Infographic: How Do Colors Affect Purchases?

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

I have written in the past about how to use color in your book covers and how color can boost your book sales. Today, I came across a Kissmetrics infographic on LexisClick (thanks to Mike Guess of InSync Media for the tip). The infographic includes a ton of useful information on how colors affect purchases. As LexisClick reminds us,people are visual beings –90% of all information absorbed by the human brain is visual. People process visual information60,000times faster than textual information.

It’s no surprise, then, that consumers place visual appearance and color above other factors when shopping. A full 93% of online shoppers place the visual appearance of products as the most important factor affecting their purchase and 85% of shoppers consider color as a primary factor when making the buying decision.

Use the information below to choose the right color for your designs, depending on…

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Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 43 #fiction #throwback

(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

(Again, we shall revel in my teenage originality.  Everyone groan in unison.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

The battlefield resembles ground zero of an atomic bomb explosion once the thick cloud of dust has been cleared by an alien wind.  Large rocks and other charred pieces of debris are scattered all over the area.  The villain’s Black Tower has been toppled onto its side and their great warship has been annihilated.  Many of the evil immortals are either unconscious or buried under heavy piles of rubble.  Most of the Clan of Fire had run away when their masters starting fighting with the guardians, but some of them were loyal enough to stay around and they were ripped apart by skin piercing projectiles.  Only the pit that Miracle and Hydrana were previously kept in was not been badly damaged.

“Wow.  I can’t believe he actually did it.  I never thought that he would be noble enough to do something of this magnitude,” whispers Adriana from the bottom of the pit.  During the fight she had fallen in and had woken up in time to see the angry tempest above her head.  Of course, she wasn’t the only one in the pit.

“Did what?” says Fate as he clambers out from under a small pile of rocks.

“Solix really didn’t bother teaching you and your friends about the toys that you will be wielding if you defeat us.  That’s his mistake and your problem though. To explain in a very simple way, your leader used the ultimate power of the Solstar medallion.  Again I’m surprised you didn’t realize that.  He just committed suicide and didn’t even bother killing me.”

“How do you even know Solix is dead?”

“I really wish Solix told some of you about the true power of the sun weapon.  He could not have expected me to stop trying to kill you in order to give you the background story.  Do I look like a narrator?  But I guess none of the information I have really matters anyway.  No one can use the Solstar medallion ever again.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” claims Fate.  He presses against the side of his neck and causes the sign of power to appear.  The blue comet marking still pulsates with infinite power, but Fate doesn’t notice the twinge of energy anymore.  When Adriana sees the glowing mark, she makes a quick lunge at him.  She stops in mid-stride as soon as she recognizes the sword of light pointed at her head.  Adriana goes into a slow crouch and eyes Fate like a hungry lion would eye a wounded tiger.  Her face shows great respect and anger toward her younger opponent.

“I don’t believe this.  You defeated Draveon and stopped me from eliminating the planet guardians all by your lonesome?  The final battle you had help, but if you had not broken the cage and saved Hydrana, your victory would have been a dream.  It looks like I underestimated you, Fate.  I mean, I really underestimated you.  So, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other until one of us is dead.  That is if you choose to spare my life right now,” mentions Adriana.  She puts the sharp point of the sword against her breast and waits for the feeling of sharp metal to slowly cut through her beating heart.  The blade does cut into her hand and she smiles as Fate notices the blood dripping onto the ground.

“What do you think you’re doing?  Let go of the sword.”

“I’m giving you an easy shot.  Come on, Mars guardian.  Plunge the sword into my chest and this war is over before it really begins.  The others will be totally confused and start fighting amongst themselves if I’m dead.  By the time they are done, the guardians only have to sweep in to clean up the survivors.  I’m the glue of this entire organization and without me they are enemies to each other.  Come on, Fate.  At this range, you can’t possibly miss me.  Unless you’re blind, but with your luck powers that wouldn’t matter.  So, come on.  Kill me.  I can see that you’re just dying to do it.”

“No.  I’ve seen enough death for one day.  I’m not going to kill you.”

“Why the hell not?  You know that deep in your heart you want to.  And if you don’t kill me now, you’ll only be giving me a chance to destroy you later.  Trust me, Fate.  Given the slightest chance I will slaughter you.”

“Try all you want, Adriana.  I can handle anything and everything that you’re capable of throwing at me.  You’re out of your league,” announces Fate.  He lowers the sword and starts to look for a way out of the pit.

“Out of my league?  You have got to be kidding.  Please don’t ever lose that sense of humor, kid.  I’m your eternal equal in every possible way and, unfortunately, both of our futures are entwined.  You see, as leader of your enemies, I will personally get the honor of killing you in our final battle.  On the other hand, only you will get the great honor of killing me in our final battle.  Do you see where I’m going with this?  Probably not.  If anyone is out of their league, it’s the rest of the immortals because none of them are as powerful as the two of us.  Except for my darling daughter of course.  She takes after me in power and skills,” explains Adriana.  She seductively walks up to Fate and puts her slender arms around his neck.  Without warning, she kisses him and presses her body hard against his.  Fate pushes her off as soon as he feels her perfect teeth bite through his lower lip.

“Not into the kinky stuff?” ask Adriana with a sultry smile.

“How do you know it will end with me against you?” replies Fate ignoring her unusual question.

“Good question.  Startrix is a very powerful seer.  She can see the future and predict what will happen, but her power tends to be unpredictable.  Once we arrived in this galaxy, about eighteen years ago, she had a vision concerning me.  She said that the final battle in the first year of the immortal wars will be between me and the guardians’ leader.  I thought she meant Solix, but it looks like my destiny is linked with yours.  You see, Startrix’s visions are kind of hard to interpret.  Also, I think it’s classic for the leaders to have the final battle against each other.  There are some rules that years of wars in this universe have developed.”

“You don’t sound too depressed about Solix not being in charge.  He would have been a lot easier to beat than me.”

“I know.  Of course, Solix is not as easy on the eyes as you are.  If you weren’t a major threat to my life, I would have a really good time playing with you.  Then again if you ever decided to change sides like a good little boy.  Or is that like a bad little boy?  Eh, who cares?  You know what I mean.”

“That doesn’t look like its going to happen.  Ever.  So, you have no idea which one of us will survive.  What makes you think only one of us will win?  Both of us could be killed in the final battle.”

“Maybe.  Startrix fainted before the vision had ended and she has never had it again,” says Adriana.  She watches intently as Fate nimbly climbs out of the pit by jumping from one rocky wall to the other.  As she swiftly leaps out of the pit in the same manner, Adriana hears a weird droning noise.  She recognizes it as Hellax’s stolen vertigo battle-axe.

“What should we do with him, boss?” remarks Hellax when he stops spinning his jewel-encrusted battle-axe.  Fate quickly flips Hellax into the pit, but gets tackled and beaten down by Cybro and Psylon.  The two murderers finish binding Fate and disarming him as Adriana makes a final flip out of the pit.

“I’ll tend to the Mars guardian in a few minutes.  Who are we missing, Startrix?” Adriana asks.  She finds the staff of healing where it had fallen near the pit and she swiftly kicks it into the air before grabbing it.

“Kilanus, Mindtrigger, and Draveon are not here.  Mindtrigger was thrown over those far mountains by a gust of wind because he tried to fly away, but I have seen that he will return in a day or two.  We think Draveon was somewhere in the warship when it blew up.  You do not have to worry, Psylon.  Your husband is alive somewhere under all those heavy rocks and the remains of our warship,” reports Startrix.

“Who cares about Draveon?  That guy could survive anything that could possibly happen to him.  Where is Kilanus?  Where is my daughter!”  Adriana grabs Startrix and begins shaking her friend like a little child.

“Calm down, Adriana.  Your daughter is alive and well.  Infinity locked her in the cage we had made for the guardians.  She’s asleep in the cage as we speak,” answers Tegam as he points to the nearby cage that is lying upside down.  Kilanus is silently curled up like a cat inside the broken cell and the remains of Mindtrigger’s device are strewn about her.

“It looks like Solix let all nine of us live and only destroyed our warship.  Is there any sign of the Solstar medallion?” says Adriana.  Startrix hands the powerful necklace to her old friend and goes to let Kilanus out of the cage.

“What do you plan to do with it?  Hey, I’ve got a great idea.  Use it on this pathetic guardian,” Psylon mentions with a twisted smile.  She lets go of Fate and watches Cybro toss their prisoner in front of Adriana.  Fate closes his eyes expecting the worse to happen and takes a very deep breath.  In the back of his mind, he tries to find a way to escape.  But every idea is shot down by the fact that he is outnumbered.

“I have a much better idea,” whispers Adriana.  She yanks Fate to his feet by his shirt and she stares at him with cunning, blue eyes.  Then she does the unexpected.  Adriana puts the Solstar medallion around the Mars guardian’s neck and lets go of his shirt.

“What are you doing?  Have you gone totally around the bend, woman?  If you have not realized yet, this boy is our enemy!” exclaims Cybro.

“I know that, tin man.  If I choose to give him back the medallion then that is my final decision.  Do you understand that, Cybro?  Because if you don’t, I will personally turn you into sheet metal.  The guardian also gets the sword of light.  Beating Draveon by himself and without large weapons has earned him a decent prize.  Now, I want everyone here to go repair the Black Tower!  And if you want, you can try to dig Draveon out of the rubble as well!” orders Adriana at the top of her lungs.  The other villains leave her alone with the somewhat stunned, and very confused, Mars guardian.

“Why didn’t you kill me and keep the Solstar medallion?” asks Fate after a few silent minutes of staring at Adriana, who is looking on at the work of her fellow immortals.  Adriana turns to him with a friendly smile and heals him with her staff.  All the cuts on Fate’s body disappear and his energy is replenished.

“The answer to that is simple.  You’re the only one who can use the sun weapon now that Solix is nothing more than a rapidly fading memory.  That weapon is useless to me, so I see no reason for keeping it.  Besides, you can’t use it for a very long time, which gives me several chances to kill you.”  Adriana starts to go help the others, but stops twelve feet away from Fate and turns around.

“You really want to know why I spared your life instead of destroying you?”

“I wouldn’t mind if you let me in on your little secret.  Is it because you aren’t as evil and twisted as you act?”

“Not even close.  I may not be as insane as some of the others that I work with, but I am not nice and caring when it comes to my enemies.  But the one thing I have never done in my centuries of life is left a favor, no matter how small, unpaid.  You could have killed me in the pit, but instead you decided to let me live.  I am grateful for your show of honor and compassion on this wretched soul.  Just consider this a favor being returned.  Our future encounters may not be so pleasant.  Then again, I am very unpredictable.”

“There has to be much more to it than that.  What’s the real reason you let me go?   In the pit, you seemed a tiny bit on the affectionate side.”

“You’re cute, but not that cute, Fate.  Though I will not say that there isn’t some strange attraction that I feel towards you, but it is very far from love or lust.  I can’t quiet place why you strike a cord in my brain.  But my real reason for not killing you deals with that vision I told you about early.  I’m not ready to eliminate an opponent as skillful and powerful as you are.  You see, I relish in playing games and competing with worthy opponents instead of killing them without having any fun.  They don’t get any worthier than the leader of the planet guardians’.  Don’t make me a liar by disappointing me.  Until the next time, Mars guardian,” explains Adriana.  She turns away and leaves Fate alone.

“Until the next time, Adriana,” whispers Fate as he runs off toward the guardians’ space skimmer.  The others are calmly waiting for him and intently listen to his long story for the entire trip back to the sun base.

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Garians and the Dawn Fangs #fantasy #vampires

This might be something that I revisit later, but I realized recently that I never brought up this anomaly in War of Nytefall.  For some quick background, the Garians are a holy order who follow Gar the God of Knowledge.  Those who read Legends of Windemere might remember seeing him show up in a pantheon meeting scene or how his great library was visited by Trinity.  I find myself using them a lot lately, which is what made me realize that they are fairly unique among the temples.  This deals entirely with the Dawn Fangs and their origins.

If you pay any attention to fantasy where holy magic and undead are involved, you would know that these don’t mix.  Priests, priestesses, druids, and paladins are all trained to destroy such creatures.  It’s one of their most important tasks aside from healing and, if the author does so, convert people to the faith.  This is where your battle-oriented priests tend to shine because it raises them above the role of healer.  Of course, this is fairly nuanced since you need undead for the powers to be of use.  In a world like Windemere, you don’t have to worry because there are skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghasts, ghosts, vampires, liches, and all manner of undead wandering about.  So, I always used priests and priestesses from the more ‘anti-monster’ orders like Durag the Sun God and Zaria the Purity Goddess.

Then, I reached the Dawn Fangs who can be affected by holy magic, but they can recover from it faster.  It still hurts because they have some undead nature, especially with their magical auras.  As I was preparing the books, I thought they would always have a problem with priests.  Loyalty even had a big focus on the Duragians, who returned to be a threat in Eradication.  This was how I thought it would be until I reached a point in Loyalty where Clyde and Mab had to infiltrate a temple.  This was a tiny footnote and supposed to be a section that shows off their thief skills and teamwork.  I didn’t have a plan to reveal much information beyond something to send them in a direction for the rest of the plot.  Made perfect sense for the book.

Instead, something went sideways in the form of High Priest Huntley Pyodorus.

I think this happened because I felt like I couldn’t just call this guy they ran into the ‘priest’.  Once he had a name, he needed a personality and then I had him be friends with Gregorio Roman.  This introduced the concept of species tomes and turned the Garian order into more than a collection of libraries.  I mean, I always knew I’d make them bigger because Gar is an ascended who played a major role in the ‘Tears of Gola’ trilogy that I want to do at some point.  This managed to push the evolution a lot quicker and in a different direction.  Not only the Garian order, but the Dawn Fangs and the whole of Windemere in general got a new facet.

Under the new perspective, I saw that Garians wouldn’t set out to destroy undead or any other creature.  They are gatherers of knowledge and educators, which doesn’t fit with the more warrior types.  Even healing is secondary to cataloging history and teaching people about it, especially after the Great Cataclysm.  They do know how to defeat undead and will do so if they find themselves in a dangerous situation, but they won’t go out of their way like other orders.  This makes them a stranger, pseudo-ally of the Dawn Fangs at times.  They would see these new vampires as something to be observed and studied instead of erased.  It would become even more apparent that they will change Windemere when they learn of Clyde’s dream of unity.  At times, I felt like I was going borderline pacifist with the order too.  It really made them stand out among the other orders that acted fairly uniformly in regards to undead.

I’m starting to think about other orders that will be turning up down the road.  In the next series, I have conjoined twins with each one being a priestess to a different order.  One follows the Goddess of Pain and the other follows the Goddess of Joy.  It’s from the game that the main character originated in and a big part of it is them wanting to get separated because they don’t really get along.  Anyway, that’s a story for another time.  The point is that I’m not trying to think of how those orders work in a unique way.  They won’t all have the Dawn Fangs or Huntley Pyodorus to act as catalysts though, so I might have gotten lucky with how the Garians worked out.  Only time will tell.

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Teaser Tuesday: Masters of Disguise #fantasy #vampires

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

Here’s a fun excerpt from War of Nytefall: Rivalry.  I was originally going to do this scene the other way around, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity for humor.  I don’t think Clyde would either, which is why this makes sense to me.  He enjoys getting rises out of people, especially since he can’t find a good fight.  Enjoy and get your own copy for the whole story.

Continue reading

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Songs of Nytefall: Ravenous

 

Now, I know this was supposed to be an October event and things were going to go back to non-music during November.  The problem is that I felt wrong doing this for all of the books, except for War of Nytefall: Ravenous.  Next Monday will have songs for the overall series too just to give people a warning.  I stumbled onto a lot of songs that worked for both, which is why I couldn’t stop until it was all on the blog.

At first, I was going to use this for another book, but the words made me think of something in Ravenous.  Not Desirae Duvall, but I could make that connection.  It’s the addiction subplot that kept popping into my head when I thought about where this song fit into the series.  I just imagine the suffering character practically begging with the addiction to be left alone.

Surprised it took me this long to use an anime theme.  I was trying to avoid it, but this song is too perfect.  You have Desirae with her high libido that she doesn’t hide.  You have the person whose hunger has gone out of control.  The character with an addiction that they obviously can’t control.  You have people lusting after Desirae too.  Characters are just consuming and feeding their urges all over this book.

Linkin Park songs are always thrown into the mix when I’m writing.  At least, if Pandora is being nice to me.  I was torn between this or ‘Crawling’, but I didn’t feel the addicted character was at the second song.  This one makes me think about how the vampires consider time.  Some act like immortality gives them all the time in the world to reach their goals.  Others are never satisfied with going slow and need to continually make progress to justify their existence.  Then, you have ones who have fallen into the trap of immortality where pain doesn’t go away.  They begin to feel that nothing matters, but they don’t have an ‘end’ to look forward too.

Find out the connections in
War of Nytefall: Ravenous
On Amazon!

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Off and Running #NaNoWriMo

Mae Clair's avatarStory Empire

Happy Monday, SEers!  It’s day two of the November write-a-thon known as NaNoWriMo.

water splashIf you’re participating, no doubt you geared up for yesterday and made a huge splash with your word count. Go you!

At the same time, pace yourself. The danger with any race, especially a long-distance event, is burning out too soon. As someone who has done NaNo several times, I put the bulk of my energy up front. I’m one of those writers who burst from the gate with a bullet of speed. My first day word count in 2019 was 9,037. Pretty impressive, huh? (I’m writing this post ahead of time,  prior to November 1, 2020 when, hopefully, I knock it out of the ballpark again).

But like the hare and the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race. It doesn’t matter how splashy your entrance, only that you cross the finish line.

tortoise in grass fieldHow do you…

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Personal Anthem?

I’ve been thinking a while about doing a list of songs that show how I’m feeling or describe myself.  It’s something that I’ve done in the past, but it’s fun to use newer songs.  To be honest, I haven’t had any luck finding the perfect one . . . ever.  It’s either too dark or too happy or has only one aspect that fits me.  So, I didn’t have many hopes for what I was going to use this time.

Then, I began hearing ‘Overwhelmed’ by Royal & the Serpent.

Honestly, this one has me thoroughly pegged.  I can even remember having the reactions that are mentioned like eyeing exits when in a crowd.

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Happy Halloween Goals!

First, Happy Halloween!  (Had the above song on loop while I wrote this.)

This was a week that shall be written in the anals of history!  You heard me!  Look, I survived it with all limbs attached even if they’re a bit twitchy.  Whatever could go wrong would go wrong, but then the really big disasters would fix themselves at the last minute to leave only a horde of minor headaches to handle.  This was in school, parenting, and everything else.  I really couldn’t catch a break.  Even when I went out for a few drinks with a friend, my positive mood got brought down almost as soon as we went our separate ways for the night.  This trend went all the way until last night when things finally took a turn towards tolerable.

Obviously, I didn’t get any writing done this week.  Last time I worked on War of Nytefall: Eulogy prior to last night was the previous Friday.  I’m 2 chapters away from the end and I’ll get at least 1.33 done before Monday.  My hope to finish this series by the end of October didn’t happen, which is disappointing.  Good chance that I’ll finish it by the end of Tuesday.  I might use the rest of the week to work on outlines for a few stories and think about what to write next.  I wouldn’t be able to get to it until after the next period that I have my son, but that gives me more outlining time. Ruins of the Zodiac Gods can be put to semi-bed by that point, which is a victory.

Since Curing Bedlam is going to be in outlining mode for a bit, I think I only have one project to tackle and it’s making me nervous.  Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) is the only one that is ready to go and I might be able to blow through it relatively quickly.  I’ve made detailed notes to help me craft the 2-3 page entries that will be done in a blog style.  Yet, I’m having doubts.  With blog traffic and sales down as well as seeing more successful people be celebrated, I really wonder why anyone would listen to my advice.  Who would look at my Amazon rankings and barely there audience then think I have any idea of what I’m doing?  It was pointed out a few months ago that people only make writing tip books after they’re successful.  So . . . will my words have any impact on anyone?  If anything, my inability to sell things will be a hurdle.

You can tell I had a rough week because I’m feeling down.  Had a lot of panic attacks this week because of the barrage.  I’ll be happy to rest and get some writing done this weekend.  I get my son for Halloween evening/night too, so we’ll wander the neighborhood to see if any candy bowls are out and enjoy the decorations.  Then, I’m going to show him ‘Gremlins’ and maybe ‘The Last Kids on Earth’ before I have to bring him back to his mom.  He had a good week as far as eating goes, so I’m hoping that storm is over.

Guess this is a short one.  I’ve got nothing else of interest to share.  Watching ‘The Slayers’ after finishing ‘The Boys’ Season 2.  I saw ‘New Mutants’ this week, which isn’t worth talking about.  Saw good ideas scattered about, but the final product felt like it was tossed out just to get it over with.  It’ll probably be a while before I start anything new since I’m moving slow through ‘The Slayers’.  Part of the reason is because I’m passing out fairly quickly in the night.  The oddest thing is that I try to watch the show while lying down in bed, start to doze off, stop for the night, and then I’m unable to fall asleep for another 30 minutes.  It’s like the TV itself is making me fall asleep even though I’m interested in the story.  The mystery that is me.

Goals for the week:

  1. Fun for Halloween!
  2. Finish War of Nytefall: Eulogy
  3. Outline other stories
  4. Maybe start writing Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips)
  5. Make it to Friday
  6. Try to get one round of biking in.
  7. Succumb to the cold weather and wear long-sleeve shirts.
  8. Have a few drinks when the time is right and safe.
  9. Try to stay warm.
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Halloween Funnies!

Tomorrow is Halloween, which means . . . I really don’t know because I’m setting this up in late July.  Trick-or-treating might be a thing since masks are part of costumes.  Unlike last year, I’ve got my son for most of the holiday.  On a Saturday means we can stay up late as well.  Anyway, I’ll be busy tomorrow and it’s usually the ‘goal post’.  That leaves today for for the funnies:

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Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 42 #fiction #throwback

(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

(Again, we shall revel in my teenage originality.  Everyone groan in unison.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

In the pit, Miracle and Hydrana can barely hear a word that has been said.  They could only hear the constant, and increasing, humming of Psylon’s weapon.  It isn’t until Miracle drops to her knees and starts screaming in a high pitched cry that they know things are a lot worse than they originally suspected.

“Leave me alone!” Miracle screams as loud as she can.  Her body starts going into violent seizures for a few minutes, after which her body suddenly goes limp and very still.  Everyone on the pit’s edge looks down quietly as Hydrana goes to see what happened to her friend.  The Venus guardian is lying in a heap and her mouth starts twitching after a few seconds.

“Kelly?  Miracle?  Wake up,” whispers Hydrana, who is kneeling beside the fallen Venus guardian.  Slowly Miracle’s green eyes open and she carefully gets to her feet.

“Are you okay?”

“Never better.  Here.  Let me help you up,” answers Miracle as she quickly takes Hydrana’s hand.  Before the Neptune guardian knows what is happening, Miracle tosses her into one of the huge rocks.  A loud crack fills the air before the crowd starts to ecstatically yell and howl like a pack of wolves.  Hydrana gets to her feet, but has trouble standing on her left leg because it has been cleanly broken.  She soon realizes that her body will have trouble healing the injury because she will have to keep using the bad leg in order to stay away from the advancing Venus guardian.

“What was that for!” yells Hydrana.  She ducks a fast punch to her head and awkwardly tackles Miracle.  They start clawing and kicking each other until Miracle gets her feet against Hydrana’s stomach.  She sends the redhead flying a few yards away with a savage push with her legs.  Hydrana lands with a thud and the crowd’s cheers grow even louder than before.  The two guardians flip onto their feet and wait for the other to make another move.

“This is tiring.  Why don’t you just make my job easier and stop fighting back?  You don’t stand a chance against someone with my type of raw power.  I’m easily your superior in every possible way, Hydrana.  So just give up and die,” says Miracle while she creates a hammer that is similar to the one that Mindtrigger had thrown at Hydrana several hours before.  Miracle hurls the hammer at the Neptune guardian, but Hydrana nimbly leaps over it and lands in front a stunned Miracle.  The landing is awkward and everyone sees a little bit of bone poking through the skin and a dribble of blood going down Hydrana’s leg.

“Like that’s ever going to happen,” retorts Hydrana while she ignores the bursts of pain in her leg.  Hydrana knocks Miracle out of the pit by hitting her with a point-blank water blast to her bare stomach.  The Neptune guardian quickly gets out of the pit by making a strong waterspout that sends her arching into the air.

“This is so much better than doing the messy job myself.  I’m having so much more fun just watching the two of you try to kill each other.  You girls would have made a very dangerous team.  I wouldn’t have been surprised if both of your powers combined would have been able to stop all of us.  Too bad one of you has to die today,” claims Adriana once Hydrana gracefully lands next her.  Miracle jumps at the redhead, but the attacking guardian gets knocked into Adriana by Infinity, who is still in the cage.  His powers moved faster than the containment field could compensate for, but it soon realizes what has happened.  The energy field around the cage zaps him for using his powers and he falls to the metal floor groaning in pain.

“Okay, psycho slut.  How did you do this to her?” asks Hydrana.  She deep-freezes Miracle’s arms and legs to the ground with thick ice clamps and lifts Adriana up by the sultry blonde’s neck.  The villain effortlessly knocks the guardian’s hands away with a single swipe and hits Hydrana in the gut with the butt of her staff.  Adriana grabs Hydrana’s hair and pulls the guardian’s head back in order to reveal her slender neck.

“Obviously, you haven’t studied any of the guardians’ ancient weapons.  If you did, you would have immediately realized that Psylon used Earth’s morning star of mind control on your little friend.  Miracle is under our control now and the quickest way you can save her is with my magic staff.  Of course, that’s the joke because you aren’t getting your hands on this staff.  Unless they are removed from the rest of you that is.”

Adriana takes a curvy dagger out of her boot and is about to slit her enemy’s throat when a distant glitter of light catches her eye.  This speck of light starts to grow rapidly as everyone quiets down.  Adriana looks up in time to see a beam of white energy shatter the dagger and slam into the cage door.  The smoking door falls to the ground and Solix jumps out with Infinity slowly following him into battle.

“Sorry for cutting it so close, but I had trouble finding a way out of that oversized piece of junk,” explains Fate as he jumps down from a nearby cliff.  Adriana is about to say something insulting, but Solix grabs her staff and knocks her onto the frozen ground.  She hangs on for a little while until Infinity slams her against the ground with a telekinetic hand.  Adriana lets go after getting her head stuck in the ground.

“I think we need this more than you, Adriana,” says Solix before he fires the staff’s soft, blue energy into Miracle.  When Hydrana releases the Venus guardian’s arms and legs from the ice clamps, Miracle starts asking what happened.  Before anyone can tell her what she almost did, Tegam attacks the confused guardian from behind.

“I really wanted to avoid a bloodbath, but you five have left me no more options.  Kill the guardians!” shouts Adriana as she sweeps Solix’s legs out from under him and takes her staff back.  She stands over him while hitting him everywhere with the magic staff and she makes sure to give him a few hard kicks to his ribs.

Adriana is about to shatter the older immortal’s skull with an overhead smash, but Fate runs in to viciously punch her in the face.  She spin kicks the younger immortal in the head, only to get a knee jammed into her back.  When Adriana jump kicks the guardian he grabs her outstretched leg to flip her, and then punches her in the back again while she is still in midair.  At one point, both of them manage to ram heads and they collapse to the ground with severe headaches.

“That hurt.  And I remember Solix telling me once that pain was an illusion,” mutters Fate while shaking his head.

“It is.  It’s the blood that’s real.  Let’s not do that again.  My skull couldn’t take another one of those jolts,” groans Adriana as her head clears.

“Deal.  I honestly don’t know what I was thinking.  Hitting people with your head is not a good idea unless you’re a rhino or something made of stone.”

“You’re telling me.  Well, let’s continue.”  The two blond-haired immortals start going punch for punch and kick for kick until Fate tackles the seducer.  Adriana constantly bites and claws at Fate while he rapidly punches her in any place that she leaves open.

“For his sake, I hope he isn’t enjoying that,” mutters Miracle as she pokes Tegam in his eyes and uppercuts him in the nose.  The jester stumbles back before pouncing on Miracle in order to pin her arms down.

“Forget about him, babe.  You can do a whole lot better than that weak geek.  Why not spend a couple thousand years with me?  You have exactly what I look for in a woman.  Nice body, cute smile, good sense of humor, and a savage punch,” whispers Tegam with a sinister sneer.  Suddenly, a large kitchen sink crashes down on his head and vanishes.  Since Tegam still doesn’t get off of her, Miracle creates several bowling balls that keep falling on his body until she has to push the cursing jester off of her.  Miracle looks over at Hydrana fighting Psylon while she takes Tegam out with a swift kick below his ribs.

“I’m going to enjoy seeing you burn to a crisp, water sprite,” growls Psylon as she pushes against Hydrana’s water blast with her own fire blast.  The element controllers’ power fight doesn’t seem to be going anywhere until Startrix and Hellax start to quietly sneak up behind the Neptune guardian.  Startrix has a sizzling arrow ready while Hellax walks toward Hydrana with outstretched hands to grasp her with.

“Water sprite?  That’s supposed to be an insult?  Sprites are so small and cute,” replies Hydrana.

“I hate things that are small and cute.  Unless they’re being cooked for food.  Actually, I like my meat raw and screaming.”

“That is so gross.  How can you possibly come up with that type of idea?  It’s disgusting to even mention.”

“I guess it takes a special kind of genius to enjoy a good kill.  We’ll see what kind of kill you are after I burn you.”

“Hey!  I don’t mean to interrupt your stunning conversation, but Startrix and Hellax are trying to sneak up behind you, Hydrana.  You may want to do something about them,” warns Miracle just as Mindtrigger drops on her with an orange staff in his hands.  Miracle pushes him off and leaps away while the older immortal continues to fly after her.  Soon they are on the outskirts of the battlefield doing what would look like a beautiful dance.  Miracle keeps dodging and flipping around while Mindtrigger gracefully dives after her.

“Nice try,” thinks Hydrana as she backhands Startrix into Hellax and freezes both of them to the ground.  But the minor distraction allows Psylon to get the upper hand.  The pyrokinetic’s fire blast starts to get much closer to Hydrana and gets close enough to make the guardian begin to sweat.  With a sudden burst of extra strength, Hydrana pushes the blazing fire blast back and the two immortals are deadlocked again.  This time Hydrana’s right knee is a few inches off the ground as she continues to push against the fire.

“I can keep this fight up as long as you can, Psylon!  But I’m really getting bored with this stalemate!” Hydrana yells.  She lets herself fall to the ground and then she swiftly rolls out of the way.  The fire blast goes flying past her to roast a nearby Mavik.  Hydrana instinctually turns her head away from the burning corpse and looks up at Psylon.

“You clumsy idiot.  Look what you made me do to one of my pets,” cries Psylon.  She gets ready to toss an atomic fireball at Hydrana, when a bolt of orange lightning knocks the angry lunatic off her feet.  Psylon hits her head on a pointed rock with a lot of force and she lies practically motionless.

“Guess I’m not as uncaring as all of you thought,” states Solix.  He helps Hydrana to her feet and the scarlet-haired guardian gives him a friendly kiss on the cheek.  Solix turns a little red with embarrassment, which quickly disappears under his usual stoic façade.

“Thanks for the save.  Is she dead?”

“No.  I only stunned her so that she wouldn’t kill anyone or do some damage to you.  My power is still very weak and I don’t think I have the energy to kill another immortal.  But I suppose that Psylon will wake up by the time this battle is over.”

“That’s supposed to be a good thing?  When she wakes up, she’ll want to rip our throats out with her bare teeth.  But now is not the time for this argument because we’re in a lot of trouble.  Big trouble.  Very big trouble.  Flying metallic trouble to exact.”

“What are you babbling about?”

“You better turn around, Solix.  The walking trash can with the nasty looking guns is right behind you and he doesn’t look too happy.”

“Oh.  Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” whispers Solix as he whirls around and faces Cybro.  The robot has all of his high tech guns pointed directly at the two guardians and is methodically preparing to shoot.

“I always wanted to see your face before I destroyed you.  Took you long enough to turn around.  Good riddance, old fossil,” laughs Cybro before he starts shooting at the two guardians.  The deadly lasers and titanium tipped bullets decimate the ground Cybro’s targets are standing on, but most of the projectiles harmlessly bounce off the Solstar medallion’s air shield that surrounds the pair of guardians.  Unfortunately, some of the deflected lasers and bullets hit nearby members of the Clan of Fire.

“What the hell is going on here?” hollers Cybro when he finally runs out of ammo.  Instead of an answer, Solix knocks the metal immortal’s head off with a savage, yet obviously stiff, flying kick.  The cyborg starts running around looking for his lost cranium, which is busy yelling at the rest of the body.  When Cybro does find his lost head, he trips over it and is forced to slowly repair himself.

“What I wouldn’t give to see that happen to him every time we meet?” laughs Hydrana while she watches Infinity trap Kilanus in the broken cage.  The screaming blond doesn’t fight back as viciously as she could while she gets shoved into the cage.  Infinity uses his telekinetics to put the door back on its hinges and sprints over to Solix and Hydrana.

“Everyone okay?” Infinity asks.  Hydrana kisses him and looks around for any sign of Fate and Miracle.  Miracle is several yards away wrestling with Mindtrigger, but Fate and Adriana have somehow disappeared without a trace.

“Hurry up, Miracle!” yells Solix.

“Try to show some patience, Solix!  Dealing with this scrawny guy is a lot harder than it looks!” shouts Miracle.  She catches the end of Mindtrigger’s staff in her chest and violently yanks it out of his hands.  The guardian jumps up to quickly shatter the staff over the evil genius’ head.  The staff pieces turn into a strange orange mist as they go back into Mindtrigger’s brain through his nose and ears.

“You are such an annoying, little maggot.  Do you think a childish love tap like that will put me out of this fight?  It may hurt like hell, but it will not prevent me from murdering you with ease,” Mindtrigger announces.  He puts his black gloved hands together and the immortal begins to rise off the ground.  The golden rings on his gloves glow softly as he unclasps his hands and he begins to hover above Miracle.

“Nice trick, wuss.  Why don’t you come down here and fight like an immortal?” asks Miracle as she takes out her electric whip.  She manages to wrap it around Mindtrigger’s ankles and then tries to pull him down to the ground.  Yet, no matter how much of her immortal strength she uses, Miracle’s flying enemy stays up in the air.

“Good plan.  Too bad it won’t work while I wear the flight gloves of Saturn.  These gloves make it impossible for me to be pulled to the ground if I don’t want to.  Now, pray for all you’re worth and hold on very tight, my dear.”

Mindtrigger starts flying around in wide circles with Miracle being mercilessly dragged along the ground.  She gets smashed against rocks, huge machinery, and anything else that can injure her.  The torture finally ends when Miracle presses a button on the whip’s handle and sends a few thousand volts of electricity into the evil scientist.  Mindtrigger plummets to the ground with a thud and his breathing becomes short and wheezy.

“Take that, brainiac!” shouts Miracle, who is covered in her own blood and is missing her right foot that got caught on a drill bit.  Her bleeding head slowly lowers to the ground and she stops moving.

“Looks like all of us are getting enough sleep today,” mutters Infinity in order to sound calm and unworried.  He gently picks up Miracle with a telekinetic stretcher and brings her to Solix.

“Good god.  Get her back to the space skimmer immediately.  Her natural healing abilities have not become strong enough to save her from the extensive damage that was inflicted.  Use the skimmer’s medical equipment and stay with her until Fate returns.  Use any means necessary to keep Miracle awake,” orders Solix when he gets a closer look at the severely injured guardian.  Before anyone can say a word in argument, Solix teleports three of his four young charges to the space skimmer.  Only Solix remains on the battlefield as he prepares for his destiny to be fulfilled and his life to be ended.

“I truly hope you are safe, Fate.  I cannot wait any longer for you to finish your battle and return to the rest of the guardians.  May your time as leader be a lot easier and a lot happier than mine.  Keep very good care of all of your friends because they will need you to remain strong and honest,” whispers Solix.  He raises the Solstar medallion above his head as he focuses all his immortal energy on the center jewel.  The big sunstone starts to glow before all nine planet gems start to vibrate and draw power from Solix’s body.  The old immortal’s body begins to turn into pure energy as the Solstar medallion continues to absorb the sun guardian.  In a matter of minutes, his body is nothing more than a human-shaped outline of energy encased in his platemail armor.

“I call upon the ultimate power of the Solstar medallion!  I ask that you aid me in my time of need and desperation!  Destroy that which I want destroyed!  Preserve that which I want preserved!  I give you my power to join with the force of the universe!  May my sacrifice not be made in vain!” bellows Solix before his body is turned into a large sphere of glistening energy.  An ear-popping screech is heard as the most powerful guardian weapon releases its full destructive potential.  An immense explosion erupts from the area Solix once stood and the air is turned into a chaotic tempest filled with dust, rock, and jagged chunks of the evil immortals’ once extremely dangerous warship.

After three minutes, a thick layer of dust is left swirling through the air and everything is deathly quiet once more.  On top of a small hill, the glowing Solstar medallion is left lying on the ground where Solix used to stand.  All that is left of the last of the original guardians is his shiny red armor and his radiating yellow cape.  His armor is covered in dirt while his cape is still glowing like it was never touched by the tempest.  But Solix’s body, mind, and soul were sucked into the medallion and processed into raw power.  Solix was not strong enough to use the medallion at full power and paid for it with his eternal life.

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