Cetyz is accelerating, rushing through the street at insane speed. I'm sure she can't detect them because the street is slightly curved so there are too many buildings between them, not to mention they're likely too far for her even though she has a far longer range than I do.
Yet, she seems to be homing in on that group even though she was going for Suxen and they're definitely not south of her so that doesn't make sense unless she smelled Suxen among them.
I reach the street and the point the two groups will meet on first. I crouch down to avoid been seen from the street, thinking quickly about what to do. The Princess has been hanging back from the start but lost it when she learned where Suxen was, I don't know if I'll be able to get her to calm down.
But I need to, especially since I can detect parents and children inside buildings and I don't think she's in a state to control herself to avoid collateral damage... or whether she'd even want to if she knew considering how she attacked Grace and the sailors.
People in the area have either left towards the institute to see what the fire and the commotion are about or remained indoors to huddle with their families, which makes this area a terrible one for a battle.
Cetyz' thumping steps grow louder as she approaches and so does the sound of the horseshoes clicking on the pavement. I grow tenser as the groups get closer to crossing paths.
The Princess enters my line of sight to my right, she has several spiked maces at the ends of her tendrils and a large sphere of water floating behind her. She's ready and I can tell how eager she is to fight.
“Cetyz!” I whisper as loudly as I dare. “Stop!”
She doesn't reply or even look as she barrels past me at her top speed. Her ovaloid head is fixed ahead and she is making a sharp noise, like a continuous silent scream.
I turn to my left, finding that Hetlan's soldiers are in fact a half-dozen Templars on horseback. The lion heads engraved in their chest-plates mark them as unmistakably part of the Order. Their helmets are on but their visors up. Vikiana is leading them.
She should be sailing back to her daughter, what the fuck? She said she would. Did she? I... assumed that's what she would do when freed, did she return to help Aisha get away? Oh shit, that's why Cetyz is...
The two sides become aware of each other at almost the same time. The Princess brings three of her tendrils down, injecting the spiked constructs into the pavement just as the Templars pull on their reins to spread out.
“Back!” Vikiana orders. “We can't fight here!”
“Never, again!” Cetyz screams.
Her distinctively inhuman voice resounds out of her ovaloid head and fills the streets, likely heard from afar but soon swallowed by the sound of the street exploding in a wave from her to the Templars before they can lead their mounts around.
The stone is mostly flying at them but they're so far and the street is so narrow that much of the debris impact the sides of the houses and go through window flaps, a few chunks even go through wooden walls.
The Templars do what they can to protect the horses with their shields, which bear the city guard's crest, likely trusting their armors to protect them. The rocks impact in a cacophony of steel and broken bones.
The mounts all survived and none of the Templars seem even injured but four of the horses now have broken limbs, forcing their riders to jump off. They are entirely unaware of the four streams of water headed for them, hidden by the cloud of dust now filling the street.
I remain there, frozen by indecision. I can't act against Cetyz, but should I help her? It's not like I can let her get captured again even if I think Vikiana would release her to me if she won because that would destroy the thin trust between us.
“Split!” Vikiana changes her orders, their ability to get out of the residential zone depended on their mounts. “We need to contain her before she destroys the area!”
She starts assembling an air-blade as wide as street at insane speed for the amount of energy she's using, obviously taking risks because she deems it urgent to finish the fight as early as possible.
Her actions force me to make a choice as I cannot let Cetyz be hit by that. I prepare my lightning construct and target the air-blade with it. Vikiana launches it through the dust towards the Princess.
Cetyz seems already aware of it as she stops and bends her knees, preparing to leap back, but I deem it safer to shatter it since the Princess might not be able to jump over it or might simply trip considering her physical and mental state. As I'm about to activate my construct, the air-blade detonates in the center of the cloud.
The compressed air is released all at once in a violent burst of wind that clears the dust within seconds. It seems like a waste of flow to use such a large amount of energy, three portions, just to quickly clear their line of sight but I have no doubt the Exemplar knows what she's doing.
The Templars immediately take notice of the streams of water headed for them, yet they ignore them to start assembling what I recognize as a disruption construct.
Probably not a good call since Cetyz can still bombard them with stones from outside that construct's range but perhaps its the only choice they have to counter her immense reserves of flow.
They can't exactly block or strike water down, not without using a similar amount of energy which isn't worth it since their steel armors are designed to handle most physical threats and constructs.
The disruption construct might work out since the Princess isn't behaving rationally and is pacing, trying to find an angle to attack them. Perhaps she doesn't recognize the construct or she's assembling constructs herself.
They're going to run out of flow long before she does. Cetyz moves further into my range, revealing that she has a dozen spiked constructs underground in front of her, she's controlling them by keeping her head trained on them to see through the pavement.
This could go either way, if they get the disruption construct up then Cetyz loses because she'll be inside the range but if she activates these things, then the Templars will lose, or at the very least be buried under so much stone it won't really matter.
Vikiana moves to meet Cetyz head-on, apparently aware that the disruption construct won't be ready in time. She moves to meet Cetyz head-on, there is a diffuse golden light coming out of her plate armor's seams. She doesn't have much flow left, likely used most of what she had to make that air-blade.
This isn't time to observe. I need to intervene to ensure that neither side wins and the best way to do that is to ensure that Cetyz doesn't activate those constructs. She is only a dozen meters away from them now so, even if she isn't charging at full speed, I don't have time to waste.
I jump down in front of Vikiana and raise my left hand up to block Cetyz. The Princess' shriek abruptly ends and she skids to a stop. Her ovaloid head doesn't look away from the constructs she has underground, which right beneath my feet, meaning I'll die if she detonates them.
“Cetyz, they helped me free you, I know they're the one who...” I try to explain.
“Kill invaders!” She interrupts me.
My symbiont echoes the words with crazed agreement. I shake my head, not letting Cetyz influence me through it. She tries to side-step me but the Princesses' physiology isn't exactly designed for that so it's a lot easier for me to block her way than it is to chase her down.
Cetyz, unable to go around me or detonate her constructs, uses her streams of water to freeze three of the Templars' legs together, they throw glances at each other to make sure they're safe but remain focused on their construct.
“Cetyz, please, we need to leave.” I plead. “They won't stop us.”
She doesn't listen, she is controlling the last stream of water to shape it like a spike that she aims at Vikiana. I raise my double-bladed staff but find myself unable to make a decision about what to do in time.
“Vicky, behind you!” Conrad calls out.
The water turns to ice and shoots out towards the Exemplar who is too far from the others to receive help. Vikiana rushes at me, sword brought back but with her shield held in front, likely to bash me into the Princess.
Cetyz reacts before I do, using what few tendrils aren't busy controlling her constructs and keeping her rib-cage together to seize my symbiont. She pulls me in and to the side, effectively propelling me behind her.
Likely to both protect and get rid of me. I just let it happen, like a fool unable to act. I took an oath to do whatever it takes to end the war, which means protecting Cetyz, but it's so much more difficult when the ones I have to take down aren't attacking me but trying to prevent a rampage in the streets, even if they're responsible for her presence and state of mind in the first place.
“Rhyyyy!” The Princess shrieks aggressively.
Vikiana steps on top of the spiked constructs, Cetyz activates them all at once, I watch through my sense as the ground explodes out under the Exemplar which renders her shield utterly useless since the projectiles are coming from below.
The shock alone is enough to propel Vikiana up and back a dozen meters in a cacophony of steel. The stones that impact her plate armor don't directly break through the steel but they bend it enough that it tears in some places despite the armor's runic construct.
Vikiana crashes and rolls on herself, her chest-plate is caved in at the stomach and she is having trouble breathing because of it. She isn't unconscious as demonstrated by her attempts at standing back up but she's too heavily injured to do much.
The wave of debris crashes into the rest of the Templars but they hold strong behind their shields, even when receiving hits to their helmets. Three of them didn't really have a choice but to take it with their legs immobilized by ice, but the other two don't show any hesitation as they face the wave of rubble head on.
Cetyz rushes inside the thick cloud of dust while assembling an even larger spiked construct. I send my lighting construct up and target it at her construct, taking a gamble. I can't attack her directly but she was not worried about that construct blowing up in her face so it's not likely to be dangerous.
Besides, my construct might not do anything to it but it'll at least give her pause, and maybe get her to talk to me instead of my symbiont, which will give the Templars time to spread and activate the disruption construct. I activate my lightning construct.
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The back of my head hurts, I'm bleeding from a small gash. I feel something heavy on top of me. I can smell roasted pig. My symbiont is patting at my right arm. Its sense tells me that Cetyz is on top of me, breathing roughly and apparently only dazed.
Fuck, did I just set the dust off? I was told fire did that. No time. I open my eyes, finding that I'm seeing white. I panic for a moment before finding some blurs in my field of vision. Just temporarily blinded, good. Well, bad but...
I use my sense to scour the area but find no Templars in range, there's a man limping away from his house with a broken ankle. We're actually close to a wall which means I flew at least a few meters. I try to lift Cetyz up but she's so heavy I have to leverage her off me with a strengthening construct.
I scout the area around us, finding Vikiana against a nearby wall. She's still conscious despite the fact that the explosion damaged her plate even further, pushing sharp torn edges into her stomach. The woman is sturdier than I am. I kneel down next to her.
“You okay there, Vicky?” I ask, opening her visor.
“I might survive.” She grumbles in a rough voice. “Glad I didn't kill you after all?” She asks, revealing bloody teeth.
“I'm not convinced you've made things better, we'll see.” I answer with a wry smile. “Why did you even show up?”
“To help, end war, and I... Khg.” She coughs, spitting thick black-red blood. “Know someone who'd be a bit sad if you kicked the bucket.”
“Thanks, but you need to get better now and leave, before she recovers.” I tell her.
“Can you see the others?” She questions.
“No, big white flash, can barely see you.” I tell her.
“Use that parasite of yours.” Vikiana demands with a frown.
“How do you...” I start.
“You see the same way they do, just at a wider angle.” She interrupts me. “I knew you were lying to me from the start.”
“Oh.” I say. “You sure you okay, it looks nasty. I think your ribs are broken.”
“I'll...” She swallows. “Be fine.” She repeats unconvincingly. “Find them, they'll take me to the Temple.”
“The Alemplars aren't there, Vicky.” I warn her, increasingly worried about her state.
“There's, an old Templar who's just as good.” She insists, trying to push me away.
“Rh, ii.” Cetyz whines.
The Princess is struggling to get back on her feet, trying to use her weakened and trembling tendrils. It doesn't look like she took much damage, she's only a bit singed despite bearing the brunt of the explosion. I try to give Vikiana four portions of flow but she refuses to link to it.
“You'll need it.” She tells me. “Now hurry, before she makes sure I don't make it.” She says, keenly aware of the possibility.
I hurriedly cross the street to scour the area, finding a hole in a house's wall. The sounds of ice breaking and steel scraping against stone make it past the ringing in my ears.
I follow the noise, finding two Templars freeing a third from chunks of debris, both wood and stone. Two others are chipping at the ice around their feet. The last one, likely Conrad if I go by size, is actually finishing the disruption construct, there is a dent in his helmet and he isn't that steady on his feet but he still managed to hang onto it.
“Conrad!” I speak up. “Vikiana is hurt, you need to grab her and...”
“Cetyz!” The Exemplar shouts.
“Fucking!” I swear as I flip around, rushing back. “She's going to get herself killed.”
“Go!” Conrad orders his brethren.
“I'm the, kgh, one you're looking for! Don't attack my Hive!” Vikiana challenges. Damn Exemplar, there's no need for that, what about Leomi?
“I kill invader.” Cetyz replies in a loud growl.
I lion's step ahead, using my sense to navigate the rubble. I find Vikiana stumbling towards Cetyz who apparently gave up on getting up to assemble a huge spiked construct. Her head is fixed to the Exemplar, who is no doubt worsening her wounds.
I realize what happened in horror. Cetyz spotted Vikiana and, in fear for her life or freedom, decided to destroy the area which forced the Exemplar to get back up to stop her, which further convinced the Princess of the danger she is in.
Words are going to be useless at this point. I scour the area for my weapon, finding it planted in a house's wall not far from the Exemplar's sword. I assemble an air-blade that I send over to recover double-bladed staff while charging Vikiana.
Any action against the Princess will destroy the trust between us and as such kill any hope we have of escaping Meiridin or reaching the Rykz. I need to alleviate Cetyz' fright... by taking the Exemplar down.
Luckily, Vikiana's approach is distracting the Princess, meaning she won't be able to finish her construct in time. There's a chance I can de-escalate this. I leap towards the Exemplar with my left arm brought back.
Vikiana must've heard my foot scrape against the ground because she throws her armored elbow back while turning to intercept me. Yet, with so little flow at her disposal and her heavy injuries, she's unable to stop my left palm from impacting the side of her breast-plate.
She stumbles to the side, towards our weapons. Vikiana manages to remain standing by sheer willpower. She turns around with a smoldering glare to which I return a flat stare, more focused on the Princess than her.
“Cetyz, calm down, I'm here.” I urge.
“H, elp, kill.” Cetyz stutters with fright and anger.
“Get her to stand down and we'll leave, Elizabeth.” Vikiana urges. As I remain silent, she flips her visor open. “We're helping you escape, Jay, I swear, please.” She sincerely pleads.
“Th, ey, invader! You, Hive.” Cetyz screams, having no doubt heard and fearing betrayal.
I fall silent, frantically trying to find a solution, a process complicated by the fact that there are at least a dozen witnesses in sight down the street, not to mention that there are more a few injured people hearing range. The most problematic of those being the Princess whose trust I cannot afford to lose.
“Get back up, Cetyz, we need to leave Meiridin and end the war.” I tell her, yet my words don't seem to reach her.
“Ihhhhhh!” She cries out in anguish.
I detect Conrad entering my range with his brethren, shields at the ready. The disruption construct is ready to be deployed. Sensing that this is all about to go to shit, I activate my air-blade, propelling my double-bladed staff in my direction.
Cetyz deploys her spiked construct, plunging it in the ground despite it not being complete. Conrad raises his hand and activates the disruption construct which spreads out in a golden fog, at about the same time as Cetyz activates hers.
The ground shakes and cracks under our feet but doesn't explode out, likely cut short before it could fully discharge. Lucky considering Cetyz probably botched it.
I make use of the unstable ground to flash past Vikiana, who is having a harder time because of her armor, to catch my weapon as my air-blade loses coherence and crumbles.
The Exemplar pulls all the energy from her runic constructs and tries to lion strike the back of my head with her gauntlet. I crouch, dodging, and spin to retaliate but she uses a lion step to get past me. I swing my staff at her ankles but the blade bounces off her steel greaves.
Vikiana is bleeding from her stomach and likely bruised all over yet manages to recover her sword and take a defensive stance before I catch up. Neither of us attacks as we're both more concerned about our companions than each other.
She's gazing over my shoulder while I'm using my symbiont's sense. Cetyz is making a rumbling sound as she expels a thick menacing cloud of unstructured flow. Threatened, the Templars decide to charge her.
The Princess' tendrils all unwrap from around her torso and she uses them to propel herself up to her feet. Cetyz' rib-cage shifts, the sudden movement pops the left side over the right one. She cries out in pain but perseveres, letting her fear and desire for revenge blind her to the state of her body.
“Retreat!” Vikiana calls desperately.
Her words are drowned under Conrad's screams as the Princess' cloud of unstructured flow takes hold of his armor and... twists it. I observe with horror as the man is ground to a broken wreck of steel, bone, and blood.
Vikiana turns rigid and her face loses all color. It doesn't last long, her expression soon turns grim as she leans forward, preparing to charge. I raise my double-bladed staff to block her, feeling a crushing weight on my heart. No matter the personal cost.
“I'm sorry, Vikiana, I can't hurt her... I have to...” My voice dies down but my meaning seems to have come across as her pair of cold light blue eyes lock onto me.
The Exemplar swipes at my neck with her sword. The killing strike is so merciless that I fail to wrap my head around it and so swift that, even if I did, my human reflexes wouldn't have sufficed to block it.
My symbiont, as I well know, isn't human. Its reflexes and understanding of battle have been honed during our training, benefiting from it as much as I have. It twists its wrist, flipping the double-bladed staff around and parrying the attack.
Vikiana goes along with the motion, spinning on her right foot to kick me in the stomach. Yet, she is obviously running low on flow as she is having so much difficulty moving her heavy armor that the impact barely pushes me back a meter or two.
I gather all my flow, including from the air-blade that the disruption construct shattered, hurriedly using the energy to prepare a few lion strikes while she closes the distance.
“You'll survive.” I utter, making my decision.
She responds by closing the distance and making use of a flaw in my defense to try to stab me. An attempt I thwart by using a quick lion's step to the side and a lion strike to rotate my double-bladed staff.
The blade closest to me impacts her sword, diverting it far away while the other one impacts her breast-plate. She staggers back, pain and surprise obvious on her traits.
I make use of the time she spends recovering her stance to use a lion strike again, making my weapon spin around my back. As it comes back around, I release my hold on the handle, just enough to let the weapon slide inside my hands, securing a grip just above the blade closest to me.
The extended reach allows me to slam the flat of the blade into Vikiana's sword with such violence that it takes all she has to keep hold of it. She once looks taken aback, likely having never faced such a weapon or following instincts she developed training with me.
I hear another blood-curling scream behind me, coming from a human and a few gasps coming from the observers, but I don't let it distract me as the Exemplar is too difficult an opponent to use my sense on anything other than her.
I rush her and use a hardening construct to seize the bare blade with my left hand, ripping it out of her weakened fingers. She tries to punch me but I incline my head aside, avoiding her gauntlet.
As she pulls back, I slam my staff into the side of her breast-plate. The impact transmits to her stomach wound, bringing her down to her knees. The tears of rage and pain in her eyes make me hesitate but I grit my teeth and throw her weapon up.
I catch the handle in a reversed grip with my left hand, bringing it down towards her in the same motion. Her eyes widen as she sees the point of her own sword rushing straight at her damaged chest-plate.
She uses the last of strength to angle her torso so that it hits her left shoulder, which is fine by me. The tip of the sword impacts the pauldron, piercing only a few centimeters deep. That's plenty. I let go of my staff to grab the back of her neck. I then focus a lion strike on my left arm and start pushing. Shrieeeek.
“Arrrgh.” Vikiana screams in furious agony.
The sword goes through the steel and, little by little, plunges deeper into her shoulder. I only stop once the blade's tip hits the other side of her armor. It frightens me how much I want to actually run her through and through but I take it as a reflection of my affection for her daughter.
Vikiana's head drops. She's unconscious, having reached a hard physical limit. Her body wavers a little but finds balance in her kneeling position. I use a strengthening construct to slowly, and carefully, set the Exemplar down on her side.