The beginnings of a melee
author: teri, stana, ian
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 10:31:58 EDT

         Grib watched Sira go down and frowned agrily. He wasn't naive
enough to believe that death for his men was an impossibility, on the
contrary, he regularly reminded them how mortal they really were, but
the fury didn't abate. He was so consumed by it that he barely noted
the his captive had stopped struggling, and was slowly reaching for his
sword.
         Stana prayed her heart, which was beating like a rabbit caught
in a trap, wouldn't give her away. Her breaths were coming in short,
shallow gasps, partly from the pressure around her throat and partly
because the minotaur was giving off a very unpleasant stench. Not that
Grib was much better.
         Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her fingers
closed in around the hilt, and tightened into a fist. Taking a deep
breath,
she
slammed her elbow into Gribs side hard. The warrior gave a grunt of
pain, and
she felt a moemtnary slackening of his arm. Not much, but enough.
        Stana pivoted, pulling the sword from the ground, and angling
it up.
Grib screamed as the bastard sword cut through the soft cloth
connectors of
his gauntlet and bit into his wrist. His hand spasmed and the Book came

fluttering out of his lost grip. Stana flung the sword away where it
clanged
loudly against the floor, and dove,
snatching the book up, tumbling to her feet.
        Grib snarled and backhanded swiftly. Her head snapped back, an
explosion of colors sparkled in her mind as her vision went stark
white. Then
she went sprawling to the ground, blood from the split lip dribbling
down her
chin.
        "Bitch!" snapped Grib angrily as he stalked towards her,
drawing a
long stilletto blade from his breast plate with his left hand. He
looked up
at the sound of rushing hooves, and saw a lightning flash of white,
gold and
black  as Clip was upon him. Stana rolled, Grib lunged, and the
Unicorn's
path was taken up by the hulking form of Relgarth, his swords at ready.

        The Unicorn dug his hooves into the ground in front of Stana
and
issued a battle cry. The scream echoed in the dull lifeless air, as he
bared
his teeth, tail flaring in defiance. His ears tracked the scuffled
sounds as
Stana scrambled to her feet and backed away. his gaze never wavered.
The girl
needed more time to get away, which meant he needed to act, swiftly.
        The minotaur reversed his grip and sheathed his blades in a
smooth,
graceful motion that looked alien when matched with his brutish
appearance,
he had seen what had happened to Sira-Ak-Oh, and had no intentions of
repeating the mistake.
        So when Clip reared, launching himself forward with a
relentless
intent, he struck out with a speed born of practice and placed one
giant hand
across the
unicorn's snout, and the other clamping around his equine neck. His
dreadlocks
thrashing, he pulled with muscles that would have made an ogre jealous,
and
hurled the unicorn all of fifteen feet, most of it in the air.
         On the adjacent side of the room, Teri pressed herself against
the wall, the staff clutched, ready in one hand. She was slowly making
her
way to
where Stana lay on the ground, but other than that, she had no
immediate
purpose-- Quite frankly, she had no idea what to do. All those karate
moves
she'd faked in the hallway of her dorm had been for fun- she had no
idea how
to fight anyone, much less killers such as these. And wishing she'd
done some
form of athletics other than ballet didn't help much either.
        She saw Estela on the other side, weilding the strange sword she'd
conjured. Most of her moves were evasive, but she'd managed to score a
few on
the tall figure who opposed her. She wondered why Estela wasn't using
her
powers, when suddenly her opponent's weapon flew from his hand and
thudded
against the wall some feet away.  Estela might be weak- but she could
do that
much.
        Teri saw the blood of the crouched one pooling by her feet and moved
more quickly towards Stana. The man standing above her- Grib, she
remembered
his name- stood looking down at the older girl's form, his mouth
cracked in a
smile as he bound his bleeding wrist. Teri felt a sickening feeling in
her
stomach- suddenly she lurched forward, her foot caught on the uneven
stone of
the floor- when she regained her balance all she felt was the soft thud
of
her pendant hitting her chest and coming to rest. Like the sound of a
pin
dropping, she heard the echo of that sound and nothing else.

        With an idea, she looked around the room again with new eyes.  Shinji
was now standing, almost eagerly as he turned within his confines
studying
the edges of the bubble-- and Teri could see why- with every blow Clip
took
from the Minotaur, the opalescent walls of the bubble shimmered. Teri
fought
the feeling of hope and security the thought of his freedom brought
her- she
should know better than to believe in him again.

      She reached back and felt the back of her neck, gently. Maybe...
        As she closed her eyes, and calmed herself, fingers wrapped carefully
aroudn the small bloodred pendant, she saw the room explode into color.
The
lust of Grib, the thrill of the challenge and hatred of all "pure"
mythical
beasts from the minotaur- the revenge and disgust that a girl was
living so
long against him, came from Dilun, the dark skinned man. Hot and rough
against her skin, the colors should have all been shades of red-- she
noticed, with a start- that streaks of blue flared within when they
thought
of their goal: death.

        Teri pressed herself to teh wall, as she neared stana, focusing on
Grib. With her eyes closed, she imagined feather-light strands of
feeling
encircling him, brushing against his consciousness-  pity, concern,
doubt,
calm, distraction-  the silky-soft threads seeming to light on his form
and
then sink, vanishing, within him.

        She saw him waver, saw him glance once at the girl below him, now
struggling to move away and bring the book with her-- she saw the
conflict on
his face, and saw the bloodlust and desire for death win out.

        Teri opened her eyes, sadly. It hadn't worked. She wasn't strong
enough- and she didn't have time to think of the scorched feeling
inside,
which she hadn't recovered from yet.  Tightening her grip on the staff,
she
pushed herself away from the wall. An image of Stana smiling flashed
before
her face, the image of a girl pulling her out of a coffee shop laughing
as
Teri fought to return for a second cup of latte--
And then she was ontop of stana, and the sweeping arc of the
quarterstaff had
stopped mere inches from Grib's head- now held in the man's bandaged
fist.
His smile returned- an evil, sickening smile that crawled its way up
his  face. "What have we here?" he said, tugging nonchalantly on the
staff.

And then he pulled her to him, close to his stinky breath to look down
at her
with contempt and-
        Teri couldn't say anything, her senses were shut down- since his
touch all she saw was the purply glow surroudning her- the flashes of a
red the color of dried blood streaked through with the pale blue of
destruction-- surrounding her, wrapping her in itsanger and
determination,
the pride
and the craving, the sticky-slick feeling of blood and the rank odor of
sweat all mingled with the color which was all she saw- her eyes
widened in
horror and she flailed out against it- her hand struck against his
chest and
all
she thought of was that it must go away now, she coudlnt' take any
more!
it--

His shoulders slumped and she saw the angry purpose of his facial
muscles
relax. He looked around, confused, and seemed to recognize his fellow
fighters. He looked down at the slim knife in his hand, the
quarterstaff held
in the other, and slowly let go of the latter weapon, sheathing the
knife back in his breastplate.

Teri was bent over, gagging-- she was filled with it, filled with the
slime of the man's emotion. When Teri stood up straight again, the
world
seemed to tilt- she saw again the colors, covering all in the same type
of
haze
she had experienced on the road to Hicho, and earlier in the dream- but
different color, and she thought she could taste the copper of old
blood in
the
back of her mouth. She tried to clamp it down, contain it, tried to
fight
against the urge to wrap her fingers around his throat, the sudden
desire to
feel
bones snapping beneath her pressure-  she could vaguely hear the man 's
breath choking but felt nothing other than the rage, the desire- she
almost
laughed against the slick-colored air around her when suddenly her
chest
heaved, she buckled, letting him go- it felt like something exploding
from
her-
outward, colors- she felt the cool air again on her skin, felt her
muscles
relax, felt the dark, rough stone against her knee as the man's emotion
left
her in
a sudden rejection from her body.

She heard the thud of his body hitting the floor, and Teri could hear
Stana
scrambling up behind her. She felt vaguely the girl's shaky grab for
her
wrist, and felt herself being dragged hastily away from the man- now
unconscious.

what had happened? Stana stopped dragging her. "Teri? Teri are you
alright?"
THe older girl said, worriedly looking from her friend's bent head, the
still
form of her assailant, and the fighting still going on around them.

"I.. " She fell forward suddenly, and vomited. She knew what had
happened-
and she was willing to bet that, had she the Ancient's book with her
now, she
would see a new page illuminated, chapters ahead from where her current
level
was... Teri started to speak again, then gave up as another wave of
nausea
hit her. She had tried to quench the alien emotions inside of her, had
tried
to push them down, manage them- but her arms had lifted with power, and
she
had expelled the force back into the man she had stolen it from-- a
backlash,
too much, too soon, and he had blacked out.

Stana shoved a bitter leaf into Teri's mouth. The younger girl chewed
ravenously, shudderring occasionally as Stana helped her up. They both
stood,
leaning against the stubbly wall of the chamber, looking out at the
horror
before them.

Stana gasped, dropping Teri's wrist and stumbling over to the still
form of
Clip. The Unicorn had slammed into the ground, on impact, the air was
forced
from him in a great whoosh.  For a few moments there was the strangled
sound
of his breathing, then nothing.

Under Stana's desperate ministrations, he began to revive. The girl
ignored
the slowly vanishing forms of the other attackers, tears brightning her
eyes
despite the gloom.  Then he struggled to stand, but his legs didn't
seem to
be obeying him. His vision shifted in and out of focus, but from what
he
could see, he realized he must have landed head first.

        The Unicorn snorted, shaking his head gently, letting Stana cup
his muzzle in her hand and smooth over the bloodied hair, searching for
wounds. She stared into his eyes, looking for a sign of concussion. He
watched the others gathering around, and with consternation noted that
Shinji was not among them. He knew he had lost the Flame Gaurdian's
prison, but could not feel the human. His eyes widened and he nudged
Stana out of the way.
        He saw the hulking form of Relgarth stomping towards him like a
frieght train. Clip tried again, to get to his feet and this time he
got upright. His head swam, and the dizziness almost sent him crashing
back to the ground, baring his teeth he snorted deep in his throat,
struggling to stay balanced. His sight shuddered back into focus
briefly, and the ringing in his ears stopped.
       Finally, the world stopped spinning. Clip threw his head back,
his alicorn flashing to new incandescent life. Relgarth stopped,
snorting,
and Clip saw the ropes of muscle in his arms tighten in anticipation.
      The Unicorn blinked away a sliver of blood that had run down his
forehead, and then without another sound, locked into another bout with
the Minotaur.
      For a few seconds, there was nothing other than the clashing of
flesh against flesh, and several grunts. Clip squealed, driven back to
his haunches by a blow against his head.  He drove back, lunging
against the overbearing weight, horn flashing and very deadly.
      Relgarth didn't flinch as Clip ran him through.  He placed his
hands at the very base of the horn, where it met the head, and ignoring
the heat, he forced the beast down to his knees.
      Clip grunted, straining against the pressure driving him to his
knees. Once down, he knew that he would not rise.

     Stana cried out, watching the battle turning sour for the Unicorn.
For a moment there was an echoing ache inside, a coldness reminiscent
of the Aethyr test, then a rushing sensation of feeling as her vision
blurred, and seperated into two angles. It was as if she could suddenly
see herself standing there with Teri and Estela from a totally
different perspective. She gasped as suddenly there was a shimmer, and
the leaping figure of a second Unicorn tore away from her glance.
      Relgarth started, and then swung a meaty fist at the other
Unicorn.  It cried out, skirting the blow and twisting strangely in the
mists, shadowy form flickering. Clip surged back to his feet, shoving
the Minotaur back a few inces, hooves scrambling for purchase, labored
snorts accentuating each push.  The figure beside him danced and
shimmered, drawing the renewed attacks of the minotaur.
       Clip wrenched himself free, as a swipe connected to the other
Unicorn- _and passed through_ it.
       For an awkward moment they all gazed at the ghostly figure of
the Unicorn, and then Clip drove again towards the assailant, Alicorn
tilted higher, speed a shade faster. He ducked under the counter
strike, and rammed his horn through the chest, rids snapping under the
driving point.
  Relgarth swore, an explosion of blood preceeding the curse. His knees

buckled as the Unicorn neatly disengaged, fleeing the grasping hands
with
ease.
       He turned, watching another form fade away, and another.  Then
another scene caught his eye.
       The Spectral Unicorn had turned away and was slowly approaching
a much battered Stana. The girl was half braced against Teri, so pale
as to be a ghost herself.  Just as the two reached out to touch, the
Unicorn and the girl, the beast vanished, and Stana slumped to the
ground in a faint, Book tumbling from her hands.

* * *