Petra huddled in her coffin, watching the smoke of her sister’s pyre rise into the air. She could feel the fire, even glimpse the flames from her position. Petra herself would be dead already at this point, but Clara was made of sterner stuff. She always was.
“Claaarityyy,” the jerk sang out (oddly in tune), “Come on out! Will you melt, daughter of silver?”
Don’t do it, Petra thought, come on Clara. We can take him together. We have to.
“Are you really going to die for your sister?!” the jerk shouted, “Come now. I’m sure you’re itching to attack me! I promise to make your death more blissful than burning to death. And if you surrender, I won’t even cut off your hands! Are you-you did! You really did! I can smell you die! HAAHAHA!”
The stench of burning flesh filled the air and Petra choked with rage. NO!
Petra’s soul screeched and she flung herself up, a thousand stones erupting around her as the Mana crystal crumbled in her hands. She could hardly aim, but she didn’t need to. The jerk stood between her and her sister’s pyre, a mere ten feet away, with his back turned.
Petra cast her spell with a guttural shriek, panic-praying that her sister heard and would save herself, “DIE!!!!!”
A thousand bullets ripped through the air and shattered into the ground, a sleet of focused death. Petra kept up the barrage as she leaped from the coffin, running around and catching the other soldiers in her barrage. It had to be enough. It had to-
“As if I would fall for that,” the jerk emerged from the dust, black cape whipping with holes from Petra’s attack, “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but apparently I need to defend my life from a mad little &%$.”
The jerk stood, clad in black clothes without any armor, a dozen jewelry pieces glinting brown with a wealth of Mana crystals.
The jerk wiped a stream of blood from his forehead and held it up, sighing, “Oh, it’s good to be able to fight at full strength. No rules. No way to cheat. All is fair in hate and war.”
“I beat you once,” Petra trembled, “I’ll do it again. You’re not winning this, Clout of house Tast’er. I’ve only grown stronger.”
Clout the Cleaner. Petra shuddered.
Three mana crystals crumbled as the jerk, Clout, raised twin blue crystals in performative grace, and a hundred tendrils of water erupted from around him. They twisted and whipped, splintering the earth in a thousand blows.
“As have I,” Clout said, “Although I must say, I’m disappointed. I was hoping for a fun fight with a great mage that defeated five-hundred wyverns in a single blow. But this will be another type of fun. Revenge on that girl who humiliated me in last year’s Mage’s Tournament. The little cheater who stored charged shots throughout the arena, hid illegal Mana crystals, and poisoned my water. The foul fiend who dares to claim the name of the Golden Shields. Aurum Aegis’ little dream, the biggest failure in the world of Mages.”
Clout whipped out a tentacle of water, shattering Petra’s next attack and wrapping around Petra’s neck. Petra flailed, but Clout blocked her attacks and raised her by her neck. She couldn’t breathe!
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“I’ll make your death slow,” Clout hissed, “I’ll even let you fight back a bit more. Then, before your dead sister, I’ll take your blood and add you to my collection. Then all that shall remain of you, honorable Patricia, the future of the Golden Shields. All that shall remain of you is futility and a bottle of blood occupying a single space on my shelves. Coagulated, solidified into the trophy you could never be.”
Suddenly, the coffin behind Clara’s burning effigy, exploded. A massive sword swung through the air, propelled by an almost average-height girl screaming bloody murder, and cut Clout across the back. The water tendrils holding Petra collapsed, and Petra gasped as she landed. Petra ran to her sister, hugging Clara fiercely as she gratefully accepted this improbable reality.
“You’re okay!” Petra cried, “I thought you burned to death. How did you get into the other coffin?”
“I was never in that one,” Clara thumbed towards the fire, “I thought you were. There must have been a mix-up. Now, let’s murder this guy. You take out the goons-”
“GUAN YIN’S FIVE CAGES!” Scott’s voice roared across the battlefield. Five cages erupted from the ground, forming around Clout’s five soldiers, “Everyone, thanks for helping. Now run!”
All the townspeople who had been transporting the coffins ran for the city. The leader of the soldiers exploded in a flurry of blows and chopped an opening in his cage. The others followed their leader’s example and started chopping or using magic, but before the leader could make his way out the cage sealed. It grew up around the damage and gnarled together in a thicker seal, trapping the men in a fruitless cycle.
“No one escapes Guan Yin’s Mercies that easily,” Scott laughed, “It’s made of bamboo, which grows quite quickly. Clarity, Patricia, you can do it! I’ll hold off the others.”
Petra nodded and turned back to Clout, who lay face-first on the ground. He hadn’t moved for a second, but Petra extended her senses and-
“Jump!” Petra leaped to one side with Clara as ten water spikes erupted from the ground before splashing down to the ground.
“You’re a fool for staying,” Clout rose to his feet, the cut along his back bleeding into his water armor, “You might have made it halfway to that canyon before I killed you both. Now you’ll die without a step to your name.”
“Shut it,” Clara pointed her sword at Clout, “I’m starting to get really angry. It was your house that hired those terrorists, wasn’t it? You destroyed our home!”
“Ooh,” Clout waved his hands, “the little fighter is angry. What am I going to do?”
Clout launched an attack but Clara cut it down, then Clout said, “It’s to my shame that I wasn’t included in the planning of your destruction. I’m not ‘the favored’ child, after all. Just the oldest. The one they keep sending out for everything. But no, I couldn’t be there to kill you that night. I wasn’t worthy enough. Maybe my victory today will change their minds-”
Petra and Clara dodged as another lance of water erupted from the earth.
“Or maybe,” Clout grinned with bloody teeth, “I don’t care.”
“Oh yeah,” Clara hissed, face turning red, “I’m getting angry.”
“Good,” Petra said, pulling out more Mana crystals from her Locker, “Just be sure to cut with good edge alignment. Any blunt force attack won’t make it through his defenses.”
“What happened to your attack then?” Clara said, “Why did only one get through.”
“I… forgot to shape them,” Petra said, “Don’t get distracted. He’s a filthy murderer who keeps a shelf of his victims to enjoy in his spare time.”
“Right,” Clara was unnaturally red at this point, and her voice got deeper, “All out it is.”
“All out,” Petra absorbed her Mana crystals, “A thousand deaths upon his head.”
“Oh come now,” Clout held his arms out, “Are the w’ittle giwls angwy? Do your worst-”
BOOM!
Clara exploded forward, drawing a second massive sword from her locker a moment before she struck. Clout redirected Clara’s swords as he dodged to one side, lancing a tendril around in a counterattack-
Petra exploded the tendril with a sharpened bullet, chasing the jerk down as Clara pursued. Clout was laughing until, a few seconds later, the sisters fell into a rhythm. Like tuning forks, Petra and Clara joined a twin psychology. A perfect rhythm from years of perfection.
Every attack Clout dodged from one twin had the other hammer into his side, and Clout’s water slowly turned red as his body glowed from healing crystals. And Clara only got faster. Petra had trouble weaving bullets in between her sister’s blurring attacks, and they chased Cloud along the field. Was he heading toward the city? Clara was already carving up acres as it was.
Petra stopped and planted her feet, summoning a wall behind Clout to stop his retreat. Unfortunately, Clout then slipped aside Clara’s attacks and hammered a dozen piercing tendrils into her side. Clara went flying but was able to backhand Clout with a brutal cut across his neck. Blood poured out of the man and Clout glowed red and covered his neck. Petra shot the bullets she’d been holding back in a deadly stream that should pierce his water armor-
Clout threw out a dozen tentacles that caught and redirected Petra’s bullets while another dozen hammered into the returning Clara. Then he started to laugh.
“I didn’t want to win this way,” Clout coughed up blood, “But I suppose you were a genuine challenge. Ah well, raw power it is.”
A dozen Mana crystals crumbled on Clout’s person, and he glowed a fierce red and blue. Two hundred tendrils erupted, a hundred to each side, and his form lifted into the air. His main crystals shone bright azure in the growing dark, the sun setting behind the mountains as the battle came to a close.
Charon stood with his boat waiting undetectable beside Petra and grinned, “I thought so.”