Miras Last (23 page)

Chapter
Fifteen

Galena stared at Rau. The coward was waiting
for her to come to him.
Well, that’s fine,
she thought
grimly. Placing her sword in her scabbard so she could use her
hands, she sent a fierce and strong wind straight to him, knocking
down and blowing aside every creature that stood between them. The
world seemed to stop all around her and all she could see and hear
was him. Stepping into the path she cleared, she brought her hands
up and over her head creating a ring of fire that sizzled all
around her and Rau. Any dark creatures caught in the middle of the
circle of fire, she sent flying with a swipe of her hand. The fire
blazed all around, blocking out everything, but Rau. It wasn’t as
high as the one she used to circle the camp, but she knew it would
do the job just as well.

“We finally meet,” Rau said in his deep,
guttural voice.

Galena cringed slightly at the sound of it,
but refused to back down. “I believe we’ve met a couple of times
before. Speaking of which, how’s your face?” she said smirking
slightly.

Rau’s expression became distorted with
anger.

Galena watched in fascination as he sent his
shadows out toward her. She swiped her hand in front of her,
sending out a bright light and causing Rau to hiss in pain. “Still
haven’t learned, have you? You can’t touch me with your dark magic.
You’ll be forced to fight me.”

“Shouldn’t be much of a fight, you’re just a
silly, little female,” he hissed menacingly.

“A silly little female you can’t touch with
your precious little shadows.”

Rau sneered at Galena, switching his giant
blade to his other hand as he descended the stairs that led to his
doorway. Galena removed her sword from the scabbard. A calm stole
over her as she held the Sword of Lumina in her hand. She swung it
around and gripping it with both hands, prepared herself for Rau’s
attack. The swirling black mist making up his entirety was racing
around within the confines of his body, showing the evidence of his
anger. Galena found it hard to concentrate on him as a whole
instead of the shadows within. Shaking her head slightly, she
watched his slow progression toward her. She wasn’t sure if it was
the slow walk of confidence or the slow walk of fear, she was
personally hoping it was the latter.

“You’ve caused me a great deal of trouble,”
he said, slowly circling around her, his blade pointing to the
ground in his hand.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was going more for
the complete chaos type of attention. Apparently, I’m slacking.”
Galena followed his progress by shuffling her feet around; her own
sword was still in both hands, ready and waiting. She realized she
must look like a scared little elf, but she wasn’t going to die
trying to pretend she was feeling confident in her abilities.

Rau sneered at her once more, evidently he
didn’t like the way their conversation was going. Instead of saying
anything else, he swung his arm up and arched it down toward
Galena’s head. She brought her sword up to meet his blade and was
stunned at the strength of which he possessed. She slid her sword
down the length of his before twisting away. She prepared herself
again, secretly dreading his next blow. He didn’t keep her waiting
long, but came at her at a full run. Ducking down as he swung
around, she felt the blade whizz past her head as she spun around,
slicing his back. Shadows oozed out like blood from the shallow
wound. Rau howled in anger, as he backtracked. Swinging around, he
brought his blade up, cutting Galena’s leg deeply. She screamed
out, the cut feeling as if she had been burned with ice.

Not waiting for her to heal herself, Rau came
at her again, which she managed to twist out of the way, flipping
back so there was more distance between them. Using her hand, she
sent out a blast of light toward him, which he managed to duck. He
came running at her and spinning around at the last moment, struck
her upper arm with a backward strike. Galena grabbed the wound,
blood oozing past her fingers.

She turned so she was facing him once more,
quickly healing some of the muscles there and in her legs as she
watched him swing his sword in a circular motion before he came
charging again. At the last moment, Galena jumped up and flipped
over him, blasting him with bright light. Rau screamed out, blindly
swinging his sword all around. Galena managed to skip out of the
way, but just barely.

Her limbs were beginning to shake horribly,
the pain in her arm and leg still burning fiercely. She focused on
them once more, but had very little time. Rau had recovered. He
turned to find Galena, his face more smoky looking than shadowy at
this point.

“You know you’ll never defeat me. Even King
Lamiria couldn’t,” Rau said, his voice sending shudders through
Galena.

“Yeah, I like to think I’m made of tougher
stuff than him.”

“I’ll give you that.” He closed the gap
between them, striking down at her. Galena briefly blocked the
blow, avoiding taking his full strength and dropping to a squat,
spun around and kicked out her leg. She wasn’t sure if you could
knock down a shadow man, but it had always worked on Elenio. Her
leg connected with his and she kicked them out from under him,
causing him to land heavily on his back. She stood quickly, trying
to take advantage of his awkward position, but he was too quick. He
started to roll out of the way, but not before the Sword of Lumina
could leave a cut in his side.

This time Galena followed, refusing to let
him get to his feet without doing more damage to him. She brought
her sword up, swinging it down to cut his back as he stood to his
feet. She watched as her sword ran down the length of his back,
leaving a gaping wound there. Shadows flowed freely from the cut,
and she could tell it was starting to have the desired effect on
him. Rau was growing weak and tired.

He turned around, switching his sword to his
other hand, before coming at Galena full force. She blocked one
blow and was sliding her sword down when he came back with blow
after blow. It was all she could do to hold her own. She went to
spin away, but he caught her other leg, cutting her calf almost in
half. Galena was limping horribly, unable to stand on the injured
leg. He came at her again, a ferocious look upon his face. Galena
brought her sword up to block the blow, stopping it just inches
from her face. She pushed up, causing Rau to temporarily lose his
balance. She sent another blast of light his way, but he easily
dodged this, running at her with full force. Galena barely got her
sword up in time to block the blow. Using his sword, he managed to
knock her blade away, leaving her exposed to his full
onslaught.

“Mira help me,” she quietly prayed.
Instantly, a bright light filled the area within the fire ring.
Galena felt her limbs grow stronger, the cuts healed, her energy
restored. Using Rau’s temporary distraction to her advantage, she
flipped out of the way and picked up her sword all in one fluid
motion. She turned to face Rau, who was wasting no time getting to
her. She jumped up, and cut down with her sword, striking his
shoulder, her blade biting deep into the tissue and muscles there.
She landed behind Rau, facing him with her sword ready. His arm
hung limply at his side, unable to grip his sword. He faced her
then, taking his sword with his good hand. He was panting heavily
and looked hesitant to attack again to which Galena smiled
broadly.

She was preparing to charge again. Instead,
was blasted to the ground with wind and light. Closing her eyes
against the onslaught of light that could only come from a god, she
waited until it faded, slowly getting to her feet in the process.
Cautiously, she opened her eyes and seeing the brightness dimming,
she looked behind Rau. Her stomach filled with ice as she beheld
the god standing on the stairs directly behind him. Rau was doubled
over, clearly feeling the toll of the wounds he suffered at the
hand of Galena, not paying a bit of attention to the god behind
him. This didn’t bode well with her. She focused her attention on
the god once more, noting the brilliant white toga and jet-black
hair. He was impressive looking, if not handsome.

“To think, Mira chose to heal you versus
keeping me in chains. I never said I had the smartest family,” the
god chuckled menacingly.

Unlike Mira’s voice, Haulua’s reminded Galena
of everything she feared. She heard rockslides and roaring rivers
bloated with the rain that fell all through the spring. She heard
wild, angry dogs and the vicious voices of torlics. Her ears
cringed with every word and she wanted desperately to clamp her
hands over them, but thought that would portray fear. She stood
straight and tall, eyeing the god with disgust.

“And to think she needed to keep you chained
up at all,” Galena said boldly.

To her surprise, the god laughed at this, but
rather than sounding pleasant, it merely frightened Galena further.
The god’s laugh was full of cruelty and hatred. “What do you think
you can do against me little one. I am a god, not to be trifled
with.”

She had to give him that one. Now that he was
standing here, she wasn’t quite sure what to do next. Nervously,
she tossed her blade from hand to hand.

“So this is the famous blade that is supposed
to be the downfall of my creation and me as well. Not much to look
at is it?” he asked, eyeing the blade curiously.

“Yeah, neither is this place, but yet, it
keeps attracting attention so something has got to be there.”

“Fool,” the god hissed, sending chills down
Galena’s spine.

She felt a great weight push on her from all
sides until she felt crushed with the invisible force. She
struggled to move, let alone being able to breathe, but her
struggles were futile.

“Do you really think I need a weapon to
destroy you? I can squeeze the life out of you without really
trying.”

It was in that moment, the voice of Mira
echoed through her head. “The gods cannot directly take the life of
a creature. It has be to done through others.”

“No, you can’t,” Galena managed to gasp out,
using the last of her air supply in the process.

“True, that I can’t, but I can definitely
injure you so one of my creations can finish the job for me.”

The pressure intensified and Galena felt some
of her ribs crack beneath it. Screaming in pain, the pressure
released, allowing her to drop to the ground where she stayed
clutching her sides.

“There you go, Rau. Do you think you can
handle this pathetic creature now?” the god asked his creation
sarcastically.

Rau grunted painfully, using his sword like a
cane to stand straight. He looked wearily at Galena and seeing her
crouched on the ground, sword lying beside her, and clutching her
sides tightly, he grinned cruelly.

“Sure, now that I have been pulverized, you
can take me on,” Galena said just loud enough for him to hear. The
act of breathing was painful enough, talking on top of that
intensified the pain that much more.

Rau didn’t respond to this, but took one slow
menacing step toward her. Testing a theory, Galena reached out a
hand and attempted to burn Rau with another ray of light, but just
as she thought, Haulua blocked her attempt.

Yep, that’s fair
, she thought wryly.
“Okay, I have one chance at this. It’s time to show them what a
silly female can do,” she muttered under her breath.

Adjusting her feet so they were in a position
where she could get up quickly, she briefly focused her attention
on her ribs, healing them just enough so that she would be able to
move without passing out from pain. She grabbed the hilt of her
sword and felt a burst of energy she had not felt before. She
looked down at the ground; still clutching her ribs with her other
arm as if they still greatly bothered her. She listened for the
sound of Rau’s feet scraping over the dark intunerics that paved
the ground. When he was just feet away, Galena said a quick prayer
to the remaining gods and goddess. Quicker than she would have
thought possible with broken ribs, she stood to her full height,
shot out a hand and caused the face of Haulua to burst into flames.
Knowing she had merely seconds before the god recovered from this
minor inconvenience, she charged Rau.

The world slowed down, making every detail
clear and distinct. She watched as Rau, using his remaining
strength, brought his blade out and down at Galena. She could tell
from the resigned look on his face that he fully expected her to
block the blow. Galena, knowing she wouldn’t have a chance at a
fair fight, decided against doing exactly that, swung her sword
down, readjusting her grip on the blade so she could bring it up
and into the stomach of Rau with all the strength she possessed.
She pushed the blade further into his body even when Rau’s own
sword cut deep into her side where it remained. The world righted
itself as Galena stood, nose to nose with Rau, the tip of her blade
visible just below the base of his neck and slightly above his
shoulder blades.

“Not bad for just a silly female elf, huh,”
she spat, blood spraying his face as she spoke. Letting go of the
hilt, Galena fell to her knees, her eyes never leaving Rau who
stood above her, frozen and staring down at the sword. Galena felt
his own blade still embedded in her side, but didn’t have the
strength to remove it. Hot, sticky blood flowed down her side,
pooling around her in a dark crimson puddle. Her energy flowed out
with it, and she didn’t care anymore. She had done what she set out
to do.

She saw Haulua vaguely in the distance. He
had rid himself of the fire, but now stood frozen to the spot,
dumbstruck. Galena would have laughed at the ridiculous expression
on his face if she’d the energy, so she settled for staring at him
with dying eyes. His own eyes remained focused solely on Rau.