Forgotten King: Chapter 4
Sorry if there are some spelling/grammatical errors in this. I AM NOT AN ENGLISH MAJOR!!!!
* Italics mean a person's thoughts
Lina was awakened by the sound of the door unlocking. She shot straight up to see the door open and a young woman standing there. She had long purple hair coming down to her butt, green eyes, and fair skin.
The girl looked at Lina and then said, "Um, would you care for any breakfast?"
Lina ran up to the girl, sparkly eyed and all, shaking her head yes while latching on to her arm. The girl looked at Lina for a second then smiled and said, "Alright, come this way please."
Lina followed the girl to the dinning hall, there she saw the blonde idiot packing away food like there was no tomorrow. She sat down and looked around the table, she and the blonde where the only ones eating. Well, that made sense seeing as how the other two where more than likely mazuko and didn't need to eat.
Lina finished up her food and leaned back in her chair with a look of satisfaction on her face. Well, at least this 'Master' knows how to treat a guest, well mostly. Last night wasn't the greatest show of tact. Lina mused as the thought of the master came into her head, what reason does he have to stay here. If he was a mazuko he wasn't getting much of a meal here. Now if he were a little closer to town he would be overindulged with all the negative emotions. Lina got up from her seat and headed in a random direction, still pondering over this castle's occupants.
Lina was walking down a hall, still on the same train of thought, when it was broken by the sound of clanging swords. She ran to an archway that lead into a courtyard. Once inside she stopped and watched as the master, and his masked cohort dueled each other. Their duel went on, not even noticing the petite sorceress watching from the archway. The match continued, both combatants moving faster then thought possible. Finally, the master got the upper hand and was able to juggle the crimson sword lose from its owner.
Zelgadis looked at his opponent and then removed his sword from his neck stating, "Not bad, you still need to work on your technique a bit."
Zel turned to see the redhead staring in wide eyed amazement at them. Well, now she probably thinks I truly am a monster. Zel sheathed his blade and said, "Well, looks like we had an audience for this morning's spar."
Lina snapped back to attention when she heard the master's comment. She looked at him, wondering if she could get a better look at his face, just to see a cloth mask that covered all but his eyes. She sighed and then asked with a mischievous grin on her face. "Your pretty good with a sword. You have any other talents, or are you a one trick horse?"
Zel looked at her, slightly in awe of her audacity, and said. "I am also pretty good at magic. How about you?" Zel retorted, a matching grin taking dominion over his face, if you could see it that is.
Lina snorted at him, "I could probably beat you..........that is if I didn't have this," she said, her mood becoming depressed. She held out her hands to show the anti-magic bracelets the Hellmaster put on her when he had taken over. They cancelled out all but the lowest levels of magic.
Zel gently took hold of Lina's wrist and studied the objects that caused her such dismay. "Who did this to you?" he asked curiously.
Lina looked at the ground, not wanting to show weakness in front of this mazuko master. Damn it, he's probably enjoying this meal so much that he won't every let this go!!! *click* Lina looked up as she saw the twin bracelets fall to the ground in pieces. Lina pulled back in amazement as she studied her now unbound hands. Then her gaze turned back to the master, "Why......why did you do that??" she asked as shock intertwined into every part of her body.
Zel just shrugged and said, "You looked so depressed when you showed me them. That and I would like to see some of your power."
Lina glared at the master, a look of questioning coming over her features. "Look here, I don't care how powerful you are, I am not serving or becoming a mazuko!!!"
Zel raised his hand in a gesture to make her stop that train of thought. As long as she thinks I am a mazuko might as well play the part, a lot less questions and mess that way. Zel thought to himself. "I never said I wanted you to serve me, and I am not going to turn you into a mazuko. I just want to see if your abilities can back up your mouth."
"Bring it on then," Lina taunted, confidence and determination expressed on her face.
Zel snapped his fingers and five lesser demons appeared on the opposite side of the courtyard. "They will be your first opponents. If you beat them then you will get to choose your next opponent."
"Alright, its their funeral," stated Lina as she began to chant the incantation.
Before the lesser demons could even move an inch, Lina finished the spell and shouted, "FIREBALL!"
After the smoke and dust cleared all that was left of the mindless beast was a nice sized crater. Lina was pretty proud of her work, she had wasted the demons without even breaking a sweat. As she looked at where they had been she noticed that anything outside the courtyard had gone without taking so much as a scratch. Hmmm, a barrier to keep the castle from being damaged during spars. I have to hand it to him, he has thought of just about everything that could go wrong. Lina turned and faced the master, "Was that your best challenge," she asked arrogantly.
"You beat the demons, well our deal was you could choose your next opponent. So which one of us do you choose." Zel motioned between him and his masked cohort.
Lina pointed her finger straight at her host and said with a mischievous grin on her face, "I want you, big boy. Let's see what you got."
"Alright, but don't expect me to go easy on you," stated Zelgadis as he took a defensive stance.
"If you did I would be very disappointed. I want to test my power not entertain myself," Lina retorted.
"Fine then, let's go," with that Zel held out his hand and a ball of energy formed. "Flare Arrow!" with that he threw the bolt at his target.
Lina dodged to the side and prepared her own spell. "FIREBALL!"
The glowing sphere flew towards the target, dead on target, until the master disappeared and reappeared away from the blast. Damn he's fast. Lina thought as she fired off a couple flare arrows.
Zelgadis dodged the flurry without even breaking a sweat. He ran towards his adversary preparing his next spell, "Fireball!"
"Shit!!!" Lina scrambled out of the blast radius, her clothes being lightly singed in the process. "Digger Volt!"
Zel dodged the lighting blast as it came his way turned and fired, "Disfang!"
Lina didn't see the shadow dragon until it was to late, and it had dug its teeth into her. As the dragon tore into her arm she reacted quickly, "Lighting!"
The dragon disappeared when the spell went off, but Lina didn't have anytime to spare, as soon as Disfang was dispelled the master fired off another spell, "Freeze Arrow!"
The battle ragged on for about two hours. Lina was beat, this match lived up to her expectations and then some. She wanted to stop, but she couldn't she wanted to win, that is all that mattered now.
Zel was starting to tire as well, he could still go for awhile but he wasn't worried about that. He looked over at the young redhead that had given him such a challenge. He soon noticed that the Disfang did more damage than he had thought, she needed to get that healed soon. "That is enough, you need to rest." he all but commanded.
"What's the matter can't take it?" Lina asked as she warmed up again. "FIREBALL!"
Zel dodged and positioned himself. Fine, I didn't want to do this but she needs to stop and be healed. Zel dodged another throng of spells as he tried to get close to Lina. Damn, I can't get close enough for a sleeping spell, oh well this shouldn't kill her. Zel started to chant the incantation for the spell.
"Source of all souls which dwell in the eternal and infinite."
What the hell!!! How could he know that spell, SHIT I have to stop him!!!! Lina began to chant for a spell but it was too late.
"Everlasting flame of blue, let the power hidden in my soul be called forth from the Infinite...RA-TILT!"
The bright light shot out for Zel's hands and engulfed Lina's body. For a split second she felt pain course through her body. How does a mazuko know the strongest spell in shamanist magic? Isn't their area of expertise in black magic like me?? With that last thought Lina collapsed into pure darkness.
Lina awoke with a start and sat up quickly, too quickly in fact. Her head began to spin as she laid back down on the bed. She soon noticed that Sylphiel was sitting beside the bed, watching over her with concern.
"Oh, what hit me?" Lina moaned as the vertigo subsided.
"Um...you where sparring with the master and he knocked you out with a spell." was the roundabout explanation Sylphiel gave to her.
That's right, we were sparring then he cast......HE CAST THE RA-TILT!!!! Lina sat up again, this time not suffering from any after effects. She turned to Sylphiel and asked, "Is your master a real mazuko? Does he have a name? Why do you all just call him master?"
Sylphiel looked down at the ground, she didn't like keeping information from people but they were his orders. "Um.....first I can't tell you what the master is. Second yes he does have a name, but I can't tell it to you. And third, we call him master because if his real name got out it could cause some trouble for us. You do understand that we can't disobey his orders?"
"I know, I guess I was just trying to find out a little bit more about the guy. I mean I am pretty much stuck here while Hellmaster has control over my family's land. So I guess I just wanted to know a little more about my host." Lina mumbled as she glanced at Sylphiel.
Sylphiel felt sorry for the girl, all she wanted was to find out more about Zelgadis, but nobody could give her the answers she wanted. Maybe I should convince her to talk to Mr. Zelgadis, he needs to trust someone other than Vladimir. Yeah, I'll do it, but first I want to at least know her name. "Um, excuse me miss but I never asked your name?"
"It's Lina, my name is Lina Inverse." Lina beamed in pride while announcing her name.
"Well, Miss Lina, I suggest you go talk to the master. If anyone can answer your questions he can." stated Sylphiel.
Lina looked at Sylphiel as if she had matched Gourry in stupidity and asked, "I don't think he is the type to make friends, or even talk to people that much."
"Don't worry, the master is a kind person once you get to know him. It's breaking through to him that is the hard part, but once you get by that your in the right, so to speak." advised Sylphiel.
"Ok, I will try, that's the least I can do is try," Lina said as she got up.
Both girls walked out the room and down the hall in search of the master. Little did they know that their whole conversation wasn't private. As soon as they left the room the man in the mask stepped out from behind the curtains of the window. Hmm....this is getting interesting. I think I will watch from the sidelines a little while longer before making any moves. The figure let out and low chuckle and then phased out, leaving the room totally empty.
Disclaimer: Any characters or ideas from The Slayers do not belong to me. I am not selling this material, just writing for the heck of it as I go.
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