"We've been traveling for days now, and we've only had one meal through that whole time. How far is the next town?" Lina whined as the group walked on through a dense brush. It led into a forest, and that forest didn't look like it would be a simple stroll-through-the-park. Zel shrugged.
"Can you go for a few minutes without grumbling?" He asked, a bit annoyed. Lina snorted, disappointed. She piped up, "I guess that means that there won't be another decent village or something nearby, huh?"
"Looking at you, you should skip a few meals," Xellos added rudely. Lina growled, "Keep it up and I'll blast you with a Fireball where the sun doesn't shine, got that, buddy?" The trickster priest gulped. Lina whispered in Zel's ear, as it isn't very smart to ask Gourry the question she asked, which was, "By the way, when DID Xelly start following us?" Zel shrugged,. But it was a better answer than Gourry's give., Gourry'd probably have an answer, "Xelly? Who's that?" Lina clanched her fist as she heard Xellos soon continuing to snicker.
WHAM!
Lina walked on, dusting herself off while Xellos lay sprawled on the ground. Gourry walked over to Xellos and kneeled down, "You shouldn't talk about her like that. If you do too much, you'll soon feel like rotting." Xellos raised up his red-jeweled staff and brought it down on Gourry's head. When they both stood up again, there was a rather heated argument. Amelia walked past them, eyeing them strangely. She had the "I don't know them" look on her face.
Zel paused for a moment. The bushes rustled slightly. All over. There was rustling in the trees, bushes, everywhere. Lina stopped and looked around cautiously. Xellos and Gourry stopped fighting. Zel reached for his sword, as did Gourry.
Suddenly, out of their hiding places they leaped. Ugly creatures clad in a hard, gray armor-like shell. They were hunched over, but got up to 7 feet tall when standing at full height. They had long necks, each topped with a round dragon-like head. Their bodies were shaped like those of trolls, and they have two pairs of arms. From their backs came armor plated, dragon-like wings.
Zel and Gourry drew their swords as Lina charged a fireball. Suddenly, four more of the creatures leaped from the trees. Two of them had red skin and armor, and the other two had light blue skin and armor. Zel uttered a low growl, "We're surrounded. About ten to fifteen Armored Hesslins, two Armored Ice Hesslins and two Armored Fire Hesslins." Lina almost stopped the fireball in fear and surprise.
"Armored Hesslins? You mean those new creatures that have been taking out towns and even armed cities?" She asked. Zel nodded. Lina clenched her teeth, eyes wide.
Then, there was a low, rumbling chuckle behind the group. They all turned around. There stood an Armored Hesslin twice the size of the others. It was clad in reddish armor, but its tail, head, neck and wings were a light blue. Its eyes glowed yellow. The claws on its hands and feet were crystalline.
"Ah, more fools coming here to get slaughtered, I presume?" The large Hesslin's remark was replied by low growls. "Well, at least this time I'm here to fight, and no group has ever faced even a single Hesslin Leader and survived." Xellos' eyes went wide with fear. Lina was now confused.
"Charge," The Lead Hesslin said, and the Hesslin pack all lunged at the same time. Amelia and Lina both let loose with fireballs, and both stood back in shock. They had done no damage whatsoever. Xellos stepped back.
"NOW we're in trouble," The trickster priest said. Gourry lunged at a Hesslin and struck at it with his sword. The creature chuckled as Gourry gasped. The blade of the sword shattered a few seconds after the blow. Xellos was mumbling something about Hesslin Leaders being a bad sign. He swung his staff to the left and caught an attacking Hesslin in the face. Another Hesslin attacked, and he batted it away, but the one he had hit earlier wasn't out of the fight for sure. It spun around and caught Xellos in the side with its spike ball tail tip. It flew Xellos into a nearby tree. He clutched his side. Even if he was a Mazoku, it didn't stop the pain. "Damn," he muttered under his breath.
Gourry smirked. He dropped the blade of his sword. "LIGHT COME FORTH!" He yelled the three words and many of the Hesslins froze. They all looked at Gourry, who now held the Sword of Light in his hand. He leaped at one of the foul creatures and sliced at it. The Hesslin shattered like weak stone. The larger of the two Ice Hesslins came forth. It blew its icy breath along the ground, sending an ankle-high wave of liquid ice at the swordsman. Gourry leapt out of the way, but the Hesslin blew another in the direction Gourry leaped. He landed in the liquid ice. He looked at the Ice Hesslin and tried to take a step back. When he found he couldn't, he looked down and saw that his feet were frozen to the ground. "Oh, no," he whispered.
Lina, on the other hand had her own problems. So far she had tried to use a Gaav Flare, fireball, Flare Arrows and even an Ice Arrow. None had worked. "Levitation!" She yelled out, and floated up. A Fire Hesslin also flew up with her and caught her cape with its fiery breath. Lina yelped and landed, frantically trying to put the flames out. The Fire Hesslin landed also. Between its top two hands, a fireball formed. Then there was a blinding flash and between the Hesslins hands was a long lance of fire. The beast grabbed this lance and broke it into two jagged fiery pieces on its knee. It held the two sword-like flares like swords.
Zelgadis leapt around quickly, dodging blows from many of the beasts. He landed in a clearing between five of them. "This is becoming a pain," he raised his hand above his head while he said this. It began to spark with electricity. Then he cried out quite loudly, "Earth below me, submit to my will!" He pushed his hand to the ground and the earth began to tremble. "Stone Spiker!" Suddenly, entire trees were uprooted as giant spikes of pure rock jutted up from the ground. The electrically charged spikes smashed through many Hesslins, leaving only the Leader, five normal Hesslins, one fire and one ice.
Gourry's feet were still frozen to the ground as the Ice Hesslin charged. Gourry tried to strike at it with the Sword of Light, but it swerved to the side and caught him in the gut with its fist, hard. It knocked him clear out of the ice and sent the sword flying. The sword spun towards the Hesslin leader, who grabbed it and smiled wickedly. The Ice Hesslin struck straight at Gourry's chest. He stumbled back, and clutched three holes in his armor, where fresh wounds just started to bleed. The creature then leaped away and spun in a wide arc, nailing Gourry upright the head with its clawed feet. He flew back, couching up blood and clutching his neck, where shallow wounds lay. When he stood up again, the same ice creature leaped behind him and kicked him in the back. Gourry screamed as the kick smashed him into a tree, cracking some of his ribs and leaving claws marks down his back. Claw marks that bled badly.
Amelia leaped up on the Ice Hesslin, and struck at it with her Visfarank spell. The creature doubles over with the first punch, and shatters into small bits which melt into water at the second punch. Just as she landed back on the ground, a rather large normal Hesslin grabbed her by the head and forcefully threw her into one of the remaining trees. She yelped as she hit, and slumped down, unconscious. The rough bark of the tree scratched her face up.
Lina stepped back, almost falling to her knees. She clutched her right arm which was now dripping with blood from two strikes with the Fire Hesslin's flaming swords. The creature then ran at her, butting her into one of the stone spikes. She fell to her knees. Her face and legs were all cut up. ‘So, this is probably the end, Lina Inverse,' she thought coldly to herself.
At the same time, Xellos was busy fighting the rest of the normal Hesslins. He was valiantly keeping them at bay with his staff and his ever-so-used "spike attacks". One of the spikes landed directly in one Hesslin's eye. The creature reared back, a glowing yellow liquid pouring from it's empty socket. The Fire Hesslin turned to see the Mazoku backing up in his direction. The flame beast stood up to full height and heaved the two flaming swords at him. Xellos turned to see them coming, and without much time to react, attempted to leap out of the way. But one sword caught him across the cheek and the other hit him square in the chest. He reeled back, and watched the Fire Hesslin reach into a bag around his waist. Out he pulled a strange blob-like creature. It was black in color.
The Hesslin hurled it at Xellos and it attached to the back of his neck. He yelled out and tried to take it off with no avail. He felt strange. As if he weren't himself, then almost choked. That was a Destroying Licid. He knew why he felt weird. That creature took away his Mazoku body. He was like a normal human now. He growled and charged at the Hesslin, wielding his staff like a club, "YOU BASTARD!!" The creature sidestepped the attack and placed another, light green Licid on the priest. This one attached to his side. Xellos turned around in rage, but found that that little blob drained his magic-using abilities. Xellos smashed the beast over the head with his staff, causing it to drop its bag of Licids, making the foul blobs all over the ground. Xellos pointed the red crystal of his staff at the now fallen creature. The Hesslin looked up at him and made a blind lunge for one of the scattered Licids. It grabbed one and threw it at the trickster priest. Xellos tried to leap out of the way, but not before the Licid attached to his right ankle. When he landed, he fell to the ground. Xellos tried to stand up, but his legs refused to work. He couldn't even keep himself sitting up in an upright position, and hi arms also couldn't give any support. He warily glanced down at the Licid on his ankle. It was a sickening green color with exceptionally long tentacles. "Dammit!" he yelled, recognizing it as the Licid that drains almost all of the victims physical strength. The name of it, he was not quite sure.
The Hesslin took this time and stood up. It grabbed the immobilized Xellos by the neck and looked him in the eyes, a wicked smile across his face. Xellos looked back, clutching his staff as hard as he could, a look of fear crossing his face. Suddenly, the Hesslin spinned around and smashed Xellos' back against a pillar-shaped stone spike. The Hesslin, still holding Xellos by the neck, flew up until the two were about ten feet above the ground. The foul beast shifted it's giant hand to the priest's chest and used solid pressure to keep him pinned to the stone pillar. Then, the Hesslin started to increase the pressure, slowly, but surely. Xellos screamed as his ribs bent and snapped under the pressure with sickening cracking sounds. The Hesslin grinned evilly and released most of the pressure, but still kept enough to keep Xellos pinned in place. Xellos inhaled deeply, thankful of the air that flowed into his lungs. He then reverted his eyes back to the Hesslin. It stood there and whispered, "It's all over."
It's lower right arm and upper left arm began to glow bright orange. A deep red-orange mist danced from the lower to the upper in a line. It got thinner and thinner, then solidified into a 9 foot long spear of fire. Xellos muttered some curses at and about the Hesslin under his breath. The Hesslin growled and looked at Xellos, angrily. Xellos then noticed his mistake. He shouldn't have said those things, even under his breath, because of all creatures, the last one whom you should question their hearing is the Hesslin. The creature grabbed the spear in its upper, stronger left hand and attempted to bring its long, fiery blade down on top of Xellos' head. Xellos used what was left of his physical strength and hit the spear to the side with his staff. The Hesslin then forcefully kneed Xellos in his already hurting chest. Xellos groaned and found he had a hard time breathing. Again he noticed what happened, the hit drove the splintered ends of some of his ribs into his lungs. He cringed at the pain. Then he made the worst of his mistakes, he lowered his staff. "You fool!!" The Hesslin yelled, as it brought the fiery weapon to Xellos' gut like a jousting spear.
Zelgadis was drawn away from the starting point of the fight, and now he was a bit deeper in the forest. He leaped over the two Hesslins that he was fighting and darted back to the original spot. But one Hesslin flew over him and blocked his path just as he was about to enter the clearing. Suddenly he cringed as a heart wrenching scream ripped through the air, followed by loud, evil cackling. He kicked the Hesslin hard and it stumbled to the side. Zel stepped through to the clearing and his heart stopped. The Fire Hesslin stood there, holding Xellos' now limp body against the stone spike. It backed away, leaving Zel with a view that darkened his soul. Xellos hung there, a long spear of pure flame sticking through his gut and coming out the other side of the spike entirely. His outfit was starting to soak with blood, and there was blood tricking down from his mouth. His left hand clutched the spear, frozen there like a statue, and his right hand and arm lay limp and stone cold, the staff finally falling out and hitting the ground with a hollow sounding clatter. His head lay limp, his bangs covering his open eyes, where his pupils were rolled back, showing only the whites.
Lina fell to the ground, then started breathing slower. She realized the awful truth. Xellos was dead, and the others but Zel were unconscious. Soon Zel would follow, and the Hesslins would abandon their bodies to let them die. Here eyes became heavy, but she refused to close them. She was getting weaker and weaker, to weak to even cast a healing spell.
The Hesslin Leader walked up, soon joined by the Fire Hesslin and the last four remaining normal Hesslins. "Well so much for that. Since I watched most of this fight, I guess this last one is mine," Said the leader, his eyes changing from glowing yellow to glowing red. He pulled the Sword of Light from behind his back, for he was hiding it. Zel looked at it with fear as the Leader Hesslin made the light of it spring forth from the hilt. Before Zel could recover from the shock, the Leader lunged forward, catching him in the shoulder with the light blade. Zel yelped and stepped back, clutching his now bleeding shoulder. He brought both hands close together and a white orb of energy formed between it. "Ra Tilt!" He yelled out, bringing his hands forward and letting loose the energy toward the large beast. The Hesslin grinned and let the beam hit him, engulfing him in a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, he stood there, as if nothing happened. Zel stood back in shock. The Ra Tilt had no effect. No magic did. "Now, we end this," The leader whispered. It lunged forward and caught Zel across the gut with the sword and stood back. Then it placed the blade of the sword in two of its other hands. One stayed blue while the other started glowing red. Then, the blade of the Sword of Light began to glow red, and a blue mist engulfed it. He struck out with this empowered sword of light, and struck Zel home, starting from his right shoulder and going town to the left side of his waist. That left a rather deep slash, though it wasn't even enough to go halfway through. Zel fell to the ground.
Lina saw this and gave up. But just before she closed her eyes, and before Zel was completely unconscious, there was a massive explosion. In the midst of the dust and smoke two large creatures came forth. Creatures that had no idea what happened, and were just heading back to a location. They smashed through the clearing, trampling the Hesslins. The leader looked shocked. "Uni? Here? Impossible!" As both smashed into him, the huge horns on their heads impaling him and ripping him