Ch. 2

"Hello Zane," The woman in purple armor said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Of course, another one," Kyo growled, jumping back as the ice dissipated from his spear. "I can still take both of you on."

"Shall we Zane?" She asked me. A lot of things went through my mind but one thing seemed more important than all of the other ones put together.

"What's your name?" now that it came out of my mouth, it sounded extremely stupid right about now.

"Mizu." She said, seeming to understand why I asked it. That was good, because I didn't even know why I asked her that. At least I can put a name to the armor now. "You ready now?" she asked.

I nodded as we turned to face Kyo, who was surrounded by his Shades, as he swung his spear, obviously ready for us to come and attack him. Without even thinking, I brought Silver Wings to my side before I ran at the crowd, hearing Mizu's armor clanking in step behind me as she ran. Kyo pointed his spear-point at us, which the Shades took as a command to charge us, which they did with very animalistic characteristics.

The first that reached us jumped us, trying to claw at my open heard, but it was quickly destroyed by my own blade slashing it in two. But I heard another growl behind me, but just as I turned around, a blade that was not mine, but Mizu's, went through it.

Her weapon was icy blue, with its sides somewhat jagged in some places, that turned to a point that reminded me of the tip of an icicle. The guard around where she held the weapon was ice that had taken a purplish color, and yet from the bottom of the gripping of the blade hung a small crystal that matched the color of the blade exactly. The name Princess of Ice came through my mind before a Shade-Heart with a very sharp spear end interrupted my thoughts.

Luckily, with reflexes that I didn't even know I had, I was able to cast up a quick shield, which knocked Kyo back a few feet as he took the brunt of his own attack. This allowed me an opening, and I wasn't going to let it slip by me. But unfortunately, he wasn't dazed like I thought he had been originally, so each time I slashed or sliced at him, his spear was always there to block my strike. But just as I was raising my sword to attack him once more, I felt a punch land right where my stomach was located at, but even though there was armor in the way, it hurt like freaking hell. Plus, it forced me to give up some of my ground by taking a couple of steps back.

I looked up at Kyo to see what had happened. Turned out he had reinforced his arm with darkness, and that's how he was able to punch me back a few places. And quite painfully might I add.

To my surprise, the darkness that was around his arm traveled downs it, forming around his spear. And if it was able to knock me back while it was with his arm, I was going to hate to see what it was going to do on his spear.

Just as I had recovered slightly, Kyo made his first move. He swung one of the spear points into the ground, sending a large geyser of darkness out of it and headed right for me. I held my ground until it was extremely close to me before I rolled out of the way, avoiding it by only a few feet. I turned my head some just to see three Shades get sucked into it, being destroyed almost instantly before the geyser vanished. I didn't want to see what would've happened to me if I had gotten hit by that.

I turned my attention back to Kyo, before I ran as fast as I could at him, before he smirked, twirling his weapon in front of himself, a few orbs of darkness appearing. Before I could wonder what they did, one flew up in front of me and I barely jumped back in time to dodge it before it exploded.

I waited a moment before running back at him. This time, when the orbs came at me, I shot my silver power at them, causing them to explode away from me harmlessly. There was only one that I couldn't hit, so I grabbed my sword like a baseball bat and swung, sending the orb right back at the wielder of darkness, having it explode into his chest plate, dazing him some.

With one more running step, I was within striking distance, and I was going to take advantage of this rare opportunity. I started slashing him within seconds, scoring some great strikes along his chest armor and left arm, before he finally stirred and tried to cut me down to size. I jumped out of the way though, before I turned to see Mizu coming up behind me, yet no more Shades in the area.

"Got them." She said, before we both looked at Kyo, who was biting his lip.

"Master won't be happy about this." He swore. "But I have one trick left." He raised the spear above his head, before stabbing it into the ground. I tightened my grip on Silver Wings, knowing this wasn't going to be good.

Suddenly, a black oozing substance appeared, coming out in a huge circle around us as it soared upward, before connecting at the top, making us all into a large dome in which we were trapped in.

"No escape now!" Kyo growled, the darkness that was once only around his spear now all around him. "Time to kill you both!" He jumped forward, swing his weapon fast at us.

I blocked the strike at me, but was surprised at the force of the blow and I had to jump out of the way to avoid the aftershock of the dark that had came afterword.

Without giving him time to recover, Mizu ran at him; swinging her blade at his back. Unfortunately, Kyo had expected this, as he turned, parrying her attack before he tripped her, making her fall into the ground as he lost hold of Princess of Ice. He raised his spear quickly, ready to strike her.

But I couldn't let that happen. I raised Silver Wings quickly, the silver essence flowing out of the blade like a river, before it morphed into a few orbs that assaulted him in the back, drawing his attention away from her. Yet it also enraged him, sending him into a rage that increased the dark aura around him. Of course that'd happen.

Kyo suddenly appeared in front of me, swinging the spear which gave me almost no time at all to block it. I did, but I couldn't dodge his arm that came up, grabbing me and throwing me across the dome, sliding up next to Mizu.

"He's too strong," I spat out weakly to her.

"Everything has a weakness," Mizu said. Her armor had already taken a beating with dings and dents in it. Her visor was also cracked, looking ready to shatter at any moment.

"Then what's his?" I asked, sitting up using Silver Wings. My body was still aching from when I was painfully tossed over here. Also, a part of the plating around my shoulder was slightly smashed from my rough landing.

"I have an idea about it." She said, speaking quietly. "So far we've only attacked his separately, and failed. But, what if we attacked him together?"

The thought quickly went through my mind. "That may be our best option." I agreed, starting to stand at the same time Mizu did. "Let's go!" I said, running toward the Shade-Heart with Mizu hot on my heels.

Kyo growled, raising his hand as a wave of darkness rose up from the ground and rushed toward the two of us.

"Heads up!" Mizu said from behind me, hearing her armor clank as she moved her arms. I will say this: if not for that warning, I would've been drowning within the wave of darkness. Yet even with the warning, I was still startled by what she had done.

Right after the warning call was issued to me, I felt something slippery beneath my feet. Ice. But it just wasn't the kind you slip and fall on in the middle of winter. It was an icicle, no wait that's an understatement. It was a freaking huge ice spike that not only brought us over the dark wave, but it also brought us closer to Kyo.

Of course though, he noticed this, and with a wave of his hand, a dark wall appeared just a few feet away from the pointy tip of the ice spike.

As I stared at the wall, an idea came into my head. "Follow me!" I yelled back down at Mizu before I ran the remaining length of the ice spike to its point. I brought up my blade, the silver essence starting to swirl and twist around it, before I threw it like a boomerang at the wall. Silver Wings hit it, driving right through the darkness as it made a decently-sized hole in it, exactly what I was hoping for.

"Hurry!" I yelled as I jumped through it, rolling to break my fall as I reached the ground with Mizu landing next to me.

"How about we finish this?" Mizu asked.

"Let's," I said, reaching for my sword only to realize, it wasn't there. I looked up and froze, seeing its location: a few feet in front of Kyo. "Crap."

"Looking for this?" Kyo asked darkly. He stepped forward and, to my horror, pulled Silver Wings out of the ground. "Let's see what happens when a Chaser weapon is morphed into darkness."

"No!" I yelled, my arm shooting forward in a weak attempt to grab by sword, before the silver essence came out of it, forming a shape to which made me gasp in surprise. In my hand was Silver Wings. I looked up to see what Kyo had in his hand, which turned out to be nothing but air.

"How dare you!" Kyo roared, lifting his spear as dark orbs appeared and flew at us.

"Scatter!" Mizu said, running at Kyo yet avoiding the orbs using her ice abilities to their fullest abilities.

Me on the other hand, who was still getting used to his powers, had a much harder time getting around the orbs. I eventually just used Silver Wings as a baseball bat, hitting an orb as it collided with another one, before it hit another one and soon acted like a game of pinball. Soon all of the orbs were bouncing off of each other, before a few ice spikes by Mizu destroyed them all.

We heard a slow clap behind us as we spun around, coming face to face with Kyo. "You've done well," he said, venom glazing every word. "But now, it's time to kill you both for good." Before we knew it, he was in front of us, swinging his spear quickly.

I raised my blade, blocking it as I tried to hold my ground against the fierceness of the strike. Luckily Mizu saw what I was intending for her to do. She came around behind Kyo, slashing his back with her sword.

The now injured Shade-Heart roared in pain, spinning around to face her before my sword came down on the middle of the spear, snapping it into two separate pieces as the silver essence appeared around my blade, going up and slashing Kyo right in his chest. He growled through the pain, taking the two spear ends and knocking both me and Mizu back with his strength.

"I have had it!" He roared, preparing to charge at us once again.

"Quick, hit him with what you've got!" Mizu said, raising Princess of Ice and firing as many ice shards flew at him as fast as she could fire them. I raised my blade and fired silver orb after silver orb quickly at him. After a minute of that barrage, and of the quick fire-ness of our attacks, we both let our arms fall beside us, panting, as we waited for the small smoke that had came around Kyo to clear out.

Suddenly, laughter broke out from the smoke as it started to clear as Kyo emerged, mostly unharmed except for a few more marks upon him. "Nice try," he smirked, before starting to walk towards us.

"I'm going to finish this!" I said, starting to run at him before I heard Mizu's armor clank as she threw something at me. I turned around just in time to catch her weapon in my free hand. "Finish him." She said, as I turned around to face him as I broke into a run toward him.

Kyo, when I got close enough, used one of the spear ends to stab at me, but I blocked it with Mizu's weapon, before I brought my sword around, connecting with his torso as it sliced down it. Before I could make another move, he sent in his other half of his spear, slashing my armor as a gash appeared in it, before we both jumped back.

I threw my sword at him, silver engulfing it as I ran right behind. This technique obviously worked, as Kyo put his two spear halves in an 'X' as the sword hit them, the tips of the ends taking the brunt of the attack. Just as he was going to reflect my sword right back at me, I swung Princess of Ice as I dodged around to his back, slashing it just as he started howling, his arms loosing the defensive stance he had as Silver Wings crashed into his torso, making another larger wound. I jumped back, my blade returning to my other hand, as I looked at Kyo to see if he was going to attack again.

But luckily he wasn't going to attack again. The wounds that I had just inflicted on him were crying with black blood, his other wounds, only trickling with it. "This isn't over." Kyo growled, as darkness started surrounding him. "We'll meet again." And with that, he vanished into the dark.

As soon as he was gone, a wave of tiredness spread over me, the adrenaline I was using earlier was now gone. But not for long anyways.

"We have to get out of here!" Mizu's voice yelled as he ran up to me, taking her sword back.

"How?" I asked, not sure on how we were supposed to leave.

"Take off your armor," she said. "It's designed to do travel, so we'll end up somewhere we need to be."

"You sure?" I asked, not comprehending anything of what she just said.

"Pretty much." Mizu responded. Well, that was better than nothing at all. "Just focus your armor into your weapon."

"Alright." I nodded, taking Silver Wings into both of my hands, trying to focus on my armor. And before I knew it, a white light blinded my eyes as I felt myself leaving the dome of darkness.

..

When I woke up, I was lying on a dirt road. I stretched before I noticed something: I was in a different outfit than when I was on the beach, which felt like it was ages ago now.

Now, I was in a black shirt, with a blue jacket with short sleeves, and I saw on the back of it were two silver wings designs. I was still in jeans, but I do think these clothes accented my spiked blond hair and blue eyes.

"Zane?" I heard Mizu's voice say from behind me as I got up and turned around to look at her. This was the first time I have seen her without her armor on, and I will say I was shocked nonetheless.

Her hair was shorter and blue, yes blue, and it was accented by her icy blue eyes. She was wearing a white short-sleeve shirt, with a light purple jacket over top of it. She also had a purple skirt on, with white shorts on underneath. Around her neck was a silver chain with a purple gem at the end of it.

My jaw dropped slightly at her unique appearance, but I quickly shut it. "So…do you know where we are at?" I asked.

Mizu nodded. "I'll show you." She said, walking past me and heading to a drop in the ground behind me as I followed, standing next to her overlooking the cliff. What he wanted me to see made my jaw drop. "Welcome to the City of Machines." She said.