Fighter's Fever: The Metallic Siege

by Ricardo Nazaire

  “Yo, Jimmy, how long are ya gonna keep yapping for?” an unknown voice interrupts. “You’re not exactly paying us for overtime, ya know!”

  “Yeah, yeah…Just quit your whining, Claude,” Agent Fallon snaps. “Better yet, how about you do us all a favor and choke on a salad or something.”

  The rude, obscene Claude was a thuggish, unkempt, and an overall sloppy excuse for an adult, so Agent Fallon’s attitude towards him was somewhat justified.

  Still, Keenth couldn’t understand why any LanTech Agent would ally himself with such an individual.

  “You know what? I’m out! You ain’t worth the stress, kid. This can’t be good for my heart,” Claude scoffs as he tried to use rain to clean off a stain on his shirt to no avail.

  “Oh, so suggesting a salad is bad for you, but stuffing your stomachs, yes, plural, with raw pork shoulder isn’t? Champ, you’ve gotta explain that logic for me,” Agent Fallon mocks.

  Before he could continue though, another individual got serious.

  “Fallon, Claude…I could care less about what you two are going on about, but quit wasting so much goddamn time. Since you got the blond kid right in front of you, the only thing left is to retrieve the machine. Come on, Claude. We’re heading to the village.”

  This young woman was the opposite of Claude in every way imaginable: tall, lean, and all business. Agent Fallon quietly nodded in agreement as Claude made confirmations with a small tracking device.

  “Don’t get so pushy, Kusari. Finding the mech should be no problem,” Claude says while his device begins to rapidly beep.

  “And just like that, we’re in there! A few miles ahead, right where the runt came from.”

  “H-Hey! Where do you think you are going? There is nothing for you back there,” Keenth protests.

  “Fallon, call these guys off right now!”

  “Good work, Claude. Remember that I’ll be there to clear out any potential opposition. That way, you should be able to do whatever you have to do without any issues,” Kusari responds, standing behind a shocked Keenth.

  “How the hell did she get past me so quickly?” Keenth thinks to himself.

  “More importantly, her Auraen is ridiculously off the charts. She might even be—”

  “Oi! Wait up for me,” Claude pleads as he feverishly jogs in Kusari’s direction.

  Keenth attempts to stop the two individuals, only to be thwarted by a sudden attack from Paul.

  Torn between the situation in front of him and the oncoming threat to Azoco, Keenth’s agitation rises.

  “Fallon, I don’t have time for this!” Keenth yells while gritting his teeth. “Stop whatever you are doing to Paul right now, or I’ll—”

  “Or you’ll what,” Paul replies. “You heard Agent Fallon. Now put down your weapon or you will leave me no choice but to use deadly force on you. Don’t let it get to the point where I have to make the choice for you, Hedstrom.”

  Keenth is speechless at the fact that Paul is seemingly attacking on his own accord. A smug smile crosses Agent Fallon’s face.

  “I don’t know about you, but it sounds to me like your old buddy isn’t kidding around,” Agent Fallon announced.

  “Do you understand now? Hopefully so, because like Kusari said, we can’t afford to be wasting so much gosh darn time.”

  While Keenth is dealing with this dilemma, a clearly winded Claude finds his way to Azoco Village.

  While most would not be able to find this mysterious refuge under normal circumstances, Claude Young’s mechanical engineering background proves to be quite advantageous.

  “Bastards…I’ll never forgive them for making me rush all the way out here like this,” Claude moans as he makes his way through the seemingly uninhabited village.

  “My radar can’t pinpoint that mech anymore than it already has, so now I gotta check the entire stupid dump. Man, I tell ya, I don’t get paid enough for this stuff. Overworked and underappreciated…Story of my life.”

  “You know, if you need a place to stay, I could show you where our farms are. You would fit right in with some of our slower pigs,” Kendra announces as she approached Claude. “So, tell me, just what the hell are you doing in my village?”

  “Add disrespected to that list,” Claude snarls. “You would think that someone like me, Claude the Great, would be known even out here like this sorry—”

  Before he can continue any further, Claude is slapped down to the ground.

  Attempting to catch Kendra by surprise with a hidden knife, he is immediately kicked across the face, landing head first into the muddy turf.

  “OKAY!! I-I’m just here on a job for Fallon’s mech! That’s all, I’m serious! Please, please, please! I don’t want the smoke,” Claude begs. “I’ll tell you anything, just please stop with the face! It’s all I’ve got going for me!”

  “Fallon,” Kendra thought out loud, remembering that Keenth had brought him up previously. “Are you talking about the Agent? Why the hell would someone from LanTech be working with someone like you?”

  “LanTech? Please! As if I would be caught dead working with any of them! This is strictly off the books! I’m just here to grab the Bomber and I’ll be out of your hair. Now if you’d be a good little girl and—”

  Catching a swift knee to the face, Claude is rendered unconscious, while Kendra tries to put this information together.

  Sensing Keenth’s fight outside the village, she begins to make her way to help when a foreign voice calls out to her.

  “Do you really think it’s a good idea to leave your little village unattended?” Kusari asks. “Not that I care either way, but even Claude would agree that it is probably something you should take into consideration.”

  “I guess when it rains, it pours. I take it that you’re from the same team as pug face,” Kendra replies, while trying to figure out how she wasn’t able to sense her sooner.

  “Do yourself a favor and take that trash out with you back to wherever you came from.”

  “Sorry, but that’s out of the question. A job’s a job and I’m here to make sure that no one intervenes with what we’re set out to do. The name’s Kusari, by the way. And you?”

  “There’s no need for you to know. I’m going to make short work of you and deal with that Fallon guy myself. No one comes to my village looking to start trouble without having to deal with the consequences,” Kendra says as she adopts a battle stance.

  “Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but me speaking on Claude’s behalf is strictly a professional courtesy. Anyway, why are you so up in arms about us retrieving something that does not belong to you in the first place?”

  “Fair point. Why does Fallon want that mech back so badly? If it was such a priority, he would be going at it with full support through the Empire. What’s the reason for doing things off the grid?”

  “Beats me, kid. Nothing personal, but I’m a stickler for timeliness and we’ve wasted enough time already. One way or another, we’re going to get that machine.”

  “Over my dead body,” Kendra says, launching herself toward her opponent.

  The impact of Kendra’s attack on Kusari could have easily been confused as distant thunder which accompanied the unrelenting rain in the area.

  This took Kendra by surprise because an attack of this magnitude had been known to easily break mountainsides.

  Alternately despite her tall stature, Kusari’s combat style was deceptively fluid as she was able to keep up the pace with Kendra’s unrelenting blows.

  Kusari was clearly focused on defeating Kendra, while Kendra’s mind wavered slightly due to Keenth’s situation.

  “First, you refuse to tell me your name,” Kusari states. “But now you won’t give it your all against me? Wouldn’t you agree that you’re being a bit unpleasant?”

  “Keep your thoughts to yourself,” Kendra says, but realizing that Kusari is absolutely correct. “The sooner I deal with you, the better.”

  “You’re worried abou
t him, aren’t you? Interesting…It’s as if you don’t respect his abilities as a warrior enough in its own right. If that’s where your mind is at, then at this rate, he’ll probably—”

  Kendra swiftly punches her opponent, which knocks Kusari a few feet back. Smiling and wiping a small trickle of blood from her lips, Kusari draws large daggers with each hand and begins her counterattack.

  Reaching out with her right arm, Kendra’s battle staff flies into her grasp as Kusari rushes toward her.

  Kusari attacks though without giving her opponent any opportunity to retaliate.

  Still, Kendra is able to effectively block each successive assault while preparing to shift the battle in her favor.

  “You know, for someone with your abilities, it’s a damn shame that you aren’t using them for good,” Kendra says, while blocking an elbow from Kusari.

  “Maybe, under different circumstances, someone like you would—”

  “Just save it, you ignorant girl. The last thing that I have time for is to hear ramblings from someone who doesn’t have the slightest clue of how the world really works. Unlike your perfect little village, the real world is far from all sunshine and rainbows.”

  “Azoco is far from perfect, but that doesn’t stop us from choosing to live our lives to better one another. How do you look at yourself in the mirror knowing that you allow your strength to be used by whoever is willing to pay the highest? How do you even sleep at night?”

  “That’s the naïve mindset that I’m talking about. You and your people have the freedom to choose what you do. Meanwhile, the rest of us are living day by day and so have to use our abilities to survive. The only choice we can make is between life and death.”

  Kusari’s statement clearly struck a chord and it gave her the opportunity to slash Kendra across the right side of her face.

  Now with a few feet of distance between one another, Kusari decided to cut their conversation short and complete the task at hand.

  “Between LanTech and the fighting we do among ourselves, did you really think someone like you would have a chance against me? While you live peacefully tucked away from everything that’s going on, I live in cold, hard reality every single day. You asked how I sleep at night? When you’re living a life like mine, you don’t even have that luxury.”

  “Stop making excuses for the actions that you’ve taken,” Kendra says as she wipes the blood from her face. “And I could give a damn about what you think of me or the others here, but the moment that you decided to step foot in my village, you’ve become an issue that I have to deal with.”

  “Tell me something…Do you really think I didn’t know about this village before this job?” Kusari replies. “If so, it goes beyond naïvety at this point. That would just be full-blown arrogance.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Just because we didn’t approach Azoco before, doesn’t mean we are unaware of its existence. Did you think I couldn’t tell? After all, it’s obvious that there is some sort of ability that causes an illusion of this being an endless forest to most people looking in from the outside. But here is something you all didn’t take into consideration. Auraen abilities are only as effective as their users,” Kusari continues. “Put simply, an illusion technique from people like you wouldn’t affect someone like me because my strength is on a completely higher level.”

  “You seem pretty sure of yourself,” Kendra says, preparing to engage her opponent again. “Don’t act as if our fight is already over, Kusari.”

  “You really don’t seem to understand. From what I can tell, you are the only warrior here with capabilities that could even come close to mine. Even then, this little fight has pretty much been over even before it started.”

  “I am the only warrior here,” Kendra thinks to herself. After coming to a crucial realization, she decided it was time to finally put an end to their bout. “Kendra. Kendra Leight...”

  “Hmm? Why are you saying that all of a sudden?”

  “Believe it or not, you made a few interesting points. With that in mind, I wouldn’t be much of a person I didn’t tell you my name.”

  “Really now and why’s that?”

  “That’s because it would be a shame not to know the name of the person who takes your life,” Kendra replies as the ground below her begins to tremble.

  “What the hell is this? What are you doing?”

  “Something that I should have done since the beginning. While I will admit you made a few interesting points earlier, there’s something in particular that I completely disagree with.”

  “And just what’s that?” Kusari asks as the pressure of Kendra’s Auraen continues to increase.

  “The audacity to think that your strength could compare to Azoco’s finest!”

  Kendra’s Auraen erupts as raging light-blue waves of energy vibrantly surround Kusari. Kendra then slams her staff into the ground below her and completely overpowers Kusari with a swift punch to the stomach.

  Before Kusari can even comprehend what was going on, she releases a series of brutal punches to her opponent’s face, each successive blow causing visible shockwaves throughout the village.

  Kusari desperately retaliates by trying to stab Kendra with one of her daggers, only for the Azoco Warrior to immediately stop her by mercilessly snapping Kusari’s wrist.

  Screaming in agony, Kusari is met with a quick backhand from her opponent, before being thrown forward by a palm thrust from Kendra.

  It was clear that Kendra’s strength and speed had increased multiple times over.

  Still the real cause for concern was that for the first time in years, Kusari found herself completely and utterly dominated. Speechless at this realization, Kusari stands shocked as Kendra sternly speaks out to her.

  “I guess now’s the best time to thank you, Kusari.”

  “Thank me? Is this some kind of sick joke?”

  “No, seriously. For the first time in a while, I’m finally using my powers for their true purpose: to defend my village. I was recently using my abilities to help Keenth get to where he needs to be, but it is a different case when it comes to fighting you.”

  “As if that reasoning is enough,” Kusari retorts. “I’m not someone who will simply go away over something like this. Not that I’ll give you the chance to, but if you want to stop me, you’ll have to kill me.”

  “If that’s the case, then so be it. If it comes between that and losing the people I love, then the choice is simple. You’ve made your decisions, now live with them,” Kendra states and raises her left arm, while her right arm supports it.

  The entire village shakes with the overwhelming amount of energy that Kendra is conjuring. Kusari is shocked to realize she cannot move.

  The sheer force of Kendra’s power causes her to fall on one knee as a massive wave of Auraen obliterates everything in its direction.

  As a large cloud of dust and smoke appears, Kendra slowly closes her eyes and solemnly considers what she’s done.

  “You did what you had to do, Kendra. Move ahead, move forward,” she thinks to herself, while bringing her Auraen levels down to focus on her breathing.

  “If I’m right about this, Keenth should be okay against his current opponent. Still, there’s no telling what Fallon has under his sleeve. If I leave now, I should be able to—”

  Kendra is abruptly stopped when several large needles pierce her right shoulder. Before she can remove them, a massive explosion erupts where she attacked Kusari. An obscenely powerful Auraen emerges, as Kendra realizes what is happening.

  “I stand corrected, Kendra. You are more powerful than I gave you credit for,” Kusari states as the wild smoke clears. “But I can’t stress enough that my strength is beyond your understanding.”

  The needles rip from Kendra’s body, back into the ominous clouds surrounding her opponent. Preparing to finish her bout with Kusari, Kendra is shocked to see her Reiki Mode dissipate.

  “M-My powers…What did you d
o?”

  “Me? You decided to show your true power and I simply did the same. Though, unfortunately for you, you’ll find that my style of handling things isn’t nearly as forgiving as yours.”

  Kendra distanced herself and rearmed her staff. With the smoke finally cleared, she saw how powerful Kusari had become. Her robes were now adorned with countless large needles which matched the makeshift crown on her head.

  “Divine Willow Fang. I don’t believe you told me the proper name for what you used against me earlier, but the least I could do is tell you what you are up against, Kendra.”

  Kendra feels speechless at Kusari’s drastic change. Even without actively attacking, the waves of Kusari’s Auraen raise the tension to even greater levels.

  Even though Kendra was truly recognized as the most powerful warrior in Azoco, she knew deep down she did not know how this fight would end.

  Kendra moves in to attack, but Kusari easily dodges her and she realizes that her foe has effortlessly made her way back to the village when she raises her arm to signify her final point.

  “Before I end this, I guess now would be the best time to thank you in return. After all, when I get the call, I’m strictly business when it comes to the task. But I’ve decided that what I’m about to do this little village of yours will be quite enjoyable.”

  “Like I said earlier…Over my dead body,” Kendra retorts, her eyes focused on her opponent.

  “I guess it’s settled,” Kusari replies as she snapped her wrist back into place.

  “Keenth, you need to hold out just a little longer. It looks like my hands will be tied for a bit,” Kendra thought to herself. “My full focus needs to be on this girl and her alone.”

  “Kendra Leight! The time for talking is over,” Kusari announces as the Auraen needles that she summoned methodically swirl around her. “Now, allow me to show you how to kill someone properly.”

  “Hey, man, you call that a swing? My grandma could do better than that!”