The water tenticle slammed down where the mighty admin was a split second before, hitting nothing but seperating beach. Cucumba quickly stopped his sideways roll and launched a vicious ridgehand chop which nearly caught Kelesk in the face. Kelesk grinned and dived underneath while spinning the ancinet horror's arm. The green devil countered by flipping in the direction of the twist, narrowly avoiding a newly formed chasm beneath their feet. Cucumba dived in to clip the Angel of Darkness' knee, but the half breed flipped backwards out of harms way.
The titans clashed again, this time each traded a blow to the face. The jade behemoth simply absorbed the hit, and Kelesk rolled his cheek to avoid serious damage. Kelesk seethed, he had never been beaten by a god, and he was certain that he could defeat the old one. Yet the old one continued to match him step for step, the legends of the mad old one seemed to be true. Kelesk dodged a spinning hook kick that looked as if it could level a mountain. Kelesk answered by gently overspinning the admin to expose his back. The Angel of Darkness gently rocked forward and pushed the admin, hoping to unbalance him with minimal effort. The sudden change of pace almost worked, and the green devil stumbled forward. Kelesk dived forward, suddenly realizing that he had underestimated the jade behemoth once more.
The monsterous great old one launched a back kick that would have gruesomely severed any mortal's head had it hit. Kelesk dodged it by falling to the ground. The fallen one lept up, letting his ice spiked water balls get in the way. Cucumba ignited his ban saber, and sliced through them, replacing the weapon on his belt in the same neat motion as they crumpled and reformed after the admin had dashed through their midst.
Kelesk needed more time. He directed the living wave, still in tenticle form, to destroy his opponent. Once again the admin stepped through space time, narrowly dodging a brutal crash with the primal elements.
Kelesk sensed it's presence, felt that the admin was coming to him, and knew that he had to defend himself at all cost.
Kelesk called the soul scythe to his hand. Souls began to leak from his eyes and fall back inwards towards him like planetoids in the clutches of a black hole. The angel of darkness began to fade from the light, as did the skies. The leaking souls swirled in a torrent of spiritual energy, forming another Angel of Darkness.
The Green Devil struck, but in the place where Kelesk once was, there was now nothing.
Both Kelesk and his Chaos Shadow Clone dived to either side of the mad old one. Cucumba eyed both, one with the force, the other with his eyes as his fist launched a cloud of sand into the air. Kelesk and his emulate attacked, slicing the air with their Soul Scythes.
Kelesk grinned, then his face shrank to dismay as the mighty admin produced two ban sabers, one his classic green and the other brilliant scarlet, and deftly blocked both Soul Scythe strikes.
Cucumba smiled, and rotated his head to both Kelesk and his clone.
"Whats the matter, can't defeat me all by your lonesome selves?"
Kelesk roared in outrage at the mockery of the Green Devil's words, and attacked anew. Cucumba back flipped and parried the clone's high angled strike, falling to his back to avoid Kelesk's mid leveled wide swing. Cucumba rolled back, almost laughing as both Kelesk and the clone attempted to land a blow on him while prone. Cucumba launched himself skyward with a hard shove off the ground, avoiding decapitation by Kelesk. Kelesk ordered the clone underneath, to intercept the admin. Cucumba smiled as the clone neared him, and watched Kelesk send the wave after him once more. The mighty admin dissapeared right as the soul scythe burned his jacket. The clone moved out of the way of the wave with astonishing speed.
Cucumba raised his eyebrow . . . Kelesk was getting better.
Cucumba reappeared, off to Kelesk's side. The Angel of Darkness smiled and dashed at the admin with his augmented speed. Cucumba's mouth dropped open, Kelesk's transformation had increased his speed significantly, and Cucumba was not prepared for the attack. The clone blurred past the Green Devil and it's master, taking wing and getting into position.
Kelesk leapt over the last forming crevasse, dodging the admins's ban sabers, and slicing him across the stomach as the clone stabbed him in the back.
The mighty admin stumbled, and fell to his knees, thick green fluid seeped from his wounds, and sprayed from his mouth as he gasped.
" . . . con . . . gratulations . . . on a . . . round . . well . . . played."
Kelesk sneered at the fallen being, utter contempt spreading across his face, "No one sees the staff of the gods' true power and survives."
Cucumba smiled in return, "Then it pleases me to be the first."
Kelesk and his clone both looked on in awe as the admin stood once again, dusting off his jacket.
"Have you ever heard of the Riders?"
" . . . no," said Kelesk dumbfounded, "I . . . haven't."
"They thought they could reap my soul too," Cucumba smiled wickedly and dived into the awestruck Kelesk.
Kelesk had one thought in his head when the admin connected with his impossibly powerful blow, He fooled me into thinking that he was beaten, hid his strength from me until I let my gaurd down . . . how terribly clever . . .
Kelesk soared through the air, but his Clone attacked.
Cucumba dodged the flurry of blows from the soul scythe, rolling out of the way and barely dodging the accompanying ice spiked, water ball attacks. Kelesk skidded to a stop, long enough to wipe the blood from his cut forehead, and dived back into the fray. Cucumba dodged yet another water tenticle attack by bending backwards, and was knicked by an ice spike for his troubles, but the new Kelesk was far too fast, and the green devil could no longer keep pace.
The clone Kicked the ancient spam bane in the small of his back, launching him skyward. Cucumba grimaced in pain, and lost one bansaber to the heaving earth below. The admin clung to the other as he struggled to right himself in mid air.
Kelesk, however, was waiting for him. The mighty admin was slammed earthward by a massive blow to the sternum. Kelesks foot hung there in Cucumba's vision as the green devil burrowed deep into the broken island.
Kelesk and his clone laughed as a plume of smoke musroomed upwards from the crater where Cucumba fell, and above him, the wave formed into a massive drill made of ice.
"Shall we find him," mused Kelesk. "I think we shall."
The monsterous ice bit sped towards the crater, and the beaten island, twisting under the duress of the spinning vortex of water behind it. Kelesk laughed out loud. This was the end of the old one named Cucatoth.
The drill roared against the sand; melting under the heat, but refrozen by Kelesk's powerful mastery of the element. Molten Glass spat from the sides of the bit, flung far into the ocean. Where ever they landed, plumes of steaming water shot into the air.
Kelesk was having trouble seeing the bit now, obscured by the steam from the clashing heat and cold.
From deep below the earth, Kelesk heard an unholy roar that could not be fully described as just monsterous. The horrific sound ended in a whale call that sounded positively evil.
The bit's forward momentum stopped, despite Kelesks roar of protest and continued pushing.
"This is impossible, WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO KILL YOU!"
The sand exploded outwards, and the bit slid sideways. The drill jerked back towards Kelesk, and the Jade Behemoth punched the bit backwards . . .
Kelesk watched in wonder as his attack was completely reversed.
The drill flew towards Kelesk and his clone, who quickly dodged the cracked and shattering ice weapon. Kelesk looked once again to the crater and saw that the mad old one was now as he was taught that it should look:
Cucatoth had arrived.
The massive creatures tenticles slapped against the ground with agitated movements, and it let out it's horrible wail once more. The green devil's membranious wings pumped slowly, causing the smoke to billow.
Kelesk, undeterred, dived in once again. His clone quickly followed. The duo attacked in harmony, attempting to circumvent the tenticles. Kelesk found his attack run blocked, and did not wish to find Cucatoth's true strength by running into his waiting appendages. The clone faired better, and attack the monsters flank. Kelesk lifted up to a higher vantage point to reconcider his attack options while the Chaos Shadow Clone kept it busy. The clone slashed it's soul scythe deep into the creature's side, prompting a howl of unearthly origin once again from the beast.
The kelesk clone began to move back, to be free of the tenticles' range. It would never make it. Kelesk watched in horror.
The beast rammed one blade-ended tenticle through the clone's stomach at lightning speed, and rapidly spun it's body, slashing with the others. In that breif moment, the clone was ripped to shreds. Souls flung away, torn asunder by the wicked old thing, and the creature pulled the remainder in.
Three more images of the horrid creature simply appeared in plain view, and lept for a coordinated strike with the first.
The remaining souls burst and boiled away with the strenth of the attack. Ki was burning around the green devil once again, like a hurricane lit aflame. From the eye of that storm, the beast howled under the dying light.
Kelesk formed another clone from the momentary safety of his lofty position, but he knew that things had suddenly changed.
It appears that this form looses much of that vaunted intellegence and fights like a beast . . . if it's only a beast, then I must fight intelligently to win.
Kelesk swooped in, Clone in tow, and reformed the wave into a giant ball of water. The ancient horror looked on with disinterest, it's wings folded tight against it's body. The Angel of Darkness turned sharply away, and released the ball of water from it's hold. The green devil watched the ball freeze as it approached, a not uncommon tactic for the half celestial. The clone motioned hard with it's hands, pulling away from the mammoth ball of ice. Through the center, like a spiderweb, cracks began to run through the ice untill the whole ball shattered into a million razor sharp shards.
The beast moved, faster than Kelesk had realized it could, and lept once again for the clone. The clone dodged quickly, but the tenticles closed off it's escape route. Faster than Kelesk or his clone could react, the green devil coiled it's tenticles around the clone like a python tending to it's meal.
The ice shards slammed hard into the earth, ripping the island up and leaving a cloud of dust in the air.
When the dust cleared, the Angel of could see that his clone was already broken. It's head was lulling to one side, souls seeping from it's mouth. It's arm hung out at an odd angle, broken in several places. In it's final throes, the head popped, leaving a flapping tounge and lower jaw. Discarded like a broken toy, the clone flew apart once more.
Kelesk roared in frustration and pulled up on some invisible force. Once again the entire Island began to break apart and shudder as if the powers above it were aimed at it. Veins appeared on his ebon skin, and his eyes began to shine with an intense indigo color, sending an unearthly dark light into his field of view. The beast with whom he battled recoiled slightly, sensing danger near him.
Water burst forth from the sand and the air, latent moisture in the environment was apparently enough to trigger the half breeds impressive power. The green devil's tenticles rose to defend their master and the monster itself dashed to be free of the watery prison that threatened to consume him. The water crashed in on all sides, and froze where it collided, trapping the Jade Behemoth's trailing appendages in a block of ice hundreds of feet high and wide.
The beast roared, and Kelesk laughed.
"I promise you, old one, this will be the end of your suffering," Kelesk taunted. "I will release you from the suffering of exsistance with one blow . . ."
Kelesk leveled his Soul Scythe once more, coating it with souls that seeped from his eyes.
The creature struggled against it's pinioned arms and tenticles, and the ice began to crack.
I must finish powering up this attack, I don't care how old you are, all souls can be reaped.
Kelesk smiled as his task nearly finished, and looked up to see the creatures features changing once more. The tenticles had withdrawn, slithering back into their masters body, and Cucatoth's face had grown features once again . . .
Once the wings withdrew, Kelesk knew that Cucumba had reverted to his previous form. What advantage could that give the beaten admin? The first form was clearly weaker. The green machine's lips were pressed together, and his brow was furrowed. It appeared that the mighty admin knew that his situation was indeed precarious. Kelesk smiled, unworried about the change in the situation: Cucumba or Cucatoth, either was helpless.
Cucumba smiled when Kelesk began charging, and freed his hands from the much larger holes that the beast had been restrained with. Kelesk saw his error with horror playing slowly across his face. He stopped his charge, but the admin had already thrown his remaining ban saber at the Angel of Darkness.
Kelesk easily blocked using the Soul Scythe, lauging maniacally at the easily stopped blow. When he tried to throw the weapon away, he found that it would not budge. He looked up, and saw Cucumba's outstretched hand.
"What use . . . is forcing your blade onto mine, . . . you cannot hope to cut the Staff of the Gods."
Cucumba continued to push, edging the crakling black energy formed by the souls towards Kelesk's face. The half breed responded by pushing back with both arms, with all of his effort, causing the ban saber's hilt to crack.
"YOU SEE, IT'S HOPELESS! YOU CANNOT WIN OLD ONE!"
"Check mate . . "
Kelesk's eye's opened in terror as the admin dissapeared and reappeared between the Soul Scythe and himself.
"Mountain burst forth from the earth."
Cucumba spread his arms apart rapidly, breaking Kelesk's hold on the staff of the gods, causing both weapons to fall inert to the earth.
"Screaming Devil falls from the mountain."
The admin landed a vicious open palm strike to Kelesk's chest, cracking several of his ribs. The combination of Ki and the force was powerful indeed.
"Sleeping dragon wakes from the mountian core."
The green devil teleported behind kelesk and rammed a spinning back kick into his upper spine, launching the unfortunate half devil into his own ice prison.
"GREAT DRAGON STANDS TALL AND SHAKES THE HEAVENS!"
Launching himself over the exploding ice block, and thus the flying Kelesk, the Jade Behemoth gathered a storm of visible ki around his foot, and launched at the ground like a missile. His body became a living green flame burning in a cyclone around his leg.
Kelesk saw the approaching maelstrom of ki, though he was barely concious. It slammed into him with unfathomable force, breaking his body, and blasting the stolen souls from him. Then he was carried with it for a while, drilled into the earth mercilessly by the admins' blow. Rocks exploded behind him from the force, or was that his skull? He could no longer tell, and the pain carried him into oblivion.
From far away, one could see the Island's debris choking the dying sunlight out of the sky like a volcanic eruption.
<HR>
Kelesk was burning, floating on a river of magma deep within the earth. But deep inside, he knew that this was just another prison he would soon escape. He would escape and destroy the mad old one called Cucumba.