Not So New Faces

Leon and Maeva stepped out, making their presence known to the arguing pair that was in front of them.

"So, what's going on you two? Having a lover's quarrel?"

Leon's sarcastic words drew ire from Oni, who launched a massive fireball at both of them. Leon used Silva to create a low oxygen air pocket making it dissipate immediately.

"Now that's not how you greet old friends, is it?" Maeva said, joining in on the taunting with Leon.

While Oni got more frustrated, Ravlynn stood behind him timidly. Leon and Maeva took notice of her posture and were puzzled.

"That's not the person who fought me in the Tournament."

"Usually she's fiery and about as vulgar as me, what the hell is happening?"

Oni turned around and saw how she was standing behind him, and scoffed at her. "Pathetic…" He muttered.

Leon chimed in. "Lynn, if you don't want to be here I'd strongly suggest you leave. This place is way too dangerous right now. If you come across Komodrons or a silver eyed vampire then say we let you go. If you didn't run into us, there's a good chance someone would've killed you."

Ravlynn looked down and then focused her gaze at Leon while she drew her weapon. "You think I want to concede to the likes of a fake Guardian like you?! Me and Oni want our revenge!"

Upon hearing her words, both Leon and Maeva stood a bit straighter, as their eyes focused.

"Let's get it, Maeva!"

They charged at the other pair, knocking them both backwards. Leon stopped and loosed jolts of electricity at both of them, shocking them in place, letting Maeva go for Oni's jugular.

He exploded flames around him, making her double back in haste. "Damn, that was close!"

Leon charged in, and was met by an ice wall of Ravlynn's creation, separating them so they could regroup. Leon had other plans though, he used Silva's blue flame to completely melt the ice formation.

Maeva charged through with a green hue around her, making doppelgangers of herself that got close to Oni and Ravlynn.

They made quick work of them with their weapons, but that was enough of a distraction for Leon and Maeva to go for the kill. Ravlynn and Oni moved and crashed into each other, proving just how out of sync they are. Their blunder threw their opposition off the mark, and got deep gashes in their shoulders instead, bleeding out all down their clothing.

"Damn, almost got them too."

Oni looked at Ravlynn with pure rage. "WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!"

She didn't even look back at him, she just got up and sent large icicles at Leon and Maeva before responding. "You don't even care. Leon's right, we shouldn't be out here. You just wanted your petty revenge because you lost to an Earth human."

Her powers made her body steam because of the temperatures she created around herself. She covered the forest around them in her ice as she tried to freeze either Leon or Maeva to slow them down.

"I'm being petty?! You're the one who was willing to suicide herself!"

"By any means necessary includes suicide moron!"

The distraction allowed Leon and Maeva to hide, but they were both shivering from the cold ice all around them.

"Th-th-this is t-too cold right now!" Leon stated while his mouth kept jittering.

Maeva smirked with an almost evil intent. "Oni, you going to let her talk to you like that? Come on, attack us! Show that you're not all smoke and mirrors!"

Leon followed suit with her idea. "Yeah, unless you want to thank me for that burn on your body as an improvement!"

Oni became livid, his body lit up and began melting the ice around him as he swung his axe wildly at every echo of their voices he could hear.

Soon, all the ice Ravlynn left was completely melted. Making her increasingly frustrated with him again.

"You just gave them freedom of movement! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Me?! You're the one who missed repeatedly! And the reason why we're bleeding all over the place!"

Their argument gave them another opportunity to strike. Leon used Silva's earth element and smashed the ground, causing them to get knocked in the air while Maeva used her doppelgangers again, slicing and cutting them all over their bodies leaving them as bloodied messes by the time they hit the ground again.

Leon stepped back out into view looking over them with a sigh. "Can you two give up at some point? Courtney could be here any moment and I don't know if she'd let you live. I don't even know where Charlotte's at, either. So just go!"

Leon was adamant. He felt bad about thinking of killing them. He hasn't hardened enough to consider a life being taken is proper in his head.

Both Oni and Ravlynn gave Leon a glare, unleashing a volley of fire and ice at him. Maeva protected him with a wall of trees, as he fell back and took a deep breath to relax himself momentarily.

"Good save!"

Leon shouted as he quickly got back up to his feet. He switched to the lightning element and used Blitz Movement. Charging at Ravlynn initially, and knocking her backwards into a tree. This left him in a one on one fight with Oni, the two struck at each other with heavy force, despite the size and power of his axe, Silva is an unbreakable weapon.

Leon pushed him back, showing his fighting prowess, Oni attempted to catch him off guard with a close range fire blast. But Leon predicted it and used the earth element to make his strike useless.

Ravlynn recovered only to have Maeva strike her back into the tree with a strong gut wrenching kick. "Why do you work with him?" Maeva asked her. Ravlynn refused to answer and instead swung her blade at Maeva, trying to push her off. Maeva did jump back, right into a tree then propelled herself back to her, striking with her two blades only to have Ravlynn narrowly block her.

"Tell me Lynn!"

"The capital abandoned both our villages!" She responded as she damn near cut Maeva's throat in the process. "Our villages were completely destroyed by Atticus, previous to the Queen being there. He deemed us too dangerous because of our powers! And left us both orphans!" Her passion was incredibly powerful, there was no way she wasn't telling the truth.

Leon kicked Oni back a step as he heard her and blurted out a response. "Y'know, Atticus is a fucking moron, but to consider him that sinister?! No, he's not capable of something like that. He'd rather kill you with taxes!"

Oni ignored their conversation and kept going after Leon in an attempt to kill him.

"He's right, you know." Maeva said to her. "He's not a good person by any means, but that kind of excessive use of force is too…"

Leon dodged strike after strike before sending Oni back with a powerful cyclone gust. "EARTHLY." He finished her sentence for her.

"What he said. So. Are you going to open your eyes and maybe realize your anger should be placed somewhere else?" Maeva's words were sincere, but Ravlynn still refused to listen to her. She froze her legs solid, and voiced her true feelings.

"You'll never get me to believe otherwise, Zelenia is the place where all the evil stems from. And I plan to get rid of it no matter what!"

Maeva disappeared in front of her, as the real one was above her head the entire time. She fell on top of her and tossed her back. "Too bad. I was really trying to do this the easy way."

Leon landed a successful string of powerful hits jumping from fire, to wind, to lightning before kicking Oni back on top of Ravlynn. "I didn't want to do this, buuut…" He spoke as he switched to earth, and sunk them into the ground using quicksand.

Oni and Ravlynn panicked. Their powers didn't do much for them, and they both squirmed making it worse for themselves. Leon sat on the ground at this point just waiting for them to concede.

"We need to kill them, now." Maeva said.

"You know that's not worth it. We're better than that." Leon responded.

"They've tried to kill us numerous times and you don't want to put them down with this golden opportunity?! Leon you need to grow up soon, you'll realize leaving enemies alive comes to haunt you."

"We have bigger problems. They pose no threat stuck in the ground, there's a certain Vampire Queen that's our first priority."

"Is this the reason Serena didn't endorse Maeva?"

There was a sudden amount of commotion that could be heard behind them. Leon hopped to his feet and Maeva stood ready for whatever happens. But from behind them came Courtney, Varius, Salandra and the 83 remaining Komodrons still alive. The pair breathed a sigh of relief as Courtney rushed to Leon, sniffing him for any injuries he might've suffered.

"Thank goodness you're alright." She said to him.

"Yeah, there weren't any vampires this way. I only found those two, who were only here for vengeance against me and Maeva."

"Weird..then where...wait, they can only be further North of us then."

Leon nodded and went over to seal both Oni and Ravlynn, trapping them in the now solid ground.

Everyone's attention suddenly shifted, as the last person anyone would expect arrived, Princess Katrina Shoud.

Leon was the first to speak. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Follow me." She said as she walked back into the deeper depths of the forest once again.

"Don't foll-!" Ravlynn attempted to speak but Oni cut her off.

"Shut up!"

Leon ran headstrong into the forest with the others following him. The scene they came upon made Leon stop in his tracks. When the others caught up with him, he held his arms out to get them to stop, and for good reason.

"Ahhhh. You made it to the finale everyone. Glad to see you all made it. Leon, Varius, Salandra, Maeva, and last and certainly not least, my dear daughter Courtney."

Charlotte stood before them with only a few vampires, her right hand Cynric Everage, and Katrina Shoud. She smirked, with her scythe in hand standing triumphantly.

"Are you surprised everyone? You were coming after me right? I don't need an army to win, I can beat all of you single handedly. Courtney should know better."

A lone Komodron charged her, and Varius tried to run after them, but Courtney forcefully held him back. Charlotte in what seemed to be a single movement, fileted them in an instant.

The others had a look of shock over their faces, if they didn't before, they knew what they were in for now.