“Your moves are pretty good, y’know.” The skating Fiend suddenly slumped over from the added weight on her shoulders. Phon had teleported on top of the woman and wrapped her legs around the Fiend’s neck. “I like to think of myself as rather agile and dexterous, a lot of fluidity in my attacks, but it’s nothing compared to you.”
The woman suddenly did a flip, flinging Phon off of her, and attempted to slice her during the rotation. But Phon landed gracefully off to the side, having switched her yo-yo to its purple setting which let her place it anywhere in the air as a hovering platform.
“So let’s see…” Phon did an information dive with Phontext’s help. “Your name is Ancett Bexto, famous ice skater, your coach was mean to you, treated your brother better, blah blah blah boring. Oh, you killed them by drowning them in a lake where the ice had collapsed. And you stood on top of their face so they couldn’t get back up for air. Pretty brutal. Respect.”
“Okay, and your Curse is called Twinkle Toes. All it basically says is that you can walk on anything. Sounds pretty simple and unimpressive from the description, but it seems you’ve found how to use it to its maximum effectiveness, even able to walk on air. It also explains how you were able to latch onto Xard. You were treating him as an object that you could stand on.”
“But now that your career is over from the murder, you’ve become a mindless military asset. Just when I thought you were starting to get interesting. And… you’re not very talkative, are you?”
The woman had stood still and stern during Phon’s monologue and frowned at the question, but she actually gave an answer. “Why would I have anything to say to my enemy? Especially during a fight.”
“That’s a fair point,” Phon shrugged in agreement. “Don’t mind my mouth then. Rambling as I kill people is just a habit of mine. Feel free to attack anytime. No need to wait on me. Unless… you’re waiting to see what I do.”
“I am pretty famous, I know. So I bet you think you have a good understanding of my capabilities. You most likely believe that I am pretty pacified right now, and that my only course of action would be to teleport onto you again. Which is why you haven’t made a move yet. You’re waiting for it to happen so that you can act reflexively again.”
“And the reason that you think this is because my yo-yo is currently indisposed. I’m standing on it right now, so clearly I can’t attack you with it. If I did, then I’d be giving up my foothold. The only way I could use it as a weapon is if I used you as my footing and then attacked. That’s what you’re thinking, right?”
“Well that would be the case… if I had just one!” From her left hand, Phon flung another yo-yo out of her sleeve. It spun through the air with blazing speed, and the buzzsaw teeth revved, hungry and impatient as they snarled at the skater. Ancett managed to spin away, but just barely, her dress torn slightly along the waist.
“Just a drop of blood,” Phon inspected the damage when her yo-yo was recalled. “But now it has a taste for it. So I don’t think it will let you get away unscathed. Not until it’s had its fill.”
Maybe it was the crazy look in The Vixen’s eye, but Ancett clearly took it as a signal that it was her time to flee. She turned around and started to bolt away, but a yo-yo flew right by her head. It missed entirely, but Phon hadn’t been aiming for the woman. Instead, It stopped just a few feet in front of her, a bit off to the side, where it flattened into a disk.
Phon appeared on top of it and was already in the middle of her next attack, having flung her yo-yo before she teleported. Ancett was forced to duck, limboing under the buzzing blades aimed right at her chest. She then released her Curse, dropping a few dozen feet before resuming her skating. But that wouldn’t save her.
The strings on Phon’s yo-yos were virtually endless, and could reach the far corners of the battlefield. As long as she was in sight, The Vixen could catch up to her, and would hunt her down.
Ancett jumped and spun to dodge the next attack going for her legs but then tried to retaliate, slicing her skate at the yo-yo’s string to sever it. And while she was successful, the string reconnected itself as if nothing happened and did so through the gap in her skates.
“Oh you fool,” Phon couldn’t help but burst out laughing. She tugged back on the string, expecting Ancett to come with her, but the opposite happened. Ah, I guess she’s unmovable by force, Phon thought to herself as she was shot forward towards her foe because of her own strength. But she still didn’t waste the opportunity, and did a fancy spin herself, kicking Ancett right in the rear.
The enemy Fiend cut the string again to free herself, taking more care not to get caught again. She also took a swipe at Phon once her other leg was free, but that was more just to force Phon to put some distance back between them. And then they resumed their game of tag—Ancett desperately trying to escape, and Phon repeatedly cutting her off, practically toying with her.
But then Phon gave up on attacking suddenly, and instead, just focused on staying near the woman. “You know…” Phon spoke casually as Ancett spun on her heels to change direction. She teleported again, popping up in front of the woman after each breath just to torment her.
“With your Curse… You’d think that… I wouldn’t… be able… to move you… but that’s not the case…. The sad part… is that you never… had any chance… of escape… Oh… and I lied again… I don’t have two yo-yo’s… I have ten!”
Phon stopped her pointless pursuit there, letting Ancett speed away. Maybe the woman even thought she’d skated out of range. But nowhere was safe. Not from The Vixen who saw her every move.
With Phonscience’s help, Ancett was plucked clean out of the sky and brought right back to where she started. As it turned out, Phon was her worst nightmare. The caveat of Phon’s teleportation was that she had to be able to move someone where they could stand, or sit, or just be stable in general. But for someone who could stand on anything, that meant Phon could teleport her literally anywhere.
And Phon actually placed Ancett a few feet directly above her own head. Though she wasn’t the only thing waiting for the skater. There were also nine other yo-yos, all currently floating as gravitational discs, surrounding the teleported Fiend in a sphere. Even though there were giant gaps between each yo-yo, it was still effectively a cage, trapping Ancett from something she couldn’t escape.
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Phon pulled every string at once, one attached to each finger. They all surged towards the center, right towards Ancett, slipping into buzzsaws and baring their fangs. Splashes of beige colored blood rained down towards The Vixen, but she teleported out of the way, back to the safety of The Salvation before it could hit her. Phon had also dodged Ancett’s limp falling body, letting it plummet to the ground and leaving her fate up to Cosmos, too bored with the woman to care about her for a single moment longer.
◆◆◆
The war waged on for hours. From the moment that Xard had shot his attack, there hadn’t been a single second of reprieve—no breaks for food, no quick breathers, not even a good chance to stop and use the bathroom for most, and those that couldn’t hold it any longer didn’t have better accommodations than a hole they could find or a pile of bodies to crouch behind—excluding Roque who took a good time-out upon the porcelain throne in his cottage and caught up on the financial news.
But despite their small numbers, they held. The Fiends For Hire didn’t give up an inch. Even though their defensive line had been pushed a few times, they always recovered. The damage that the cocoon sustained was promptly repaired every time. And now as the sun started to set, it remained unblemished.
Though the Fiends were rather worse for wear. Without exception, they were all exhausted, practically running on fumes. Their clothes were ruined, their hands were stained, long since numb to the atrocities they were committing with them. But no matter how ragged they were, the armies that faced them were so much worse.
Maybe it was the dread of fighting in the night, or the hopelessness had finally sunk in. Seeing the cocoon standing proudly as Last Bastion didn’t experience a single loss couldn’t have been good for their morale. And with only small fractions of each army remaining, a retreat was finally sounded.
“Did… did we do it?” Itsy asked trepidatiously over the comms, setting down her monster truck as the soldiers finally had the sense to flee from her presence. She had rejoined the fight once her wounds had healed up, a bit ahead of when Farian wanted to release her, but she was restless just sitting around.
“No new movement down here since we destroyed the last of the ships,” Niloy confirmed from the harbor.
“I’m seeing retreats in all directions,” Xard did a sweep up in the sky.
“Let me double check before we celebrate,” Phon focused on the world around them. Things were a lot clearer now with the absence of the living, however they’d come to leave Bastion’s borders. “Yes, it seems we’re cl- wait. Wait. Zjik… Zjik Zjik!”
“Everyone, we have incoming!” Phon then cut her comms for a moment to vent privately. “Damnit! Things were too chaotic for me to be sure, but I was pretty certain I hadn’t seen their flags…” After a few deep breaths to calm herself, she began relaying what she’d seen.
“The Horage army is approaching…” she started to explain, but found it hard to relay the entire message given everything they’d just been through. “And, their army is at least twice the size of the combined forces we just faced.”
“We have approximately forty minutes before contact. No, make that thirty. Everyone regroup and recover as much as you can. In a sense, this will be easier since it’s all one army. They’re united in their decision, so we just need to show them why being here is something they’ll regret. This will be our last stand.”
The members all trudged their way to the trenches, some of them letting their bodies flop and flail as soon as they touched the ground, too exhausted to care about comfort. Kada and Niloy returned from the sea, leaving Ten alone to rest in the water. The Salvation touched down, and those aboard came to join the others. Farian exited as well, checking on the condition of everyone around.
A couple of them complained about how hungry they were, but there wasn’t much they could do since even Mallea was too tired to make them something to eat. There were rations aboard the airship, but the idea of hard, tasteless food sounded less appealing than starving, wanting a proper meal after all their hard work. So for now, they just chugged some canteens.
But then surprisingly, the cocoon opened, just a small hole at the front gate. Laurim, who was currently a platybear, burst out the opening which then closed again immediately afterwards, pulling a cart behind her. Rishaki was the only cargo, that and the chest she was sitting upon. “Come, come friends!” She beckoned to everyone. “Come experience the graciousness of aunty Rishaki!”
The woman opened her chest and piles of pre-cooked meals began pouring out of it, still as warm and fresh as the moment they were put inside. Along with that, she served the recovery drink that the group would use after their intense workouts with Nachi. They didn’t actually cure exhaustion, but rather relieved fatigue, both physical and mental. So that’d help push them forward by leaps and bounds.
“When you are done eating, tell me what you need,” the woman offered them. “A change of clothes, more ammunition, a pillow to cry into. It is all free, but just this once!”
“And where did this bout of generousness come from?” Roque inquired, doubting the woman’s altruistic behavior. “Ah, I see,” he looked her over. “You seem to be wearing some new trinkets, Rishaki. Been making some friends in there while we are out here busting our asses?”
“Tch, I’d rather be fighting on the front lines than listen to those insufferable twats moan for a minute longer,” the woman scowled. “So there is nothing better to do with my time than try to take as much wealth away from them as I can. But I have made enough that I can afford to spare some for my frequent customers.”
While the group ate, Egawo played them some calming quiet music to help them relax and ease the tension. Then with food in their bellies, a few took Rishaki up on her offer, trying to get as refreshed as possible. Niloy even offered an impromptu shower service for those who were particularly grimey. A few went and boarded The Salvation, wanting to lay down on the beds and get any ounce of sleep that they possibly could.
But those moments of reprieve were fleeting. There’d been a spark of happiness during the recovery period, but the mood soured as soon as the flags of Horage peaked up over the horizon. Like the armies that came before them, they didn’t attack right away. Instead, they halted at the carved border created by Xard, letting the rest of their forces sort into place.
They came not in traditional vehicles, but rather giant towering buses that seemed closer to mobile fortresses. Soldiers started pouring out of them, thousands upon thousands per unit. It was a wonder how they’d even crossed the world's various terrains in them. Perhaps that's why they were so late to the party.
Though Phon suspected it was on purpose, letting the rest of the countries and the Fiends For Hire wear themselves out so that they could swoop in for the win. She sat alone up at the highest point aboard their airship, monitoring the situation as her own morale plummeted with every new wave of soldiers that arrived. It was why she was avoiding the rest of the group, not wanting them to see the dread on her face.
“Hey, what’s that light?” Kada suddenly asked over the comms, snapping Phon out of her funk. She looked around, trying to figure out what the girl was talking about. The battlefield had almost gone completely dark during their brief reprieve, the sun having long abandoned them over the horizon.
But amidst the blackened field was a single glow of green, and it was heading right towards the enemy. Phon had been so preoccupied with the Horage army that she hadn’t noticed it all, and it seemed the others hadn’t either until just now. Whatever it was had somehow gone entirely under their radar.
Phon focused on the glow, and found it to be the tips of hair along with a pair of furiously burning green eyes. “Huh, Drim?!”