Crusaders Part 43

16

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Baal stood before me and he transformed to his true warrior self; a beast that stands higher than me by half of my height, and clad in a thick leather skin for armor. His human head now has two more on the shoulder; one of the cat and the other of a toad. His hands now has the claws of the cat while his lower limbs are that of a toad.

I pulled out my rapier with my right hand and holds the short blade with my left hand, before I encircled the demon. As I was walking towards the demon, Baal leap up with his toad limbs up high to come down with his deadly claws. I stepped back several steps to avoid his attack but upon his landing, Baal's toad head snap out a long tongue to my face. I moved in time to have it struck my left shoulder causing me great pain.

"Aargh!" I reached fo my shoulder but Gabriel shouted at me to hold. Gabriel in turn came forth to pour some water from a container he wore on his waist.

"Its the poison of the deadly toad; it would burned your flesh if you touches it. I have soothe it down with the holy water from the heavens. It would heal but the scar would remain. Beware his tongue." I thanked Gabriel for his assistance. I turned back to my opponent who has now taken on a change of heads on his shoulder. The toad stared at me while the human side rest on the shoulder.

"So I am fighting a toad now. Well, You do look charming for a toad." I comment on his new look and lunged with my attack on his head. Baal the Toad now stepped back and had his tongue snapping out to curled around my rapier.

"Thank you." I shouted as I took to swipe with my blade using my left hand. The short blade removed a portion of the toad's tongue. That caused the demon to stepped back in agony. I pulled my rapier free of the cut off tongue. " You may want to improve on your licking again. I would say you way too short for a ladies liking now."

The demon switched the human head back and cursed at me for the removal of its tongue. But it did not stop at there as it came lunging with its claw again. But this time I was ready for the attack.

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"Madam, if I may address you as calling you a Witch would be below my standing to do so." Micheal approached his opponent with a set of his pistols in each of his hands.

"Sir Micheal, you may called me anything so long as it befit your standing, as you won't be standing very soon. Your preferred weapon are your skills in the steel balls fired by those guns. As such, my expertise are the deadly hex bolts of mine from my fingers. So shall we test our proficiency on the acquisition of targets so the last one standing wins." She is truly a vixen as she unleased not one bolt but three bolts each from her hands. The six spread out bolts of hex are like dark blades that flies at Micheal but he had been learning to fire as well as learning to avoid the returning fires. He dropped back on his bent knees to lowered his upper body to the rear while he fires his pistols at the vixen. His shots did not pierce her body but sheared both her upper forearms on the skin. As the effect of the power bestow on his steel balls, the cut on the flesh replicate across the arms as if a thousand cuts came across the same time.

Morgana fell on sitting on the ground clutching her forearms and tears welled up on her eyes.

"Bastard, you hurt me." Morgana lashed out with her hands again but this time she let off ten bolts at Micheal who had to jump the side to avoid being hit by the bolts. But the bolts did not just stop at there as its explodes at where Micheal was standing in a succession of blasts. The place where the blast took place was filled with smoke and brimstones smell, but soon to emerged from it was Micheal with his second set of pistols in his hands. He shot off both shots at the vixen catching her again only by right shoulder and her left cheek but only piercing the skin like before. But Micheal is not unhurt as the blast did ripped some of his flesh on his chest and legs. But he could still stand and shoot as seen now.

"Aargh!" Morgana screamed out in pain as she holds onto her left cheek. He removed her left hand which was soothing the wound on her cheek to her lips. She licked at the blood and smiled.

"For that, I call upon my champion to fight you." A dark entity rise from her back and took the form of a dark canine beast with a red eyes. "Take his soul and body, my love. Do for your mistress now."

The dark entity of hound leap at Micheal and its front paws pushed the young warrior off his knees to fall backwards.

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Helmut held up the Excalibur in both his hands as he looked to his opponent dressed in the body armor of a knight of the Arthurian era and wield a broadsword similar to Excalibur.

"Modred, what you wield looks my equal? Please do name me your sword, so I would know to whom it belong to?" Helmut is not only a swordsman but a keeper of those who have lost their master.

"Caladbolg is the sword of Fergus mac Róich from the the Ulster realm. I borrowed it from there to battle you as a befitting weapon to rival that of Excalibur. This is a two-handed sword when swung produced a show of colors like a rainbow, and it has been used to ,slice the tops off hills and slaughter an entire host. Today, it would remove the head of the pretender master to the sword of Excalibur." Modred speaks highly of his weapon although it was not his to begin with.

"The sword need no master as its own master. But it will assimilate to the right warrior if the combination is right as I have with Excalibur." The two warriors clashed with their swords, parrying each other strikes and countering with their own. "You may not with yours and that could be your downfall."

Helmut tripped on the ground and fell back to his back but he held his sword to block the coming thrust of Modred. He lashed out his right leg and kicked at the knight to the side. He rise up and stepped back some steps. His face turned red on his mis-step causing him almost his life.

"Demon, I am not without refined in my skills, but a silly step. Now I am ready for you." Helmut swung his sword in a wide arc from the left and then another close swing from the inside towards the chest. Modred parry the first strike and had to stepped back on the second or he would be missing a lower jaw to the right ear.

"Now we are even on the strikes. Shall we resumed again?"

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The Questing Beast looked at the form of Man approaching it, but its eyes soon flicker on the seeing the form of Man takes on the form of a beast. Unlike its own amalgamation of different creatures part, this transformed creature is a beastly beauty of its own from its canine like head to the thick fur on its body and trailed to the long claws on its fingers. Its taller than the Lycan and yet its more magnificent in looks. The creature does not circle like the Lycan but ran towards it on its heels. It leap onto the beast back and laid its claws in deep into the flesh of the beast.

The beast shaken off its trance of admiring the attacker now barked out in pain. The sounds of a dozen canines cries sound out as its serpent neck snaked back to dislodge the painful creature. But the creature has jumped off the beast and now coming in a circle, its leap at it like a lunging beats for the exposed beast neck. But the beast was faster to react by rising itself on the haunches of its back limb and body slammed the creature back with its force.

The beast then looked towards the curled up form of the creature as it shake off the effect of the attack. The beast was to let up on its attack as it charged the creature on the speed of its hart legs.

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"Samael, your presence here saddens me. You are one of us and yet you allied yourself to the fallen." Gabriel looked at the once angel. "Why? Explain yourself before I discard you to Hades."

"Because of you. Who remembers me, Samael? Every one on the mortal world knows the four of you as Archangel. Even he who has fallen to the other side. But do they remember me? None, I would say." Samael lashed out in anger at the one who is praised by others of his equal.

"Samael, we are all equal in the eyes of God. I do not think of the placing of any ranks, except to do his works. Why do you succumb to these emotions which is unlike that of us. You are thinking like a Man and that would be your downfall." Gabriel tried to reason with the angel who has been mis-led by the demons.

"No, Gabriel. I was not mis-led. I just learned to be a Man. I let those emotions get into me so I can better myself as a Man. But I may have failed to understand it in the short time I was with them. I could had let it overcome me and I made my actions on those weakness...... I stand corrected, its not weakness. Its the unrefined quality of the emotions I felt. Maybe given me ample time, I would had refine those quality and be a better man. I am sorry, Gabriel. I have acted to much in haste like as before." Samael' head hung down in despair on the events that befall him now.

"Samael, you can be back with us. There is always a second chance....." Gabriel pleaded with him.

"And a third and then a fourth. Are we always so forgiving?" Samael looked at him with a smile. Gabriel knew then that this angel is beyond saving.

"No, Samael. There is a limit to all that we do. Once you cross that threshold, we could not received you back anymore. I am sorry for you."

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I saw Baal's attack with the feline claws and I stabbed out with my rapier onto its right hand. The pointed end of the rapier pierced the flesh below the right wrist and came out at the back of the arm. Just as I stabbed the demon, I withdrew my rapier when the demon jumped back in pain from my piercing move. What was I see is beyond the grasp of Man. The demon must had felt pain as it took hold of its right elbow and twisted it before pulling the whole right arm off from the shoulder. The blood that flows out is not dark red but the color of dark void.

"Surprised? Don't be. I have more." The demon grew another arm from his shoulder. "I can have more but that will be unfair to you."

"You talk too much, demon." I lunged at Baal with my rapier but he stepped aside and lashed out with his new arm. The claws of his tore the sleeve of my jacket and cut into my flesh. I could not even scream at the pain I felt but to fall back for safety and dropping my rapier.

"A fine weapon." Baal had retrieved my rapier and now holding it in his right hand like a master swordsman. He swung with it for a few times and test its weight on the twist of his wrist. "Balanced and well crafted. Its yours and I would not keep it."

Baal threw the rapier but a few feet short of reaching me.

"Please do. I am a fair warrior." He offered me a chance to take up my rapier again.

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The dark canine held Micheal down on the ground and its fangs from its deadly jaw inches away from Micheal's face. But Micheal was quick to discard his spent pistol and pulled on this third pair from his vests. He shot the canine beast in the lower neck and at its belly. The steel balls at the close range was to lift the dark canine off Micheal's back and propel it backwards. As it landed on the ground, it writhes and howled in pain as the two steel balls does it works inside the dark canine body.

"My love!" She howls out loud on seeing her dark canine lies now still on the ground. "Do not die and leave me alone here. I cannot be without you."

Morgana breaks down to cry at the death of her dark entity. Micheal walked towards her to hold her but on reaching her, Morgana placed her left hand onto the approaching Micheal. She screamed out loud at him.

"Die!"

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Both warriors stood feet apart and heave in their breathing as they take a break from their fighting. They have been at it for over an hour now and despite all the sparing, they are at equal in skills.

"Modred, I salute you. You are good with the sword." Helmut praised his opponent.

"So do you, Baron. Excalibur may had found its new alliance worthy of the last in Arthur." Modred replied while using his sword to lean on with his body. "But we cannot leave here as worthy champion unless one is defeated."

"True..." The Baron turned his back to the opponent to looked at the rest who still battled in their own fields. "Its sad though." Unseen by him. Modred had taken his sword and now run in stealth towards the Baron.

"But never attack on a person's back...." The Baron continued saying while he crouched down on his left knee and swung his body back with Excalibur to thrust the sword into Modred' left ribs.

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The creature on seeing the charging beast turned to its back and ran away from the raging beast. The beast on seeing the retreating creature gave chase with blind rage but little it was to know that the creature was not retreating but looking for a platform to leap.

It spied on the small mound and it took its speed to it. It right leg stepped on it and leaped high onto the skies but its body somersault reversed backward to have it facing now the charging beast. As it lands to the ground, the creature lashed out with its claws on the serpent head causing the charging creature to blinded in the eyes. But its jump was not without perils as the charging beast not blinded slammed into the creature.

Both of them now falls to the ground and were in pain.

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Gabriel was thrown back by the treachery blow of the one named Samael who had lashed out with his claws at my right ribs.. He would had been fatal with the blow if not for the container which took most of the blow. The holy water in the container spilled out on impact and splashed itself onto both combatants. But the one who was allied to the evil side, finds it burning on his flesh while the other finds the water soothing to his bruise.

"Even the Holy Water repels me. Am I already discarded by Heaven as we combat now." Samael held onto his hand with most of the flesh now burnt or damaged.

"Yes!" Samael looked up to see Gabriel now fully recovered standing before him. The archangel holds in his right hand the Sword of Damocles which is used to banish errant angels from heaven. ""Fear is plentiful for tyrants", as it is the tyrant's place to fear this sword. "