Devil Inside (65 page)

As the Rogue drew closer and Harley got a better look at him she shuddered.  If Harley met him as a human, he would have been a person that she would have been able to tell was no good right away.  It was the cold, calculating look in his white eyes that marked him as one of the worst of the worst.  He smiled at her and it only made the whole impression worse.  Harley was not surprised that this creature had caused so much trouble.  The only surprising thing was that he was a Lux.  She didn’t even get this bad of a feeling from Ignis.  It just didn’t seem possible that this man was a creature that came from light.  It was a grotesque exaggeration of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Both the Lux and Nocte and the Ignis began spreading out in the classic circle surrounding Harley and the Rogue.  She would have found it almost humorous under different circumstances.  Neither Harley nor the Rogue was interested in preamble.

“Nice to finally meet you, Harley.  My name is Haddon.  I believe you call me the Rogue however,” he nearly laughed.  His voice was almost musical with his light accent.  He spoke perfect English but you could tell that he came from Italy.  Harley got the impression that he was speaking to her Nocte as much as to her.  His voice made her skin crawl and she curled her lip in a smirk.

“I can’t say the same.”  Harley retorted and Haddon sneered at her response.  “What does the Sol Invictus want?” she asked him.

If he was surprised they knew about the cult he didn’t let on.  “What does any religious group want?  To save the world,” he spread his arms in an exaggerated embracing gesture.  The sarcasm in his voice revealed his feelings about the Sol Invictus’ goal. 
They had no idea what they have gotten into
, Harley thought to herself sadly.  She hoped that if—when—she defeated the Rogue, they would be able to stop the Sol Invictus before they caused more damage.  “Let’s cut to the chase and do this.”

He leered at her and gave her a look that said plainly that he would like to eat her alive.  “Fine by me.  What are your terms?”

Harley snorted sarcastically.  “To the death.  And a fair fight.  No one else interferes.”

“Agreed,” Haddon said.  He looked around at the circle of Ignis behind him.  “No one else will get involved in our fight.  Afterwards though, everyone is fair game.  Right?”  He returned his attention to Harley.

“Sure.”  The confidence in Haddon’s voice caused her Nocte to twitch in anger.  He was so sure that he was going to win.

“Weapons?” He asked.

“Whatever you have on you now.”

“I accept those terms.”

Harley nodded her body tensed as she readied herself for the fight to begin.  She bent her knees and drew her machete.  She loved the sing of the blade sliding free of its sheath.  Haddon drew his sword—a samurai sword by the looks of it, and mirrored her stance.  They began circling each other slowly shutting out those around them.  If it wasn’t such a serious situation Harley would have felt the need to roll her eyes.  Who would have ever though that this actually happened.  The “unrealness” of being surrounded by a circle of warriors while fighting to the death with the ultimate bad guy was too weird to fully process.

Neither Harley nor Haddon launched an attack for a while.  Instead, they moved slowly, sizing each other up.  Harley took note of the smooth, gracefulness of his movements.  But as agile as Haddon seemed, there was definite power behind the way his body moved.  He never took his eyes off hers, yet his steps didn’t hesitate once.  He was a lion stalking its prey.  Harley waited for the Rogue to make his move.  She preferred to evaluate his offense before displaying her own.

As Harley expected, Haddon soon drew tired of circling and attacked.  Lightening quick, he darted forward arcing his blade towards her body—he was so fast his movements were blurred.  Harley was taken aback by his speed.  She had never encountered someone as fast as the Rogue before.  He made Cutter look downright human in comparison.  She just barely side stepped out of the path of his blade.  Harley let him make several more offensive moves while playing defense.  Once she had not been able to move quickly enough and had been forced to deflect his blow with her silver machete.  The metal clanged loudly and she felt the vibrations hum through the handle and into her hand.  Even though she was on the defensive she wasn’t overwhelmed by Haddon’s attacks so far.  She was simply getting a feel for his style of fighting.  All the while her Nocte moved with her and she could feel the devil’s loathing toward the creature in front of her.  It burned so hot that Harley could feel it bleeding from her black eyes.  Her teeth were clenched and her fangs were extended.  She felt like an animal ready to pounce

Harley tried to adapt to the Lux’s speed but it was everything she could do to keep up with him.  Finally, Harley found an opening and without a split second to think about it, she took it.  As Haddon arched his blade upwards she ducked the blow and lashed out below with her machete.  It was her first attack and it was not successful.  The Rogue was able to dodge the blow and retaliate with a kick to the ribs that Harley wasn’t able to avoid.  The Rogue was strong indeed.  Harley was sure that the kick cracked some ribs and she fell back to regain her breath.  The Rogue didn’t follow her and Harley was surprised.  Had it been her she would have continued the attack while she had the momentum.  Instead, Haddon held his position and smiled at her.  It was purely condescending and she felt her blood boiling.  She knew she needed to avoid letting her anger take over.  If she lost her concentration she would lose all hope of defeating the Lux.

Harley closed the distance between them again.  She could see the crowd around them cheering and yelling but she had effectively blocked them out and couldn’t hear anything other than her own panting breath and the Rogue’s even breathing.  The background sounds became white noise behind her.   From the corner of her eye she could see her friends quietly standing at the sidelines looking tense.  Levi and Nya’s eyes had blackened out and even Castor’s eyes had faded to white in excitement of the fight.  She refocused her attention on Haddon as he made another move to attack.  Harley worked hard to block all of his attacks.  Previously, when she had encountered an opponent who was stronger than her, she was able to use her speed to overcome any deficiencies in strength.  However, this wouldn’t be the case with the Rogue.  Harley knew that she needed to let go and stop thinking.  Her Nocte agreed with her.  Harley needed to work with the devil inside her if she was going to have a chance to win.

Harley slowly fought to release the tension in her body as she blocked move after move from Haddon.  She focused on Haddon’s cold white eyes and slowly she began to pick up on the ever so subtle tells that preceded his attacks.  Haddon’s eyes would flicker for a fraction of a second to where ever he planned to strike.  Harley could feel her Nocte gather for a strike and she allowed herself to be carried along.  She blocked two quick attacks with singing clangs of metal before she threw her weight forward with a power move that caught the Rogue off guard.  Harley had anticipated his last strike enough that she was able to carry herself forward off the block.  Harley finally scored the first real strike in the battle, which had already lasted more than five minutes, with a solid gash to Haddon’s ribs.  The machete sliced through his skin like it was paper.

Haddon leapt backwards with a snarl.  He was only thrown for a second before he recovered and countered with a vicious attack of his own.  Harley wasn’t able to block all the thrusts and took a wicked slash from the Lux’s sword on her shoulder.   The wound didn’t reach the bone but she felt how far it had sunk into the muscle.  Her entire arm burned and unfortunately the wound was her right arm.  She was right handed so unless she healed quickly she would be left at a major disadvantage.  Harley attempted to retaliate but found herself missing two back to back attacks.  She realized that Haddon was forcing her to move backwards towards the Ignis behind her and she quickly spun away from his attacks in order to move back towards the center.  The Burners were supposed to stay out of the fight, but she didn’t trust that they would obey that order.

Harley and Haddon continued to parry back and forth, metal against metal, before Harley became aware of another problem.  In addition to her increasingly aching shoulder, the blood from the wound was running down her arm and now that it had reached her hand her grip was beginning to slip on the leather handle.  After missing another thrust with her machete Harley was able to land a solid left punch to the Rogue’s jaw which caused him to stumble away from her.   She moved in to follow up but when Haddon spun out of the hit he followed through with his sword and she just barely brought her blade up for a block before his sword connected with her face.  Due to the speed and power behind the attack, and her slickened grip, the clash of the blades caused her machete to fly out of her hand and clatter across the floor.  There was no point in trying to reclaim her machete.  Before she would be able to reach it, Haddon would be on her.

Haddon swung with all his might, going for her neck with his sword.  Harley didn’t think before she reacted.  As Haddon raised the weapon she ducked into and under his sword.  She moved fast enough that he was unable to react in time.  She managed to grasp his sword hand in both of hers and bring in down over her shoulder while at the same time twisting her upper body.  The move caused Haddon to cry out and drop his sword.  Harley wasn’t able to let go and make a play for his sword without leaving herself open to attack so she chose to kick the sword away to keep him from reclaiming it.  Both weapons had slid within reach of the crowd and were nowhere to be seen now.  Haddon made a move to put her in a choke hold but she drove her elbow into his stomach and darted out of his grasp facing him poised to fight hand to hand.

Both Harley and Haddon rushed towards each other again.  They traded blow for blow and kick for kick.  Harley could feel the damage the hits were causing.  Cracked ribs, a broken nose, at least one broken knuckle.  She was just barely holding her own and she didn’t know how much longer she would be able to hold out.  The Rogue was too fast and too strong.  Harley felt her cheek bone give way underneath a vicious punch from Haddon’s right fist.  As the punch spun her in a half circle the Rogue drove a powerful kick into her lower back.  As the kick landed Harley felt bones in her lower spine splinter.  The breaking wasn’t as painful as she would have expected.  Instead, the hit was immediately following by a sickening numb feeling that spread through her legs.

Harley crashed face first into the hard wooden floor.  It only took a split second before Haddon was on her.  He was attempting to capitalize on the damage done by the kick.  Haddon began stomping on her lower back repeatedly.  Each stomp cause excruciating pain to spasm through her body and legs.  She raised her head and tried to crawl away from the brutal attack.  She still wasn’t able to use her legs for more than trembling spasms.  She had so many injuries and had expended so much energy, her body was not healing at its normal pace.  As it was, she would be dead before her back healed.  As she looked into the crowd she saw that she was facing her own side.  Her eyes met Nya’s and despite the woman’s attempt to look passive, Harley could see the worry in the set of her mouth.  Levi looked like he was going to be sick.  He gripped Nya’s arm in one hand and Castor’s in the other.  It looked like he was supporting Nya but it looked as if his grip was the only thing holding Castor back from running into the fight.  Harley was grateful that Levi was holding Cas back.  If anyone ran into the fight the Burners would follow suit and it would become an all hell would break loose.  She needed to finish this before the situation was complicated and more people got hurt.  When Harley’s black eyes met Castor’s white eyes she was hit with a bolt of white hot heat.

Harley wasn’t aware of what was happening, but her Nocte was and Harley let go.  She could feel her Nocte’s desperate fight to pull energy from Castor and Harley’s hope began to reignite.  As Haddon continued to stomp on her back Harley could feel Castor’s energy flowing into her.  Just as when she fed from him.  She didn’t know how it was happening now without physical contact but she didn’t question it because it was working.  Each millisecond that went by Harley regained more and more strength in her body.  She couldn’t look away from Cas and he didn’t seem to be able to either.  No one else seemed aware of what was going on until Cas dropped to his knees with blood pouring from his nose.  Whatever she was doing was apparently draining the life out of him.  Harley tried to stop as Levi knelt next to Castor and looked from the Lux to Harley with confusion and shock spreading across his face.    Harley saw Randall materialize out from the crowd of Nocte, followed by Alice.  She hadn’t even realized that they were here.  When Randall saw Castor’s condition he looked from Cas to Harley and back to Cas.  The look on his face said he knew exactly what was going on.

Harley fought to break free of her hold on Castor.  If she didn’t he would die, she knew that for sure.  With a gasp she finally tore herself free and the blinding white light at the edges of her vision faded.  Castor collapsed and Harley had to turn her attention back to the fight.  She knew that she would never be able to defeat Haddon if she didn’t end it now.  Realizing that she could move her legs again and she reacted instantly.  She flipped so that she was on her back facing Haddon as he raised his boot again.  Before he could drive it into her stomach she caught his foot and rolled yanking him off balance and causing him to crash to the floor.  Harley knew that her Nocte was in more control than she was at the moment and Harley didn’t fight it.  She clawed her way from the Rogue’s feet up his legs and onto his back.  He began to struggle and buck trying to throw her off.  Harley yanked his head back by his hair and drove her fist into the side of his face.  The hit stunned him long enough for Harley to straddle him and pull his head back even harder.  Harley knew that she would never be able to physically defeat the Rogue.  He was too fast and too strong.  And Harley knew that if she couldn’t stop him, no one would be able to.  She was here, her Nocte was here, solely for the purpose of stopping the Rogue.  Listening to her Nocte, Harley did the one thing that she knew would defeat the Rogue Lux and at the same time preserve the balance between light and dark.  Harley sank her teeth into the Rogue’s neck.