This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters Universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.
The Stormbreakers (including Anita and Kamira, appearing here, and Xela, their leader) are the creation and property of Xel_Artz, used with permission. His artwork has inspired a lot of my writing and my mental images of several of my own characters. I was overjoyed when he gave me the thumbs-up to my request.
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Chapter 34: The Chase
Ryan charged forward as soon as the duel started, coming in with an enormous overhand smash that would have reduced me to paste under his hammer. Simple, direct, and effective. Hallmarks of his combat style, like they always had been.
I saw it coming a mile away, spinning to my right to evade the blow. The force of it striking ground was enough to sound like an explosion, but I ended up unmarked and in position away from his shield hand. Fire flew from my fingertips as I targeted his undefended shoulder. The Firebomb, unfortunately, seemed to splash off of his armor. Right. Compensating for weaknesses. I didn't have access to Gloria's Acid Mist, which meant I was about to have to do this the hard way.
"So predictable, little Incubus. Delivery changes, you stay the same." I hopped backwards to get out of range of his backhanded swipe. "Weak."
"It's not too late to stop this, Ryan. Back off and back down. You have nothing to lose for doing so, and everything to gain." A Lightning Net was my next probe, but he swatted it aside with his shield. No dice. He was barely fast enough to interpose it against my first sword strike, metal chiming brightly against metal, but not nearly fast enough to catch me with his Shield Rush. The sword left a deep scar on the face of that shield. Something to consider if this went long?
"Everything to gain? If I give up on the only group that will have me?" A leaping smash had no more luck than his initial rush. The crowd shifted backwards a bit as our attacks brought us close to one edge of where they had cleared off.
"You still haven't learned what I tried to teach you, back when you still wore my badge." Initial probes were going nowhere, and the Troll had both a much deeper well of Stamina than I did and a much quicker and more efficient Regeneration. Plus no need to use MP on most of his abilities. The longer this went, the worse it would get for me.
"Are you still harping on that load of manure?" He was more wary now, knowing that his usual tricks were getting no progress. "About no one person being truly strong? Is that why you are so afraid to stand and fight? So weak without your Guild? Without Lucile doing your fighting for you?"
"You still call her that, and wonder why you got nowhere with her? Come on." Oh, that got under his skin. I was suddenly dodging left as another enormous smash cratered the ground where I had just been standing.
Double Team let me run a copy across his field of vision as I rolled towards his back, my main body striking at the joints of his armor. This time, I scored on him. The shining edge of my new weapon found his gray-green flesh, in the space between his torso and leg armor at his lower back. I managed to flap backwards as he roared in pain, stomping the ground.
The very real shockwave obliterated the Double, but left me untouched. There was verbal shock from the crowd as the clash got more violent. He spun to face me.
"You know that won't work for long, Kithkin. So annoying."
"And yet, it's the only attack that has struck home from either of us." I had to keep him talking, because I knew the chink in his armor now. Both literal and figurative. That thing was held together by barely more than prayer right now. Reinforced at the front, where he knew he'd be facing his opponents. The enchantments I had found were similarly placed. Probably not the best quality, either, just pretending to be that way. I knew the difference now, having seen what a real Enchanter could do.
He was still Guildless, others probably having dumped him during trial periods. Hired as a freelancer every now and then, taking what he could, then being set firmly to the side as soon as the need was over. He did not have the resources to shore himself up, to properly equip himself as befit his level and role. It was a self-feeding cycle. That equipment was what he leaned on, and simultaneously it was his weakness.
"Got any good Guild prospects recently, Ryan? Hammer swing like that should get you noticed by almost anyone." I raised my voice a hair, making sure the nearby crowd could hear. This particular swipe of his weapon actually required that I use my wings to dodge, jumping over the horizontal arc. This time, when I used Double Team, my clone and I kicked off of each other midair to land on either side of the enraged Troll.
I also invoked one additional thing. My Double Shapeshifted, just a hair. Looking larger, more present. He dove in, drawing out attacks but not returning any of his own. I needed to conserve the mana for what I was about to do. Reaching into my Pocket with my left hand, I pulled out my pistol. I wasn't going to be the most accurate like this, but I didn't have to be. He was a huge target, and close. I was aiming away from the crowd, with the forest behind him. Bracing against my right wrist, saber still in hand, I fired twice. Ryan quickly figured out what was going on when they struck him in the back, spinning to face me and bracing with his own shield. My next attack, however, didn't involve a trigger pull. I gathered power and blasted him with a Combat Disenchant.
With a series of pops and snaps, the prayers that had been holding his equipment together were rejected. I could see components litter the area, followed soon by three enormous clangs as the front and back plates of his armor hit the ground, followed shortly by his shield. His hammer held, being made of much better stuff than the rest. His pants did as well, but I was not convinced they were magical to begin with.
"Your defenses are down, Ryan. Back off and surrender. The next attacks won't splash off."
"I don't need them to crush you, Jeremiah!" He grasped his hammer in both hands and charged at me, seeing red, thinking only of doing violence unto my body for daring to destroy what he had struggled so hard to assemble.
"So be it.
Flame Ray!
" I did not technically need to call out my attack names to use them, but this time? This time, I wanted him to know. I was not my wife's equal at her signature technique. For this, though, I did not need to be. He was wide open, unguarded, and I had no reason whatsoever to hold back. The lance of blue fire shot forth, piercing his torso directly at center of gravity. I missed his heart. I only grazed his lungs. The fire, however, severed his spine, and he could not heal this wound natively.
Ryan's legs immediately stopped responding to his orders, and he dropped face first into the dirt. There he scrabbled, trying to stand, not able to. "KITHKIN! Kithkin, I'm not done with you!"
"Yes. Yes you are. Daniels, you never marked me. You didn't take the chance to back down. And you know what? Everything I did to you, I did with the power of my Guild. My sword was crafted by one of them, the techniques used taught to me by them. By myself, I would have died here. Together, we could overcome you. That is what you never managed to learn. You could have been one of the greats. You could have been a champion. Now. Listen closely. I do not have the means to knock you reliably unconscious without killing you. Surrender now. Let the medics carry you off the field. Please. I do not want to finish this the other way. You have lost. Your only decision remaining is the magnitude of it."
He struggled there, not able to reach me, not able to reach his gear. Barely able to crawl, dragging himself forward without the help of his legs. There were no words in his rage, not coherent ones. Fischer looked on with a dispassionate face, horror and pity in his soul. The crowd, who had cheered for my final attack, was deathly silent at this display. In the end, my opponent collapsed onto his belly, the strength leaving his arms as the awful force of hatred ran out.
I stood there. Waiting. I could feel everything in his soul as he used every ability in his repertoire to try to get back into the fight. I could feel the moment when he realized that, were our positions reversed, he would have killed me with neither hesitation nor remorse. The terrible self-reflection, the moment he gave up. I was there with him, a hidden ear in his emotions, as the man I used to call one of my Guild was loaded onto the stretcher. I still stood there as our arbiter officially declared the victor, as the crowd dispersed and the ambulance left, dispassionate as a statue of myself.
I turned, finding my family behind me. Sarah was carrying a plain brown bag. The remains and components of the gear left on the field. My proper stake for the win, by Guild Law. She decided against the large metal plates. Whitney had a different bag, holding the traditional portion of the many bets which had been placed on this fight. My wife took two soft steps forward, gently putting her arms around me. Just like that, the dam holding my pain at bay was no more. I broke. I sank to my knees, sobbing like a child. I had no control over my emotions, my ladies just had to stand and endure it as my Aura told them in no uncertain terms what this had meant to me. What it had
done
to me. We were not truly alone there. Though others not of my Guild kept a respectful and fearful distance, I knew I was being watched. I still could not hold it in. The tears flowed, striking the ground like a summer rain.
It was probably only a few minutes later that they eased off. That my control reasserted. I could hear my wife's quiet voice in my ear, telling me I would be okay. I felt her arms around me, saw the others standing guard. I eventually stood again, and when I did Whitney offered me some food. A bag of her own Guild Hall favorites, something she probably grabbed for when she was watching.
I smiled, a small thing, and grabbed an ear of corn. "You need to keep the rest. Not going to have a chance to go back and get you fed before you go Below with the
Stormbreakers
, that's still happening."
