Wooden howls (M)
“DIE. DIE. DIE.” Kirabo screamed as he continued to stab the air with his sword.
“Damn it. Why did you have to do that? Why did he had to chose you? Why? Why? WHY?” Kirabo fell to his knees on the verge of tears.
Zecora took this opportunity to run around to where her knife was, pick it up and then try to end it, not kill him of course, but put him in a position where she could if she wanted to.
She couldn’t. It was not the she wouldn’t, nor that she did not have the skill to do it, it was just because she could not get close enough to actually pose a threat to Kirabo, at least the way he was now.
“Why?” He continued. “Why did it have to be like this? Why did you... Why did I... Why didn’t... Ahhhh!” Frustration and anger could be felt coming from that shout.
Kirabo was radiating with magical energy, wave after wave it burst from his body pushing all that was around him back. It was like a rapidly expanding magical shield, the kind unicorns were very used to using, it did very little damage upon impact with something but it did push everything it touched back, and currently everything included Zecora.
He rose.
The ground shook.
His left eye was now entirely blank, cyan smoke floating out from its corner, rising briefly in the air before scattering. His chest piece morphed, the metal seemed to flow toward his arm, first it gathered upon his shoulder, morphing into a new piece of armor that looked and felt like the cuirass he wore.
A simple black collection of bent metallic pieces, placed one upon another, overlapping slightly formed a compound piece of plate armor designed to protect the wearer's shoulder and upper part of his arm, a spaulder. There was very little design on it, only an engraving that continued from the chest piece. Normally the individual plates of armor would be held together by leather straps, but that was not the case. If one took a closer look they would have assumed that nothing physical seemed to bind the pieces together, but they would be wrong, at least partially. The pieces were held together by the same cyan mist that emanated from underneath his armor. It controlled the pieces making sure they fit together and moved along with his natural arm’s movement without having to actually touch the armor, acting like a sort of padding as well.
More and more of the metal flowed down his arm. After forming his shoulder piece it continued to wrap around his arm forming a rerebrace, encasing his upper arms, then a couter for his elbow, a slightly more elaborate vambrace for his forearm, and a plate mail gauntlet with individual fingers each ending in spiky tips.
At first the metal pieces were black, just like the chestpiece, but as the metal continued to expand and encase his arm in its protective layer, its colour lightened. Now the entire ensemble, chest piece, shoulder piece, rerebrace, couter, vambrace and gauntlet, were a dark blue, cyan smoke flowing from each hole, each crack, each small piece of empty space that was not made out of metal.
For the first time since the fight started Spike could notice Imamu looking worried. Something was wrong, the air felt heavier, colder, not something one would expect this early in the day.
“I...” Kirabo got up, staring blankly in the distance.
Zecora, who was standing some distance away from Kirabo, shared the same worried emotion as Imamu, but not for long.
The simian screamed and charged forward, moved in that direction for a little, raised his sword, and let it smash into the ground. When the blade hit the ground a small explosion could be felt. As the dust started clearing Spike could see the aftermath of the blow; In an area about two feet across, the grass and ground had been annihilated and turned into a small crater. It was only a few inches deep at its center, but the fact that in that area nothing remained spoke volumes about the power behind the blow.
Much to Spike’s confusion, Imamo, let out a sigh of relief after witnessing the strength behind Kirabo’s blow.
“What was up with that?” He asked himself.
As if he was reading Spike’s mind Imamu spoke.
“Thank Luna, he did not lose control.”
“Lose control?”
Spike’s next thought would have been whether Imamu was pulling his leg, but his mind was preoccupied with the sound of another explosion.
Spike turned his head, only to see that another crater had formed, this one a so close to Imamu’s legs that he could feel a little dust passing by his nose.
“I KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO ME ADANNA! AND I AM GOING TO KEEP TEARING THIS BLASTED MAZE APART UNTIL I HIT YOU OR UNTIL IT WEARS OF. ” And with that being said he dashed to another seemingly random location and caused the same amount of destruction as before.
“Oh me, oh my,
I do not want to lie,
But I did not expect,
For it to have that effect.
Zecora you little foal,
He still is in control,
So you are in luck,
And... Oh fu...” Zecora’s rhyme was interrupted when Kirabo’s blade landed so close to her that she could feel shockwave from the blast hitting her hard.
“It was so close this time,
I should better stop my rhyme.” She let out a small laugh realising she rhymed about stopping her rhyming.
“Now focus Zecora,
Focus on your aura.” She frowned.
She saw Kirabo dashing towards another place on the field saying some nonsense about rabbits and broken wings.
Using this time to focus, her eyes were now fully turned bright orange, and a mist of the same colour started gathering and spiraling around her. She continued to concentrate but always keeping an eye on Kirabo so he could not blow her away with a lucky strike.
The ground shook for the sixth time since the sun rose that day.
The mist surrounding her started gathering and before long six glowing balls of light orbited her, each of them leaving a short trail of what could be best compared with the tail of a miniature comet.
Kirabo hit another place.
Zecora stomped the ground causing the golden rings she had around her hoof to ring, and the spheres of light to stop dead in their tracks.
Again she stomped and the sphere formed a circle around her.
Kirabo hit another place. This time dangerously close to Zecora, but far enough so the blast did not affect her.
Again she stomped and the spheres started moving again, only this time they orbited around her, in a clearly defined circular orbit.
With a flicker of her head she produced a similar, albeit much softer sounding ring from her ring and golden necklaces, this caused the spheres to scatter and head towards the treeline, where they disappeared from sight.
Another explosion came as Kirabo blew up another part of the clearing. By now almost half of it was filled with mini craters.
A howl could be heard coming from the Everfree, as Kirabo created yet another crater.
Spike was trying to figure out what was happening, peeking from time to time to see Imamu’s reactions. Since Kirabo’s transformation, for lack of a better word, he looked more and more worried.
There could have been something to learn from watching a simian run around aimlessly blowing destroying the ground with explosions caused by his sword and a zebra that stood motionlessly with a worried look on her face, but Spike could not tell what.
Things got interesting when a pack of timberwolves appeared behind Zecora.