The Howling Dark, Part 3

"Very well then if that is how you feel then I will do what I must.," The Priest stated in a solemn tone as he closed his eyes and lowered his head before making the sign of the cross.

"And So Will I Priest... So. Will. I.," The Other Aaron stated with a sinister grin, his eyes twirling in their sockets like a couple of spinning tops as the shadows all around him began to writhe and squirm.

"Brace yourselves EVERYONE!," Yelled The Priest., "Here He Comes!"

As those words left his mouth The Priest braced himself as the shadows writhing around The Other Aaron shot forward piercing the dome in places like a sword through a Knight's armor only to become a crowbar with which to pry the cracks open. The white-haired youth struggled to maintain the shield, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.

"I could use A Little Help HERE!," The youth grunted desperately, nearly **** on his own blood which collided with the floor in a series of tings like coins falling on a metal step.

The Priest thrust a white-gloved hand out in front of him and exclaimed., "Field of ****!"

Instantly the shadowy razor-sharp tendrils were slammed to the ground, many dissipating under the **** being exerted against them.

"Now C̴̨͕͔͍͛͋̂ǎ̶̙̖̮͔̈́̽͊̄̊̿̋̍̚͜ļ̷̱̥͙͚̽̏̏͝ĺ̸͓̈̌͋̏́̊̐̅͝ủ̷̠̳͛̈̇m̵̯̜̺̗͍̝̝̓͜!," The Priest yelled over his shoulder without taking his eyes off of his opponent.

The Young Man was already shoring up the field before The Priest called out to him, The cracks and breaks in the shield slowly disappearing while the other side steadied itself.

The non-existent ground beneath Aaron's Doppelganger cratered, sending cracks more than a hundred feet long in every direction but despite the tremendous **** bearing down on him he seemed completely unfazed. The only sign that he had been affected at all aside from the localized damage surrounding him was the shoulders of his suit jacket were torn but they were quickly mended by wisps of shadows acting as needle and thread.

The Other Aaron took a step forward, His foot landing with a thunderous boom which created a huge crater. Every step created a larger crater and a louder boom but with every step he was gaining speed.

"Is That All YOU HAVE PRIEST?!!"

"Not Even Close Child!," The Priest snapped back, holding out his left hand palm up before calling out., "Skill Hunter!"

As soon as those words left his lips an average size leather bound book with a bloody handprint on the front and back covers appeared in his hand, opening all by itself.

The eyes of The Other Aaron narrowed dangerously, the noble golden hue of his irises turning a deep crimson before bleeding out into his eyes and dyeing them a furious shade of red., "Give It Your Best Shot... Brother!"

The pages of the book in The Priest's hand began turning furiously and the book itself floated out of his outstretched hand and hovered in the air like a hummingbird flitting from one flower to the next.

"Acid Arrow!," The Priest called out and in front of him on the other side of the dome several specks of green began to coalesce like water through a crack in The World gathering into the shape of the basin containing it, taking the form of more than three dozen arrows... All pointed at Aaron's Doppelganger.

The Other Aaron stood straight and quickened his approach as the arrows flew toward him at the speed of lightning. Any attempt to brush the arrows aside using shadows, caused the arrows to splatter all over anything close instantly dissolving it. The Other Aaron evaded all the arrows he could but a few landed, burning away portions of his clothing to say nothing of the muscle and bone which were left exposed.

Taking an arrow straight to the face finally stopped his approach. When The Other Aaron revealed his face from behind his cupped hands there was little left but bare bone with the exception of some muscle holding his bottom jaw and his right eye which dangled for a few seconds before falling to the ground with a comical "Plop" sound.

It was a ghastly sight but one which did not persist for long. The Other Aaron waved a smoking skeletal hand in front of his destroyed face and in the blink of an eye the damage was gone and even his clothes were as they were before.

Intent on giving his opponent as little time to recover as possible The Priest launched another attack calling out, "Electrosphere!," As the pages in the book glowed and electricity gathered in The Priest's hands which he hurled at his smirking foe.

The instant before impact the two beach ball sized orbs of crackling devastation merged to become a Volkswagen sized ball of energy that enveloped The Other Aaron. It seemed for a moment that the titanic ball of electrical fury had hit its mark but before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief the ball of energy was torn in two with one half of the blast splitting off to the side and impacting with one of the back corners of the room.

Everything was quiet for a moment before the sound of insane laughter cut through the din of silence. Once the smoke cleared, Everyone's face fell as standing unscathed was The Other Aaron who continued to laugh like a Madman. It hadn't been noticeable at first but a shadow began undulating in front of The Other Aaron, it was thin as a razor and presumably even sharper, it shimmered like steel before vanishing without a trace.

"I hope that wasn't the best you can do.," The Other Aaron stated in a dismissive tone dripping with malice as he dusted off the front of his jacket.

"Not Even Close!," The Priest yelled in defiance, grabbing the book out of the air and slamming it. A booming crash of Thunder sounded from somewhere above The Priest and an enormous bolt of azure colored lightning descended on the exact spot he was standing and the book in his hands burst in a flash of light and disappeared.

The Priest wasted no time, pointing in the direction of his foe he called out., "Tempest of Blades!," and The Other Aaron found himself standing in the eye of a gigantic cyclone more than a mile high swirling and churning around him and as if that wasn't menacing enough it was no ordinary cyclone but one of knives and swords and axes and every other killing tool with a blade one could possible imagine.

"Not Bad.," Aaron's Doppelganger said softly, his quiet voice cutting through the wailing winds of the vortex of wind and steel howling all around him. In a single, blindingly fast motion The Other Aaron clapped his hands together and thrust them into the revolving eddies of wind and steel like the point of a sword, ripping open the cyclone with explosive ****. The impact on the shield caused the white-haired youth to violently cough up a mouthful of blood., "But Not Good ENOUGH!"

Not bothering to respond The Priest reached into the air and then brought his hands back down, the storm of blades above rained down like The Wrath of Heaven, covering everything outside the dome in glistening blades of every shape and size imaginable... Except where The Other Aaron was standing which was completely undamaged.

Seeing his foe untouched and unharmed, The Priest called out again, "Iron Spears!," and polished obsidian spikes erupted from the ground directly beneath The Other Aaron but instead of being impaled his form merely dispersed like smoke in the wind only to reform a few feet in front of the huge criss-crossing spikes as if nothing had ever happened.

Obviously losing this fight, The Priest took a deep breath and roared, "TEN-THOUSAND BLOSSOMS!"

Immediately several rows of Cherry Blossom Trees rose from the ground behind the dome. Each tree was a magnificent sight, more than ten feet tall and in full bloom. The branches appeared about to break under the sheer weight of the number of blossoms they held.

The Priest let out a deep sigh., "It is a shame to waste such beauty on a monster like you."

Just then a sharp wind kicked up cutting the blossoms from their places on each tree and scattering their petals all around then as if guided by some unseen hand, started to gather together and move in enormous twisting horizontal columns heading straight toward Aaron's Doppelganger with clear intent. It was as beautiful and as terrifying a sight as any person is likely to witness. The way the pure white petals tinged with the merest touch of red danced so elegantly and effortlessly through the air but as captivating as it was there was something ominous in the way they moved, gleaming like the polished steel of a sword when the light struck their edge at just the right angle.

The Other Aaron stepped forward, an almost inhumanly wide smile on his handsome face, his fearsome looking white teeth on full display.

The Other Aaron slammed his hands together in front of him blowing most of The Blossom Petals away while the few that remain torn through everything in their path be it the ground which they gouged huge canyons in or Aaron's Doppelganger who was cut to pieces by the angry swarm of petal-shaped blades.

Collapsing in a bloody, torn heap Aaron's Protectors breathed a sigh of relief but the white-haired youth still didn't lower the shield and it was a good thing to because a moment later The Other Aaron rose up seemingly unharmed after that furious onslaught.

"I...," The Priest struggled, breathing heavily., "... I Don't know how much longer I can keep this up!"

"Let me help you Brother.," The Captain who had been closely watching everything unfold exclaimed as he stepped up, raising his hands up to the sky. Within a matter of seconds it began to rain, slowly at first. One drop then another and another until one could barely see past the tip of their own nose but this wasn't any ordinary rain. Each drop carried the **** of a cannonball being fired with a full powder charge.

The Other Aaron stood there apparently unaffected by the devastating rainfall pelting him mercilessly without pause. Within a very short time the entire space had filled with water save for the space inside the shield.

"Did I get him?," The Captain yelled., "Is It Over?!"

"Doubt It!," The Priest said a bit downcast as he struggled to catch his breath while hunched over with his hands on his knees for support.

Just then the white-haired youth shrieked in pain as something struck the shield we was only just barely maintaining.

Everyone studied the dark waters outside but it was difficult to see anything in the murky depths... that is until suddenly a dark shape appeared and slammed into the shield. Aaron's Protectors only caught a glimpse of it but it was large, about 50 meters (164 feet) long and about 10 meters (32.8 feet) of that was a long, muscular tail used to propel its powerful body through the denser than average water. Its head resembled a hammerhead sharks only bigger and with a 2 meter (6.5 foot) curved horn tipped with what looked like Gold.

After several more attacks more details of the creature were observed like four pairs of long, heavily muscled limbs ending in oversized webbed hand-like feet sporting six digits, each of which ended in a long cat-like curved claw. It also bore two mouths bearing several rows of shark-like teeth as well as a huge sail-like fin traveling from the back of its head to the tip of its tail which allowed the creature to turn and maneuver at what many would consider impossible speeds and in seemingly impossible ways.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.," The Flamboyantly dressed Pirate Captain admitted.

"You Think?!!," The white-haired youth spit alongside a mouthful of blood as the unbelievable creature continued to **** the visibly weakening shield., "Do SOMETHING! I Can't Take This Much Longer... I'm Almost out of Mana!"

"I only made things worse...," The Captain admitted., "R̷̯͚̈́̔o̸͔͓͎̓͑̾͛k̸̫͔̾̃e̵̼͖̞̾ģ̸̱̈͂̒̈́̕ͅ Can You Do Something?"

"I think I can manage one more but that's it... I'm at my limit.," The Priest said, turning his head toward his friend.

"I guess that'll have to do.," The Captain shrugged., "DO IT!"

The Priest who was barely standing thrust his hands out in front of him and raised them to the sky before roaring., "WAVE OF FLAMES!"

As The Beast came into view again for another **** it suddenly started writhing in agony, twisting and flailing wildly, roiling the water which were starting to boil with heavy plumes of smoke blanketing it abysmal black surface. When the somber waters were reduced to the level of only half of what they were a great wave not of water but of searing flame rose from the depths, rising so high above the heads of those present that no matter how hard they looked they could not see its end.

When the searing wave reached its Apex, It came crashing down with all the speed of a falling star, instantly evaporating the remaining water before it even touched them, bathing everything outside the barely intact shield in a hellish inferno.

When the flames and smoke finally dissipated, The Priest collapsed onto his knees gasping hoarsely for breath while several thin streams of glittering blood trickled from his lips.

"Brother, Are You Alright?!," The Captain asked stepping closer before being stopped by a hand in the air.

"Get Back... It's Not Over!," The Priest struggled to speak before collapsing face down in The Dark. Soon after the white-haired youth too collapsed, following forward and rolling onto his side while clutching his chest, the shield he had fought so hard to maintain vanishing amid his agonizing screams before he too passed out.

"Looks like its just thee and me My Lady.," The Captain stated as he turned and gave his only remain compatriot a Gentlemanly bow before turning back.

The Ebony Goddess smiled softly then prepared herself for what was to come.