Four figures stood on a large sandy area separated by a pale white line in the middle, on the left side, you can see a man holding a whip with a small blade attached to the handle next to a woman holding two shields both edged with very sharp blades and designs only comparable to that of greek warriors, their names, Cancer, and Scorpio.
On the opposite side stood a woman, with fiery red eyes glowing with excitement, you can see her waving her greatsword, her name is known only as Leo. Accompanying her is Aries, the brave warrior carrying his sword, he was one of the best.
As the crack of a whip sounded, you can hear a whistle signaling the start of the duel. As the sound faded, Aries quickly leaped forward and rolled against the floor as his sword clashed with the steel of Cancer's shield. Surprised by the sudden attack, Cancer staggered backward only to be replaced by Scorpio as he did a twirl and tried to hit Aries with the bladed rope of his whip. Aries being fast enough to parry the attack, pushed forward and tried to hit Scorpio in the face. Only to be tripped by his lightning-quick reactions as he stuck a foot out and threw his bladed rope towards Leo with the grace like that of a ballet dancer. Leo, of course, not wanting to lose, decided to meet the attack head-on and counter it with her greatsword trying to slice Scorpio in half. Scorpio, wide-eyed with surprise was caught off guard and if not for Cancer kicking Aries in the face while he was down, saved him by throwing one of her shields towards Leo which took the brunt of the force of her attack
"PAY ATTENTION SCORPIO!" She shouted as Scorpio took the opportunity to get up close to Leo and punch her in the nose making her fall down.
Aries, still on the ground and seeing how Leo was punched to the ground, had gotten up and tried for a dropkick against a Scorpio that had his back towards him. Scorpio, turning at the last second, dodged the attack. Aries was unsuccessful and had his side bruised badly. Now on the ground, Aries tried for a quick stab towards his head only to have Scorpio move at the precise moment and kick him off sending him flying towards outside of the play area.
"Shit," Leo said as she tried for a side jab towards Cancer but she just deflected it with her remaining shield, but the moment that both of their weapons were both inaccessible to attack with, Leo sent a punch towards Cancer's stomach as she fell to her knees with Leo holding her greatsword's blade on her neck.
Scorpio seeing how Cancer was vulnerable took the opportunity to send a strong attack towards Leo, successfully hitting her face and cutting a deep one on her cheek just as Aries got back into the fight picking up Cancer's thrown shield and his discarded sword. He started to circle Scorpio as he slowly backed away as he noticed Cancer getting ready to rush behind Aries.
With a nod, Cancer and Scorpio both ran at the same time, Aries seeing both the attacks turned around and slashed at Cancer with her blocking the attack but stopping her dead in her tracks. With Scorpio coming closer, Aries decided to sweep Cancer off of her feet with a quick flick of his feet and jabbed at Scorpio from a lower angle than he had expected.
Scorpio wielding his whip as if it were a knife tried to block Aries jab only to have him be disarmed because of a cut on his hand, deciding to do what he does best, he does a flip and lands behind Aries. With Leo coming closer to the three of them, he wrapped his arm around Aries and choke slamming him onto the ground while quickly grabbing his whip and holding the blade above Aries' throat slowly pressing it harder and harder until Aries tapped out and "died."
Now only up to Leo to win the match, she must find a way to defeat both Cancer and Scorpio with only her greatsword.
Leo quickly tried to do a downwards slice above Cancer, but she dodged out of the way only to be met with Leo's leg propped up behind her making her trip as she did a sidewards slash towards Scorpio. Him, not armed with anything, but his whip, decided to lean backward in a limbo manner, which earned him many claps from the other zodiacs.
Reaching down and grabbing Aries' discarded sword, he went and exchanged back and forth slashes and blows with Leo, she, starting to gain the upper hand, was slowly beating Scorpio. She decided to do a risky move of trying to twirl around and finally finish it but was stopped by Cancer who held the greatsword firmly in place as she tried to disarm Leo. But failed miserably and was kicked to the ground and stabbed on her left arm, causing Taurus and Pisces to pull her out of the fight.
Leo, getting out of her daze, started a barrage of attacks that Scorpio was barely able to defend with Aries' sword. And as Leo pulled the classic side twirl and strike, it landed above Scorpio's neck, thinking that she had won, she started smirking only to notice the blade poking at her stomach which, if pushed through, would be fatal.
"We'll call it a draw then," said Scorpio, out of breath while carefully lowering Aries' sword.
"You've improved from a crybaby to a warrior, Scorpio," Leo said while sheathing her blade, hurriedly walked towards Aries to help him up.
Scorpio watched as Leo picked Aries up. The other zodiac signs were coming down to talk to us. Scorpio then saw cancer sitting alone, "Cancer are you alright? Also, where's Taurus and Pisces?"
"They went to get water from the pond, also you were amazing back there!" Cancer congratulated.
"Well I would've been able to defend myself if you weren't there, you did just as great as me."
"Hey! Cancer! here's the water!" Pisces yelled while running, holding a bowl full of water.
"Hi there, Scorpio, you were awesome back there! You've improved your skills and teamwork."
"Thank you, Pisces, but will you ever spar with any zodiacs soon?" Scorpio replied.
"No thanks, I don't think I'll ever spar with anyone here soon." Pisces smiled, and then she gave the bowl of water to Cancer.
"Thank you, Pisces, but where did Taurus go?" Cancer asked.
"Well, Taurus decided to stay in the pond," replied Pisces.
Cancer took a bit of water from the bowl and put it on her left arm. In a few seconds, her whole arm was healed.
"Hey! Cancer can you heal us too," Leo requested with Aries following back.
"Cancer, I'm very sorry about the arm," Leo apologized.
"Hey, it's called sparring for a reason," Cancer responded.
"Now for your nose and cheek, Leo," Cancer took a bit of water from the bowl and put some on Leo's face, healing both her nose and cheek.
"Aries, your turn," Leo stated.
"I'm fine, no thank you."
"Are you sure?" Leo eyed on Aries, remembering how badly he was beaten by Scorpio.
Cancer not taking any of Aries' bluffing, stood up and grabbed the whole bowl and splashed it at Aries.
"I told you I was fine!" Aries declared as he wiped the water off his face.
"You're ass getting kicked was totally fine to watch," Leo laughed.
Both Scorpio and Pisces chuckled at the situation. Cancer stood up and smacked her hand at Aries' face. The parts where the water hit were all healed.
"Thanks, I guess."
"Well, I guess I'll just return to the pond now, want to come with me?" Pisces asked.
"Sure! I guess I'll see you later, Aries, Leo." Cancer said as she waved goodbye.
Cancer and Scorpio followed Pisces and left Aries and Leo. While the other zodiacs went to do their own thing.
"Wanna head out to the observatory?" Leo suggested.
"Sure, why not."
They went outside the arena where you can see the sky full of stars. The twelve constellations of the zodiacs shone bright and were visible in the sky.
"Did you see how I beat up Cancer!?" Leo said with a smug smile on her face.
"Yeah, you were good."
"You're pretty good too, you just need to work on not getting your ass beat easily."
Aries couldn't help but smile. Leo was a rough girl but he saw her as his equal, and as a leader. She may be a jerk sometimes but it's her way of expressing how she feels. They'd both been best friends for a long time and have a lot of common interests, which among these was fighting.
"Ah crap, I think I got a dent in my greatsword," Leo said as she eyed her weapon. "You didn't do anything rough with your sword, did you?"
"I don't think I did."
"Stupid, I saw you throw your sword earlier. You need to be careful, our weapons were given by the gods after all. And it's not like the earth zodiacs can fix them every time we fight."
"Sorry, I'll be more careful, Leo"
"Good, now here we are," Leo said as she went through an arc-shaped door and led Aries into a big room with glass covering the walls, showing the view full of stars and planets. This was the observatory used by the zodiacs. In the middle, there was a giant telescope that pointed to the top of the observatory.
Inside, Sagittarius was sitting on a couch and looked bored. He was counting his arrows over and over again while Libra was scanning books by the star map on the long table and was glued to what she was currently reading. Both the Gemini twins were using the telescope in the middle to look at planets.
"Ah, Sagittarius! Good timing!" Leo approached him "Can you fix my greatsword for me?"
Sagittarius looked at the small dent that was the size of a coin on the greatsword and looked back up at Leo. Aries took a seat next to him.
"No thanks, I'm pretty busy," Sagittarius told Leo.
"You don't look that busy."
"Well, I am. Why don't you ask Capri over there? She's also good with weapons like me."
Sagittarius pointed at the silhouette of a girl that was hidden in the corner. Capricorn was there looking at stars outside the window.
"Em... Sure," Leo agreed.
She wasn't good friends with Capricorn but she didn't hate her either. Leo was hesitant but she approached Capricorn like a good friend. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean that they don't like you either, right? That was what Leo was thinking.
"Hey Capricorn, can you help me? I dented my weapon during the fight." She told her.
Capricorn looked less than surprised to see her but gave her a smile anyway.
"Sure, but I'll need to take it to the pond where I can use the soil to fix it," she said to her.
"Thank you, Capricorn," Leo said and smiled back as she lent her beloved greatsword to her. Leo was also a little surprised by Capricorn's response. She had heard that she was a serious and scary person but she's pretty nice.
"My turn! My turn!" an energetic young boy's voice filled the observatory.
"It was your turn five seconds ago!" a young girl's voice answered back.
"Was not!" he argued.
It was the Geminis who were playing around with the telescope. Leo joined the twins after lending her weapon to Capricorn to fix it.
"What are you guys doing?" Leo asked them both.
"We're looking at planets!" both of them said in unison.
"What did you find?" She asked. Leo had liked the Geminis. Although, they both made a lot of trouble at times; they reminded her of kids.
"We found a pretty planet, It was blue and had green and yellow patches. I would've liked to look at it longer but she won't let me." the boy Gemini told Leo.
"That's because you keep on hogging it!" the girl Gemini argued back.
"I do not!"
"Yes, you do!"
"Do not!!"
"So why don't you both tell me about the planet you both found?" Leo said. She was good at breaking up small fights like these.
"I think it was called Earth." the boy Gemini said.
Leo and Aries' ears perked up. The other zodiacs in the room suddenly snapped out of what they were doing after they heard them mentioning that name. Of course, everyone here knows what Earth was. It was where they used to live before they became the zodiacs. If not, it was known as a planet favored by the gods.
"So why were both of you interested in Earth?" Leo asked them.
"They're pretty much the only place with anything interesting. Look, a person!"
"Let me see! Haha, he's about to do something stupid."
The three of them were left chatting at the telescope. Aries looked over at Sagittarius who looked a little bit worried.
"What's up?" Aries asked him as he sat down on the sofa next to him.
"I was just wondering if those two might do anything again. They're pretty calm most of the time but they can be pretty dangerous when they become mischievous," he said as he fiddled with an arrow in his hand.
"Yeah," Aries replied.
I remember when the Geminis were new, they used to like playing pranks on each of us. For Sagittarius, they replaced his bow with a breakable one as they kept the real one safe. When it broke, Sagittarius was scared that the gods would punish him for breaking a bow that they gave him and was even thinking of trying to replicate it even though it would cost him his powers. Only when the Gemini's showed him his real bow, he was relieved, and from that day on he never let his weapon be away from him.
"But, they've become more peaceful now though. They're probably pretty bored too so they spend their time at the observatory looking at other places." Aries told him.
Libra slammed her thick book on the table and made a loud thud that surprised the other ones in the room. She let out a loud sigh that echoed throughout the observatory.
"I don't want to keep reading about stuff I can't do, I want to experience it!" she declared.
Apparently, she was reading something about courtrooms again. Libra always likes reading books about justice, lawyers and other stuff like that. She was often viewed as the representation of justice so she believes it is her destiny to be one.
"So much time is being wasted here when we could use that time to go and be productive somewhere else. Instead, we're all trapped in a floating castle in space. Maybe being chosen to be a zodiac was a punishment." She said and rambled on about how everyone, including gods and demigods, should have a free will to go out.
"I wonder what Cancer, Scorpio and the other guys are doing." Aries wondered.
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