Fighting the Obelisk
October 21st, 2006 by Salem
Chapter 45 – Selene found her way into the cockpit of the YeagerBlade, “Kasey, we need to get Rook and the GullBlade in.” “I will open the doors on the top,” answered Kasey as she hits some switches and slows the speed of the YeagerBlade. Rook and the GullBlade see the top of the YeagerBlade open up and they both quickly fly into the opening before it starts to outrun them again. The doors close and both Rook and the GullBlade find a place to land in the cargo hold. Selene returns to her seat where Salem and DarkRaptor were sitting. “Something is bothering me,” said Dark. “What is it?” asked Salem. “You said that the large man is a general,” said Dark. “That is right. General Carcass is the general of the Ut army,” said Salem. “Well, then where was his army?” asked Dark. “The Ut Army, or United Trust Army is an army for hire,” said Selene. “What can you tell me about this United Trust Army?” asked Dark. “They are actually all the army’s of the dictators and kings you have overthrown Dark,” said Salem. “They also recruit new members wherever they go,” said Selene. “I thought I recognized the man in the tin outfit. He was Lieutenant Carcass of the Carillon Dictatorship Army. I remember how upset he was when I killed General Coldstone just before killing Carillon,” said Dark as she looked out of the window, ” I see he has moved up in rank.” “They move around from country to country wherever they are summoned to fight, as long as that country is willing to pay for their services,” said Selene. “You think this Powerful Master had hired the Ut army?” asked Salem. “If this Master did, it looks like this not so powerful Master was only able to afford General Carcass alone,” said Selene. “No,” said Dark, “He would have sent his best man to fight if this more mysterious than powerful master could only afford the services of one man. A General’s place is with his men. If he was fighting us alone, I would say that his men are held up somewhere.” “You mean that the Ut army may be guarding this Mysterious Master?” asked Salem. “Or we may be on our way to meet them right now at Mount Obelisk,” said Selene. “Both of those may be true. In any case, we should ready ourselves and be prepared to fight this army,” said Dark.
The TidusBlade slowly pulls into the Mantyan Falls Sea Port, located near the giant waterfalls that poured into the Mantyan Expanse. A large sandbar kept the ships at the port from floating away and falling into the Mantyan Expanse. The TidusBlade slowly moved into port and doors opened as crew members jumped out to secure the mooring lines to the dock. The MobilBlade had just entered town and was heading up the wooden ramp that led up to the docks. Sturmer was laying on top of the MobilBlade, enjoying the ride. “Greetings!” yelled Lieutenant Harke from the magical Port door that stood in the middle of the dock. “Where are the others?” Harke asked. “They will join us later at the fishing town of Koror.” “In that case I better tell the Captain to get ready to leave immediately,” said Harke as he helped guide the MobilBlade into the TidusBlade’s large cargo hold. Behind some boxes and through large fishing nets, a dark figure moves quickly through the dock. A single crew member is guarding one of the doors of the TidusBlade waiting for food service crewmembers to return with the few supplies they needed. “Fist,” whispered the dark figure to himself as he jumped off the side of the dock and held onto the edge to keep himself from falling into the water. The dark figure used his large hands to make his way along the edge of the dock until he arrived at the door behind the guard. “Fist,” said the figure as he quickly pulled himself up and into the door without the guard suspecting a thing. The figure quickly finds an air duct to crawl into and began to quietly explore the inside of the TidusBlade.
The YeagerBlade began to head downward as they were getting close to Mount Obelisk. Kasey activates the YeagerBlade’s vertical thrusters. There was not much space to land on the mountain. Kasey had to make sure that the landing gear wheels were on solid, flat ground as they landed. Selene and the other Blade Masters jump out of the YeagerBlade the moment it had stopped. Selene had her WitchBlade in full armor mode with Zealot holding his SabreBlade up high, ready to use it. The mountain was nothing more than an ash heap. It was a floating alien wasteland totally cutoff by the Mantyan Expanse all around and under it. Last time the Raptors were here, it was part of the yet to be explored north country. It was the final fight between DarkRaptor and the late De La Groot that disconnected the mountain from land and sent it to drift aimlessly in this part of the bottomless region. Vivien exits the top of the YeagerBlade with Rook and the GullBlade. Vivien was in charge of keeping an eye out for any approaching enemies while the others exited the large battle wing. Selene started to secure the landing spot by constructing an infection wall around the YeagerBlade. Christina closes her eyes in order to concentrate on what the GullBlade was seeing as it flew around the collapsed mountain. ColdRaptor transformed into her Velocir mode and began to scout the area to find the places the GullBlade cannot see and to find deadly natural gas fountains, if any. Salem steps out of the Blade and yelled, “See anything Vivien?” The young vampire shook her head no as she continued to fly around in circles above the YeagerBlade. Mage Khet looks out the door but stays inside where he considered it safe.
DarkRaptor exits the YeagerBlade just as Selene completes the infection wall. “Everything looks clear from the sky,” said Christina. “Report Cold,” said Dark into her watch. “There are a lot of gas filled caves,” ColdRaptor’s monotone voice sounding even more inhuman through the watch communicator, “I do not think there is anything living here.” “That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing here,” said Jarody as he walked down the YeagerBlade’s steps. “I’m feeling very uncomfortable here,” said Zealot as he continues to hold up his Blade. Suddenly, DarkRaptor’s watch gave an odd electric whistle and then a strange sound that Selene can only compare it to a waterfall. “Cold?” called Dark into her watch, “COLD! She’s been cutoff.” Thud! The loud sound came without warning above them causing them to look up at the large battle wing. “Vivien?” called Salem. Vivien had fallen onto the YeagerBlade. Dark was the only one who could jump high enough to get to Vivien. Her right arm was the only part of her hanging off the side of the wing. The HealthBlade on Haiku’s back used it’s free legs to launch it’s master onto the wing as well. Dark pulls Vivien’s dangling arm up onto the wing and feels her wrist for a pulse. Haiku arrived and began to check Vivien. “Her pulse seems to be steady,” said Dark. “What happened?” called up Selene. “She just passed out,” yelled Haiku. “Can you see why?” asked Dark. “I see no reason for her to be out,” said Haiku, “There’s no physical clue.” “Aagh!” yelled Christina before falling to her knees. “Christina!” yelled David as he ran to her. “What happened?” asked Salem. “My head!” yelled a crying Christina, “Something attacked my head!” Pawn gave a frightened squeak and quickly jumped off of Salem’s shoulders and ran faster than Salem had ever seen him run into the YeagerBlade. “What!” Selene was about to say something more when their attention turned to Rook returning to the YeagerBlade and flying back inside. “But Rook does not like being inside,” said Salem. “There is something very wrong here,” continued Zealot, “I can feel darkness all around. Haiku and Dark bring the unconscious Vivien down and Emhril takes his young daughter by the arm, “You go inside and close the door.” “But!” began Haiku. “I don’t want to hear it young lady! Go inside now!” demanded Emhril. Haiku reluctantly went inside the YeagerBlade and closed the door behind her. “That is good thinking,” said Dark. “Clearly there is something here that we have not experienced before,” said Selene.
PurpleRaptor opened the map that RedRaptor had made for them and pointed out where they were. “You should go inside too,” David instructed PurpleRaptor. Purple just gave him a look that made David feel as if he was about to become dinner. “She only looks like a little girl,” reminded Dark. Pawn’s little head pops up next to Kasey’s in the cockpit of the YeagerBlade almost scaring Kasey. “You chicken!” yelled Salem up to her pet. Zealot climbed up on top of the YeagerBlade to take Vivien’s place. As soon as Zealot stood up, he could see a shadow of a cloud approaching them. The only thing wrong with this; the sky was clear. “There’s something coming!” yelled Zealot. “The Ut army?!” asked Selene. “I don’t know what it is but it’s big and it’s almost here!” yelled Zealot. “Dark,” called ColdRaptor through Dark’s watch, “Something tried to shut down my systems” “Return, Cold,” ordered Dark, “We are under attack.” The infection wall began to rattle and shake from some unseen force. “Have Kasey take off until we can secure the area,” said Dark. “Good idea,” said Selene as she watches her infection wall shake. “Salem yelled up to Kasey, “Toss Pawn down and get the YeagerBlade out of here!” Zealot jumped off the top of the YeagerBlade. Kasey did not have to be told twice. She opened a window and began to push Pawn out with great difficulty. Pawn kept stopping her by holding on to the edges of the window with his paws. Kasey unhooked each paw and tried again only to have Pawn grab the sides again. Kasey quickly put Pawn in an old mail bag and tossed the bag out the window. Salem caught the bag and waited until the YeagerBlade began to leave the ground before she pulled Pawn out. The YeagerBlade’s landing wheels folded into the body and Kasey pulled the engine throttles to full power and quickly took to the sky leaving the Blade Masters and the Raptors on the mountain surrounded by a large shapeless shadow.
Selene takes hold of the infection wall to reinforce it when it stops shaking. The wall was too high for any of them to see over it. Christina could not connect with her GullBlade again. Vivien was still out and was not responding to any attempt to bring her around. SLAP! “Wake up already!” yelled Jarody into Vivien’s ear. “Quit slapping her,” said Salem as she tries to calm down a struggling Pawn in her hands, “She is not waking up.” Only the sound of the engines on the YeagerBlade circling high above them could be heard. Selene transforms the infection wall to form small windows on the sides. The Blade Masters all move to a window each to look outside. There was an army of dark faceless figures in black armor standing all around them. A few of the figures were on top of headless horses. “Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” said Jarody. “Cold, report” ordered Dark. “I’m just behind an army of floating armor,” said Cold through Dark’s watch, “I found Christina’s weapon lying on the ground nearby.” “Hold your position and wait for further instruction,” ordered Dark. “What do we do now? Fight?” asked Zealot. “Not sure that fighting will do us much good,” said David, “Have you seen those things?” “Salem, get Pawn ready to use his ThievesBlade’s void. Let us see if we cannot get rid of them all with one attack,” said Selene. Pawn just wanted to run and hide somewhere. He knew what was outside and did not want any part of it. Salem finally gets to Pawn’s underbelly and begins to rub him down. Pawn could never resist when his master did this and began to feel better. Pawn stopped trying to get out of Salem’s grip and became very relaxed. Salem placed Pawn on the back of her neck again and then got her GunBlade ready with a fresh load of firefly. “I think I know this army,” said Dark, “This is De La Groot’s army.” “I do not remember De La Groot having an army of dark figures,” said Selene. “They were not dead back then,” said Dark. “I hope they are dead enough,” said Salem, “Pawn’s ThievesBlade’s void cannot take in things with a soul.” “We will try and do away with these things while the rest of you join ColdRaptor,” said Selene. “Where is Cold?” asked Emhril.” “I will have Cold light a ground flare. Just run to the bright orange fire,” said Dark.
Selene drops a section of infection wall and the Blade Masters run out with Dark carrying Vivien on her back. Salem stops at the opening and commands, “Pawn, ThievesBlade’s void!” Pawn opens a large void and begins to pull in large pieces of ash and rock but the army of phantoms was unaffected. Archers took aim and fired a cloud of very lethal arrows into the air. Fortunately, the void was able to pull the arrows in just before closing. ColdRaptor tosses out a lit flare so the others could find her. The Blade Masters begin to run to Cold’s position with a platoon of phantom lance men blocking the way. PurpleRaptor yells at the lance men blowing them away with a very destructive sound wave. The attack blew the phantoms away but it had not stopped them. The lance men regrouped and started to return. PurpleRaptor takes her Soundwave guitar and attaches it to her backpack activating it’s soundboard mode. The neck of the guitar folded in and the main body of the guitar opened up to reveal a small piano keyboard and a soundboard that would rival the most high tech recording studio on the modern world named Earth. A large array of round panels fold out of the backpack and clicks into place. Purple pulls out a CD and places it into a slot on the soundboard. Purple selects a song from a list on a small screen and turns up the volume. Each flat panel speaker locks on a target and begins to blast a concentrated sound wave. PurpleRaptor pulls out the guitar neck that had folded into the guitar body and detaches it to play it as a mini guitar. Doing this allows PurpleRaptor to control the pitch and power of the sound waves being created by the specialized speakers. At the same time, the computer inside the backpack is analyzing the sound frequency that was being bounced back to her.
“We need a new attack plan!” yelled Selene as she started to fight a few phantom ax men. “These are dark spirits,” said Salem, “Pawn, LightBlade.” The small animal opened his void and the LightBlade flew out. Selene caught it and activated it’s power. The dark figures began to vanish but the armor remained and continued to fight without their ghostly owners. “Destroy the armor,” suggested Dark. Emhril Jumped back into the thick of the fight and started to swing his EarthBlade around on it’s eternity chain. The large heavy ball went crashing into the army of floating empty armor. It scattered the armor in every direction but they regrouped and started to march back to the fight again. “The MirrorBlade would stop this very easily,” said Salem. “Any luck waking Vivien?” asked Selene. Dark shook the unconscious vampire with no reaction, “Can you use her Blade?” “Not after it has taken a master,” answered Salem blocking three sword men attacking. Selene took hold of an ax man armor and began to infect it. The armor exploded in a blast of dark energy throwing Selene about twenty feet into the air. ColdRaptor jumped and caught Selene to bring her down safely. “That’s Rob Zombie’s ‘Dragula’ isn’t it,” Jarody asked PurpleRaptor, “Good selection.” Zealot throws his eternity chain from his SabreBlade out to cover every inch of ground around and under the phantom army and begins to chant a spell to banish the spirits inside the floating armor. Christina detaches the wings of the inactive GullBlade and formed her battle wing. Christina used the large battle wing as a shield to block attacks directed to her as she made her way to Selene with the rest of the GullBlade. David launched a few TsunamiBlade waves into the army with no result at all. The wave just washed over them. Zealot completed his chant and released his spell. The eternity chain gave off a bright greenish glow and a large snap could be heard. The light died out with no result. Suddenly Zealot is tossed up into the air with a great force. ColdRaptor got ready to catch the lizard man but was left waiting as Zealot continued to climb higher and higher in the air. Eventually, Zealot found himself lying on top of the YeagerBlade still circling the mountain. Salem gave Jarody an angry look. “What?” asked Jarody. “These are disembodied souls! Are they not your responsibility?” yelled Salem. “I can’t take them if they’re not willing to go,” answered Jarody, “If they were still alive, I could do something.” DarkRaptor grabbed Jarody by the collar of his t-shirt and lifted him a foot off the ground, “You could use your Blade to hold back the front line until one of us can find a successful attack.” “OK! OK! You’re stretching out the fabric!” answered Jarody who did not waste any time pulling out his knife and transforming it into the ScytheBlade. Jarody turned to the shield men protecting the archers who send up another cloud of arrows. Pawn uses his void to intercept the arrows again as Jarody started a direct attack to disable the bows.
The computer displayed the results of it’s analysis onto one of several screens around PurpleRaptor. The two larger screens behind Purple showed the singer in a head shot only singing the song that was now coming to an end. PurpleRaptor gave a simple hand signal to Dark. “Do it,” yelled Dark as she took an ax from one of the phantoms to see if using it would result in anything significant. “Sorry Christina, I cannot tell what is wrong with your Blade right now. We will have to wait until after the battle, if we survive,” said Selene. “Use your light Wings,” yelled Dark. “OH! I forgot all about that!” said Christina as she reattached the wings to the inactive GullBlade. Christina takes off her jacket to reveal the two large holes in her shirt on her back. Christina stood up, “Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!” Two large curved rods of light form behind her as two appendages extend out of Christina’s back, “Wings!” The two appendages make a clanking sound as a fore image attaches to the tops of the rods, and a second clank as a second fore image attaches and finally the last clank as the appendages make a final connection. Two large white wings made of pure light extend out showing a large span that extend from one side of the clearing to the other. Light covers everything around Christina. The Blade Masters and the Raptors move close to Christina. The phantom army starts to move back but they give no sign of retreating. “We have a stand off,” said Selene. The top doors on the YeagerBlade opened to let Zealot inside. Zealot was busy trying to keep track of what was going on below. From where he was, all Zealot could see was a dome of pure light and the phantom army standing around it. “Get in here Zealot!” yelled Haiku from the opening, “You’ll fall!” Zealot just realized where he was and knew that the child was right. He slowly made his way to the open door and into the YeagerBlade.
“What now?” asked Jarody. “What is that?” asked Salem, pointing at the display on PurpleRaptor’s screen as the childlike Raptor worked on the controls of her soundboard. “What you are seeing is a display of all the sound frequencies that have returned to PurpleRaptor while she transmitted the entire spectrum of sound waves,” said Dark. “AND?!” jabbed Jarody. “You see that there is a frequency that didn’t return,” said Dark, “Are you ready yet Purple?” PurpleRaptor hit a few more buttons on her soundboard and then turned up a volume control before giving a ‘thumbs up’. “Ever seen a singer shatter a glass? The frequency that did not return is the resonant frequency of the armor,” explained Dark, “We blast the armor with this frequency long enough; they should shatter into millions of pieces. Now take a speaker and point it at the army around us. “Hurry,” said Christina, “My wings are getting tired.” PurpleRaptor played a note in the small piano keyboard and the loud sound frequency shot out of the flat speakers. The phantom armor began to shake and clang while others just fell to the ground. “Keep the speakers on them!” yelled Dark. “Until when?” asked Selene. The armor began to burst into a reddish dust. Christina’s wings dropped and folded out of pain from holding them open for a long time. The last phantom armor burst into dust and fall to the ground. “Quick! We need to melt the dust,” said Dark. The GullBlade became active again. “GullBlade!” called Christina, “Phoenix Mode!” The GullBlade bursts into a flaming bird and starts to fly over the dust circle. Some of the dust was beginning to form into a reddish figure. The Phoenix melts the figure into the rest of the dust. Soon, the metal dust had become a large metal ring. “Now we need to toss this into the Mantyan Expanse,” said Dark. “Rook!” called Selene. Rook heard her master’s call and exits the YeagerBlade. “TalonBlade lift!” ordered Selene. Rook took hold of the large metal ring with her glowing golden TalonBlades and lifted it off the ground. Rook quickly flew it over the heads of the Blade Masters and threw it off the edge into the oblivion of the Mantyan Expanse.
Vivien began to wake up and the YeagerBlade returned to land in the same spot. “Well now that the easy part is over,” said Selene. “The easy part? What is the hard part?” asked Emhril. “We have to find a single Blade in this mess,” said Salem. The Blade Masters took a look at the mountain. “How about Terra’s Blade?” asked Haiku. “Pawn, the TerraBlade, Please,” ordered Salem. Pawn opened the ThievesBlade’s void and out came the enormous TerraBlade. “The TerraBlade is a giant cave spider,” said Dark, “It figures.” Selene jumped up onto the TerraBlade, “I combine the WitchBlade to the TerraBlade to form the WitchTerraBlade!” yelled Selene. The large spider separated into two large gauntlets floating in the air. Selene lands on the ground again with her own WitchBlade as two gauntlets. The large TerraBlade gauntlets copied every movement Selene made with her gauntlets. Dark pulled out the map again to find the spot the SaintBlade could be. Vivien writes in her RPG, “What happened?” “A ghostly force here caused you to pass out,” said Haiku. “They must have known that she posed the greatest threat to them,” said Dark. The large TerraBlade gauntlets moved the large rock with great ease. It looked as if the rock and molten ash moved out of the way for the TerraBlade. There were a few bursts of flames as gasses mixed and exploded. It took no time at all for the TerraBlade to find the true SaintBlade. The TerraBlade transformed back into a giant spider and delivered the SaintBlade to the Blade Masters. Christina could not keep herself from dropping to her knees and bowing her head before the SaintBlade. Her wings made her look like a praying angel. “Look at that,” said Zealot, “It looks nothing like the SaintBlades you see in the cathedrals and temples.” “It looks like a normal spear,” said Emhril, “Where are the ornate markings and symbolic images on the handle?” “Religion is always like that,” said Jarody, “Any normal looking object with a religious significance gets exaggerated and becomes something different over the years.” “We need to get to the Blade Temple as soon as possible now,” said Selene. “Then hop on and I’ll get you there at full speed!” yelled Kasey from her YeagerBlade. “Give us time to get seated first!” yelled Jarody as they began to board.