Anad cycled his hold on the Trance through the undertow from the pulse, just barely holding on to a sliver of his power. It wasn’t everything – hell, it was barely a quarter of it – but it was more than the other Tailcoats in the room seemed to be able to do. And that sliver of power was why he was still alive.
He angled back as Gevar’s blade flashed in front of him, the yellow glow fleeing the blade as the pulse passed, then he brought his cane up to parry the Mediator on his left. With the other’s blade stopped, Anad twisted around in an esquive maneuver, his own sword coming up to one-two parry twin slashes coming at him from the third Mediator.
Then he was past them, out of the trap where they’d encircled him, and he dashed towards the fourth Mediator in the room who’d been harassing Shara. Somehow, she’d managed to survive another period between pulses, but she wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. Activating the magic of his shoes, they clacked on the floor with every step, fast and loud, and the Mediator’s head snapped in Anad’s direction at the same time green light slipped into his eyes.
Anad didn’t slow, practically crashing into the other man as their swords met in a flurry of silver and green. High, right, thrust-chest, thrust-shoulder, left, left, Anad attacked, pushing the other man back. The Mediator’s defenses were impeccable, and Anad’s next step in had his own sword going out too wide, the Mediator positioning his weapon to harmlessly slide the attack away.
The man grinned at the opening… until Anad thwacked him square in the forehead with his cane.
Green light flickered in his eyes, the Trance keeping the Mediator conscious, and Anad stepped back then kicked the other man in the chest.
“Oooof,” the man gasped as the air shot from his lungs, and he tumbled away.
“Duck!” Shara’s voice called, and Anad dove forward, a sphere of pink swinging through where his head had been a second before.
WHOMP, came the concussive sound from behind him, the force of it adding to his own dive to hurl him forward. He hit the ground with his shoulder and rolled right back to his feet, sword coming up just in time to parry a yellow thrust for his face.
Gevar pushed in on him, her sword a blur of motion that left yellow smoke hanging in her wake. Behind her, one of the Mediators was on the ground while the other ran at Shara. Not that Anad could do anything about it, Gevar’s assault requiring ever ounce of concentration to stay alive. From the way her blade danced and weaved, she’d taught him everything he knew, but not even half of what she did.
Somehow, despite being made of solid Chrontosteel, her sword seemed to curve and bend like a reed in the wind as she snapped her wrist with each strike. Where he thought he’d parried a slash to his left, the tip of her blade in fact curved around his sword to cut into his arm. The wound wasn’t deep, and he batted the weapon away, but she was already coming in from the other side.
Again, he got his sword up for a perfect parry… and again her blade whipped around his, another bloom of pain on his back. His tuxedo obviously wasn’t enough to protect him from her Trance-infused attacks, and she lifted her foot to continue the assault.
Knowing what was coming, Anad quick stepped back, sword already moving to intercept hers for all the good it would do.
Except her foot movement was a feint, and the yellow light faded from her eyes as Anad increased the distance between them, the pulse washing over both of them. Before he had the chance to close the distance and capitalize, her eyes flooded yellow, and this time her charge was no feint.
She rushed him hard, stinging wounds blossoming all across his body, every strike too fast to try to counter, and every parry failing to completely block her weapon. Blood trailed the tip of her sword as she pulled her arm back, cocking at the elbow, then snapped it forward left and right.
Anad’s parries came up short yet again, but he accepted the stinging blows in exchange for sweeping his cane in from the side. Even she would feel…
Yellow flashed, and her sword intercepted Anad’s cane, slapping it aside, before continuing her assault like nothing had happened. Gevar didn’t even lose a step as she continued to push Anad back, and it was all he could do to pull harder on his Trance, barely keeping up.
Silver met yellow, down, above, right, left, right, each parry coming just in time to prevent anything worse than a shallow cut, but Anad was getting the hang of her attacks. For her, it was a war of attrition, wearing him down with her absurd speed and numerous hits. But, her style didn’t seem to have anything immediately lethal, and while her sword came at him from all angles, her footwork was remarkably – and literally – straightforward.
Another stinging blow scored Anad’s already injured left shoulder, and Gevar cocked her arm back, blade swinging up, back, and around to come in from his right. She’d used this pattern before, and Anad feinted the parry, knowing she’d snap her weapon whether it met his or not, and then he lunged forward, sword aimed for her heart.
She saw it coming a mile away, nimbly stepping to the outside of Anad’s lunge, and then jerked her arm in. Elbow met nose, winner never in doubt, and stars spun in Anad’s eyes as blood exploded from his face.
He lost the footwork of his lunge, stumbling forward and scrambling to stay upright, while thick, coppery liquid ran down his throat as he choked in a breath. His legs threatened to give out from under him, only pure force of will keeping him standing, and Anad spun back around, sword high to parry the next expected attack.
Gevar went low.
She ducked in so low Anad barely even noticed her, her sword scoring the stone floor as she brought it down and around, lined up to cut him from crotch to clavicle. And there was nothing he could to do avoid it.
The woman looked up and met his eyes, grinning because she knew she’d won.
Then there was a flash of blue… and she was gone.
Anad blinked at the empty space in front of him – at the fact he was even still alive – then his head snapped left and right.
To the left, Gevar skidded backwards to a stop, the heels of her shoes practically sparking, like she’d been thrown to the side.
To the right, Tel stood with some kind of weapon pointed in their direction, the barrel still glowing blue.
How is he standing after what she did to him?
Anad’s eyes went to Tel’s silver leg, and then to the barrel of the weapon now pointed in his direction.
*
Shara sprinted between the pylons as something flashed blue behind her – Had she really seen Tel getting up? – then stepped up on the air and kicked off into a somersault while snapping her weapon at the chasing Tailcoat. The man dodged right, his red eyes like something out of a nightmare not leaving her for a second, while the chain shot past him. He barely paid it any heed, tearing after Shara as she twisted in the air and darted in the opposite direction, around a nearby pylon and back into the middle of the ring.
Legs pumping as fast as they would go on the springy chaos energy to give her speed, she leapt higher into the air as the fist rocketed straight back at her. It passed through the blind spot she’d created with her own body, but the Tailcoat managed to avoid it with his totally unfair Trance-enhanced speed. Still, the last-minute dodge had cost him a step, and Shara pushed more magic through the chain while she in turn exited the ring of pylons and took another hard turn.
A pulse from the pylons bought her another few steps, and she risked a look at how the others were doing. Yup, that was Tel back on his feet… one of which was silver. What the hell? He also had a gun – Is that his arm? – pointed at Anad, but shifted suddenly, and a blue bolt shot out to hit ol’ green eyes in the face. Whether or not the man survived would have to wait, as a flash of red told her she had a Tailcoat on her tail again.
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The man shot at her like an arrow, lines of red trailing in the air… until her fist shot past in front of his face. He’d managed to duck back just in time to evade the hit, but now had the sawing chain directly in front of him, and Shara changed direction again to keep that chain between them. Without hesitating, the Tailcoat ducked underneath, only to be cut off as the fist whipped by again.
Faster and faster, she pushed chaos energy through the weapon, keeping the fist pinballing in close quarters within the ring of pylons she’d already weaved a net around. It was just a matter of time before he was fully caught.
And the Tailcoat came to the same conclusion, his red eyes looking from Shara to the maze of chains growing and growing around him. Even with all the chains she’d laid, he still had the speed of the Trance to get him out, and he moved in the direction opposite where she was, a small path free of chains she hadn’t been able to see behind him.
The lines of red light left trailing by his eyes and sword were the only sign he moved, suddenly vanishing from within the circle of pylons and weaving his way through the hanging chains. He made it halfway through before the next pulse hit, the red light fading from his eyes, which widened at the sight of the fist ricocheting in a tight spiral through the path.
With the chains fencing him in on all sides, and his Trance only now coming back, there was no room to dodge, and he brought his sword up to parry.
Not that she was going to let him do that, the magic of the weapon redirecting the chain so the fist shot down between the man’s legs, then back up and over his shoulder. Rapid-fire she pushed her magic through the chain, bouncing it around and around his body. First, she cornered him within the sawing chains, then further restricted his movements with every bounce, making it so any movement bigger than a deep breath would bring him in contact with the dangerous net.
Within seconds she had him in a man-shaped cocoon, with only a small opening at the very top, through which she threaded her now titanically glowing fist.
WHOOOOMP, the fist hit something inside the chains, the concussive force bowing out the spinning metal net before the whole thing vanished, and only the man’s slumped body remained, a pool of blood growing around him.
That was… more than half of them down? Would be easier if she could count, but overall, suddenly things were looking pretty good.
Shara spun on her heel towards where Anad battled it out with his girlfriend – Maybe ex-girlfriend by the looks of things – but she stopped when her eyes crossed over the exit back towards town. Down at the end of the hall was a crowd of the monsters from the forest bunker rushing in their direction, more and more following behind with every heartbeat.
…maybe not so good after all.
*
Tel stepped forward, left eye locked on the Tailcoat as seven, colored images sprang forward from the man. Focusing on the green future-shadow, Tel shifted his arm, gathered chaos, and fired off a bolt of condensed energy in less than a blink of his other eye.
The blast, air made solid by the chaos energy, slammed into the Tailcoat even as he tried to dodge, and tossed him backwards. He managed to stay on his feet, a grimace of pain crossing his face and his hand reflexively coming up to his chest where the blast had hit him, then leaned forward to try again.
Tel’s eye saw it all: the tightening of the Tailcoat’s leg muscles, the way his left shoulder dipped a hair, and the movement of his eyes lining up where he wanted to go. Added on top of the measured movements of his past choices and actions, five images sprang out in front of him, and Tel again focused on the green.
This bolt of chaos energy caught the Tailcoat in the shoulder, flipping him over backwards to land on his chest on the ground. Five more images, four red and one green, pushed themselves up from the ground, and Tel blasted at the green one.
The Tailcoat seemed to rise like he planned to get in front of the shot, and it hit him in the side of the ribs with bone-cracking force to send him rolling on the ground. Even the man’s magic tuxedo seemed to be reaching the limit of what it could protect him from, and Tel stalked forward.
With every small movement, blast, or choice the man made, blast, Tel’s eye grew more and more able, blast, to predict his moves.
Blast. Blast. Blast. Blast. Blast, Tel pummeled the man with energy, driving him against the wall where he finally dropped his sword and put his arms up to protect himself from the onslaught.
“Please, please…” the man begged from behind his arms, blood running from the corners of his mouth, and the fingers of his left hand mangled and broken from where he’d taken a hit. Tuxedo in tatters, the light had fled his eyes, and he looked up at Tel with pleading on his face.
“I asked you the same thing when you held me down,” Tel said coldly, sending a shiver through his arm and slightly changing its configuration. “Then you shoved me into the fire.”
“Mediator Warren made us…” the man didn’t get to finish his sentence as scorching red energy exploded out of Tel’s barrel. The raging inferno gushed out along the walls and across the ceiling above Tel, raising the temperature in the entire room by two degrees in a second. It also completely cremated the man, only his sword left glowing on the ground from the heat.
Red lights flashed across Tel’s vision as he looked at his left arm, and the thousands of tiny gears reformed into their hand-shape without him willing it.
That weapon couldn’t be used frequently without consequences, apparently, the heat readings of his arm at dangerous levels. He’d need to let it cool down before he could utilize any of its other forms. No matter.
Tel leaned down and picked up the Tailcoat’s sword. While he couldn’t use the power of the Trance, that didn’t make the weapon any less razor-sharp, and he turned his attention to the last two Tailcoats in the room.
Gevar and Anad.
*
Anad stepped slightly to the left as Gevar’s blade flicked in at him, but his change in position caused the weapon to uselessly slap against him, and he pushed forward.
Straight thrust – chest, parried. Cutting slash – right hip, parried. Cutting slash – right knee, evaded. Cutting slash – head, parried. Thrust – face, parried. Thrust – face, parried. Thrust – face, parried. Anad kept the momentum. Gevar’s yellow eyes scowled as the tip of Anad’s sword flashed in front of her face, and then she leapt to the side just in time to avoid Shara’s whip-fist slamming into where she’d just been.
Anad immediately leapt in pursuit, not giving her the chance to get her feet under her, pouring energy into his blade and weaving a flurry of short cutting attacks at her. Ribbons of mirror-like silver hung in the air between them, making each successive strike more difficult than the last to parry as he increased his tempo. He pushed harder and harder on her right side, gradually raising her defenses up to shoulder level, then pulled back and swept a powerful overhand chop at her left shoulder.
Still absurdly fast, she slipped to the right, evading the blow, and struck out with her own counter that scored a deep cut on his already injured shoulder.
Anad grunted in pain, bringing his silver-glowing sword back just in time to parry aside the thrust meant for his throat, but Gevar had him completely on the defensive now, and she stepped in to capitalize on that.
Which put her directly in line with Shara’s whip-fist as it came rocketing through the hanging curtain of silver to slam into her arm with a sickening WHOMP.
Pink energy like a giant soap-bubble exploded outward, bending Gevar’s body around it before hurling her away to crash and roll along the floor into the center of the ring of metal pylons.
“About time,” Anad said, his sword-hand coming up to gingerly probe at his left shoulder, fingers coming away very red.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, we need to leave,” Shara said. “Those monsters are just outside the room. I think the pulses are the only thing keeping them from charging in,” she added, and Anad allowed himself a brief second to glance the way she pointed.
“Damn,” he said, eying the crowd of creatures waiting just beyond the exit of the room.
I hope Tory and the others got away before those monsters made it to the town…
“Shara is correct,” Tel’s voice said. “The pulses here seem to be more potent than the ones in the forest bunker. Possibly due to the extra clocks powering them. As long as nothing changes, the creatures shouldn’t be able to get in here.”
“Tel… are you… your arm… what…?” Shara started.
“I’ll explain later,” Tel said, walking past both of them on his silver leg towards the ring of pylons, and Gevar pushing herself to her feet between them.
The woman’s left arm hung limply at her side, blood dripping out of the cuff of her sleeve to pool on the ground, while she used her sword to help steady herself. A cough, blood flecking the ground in front of her, and she turned to look at Anad, Shara, and Tel, hate written clearly on her face.
“Surrender, Gevar,” Anad said. “Throw down your weapon, and we’ll go back to Bastion.”
Tel turned a look at Anad, his left eye eerily similar to the Reaper’s, and his expression said he didn’t plan to let Gevar leave. Not after what she did to him. But, he didn’t open his mouth.
“You… you think I’ll let you have this? Let you take the credit?” Gevar asked, then coughed again. She was on her feet now, but just barely. If it came to a fight – even if it wasn’t three against one – she didn’t stand much of a chance. And yet, there wasn’t an ounce of fear in her eyes. Nothing but defiance.
“Credit for what?” Anad asked, double-checking to make sure the monsters hadn’t moved. Even if Tel was right about the pulses keeping them out, it sent a shiver down his spine to have them at his back.
“I found it. Me. The glory is mine,” Gevar said, like she didn’t hear Anad’s question. And, from the glazed-over look in her eyes, maybe she didn’t. “But, if I can’t have it, nobody can.”
“What are you…?” Anad started to ask.
“Stop her!” Tel suddenly shouted, his left arm shivering like a ripple ran from his shoulder to his fingertips, but nothing happened.
Stop her from doing what?!
Yellow light flared up Gevar’s sword as she ripped it free from where she leaned on it, and swept it out in a wide arc…
Straight through the two nearest Chronosteel pylons.