Sell you a Bridge chapter 335

July 2nd 2016 Traverse Town, 7:00 PM EDT

These  fuckers were way more prepared than I was expecting them to be. With  Rana and I together, not to mention Sora and his pals, we should have  had a simple time crushing Luxord and his bony bat buddy. With the  reveal of these two big bosses though, we had to adjust. Rana, being  strong enough to hold her own, naturally took Sephiroth, who was hands  down the more powerful of the two based on my aura vision. With me  against the Devastator that left Sora fighting Auron, and Luxord free to  abuse his fucking field dominance and fuck with us, which wasn't ideal.

I  didn't have time to really pay attention to any of that though, because  the Devastator's fist was currently hurtling at my face at a speed so  quick I could barely process it. If not for my enhanced reflexes (best  purchase I ever made to this day) I'd probably have taken the punch on  the chin, but I managed to avoid it by fucking microns. Shadow porting  back a dozen or so so yards I pulled up my keyblade to take a defensive  stance, waiting for the followup.

The Devastator was  STRONG. That went without saying, it was some sort of kryptonian monster  made of a batman, but even compared to someone like Darkseid (who I  still couldn't fucking beat) this thing wasn't too far behind. I was  almost definitely going to need my Domain to deal with this, but I  didn't want to tip my hand too soon. Luxord was around, and he was going  to be a problem during this fight, if not for me then for Rana and the  kid, so I needed to bait the bastard into making a move so I could  handle him.

If I just attacked him head on right now I'd  just get attacked from behind by the bat beast. The Devastator, for his  part, didn't rage or roar like I expected. He just stood there, glaring  at me with red, hate filled eyes, as he scanned me for weaknesses. I  felt like I was being eyed by an apex predator. I purposefully ignored  Luxord as I waited for the next attack, the brit would undoubtedly try  to hit me with a slow spell again, and then I'd make my move.

The  Devastator stared at me placidly, eyes fixed greedily on my armored  form, searching for even a hint of weakness. My current stance was rock  solid, being the one I learned from Leaxeaus with a bit of the Warlord  thrown in. When he couldn't find a flaw, he began to creep forward  slowly. Low, shuffling movements that ate up ground without even  compromising his balance. I'd been right. This thing was MUCH scarier  than Superman. Superman held back, and he wasn't nearly as focused on  martial arts.

Batman regularly fought against things  tougher than him, and while he didn't go full lethal on them, that was  OUR Batman. This fucker was an evil version, and I was willing to bet  that much like The Drowned, he wasn't particular about a little  bloodshed. In fact, based on the bloodlust in its aura, I was guessing  it LOVED killing enemies. This thing was going to come at me like a  spider monkey any fucking second now.

Of course, I wasn't  worried about the element of surprise. I could see its aura. Combined  with my reflexes, getting the jump on me wasn't likely to be easy. I  just wished I didn't have to expect attacks from multiple angles. I  wasn't just watching for the beast, I was waiting for Luxord. The  combination was going to slow me down, even if only minutely, and I  wasn't sure I could afford that.

Sure enough, as soon as I  saw the shift in The Devastator's aura I reacted, making sure not to  buff myself at all to make it seem like I could once again barely dodge.  I felt the world shift slightly as I began to slow down, and sent a  message through the bond to Zee. I felt a surge of energy as the Haste  spell slammed into me, boosted through my armor like all magic.

Zee  had barely managed to get a handle on the Haste spell, but the armor  made up the difference when used as a focus. I felt myself speed up,  which was a really weird thing to experience as I was simultaneously  slowing down, but after a second of stalemate the two spells snapped. I  grinned, and triggered my Domain. I conjured a dozen clones, and another  five or so illusions to mix in with them, swapping places with one of  them and lashing out at Luxord hard while he was distracted by the  backlash.

There was a roar as the Devastator punched  through an illusion, but I ignored it as Luxord cried out in pain. My  keyblade smashed into his ribs, sending him stumbling back into a card,  and when I tried to follow him and smash the damn thing that weird time  magic let him slip away into another card. I reached out to my other  selves, to switch out with a clone and track him down, but the  Devastator had already arrived to throw another blow.

Finally  free of the threat of Luxord, I grinned and spun to meet the thing fist  to fist. Normally that would have been insane, but with my Domain  expanded, I had ways of dealing with his power. Reaching out to the web  of Deception that strung between my copies and illusions and I, I used  Schrodinger's Subterfuge, I spread the blow out among them in a way I  hadn't been able to even last time I'd used it.

Since I'd  established my Domain, I'd been training my ass off with the thing every  night as I slept. Using outer body to hone the ability against none  other than Darkseid himself. Of course, he still slapped me around like  an inflatable clown, but I had definitely improved. My Domain was  getting more and more perfected as I used it, and even without  manifesting I was able to learn new ways to use it.

This  particular trick involved using the uncertain nature of my dopplegangers  to disperse the force of a blow by exploiting the same mechanic that  let me switch places with them and even occupy two spaces at the same  time. Who knew which of me he was hitting? How many? Even when? The blow  could be massively scaled down when spread over this many potential  targets, letting me tank it without needing to pour demonic energy into  my defenses to reinforce my armor.

It was kind of funny to  watch the big bony bastard pause in surprise when I took a punch head  on on and barely even moved. It only lasted for a second, but it was  enough time for me to lash out with about a dozen blows with Tartarus,  driving the thing back several steps. When it dove forward to hit me  again I was already gone, switched with an illusion and standing across  the plaza as its fist sailed harmlessly through an insubstantial image  of me.

That gave me a split second to check on my  daughter, who was happily managing to counter Sephiroth. The bone  monster in the black coat had somehow grown a single wing covered with  feathers that were more like bone spikes, and was using it to to attack.  Luckily my daughter inherited her memories from me, and had trained  with me plenty too. The bone monster was strong, but Rana was an  absolute genius in combat and was holding her own.

Sora  was doing...ok. Auron was powerful, but Sora wasn't working alone. His  dog person friend with the shield was tanking surprisingly well, and the  duck man had a solid grasp on battlefield flow and interrupts. Sadly I  didn't have time to help either of them before the Devastator was on me  again. He'd gone through one or two illusions and dispersed at least  three of my clones getting back.

I let the others all soak  the blow through my Domain to bleed off the power as I stood my ground  to deflect it with my defensive stance. For Schrodinger's Subterfuge, it  didn't matter if I used clones or illusions, at time of impact, they  were all essentially me and not me. I only decided to make clones to  begin with to mix in because I suspected the bat monster had ways of  telling which ones were physical when my Domain wasn't in use.

I  looked around for Luxord, but the brit was still hiding in the cards.  I'd broken some ribs with the earlier blow to his side, and I doubted he  was going to be able to concentrate particularly well. I considered my  options. I needed to change the rhythm of this fight, or we were going  to get ground down. I'd be fine, but the other two wouldn't be able to  hold long term, and once they all piled on me even my Domain might not  be enough. These things were abominations.

Most  importantly, I'd noticed something odd. The recovery ability of the  Devastator was amazing, but more than that, he seemed to be recovering  past the peak of his abilities. My initial blows had cracked some of  those spines, but the ones that grew back had cracked more slowly.  Whatever this thing was, it got stronger as it healed. I flicked my  keyblade, casting a gravity spell infused with void right on top of my  current location as I seamlessly switched places with an illusion.

The  orb of dark force smashed down right on top of the Devastator, driving  it into the ground. Literally in this case, its feet and legs were  pushed into the rock. Then I reached out to see again, and she cast  another Haste spell. Without Luxord's slow to counter it I was able to  see the full effects of the magic, and I used it to best effect. I cast a  demonically infused Cure, just like I head earlier.

Instead  of targeting the Devastator, I targeted Auron. Of the three of them,  two seemed to be actively resisting the virus, though it wasn't going  well. Auron, based on his aura, was the one least likely to actively  fucking attack us once it was dispersed. With Haste active, I was able  to focus on pouring energy into fighting the virus without worrying so  much, due to the warped time.

Moving  at such high speeds, and having done this before, I was able to grind  down the virus, especially with Auron helping in the form of resistance.  The Devastator broke free and tried to blitz me, but Sora had been  freed up by his opponent being immobilized and he and his dog person  were able to intercept the thing together...barely. The Devastator was  still wounded, but recovering, and was about to get back to peak health  in a second.

Finally,  with a roar of effort, I completely threw off the virus with Auron  pushing back alongside me. The dark haired creature screamed as its body  melted back into a normal humanoid form, falling to its knees in agony.  There was a shift in the nearby environment as the cards around us  pretty much exploded. The scattering constructs swept in at the plaza,  and I was forced to defend as they did.

When  they cleared, I was unhurt, and so were Rana and Sora, but Sephiroth  and the Devastator were both gone, swept away by Luxord and his damn  cards, which had literally vanished in a puff of smoke. I walked over to  help Rana up from where she'd fallen, and we headed over to where Sora  was talking to a now human Auron. "Ok." I said as we got closer. "This  entire thing might be slightly more of a mess than expected. I don't  suppose you'd be willing to just leave now that we found you?" Sora's  flat look was completely in line with the aura I saw from him. Gods save  me from heroes.