Chapter 15

As Alfred pulled the ring off his finger a purple circle slowly surrounded Alfred as dozens of long blue and black arms wrapped around his body. A loud rumble rang through the room as the ground around Alfred started to crack and cave in.

Realizing that Pyesis was awakening Andy charged forward and slashed Holy Talon at Alfred while he was changing. One of the arms quickly untwined and blocked Andy’s attack. He dashed to the other side at full speed and stabbed at Alfred, but another arm prevented him.

He flew back and unleashed a barrage of fireballs. They struck him but when the smoke settled, he was untouched, and two arms slowly wrapped around Alfred again.

Realizing he couldn’t hit him Andy charged two large fireballs in his hands and prepared to unleash them on Alfred when he changed.

The arms quickly receded back into the circle, and Andy shot the two fireballs at him. There was a loud buzz, and then a pulse of dark purple energy shot out extinguishing them.

What stood in the center of the pulses was a tall somewhat meaty body supported by two large legs. The solid head had two bloodthirsty eyes looking at him with a burning hatred that burrowed into Andy. Dense dark energy lingered around him as four black skeletal wings extended themselves. Alfred reached out and grabbed his sword which was enveloped by his dark force. The sword turned massive in size and the rustiness turned to new steel.

Alfred brought his arm up and pointed it at Andy as four massive shadow hands shot at him. Andy dove down and barely managed to dodge it.

As soon as the hands passed over him, Andy shot forward at Alfred who sent out another pulse pushing him away.

Andy was felt pain on his back and was sent falling to the ground. Andy stopped and turned to see the four arms from before coming at him from above. Quickly Andy few away with the hands following him.

Andy made a sudden sharp turn and headed out of the hole in the doors. As soon as he was outside, he climbed straight up in the air. He looked down and saw the demonic hands slowly dissipate as he got higher. But what was coming instead was Alfred at a shocking speed.

Andy decided to test his opponent and find weaknesses. Swiftly Andy turned around and dive-bombed Alfred as fast as he could. He released fire to speed him up faster than Alfred calculated. When he was close enough, Andy created a massive energy particle around his fist and condensed it. He struck Alfred’s chest with his energy-backed speed enhanced punch and sent them both falling to the ground. As they fell Andy bombarded his foe with a fireball after fireball while Alfred launched dark energy balls at Andy. They both hit the ground with a loud boom.

Andy sat up dizzy and looked around at the crater they both made. He stood and saw Alfred rising as well. They materialized their swords and charged at each other.

Alfred slashed with his sword which Andy ducked under and went for a stab. Alfred blocked it with one of his wings and shot a pulse of darkness out.

Andy brought his sword vertically up and tried to block it. The impact still pushed him back but not as much as before. He rose his hand released a pulse of energy in the direction of Alfred who created a darkness arm and stopped it in its tracks.

Andy released two more, and Alfred blocked them too. He raced forward and dodged a slash from Alfred’s sword. He brought Holy Talon up and slashed at the thick hide and got behind him cracking it but unable to break through, he stabbed at Alfred’s shoulder and pierced through it. Alfred screamed in pain but didn’t falter.

He turned around and swung at Andy with an overhead slash. Andy threw up Holy Talon and blocked it. He pushed Alfred back and flew up in the air. He built up two large energy particles and launched them in beams at Alfred in the deep crater. He, in turn, fired dark energy beams as well that matched Andy’s.

Andy’s dizziness didn’t fade, and he got hit with a wave of exhaustion.

Damus spoke, “You’ve reached your limit and are starting to have rebound from awakening me.”

“Dammit, I can’t stop now. James isn’t back yet.” He turned and saw Lukas fighting the other guy. He was engaged in close combat with him. Dodging and slashing at the attacker. “I can’t leave Lukas alone to deal with this guy.”

“I have a special technique I want you to do. It could be enough to scare him away. Build an energy particle as big as you can. I want you to pour all your energy into this one and build it around Alfred.”

Andy did, and the particle was as large as the crater they had created.

“Now place your hand on the outside and imagine them connected to your body like your wings.”

Andy did, and his hand was glued to it.

“Now imagine a place on the particle and fire a blast from it.”

Andy did, and a large burst of fire came from behind Alfred striking him. Andy imagined from above him, and a blast hit him from above.

Andy continued this bombardment and continued to weaken Alfred when he got an idea. He picked every direction he could on the particle and fired them all at the same time causing a shower of fire to engulf Alfred. When the fire dissipated, Alfred was still standing.

Rapidly Andy became weak and descended from the sky; once he landed, he dropped to one knee and began to pant. Andy’s golden skin receded onto his chest, and the red necklace that Andy knew materialized around his neck. Relentless pain shot through his arm pulsating from where he was cut by Horst.

Alfred smirked and walked towards Andy “You fared well for your first awakening. You would’ve been a powerful ally against Xelos. This is the end though. This is for my son Arphoz.”

He performed an overhead slash and would have hit Andy if it weren’t for the shell of earth that surrounded Andy. He heard a grunt come from right outside of the casing.

The shell crumbled around Andy as a voice called out “Having trouble are you Andy?”

Andy looked up and saw a monster made of rock. It was at least eight feet tall and looked more like a statue than a person. It carried a large stone pole over his shoulder.

“Who are you?” He asked the mysterious monster. He tried to stand up, but his body was weak, and he collapsed back down.

“It’s me, Jay. James said that you would need help. It seems you fought well. Rest and get your energy back.”

“Where’s James?”

“He was sent elsewhere for backup. Don’t worry I’ve got this from here.”

He brought his pole to his side and slammed it on the ground. There was ringing, and the earth started to shake as dozens of pillars of rock rose from the earth. From one of the columns emerged a man of stone.

He carried a large thick round shield and had armor covering his body. He wore a helmet that covered his face and had a foot-tall crest. He wielded a short sword at his side and a six-foot spear with a sharp tip at both ends. It was a stone Spartan Warrior.