†THE FINAL BATTLE†

[Willowstar]

-----Ripred finally emerged from the forest and called with an ear-shattering yowl for the rest of NightClan to come. The time was now for the attack on the clans. He yowled once more and then he started muttering mysterious words in an ancient tongue. All around him, the sky grew dark and winds began to blow. Before the attack, it was an unspoken law to call upon the darkness and ferocity of a terrible storm. Mysticeyes would have his head for doing this before his approval, but honestly, he didn't care a bit. The storm kept growing and he knew that his allies would soon come to start the revenge of many years of pain. The storm would stay contained out of the sight of the clans until NightClan arrived. When they were gathered, Mysticeyes would unleash the storm and let the battle begin. He looked to the sky with a grin and continued what he was doing. In ceremony, Ripred cut open the back of his paw and painted the scarlet liquid onto his face in long stripes. He was ready for the Final Battle.

[eagleflight]

Fierceblood padded up, an evil smile dancing on her lips. The hour of their revenge was nigh. She stretched and unsheathed her claws, ready to taste blood again.

[Snakestar]

Snakestar crouched in the river that ran past the NightClanners, breathing through his gills and paddling fiercely with webbed paws to keep himself from being swept away. He could feel his Clan around him, waiting. When the moment was right, he flung himself out of the river and tried to bite down onto a NightClanner's neck.

[eagleflight]

Eaglestar and most of TangleClan padded quickly into the Unclaimed territory. With their added strength, the journey had taken a fraction of the usual time. Lifting her tail, she signalled for TangleClan to join the fight. Spotting Fierceblood, she ran towards her as fast as she could. The evil she-cat barely had time to react before Eaglestar slammed her head with a heavy blow from a strengthened paw.

Fierceblood reeled, but regained her senses before Eaglestar could follow up. She bared her teeth and leapt at the TangleClan leader. Her paws were faster than any cat's in the forest, so she butted Eaglestar in the flank, her claws gleaming.

Eaglestar barely budged. Her side was slightly sore, but the strength she had received from StarClan made the blow barely hurt. She laughed with delight. Slashing at Fierceblood's throat, her blow connected. Red blood laced the ground around them.

Fierceblood shrieked in pain, but continued to fight. She realized despairingly that the wound was weakening her; the blood loss was making her lightheaded. She leapt onto Eaglestar's back and clawed at the fur around her neck, tearing out pawfuls of brown and white fur.

Rolling, Eaglestar knocked the wind out of Fierceblood, who stayed on the ground where she was, bleeding and panting. She looked at the leader, despair in her amber gaze, as her vision faded into nothingness. She lost the first of her lives.

Eaglestar yowled a victory cry and dragged the dead cat towards the river. "Snakestar!" Eaglestar yowled with a mouthful of fur, "I need your help!" She dragged the cat into the water, but stopped. After all, she couldn't breathe under water.

[Willowstar]

Willowstar came into the clearing with her clan and immediately signalled for her clan to attack. She dove at Ripred, her fur sparking as the wind coursed through her fur. She landed on the assassin's back and started clawing away. Ripred rolled and dislodged the warrior before he bit hard on her tail. He made a nasty gash on her flank, but Willowstar didn't run, instead, she turned and pinned Ripred down. Taking in a full breath, she let out a powerful hiss. Ripred's fur was singed and the look on his face was surprise. Where did that come from? he thought nervously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharkfang bounded over to help Eaglestar. It felt odd for him to be helping a leader from a different clan, but that didn't stop him. Westwind of FireClan came as well to help, but he knew that his time here would be limited for him because of his disability. Suddenly, he noticed little glowing objects in the familiar black void of his sight. They grew to be cat shaped and he realized that the objects were the cats battling with the NightClan warriors. The background remained black, however, but the fact that he could see anything astonished him.

[Shiningstream]

Shiningstream was out as soon as Snakestar had signaled the attack. She looked around, analyzing the situation. Sharkfang was helping Eaglestar, and the deputy could see that he didn't need her help. Shaking some of the water from her fins, Shiningstream dove away from the stream to Willowstar's side. Her eyes glistened as she glared down as Ripred with icy calmness. Althought she would regret telling the FireClan leader what to do, she mewed, "Please, Willowstar. This Ripred killed my best friend and my love's old mate. Please, let one of us bring him down!" Shiningstream's fins were twitching ever so often, loving the feeling of her lithe shape being altered as she pinned an unsheathed paw on Ripred's head.

[eagleflight]

Eaglestar dropped Fierceblood's scruff. "Hold her under the water!" she ordered. "Only your Clan can breathe underwater." Fierceblood began to stir. "Quickly!"

[eagleflight]

Phoenixflame padded into the clearing after Willowstar and leaped towards Ripred. He hissed and a burst of flame leapt forward. "Leave our forest, NightClanner," he growled, "or we will burn you to ashes!"

[Tigerfur]

Deadpaw ran into the clearing happy at the feeling to be able to run on all four of his paws. He launched himself into the fight. He knew he should have stayed but at camp but he wanted to fight, and this might be the only chance he got to do that. He threw himself into the mass of cats as he tried to attack the Nightclanners.

------


Moonstorm came in like a ...well moonstorm, her fur shimmered as she attacked. She was still unused to hissing fire but she kept it under control. She tried to fight her way towards her leader, attacking any Nightclanner that was near. May Starclan lead us to victory, she prayed as she clawed and lashed out.

[Ebonystar]

Despite the fact that she could just as well fly as walk, Ebonystar arrived in the clearing with all four of her feet planted firmly on the ground. Certainly, it was obvious enough what her Clan could do in the way of StarClan's gift, but showing off all of her tricks before she actually started battling seemed to be a waste.

Seeing that the battle had already started, the LedgeClan leader squinted into the ranks of the three other Clans, and of NightClan as well. The cats of NightClan were outnumbered, true enough; but the fact remained that they could die, and then return as any leader would, a strength not granted by StarClan, but by some other force, this one of sheer evil.

Letting out a ferocious yowl, Ebonystar spread the elegant ravens' wings on her back, and launched herself into the air. She'd had time enough to practice that she could handle the sensation of rising into the air, but it was almost surprising to her nevertheless. The ground fell away so fast, and then she was completely airborne.

Circling for an instant, Ebonystar glanced around for a NightClanner to attack. When she spotted one, her wings folded a little, and she went into a head-on dive toward the ground. She wasn't going to hit the ground, though - she had every intention of using all of this momentum to hit the NightClan cat up ahead. For once in her life, the LedgeClan leader aimed to kill; they could not afford any lack of effort in this battle, after all.

[Snakestar]

Snakestar heard Eaglestar's calls. He leapt quickly towards the dead body of Fierceblood, dragging her deeper into the river. I can't do this alone, he thought. She's too heavy. I need help. It has to be a CreekClanner that helps me, only we can breath underwater, as Eaglestar said. Snakestar scanned the area. All the CreekClanners' were busy. Then he saw the apprentice. "Deadpaw! Over here!"

Depthgaze followed his leader into the air, his large peregrin falcon wings built for speed and dives. He spotted Ebonystar, his secret love, diving towards Ripred, and followed her. The blue-grey tom would do anything for this cat, and he folded his wings and went into a dive, peregrin-falcon style. His different wings overtook Ebonystar's, but there was no time to think of that now. He turned upwards at the last minute, straight into the evil cat's side.

[Spottedstorm]

Spottedstorm was busy ripping the fur out of one of the NightClanners beside a cat from a different cat, then seeing her leader in need, leaped off of the cat and bounded over to the river, dived in the water and came up beside him, "Need help?" she meowed cheerily. She loved battles.

[Tigerfur]

Deadpaw heard his name being called and rushed to the water. He had never been one for swimming but he had to for his leader. After making a small call to Starclan he jumped in. The water felt better than being on land, as he swam to where Snakestar. "Yes Snakestar what do you want me to do?" he asked his voice firm and strong like a warriors.

[Willowstar]

Sharkfang whipped the NightClan cat into the water and held her underwater. The sensation of being able to breathe underwater spread a smile on his face. However, he focused on drowning the NightClan warrior and it proved to be more difficult than he imagined.

Ripred slid out of the way and heard from afar that a few cats were bickering over who gets to kill him. "Neither of you get the great honor! I, get the burden of wasting my-" He lashed out with his claws at a nearby cat. "-precious energy on one of you -oof- fleabags." As he was saying this, Willowstar gave him a hard hit on the ribs. "He's all yours." She said to Shiningstream, exasperated.

Whitewing entered the battlefield and shook his wings out. Now, which one to attack first? he thought as he scanned the fighting cats. Pumping the air with his new wings, he steadily rose into the air. His wings ached with tension, but strangely, it didn't seem to bother him, like the wings had been there all along. Whitewing locked on to an enemy cat and dove to attack from the air.

[moody]

Seabiscuit stood there thinking which one he will attack first then he caught a sight of Ripred close by, remembering Ripred murdered his sister, Runningheart. He then ran to Ripred and jumped on top of Ripred's neck, biting him, hoping that Ripred will die now but he knew that he must fight all way to Ripred's last life. "I will revenge you, Ripred because of you murdered my sister, Runningheart." He really hated Ripred but he knew that he must kill him, hope that he won....