air with his sword, sending a blast of raging hot fire straight at Fain. The latter dodges with ease, and steps into the space just behind Ryuu.

“Behind ya, Ryuu!” Zack shouts, teleporting to cover Ryuu’s back and taking four arrows to the side in the process. Ryuu turns as a mass of green light consumes Zack. “Careful,” Zack warns, “his arrows’ll kill ya in one hit.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Ryuu mutters back hurriedly, as Fain quickly recovers and fires another round of Strafes at Ryuu.

Ryuu blocks the arrows with his sword, though the impact from the arrows forces him back several paces. “Strong!” Ryuu comments, using all his strength to push back the arrows.

Just as Ryuu successfully wards off the first round of shots, Fain appears to his side and fires another Strafe directed at him. Zack appears out of nowhere, blocking the attack for Ryuu again. “Don’t let your guard down,” Zack replies breathlessly, “guy’s quick and dangerous. I’ll block for ya, but his speed’s been increasin’ a lot the last couple minutes.”

“Right,” Ryuu answers gruffly, glancing at Zack. “Slow down a bit. I’ve got a plan.”

Fain watches as Zack leans over while Ryuu whispers something into his ear. Calmly and casually loading a pair of arrows into his bow, he raises it and points it straight at Ryuu.

All of a sudden, Ryuu turns and charges at Fain directly. He exclaims a loud cry of triumph as he approaches Fain, recklessly waving his sword.

“Fool!” Fain says out loud, letting his arrows fly loose.

At the last second, Zack appears as a blur of blue, knocking Ryuu out of harm’s way and through a Mystic Door cast on the spot. The arrows pierce Zack’s raised arms, and the Priest’s wounds quickly diminish as his unceasing Heal shield protects him.

Meanwhile, Ryuu exits the door and appears right next to Fain, sword poised to strike. His steel sword collides the shaft of Fain’s bow, in an eruption of brute force and fiery smoke.

“Why are you after Zack and Shuriken?!” Ryuu howls in Fain’s ear. “Is it because you don’t want them leaking your secrets to us?!”

A smirk merely crosses Fain’s face in response. “Fool. You do not have to needlessly die here protecting these two. One is already dead. The other shall die before the night is over. I have no grudge against you, but neither do I have any qualms against killing you should you continue to stand in my way.”

“Bastard!” Ryuu screams in rage, drilling his sword past Fain’s bow and through his stomach with one violent push. Blood splashes out, but Fain shows no sign of fear or pain, not even a hint of discomfort. In fact, his face remains completely stoic.

“You shall die here,” Fain whispers softly in reply. He strings an arrow in his bow, and holds its tip up to Ryuu’s exposed neck. The arrow quivers in its place for a moment, seemingly brimming with an icy, yet electrifying current of energy.

Ryuu’s eyes widen as he feels the pressure of the arrow. “That…feeling! Why does it feel so familiar?! Just who the hell are you anyway?!”

Fain merely smiles grimly. “Did you know, friend, that appearances mean everything? One can be in complete disarray within, but outwardly, if they show no ounce of it, they give up no advantage to another. If you cannot instill fear into one whom you seek to defeat, then you cannot defeat that person.

“Appearances can be misleading. One who shows no emotion can never be taken advantage of. Nor will you ever realize their true intents. However, the same also applies for one who always shows the same emotion. Sound familiar, eh, my angry friend?”

Ryuu stares deeply into Fain’s dark eyes for a long while, glaring angrily at him. “I’ll ask you again…just who the hell are you…?”

“A Fatalist,” Fain answers plainly, “and, as I’ve already informed your ally here, the power of my arrows derives its strength from the last person I killed.”

“And that would be?” Ryuu mutters softly.

“Currently, the last person I killed was a deceased spirit named Arai Mage,” Fain whispers back.

“Is that so?” Ryuu says, in a voice so low that it is barely audible over the dulled hum of the midnight traffic in the distant boulevards of the city.

In the next second, Fain’s legs buckle from under him, and he is thrown far into the air as Ryuu lands a slash extending all the way across from his right hip to his left shoulder. Blood pours out again and sails through the air, splattering all across the dark ground.

“ROT IN HELL, YOU BASTARD!” Ryuu’s voice rises highest above the entire commotion. A few crows nesting on telephone lines nearby leap into the air cawing madly.

Even as Fain stumbles back into a standing position, Ryuu relentlessly chases after him, landing slash after slash upon Fain’s motionless body. Before Fain even hits the ground, Ryuu lands six separate slashes with his sword all across him.

Fain falls onto the ground, motionless and not breathing. Ryuu steps up to Fain’s bloody body and watches him with disgust for just a moment. “Bastard!” he shouts, kicking Fain in the ribs.

He raises his sword, and prepares to finalize the kill by slashing open the Fatalist’s throat. However, at the last moment, an arrow flies through the air, and pierces Ryuu squarely in the stomach.

Ryuu drops to his knees in shock, as his sword falls to the ground with a clatter. He glances down with widened eyes and sees blood spewing out of his wound, while he notices Fain’s bow, still raised in the air.

“A shot so fast, I could’ve sworn it was automatic…” Ryuu whispers hoarsely. His eyes continue to grow wider and wider, as he feels the wound in his stomach grow bloodier.

“Crap!” Zack howls wildly, rushing to Ryuu’s side. Immediately, he bathes Ryuu in a shower of green light, but then Zack soon collapses as well, as fresh wounds open up from under him. His blood flies into the air, mingling with that of Ryuu and Fain’s.

However, Zack’s wounds come not from Fain’s bow, but from himself. Scratches and cuts adorn his entire body, as he continues to force his bath of green light upon himself and Ryuu.

“The…hell’s wrong…with you?” Ryuu gasps, glancing over at Zack.

“Constantly usin’ Heal this much ain’t exactly good for me,” Zack says regretfully, “the constant closing of wounds only causes them to get worse in the long run. Healin’ll stop ‘em from being fatal, at least immediately, but usin’ it too much will take its toll too.”

“Then stop using Heal,” Ryuu splutters, “you’re obviously running out of mana. Lose any more and you’ll probably die from mana deprivation. Mages need a lot of mana to survive.”

Zack coughs out a laugh. “Sorry t’disappoint, Ryuu, but I guess you’re right.”

‘He used up the last of his mana to heal me,’ Ryuu ponders wonderingly, glancing down at Zack’s tired body. The mage is lying at Ryuu’s feet, eyes closed, whether dead or asleep, it is unknown.

Ryuu rises slowly, and grabs the shaft of the arrow in his stomach, wrenching it out. He casts the broken arrow down on the ground, trampling over it on his way back to Fain’s body.

In the meantime, Fain rises as well, without a hint of pain or hesitance. He stares coldly at Ryuu for a minute. “How did you survive my arrow?”

Ryuu rips open the shirt under his jacket, and reveals his chiseled stomach, which is closely embraced by a rock cold sheet of ice. “I secretly protected my vital organs before this battle by shielding them with a film of ice. Learned this little trick from another Fatalist, maybe ya know him.”

“Impressive,” Fain answers with a genuinely amazed voice. “I must admit, even I took for granted your skill. It is remarkable. However, by no means does this dispute my superior strength.”

“Fair enough,” Ryuu says with a twisted smile, “you can judge my strength when you’re dead!”

Ryuu pounces on Fain, and unleashes a wave of flames that crashes down upon the Fatalist. Suddenly, his coarse voice sounds from the other side of the wall of fire. “Thunder spear!” A blazing current of electricity crawls through the flaming barrier with frightening speed and overwhelms Fain’s body.

However, as the shocker commences, Fain releases a snarling hiss. “Tell me, why are you so intent on defeating me?”

“To prove that the Fatalists can be defeated,” Ryuu growls back, meeting Fain directly in the eye.

“In that case…” Fain whispers through the inferno, “I’m afraid you must perish as well!”

Ryuu’s eyes widen, but he has no time react as an arrow flies through the air. He catches it with his stomach, and drops to his knees, as a storm of ice flies straight at him. “What the hell?!” he cries.

The two attacks from Fain and Ryuu collide with a fantastic explosion of colors, illuminating the entire city with its heavenly light for just a second. In the next second, the two entities retract as they negate each other, and the two respective attackers are blown off their feet and away.

Out of the mass of retreating light, a figure steps to his feet, his shadow thrown far and long across the ground due to the light. However, it is neither Ryuu nor Fain. The mage raises his Kage, and cocks it, aiming a Holy Arrow straight at Fain.