No plan survives contact with the enemy, and war is hell. What started as an organized fight between our group and the fish monsters quickly devolved into a chaotic brawl. Luckily for us, we have the advantage. The monsters initially organized into a formation, facing me and Katja. But after one of their reinforcements got shot by Hecate, they quickly realized they would be sitting ducks if they stood still.
Me and Katja first attacked the ones sticking out, which resulted in their nearby allies breaking formation to retaliate. Their rushed, clumsy movements were easy to dodge and only gave us more easy targets. After a few failures, their whole formation broke apart, and that’s the point where we’re at now.
The two of us maneuvered around their weapons, surrounded by dozens of wet footsteps at all times. The many splashing sounds drowned out by the sound of metal clashing and the occasional bang echoing in the distance. When the opportunity presents itself, we cut them down one by one. Katja weaves and dodges every single one of their slashes and stabs in between unleashing her own attacks. It’s a dance optimized to perfection.
I was trying to mimic Katja, but I promised I’d stay safe. It’s hard to do both without heavily relying on my skills. I’ve managed to avoid all their blades so far. One of them managed to hit me with the stick of one of their spears, and another with its claw. Both hit parts covered by my outfit, and I barely felt anything. But those two hits were enough to make me realize I can’t compete with Katja just yet. Not without using some of my crazy active skills. I settled for a lower pace and continued to take them down one by one. At this speed, I can only maintain two or three stacks of Violence Impulse active. They’re nice to have, but they don’t make a bombastic difference.
The portal we had been looking for was floating above the water nearby. Every couple seconds, one of their allies would jump out into the water. It took them around 30 seconds to swim to the shore and join the fight. If Hecate lets them get that far, that is. All the cut, raw fish is reminding me of something… Miyuki? Sushi? Oh no… Stop thinking about it, Iroha! I’m going to make myself feel sick…
I put some distance between me and the monsters attacking me. Katja’s fight caught my eye. She’s doing really well. “Optimized to perfection…” That’s the only thing that comes to mind while watching her move. If there’s one thing Katja has going for her, it’s her skill. Are there people in the other world fighting against creatures like these? Even they would be impressed with her, I’m sure. How would Sarasa and Flanne fare in this situation compared to her? Sarasa’s fighting style is not too different from Katja’s, but she gets up to some crazy antics while fighting. Flanne has magic over Katja, but Katja doesn’t need it. Her magic is the level of polish in every single one of her moves. She knows the best thing to do at any time and performs it flawlessly. At least that’s what I see with my inexperienced eyes.
No matter how many of them come at her swinging their weapons, it really looks like not a single one will ever reach her. However, at some point, a different-colored fish joined their ranks. Instead of the translucent blue most of the fish had, this one’s scales were yellow. While Katja was busy weaving through the group’s attacks, the yellow monster convulsed before spitting a liquid at her. Katja was surrounded and couldn’t get out of the way of the liquid. She covered her face with her hand, leading to her arm getting splashed.
That’s her target. That one’s dangerous. Katja shakes off some of the liquid with a swing of her arms and cuts her way to the yellow fish. In a flash, her sword is buried in the creature’s head. It wasn’t any stronger than the others. It only realized it had died when Katja pulled her sword from its head.
Katja struggles when pulling her sword out. She stumbles, like her legs are getting weak. This delay gives time for the monsters to catch up to her. Was that because of that liquid? Was it poison? “My body… is numb?” Katja grits her teeth while fending off the monster approaching. Wait… Isn’t this getting kinda bad? She’s numb? Is that a status effect? Paralysis? Should I do something?
She’s quickly losing the upper hand. She manages to parry and retaliate against two of her attackers, but the third one hits her torso from the side. “Gah!” Katja let out a pained gasp and swung her sword, getting revenge on her attacker. The monster’s sword was dull and couldn’t cut her clothes, but she still felt the impact. If I jump in, I’ll need to use some of my skills. At the very least, I’ll have to reveal Agility Burst, and who knows what else. She doesn’t need my help, though. This is Katja we’re talking about. She’ll be fine…
Katja then jumps back, trying to put some distance between her and the monsters. She slips during the landing and falls to her knees. Keeping herself straight by clinging onto her sword, Katja sees the monster slowly closing in on her. Suddenly, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. She doesn’t need my help? She’ll be fine? Those are just excuses. Why am I making excuses? I’m just scared! Scared something might happen if my secrets are discovered—scared of failing to save her? That’s stupid! How many times am I going to hesitate because of this? These dumb fish can’t do anything to me! Choosing between Katja and keeping my secrets isn’t even a question!
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“Katja!” I instantly sprinted towards Katja with Agility Burst. My loud voice caught the dumbass creatures’ attention. Many of them stood up with their weapons raised between me and Katja. As if that’s gonna stop me! With my speed, I ran through the field of blades, avoiding and deflecting their slashes and stabs until I got to Katja. I impaled two blocking the path with Heart Piercer, and flung their bodies away before reaching her.
“I- Iroha…?” I could try fighting while protecting her, but that’s a bad idea. I should take her to safety first. “Gyaah!” I lifted Katja and kicked off a nearby wall to jump over the approaching monsters. *Bang bang bang!* Hecate was paying attention, and the sound of her sniper intensified not long after Katja had fallen down to one of her knees.
I carried Katja near the warehouse we first hid behind. We’re still in line of sight of the monsters, but they have decided not to chase after seeing the ones who tried getting shot by Hecate. That should buy us some time. “How are you doing? Are you alright?”
“Eh?” My question caught Katja by surprise. “My body’s numb, but I’m fine. More importantly, what did you just do?” Guhh… I knew she wouldn’t just let it slide… I’m too agitated right now, so I can’t even think of what to say.”
“Well… I’ve been training, remember? I told you I might make the cut when it comes to fighting.” Katja’s eyes opened wide for a moment.
“R- really? That’s…” That’s a bit of a stretch? I know… “Anyway, I don’t think I can keep fighting. We’ve killed around 50 of them… We can pull back now… We’ve bought enough time.” Katja was sitting against the wall of a nearby warehouse, tired and gasping for air.
“I can keep going.”
“Huh?” I turned to the horde, sword in hand. Now this is a familiar sight… The conditions are all here… “What did you say?” Katja couldn’t understand what I just said, and her head snapped towards me. “You want to keep fighting? By yourself? Are you going insane? We don’t have to fight anymore! They’re not gonna chase us!”
“I’ll be fine. Trust me.” Katja gritted her teeth and looked at the floor. “Can you signal Hecate to hold her fire? Tell her to regroup.”
“I can, but…”
“Alright then. Please do…!” I broke into a mad dash before I even finished speaking.
Point your weapons at me. Cut me. Stab me. It doesn’t bother me. Somehow, I’m used to that. Try to hurt Katja, however? No! I can’t stand that!
I dash back in. No holding back this time! I can kill any of them with a single, well-placed slash. That’s what I’ll do! One, two, three. Violence Impulse rapidly stacks. As my strength increases, the sounds of weapons clashing quickly turn into those of metal snapping violently. With enough power, one slash is enough to break a sword and cut a stupid fish in half. They’re more relentless than they look, though. Even when their allies are being attacked, the others take the opportunity to try to attack me. The ones with spears and similar weapons thrust blindly at me. While the ones with shorter weapons go for all or nothing charges, trying to land one attack before their inevitable deaths. It’s their loss. They’ve realized that already. The only ones left able to block are the ones struggling to defend against the shockwaves of my attacks.
With less than half of them still standing, I spotted two yellow creatures hiding behind some of the other monsters. They’re just like the ones who hit Katja with paralysis. They’ll pay for what they’ve done! There weren’t many monsters left on land. One small group of normal fish stood in front of these two special ones. After a short, one-sided clash, it was just me and the two yellow idiots. One of them started doing the motions to spew its paralysis at me. Screw it! I know I shouldn’t, but… Slash Flurry! Filleted in a blink of an eye. The other one turned around and tried escaping into the water. An action the remaining survivors copied. I had a vendetta with this one, so I’m not letting it get away! By combining Agility Burst and Heart Piercer, I slide across the wet ground with a devastating thrust, skewering the creature as it was trying to dive into the ocean.
Splash after splash, the defeated monsters jumped back into the water and swam back to the portal in a panic. Yeah… Go away. Don’t let me catch you again. At a distance they presumed safe, some of their own were floating with their heads poking above the water. What are you staring at? I picked a broken piece of metal off the floor and threw it at the nearest one. It let out a pained grunt, and it, together with the rest of the onlookers, joined the fighters in their retreat.
That’s a wrap. Looks like they’ve finished retreating… I really scared them at the end, didn’t I? Hopefully, they learn to stay away from portals from now on. That would be the best for everyone.
“It’s done.” I went back to where Katja was sitting down. Her face was frozen, with her mouth slightly open. “Let’s head back.” It’s probably a good idea to bring Katja back to the car and regroup with Hecate. If her numbness is really the typical paralysis status effect you see in games, it won’t kill her. But I can’t imagine the feeling of numbness being particularly pleasant. She’ll feel better sitting in the car.
“Y- yeah…” Katja took a second to respond, then tried to stand up, using the wall as support. Her body was still numb, so I wrapped her arm over my shoulder.
“You can lean up on me.” Whew… That was something else… Did I overdo it? Well, Katja’s safe. I haven’t been shot either, so maybe everything’s alright.
----------------------------------------
“Get back here!” In a shadowy access between warehouses, a girl with a simple katana chased a fish-looking monster. “Tsk… Why are you running? Just die!” The monster wobbles in a panic, hearing the sound of footsteps closing in from behind.
The fish creature arrives at an open area with a body of water right ahead, but is stopped by an attack in its path. “You’re not going anywhere.” The girl says as she forces the monster to step back until its back is up against a wall.
The monster draws its rudimentary sword and swings it at her. She dodges and immediately counters with her own attack. “Finally… It’s dead! Is this the last one of them?” The girl approaches the body and stabs her sword down again, for no particular reason. “Ahahahaha! See? What did I say? I can handle this! All by myself…”
She stabbed her sword into the body over and over again. There was no one around, yet she continued to talk. “Shut up… Shut up shut up shut up! I handled this on my own! I’m not useless! I’m on the same level as Hecate, and Katja, and Narumi! I don’t need anyone’s help…”
Her voice and the monotonous sound of her stabs muffled the sound of the ripples in the water behind her. “Carol?! Behind you!” A loud splash and a familiar voice. Those two noises snapped her out of her trance.
“Huh?”
The familiar voice carried a weapon that quickly extended into a long handle with a thick blade at the end. She gripped the bottom of the handle with both hands and swung it like a baseball bat. The sturdy metal at the end clashed with the tip of a trident, stopping the thrust from the creature that had just emerged.
“What the fuck?” The girl with the sword turned around and saw the familiar figure facing the creature that had just tried to attack her. “A mermaid?”