//------------------------------// // Arc IX Episode V: Putting Him Down // Story: Family Begins With You // by Jmaster49 //------------------------------// The fight raged on between the beings of light and darkness. Both Derpy and Sugarcoat’s respective live streams were getting hundreds of views and comments per minute as people started to wake up and watch what was going on. Sure, there weren’t any live spectators, but there were loads of people who were watching via internet connection. Meanwhile, Aria watched closely, waiting for Blueblood to drop his guard so that she could jump in when it was most convenient for herself. “Okay…just gotta wait for it…” Eventually, both men had started to tire themselves from the sheer amount of magic that they had expended in their fight with each other. The road was singed and ripped apart and several cars had suffered collateral damage. It looked like a tornado had swept through the street. “Huff…huff…” Aidon was breathing heavily--his shadow form now dissipated as he was hunched over with his hands on his knees. “...Enough…this fight…is pointless,” he muttered between breaths. Likewise, Blueblood was on bended knee, also trying to catch his air. “Whew…argh…I…I won’t submit to the likes of you. I won’t be outdone by some lowly, hellish creature…” The words no longer got underneath his skin. All Aidon wanted was to end this senseless fighting peacefully and return to how things were before. But it was abundantly clear that that was becoming less and less likely of an option. “...I haven’t killed someone in…forever. Do I really need to resort to such tactics again?” He contemplated the idea of actually putting someone down again… Only for Blueblood to take advantage of his distressed state. “Caught you.” SHING! As it turned out, the Blueblood that was tired as he was?--it was a mere refraction of light that had fooled Aidon into thinking it was the real one. In reality, Blueblood had been creeping up behind him the whole time in order to catch him off-guard with a well-placed, knifehand strike to the back of his neck, causing Aidon to drop to the ground with a thud. “You fool…as I said before…the light will always cut through the darkness!” But before he could finish him off… SHOOM! A gust of wind forcefully pulled Blueblood away from Aidon--the blonde man stumbled over himself as a result, and was sent right into a… CRACK! …hard bare-knuckle punch from Aria. So hard that Blueblood was forced to keel over and crumple from the sheer force that was applied to his body. As it turned out, she had--quite literally--knocked the air out of his body for a moment. “Ah….aeegh…what the…?” Aria followed this up by stomping the sole of her shoe directly onto his chest--hard enough for him to cough up spittle. “Enough with the bullshit. I’m sick and tired of jerkwads like you getting away with whatever they want. Now I’m gonna make you--” ZZZZZZ! Blueblood grabbed her ankle and started to burn her with raw light energy. “FUC--AGH!” Aria squealed as she leapt back, and stumbled over onto her rear from how much pain she had suffered--her skin was burnt to a crisp with smoke coming off her leg, “Damndamndamn! Shit! You absolute dicknose!” Since he was outnumbered now, Blueblood saw fit to leave the situation entirely as he knew he wouldn’t have a chance of taking them both on alone. As soon as Aria fell to the ground, he got up and started to run down the street… But that’s when Aidon had recovered from the blow he was dealt moments prior. The moment he saw Blueblood try to flee the situation. “He’s getting away…” Aria muttered as she forced herself to stand, leaning against a wrecked car. “Not for long,” Aidon replied as he looked in her direction, “This is what I need you to do…” “Fools…they think they’re so intelligent. I’ll be back…” Blueblood was barely able to run down the street and turn the corner at the end of the block before… “W-what?!” WOOSH! By some unknown force, he was lifted into the air and had no way of controlling himself or getting down. “Let go of me, dammit!” “Professor, look up!” Aria pulled her hand towards herself… And likewise, Blueblood was forcefully pushed by gale winds that barreled him right back towards the shadowman and the siren. The panicked expression on his face said it all--he knew that he was helpless and couldn’t fight back any longer. Which Aidon took full advantage of. With his right arm extended, Aidon charged forward and shouted, “I’LL END YOU!” CRACK! And he delivered a hard lariat to the young man’s face--so hard in fact that the air around them was frozen in time for a good three seconds--almost as if existence itself had to pause to calculate what had just happened. The force of Aidon’s arm had caused his dark magic to quickly overtake, corrupt, and force all of the light magic out of Blueblood’s body, rendering him powerless. When reality started back up again, Blueblood was knocked out cold with his body having made an imprint in the asphalt road beneath him. “Blech…” Once it was all said and done, Aidon looked over in Aria’s direction. “Are you alright, Ms. Blaze?” Aria was limping from the burn that had been dealt to her ankle, but had managed to walk a little. “Yeah…shithead gets what he deserves.” She looked around at the sheer amount of collateral damage that had been caused to the cars and a nearby fire hydrant that was overflowing with water. “...Yikes. Thank hell there wasn’t a massive crowd watching, right? That would’ve been bad…” “Yes…wait a minute,” Aidon looked over in the direction of Derpy’s home and noticed that the blonde girl had finished recording the events on her phone. “Ms. Muffins? How are you?” “Hm?” she looked up from her phone and walked over. “Oh, I’m totally fine. That battle was super kickbutt! I got it all on SnapGap Live--about a million people watched it.” “For real,” Sugarcoat added as she approached them all with her usual uninterested expression and half-lidded eyes, “It’s about time someone stood up to that crass little gobshite. He thinks that he can do whatever he wants just because his aunt is the principal of one of the local schools. If I were her, I’d send him straight to military school so a drill sergeant can whip his ass into shape.” “It goes deeper than that,” Aidon replied as he looked down at the unconscious Blueblood. “But you all should get home while I get him to a hospital. I doubt he’ll have survived that attack, honestly…” “That was so cooool!” Derpy squealed while clapping, “You were like a wrestler when you clocked him over the face with your arm! Good riddance to him, I say.” “Damn, Derpy,” Aria commented with a small smile on her face, “I didn’t expect such a sadistic comment from you.” “Blueblood’s a big meanie that tried to kill me and other students at school,” Derpy insisted, “The Professor had every right to fight back the way he did. I’m sure Principal Celestia would understand.” Sugarcoat scoffed. “Pssh. Yeah. Let’s hope so. With Christmas coming up, folks like him don’t deserve any sympathy. But that’s just me.” She turned and began walking back to her house. “See ya.” “Bye! Stay safe, okay Professor?” Derpy said as she left to return to her home. Aidon looked over at Aria. “How’s your leg?” “I’ll walk it off,” she muttered while limping, “I’m just content with seeing that bastard lose. Gimme a call if they pronounce him dead.” “...I will.”