The Guardian of Light.

Chapter 13: Magic's End

     "Life is kind of like a bunch of tubes, attached to you, and keeping you alive, still hanging on. The second one of the tubes break, you become unstable, and die off." I said. "Alright, name some of these tubes." Syracuse ordered. "There's physical condition, psychological condition, brain function, spirit, and of course, for the higher magic ranks, magic." I said. "Alright, what's spirit?" Syracuse asked. "I still don't know, but what if someone were to break off all these tubes and survive?" I asked Syracuse. "A pure soul, so?" Syracuse said. "Don't you get it? You can't survive fully pure, only in death is there purity, oh, it seems I've been stalling. Flip the switch, now!" I yelled. I ran over to the machine and sliced part of it. A blue beam shot into the air.

     "Ten minutes." I said. "Until what?" Syracuse said. "Until magic dies." I said, then laughed like a maniac. "Sarah, I need you to protect me, there's only one way I can kill this guy." I said. Sarah understood. We backed into a corner. Syracuse pulled a lever and we got trapped in a cage. "That's doing me a favor." I said, then turned into a spirit. I was pitch black, I looked like Syracuse. I had turned back into a Darkened. "I can still see you." Syracuse said. "I know, well then, know more dialogue, we now fight!" I said. I bet Sarah somehow was able to see me in the state I'm in. We circled around each other. We kept our guard up and both our sword were in a blocking position. "Oh, it feels good to be a Darkened again." I said. "I'll kill you." Syracuse said.

      Syracuse struck first, throwing his best single sword strike at me. "Is that all you got?" I took a strike at him. He blocked my attack but got knocked back. I ran around him and tried to strike him in the back. He was fast, He blocked and countered almost instantly. I got back up and ran back into the battle. "That the best you can do?" He said. I stayed in a blocking position. He swung at me and I countered, then got back into a blocking position. Syracuse struck again. I tried blocking his first attack, but the force of it made me stumble. He struck me and I fell. I got back onto my feet. "I'm not down yet!" I said.

     Syracuse ran up to me and struck me. I got flung into the wall. It started taking strength to get back up. I saw the timer on the machine, 8 minutes left. Syracuse almost struck me. I blocked and stumbled backwards. He hit me into the wall again. "Come on Zack, get up." I heard Sarah's voice. I got up to see Syracuse standing over me. I rolled and jumped behind him, then kicked him into the wall. I hit him into the ground with my sword. Slicing apparently wasn't going to work since we were both spirits. At first I thought his magic was running low and his sword ended up dull. In thinking, I got struck to the ground again. How much more could I take. I stood up and stumbled around a bit before getting into a blocking position.

      Syracuse attacked. I dodged and kicked him in the direction he was going, then ran over to the switch to open the cage and looked at the timer. 5 minutes left. Our swords got locked and started spinning. I was losing. Syracuse flung my sword away and hit me. I  was on my last limbs. I rolled and got behind Syracuse. I struck him in the back and knocked him down again. I hit him with my sword in the head. I tried to hit him again, but he rolled away. I tracked his movement and kept him in front of me. I blocked his sword swings but that was about all I could do. Come on, think, Zack, think. I looked up at the timer. 3 minutes. Syracuse struck me. If I got hit again I won't be able to get back up.

     I got back up and ran off. I casted a spell at Syracuse, but he deflected it and hit me with his sword. I was on the ground. The pain was too much. I saw Syracuse standing over me. I looked back up at the timer. 2 minutes. "119, 118, 117, 116, 115, 114, 113, 112, 111, 110." I said out loud. "What are you doing? Syracuse asked. "Seeing if you would kill me, if you can, we both know we'll both die anyways." I said. I realized I was by a plant pot, and I had turned back into a Darkened. Syracuse tried to strike me, and I rolled, I drained the plant and gained more strength. I hit him, and the timer reached 0. I felt a sharp pain and I saw Syracuse on the ground. I crawled over to my body. I hit the switch with some magic left in me to open the cage.

     "Take...that..." I said. I looked out the window with Sarah's help to see the Darkened start dropping like flies. The rebels seemed confused. Kyle was still down there, alive. "Sarah...we...did it..." I choked. "We sure did, now Syracuse is dead, and a magic war can't start up again." She said.