The giant lumbered on through the city streets of Narragansett. The ground shook with each and every step; any power lines or pedestrian bridges running over the avenues were simply blown apart and utterly sundered by the steps of the giant, sending debris flying into neighboring buildings. The destruction and broken power lines kicked up dust and fires; screams followed the giant along the ground. The giant kept to moving down the middle of the long lanes, which did allow cars to swerve and pedestrians to sprint out of the way; anyone too unlucky or simply too slow got crushed beneath its heel. A makeshift Naval blockade had little effect - the giant just stepped right over it.
Babs gave all the collateral damage a brief look of dismay, but then Isaac was on her. Multiple electric charges, one after the other, forced her to bob and weave, allowing Isaac to close the distance.
I need to prevent her from using the |Whirlwind Reaper|. That’s the priority, because if she does, I won’t be able to break through that shield. Why would she show me her most powerful move? Was it because we were friends and just wanted someone to know? Was it a show of force, a subtle threat, to get me to back off in moments like these? Or did she show me out of guilt over lying to us this whole time?
He couldn’t tell, but at the moment, he didn’t care. She held the knife to slice off a finger in her hand, but Isaac swung a backfist and knocked it away into the air. Then he punched her square in the gut, knocking the wind out of her, then delivered an uppercut to the jaw.
I know she’s got the advantage. She was only roughed up a little in that fight while I literally have bandages wrapped around my head. She’s 2A, I’m just 1C. But she’s not getting away.
When Babs deflected another blow, a sputter of air escaped her lips as she tried to glide herself away. Before she could create some distance between them, Isaac grasped her ankle hard enough to draw blood. He slammed her face first into the giant’s shoulder, then moved to pin her arms behind her back.
Babs slipped out of his grasp and flipped herself over, delivering a roundhouse kick right into his wounded temple. He stumbled away, trying to catch his breath, trying to blink away the black spots growing at the corners of his vision. Before he could recover, Babs delivered a flying front kick to his face, the same blow she delivered all those months ago against those muggers in the park. As Isaac fell back, he shot off an electric charge that caught her right in the face.
The two faltered around the shoulder, catching their breath, licking their wounds, sizing each other up. Babs tilted her head, giving him her usual grin while keeping her eyes narrowed. “We’ve never fought before, have we?”
The gash in his temple had started bleeding again. Isaac wiped it away with the back of his fist. "It wouldn't have been a fair fight for you.”
They went at it again. As they swung and dodged at each other, visions of their first night dancing together flashed through Isaac’s mind (perhaps it was the blood loss). Yes, wasn’t she throwing her punches right now to the timing of an imaginary big band beat? Couldn’t he make out the individual strands of auburn hair falling across her forehead while feeling a fire rise within his body? Didn't she remind him of those easygoing summer days? But the music was all wrong. Back then, it was a jazz standard. Now it was just air raid sirens, people screaming below, death and destruction during a gray endless autumn.
He struck a blow across her jaw, then followed it up with another blow to the torso. He grasped both her shoulders and then delivered a knee to the stomach; her eyes temporarily bugged out of her skull as he got the advantage on her. The two collapsed in a heap, Isaac on top of her. Their hands struggled against each other for dominance; Babs found an opening and hit Isaac in the chest with a blast of wind. Isaac reared back a fist, ready to deliver a final blow once the wind died down.
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Right as it did, he launched that punch with everything he had. But Babs was just a second faster. Without that knife, she opened wide and tore off the tip of her pinky with her teeth.
The blast of wind came a second later, knocking Isaac several feet away. Babs now stood, a tear running down her face from the pain, drops of blood dripping down onto the giant's shoulder from her wounded pinky. Storm winds surrounded her, red lights erupting through them, everything raging with the intensity of a thunderstorm's peak.
Isaac remembered what happened when he tried to attack the |Whirlwind Reaper| before, but he had to try. When he launched his next punch, energy leaping and escaping out of it, Babs stood there, letting the storm do the work for her. His fist glanced off the howling winds harmlessly. He tried again and again until his knuckles were raw, but no dice. He even tried activating the electric charge right as he made contact, but nothing. Just useless flashes of yellow and red lights. Behind the curtain, Babs gave him almost a sympathetic look that just made him throw punch after punch.
But then he reminded himself to take a deep breath. And then something stuck out to him.
This whole time, even outside the bar the other night, I’ve been attacking with just my cultivation powers.
For his next punch, he gave a theatrical performance, lighting it up with the largest sparks possible for one final haymaker. But when he cut the Rddhi right as it arrived, a normal punch delivered by a normal fist simply moved through the storm curtain like it wasn’t even there. Babs’ eyes widened and she let out a croaking noise as the punch hit her stomach and keeled her over.
Having found her weakness, Isaac went to deliver another normal punch, but he had exhausted himself so much that she still moved faster. She sidestepped him and delivered a blast of wind into the gash on his temple. His vision was full of stars, and when he tried another normal punch, she got around him and struck him in the back of the head. When he stumbled forward, she hit a spinning backfist to the wound. When he fell onto the shoulder, she raised a shoe and stomped on the wound repeatedly, one strike after the other. The collisions were so violent that her ponytail came undone; with her hair down, her face looked rounder and smoother.
Ah, I remember the first time I saw her with her hair down. How little we know.
When Babs raised her foot again, she suddenly stopped and looked to the sky. Isaac hoped to see the heroic Fenners from the train battle, but his head slumped when he saw the familiar goggled, grass-caped Zhanghai samurai gliders of Four Eagles swoop in. They landed next to Babs on the shoulder; Isaac’s vision blurred and only saw their actions through bits of blackness, as if a curtain call kept opening and closing.
The giant raised her hand holding the Heart. All of the Zhanghai gliders except for one zoomed off, landing atop the Heart with room to spare. They attached large black boxes to the sides of the device and connected them together with long steel cables. When the biggest samurai gave a nod of approval, one of his underlings pulled a lever on one of the boxes. There was a rush of wind as a large balloon inflated itself and rose into the sky; another long cable connected it to the box and Heart below.
There was another low rumbling sound in the distance. Isaac hoped for bombers, but instead, a cargo plane flew down from the clouds above. Four propellers drove it onwards; the sleek design gave its identity away as one belonging to the Zhanghai Industrial Corporation rather than the air forces of the Arcadian military. Isaac couldn’t understand why no military planes had appeared yet, especially for a threat like a giant, let alone enemy planes. This cargo plane in particular had a metal frame at the front of it reminiscent of iron jaws; it took Isaac a moment to understand its meaning.
For Babs, it was time to go. She nodded at the remaining samurai, who then flew off to join his comrades. Isaac coughed up blood, then slowly rose his feet one last time. He swung wildly; she easily blocked it and knocked him to the ground again. Babs kicked him in the stomach, the blow sending him to the edge of the shoulder. The cityscape gazed up at him, inviting him downwards. As he once again faded in and out of consciousness, Babs gripped him by the collars and dragged him to his feet.
In another life, the initial look on her face would’ve been considered sweet. Tender. Gentle, even. Perhaps she herself was imagining a different life for them at that moment. But the only life they had was this one.
Her eyes then narrowed.
“For change.”
She let go and Isaac fell into the open sky.