FETTER VS. JAID
“This is it folks, the last fight before the grand finale! Our first Fiend came out of nowhere and astounded us all with his incredible power. The Mesmerizing Mime, Fetter! Will our last fighter finally be able to figure out the secret to his power? Or will she betray our expectations once more. The Prude Paladin, Jaid!”
As soon as the fight started, Jaid didn’t reach for her sword. Instead, she pinched into her collar and pulled out a long black ribbon. The Paladin wrapped the ribbon around her eyes and tied it into a knot at the back of her head, just beneath her visor and weaved through her done-up hair.
《Drim: Isn’t that your ribbon, Phon?》
《Phon: The very same.》
《Drim: Actually, yeah, it’s missing from your hat. I just noticed. Playing favorites now, are we?》
《Phon: Quite the opposite, really. Like many others throughout this competition, Jaid approached me last night and asked about Fetter.》
《Phon: As with everyone before her, I told her the same thing. If she could give me the solution, I’d tell her the problem. And wouldn’t you know it, she guessed right and asked for my ribbon.》
《Phon: So I told her all about his power. And since it’s now out in the open, there’s no more reason to hide it. But before I reveal it to everyone, tell me, Drim, have you figured it out?》
《Drim: Uhh, I think so. Maybe not every detail, but I believe I get the gist.》
《Phon: Then you should be able to answer this question. Who does Fetter’s Curse most closely resemble? Bonus points if you can also name the most common incorrect guess.》
《Drim: I’d say most people are guessing Dicatta. They believe he has some sort of telekinesis power like Dice’s ability to cut through anything, but that’s wrong. It’s closest to Rezin, right?》
《Phon: Ding ding ding! Spot on for both parts. Such a wise king you are. Fetter’s power has nothing to do with telekinesis. He’s never actually attacked anyone this entire competition, well except that one time he stabbed Tusmon in the eye. I’ve been rewatching that a lot.》
《Phon: But no, his Curse is mind manipulation. Similar to Rezin, he's tricking people's brains into thinking they’re being harmed, and their brains and bodies do the rest. There may be a bit of Curse shenaniganry to assist with the physics, but his opponents are the ones inflicting all the wounds themselves, and are even sending their own bodies flying in Mama Bamb’s case.》
《Phon: So Jaid figured out the simple solution. And that’s if she can’t see anything he’s doing, her mind can’t be tricked. But that presents another problem, she’ll have to fight this whole thing blind, and that won’t be easy.》
《Drim: Yes, and Fetter’s proven he’s capable even without his Curse. He’ll be aiming for Jaid’s face since that’s the only part of her that’s vulnerable. She has armor on her limbs, and her tunic has been repaired after her fight with Laurim, likely reinforced by Dura as well.》
《Drim: But she’s still a pretty wide open target. One good jab to any clone's face is all it will take. And since she can’t see, she’ll have to rely on her other senses, and I doubt Fetter will give her many audio cues. She’ll have to hunt down and fend him off entirely on instinct.》
Once the ribbon was tight and secure, Jaid unsheathed her sword and swung it, sweeping out a wave of clones in front of her that were all also attacking. None of them made contact with anything, so she sent out lines from each. Every new clone attacked in a random direction. Their slashes were half-hearted and cautious, making sure not to hit one another. They weren’t going for damage, but rather to feel out as much ground as possible around them.
She missed wildly the first few times, but with each new branch of clones, the knight quickly covered ground.
《Phon: Ohp, good dodge by Fetter there, he slid right underneath her sword.》
《Drim: Uhh, would you say that counts as helping Jaid?》
《Phon: Nah, since she has no idea which sword I’m talking about.》
In response to the woman’s words, all of the clones suddenly swung downward, attempting to attack The Mime if he was still low to the ground. But Fetter had already scrammed a good distance away and Jaid whiffed entirely.
《Drim: Ah, yeah. If anything, you’re just making it more confusing for her.》
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Jaid’s sweeping search continued. It wasn’t long before she had clones covering almost every inch of the arena floor. She was getting to the point that there wasn’t much more room to spawn anyone, at least not without shoving the already existing clones around. And she pushed it a bit too far. One clone spawned with a foot off the arena edge and nearly tumbled out of it, but the others grabbed her and pulled her back in.
《Phon: Uh uh oh! That was a close one, wasn’t it, Jaid? Remember, if any of your clones touch the ground outside the arena, you lose!》
《Drim: That may seem unfair to some, but we have no way of knowing which clone is actually the real Jaid, so we’re forced to treat them all as one entity.》
Fetter finally went on the offensive. He’d been weaving in and out of the clones, skirting by them with his small and nimble frame, trying to line up the perfect shot. Finally, he found a group that all had their backs turned to him. The Mime lunged at the closest Jaid, trying to stab his shank into her ear.
But the clone whirled around at the last second, and swung up her sword, deflecting the shank and slicing into Fetter’s hand in the process. The Mime kept his silence where anyone else would have screamed. But it sent him recoling and he withdrew back into the sea of clones, returned to his skittering while he waited for his hand to heal.
《Phon: It may be a minute before we see our next jab of action, so let me tell you all another fun fact about Fetter. Most of you probably think that the prison guards did that to his mouth. Maybe they found him annoying and too chatty like a familiar monk.》
《Phon: But nope! He did it to himself. That’s due the main caveat of his overpowered Curse. If he makes any noise with his mouth, it breaks his illusions, and he’s unable to use it again for a while, having to completely rebuild his manipulations from scratch.》
《Drim: Well, that is quite the caveat, and it makes the self-mutilation make more sense. But I do still think it’s a bit drastic. I guess the main thing it prevents is any heavy breathing from his mouth when he gets worked up. Don’t really see how that aspect will be relevant in this fight, though.》
《Phon: Hey, you never know. His vocal cords are still perfectly functional, and not all noises are voluntary. Your mouth doesn’t have to be open to make them, either.》
“Thanks for the tip,” one of the Jaids muttered, but she still had to put together how to make use of it. While she mused, Fetter made another attack, and the tip of his shank pierced into Jaid’s forehead. But it stopped there, not making it through bone, blocked by her sword slamming into the Mime’s chest. It still wasn’t enough to make the man scream, but it definitely let Jaid know his location.
First, Jaid had to unsummon about a third of her clones in order to bring the pain to her head back to a manageable level. But then she spawned a few more, all lunging at where she assumed her enemy to be, their form resembling a giant hand clawing down at her foe. Fetter managed to roll out of the way just in time before a dozen swords beared down on him, and he slunk back into the crowd, careful not to bump into any clones as he recovered from his own injury.
“I think I’ve got it,” Jaid said suddenly. All the remaining clones pointed their swords towards the ground and charged their railguns. The floor quickly turned to a sea of sparks, and each clone winced through the pain, though most was negated by her insulated armor.
The Mime on the other hand had no such protections. He was stunned by the static, and it made his body jolt entirely. And then it happened, as much as Fetter tried to fight it, a single grunt of pain echoed in his throat.
“You better not be lying, Phon!” Jaid shouted as she stopped her sparks. “I’m putting my trust in you.”
《Phon: Oh, well that’s generally bad advice. But I’ve told no lies today.》
Every clone lifted their ribbon for just a moment, urgently scanning for Fetter. Once they had their eye on him, all clones but the original Jaid vanished. But then a new line dashed forward, straight towards her opponent. Just before contact, a row of Jaids spawned, and they all swung at Fetter with the flat of their blades.
The giant slabs of metal all made contact with The Mime as the clones continued to rush forward. They sent him flying right out of the arena slamming into the outer barrier with so much force that it caused the screen of light to ripple and the audience in the stands to leap out of their seats in a panicked reflex.
“Jaid wins!” Rallie hopped onto the stage and ran over to the victor. Jaid released her clones and almost keeled over from the exhaustion she was just put through. Even though it was just a small injury, sent through that many clones it felt like her head was being drilled into. “As you can see, our final contestant here needs a bit of a break, so we’re going to stop here for now. But in a few hours we’ll be back for the final fight of the tournament!”
“Plan a party, make some food, walk your dog, cancel everything else, call sick into work if you’re on the late shift. It all comes down to this, and you won’t want to miss it. All our remaining competitors have to do is win just one more fight and the wish is theirs. Get hyped everybody, the grand finale starts at [700]!”
~Unfulfilled Wish~
Fetter: To be free
◆◆◆
Once the excitement from the crowd started to die down, and the stands had started to vacate until the finale, Jaid made her way off the arena and back to the staging area. She wasn’t expecting General Breach to be waiting for her there, leaning up against the wall. He’d normally wait until she got back to her room and then come to visit after each fight.
Her superior greeted her with a proud smile, like the father she never knew. “Great work, Jaid. I knew you’d see it through. Now then, we’ll go get some lunch and talk about your strategy for the last fight, maybe get some ice for your head. But first, we need to make a quick pit stop. There’s someone who needs to talk to you.”
This surprised the woman more than anything, but she didn’t worry about it too much, assuming it was just a debriefing about what would happen for both occasions, whether she won or lost—the knight more focused on the prospect of lunch on the horizon.
However, her confusion only grew when she entered the suite of a CP Representative. “Ah, Luciri,” Gort Hower, Representative of Horage, turned around to greet her. His assistant Gandr was next to him, and a few dozen other Reps and high ranking military officers filled the room. “Great work out there. You’re the pride of the Central Peace. We look forward to your next victory.”
“But as for what comes next, there’s been a change of plan.”