Part 1Marcus saw the blast coming right at him.
A large bolt of electricity approaching at an absurd speed that would completely turn every single one of his friends into ashes.
Using the power of his blessed energy to boost his movement he tried as fast as he could to come out of his metal s.h.i.+eld form and jump in front of the blast to protect his teammates. While his body was still partly made of metal, he received the attack at full power, hoping he could redirect it somewhere else, but he quickly found himself completely paralyzed as the lightning touched his body.
What"s worse, Lilith"s metal sword ended up attracting some of the blast to herself as well, making her, Evlin, and Daren being caught up in the crossfire.
The whole group ended up being blasted by an explosion with Lilith taking most of the damage from being in contact with her sword. Evlin whose body was already extremely injured was completely knocked out. Daren tried to help Marcus but the moment he tried to approach him his hands were electrified by the residual energy, and Marcus himself, while managing to survive to take the blast head-on thanks to his champion power, still felt an absurd amount of pain spreading through his body.
Once the attack was over, the entire team had been completely defeated.
Part 2
"Huff... Huff..." Ellie was desperatly rus.h.i.+ng through an alley with Lance on her arms trying to find her aunt and her teammates that had abandoned her with Eclipse.
They were running around the city on top of the black lion when Lilith and Daren began to hear the sound of a battle taking place and rushed towards it using the silver metal to increase their speed.
Ellie tried to follow them on foot since the alley was too small for Eclipse to fit in but she wasn"t nearly as fast as the other two.
"Huff... Where... Are... Huff... They??" She was also still a little tired from her aunt"s training, on top of trying to be careful while carrying a baby with her "Aunt Evie?? Lilith?? Daren??"
She continued to run when the sound of footsteps approached her direction, and before she noticed she had been smacked by a woman who was trying desperately to run away from the place Ellie was trying to go and knocked against the ground "Aoouch!!"
"Ah! I"m sorry!! I didn"t- Huh...? Ellie??" Said the woman who collided with Ellie and almost made her drop Lance "Oh, my G.o.d, Ellie, I"m so sorry! I didn"t saw you!!"
"It"s... Huff... Fine... I"m fine..." Ellie said while standing up again and realizing who she had b.u.mped into "Ah! Doctor Chloe!! Have you seen my aunt?"
"Your aunt?" Chloe looked at Ellie trying to wonder how to explain what she had just saw.
"My aunt heard you were in danger and rushed to help you! Did you see her!??"
"I... I think so...? But she looked a little-" Chloe was about to finish her line but the two suddenly heard the sound of an explosion at the end of the alley and had their attention captured.
Ellie turned her gaze into the direction of the sound and could spot her aunt still in her golden form being blasted by a thunderbolt.
"AUNT EVIE!!!" Ellie screamed. She gave Lance to Chloe and dashed to see what had happened.
"Ellie!! Wait!!! It"s dangerous!!!" Said the doctor while trying to stop her but Ellie didn"t care. The sight of her aunt being hurt was enough to flip a switch inside of her.
"Please be ok! Please be ok! Please be ok! Please be ok! Please be ok!" Ellie kept repeating these words as she approached the end of the alley and entered the street where the battle was taking place.
She witnessed her aunt and her friends laying on the ground twitching with sparks of electricity surrounding their bodies.
"Aunt Evie!!" She approached her aunt, who was still looking like a woman wearing a golden Halloween costume of a flying monkey from Wizard of Oz to check her state, but the moment she tried to touch her body a bit of residual energy shocked her hands "Ouch!!"
Ellie also looked at Daren and Lilith who were on the pavement as well, twitching in pain. Lilith, in particular, seemed really hurt, while Daren had his hands full of burns.
All of sudden, she heard the sound of a large object landing on the streets. The girl turned around to see what it was and finally witnessed the one who caused all this. A creature made of wood in the shape of a bull with huge horns, claws, and several spikes coming out of its back. A small tornado was circling it while small sparks of electricity were covering his body and pillars of ice started to appear from the ground every time he gave a step forward.
"Who...?" Ellie said with a trembling voice. She had no idea what she was looking at. Her body was shaking and her heartbeat was accelerating.
The creature kept walking, coming at Evlin"s direction. Ellie suddenly heard a voice coming out of it "Finally... I can have my revenge..."
"Re- Revenge...?" Said Ellie confused, trying to place herself in front of Evlin so that the creature wouldn"t touch her.
"Everything that happened to me... Every moment of misery, every suffering... It was all her fault... I can finally make her suffer just as much as I did!!" said the monster while raising its claws and covering them in ice.
"Make her suffer...?" Evlin heard the beast"s words and started to remember about the crossbow girl"s tales. How she was transported to a world against her will, forced to live constantly on the run because people never stopped trying to capture her, facing so many dangerous enemies and enduring so much pain, all in order to try and return home. Ellie could feel the sentiment of fear inside of her being replaced by anger "Make... Her... Suffer!!??"
Ellie then began to glare at the creature and raised a large pillar made of blue diamonds that empaled the beast"s heart making it moan in confusion "What??"
"My aunt already suffered!!! She suffered enough!! She suffered more than anyone!!!" Ellie screamed while raising more pillars "I"m not letting anyone hurt her ANYMORE!!!" followed by sending all the pillars at the beast"s direction in order to pierce it.
But the moment the diamonds approached him, the beast released a blast of electricity that destroyed the diamonds and turned it all into a pile of rubble.
"What!!?? How is this possible??" Ellie was at a loss of words. Her aunt"s diamonds were supposed to be indestructible, and yet, the monster managed to block her attack like it was nothing.
The beast then grabbed the diamond that was impaling him with both hands and freed its own body by pulling it"s torso away from the tip, followed by locking target into Ellie and sending a large piece of ice in the shape of a spear flying right at her while using wind magic to increase its movement.
"Peris.h.!.+" the creature yelled while launching its attack.
Ellie panicked and closed her eyes while covering her face with both arms. The ice was about to stab her but in the last moment, it was sliced in two pieces. One landing on her left and the other on her right.
Ellie finally opened her eyes again after realizing her face hadn"t been pierced and spotted a figure in front of her, a man with silver hair tied up by a ponytail who was raising his right arm that was now a silver blade towards the sky. "Marcus??" She said after understanding that the man had cut the ice in half and saved her.
Marcus turned his head and Ellie could see that his whole body even more injured than anyone there. The man just looked at Ellie and tried to smile at her.
"Hey... Ellie..." Marcus said before falling into the ground and losing his consciousness again.
"Marcus!!!" Ellie screamed as she approached Marcus. She tried to see if he was ok, but once again, the residual energy was stopping her from touching him. "Marcus!! MARCUS!!!" She kept screaming, but got no response again. She then looked at her aunt and dashed at her while trying to wake her up screaming "Aunt Evie!!! Please!!", but the woman was knocked out as well.
"Ugh..." Ellie finally heard the sound of someone waking up. She turned her head around and saw Daren lifting his upper body. "What... What happened...?"
"Daren!!" Ellie said while rus.h.i.+ng towards him. But she quickly stopped when she noticed the beast charging another attack. It looked like it was preparing a large ball of lightning and it was going to throw it right at them at any second.
"Oh... No..." Daren noticed the incoming attack as well "Ellie!! Run!!"
Ellie heard his command, but instead of running she jumped in front of him and extended her hand.
"Ellie?? What are you doing?? Get out of here!!!" Daren yelled but the girl didn"t move. Not because she didn"t want to, but because the fear had paralyzed her legs.
"I... I can do this!!!" She said while trying to make a wall of diamonds to block the attack, but no matter how much she concentrated nothing happened. Ellie began to wonder if she had run out of magic. "Come on!! Come on!! Work!!!" she said while continuing to try making her diamonds appear.
A mage needs both magic and a staff to use its powers, but during the fight against the crystal spider, she was pretty sure she had neither. So it all depended on her, on her willpower. She needed to repeat what happened at that time, but nothing was appearing.
"I"m begging you, please just work!!!" She screamed while watching the beast release its ball of lighting in her direction. The approaching light was too much to look at and she closed her eyes while beginning to cry. Daren tried to move her but his body was too injured to even stand.
"ELLIE!!!!" he screamed as the electric sphere finally reached her, and before his very eyes, it began to shrink into her palms.
"Eh...???" Ellie said as she opened her eyes and looked at the electric ball getting smaller and smaller right in front of her.
"What the h.e.l.l...?" Daren said while showing he had no idea of what was going on. Before he noticed, the ball was completely gone and Ellie didn"t have a single scratch on her. Daren looked again and saw something really weird on the young girl"s palms "Ellie!! Your hands!!!"
"My hands...? What"s wrong with my- OH MY G.o.d!!" Ellie said as she flipped her palms and almost felt her heart stopping as she saw a pair of mouths on her hands "WHAT IS THIS??? GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!"
Ellie tried to shake her hands in an attempt to make that little abomination on her body go away and was quickly surprised by the sight of another ball of lighting coming at her.
"Wait! Stop!!" She said while raising her arms one more time at the direction of the ball, and once again, the energy shrunk as it touched her palms.
"What is this...?" She said, completely confused.
"Ellie!! You can absorb energy??" Daren asked trying to make sense of the situation.
"Absorb energy?" Ellie repeated the question and was reminded of something Marcus said at Evlin"s apartment. He mentioned about someone who had a blessing that allowed her to eat energy, and had used this blessing to return Xadi to normal.
Ellie looked at the mouths coming out of her hands once again and finally realized what was going on. She could feel it inside her body, the electricity that was thrown at her, she managed to eat it and turn it into magic power. She had no doubt of who this ability belonged to.
"Mia... I can mirror Mia"s power!!! I can absorb energy!!!" She said while closing her fists and opening them again until the mouths finally disappeared.
The creature understood that its energy attacks weren"t going to work and decided to try simply charging at the girl.
"He"s coming again!!" Daren said. He looked at Ellie who was still in a trance and didn"t know what to do. "Ellie!!"
"Eh...?" She said while looking at Daren who was trying to stand up.
"Can you mirror Marcus?"
"Wh What??"
"Just for a few seconds! Just try to mirror Marcus and his ability to become a weapon for me for a bit!!" Daren begged.
"I- I can"t!! I don"t know how!! I don"t know how I even did it the first time!!" Ellie said as the beast kept approaching.
"Just try to picture your body as a weapon!"
"My body as a weapon, my body as a weapon, my body as a weapon..." Ellie started to say while shaking at the sight of the monster coming closer.
She needed to become a weapon, but what kind of weapon? She tried to remember what her aunt said, to keep things simple. What was the simplest weapon she could think of? What was the weapon she was most familiar with? She began to picture an image on her mind and could feel her energy circulating her skin.
"ELLIE!!!" Daren screamed.
"My body is a weapon!!!!" Evlin said and finally started to transform herself into a silver crossbow made of metal using the power that she had absorbed to activate her mirror magic once again and copy the ability of the blessed metal.
"That will do!" Daren said as he grabbed Ellie in her crossbow form, aimed at the beast bull monster made of wood that was now about to squash him and shot a metal arrow right into the white crystal that was powering all of its spells.
The beast was sent flying in the opposite direction due to the impact and landed on the pavement as the pieces of the crystal began to scatter.
The beast tried to stand, but the arrow was locking him to the ground.
"Ellie!! Give me something that can cut!!" Daren yelled.
[Un- Understood!!!] Ellie said inside Daren"s mind. She felt herself connected with Daren and pictured what he wanted her to be, and in a quick moment, transformed into a pair of silver gauntlets with claws as she once again tried to visualize the image of the weapon in her mind.
"Perfect!!" Daren said. He felt the power of the blessed metal boosting his body again, giving him enough strength to stand up, and using all the energy he had, pounced on top of Xadi, and began to slash him into a million pieces with his claws.
Ellie simply watched as Daren used her body to turn himself into a living-shredder and completely annihilated the wooden monster.
The creature tried to fight back, but with the white crystal gone, he had no means of using magic anymore, making it an easy pray for Daren"s rampage.
Daren finally stopped unleas.h.i.+ng its attacks on his enemy and gazed upon his work. The monster completely defeated after having its body turned into pieces.
[You did it!!!] Ellie said as she began to change back to normal.
She looked at Daren to congratulate him, but the moment she released her weapon form, Daren lost the strength in his legs and fell on the ground. Ellie came to his side to help him but he simply gestured for her to calm down "Don"t worry... I"m just tired..." he said.
They both noticed Xadi"s spirit coming out after having lost its body and fainting as well after having no more strength to fight back while floating a few inches above the ground with both arms hanging. The battle was over.
Daren gave a small punch on Ellie"s shoulder and smiled at her "Not bad... Mirror mage!"
Ellie was stunned for a moment. She was staring at Daren with her eyes wide open and simply returned the compliment with a huge grin. She was now officially part of the crossbow family.
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