Melissa, following Alex's silent preparation, lifted her hands and called forth her white and black spheres.
Katelyn readied her daggers.
Daniel's roots, breaking from their glass container, wrapped themselves around his arms. Then stretching up, they caressed his upper body and covered him from neck to waist in a thick encasement of living armor before separating themselves into a hand. Spiraling downward, they entwined themselves into a gnarled staff as long as their user's leg, yet as thin as a pole.
"I'm done playing cat and mouse,” Takumi said simply, his half smile mocking. "Please hand over the rod while I still have patience to spare."
“Then what?” Melissa asked. “You take our lives?”
“Only yours and the other eleven,” he said kindly. “The rest of your friends and surviving classmates are free to live. Fair trade, is it not?”
“No.”
"Why ask?" Haruki said. "The cowards watched their friend be lit aflame. They don't deserve such courtesy."
"Hmm...? Well in that case." Takumi grinned. "Let's begin. The monks put their hands together simultaneously and extending an arm, met palms.
Wary, the tier ones backtracked a few steps.
A mixture of gold and blue titus shot into the sky like a laser beam, parting the clouds as they formed a new cloud amongst them. Fusing, they combined, the blue created the interior and the gold the exterior of two massive arms attached to a body yet unseen.
Shooting down from the heavens, clearing the clouds and unleashing the sun, feet stretched for the Corpus Commons behind their creators.
"What the hell is that?" Melissa exclaimed, eyes wide.
Daniel was the first to turn. "Retreat!"
Running for it, the group followed his lead. Rather than head for the creek, Daniel opted to put a fair amount of distance between them and the monks. He sprinted away from them. Eyes forward, he stepped onto the cracked yet still intact concrete of the main courtyard. Its mascot, the dragon statue, stood vigil, guarding the Commons in its battered glory, missing wing and all. Falling from a run to a faltering jog, looking up, the teens slowed to a walk before halting altogether.
"Don't see that every day,” Melissa said.
"For good reason,” Katelyn said.
"Come forth, God’s Armarian Crusader!" Takumi shouted. The sheer conviction encompassing his voice seemed like the equivalent of a person offering their child as a sacrifice to an entity.
Unanimously turning, the four witnessed a golden statue; gripping the fleeting clouds in its massive hands it dragged its armored head forth before falling. The descent was short and the Crusader crashed feet first into the Commons.
Windows shattered, doors snapped and hallways caved in as the alarms were cut short and the building collapsed like a gingerbread house under an iron weight. The giant wore armor as silver as its body was gold and was so heavy that it dropped down into the basement. Its swinging pinky hit the dragon statue and sent it flying in much the same way a golf club did a ball.
The four getting their cloaks up in time were knocked off their feet by the impact and nearly lost their concentration in the process. But apart from the affliction of skipped heartbeats, held breath and involuntary shaking in the passing aftermath of near death, they held their positions. Only Daniel, the slight presence of blood trickling between his eyes, suffered injury.
The impact had shot through the ground like an earthquake, splitting the earth and opening a wide rift through the campus' middle. The scar was so deep that, much like an abyss, the bottom was as mysterious as it was terrifying, too deep to be seen. The surrounding area was riddled with an offshoot of gaps and cracks longer than wide that forsook the magnificence of Corpus and abandoned it to the jaws of disarray.
Alex, the last to stand, gulped as the giant sent tremors through the earth when it rose. Reaching back, it removed a sword from its back and wielded it like a cleaver, both silver gauntlets resting upon the hilt. Opening the milky white of its glowing eyes, silver armor snaked from the remote black orb at its chest and spreading like a virus, curled around its body, down its limbs and connecting with the helm, shifted into place.
"Crush them, like the worms they are,” Takumi ordered the puppet, his dark gaze fixated on the four.
The giant's gaze lowered upon the group and as it took its first step from the Common's ruins, Alex and the others shot up into the air. Clearing its rising foot, they made a sharp turn before losing their nerve. Crashing, Alex went down first, unable to keep up the mental strain.
Demanding a simultaneous response of harmonization with air and titus in all its sparsity, flying was among the most difficult of techniques. Though practiced by many, it was mastered by few.
"Alex!" Melissa called out and rubber-necking it, paid for her inattention with dirt.
Hitting the ground after her, Katelyn followed. Immediately after Daniel flipped, rolled, and tumbled head over heels before sliding to a stop. While the first to crash, Alex was inevitably also the first to rise. Between them and the giant stretched the rift.
While the gap was the equivalent of a stream of water for the giant's mass, the tier ones were back on the side of the creek and…unfortunately, so were the monks. Watching from afar, arms crossed and eyes cased, the two appeared to be waiting for a meal rather than engaged in a battle.
Turning slowly, Alex estimated the giant could catch and crush them in less than four steps. Taking a breath, he lifted the sands once more and broke down still more from the surrounding destruction. "Stop its movements!" He instructed his companions. "Daniel use your roots. Katelyn and Melissa take out the monks, kill it at its source!"
"What makes you think you can—" Katelyn began.
"I'm staying back!" Melissa said stubbornly.
Alex looked at her, squinting through the thick mesh of whirling particles circling him in a mini-hurricane.
"What?!"
"Buy me time! I'll kill it myself!"
"How?!" Daniel demanded.
"We don't have time—just trust me!" Melissa said.
"But—" Daniel started, looking from Alex to Melissa and back again.
"Just go with it,” Alex said.
Melissa glanced at Katelyn.
"Keep our enemies busy, would you? I can't have any distractions."
Katelyn turned and headed in the direction of the monks. "Already on it."
The giant's foot descended upon the rift. It was now or never. Alex raised his hands, his mouth set in a tight line, and with cold sweat worming down his brow, he urged the sands forth.
Twisting, the particles shot out in a torrent of brick and concrete, glass and metals. The minuscule minerals slid their way up through the giant's toes. Slithering up the ankles, they coiled about it and held firm before splitting. Stretching and encircling the other joint, a second ankle cuff formed and was secured. Restraining and restricting movement, the puppet's step halted midair.
Alex creating a stalemate, fought with the Crusader on the plane of mental strength and stamina.
Chapter 36
Strung Along
Katelyn, rushing Haruki, dropped to her knees and threw her head back as the man stuck out his arm which hummed with the electric current flowing through his body. Sliding under it, she rolled to the side as Takumi transformed the end of a pole into an arrow point and threw it at her absently. Scrambling to her feet, she jumped back into a standing backflip as Haruki shot an electric streak from a palm.
"Her movements…are similar to Akane's in a way, wouldn't you say?" Takumi said glancing over his shoulder at his companion.
The gold monk with one hand raised—apart from throwing the pole—had scarcely moved. Dark eyes eternally focused on the Crusader, he took Katelyn's presence in stride. His concentration, unlike that of his companion, had yet to be broken.
Its weight unevenly distributed, the giant, unbalanced, veered backward. As it shuffled, Alex shortened the cuff’s length and extended the sand’s focus
to the upper portions of the Crusader's legs.
As the particles laced around the Crusader's lower body, Daniel placed another hand on his staff before him and turned it horizontally. Sucking in a breath and letting it out slowly, he launched roots out from both ends. Meeting with each other, they entwined and were enhanced by Daniel's amplified titus, swelled and darkened to develop a bark-like skin stretching along its mass.
As the root spiraled up, heading for the Crusader's neck, the puppet's sword swung down and cut into a significant chunk of the thick vine, only to get stuck. It was further entrenched as the tendrils sprouting from the wound wrapped around the blade. The Crusader, however, jerked the steel from the root and swung again, only to get its sword stuck in another section. Undeterred, the main root rapidly patched the first wound and slid itself around the sword on a new course.
Acting like a factory with Alex at its center, the hurricane lashed out in a multitude of slim tendrils. The majority returned with additional particles, while many others broke off momentarily to forage. Fed with a constant supply of material, Alex had the giant thoroughly immobilized from the waist down.
A little off from Alex's efficient hurricane, the main root, having provided the sword with a new sheath, moved on. Clearing the hilt, it shot up for the giant’s neck once more. Coiling about the giant's throat, the root squeezed before running down around the rest of its body. Grating against armor, the root, wrapping from back to chest, locked the Crusader's arms down and pinned them to its sides.
Takumi dropping, sat. He smiled, holding his hand up.
"They’re beyond my expectations, but how long will they last, I wonder?"
Katelyn bobbed and weaved in the background in the midst of Haruki's onslaught of brass-knuckled jabs and kicks. Slipping up, with a slow reaction, she screamed as the brass knuckles clipped her side. The static current sped through her veins and touched her heart, sending a jolt through the organ, causing it to skip a beat.
As his stunned opponent dropped to her knees, Haruki stepped into a kick and planted his foot in her face. The blow knocked her back across the grass.
Body numb, Katelyn’s chest hurt, skin tingled, cells cried out from the shock and her singed clothes smoked. It was frustrating. To touch the monk was to be electrocuted, yet to stay out of range was to contend with a volt from his palms. At such a serious disadvantage, evasion was all she could hope for.
Thrown into self-defense classes at an early age, her infatuation with knives and dislike of the elements led her down the road to close combat. Nevertheless, she was outmatched; her opponent on top of skill, also surpassed her in speed, with mind boggling ease.
How long has he trained? she wondered, bitterly. My limits, the time...how far will I go?
~*~*~*~
"I—I can't!" Alex gasped.
His hands fell limply to his sides as he stared at the Crusader with empty fatigue. He was wearing down; the strain of keeping the giant under control was taking its toll. The intense concentration, little adjustments with the sand and constant awareness of his surroundings was agonizing. His skull throbbed with an oncoming headache and like a piece of paper, his mind was on the verge of splitting. His numb body felt like it had been overtaken by a frigid force, yet was still burdened by a relentless pressure. Unbearable, it was like he was carrying something twice his size and triple his weight.
"You can!" Daniel encouraged.
Suffering a similar fate, the dark-haired youth was undergoing a similar strain, bearing a weight of his own. His pressure was concentrated atop his shoulders while his legs shook as they threatened and begged to give in, to give up and fall.
Melissa on the other hand, continued to sit with her legs crossed and her elbows resting on her knees while her hands crossed over each other and her eyes remained firmly shut. Her mind and focus were concentrated on the growing black sphere forming at the back of her hands.
Surpassing the size of a water balloon, its darkness was absolute and foreboding and like the weak suction of an old vacuum, it disturbed the nearby earth. Stirring the pebbles, it tugged wistfully at nearby twigs and debris.
With his strength ebbing and concentration on the brink, Alex felt something pop within him. A surge of power followed as a new channel burst open, responding to his dilemma. Taking a slow deep breath, he lifted his hands. The lazy hurricane in its slow yet continuous churn, bolstered by a coating of the nearly transparent smoky white titus—erupted into the air. Tendrils were called in and foraging abandoned, the particles turning on themselves, spiraled up like a backwards tornado. Surrounding Alex in a wide open circle, the tornado's top was thin and wispy. Wild and volatile, it reflected its user's fatigue and also his newfound power.
Bucking and kicking, its head turned towards the immobilized giant. The sand level with its height began to rise above it. The tornado’s base, lifting from its master, came down upon the Crusader in a vengeful wave. The sands slid under the giant as it was knocked down and, submerging the puppet on a blanket of particles, put the problem gently into the earth and mummified it. Dropping to his knees, Alex gasped, short of breath and exhausted. However, his determined eyes never wavered from his fallen target.
"Nice job, man!" Daniel said righting the staff, and dropped to his own knees.
Alex glanced over and was about to cheer but held his tongue as the ground rumbled.
A faint brown glow lit up the earth. It ran through the cracks, crevices, and even disappeared into the rift itself, only to reappear on the other side. The glow was the unmistakable presence of titus which pulsated from the staff Daniel held.
As the main root snapped off and disengaged from the staff, a swarm of tendrils sprouted from the earth, uprooting trees, bushes, and grass alike. Drinking in the titus, the roots absorbed it, grew as they plowed through concrete and debris, shot through air and earth for the crusader. Wrapping themselves around its frame which was outlined in the dull gray of Alex's particle sands, it struck back into earth and began to drag it down.
"Determination and struggle, the will to fight. Ah, youth, so entertaining,” Takumi said calling back his abandoned pole. The iron returned to his hand and he absently rubbed it with his thumb. His black eyes narrowed and the grin fell. "But the fun is over."
On her hands and knees, Katelyn tried to rise. Haruki, standing to the side, stomped her down.
"Just lie there,” he said gruffly. "You'll be spared. You’ve proved your worth."
"As what?" Katelyn spat, lashing out with a dagger at his ankle.
The dagger cut air and Haruki's foot swept into her kidneys. Coughing, she instinctively curled into a ball, only to expose her face. Blood was already running into her mouth, a tooth loosened as it took the next kick which was precise and accurate. It clipped her lip and left her dazed.
"Is that all you've—" Two strikes to the side, one to the ribs. Something cracked, and crying out she let her weapons slide from her fingers as she yielded and wrapped her hands around her chest.
"Ah, so that did it, huh?" Haruki asked as he kicked away the daggers. "Our bodies are—"
Lurching forward, Katelyn sunk her teeth into her opponent's leg. Teeth cutting through muscle grated into bone and nails sunk into flesh. Bearing the kicks and braving the electrical current, she held on. I'm a distraction. She thought resolutely as her eyes watered. A distraction. I am a—
"Daniel..." The words left her lips as Haruki's knuckle came into view, and caught her on the temple. Head hitting grass, her eyes unwillingly began to close as her vision and the world swam, and running together, went black.
The mound of earth upon the downed Crusader shifted. A gauntlet sprouted from the pile, tearing through roots and knitted particles like cloth sending them in all directions.
Their concentration broken and titus drained, Alex and Daniel, exhausted, could only watch as a second bulge—the other hand stirred the earth.
"I won't let you out!" Daniel said and crossing the line, he pushed past his
limit and into the danger zone.
"No Daniel, stop!" Alex warned him. "Or you'll die!"
"I won't die,” Daniel refuted simply as blood slipped from a nostril. With a yell, he fished up a grain of his life titus. Forfeiting an unknown fraction of his lifespan, highlighting the ground in a short flash, a sharp flickering pulse, he conjured another swarm.
Though weaker than the last, the roots managed to pull themselves halfway over the giant before their tips darkened. Daniel, his eyes rolling back, collapsed in a dead faint. The root armor, cracking, split down the middle. It darkened, then blackened and crumbled. The staff on the other hand, flew up and, stabbing him in the neck, was sucked back into a plant necklace.
"Daniel!" Alex called, starting over to him at a crawl. "Daniel!"
"I'm up then?" Melissa asked nonchalantly, opening her eyes. Her violet gaze falling on, the black sphere—narrowed as the ball lifted from her hands.
"Well, well, well...weak and tired. Starting with four, you've fallen to one; your luck has run out,” Takumi said, dropping casually atop the mound. "Wearing you out took longer than expected but...I was just aiming to kill two of you so," he shrugged. "I had no choice. Now, hand over the rod and come quietly, elevens, before I change my mind. The lives of your friends are in my hands."
Chapter 37
Last Resort
Aaron winced as he pulled his jacket back on. "Thanks Sierra."
Sierra opened her mouth slowly, then closed it before saying, with a shaky smile, "We're family, no thanks needed."
Aaron strained to return the smile and failing, let it sink into a trembling frown. "Gramps... Gramps is—"
"Hey! Now that you're done with him, how about the rest of the injured?!" a girl demanded, eyes boring into Sierra. The girl was crouched, her hands pressed into the bloody abdomen of a boy sporting the green of a Tier 3.
"Family isn't the end all be all!" another pitched in.
A boy stood up. "People are dying out here, you selfish bitch!"
Rod Wars Page 24