The two oversized eyes on the mask widened, realizing the threat just a moment too late. All at once, two thick juts of earth burst forth from the ground beneath the creature, sinking deep into the twisted nerve roots lining the creatures wrists; a white cloaked figure appeared above the puppet, hands on either side of the creatures head; and Wimbleton drew his sword, ducking down and right to capture the creatures flank. It was masterful, an almost synchronous attack by three parties who were barely even communicating–a three chain approach.
The first chain was the smallest, quickest, and sneakiest maneuver to pull off, but still of pivotal importance. The moment the Collector realized he’d been had, he moved to execute the hostages. However, in the fraction of a fraction of an instant, the earth spires bore into its wrists, pinpointing precisely towards the most pivotal nerves, and severing them without hesitation. It didn’t stop the beast completely, but it did succeed in stalling his first action, the most pivotal of the entire fight, turning what would’ve been the crushed skulls of two innocent women into a slight spasm of the fingers. This was Trenton’s contribution, his movement’s cleverly hidden amongst the pile of unconscious bodies at Wimbleton’s side.
The creature stumbled backwards as the purple orb burst from its chest, growing in size every moment it was airborne, nothing but a thin purple cord connecting it to the beast itself. This is where the second chain came in. The air split, and what was once two instances became one–how clever–hiding in false time. A man cloaked in white simply appeared before them, the number 6 boldly plastered in green across his back. He clasped his war wrought hands on either side of the creature's skull, looking down at it from above with a vitriol and focus befitting a man of his stature.
“Chronal Lakrum.”
Chains, each one made of pure green chronal energy, burst from the creature's skull, weaving their way in and out of its body like sewing needles before drawing shut on the poor little mouse. The mysterious purple orb, too, was not spared, the chains instantly catching up to the damnable magic mid flight as if they counted every second as its half. It froze inches from the girl's terrified forms, captured not in space, but instead in time, wrapped within the perfect confines of great chronal magic perfectly executed. There were no two ways about it. This man was indeed the 6th Guardian.
“Pleasure to meet you, and if you wouldn’t mind–duck,” Wimbleton called out, executing the final stage of the 3 part assault–the final chain.
He coalesced his presence into his simple steel blade as he moved into position, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And it just so happened that a perfectly imobile target was just about exactly what he was looking for. In one clean horizontal stroke, Wimbleton’s presence extending his slash far beyond what his sword would otherwise be capable of, the creature split in twain, fingers, arms, and torso split exactly in half. It was elegant, aim so precise as to be nigh inhuman. But to Wimbleton, it was barely the slightest demonstration of skill, an attack almost simple enough to bore him.
Ever the timely individual, as Wimbleton diced the creature, Six landed and bent backwards at the knees, ducking beneath the line of the strike by less than an inch. To an outside observer, it was unbelievably close, the result of sheer luck. But of course, these were no commoners. No action was accidental, no movement without purpose. When seconds counted by the hundredths, one couldn’t afford to waste even one.
Six landed on all fours like a table, face drawn up towards the sky. Without hesitation, he bounded back up to stand upright behind the beast, his fingertips, his only means of propulsion. Although their attacks were quick, it was evidently clear that they were not without fault. Six’s prison waned and, little by little, the chains receded, the creature slowly coming back to full animation.
Trenton dove forward out of the pile of bodies, grabbing Millie and Evai and leaping into the air, a pillar of stone at his feet propelling him just fast enough to avoid the issuing death. He landed some 30 feet away from the action, using his body as a shield to protect the two women. Likewise, Wimbleton stooped to grab Leo, Kiva, and Karfice, darting to the side just as the growing purple mass resumed its trajectory. It wasn’t entirely clear what would happen if the orb touched you, but given the long trail of gouged earth wherever it touched, it was safe to say that it was bad things. It continued for a ways beyond their little scuffle, ballooning to the size of a small mansion before stopping abruptly, the cord snapping taut. It flew directly back at the beast, this time ignoring them completely and settling comfortably back within the beast's maw at its proper size.
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Now, none of this would really matter too much if the creature was simply dead from Wimbleton’s first attack, but when had things ever been that simple? Once fully rid of the time magic infesting its body, the creature fell into a heap of its own blood, staining the ground just a tad darker than usual. However, almost instantly, tendrils of black flesh shot from every severed segment, latching onto each other to stitch itself into one contiguous whole once again. But unfortunately for the puppet, Six was not one to sit around and wait for things to finish.
He slammed his foot into the creature's skull: once, twice, thrice, frice-wow he was really laying into that thing. Over the span of a couple seconds as the creature hastened to reconstruct itself, Six very quickly turned the head of this already malformed entity into the next hit baby food, just with a tad more flesh than usual. With every strike the earth quaked and cracked, splitting itself into several large chunks of stone which slowly skewed against each other. When he was finished, from his chest, Six pulled a beautiful green blade wrapped with three spectral clock hands, raising it directly over the beast's chest.
Pop!
Although it had sat dormant for a moment, it seemed the orb wasn’t quite out of tricks yet. It leapt out of the creature's body once again, this time sailing high into the air without a chord to restrain its movement. Then, when it had reached its peak, it began to grow, twisting itself and expanding until it resembled a great black cone shaped beast with eyes of deep purple and a maw of endless darkness. Wimbleton and Six each leapt backwards in different directions, Wimbleton carefully balancing the children on his shoulders, and Six quickly grabbing Trenton, Millie, and Evai as he passed, pulling them out of the zone of danger as well.
The gargantuan beast, which continued growing until it nearly blocked out the sky above them, collided with the ground, tilting every separate plate of stone inwards towards the impact as it tunneled straight down into the earth, quickly disappearing from view. After a moment, the quakes from its tunneling couldn’t even be felt anymore, the ground coming to a still at only a slight list. The beast was gone, but so was the puppet.
Six effortlessly jumped across the pit, landing next to Wimbleton with Trenton, Millie, and Kiva still in hand. His hood was still drawn up, though, so it was difficult to make out any of his particular features, and Wimbleton was without the wherewithal to feel them out.
“Well, that’s one way about it, I suppose. Still, I wasn’t expecting it to eat itself,” Six said, gazing down into the pit.
“...my workshop was down there. I was gonna go get all the stuff I left behind later, but…damn,” Wimbleton replied, quietly mourning the loss of his tools and projects.
Six turned to him, “Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude. My name is Sodure. I’m the 6th Guardian. And I’ve come on behalf of the Bulwark to protect these children, but…I was told Walibeld would be traveling with them, and nothing of you.”
“Could you put me down?” Trenton groaned.
“Oh, of course,” Sodrue chuckled, setting Trenton, Millie, and Evai down on to the ground.
“Oh gods Trenton you were gone for so long and we found the hole in your room and I thought you were dead and I-” Millie cried, burying her head into Trenton’s shoulder.
“Hey, hey, it’s alright. We were just tending to some business. Everybody’s fine,” Trenton said, pulling her into a tight embrace while stroking the back of his head with one arm. He stood and looked over at Sodrue and Wimbleton, holding the small girl in his arms. Although his body was loose and gentle, his face was tense, focused. Suddenly, his eyes widened “It’s-”
The ground rumbled beneath them, a thunderous roar which deafened all else. All around them the stone plates shattered apart, sinking downwards in a free fall into something unbelievably massive. But it wasn’t just them that was sinking, everything was. Off in the city, and truthfully, all around them, it was chaos: great towers careening towards the ground, stone crags slamming into each other, and steel birds falling from the sky as if the air itself simply disappeared. And beneath it all was a growing mass of blackness visible between the cracks in the ground.
“I think a day’ll do. Try not to stop thinking,” Sodrue said, once again drawing his blade from his chest, a great green glow emanating from beneath his cloak. In one moment, they were falling into nothingness, an unknowable fate, and the next, they were simply gone. To an outside observer it might’ve looked like they’d disappeared, but if you looked close enough, still hovering in the space they sat within moments ago, three faint clock hands stood stalwart, slowly ticking away. Just a little time. That was all they needed. And now, they had all the time in the world.