Corvayne crept around the corner, concerned at the quiet he heard. He had been hunted just a moment before, but something had pulled all the copies of Argyle off of him, and the only signs of them were blasted buildings and a few urchin clusters of bamboo spines. Corvayne oriented himself and broke into a run for the train yard, pulling out his phone as he started pounding his legs on the pavement.
“Corvanye here, they were all on me then left... what happened?”
Wick responded. “Lady Blood Claw said she was going to bait them away...”
“What? Why? She won't be able to outrun a dozen clones. Where is she?”
“I don't know! She said something about owing you.” Wick was yelling at someone else for a moment. “It's a mess!”
“I'll figure it out.” Corvayne hung up, slowed to a stroll, and tried to use his compass power while thinking of Lady Blood Claw.
He felt the something like a ticklish feeling, the smallest tug pulling him past the train yard turn, over into the streets near the warehouse. He was not surprised to round a corner and see someone had blasted a hole in his old home, right through the Brines Brothers Logo. He felt she must be somewhere inside, and could see a the back of a monk watching the main entrance to the building. Corvayne slowed down and drew his fire-breathing dagger, steadying his breathing.
He walked carefully up to the monk, willing his feet to find places on the ground clear of debris like glass, nails, and soda cans. He willed himself to ignore the sounds of something slamming around inside the warehouse. He wanted to hurry, each step felt like it took a minute. In his head he kept repeating 'A spear moves forward. A spear moves forward.' He was worried he'd hesitate when he got up to Argyle's back. He reminded himself he couldn't show any mercy as he would have to kill a lot of Argyles today. This was for Wick.
He sunk the dagger into the Argyle's back and twisted the handle as he used [Backstab], the combination of his own power and the daggers cone of fire blowing out a large chunk of the figure's back and igniting the monk. The clone wasn't dead somehow and vanished with his time stop. Corvayne felt something change in his viewpoint then ducked and whipped his dagger's flaming cone around as he spun. The fire bathed the clone behind him, staggering the figure before it could slam it's staff down on his skull.
Corvayne still got out of the way as the clone made inhuman noises before collapsing into a heap of burning garbage. He didn't have time to enjoy taking a clone down as he saw another Argyle burst out of the upper catwalk door and hurl a crate at Corvayne, the metal box hit the street like a cannonball. Another three clones came around a corner, armed with steel rods.
Corvayne wasn't sure on the math but knew there were way too many Argyles teleporting at him. As they took their first steps to run at him, he noticed they had made a mistake and all activated their power at once. So instead of turning tail, Corvayne started running at them, smiling. The trio had to slow and adjust their staves as they vanished once more, all at the same time.
Corvayne fell into [Flow-Like-Water] and felt himself glide around an incoming trio of staff attacks, scoring a hit on one of the clones who was in his way as he broke into a run for the warehouse, watching as bamboo punched a set of holes in the steel side of the building. He danced over the shattered bricks of the wall around the property and used [Flow-Like-Water] to slip into a gap between bamboo spikes that had shredded holes the main metal doors.
The warehouse was a mess, broken containers spilling shards of jasper in piles clogging the isles. He didn't stop as he breached into the hole, using his powers to leap to a higher perch four containers up and to get away from the trio breaking the bamboo behind him.
Landing on the crate Corvayne turned and saw a blur ducking and weaving as a clone missed the blur and blasting the catwalk and the walls with screeching steel noises. Lady Blood Claw was fighting with the huge sword he had given her in one hand, the other held against her chest and covered in blood. He saw a clone appear behind her and he drew a pistol and used [Cross Skill: Leg Sweep] as he aimed for the figure's foot. Lady Blood Claw responded to the crack of gunfire by hopping back, head whipping for a new threat. When she saw Corvayne, she had a moment between looking at the monk getting up and the gap, then closed her eyes as she leapt 10 feet off the catwalk to the container stack, nearly landing on Corvayne. A form appeared climbing over the lip of the crates and Corvayne jabbed at Argyle's face. The attack missed but the monk let go.
Lady Blood Claw stood, and Corvayne could see at least six clones in various points in the warehouse, with at least three somewhere under him. The report had been wrong! He turned to Lady Blood Claw.
“I'm going to pick you up again.”
He looked around, spotting a pair of clones bending over and hefting rocks. A different pair pointed at him and his pistol fell apart.
“I don't need help!” Lady Blood Claw glared at him, skin turning blue.
“Princess carry, piggy back, or over my shoulder?” Corvayne looked all around him. At least seven monks hefting projectiles, picking spots to pelt him from every angle. He put everything but his spear and his belt knife in storage, handing his spear to a shadow hand.
Lady Blood Claw dropped her weapon into a shadow hand, then jumped onto his back and wrapped her good arm around his shoulders. Corvayne grabbed her legs then used gravity and leaped upwards. He heard a thundercrack under when half the rocks hit each other. He had a shadow hand to grab a rafter as he neared the top of his jump and tug on it as he started to fall, swinging him forward. With another swing he aimed for the break room. Lady Blood Claw started screaming as Corvayne used his shadow hands to break the glass a moment before he slammed into it, and he landed with only a few cuts on on his legs as he drifted into running forward, shadow hands pulling the door open. He saw that a clone was coming up the stairs, and as the purple clad Argyle appeared next to him Lady Blood Claw stuck her lame arm out.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“[Sleep!]”
The clone slumped and fell backwards down the stairs as Corvayne turned away, running towards a hole in the wall along the catwalk. He trusted Lady Blood Claw to hold on as he took his spear one handed and used [Cross Skill: Sundering Strike] on the gap, widening it enough to rush through, stepping onto the curved metal roof of the garage.
He heard a splash and he dodged a staff swing that brushed his ear. Lady Blood Claw hollered something but he didn't bother looking, instead running for the edge of the garage.
“What is with you and roofs?!” Lady Blood Claw yelled into his ear.
He responded by jumping off the roof, his gravity power extending his running start into a long arc across the street. Sadly, he didn't have a nice window to break through, instead watching as a brick wall flew at him. He had his shadow hands out and braced with his feet to avoid slamming full force into the wall, kicking back and dropping at half speed to the sidewalk below. He grit his teeth and ran away from the warehouse, Lady Blood Claw hyperventilating on his back for two blocks.
He hit Copper Mill road and curved to start heading back to their prepared battlefield. This time everything was properly set up with a swarm of angry monks running behind him. Lady Blood Claw looked back and cried out every time a clone popped up, shouting that they were gaining on him. Corvayne felt something a little odd while jogging with gravity, a sort of sloshing feeling that was pushing him forward. He finally reached the street he had been aiming for, huffing as he took the ramp up to the train yard.
He dashed into the dark and veered for a particular set of pillars, trying not to feel tired as he heard the first thump of a trap going off. He jumped over a trip wire and kept running. Behind him he heard Argyle shouting in stereo as the monk's clones started tripping and getting hit by makeshift weapons. Running up the spiral stairs, he pulled a cord that tipped several cans of oil, then moved through the second floor, stepping carefully around the far more lethal traps that Grunt had helped rig up.
He finally reached the inner circle and let Lady Blood Claw down as Nyxion opened the door. “What the hell is with you two idiots kicking up an ant hill? We were supposed to lure them here first.”
Corvayne took a moment to catch his breath before he replied. “There's a lot more then six or eight clones. I killed two, maimed one, and there were probably ten or twelve different ones at least. I think they were sort of... poorly made. They were not as responsive as the one I fought in the city.”
Lady Blood Claw took out one Mister I healing potion and stared at it for a moment. She turned a little green then downed it, wincing as her arm cracked back into place. She tested it by wiggling her fingers and deemed her hand good enough. He offered her sword back to her.
Lady Blood Claw accepted it then looked at Corvayne, her skin shifting from a pleased or happy pink to annoyed orange. “I'm annoyed! I was supposed to save you this time.”
Corvayne turned and looked at the dark second floor. He heard crashing noises below. “You did. And then I paid you back. Nyx, where's everyone else?”
“Mister I is at the community center. Wick's in the office, probably, and Grunt went off on his own, had to tell if you don't have eyes on him. Seru, if you care, is also at the community center. We told her to sit this one out.”
Corvayne nodded. “Grunt wasn't at the warehouse, so he's probably out there... did he say anything?”
Nyxion just stared at him.
Corvayne rolled his eyes. “I mean with his hands.”
The noble sighed. “Oh, said he'd be fine alone, ignored me yelling at him for leaving the DAMN safe spot here. I take back anything nice I said about the oaf.”
He pulled the pin off a smoke grenade and flung it, blowing a cloud over the path to the stair up and out. Nyxion called out, nice and loud so everyone could hear him. “We take out as many as we can here, then make a stand in the office!”
Nyxion grabbed another grenade, pulled the pin, and took two steps before throwing it. Corvayne noticed that Nyxion had spread out several weapons around the back of the depot they were in.
The grenade exploded in a deafening bang and halo of fire, revealing a monk trying to creep into the room and starting a trail of fire that ran over to the stairs. Cries of pain echoed into the room from the stairway and Corvayne could see the oil he had spilled had turned the stairway into a death trap. Nyxion took out a cigar and lit it, eyes reflecting the fire. His voice was much lower, not meant to carry outside of him and Lady Blood Claw.
“I pay my dues back Corvayne, you know what I mean?”
Corvayne nodded, then pulled his cloak, the blurring changing to a color that matched the dimly lit space. In the dark he could make out traps, and as the fire died down he saw figures moving in from the stairs, as well as a few that were running across the open yard to go in the arches directly from outside. Nyxion waited until one blinked, then fired a rifle, missing the first shot but causing the monks to dive for cover. He handed the rifle to Corvayne and ran over to get another weapon, this one a heavy tube.
Corvayne took a firing stance and aimed [Ricochet] at the doorway. The round glowed and he heard metal dings as the round bounced. He chambered another round then turned to spot a monk appearing and moving to a pillar, and he used [Drill Shot] hitting the figure in the torso. Not enough to stop a clone, but he stumbled the last two steps. One of the monks blinked past the steel beam trap he had worked so hard on, so he lined up another shot and used [Cross Skill: Pinning shot] as the monk stepped between him and a trap. The clone jerked back, then the steel beams swung down like a four hundred pound hammer and there was a popping noise and the figure fell apart.
Corvayne watched Lady Blood Claw fired an arrow into the haze. When it connected, it lit up a monk in purple fire, who in annoyance pulled the arrow out and crushed it, moments before an explosion blotted the place he was standing with debris.
Corvayne took another shot but felt his rifle wobble and he dropped it and moved to the next weapon as it fell apart, scooping up a pistol and activating [Drill Shot] twice, hitting one monk in the upper leg before another of Argyle's anti technology beams broke his pistol apart. He drew his spear and called out “Protect the office!” to Nyxion and Lady Blood Claw, who were already moving to the stairs up to the upper deck. A clone teleported near him and he used [Storm Thrust] to simply push the attacker away, sending them stumbling over a trip wire that let a trio of steel beams swing loose, slamming the Argyle clone in the face, sending it tumbling to the ground as a pile of garbage.
Corvayne heard more loud pops as traps close to him set off, so he ran for the office, bounding up a few steps to the little chamber at the back of the train station. He pulled the door closed and clicked the electronic lock shut while making sure the battery was snug by the door, then moving to the hole they had carved out of the back leading to the train tracks. He didn't dare slow down, running up the slope of the tracks to catch up to where Nyxion and Lady Blood Claw were running, out to where all the tracks of Old Town met then split away.
Corvayne caught up and matched their pace down the tracks, then looked back, seeing a pair of clones on the roof of the building looking for them then pointing.
“Do you think-”
Corvayne jabbed his finger forward. “Run faster.”
Thirty seconds after they started sprinting, Corvayne heard a thump and a crack then felt something move through him like a wave of force. His vapor armor created a cloud at the moment the shockwave sent him rolling. A few chunks of steel touched down around them, prompting Corvayne to grab LBC and Nyxion and half drag them stumbling to a train car as it started raining steel beams and bricks. On the inside they could hear hammer blows as chunks of metal rained down on them.
They shared the last of Mister I's home made potions which popped their ears back to normal, in time for him to cringe at taking cover in what turned out to be essentially a giant steel drum.
“I guess that's a good chunk of the clones huh?” Corvayne laughed as the rain of bricks slowed.
Lady Blood Claw looked down, her skin shifting to blue. “I'm sorry. I was trying to help you. Instead, you had to rescue me once again.”
Corvayne shook his head. “We're a team.”
Lady Blood Claw turned bright pink. Corvayne couldn't figure out why she was happy, but her skin turned green as she looked back.
Corvayne turned and saw that out of the burning fire that now defined the train depot, there was Argyle, on fire but striding out of the ruins as if it was a stroll in the park. He was a little burned but patted out the fires then planted his staff on the track.
Corvayne gripped his spear. “I'm pretty sure we just found the real one.”