THE ZODIAC WAR
^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i

Chapter 46: Over Hills and Mountains

"He's angry! Let's use that to our advantage!" Ramza beckoned, Cloud, Seifer, and Sephiroth followed suit.

Due to the fact Chaos' sword was so large, it was all Cloud could do to take the brunt of his mighty swings. "Strong steady hands are going to win this fight," he surmised.

The clash between the massive swords left Chaos open for a few deep cuts from the Masamune as Sephiroth aimed at the open area on Chaos' breastplate, which already had a gaping wound in it.

A few strong thrusts, and Ramza created another hole in the knight's armor, while simultaneously ducking the strong swings of the large blade bearing down, trying to give him the nastiest shave of his life.

The knight roared in rage and began to cleave at Ramza, but, due to Ramza's agility and the massive size of the blade, he used the sword like a spring board, leaping over Chaos head and slicing at his rear armor plate.

"You can't escape my blade, I will have your head!"

"Not today!" Delita took advantage of Chaos confusion and with all his strength and his sword knocked the huge blade into the ground, embedding it. Seeing his blade stuck in the ground only made the knight all the more furious, and he immediately cast a Barrier spell on himself.

"He's got his guard up," Beowulf said, "swords are no use now!"

"Fine by me…." Teta said, and with a wave of her arms, a massive Flare spell was cast upon the knight, burning away at his armor, and ignoring the Barrier spell. She smiled in satisfaction when the knight clutched his sides in massive pain. But frowned when he cast reflect on himself afterward.

The knights fought furiously, chinking away at the Barrier spell, while the mages cooked up a way to get rid of it. When they realized, the only spell that would work is Dispel, but that wouldn't work with Reflect on him. That's when Alma got a flash of realization.

"Reflect reflects spells right? So why not cast reflect on one of our own, bouncing the spell off that person should cancel out the Reflect and get rid of the barrier."

"I don't know, Alma, it's risky, Dispel is one of the Destruct spells, say one word wrong and you could be casting Death on the person, you know how death works." Garnet warned.

"We shouldn't have a problem if the person has reflect on them right?"

"Yes, but who of us knows Reflect strong enough to bounce off a Destruct spell?" Teta asked.

"Well...I do...I just haven't used it much." Alma replied.

"So you're not good at casting Reflect are you?" Garnet asked.

"Sort of...see, I only learned it a few days ago."

Groans came from the other mages, but Teta spoke anyway, "Well, let's see how well you know how to cast it then, so who's the test dummy…erm…subject?"

"I'll be the target." Delita said.

"What? Are you sure? What if Reflect misses and you end up getting killed. Death isn't picky even when breaking down barriers or peoples lives! We need you!" Teta reminded him.

"Remember, Teta, this is the Zero World, I can't exactly die here anyway."

"Not funny, you just might end up a Zombie." Alma pleaded.

"Come on, cast the spells already, Chaos is starting to heal himself with potions!" Zidane pleaded.

Closing her eyes, Alma murmured a few incantations trying to remember exactly what the phrase was.

Delita wouldn't know Reflect was cast on him until something bounced off it. Gritting his teeth, he prepared for Teta's Dispel. After Alma was finished, Teta began to chant, a few light glyphs appearing under her feet.

That's when Death appeared, Skull face, hood, scythe and all.

Grinning evilly it charged forward and tried to skewer Delita with it's scythe, but a massive barrier of light seemed to stretch and bounce Death off. Seeing that Delita was facing Chaos, Death charged full force on the dark knight. Slicing with its scythe, to cut through the barrier, but what it did next was unexpected.

The Grinning Grim Reaper had cut a glowing red orb out of the Knight's body, grasping it firmly in its skeletal hands, the being hungrily smashed the orb, and in an instant, Chaos dropped dead. Death then disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

"I...I guess that was Death, huh?" Delita scratched his head nervously.

"And you are so lucky Alma cast her Reflect right." Teta scolded him for his flippancy.

"You scared me!" Alma ran up to him and hugged him, shocking him even more than the near-Death incident.

All the warriors breathed a sigh of relief that Death had finally hit its mark.

"Well, that's it for Chaos! Now we can go back."

"And fight more super fiends along the way." Delita warned, "We should be cautious."

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