The guards raise their scaled brows, but no one really wants to tell our Tenith that she can’t ask someone something, so they just remain hushed as we all await the twins’ answers. Yui offers up, “You’re with Schism, so I take it you’re pretty powerful in one way or another, there might be a chance I could show you some simple hexes, or fencing charms. That is, if our captor would permit it. I’d want to be equipped to avoid any pointless mishaps instructing an amateur.”
Before I can answer, an almost malicious mischievousness glints in Teuila’s eyes as she retorts, “Honey, I’m Teuila Shellcracker, a Guardian of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, a knight Aliased Tenith, and I’m the Lunar Dragon Honoris Causa. Amateur is nowhere in my titles. Nor my titties for that matter, even if they’re a bit small.”
Snorting with laughter, I shake my head in wild disbelief at Teuila. What the everliving hell has gotten into my beloved? Hah. I gaze between the assembled, and the guards are doing their best to hold in their own laughter, wary of offending two beings with the most powerful titling within the Order.
Defensively, albeit only slightly, Teuila jokes, “What? Titles is only a couple letters off of titties. I figured I might as well make the joke before anyone else could. Seriously though, my Airhead is always learning new spells and gaining new forms and all sorts of things. I get a new miniature power from a book once in a while or something, or a new weapon here or there, lots of new weapons honestly. Honestly what the hell am I even going to do with them all? I can’t wield a dozen different weapons at once. Can I? Can you two do that? Is it something you could teach? Scratch that, let’s start small. Gear up and come at me, my Airhead doesn’t mind, and neither do I.”
Teuila is almost instantly at the far end of the prison, leaving Yui and Yuri glancing about for a moment. Ahliyuri puts his hands up placatingly and steps aside, letting his sister at their gear, and eyeing me questioningly. I nod my consent to them, so he simply scoots his chair closer to the guards to return to playing cards while keeping an eye on what’s about to unfold.
I avert my gaze for the brief moment that Ahliyui is nude while swapping from the casual clothing she’d gotten from the barracks, into the under-armor padding she’ll wear beneath her gear. None of the five Draconiacs join me in averting their gaze, not even Yuri. I guess nudity just doesn’t mean the same thing to reptiles as it does to mammals, or, well, humans and some Fae at least.
Te dons most of her equipment, and hefts Mjolnir from a strange blue sheathe that didn’t appear to be hammer-shaped, and stands at the ready, motioning for Yui to charge. Yui, despite her supposed combat ferocity, or her deranged nature as her brother calls it, instead takes her time approaching Teuila. The Spellknight calls, “Would you consider it a breach of our surrender if I layered spellwork Schism?”
My muscles tense and I inadvertently clench my jaw. This is the exact sort of thing I didn’t want to have happening. If I give them an inch, will they take a mile? Will they hurt innocent denizens of Mount Solace? My breathing begins to flood with anxiety, though I mask it by keeping it shallow and keeping my mouth closed. I flick a casual, “Do as you will,” signal to Ahliyui, despite not feeling good about letting her do so at all. Even if I don’t trust the Spellknight twins just yet, I trust Teuila. She wouldn’t let them get away and harm those under our protection if she could help it.
What if they can teleport though? What if they take hostages? No, hostage-takers aren’t a situation that we need to make special considerations for. Either they’d be willing to be talked down, without proving that they’re willing to kill, or they’re willing to kill their hostages either way. If it’s the latter, the only recourse is to kill them. If they put themselves in the position of having a hostage, then I just need to find a maneuver that kills them before they can harm their victims, if possible. It’s harsh, but that’s the penalty *they* agreed to upon surrendering.
Seeing Yui do runework now is different than when we’d been in combat, and she isn’t speaking draconic as a mnemonic. Her pace is almost languid. In fact, the more she does, the less it’s like the familiar runework of Rayileklia at all. It’s almost more of some sort of battledance, a series of kata combined with hand-seal gestures. Cranking up my aura vision does reveal however that she is still being layered in spellwork. There are enchantments, alterations, and transmutations being wrought upon her layer by layer, and then those magics are being protected by abjurative effects. Her muscles are being altered to react differently, likely without producing lactic acid buildup. Her scales are being transmuted into a more resilient material, and a number of effects are growing in power by the moment.
I’m about to call a halt to this, but she stops herself before I get the chance, likely perceiving my agitation with new senses that she’s granted herself. She’s at least as powerful as where she intended to be on the day that we fought inside the ShizTinth Stronghold. Uncomfortable with this level of power now in her hands, I motion for the guards to leave the prison area somewhat, and when they do, I seal the four of us in. My move fills Yuri with anxiety, but he makes no effort to complain or fight back.
Breaking the tightness of the seal on Frostburn, partially loosing it from its sheathe, I stand with my back to the exit that I’ve now magically locked. I barricade the door in three layers of telekinesis. I do not want to rescind my offer of mercy. Te, why did you do this? What is going on with you? Te makes no effort to respond to my line of thought outwardly or even across our mental wavelength.
Ahliyui is about to put on her helmet, but to that, I call out, “No. You won’t need that unless you plan to betray us, leave it off. Teuila is accurate enough to never strike an unarmored face unintentionally.”
Yui shrugs, and drops the helmet back into the pile of equipment in the footlocker. Instead of arming herself in the conventional way, Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui performs a gesture with each hand, revealing both a blade of pure radiance humming with intensity, and one of pure umbra dripping with shadow. Her brother gasps out, “Yui! You shouldn’t!” as he frantically pats himself down and looks urgently towards the displaced equipment in the open footlocker on the floor.
As I’m about to ask why she shouldn’t, Radiant Spellknight Alhiyui crosses the blades in a forceful clash, resulting in a cascading wave of blinding light exploding outwards. The light is immediately followed by darkness bubbling up and roiling out over everything in the prison, completely obscuring all of our vision. Thankfully, neither Teuila nor I rely on sight for combat. Also thankfully, neither of the twins is making any moves to escape, or to harm either of us. Yui seems to simply be showing off. The Spellknight waits until the darkness settles in, and though her heavy armor is quieted by both excellent fabrication, and magical enhancements, it’s still quite obvious where she resides from sound alone as she shifts into an attacking stance.
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In an instant, Yui closes the gap between her and Teuila, but she doesn’t lunge heedlessly. Instead she displays impeccable footwork, bringing her into precise distance that would allow her to capitalize on the reach advantage she has on Te. Yui’s crisscrossing slashes might prove difficult for someone else to parry with a hammer, but as I’d mentioned earlier, Teuila is monstrously powerful. Flashes of light coupled with sizzling hisses flood the darkened prison upon each clash of radiant blade meeting Mjolnir. The darkness surrounding us ripples and roars each time Yui’s umbral blade connects instead.
Finally I allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief, as Teuila seems to simply be having fun, and neither she nor Yui seem out to slay the other. My silent sonar tells me that Yuri is able to accurately follow the battle with his eyesight alone, so I know he won’t startle as I approach him and sit next to him. He has devilishly good sight to be able to penetrate the darkness with it. I should expect no less of Umbral Spellknight Ahliyuri I suppose.
Sitting next to him, I casually ask Yuri, “Is your sister always so quick to test boundaries? I wasn’t very far from reacting quite poorly.”
Gulping, Yuri nods and comments, “Yes, yes she’s deranged, demented, but she’s my world, I love my sister more than anything, and I’m grateful you stayed your hand.”
Yui quips back, “You’re the deranged one brother! Always talking of being tired of combat, finished with taking lives and seeing fear, pah! It’s in our blood!”
That sentiment grates on me, and Yuri picks up on it as I tense up. He’s quick to assure me, “She doesn’t truly mean it, not that way. She enjoys the thrill of combat, it’s not taking lives and inspiring fear, just the fighting, which is why she was itching for this chance as soon as it was offered. I swear.” Quieter, in a whisper meant only for me, he begs, “Please don’t take her from me in misunderstanding. Kill me first if you don’t believe my words. She seeks thrills, and enjoys proving herself. She’s not a senselessly wanton murderer, I swear it.”
Gritting my teeth, and feeling foolish for the sentimental tear streaking down my right cheek, I allow myself to loose a breath I didn’t realize I was holding as I nod at Yuri. My return whisper is simple, “I believe you. Thank you for understanding me.”
Relief floods Yuri’s system when he can tell I’m not going to preemptively slay Yui in fear of a bloodlust that he claims she doesn’t have. He’s willing to stake his life on it, and his love for his family is nearly immeasurable, so I’ll offer up this trust to him. It takes me a few more deep breaths and sighs of relief to settle in to a point that allows me to take in the combat without knee-jerk reactions.
Taking in the duel, even with just silent sonar and hearing is a hell of a thing. Yui is an *amazing* swordswoman, whether fencing, or wielding blades akimbo in a Florentine style. Her footwork is leagues above either mine or Teuila’s, but Teuila’s reaction speed, raw talent, and incredible power make up for any missteps or over-plays. It’s honestly a breathtaking fight to spectate, and I can’t even see it. I wonder, would my wrist-crossbow’s glow cancel this darkness? I could equip it to test it out perhaps.
I don’t feel like throwing a wrench into their funtime yet if it would happen to work, so I sit by for a few minutes. I’m trying to take in the combat as a learning experience for myself. There are even several short patterns that Yui alternates between that seem incredibly efficient that I’m starting to develop a sense of. I try to make note of and memorize them as best I can. I’m not sure I’d have been able to pull them off in cherubic Reggie form, especially not with the nerve damage.
I’m in RS2 form now though, so I might be able to practice the maneuvers in at least thinkspace, and then perhaps in meatspace as well. Funnily enough, Teuila hasn’t been on the offensive at all yet, and it’s not because Yui’s onslaught leaves her no room for retaliation. Te’s quick enough that she’s had several openings, yet she hasn’t capitalized on any of them. She’s drawing this out. I’m worried she’s going to get cocky and try something too showy, and end up getting one of them hurt.
Gritting my teeth, I hiss, “Te, be careful!”
As I’d feared, Teuila decides to wrap the fight up in a single move, and I can feel the force of the blow utterly destroy the spellwork layered over Ahliyui as it dents her armor and sends her crashing into the far wall of the prison from their fight. The entire prison rumbles as Yui’s impact leaves a crater in the wall before her body slumps into a twisted seated position on the floor. My breath catches in my throat as I rise from my seat. Yuri and I rush to Yui’s side as the darkness dissipates. At a glance, it looks bad, really bad. There’s blood trickling from Yui’s auditory cavities. I cast my gaze fearfully towards Yuri as he seems to be fighting back waves of alternating fear and anger. He hesitates to retaliate or respond, waiting for my reaction.
Admonishing Teuila, I try not to bellow as I chastise her, “Damnit Te!”
Her response worries me, “What? I’m not hurt at all. I was careful, just like you said. She wasn’t really showing me any magicky stuff, so I wrapped things up. Are you mad Air?”
As my lower jaw juts forward, it locks up, so I find it difficult to articulate, “Te, I meant for her gorrammit! I knew you’d be fine, you could destroy a meteor before gaining your titles and Honoris Causa and new equipment. I—. Sorry. I love you. Help me out over here.”
Pouting, Teuila trots over as I cradle Ahliyui to check out her skull, and I motion for Yuri to start stripping her of her armor. I’ve never seen a physical attack undo so much magic. I’ve seen spells set to dissipate upon taking certain amounts of damage, like the Steely Body form spell, but this is something else entirely. The amount of force Te can put out is orders of magnitude higher than what should be possible at her size within the bounds of physics. Rules of reality break down around her. On Can’Z’aas, this wouldn’t be an issue, but Rayileklia is a lot closer to Fakeworld, Earth.
Drawing water and fabric out of the dimensional pouch, I dab at the bloody trail from Yui’s ‘ear’ areas. The bleeding seems to have stopped, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. She’s breathing at least, but I’m sure her sternum is going to be bruised at the bare minimum. Yuri finishes stripping Yui, and I can’t find any perforations on her body. She has some cracked scales, but none seem driven into her flesh, so there’s at least no external bleeding.
As her brother and I are fretting over Yui, she regains enough consciousness to groan in pain, and mutter, “Fu—koff—ck Terrorzin, koff, for making enemies like you monsters.”
Yuri’s immediate response is to grip his sister tightly in a bearhug while admonishing her, “You lunatic! Don’t ever scare me like that! I’d throttle you if you didn’t look so out of it, you heinous little b—!”
The response from Yui, muffled within Yuri’s embrace is, “Koff, love, koff, you too, psycho. Hurts to hug, koff, lay off.”
Yuri immediately loosens his hug on his sister, but doesn’t withdraw it completely. Inappropriately, only looking mildly abashed, Teuila scratches the back of her head and offers up, “Um, all’s well that ends well?”