Getting Your Ass Kicked: a guide

Galand began walking towards us, his armor thudding heavily with each step.

"His power level is 28,000?!" one of the soldiers exclaimed. "I can't stop trembling!"

"Hurry! We must evacuate the townspeople ," another said.

The man with an armored mask spoke (I was really terrible with names). "A member of the Demon Race, sealed away for 3,000 years. Galand of the Ten Commandments."

"True, his power levels are higher than we imagined, but something's off," Merlin said calmly. "Hawk, what's his Magical power?"

The pig observed Galand. "Looks like...zero?! How is that possible? Is my magic eye broken?"

"I see. This must be the lingering effects of the Goddesses' Seal," Merlin declared.

"That means now's our only chance to attack," Diane said, fists clenched.

I held my swords up, tightly, as my eyes narrowed and I prepared to fight.

Galand stroked his chin-armor thing. "So this is where the humans nest now. It's changed quite a bit in the last 3,000 years. But, like usual, they're all clustered. I guess some habits don't change. It's too cramped."

He raised his scythe and waved it to one side, clearing the area for miles. He did the same for the other side. The buildings were totaled. As for the citizens who were looking on close by...I didn't even want to think.

Bastard.

"There," he said, satisfied. "That should make things a little roomier. All right, then."

He turned back to us. "Meliodas, I've been wanting to have a nice, long sparring match with you! Prelialduis has proven useless, getting trapped in the seal along with us. How pathetic."

I growled.

Suddenly Meliodas launched himself at Galand, slashing his neck in one clean slice. It looked like it was over.

But I knew better than to let my guard down. Galand suddenly shot his arm backwards, his scythe piercing Meliodas fatally behind him.

"No," I said.

He lay stuck on the top of the scythe, eyes lifeless and still.

Suddenly two other Meliodases appeared behind him. Galand slashed through them easily as well.

The clones dissolved.

"An afterimage? No, this feels like the afterimage following the real image," Galand said. "From behind."

Meliodas appeared out of the dust behind Galand, sword at the ready.

"But it's only a ruse. From above, huh?"

He timed Meliodas as he appeared above him, and grabbed him by the throat.

"Fun spell. However I'm not fond of cheap tricks."

My brother slashed at him as much as he could, but it didn't even faze Galand. He stabbed into Meliodas with the ease of poking a piece of food with a fork.

"King Arthur, are you alright?" a soldier called.

"Fine, but don't worry about me!" he called out. The smoke cleared and I saw Arthur, Elizabeth and Hawk inside a Perfect Cube created by Merlin.

Galand now held Meliodas by the throat, as he wriggled to get free.

Before I continue, I know a lot of you are wondering why I haven't tapped in yet. I have a higher power level and thus a better chance of defeating him, right?

However, there is one little drawback to my powers. I need to be invited to join a battle in order to strike on the offensive with the intent of serious damage. And with Meliodas currently indisposed, there was nothing I could do.

"Are you really the Meliodas I once knew?" Galand asked, incredulous that he'd beaten him so easily.

"Get your hands off of our Captain!" Diane screamed, running towards Galand.

Merlin pointed her magic orb at her. "Magic Cancel."

Diane began to grow in size, larger and larger until she towered over all of us ten times over. So she was the giantess.

"Apport!" Merlin said, and a new outfit appeared on Diane, along with a huge hammer.

She brought down the hammer with enormous force, and I thought she'd really crush Galand, but he just kicked the hammer right back and it hit Diane square in the head, knocking her back onto the ground with a crash. Blood poured from her temple.

"Let's take a moment to strategize!" Merlin said, snapping her fingers. Galand disappeared.

Damn. Merlin was something else. Her power seemed to have grown exponentially since I last saw her.

"Lady Merlin! Amazing," Elizabeth said.

Meliodas grunted as he got up off the floor, and stumbled toward Diane.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

All she could do was groan in response.

"Galand disappeared!" Arthur said.

"That was Big Sister's teleportation," the masked man - Slader - replied.

"I did nothing of the sort," Merlin corrected him. "In an instant, he was miles beyond the range of my magical power. He withdrew."

But there he was, appearing behind Merlin like he was never gone.

"You know, it's sneaky mages like you that I despise the worst," Galand hissed.

"Merlin, run!" Arthur yelled.

Galand raised his scythe, but Slader appeared before her, using 'Overpower' to increase his presence.

Galand cast an even more intimidating spell, roaring loudly and looming over everyone, and Slader's silhouette retreated quickly. Galand knocked him away, cutting off his arm in the process.

"Wait," Merlin called out. "Why don't we make a deal?"

Galand eyed her curiously.

"Galand of the Ten Commandments, serving under the King of the Demon race, your abilities and power have far exceeded my expectations. You can easily kill us if you wanted to, and I would much rather avoid such a bloody confrontation. I would ask that you spare us at this time. In return, we'll give you anything you and your people desire. Whatever you need, I'm sure I can-"

Suddenly, she gasped. A black stormy miasma appeared above her.

"No, Merlin!" I cried out.

"That won't work on him! Galand can't be—" Meliodas started.

"You lied, didn't you?" Galand asked.

Quick as lightning, Merlin began turning to stone. Every inch of her body became encased, until she was like a statue.

Galand laughed heartily. "I am the Ten Commandments' Galand of Truth! Speak any lies before me, and you will turn to stone. Nobody can withstand this commandment, given to me by the Demon King. Now, I'll pulverize you into dust!"

Meliodas tapped me on the shoulder, and whispered in my ear. "Sister, for the love of God, please join the fight."

Finally.

"Stop it, please, she's had enough!" Arthur yelled.

"HUARRGHHH!!!" Meliodas cried out as he brought down his weapon on Galand, his eyes now a dark purple, and a crest sitting on his forehead.

I blinked, feeling the darkness course through me as well, and charged at Galand, whipping my swords over my head wildly. When I brought them down again, they sparked with dark energy. I slashed at Galand with everything I had, wasting no time with one hand before launching another.

It still wasn't enough. He was easily able to deflect both our attacks with ease.

A battle cry emerged, and the soldiers joined in on the battle. I held my blades on both ends in the middle, like a double edged blade, and circled it over my head, then jumped, bringing it down on the metal head's face. He just pushed me away as if he was shooing an insect, and I tumbled to the ground.

"Damnit!" I yelled. I hated being this weak.

I looked up as Meliodas tried the same thing I did, and watched as he slashed off both of Meliodas' arms. He fell to the ground, grunting.

"Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth called out.

He winced, looking back at Galand, who was still laying waste to the other soldiers. "Guess there's no choice. I'm gonna have to do it."

The crest on his forehead grew, and spread below his eye all along his cheek. His body had sections of darkness on it. The space where his arms were a few moments ago grew snake-like darkness, and reached out on either side for his arms, splayed out on the ground. Once they linked, they were pulled all the way back into his arm sockets, and his fingers twitched in life again.

I looked up at his face. He wore an expressionless look, his eyes wide and childlike. His hands emitted waves of dark energy that swirled around him. He walked calmly towards Galand.

I'd seen this look before, when we were younger. He had just gotten a wild surge in power on his eighth (figuratively speaking) birthday and he kind of became a machine, in that he had no expression, no emotion. Just carnage for as far as the eye could see. At first we thought it was really cool, but then he started wiping out entire countries with his true power "Destruction". He managed to grasp the power eventually, when he - and it - grew stronger. But he vowed never to use that power unless absolutely necessary. So Chandler and Cusack, our mentors, taught Zeldris, Meliodas and myself how to use the "Counter" techniques; "Full Counter", "Counter Vanish" and "Revenge Counter".

He didn't look as menacing at this point, but I knew not to underestimate his power.

"This appearance of his..." Galand muttered, intrigued.

"His power level's 13,000. Oh man!" Hawk said.

Meliodas lunged at Galand, kicking him as he slid a few feet back.

I lowered my swords. Looked like my big brother had it handled.

He jumped towards Galand, slashing swiftly at him, his feet not touching the ground, and I watched Galand take all the damage behind his blows. The force was so powerful a large gust of wind blew back towards us.

Suddenly he landed hard, and bent his head, his teeth clenched.

"Captain, are you okay?" Diane asked.

Red lightning began sparking from within him. Not good. He was losing control.

"Don't let the...darkness...swallow...you. Keep it...under control," he muttered, straining to keep the darkness close to him.

"What did you say?" Galand asked, tilting his head.

I walked over to him and stood beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He sent me a silent message without raising his head, and I hummed in agreement.

I willed all the power I had within me to build up. I felt my mark grow as well as the darkness travelled to my arm, then to my hand.

I yelled out and Meliodas growled, and we both held out our hands, directing all the power we could summon at Galand.

The armored demon was encased in a wall of darkness, as high up as we could manage. He cried out in pain.

I strained to keep up this massive amount of power going. It was more than I could handle, but we had to vanquish him. Out of all the Commandments, he pissed me off the most, after him. That fury gave me the strength to keep going.

"This-This darkness of yours is...who'd have thought...that it would weaken...TO THIS DEGREE!"

He threw his scythe at Meliodas, impaling him right in the chest. He lay right in the center, the scythe holding him suspended.

"NO!" I screamed, releasing my power and dropping beside him to analyze his wounds.

He couldn't survive this.

Galand jumped from the little ledge we had created with our powers and landed right in front of us.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!" I yelled, jumping up to protect my brother.

He scoffed, and then I felt immense pain in my stomach. It was an exploding feeling, and I gasped and fell to my knees.

"Prelialduis, you'd think that after being in there with us for all this time you'd reconsider your error in joining this traitor Meliodas. Well, then, you can die with him as well!"

I fell face down onto the floor, summoning enough energy to turn my head to the side.

I watched weakly as he plunged the weapon right into my brother's head, and as Diane, Slader  and Merlin were killed as well. This was the last thing I saw before Galand walked towards me, his scythe moving at deadly speed towards my head.