Chapter 1652: It’s time to fight
<=Looks everyone’s fighting now!=>
’Game on!’
=Also, we’ve noticed that the False Crusaders seem to gain sentience the moment they get separated from one another. Not sure why, but it does lead to a lot of questions that we probably won’t be able to answer until one of these bastards gets secured. =
’Whose ass is the closest to getting kicked in?’
=That would be..=
*Bing-Bong!*
Note that the following fight scenes are technically happening at the same time, but because of the limitations of the written medium, we can only show them one at a time.
As such, we’ll be staring with—
|Wait, wait, wait!|
Huh? Why are you stopping me? This is when things actually get interesting again!
|Check the script, we’re missing some match up scenes.|
I’m fairly certain the readers already know how these are going to look...
|I did some quick rewrites to make them more action oriented.|
Open with that first!
...
We’ll be starting with Razorstella, thank you.
*Bing-Bong!*
...
"W-what the shit?"
Bolandra was having a bit of a moment.
The last solid thing he remembered was that he had been slain in battle while in conflict with an infamous warrior from the Erupting Dawn Empire. The memories after that were...spotty.
Bolandra understood that he had been revived by some outside force, that this outside force had assigned two living warriors to be his handler, and that said handlers were now separated enough from him that he could now regain control of his...slightly decayed body.
However, he was still obligated to carry out this outside force’s will for services rendered. Namely, as repayment for the partial revival.
"I recall I was supposed to be used to fighting something called a kai—wait a minute, what the hell kind of music is ringing in my ears right now?"
[It’s called symphonic dubstep, bitch!]
"What the—whoa!"
Before he could fully comprehend who was speaking to him, Bolandra found himself having to defend his neck from a greatsword-like leg being swung in time with the music.
Before the blade could make contact, Bolandra not only summoned his [Regalia] but tapped into the power of the flame that had been used to reanimate himself and his body.
This should’ve been the moment the sound of metal scraping against metal would tear through his ears and mess with his head, but the ballerina’s music was much more attention-grabbing than anticipated and blocked out the offending sound.
[Good evening, Mister Corpse,] Razorstella said as she kept pushing her leg blade against the barrier before her. [You have the privilege of facing your second death against me, Razorstella, the ballerina of blades and starlight.]
Immediately after making this introduction, though, Razorstella retracted her leg...before immediately following up with a speedy, spinning, backwards kick aimed at Bolandra’s abdomen.
However, she also made sure to infuse a little more [Chaos] in this stomach kick than in her decapitation strike.
[And I’m going to enjoy dismantling you kick by kick!]
...Screamira time...
"It appears that I have been separated from my brothers, my warriors, and those elite warriors that those conspiratorial abbots had brought along with them...this is most unsettling."
Lauvanne and his brother had initially been in a group with Abbott Feroxxa and their squad of weirdly powerful artificial corpse warriors.
But thanks to a mix of an angry bookwyrm and hostile architecture, they were separated from each other.
To be more precise, Lauvanne and his brother were knocked out of the air by a suddenly appearing drawbridge of all things and were sent flying into a pair of strange portals that looked nothing alike.
The next thing Lauvanne knew, he had been teleported to somewhere incredibly unsettling.
It took a few moments for Lauvanne to get his shit together, but once he did, he saw that he had been possibly transported to some kind of abandoned battlefield.
At least, that’s what he assumed given the corpse scattered about an empty field of torn-up grass and partially exploded craters.
A part of him wanted to explore this new place, given the strangeness that surpassed even the most dangerous of wandering ruins. However, before he could even have a chance to do so, something weird occurred.
"What the fuck kind of music is this?"
Up until this moment, Lauvanne could only hear silence up and down the battlefield. But now, the sound of vicious metallic strings and incoherent yet melodic screaming filled the air and fucked with his ability to properly think.
Not literally, but loud noises have been known to fuck with even the most focused of scholars.
Especially when said screaming was actually a distraction for a much deadlier attack.
"By the gods, can someone put a stop to that rack—WHOA!"
Before he could finish his complaint, Lauvanne was forced to dodge as a powerful scream laced with death aether came barreling towards him like an arrow.
The scream came from above, so Lauvanne had no choice but to roll out of the way. As he rolled, he saw how the scream left a skull-shaped crater where he was standing just moments ago and how the attack also rapidly decayed some of the bodies that were decorating the battlefield.
Moments later, a skeletal woman with red bones and a shock of white hair landed in the crater.
[I can’t tell if I’m impressed you managed to dodge it or annoyed that you did so in the first place,] the skeletal woman quipped before standing up and taking on a fighting pose. [Looks like you’re going to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. How fun.]
A part of Lauvanne wanted to snap back at the red skeleton of a woman, but he knew better than to lean into the anger and allow himself to get swept up.
He had seen his brothers and sisters fall for similar ploys in the past, with some of them even dying because of their negligence, and he made sure he wasn’t going to be one of them.
Instead of answering outright, Lauvanne concentrated his aether and summoned his [Regalia], a pair of red-and-blue tonfas, and began to spin them around.
As he did, hot and cold air began to swirl and twirl around the weapons.
[Oooh, somebody’s eager for a beatdown. Don’t you want to make a big ole boast about who you are and what you’re capable of doing?]
"I have learned from my brothers and sister that hubris is a surefire way to get yourself killed unless you have the strength to back it up," Lauvanne explained as he kept spinning his tonfas. "And something tells me that you’re one of those warriors that would take such an opportunity to go for my throat without even a chance of reaction."
[Someone with a brain for once! I’m shocked,] the skeletal woman chuckled at this statement. [Most warriors I’ve had the pleasure of beating down into a pulp are usually much too prideful to realize what has happened to them before it’s too late. You may call me Screamira, by the way. I am a kaijin born from the bones of fallen soldiers and empowered by the spirit of "Rebellion". And you?]
"It feels a bit redundant having to introduce myself since I know from the stories that you and your kind are known to have the ability to know everything about their opponents better than even the most senior of anima wielders."
[It might be, but it is proper etiquette in a duel.]
"Fair enough," the fourth prince capitulated.
"I am Lauvanne, Fourth Prince of the Erupting Dawn Empire. I am an Aether Lord of the Fourth Ring; my formula is known as [Dual Calamity]; and I am one of the best, possibly greatest, tacticians in the entirety of the Empire."
[Oh, you got to be a bit more than that,] Screamira noted. [You don’t get to become an Aether Lord with a Regalia like that unless you did more than tell soldiers what to do in the backlines.]
"You’re right," Lauvanne confirmed. "I’m also the guy who forces the conditions to go his way!]
[Burning Fog Shroud!]
Lauvanne slammed his tonfas together after sufficiently spinning them, causing a surge of aether-enhanced steam to suddenly explode and cloak him not only visually but energetically as well.
Tried as she might, Screamira couldn’t sense Lauvanne through the shroud of steam, to the point where she was starting to think he had teleported in the same moment he released the steam cloud.
Evidently, this guess of hers wasn’t entirely off base.
As she was staring into the steam cloud, trying to determine if Lauvanne was still in there or not, the aforementioned prince suddenly appeared directly behind her to try and smash her skull open with a strike of his tonfas.
Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out.
CLATTER!
Screamira managed to bend her body in an unnatural manner and clock the strike with a reinforced arm.
Seeing as her opponent was directly behind her, Screamira gave Lauvanne a wicked smile.
[Don’t you know it’s rude to a hit lady from the back without permission?]
"I don’t think etiquette applies to monsters."
[Gonna feel less bad about this then. Death Howl!]
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