image [https://imgur.com/XX9a7Sl.jpg]

Yalda and Melpomene had just barely managed to slip by the defenses of the Pirate leader, Ghostbeard, taking a small contingent of mechanical wasps with them.

As soon as they entered the mana beam chamber together, the door sealed shut. Even with the administrative powers bestowed upon Honey Bee 1, who’s real name was Mel Asamo, he could not override the lock. The girls were on their own.

But reinforcements were unnecessary, for he trusted his niece to handle the threats ahead, as she was destined for greatness. Not by fate, but by the careful planning of her father, his brother, Ivan.

Now standing in his own way, a threat that sought to keep him steady. A pirate of ghastly origins, echoing the life of a once proudly lived figure of history.

“Yar har!” The pirate laughed out, flailing around his gun and blade proudly. “Yee can’t touch me anymore with that pithy mana blade O’ yours!”

The force that fueled the pirate had changed. Radiating from him was dark energy, making him quite resistant to many forms of attack. Like demons, the only way to strike him down would be the power of a star.

Mel took a breath, summoning a weapon he hadn’t for quite a long time. He drew a new blade from thin air, a longsword in fact. The blade lit up bright with the crystal energy of the stars burning through the tiny imperfections. White flames convulsed off the edges of the metal.

Granting him great power, this blade came with a taxing tug on his spirit. His own niece may have been able to call upon stardust whenever she wished, but he was not so blessed by the sun. Using this brought nothing but pain to his core.

“Yee thinks yee’ got what it takes to take me down?” Ghostbeard chuckled, raising up his own weapons. “Bring yar’ worst!”

Mel moved at speeds that put the strong pirate to shame. In a single second he’d gotten an edge over him.

But the pirate was quick witted, and used his gun to blast some distance between them.

BANG!

Mel dodged, returning the favour with another strike, meeting blade for blade.

As their titanic slashes sent flashes of energy across the corridor, scoring the walls with white flames, Indena focused her skillful martial arts attacks on the subordinates of the power drunken leader.

Her ingenious strategy had her capture the exuding stardust fire from Mel’s attacks and empower her own with it, allowing her to deal damage to darkness aligned enemies.

One enemy would fall, the next three would surround her.

She’d flip to evade a strike, then duck to miss a bullet. A quick burst of flame jet her from the mighty strike of a hammer.

With all her speed, dodging three opponents at once put strain on her youthful body.

Even with her skill, one swift cut across her arm spilled fresh blood on the floor. She was quick to recover from the damage, but narrowly missed the pound of a giant hammer.

A pirate reached into his pocket, hurling a clump of sand at her face.

Such a dirty trick caught her off guard, and doused out her fire. She was on the ground in seconds.

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The odds had shifted against her. One final strike from that ever present hammer would finish her short life. But when hope was at its lowest, a bullet carved a path through the pirate’s spiritual skull.

BANG-VOOSH!

Green energy trailed through the air, tracing back to a decorative pistol in Marek’s hand. Swirling green symbols slowly faded from the barrel.

The surprise attack gave Indena momentum, and she swiftly struck the last of her foes with fire fisted punches.

She turned to Marek with a quizzical gaze. “Couldn't have waited any longer to whip that thing out, could you?”

“I’ve never shot a gun like this before…I was worried it wouldn’t work.” His hands were uncomfortably tight around its handle.

“What else would a gun do, idiot?!”

Yamin, who had been hiding behind the wall of muscle that was Marek, peeked her head out to see how the fight was going.

She took note of how Mel battled against Ghostbeard, trying to notice any sort of opening she might take advantage of to help him.

“Indena, maybe we can help Mel out.”

“You got a plan?” Indena responded.

Yamin’s plan was a simple one. Flank the pirate and jab him with a spike of Stardust. An easy trick for someone with Indena’s speed.

Indena gave it a go taking up a crystal spawned by Yamin's creativity and rushing in, careful not to be caught in either of their swings or gunshots.

Mel could tell what she was doing, and so could the pirate.

Uncle Mel tried to hold the pirate’s attention, but it was a back and forth to give Indena an opening to strike.

Finally, she saw her chance.

Indena jabbed the spike of solar crystal into the pirate leader’s back, then Mel finished him off with a cut across his torso. The pirate fell to his knees, turning to dust.

Just as they were relaxing from the battle, shadows like smoke rose from where the pirate bodies had vanished. Impressive, lengthy giants of darkness spawned.

Their numbers overwhelmed everyone. Easy to take out, but hard to control in a crowd.

All but Uncle carved a path through them, seeing them concentrate on holding down his allies. One slipped by him, forcing itself to the presence of the innocent Yamin.

“Shleemp, mumther,” It said to her, cautiously taking her in his arms.

He cradled her kindly, nursing her into a quiet slumber. She couldn’t resist the sleepy power.

Mel slashed in to prevent this kidnapping. His longsword cut carefully toward his enemy to avoid hurting a human. But many tall demons collected around, hoping to stop his advance.

He cut down one after the other, swinging with great power against these spawns of Hell, but they had attrition on their side.

Mel resorted to summoning his crystal armour and activating his most precise combat skills. Devastation ensued the groups of demons as he swung his blade aggressively.

But even still, he was unable to secure Yamin from its grasp when the kidnapper phased through the floor, leaving no trace of itself behind.

BOOOM!

The tower rumbled with the thunder akin to a nuclear bomb.

Indena let out many colorful expletives with concerned as to what the explosion was.

As the quake calmed, the sealed door to the mana chamber opened. The remaining heroes ran in to find what had happened. Uncle Mel was shocked to see a chunk of the dome missing.

~☆☆☆~

At the roof of the tower lay the tiny steaming body of Yalda. Her newly found battle armour had been reduced to a burnt mess, but she remained unscathed.

Mel picked her up, comforting her like a sleeping toddler as she cooled down.

Just across was the witch Melpomene, who had used a mana shield to protect herself from the chaos here.

With the sizable chunk of roof obliterated, and the smoldering wreck that was his napping niece, he had an idea of what Yalda had done here, and he worried that things had just become very complicated.