“Ok, what’s the plan?” Ophelia asked Clay as they both leaned on a large inflatable bunker for cover.

“I don’t know, let me think….” Clay suggested as his hand rubbed his increasingly sweaty chin.

“I’ll give you a minute. Tops.” Ophelia begrudgingly conceded as she looked over her shoulders.

“Anybody out there?” Clay asked Ophelia.

“Nope. It’s like they just disappeared since Shane started the exercise.” Ophelia reported.

“Ok… let me try a new trick.” Clay requested, suddenly straining his eyes.

As Clay stared off into the distance, Ophelia noticed a subtle glow leaking from between his lips.

“Damn it man! Didn’t I tell you-?!”

Before Ophelia could finish scolding Clay for presumably using his Chosen Abilities, he grunted in pain and put his hand over his left eye.

“They are all bunched together three bunkers behind us…. they’re trying to pincer us…. I think. I still know barely anything about all this strategy stuff. I was always shit at strategy RPGs, aside from Fire Emblem of course.” Clay informed Ophelia before his report turned into a listless tangent.

“Yeah, yeah, you got a lot of shit to tell me later. Right now, we just need to hit these bastards once and we win. For the first time.” Ophelia reminded Clay; her hands clenched tightly on the plastic pistol she held.

“So, what’s the play here?” Clay wondered aloud, his hand still covering his eye.

“Well shit, you’re still out an eye apparently. Hmm…. not sure how this will work out, but you be the decoy and I’ll take them out.” Ophelia lightly explained to Clay.

“Wait, so you want me to be the tank here? With one eye?!” Clay questioned, letting his arm fall from his eye, which revealed that the color in his pupil was almost completely gone, with a little bit of the brown subtly bleeding back into his eye from the right corner.

“Yeah, whatever that means…. holy shit!” Ophelia remarked after seeing Clay’s afflicted eye.

“Yeah, vision’s a bit blurry, thanks for asking. Though it seems like the picture is slowly clearing up. Not sure how I can explain it….” Clay lightly described.

Before Ophelia could respond, she and Clay heard a piercing, lyrical whistle from one of the three instructors. Before they could guess which of the three it was, a loud, southern voice announced “Hey kiddos, come on out an’ take your, uh… discipline like good little boys and girls.”

“Sick bastard…” Clay commented with disgust.

“Compared to some people from…. Back home, he’s a nice dude.” Ophelia commented.

“Jesus, now you’ve got a lot of shit to tell me later.” Clay repeated from a few minutes ago.

“Fine. You ready?” Ophelia asked Clay.

“Not really.” Clay answered, having a good idea what she was going to say next.

“Too bad. Time to wrangle up some Rats.” Ophelia declared, lightly shoving Clay.

“Right….”

As Clay slowly and nervously walked out of the inflatable bunker, his gun held tightly, he didn’t see anybody out in the open. Even Dixon, who taunted them earlier, was nowhere to be found.

Now that Clay was out of cover, he needed to act fast. He thought he could try his new ‘scout using a fly’s eye’ trick but his one impaired eye had not recovered yet and he didn’t want to lose the vision of his other.

“Well shit, looks like I need to get biblical.” Clay hesitantly boasted as the flies gathered around him. Clay opened one up of his palms and held it out, pointing his open palm towards the inflatable bunkers in front of him.

“Search!” Clay commanded. All the flies moved toward the bunkers and surrounded them from the front, back, and everywhere in between.

“AH shyt!! What the fu-”

Before Dixon could finish his complaint, a BB pellet hit his forehead, which caused him to fall hard on his back. As the files began covering Dixon’s prone body, Clay stomped his foot onto his ‘instructors’ chest.

“Looks like the score is even, eh?” Clay bragged with a smile on his face and his tightly gripped gun pointed at Dixon’s forehead, a small streak of blood flowing from where he was shot.

“Awww, that was playin dirty! If this was a fair fight-”

“Didn’t you tell me a few weeks ago that ‘fair was only for those in the grave’ or something like that?” Clay threw back into Dixon’s face.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“You smart bastard….” Dixon seethed.

“Thanks for the advice, teach.” Clay continued to gloat.

“Yeah, well, this shit ain’t over yet. You still got the other two out an’ about.” Dixon reminded Clay with a smirk.

And just after Dixon made his threat, the high-pitched squeak of a BB gun shot broke through the overwhelming crowd of buzzing flies and in an even louder, French accented voice yelled “AH MERDE!!”.

“Yeah, sounds like that’s getting taken care of.” Clay confidently boasted, which turned Dixon’s cocky smirk into a bitter scowl in the span of a minute.

***

After taking her shot against Reno, Ophelia broke out into a sprint to her left, to give some distance between herself and her other target.

Son of a bitch…. What the hell is he goddamn thinking? Ophelia frustratedly asked herself as she struggled to find her way amidst the swarm of flies all around her.

I don’t know what’s worse; the fact that he used his powers at all, even when I said he shouldn’t or that they are actually helping… Ophelia pondered as she came to a sketching halt in front of the thin, makeshift ‘out of bounds’ line.

As Ophelia leaned on her knees to catch her breath, she remained on high alert. Despite spending the last few weeks ‘training’ with her, Ophelia still could not get a beat on Shiki. Though they were both armed with BB guns, Ophelia had a feeling Shiki would not be satisfied with besting her again with a simple shot. The only thing Ophelia had a feeling she knew about Shiki is that she doesn’t want to kill an opponent, she wants to defeat them, break them down, precisely and methodically.

After Ophelia catches her breath, she notices that Shiki hasn’t made any move against her, not even a taunt. Quickly, Ophelia had a feeling where Shiki was and she once again burst into a sprint, repeating in her mind Shit! Shit! Shit! As she pushed past the large crowd of flies.

***

“So…. What? You not gonna try anything else?” Clay wondered, the question asked in a tone that mixed cockiness and concern in equal measure.

“Nah man, I’ll take this opportunity to take a short nap, thanks.” Dixon quipped despite the intensely sour look on his face.

The jokey nature of Dixon’s response put Clay on edge. As he looked around his immediate area, the vision in his other eye began to fade and he started to lose his balance. Before he could fall to his knees, Clay felt a tug on one of his pant legs. In response, Clay quickly and roughly regained his balance and his vision cleared up.

“Hey there! Don’t go fall’in on me now. Yer foot is already bad enough, don’t need your full goddamn body.” Dixon instructed Clay, his hand tight gripped on his ‘student’s’ pant leg.

“Huh?”

“Don’t look too deep into it, kid. Sure, I want to rip your cheap asshole a new one but…” Dixon vaguely explained, taking a deep breath before finishing his thought.

“…. A win's a win.” Dixon declared before he mumbled to himself “Damn, with these flies, not sure how I didn’t pull a Brando there….”

“A Brando?” Clay wondered, Dixon’s mumbling being loud enough that Clay heard it despite the cacophony of loud buzzing.

“Marlon. Ya know, ‘I think I swallowed a bug.’ Hearts of Darkness? You watch any movies before in your laife?” Dixon explained in a fluster that brought out his southern accent more and more as he kept talking.

“Not much of a movie guy. Mostly Rocky, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Sorry.” Clay mentioned, his previous animosity seemingly fading away, at least for this moment.

“Anyway …. When the hell is that bitch coming out?” Dixon wondered out loud.

“What are you-”

Before Clay could finish asking his question, he heard the rapid tapping of light footsteps, which forced him to take his foot off Dixon’s chest and dive to the left to avoid whatever strike was about to hit him.

“Holy shit!” Clay proclaimed when Shiki finally came into his view, who now stood above Dixon.

“What took ya so gawddamn long?” Dixon simultaneously asked and complained.

“I was waiting for the right moment. Get up.” Shiki ordered her colleague.

“Nay, I’m dead.”

“…. You could have at least held him down. At least do something to help.” Shiki suggested after the fact.

“Ah mean, let the dead rest in peace why don’t ya?” Dixon insisted.

“You inbred son of a-”

Clay fired his gun at Shiki as she was busy insulting Dixon. Despite thinking that he had caught her off guard, Shiki leaped to the side and began rushing toward Clay, dodging every shot that Clay fired.

“Come on, kid! She’s right in front of you!” Dixon taunted Clay.

Clay couldn’t get a shot in on Shiki and he was at the end of his rope. If the desert heat and general exhaustion weren’t enough, His legs felt like they were made of half-eaten jelly and his vision was as blurry as old Lucha libre matches he’d occasionally watch on YouTube.

Though he felt like he needed to do it to get on an even footing, Clay now realized the cost of his biblical swarm.

Right before Shiki could reach Clay, she’s suddenly yanked hard onto the ground. When Clay realized he was fine, he looked down on Shiki and all he could make out with his current vision was Ophelia on her instructor’s back. Ophelia held Shiki’s neck tightly in a rear naked choke for a good few minutes. Though Shiki resisted the hold by striking Ophelia’ head with her elbows, her student never let go of the hold.

“Ok everyone! That’s enough! Clay, break it up will ya?” Shane commanded over his megaphone.

“R-right!” Clay stumbled on his words as he slowly regained his footing, both metaphorically and literally.

Clay leaded on the inflatable bunker next to him as he held the palm of one of his hands out towards the flies he summoned and ordered “RETREAT!”

After hearing Clay’s command, the crowd of flies quickly left the makeshift training area.

“…Hey! I… wasn’t… done… yet!” Shiki yelled while still in Ophelia’s hold, coughing with each word she spoke.

“Sorry but yes, you are. Let her go, Phil.” Shane commanded Ophelia as he walked toward the area where four out of the five combatants were gathered.

As Ophelia let go of her instructors’ neck, Shiki lightly grabbed one of her student’s shoulders.

“So that’s what it takes for you to get serious huh?” Shiki asked Ophelia as she got up from the ground using her students’ shoulder as a support, a sly smirk on her face.

“It’s…. complicated…” Ophelia hesitantly answered, which only elicited laughter from Shiki.

“…. Isn’t it always?” Shiki pondered with a combination of humorous teasing and slight longing in her voice.

“What are you getting at?” Ophelia questioned, her tone a mix of irritation and curiosity.

“Nothing really…. just ‘the life’ I guess.” Shiki ‘answered’ her student’s inquiry.

“Are… we... done… here?” Clay asked Shane with great exhaustion, leaning even harder on the inflatable bunker then he was just a moment earlier.

“For this part, yes. But unfortunately, your guy’s timing is too good.” Shane answered, which puzzled Clay, who could only give a confused look in response.

“My app, the one that found you. It’s picked up the frequency of another Chosen.” Shane clarified.

“Wait, seriously?! This feels fishy….” Ophelia proclaimed.

“You don’t know how right your phrasing is Phil.”

“…. Where is the signal?” Ophelia asked after taking a second to grasp what Shane’s comment meant.