The Scythe-Bearer

Chapter 11: The Tarnished Angel

Michael Auras stood next to Sarah, who was frozen by his time freeze spell; his usual bright aura was tarnished by the grey hue that radiated from his body which was unusual because only smokies had the grey aura. Breathing was becoming harder and I was feeling my consciousness slipping, I shook my head to wake me. “Get a hold of yourself! He is standing right next to Sarah! Who knows what he will do?”

“What are you doing, Michael!? What the hell is all this?!”

Michael grinned and something glinted in his eyes.

“Now, Sy. Don’t think I don’t know that you have figured it out already. You are probably trying to wrap your tiny little brain around the situation but let me help you along so we can get to the final performance. So to answer your first question, yes I have a grey hue I have just hidden all this time by increasing my divinity output. Your second question’s answer is that I simply absorbed the smokie when I caught it residing in limbo but to throw you and the SRC off my scent was to place dark energies on the students of Willberry High. It certainly made a perfect goose chase.”

I didn’t reply because I was astounded and disgusted at the same time. I tried to wrap my brain around why one of purest creatures known to man would want to tarnish themselves by absorbing a smokie. Michael’s sharp laugh rang out; it sent chills down my spine, “This guy is crazier than Lucas.”

“You are probably trying to figure out why would an angel even consider doing this, why it is simple, Sy. Power, that desirable trait that every being wants. Do you even know how much power a smokie holds? All that hatred and sorrow builds into an unstoppable force, my general output power is about 63% but now I am 93% output!”

To show off his claims he swung his arm towards the tree on his left, it exploded within a second. I blinked against the force, looked down at my wound. It was still bleeding and it was draining my energy, “Why hasn’t it started healing yet?”

Michael flashed through the distance between me and he, his hand around my neck smashed my head against the bark of the tree. I groaned, unwillingly. His face stood a few inches from mine, his eyes glaring at me and he smugly smiled at me.

“You are wondering why your wounds haven’t started healing yet. Well the answer is simple; the spear is very special one. It was made to fight soul retrieval reapers such as you. It doesn’t kill you but it does cause you to heal much slower and it absorbs your energy to make you weaker. It is a nice little tool that I picked up from the archives on my way here.”

He intensified his grip before smashing my head against the trunk again. He let go and flashed towards Sarah. My vision was blurred and I couldn’t focus very well but I spoke calmly and deadly.

“If you dare touch her I will kill you slowly and painfully, I will personally make you skip the line and bring hell to you.”

Michael laughed and snapped his fingers to release his spell on Sarah. She stumbled and regained her shaky footing, she looked absolutely terrified, “She was aware of the conversation we just had.”

She made for me but she was caught by Michael who caught her by her upper right arm and her chin with his other hand, she struggled against him but it was futile.

“No! Let me go! What gives you the right?!”

“Well, my dear, I will be using you so that I could absorb your reaper’s soul in order to gain his powers.”

“Like hell you are!”

She bit on his hand and press the heel of her boot on the weak part of his foot. He cried out and she began to run towards me but she didn’t get very far when Michael held her in the air with his invisible power. She floated there, eyes in line with mine, for a millisecond before Michael threw her against the ground with a sickening thud. I heard the air escape out of her lungs and how she struggled to breathe clearly in pain.

For a few seconds silence filled the air, something in me snapped or rather awoke. I pulled myself away from the trunk of the tree, pushing myself up the rod of the spear until I was released to the ground in a heaving bundle. I was up again, clutching my abdomen in pain but made no sound clearly my mind had turned off and I was running on pure anger. Michael was amused by my reaction and stood proudly beside his handiwork. I was beyond pissed, I was livid.

“This guy is going to die! This is for Sarah!”

I stood upright, pain forgotten, and summoned my scythe in a cloud of dark smoke. I fell into my fighting stance, spreading out my legs and stocking my body. Michael, sensing the seriousness of the situation, summoned his silver light spear from the tree. I breathed in and then out, taking one last glance at Sarah gasping on the ground, “Oh yeah, he is going to die…one way or the other.”

Time slowed as we bolted at each other, weapons arched, Angel versus Scythe-Bearer, dark versus light. “I have been waiting for this fight for such a long time, he is going eat dirt.”

I swung my scythe horizontally, aiming at his neck but he ducked and he stuck out his spear upwards towards me. I did a hand flip backwards to avoid it but as I looked up again he was coming in with another blow, this one aimed at my head. I dodged to the right just as the tip grazed my cheek, I took the time to swing my scythe at his abdomen but it only cut shallowly as he moved to the left. “Damn! This guy has matched me in speed; I need to find an opening to deal some real damage.”

We fell back from each other, breathing heavily, Michael’s wound healed completely while my old one was still bleeding so was the graze on my cheek. “He wasn’t lying about that spear…damn if this continues I will be useless…”

“Ready to admit defeat yet? You don’t seem to be doing so well.”

I looked up at his stupid smug face and felt anger prickle at my spine.

“Shut up and come at me, speak with your actions not with your mouth.”

I lunged at him, increasing my speed and strength with a power release spell, and kicked out his feet making him fall to the ground before bringing the scythe downwards into his heart but something emitted from him making me to jump backwards to avoid the pulsing cloud of darkness that surrounded his body. “What now!? I don’t seem to catch a break with this guy!”

I watched him stand up and pull the scythe out of his chest like it was a twig; he flung it into a tree and sent a sound wave that pushed me off my feet into another stupid tree. Clearly there are too much trees here. Nearly backing out from the force, I managed to get to my feet again. A growl radiated from Michael’s body, deep and fearful.

“Don’t take me so lightly, Sy. You forget that I have an extra power source but I will give you credit for making me use it. It is so unfortunate that I have to end this fight early but you know I don’t really care. I think I will take care of that human pest first, seeing as it is only in our way of getting a real fight.”

With that said he pointed at Sarah, sending a surge of dark power towards her.

“NO!!”

I am not really sure what exactly happened next but I felt a pulsing sensation within my head and the next thing I knew was Michael’s ball of dark magic diverged and ended up in the ground. The next few seconds were filled with a stunned silence but then all hell broke loose. Michael came at me with surges of power, I focused on the sensation within my head and managed to diverge all of them towards him but he dodged them with ease. It was like playing a game of dodge ball where I grab the ball in midair and then throw t back at him.

“I don’t know how you are able to avoid my magic but you are far from being able to defeat me! You are just a pathetic half breed!”

Before I could ask about what he meant or even react he caught me by my arm and flung me to ground as he did to Sarah, the wind was knocked out of me and I tried to breathe but the air refused to come into my lungs. While I struggled he grabbed me by my throat, my feet dangled uselessly in midair. Before I could register what was happening, he stabbed his spear into my heart, ripping through the sinews and muscle. The pressure of the spear and the ripping of flesh were loud within my ears, I was unable to be silent and shouted in pain.

“This should immobilize you for a short while…”

He was interrupted by Sarah who managed to puncture his body with a piece of branch; he dropped me and faced her.

“Now that was very foolish.”

He raised his hand to retaliate but he was distracted by something in the trees, I took this chance to land an attack. “This is risky but it is the only way to finish Michael off, just give me a bit more power!”

I released all my seals and felt the power run berserk within my veins; I let out a beam of concentrated dark energy straight towards Michael. He was caught off guard for a millisecond but made up for it in concentrating his power into a shield.

“Sarah! Run to the outline, you must not touch this energy otherwise you will die!”

Sarah nodded and ran to the tree line near me, I felt the beginning stages of backlash hit me but I held my ground with my hands shaking with strain. Michael just grinned and increased his output.

“Why do you fight when you know you can’t win? Just give up and let me absorb your soul.”

Then something clicked within my head, “Why the hell didn’t l think of this before?!”

“Hey, Michael! Don’t get so cocky!”

At first he looked confused and I relished his stupidity. I change my output to input, I began to absorb his power instead of pushing against it. “The i***t didn’t realize that I am a being of the darkness and I have the natural tendency to be able to convert dark energy from a smokie into my own power.”

“What!?”

His fear and disbelief put a smile on my face, “This is what you get when you mess with me, Michael”

Before long his power had been completely absorbed by me and he fell to the ground without a sound. The power I just absorbed was beginning to take a toll on my body that was already weakened. I fell to my knees, gasping and groaning in pain.

“Sy!”

I put up a hand to prevent her from coming closer.

“Stop, I am fine but I don’t know if I have the energy under control yet so just stay back until I say so.”

She nodded reluctantly and I sighed in relief, “I am sorry Sarah but I think I went a bit too far this time…”

That thought echoed in my mind before I slipped into darkness once again…