Skyvenom: Chapters 48-49

Here are your chapters for this week.

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Chapter 48

At last Esaire could see them: the Ichili woman and the hated outsider. Investigations had failed to reveal Peanen's real name or world of origin, but Esaire felt like he was finally within reach of him. No more lies, no more gimmicks on either side, just soulcrafter against soulcrafter. They would decide everything today.

His group had to wait in hiding as the two flew their sleigh further away from the miserable town and the safety it represented. But Esaire had already waited years... had it truly been four years since his humiliating defeat? He could wait a little longer before the final duel.

"Remember your roles," Esaire told his Authorities. "If the initial attack doesn't work, blanket the area with anti-weirkey stones and make sure to finish her off this time. She can't have recovered from the injury I gave her before, so it should be easy."

"What about you?" the Slescan asked. Esaire could never remember his strange buzzing name.

"I'm fighting Peanen. I'll draw him away so he can't interfere, but if he runs from me or somehow returns, no one fight him. The outsider is mine."

They didn't dare to argue with him, since only his connection to the Demon Court was supporting all of this. Only Amaeli seemed to watch him skeptically, but he could deal with family later. She was still here, on his side, and that was what mattered.

At last the targets were in position. Esaire raised his hand, waiting for the perfect moment, his arm trembling in anticipation.

"Now!" Then he was off, flying over the landscape faster than any of the others, streaking toward the group.

He released his rapier first, sending it flying to pierce the Ichili. Just as he'd expected, Peanen created a portal to redirect it, but that had always been a feint. Esaire tackled the outsider directly and activated his new weirkey, pulling them away from the world. The last thing he saw over his shoulder was all of his soldiers descending on the injured enemy.

Then he and Peanen fell into the Slescan landscape. They would have tumbled together, but Peanen punched him in the jaw before they could touch down. Esaire tried to stab him, but Peanen somehow caught the weapon and then slammed him in the face again - the blow sent him bouncing off the ground once before he regained his ability to fly, then rubbed his jaw. Absurd as it was, Peanen's turn toward Corporeal chambers seemed to have increased his defenses even more than in their last duel.

"Don't run away!" Esaire cried out, thrusting his rapier toward his enemy. "It's time for us to settle this with a fair duel."

"You call it a fair duel when all your allies are attacking an injured woman?" Peanen sounded surprisingly angry, but he didn't use his weirkey to retreat. Good, the anger would reduce his focus.

"You should focus on defending yourself!"

As the duel began, Esaire unleashed multiple flying swords from his soulhome, sending them to form a circle around their duel that assaulted gravitational fields. It was only one of several measures that Esaire had prepared, but it seemed to be affecting Peanen more than he expected. He still floated with his cantae, but he lacked the same weightless movement he'd used in Nlukoko.

Esaire refused to believe it could be that easy, so he revealed his lightning spear and unleashed the first bolt.

To his shock, Peanen managed to deflect the bolt with one hand. He intercepted it with the back of one hand and somehow knocked it aside, even though he'd never shown such ability before. Esaire had been wondering about his remodeling from the beginning and now suspected he'd seen part of it: gravity chambers must have been replaced with new defenses.

For a moment Esaire felt a flicker of doubt, since if his opponent had changed too much, his prepared counters would be less effective. But no, remodeling took time, and he had confirmed the enemy's abilities recently. Anything he had changed would be sloppy, so he could only have a few new techniques to serve as distractions.

"This is what I was waiting for!" Esaire cried. "You're one of the best soulcrafters I've ever met, Peanen. I can admit you beat me the first time with skill. But that's why I used the skyvenom - we're both restricted to Authority, we both know one another's abilities, so all that's left is soulcrafting against soulcrafting."

"I'm humbled you think so much of me." Peanen raised a hand and began casting one of his effects, perhaps a portal. Esaire slashed it apart with his blades before it could form.

"That isn't going to work! Come on, what new do you have to show me?"

"Come and find out."

When Esaire sent in multiple flying swords to try to cut his opponent apart, Peanen deflected them easily, and Esaire began to suspect that something was wrong. Was he still holding back? The idea of the enemy he hated so much simply toying with him threw Esaire into a rage and he rushed forward in his strongest Soaring Thrust while he activated everything else.

Since Peanen had prepared for his lightning armament, Esaire would make sure he didn't get a chance. He made every weapon converge on the outsider at once, pushing him to his absolute limits before he unleashed the next bolt.

This time there was no deflection: the lightning tore through Peanen's chest. Even he couldn't endure such a blow... and yet he did.

Instead of falling, Esaire's hated enemy only took a step back. His coat seemed to be melting and for a moment Esaire thought that his defensive armament had sacrificed itself to defend him, but it seemed to be dissolving into some sort of... dress?

As the lightning burned away the talisman, Esaire saw Peanen's body give way to reveal the Tatian woman. He was still staring when her fist collided with his face.

~ ~ ~

When the attack came, Fiyu had no choice but to huddle and pretend to be wounded until it was her turn to act. She watched nervously as Friend Nauda, disguised as Friend Theo, was taken away by Enemy Esaire. The other enemies, not knowing of the deception, closed on her.

Instead of trying to fight them, Fiyu fled. It disturbed her to realize that there was no trickery on her part - her top speed was truly reduced due to her injuries. She only just managed to reach the hidden point in the desert where the others waited.

Even though she knew it was false, Fiyu still enjoyed the sight of Friend Nauda leaping to defend her. Friend Theo did an admirable job of imitating her techniques, but there was no time for that. Fiyu needed to analyze the battlefield and find her own target.

Other enemies were spreading out, distributing anti-weirkey stones and attempting to hem her in. Fiyu retreated from them, which gave Ally Krikree time to emerge and begin stealing the stones. She tore them free of the ground, one after another, and shoved them into her soulhome. This took the enemy aback and they tried to target her, but she was too fast.

Where was Enemy Amaeli? Fiyu discovered her just before the large sword swung at her head, forcing her to retreat.

Finally the enemies encircled Friend Theo and began to bombard him with techniques at range. The enemy Siatan tried to bind his techniques and one of the others used the hateful armament to disrupt his cantae. When the Slescan mercenary unleashed another jet of acid, suddenly everything changed.

Abandoning his disguise, Friend Theo stepped through a portal. He appeared behind one of the Deuxan Authorities, the one wearing the shaggy cloak. It was supposed to have formidable defensive properties, but those did him no good when Friend Theo delivered one of his new punches to the back of the head. He went down and Enemy Esaire's forces all over the battlefield stared in shock as Friend Theo revealed himself.

That included Enemy Amaeli. Fiyu closed the distance to her and utilized her own weirkey to pull the enemy woman away. At the last moment her target tried to evade, but Fiyu expanded the field rapidly and swept them both to Anguedan.

In a twisted flash they had gone from wasteland to plains, just outside the city. Fiyu breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that her role in the plan was nearly complete. Associate Janne was ready in the city and it would not take her long to arrive, so all would be well soon.

"What's going on here?"

The voice was rough and male. Fiyu turned and saw to her horror that the Deuxan man with the armored skin had come along with them. Either he had intentionally pursued them or he had been pulled in at the last moment when she expanded her field.

"It doesn't matter what they're planning," Enemy Amaeli said, manifesting another giant sword. "Just kill her before they get a chance to pull it off."

The armored man grinned and began to advance on her. As Fiyu attempted to retreat, the pain in her stomach made her stumble and she realized that the plan was spiraling out of control.

~ ~ ~

Four enemy Authorities remained at the ambush site, fewer than they'd planned. Part of Theo was concerned for Fiyu, but another part was disappointed that there weren't more.

All four closed on him, using their techniques and armaments against him... and it wasn't enough. When the Slescan mercenary spat acid at him, Theo opened a portal and directed it against the Demon Court soulcrafter. The Siatan mercenary locked down his portals, but Theo simply switched strategies, relying on raw physical power from his Corporeal rooms.

Soon they began to use their armaments. Spiritual force struck Theo's soulhome, freezing a chamber in place so that his cantae moved sluggishly. He only smiled and rerouted, since his sphere could flow in any direction. As they realized that their strategy was having no effect, the soulcrafters began to exchange fearful glances.

Meanwhile, Krikree raced around the battlefield, stealing all of their anti-weirkey stones. "Do something about her!" the man in the multi-colored robe shouted, gesturing toward the Slescan mercenary.

While Theo handled the others, he watched the rest out of the corner of his eye. The royal guard was a heavy Slescan covered in chitinous armor, many times Krikree's weight. He advanced on her scornfully, radiating pheromones demanding that she stand down and accept punishment.

Instead Krikree attacked, unleashing all four of her weapons in rapid succession. The first several blows battered the Slescan backward, then a long black sword slipped past his defenses. Fueled by Krikree's raw strength, it sliced through the armor of his torso as if it wasn't there and swept on to sever one of his limbs.

With a chittering cry of fear, the royal guard turned and ran. The cry distracted the other Authorities, who turned to see him fleeing from a rampaging Krikree.

It didn't distract Theo: he stepped through a portal to intercept the fleeing mercenary and met him with a torsion punch. His torso armor, already severely damaged, exploded at the impact. The Slescan staggered in shock and Krikree was on him the next second, impaling him with spear and sword before crushing him against the ground with her Arbaian warhammer.

Theo smiled briefly at Krikree, then they both looked to the side, toward the remaining Authorities.

All three pulled together, serving as a defensive unit. They were still armed with multiple armaments and desperately used them to hurl flames, disrupt cantae, or otherwise try to slow them down. None of it was enough.

The man in the multi-colored robe threw out technique after technique, but now that Theo understood how much he'd split his soulhome, he simply deflected the techniques. He began to cast gravitational fields, one on top of the other, driving his target toward the ground. The man's halved enhancement chambers couldn't resist, and when he tried to use an anti-gravity technique, Theo overpowered it.

Meanwhile, the Siatan was finally left helpless: he tried to disable Krikree's techniques, but she wasn't using any, she just attacked with brute strength and speed. Just as Theo brought the robed soulcrafter to his knees, she knocked the Siatan to the ground and then leapt on the Demon Court Authority.

He tried to stab at her, but she skittered around his body. Soon she was on his back, her legs pinning his arms at his sides and two of her hands gripping his head. It was protected by the defensive helm armament, but the metal made an ominous creaking sound under Krikree's hands.

"Crush?" Krikree asked, at the same time she emitted [Trick!]

"Don't crush the armament," Theo said, "we need that."

Krikree tore off the helm and then grabbed his head with her second pair of arms. "Crush now?"

"We surrender!"

The Demon Court soulcrafter shouted it first, but the Siatan and last Deuxan joined him, dropping to the ground in panic. Theo smiled thinly and took away their last armaments before flattening them all with his strongest gravitational fields.

Fighting all of them together might have been a more interesting challenge, but he knew they would never win this with power alone. Perhaps Fiyu would succeed, and maybe Nauda could end everything with her duel, but he couldn't count on that.

Theo took a deep breath and examined the skies as he got ready to send a message. Now it was time for the dangerous part.

Chapter 49

At first Fiyu had no choice but to retreat, barely able to stay ahead of her enemies. The Deuxan with armored skin kept moving forward, shrugging off any bolts she released to keep them at bay. She feared his advance, but she was more afraid of Enemy Amaeli, who remained in the air and moved her large blades deceptively.

Just when Fiyu feared that she would be killed, Associate Janne flew from the city. A vast hand of silver mist flew ahead of her, wrapping around one of the swords and attempting to strike Enemy Amaeli. For at least several moments, they were both locked in combat, leaving Fiyu against only one opponent.

She was still injured, but she was not helpless. Fiyu opened her arms wide and unleashed a storm of light.

"You just don't learn, do you?" The Deuxan laughed and continued marching forward. "Half my Corporeal Floor is dedicated to this skin! These little cantae bolts have no chance of penetrating it."

Fiyu had not been given enough time to test her new enhancement, but the soulcrafting was complete. She reached into her soulhome and drew on the cantae from the ruby she'd taken from the Demon Court Stronghold. Her lightstorm intensified and gained a tinge of vicious red.

"Hunh." The enemy slowed down as the bolts knocked him back slightly, but he braced his arms in front of his face and resumed moving forward. "That's a little stronger, but it's not enough. I've been soulcrafting myself tougher and tougher this entire time."

He was only a few steps away from her now, preparing a close range technique. Fiyu refused to think about this and instead flowed all the charged cantae into her other chamber, through the ifritbraid to the flickerconcentrate that had been in place for so long.

Then she swung her palms inward until they nearly touched. The vast stream of chaotic bolts shrank in the same movement, condensing into a wall of concentrated power. In an instant a precise channel tore through the earth, passing directly through the Deuxan man. He had an instant to look shocked that it had sheared directly through his armored skin, then the sides of his body collapsed in a cantae-scorched heap.

The line remained in her vision, so intensely crimson that even Fiyu couldn't ignore its color.

Gasping for breath, Fiyu wobbled to her knees. The modification had worked as she intended: an addition to her soulhome that her relative had never planned. She should have been pleased, but her stomach hurt and she felt weak.

Killing an opponent was not her mission. She couldn't fail her companions now.

Associate Janne was still fighting Enemy Amaeli, and it seemed as though they were locked in combat. Once Fiyu caught a second wind, she joined the battle, unleashing an ordinary lightstorm. Enemy Amaeli blocked it with the flat of one sword, but the distraction gave Associate Janne a chance to strike her with a silvery spear of cantae.

"Do not kill her!" Fiyu called. "We need to show her!"

Of course, that was easier to demand than to accomplish. Enemy Amaeli turned toward her in anger, but at that moment Ally Nanjuma appeared as well. Between the three of them, they managed to shatter the enemy's weapons, then Ally Nanjuma captured her from behind, locking her arms behind her. Fiyu flew up to them unsteadily.

"I won't stay captured," Enemy Amaeli said bitterly. "Just kill me now."

"I said we do not intend to kill you," Fiyu told her. "We must show you something."

She fumbled a little as she found the weirkey on loan from the Landguard, but her focus when she gripped it between her fingers was strong. All four of them left Deuxan and appeared in Tatian... hovering over the city of Nlukoko.

Fiyu cloaked all of them with her technique, so no one noticed as they floated overhead. Ally Nanjuma carried her past the rebuilding and the graves from the battle, but based upon Enemy Amaeli's curses and invective, Fiyu did not think that would be effective. Their true goal had always been a smaller island, one built at the site of the former palace.

There, an old man lived in a small hut. Adversary Arceon was not being mistreated, though he wore wooden shackles that restricted his cantae. At the moment he was seated in a wicker chair, slowly chewing on a piece of Tatian fruit and staring over the lake with an unfathomable expression.

"So this is a threat?" Enemy Amaeli asked. "You want something from me, or you kill my grandfather?"

"No, we will not kill him," Fiyu said. "That is what we wanted to show you. We are not like you, and we are not playing your political games."

"You could have fooled me."

"What we want is for the fighting to end. Can you not see that your brother is bringing the family to ruin? You have spent much of your wealth and taken on terrible debts. How many allies have been alienated? How many lives have been lost? How long should this continue?"

For once, Enemy Amaeli was silent, only frowning over the city. Her eyes lingered on her grandfather as he sat in his peaceful captivity.

"Each time you fought us, the consequences have been more dire for you." Fiyu floated closer and actually touched Enemy Amaeli, shifting her head so they made eye contact. "We want it to end. Stop your brother from ruining your family and we will stop as well. We will not destroy you unless we have to."

"And what do you want me to do?" Enemy Amaeli demanded. "This has gone beyond the Armeau family, now that so many other courts are involved."

"Let us worry about that. What we ask is that you speak to your allies, the Urmandix family. If they continue on this path to the convocation, they will fail, and you will burn one of your last remaining allies. We don't need you to change sides, just to save yourselves."

"By betraying my brother."

"By saving him."

Enemy Amaeli tried to spit at her and Fiyu hovered out of range. Associate Janne extended a hand from her many robes. "We could just finish her off, then."

"That is not our way," Ally Nanjuma said, though he kept a firm grip on the enemy. "This is truly not a threat, young lady, just a security measure. We've seen what you do, and you must be stopped from hurting anyone else."

It seemed as though they were not getting through to Enemy Amaeli, who continued to flex her muscles to try to escape the hold. Was there a hint of doubt in her eyes, or was Fiyu merely deceiving herself? She had no way of knowing, and was only playing her role in the plan.

Without a Deuxan weirkey, she was too far away from her allies. All she could do was hope that they were alright and that it had been enough.

~ ~ ~

"This is ridiculous," Esaire said, reaching into his robes. "Your trick is j-"

Nauda struck his arm to disrupt whatever he was trying to do, then stomped the ground to unleash a shockwave. It knocked two objects from his grip: the weirkey he'd used to transport them and something else she couldn't identify - both were sent bouncing over the Slescan fields. Esaire stared in surprise for a moment, then thrust at her with his rapier.

She caught it in her warding glove and held firm.

"This is a cheap trick." Esaire grimaced as he struggled to pull his weapon free. "I don't care about you, I barely know you, I'm here for my battle against Peanen. Is he too much of a coward to face me?"

"You enslaved Nlukoko." Nauda was surprised how calm her voice sounded despite the anger surging through her. "You tried to kill Fiyu. I don't care whether or not you know me, I'm here to beat your face in."

Esaire sneered and released his rapier, instead thrusting the lightning spear at her. But while she spoke, Nauda had been forming a line of wards in front of her with one foot, so the lightning broke apart against it. The wards shattered as well, but Nauda burst through the fragments, driving her boot into Esaire's stomach.

He tumbled over the blue crags, and Nauda wanted to jump after him, but instead she went to retrieve what he'd dropped. The one she'd seen proved to be a Slescan weirkey and the other was a silver sublime material that felt like some sort of inter-world communication or warning. Theo had estimated that Esaire only had one weirkey, and he must have relied on signaling his allies with this to bring him back. That meant he was trapped here... so long as she finished him off fast enough, because there was no way of knowing if the signaling material could also guide them to his location.

"This is absurd." Esaire had revealed more flying swords when he landed, and even more began to circle around him as he rose to his feet. "I thought he'd have the courage to-"

Nauda leapt toward him, crossing the distance in an instant. Esaire took a desperate step backward and unleashed the flying swords in a steady stream, but Nauda had already swept her warding glove in front of her. The wards held this time and his swords shattered against her defenses. Even when he split the stream of attacks to arc around and strike her from the sides, her feet were too fast, putting up more arcs of wards.

Given a moment to breathe, Nauda reached deep within herself and felt the omphalos pulsing at her navel. Her body was filled with new strength, not merely physical but spiritual. When she lunged forward, the swords in her path shattered when they touched her body.

Again he tried to use the lightning spear on her, but Nauda grabbed his arm and pulled it off course... then she slammed her forehead into his face. The impact smashed him into a crater in the ground and he lost his grip on the lightning armament. Nauda grabbed the spear and placed it into her soulhome as she watched him struggle to his feet.

With his nose broken and bleeding, Esaire no longer looked so aristocratic. His eyes, which had been filled with scorn before this point, now watched her with uncertainty.

"Peanen isn't a coward," Nauda told him. "He just doesn't have time for you."

Esaire let out a scream and rushed at her, even faster than before. Nauda had already set up her next line of wards and he crashed into it - the wards strained and wouldn't hold him for long, but Nauda punched through them from the other side and connected with another blow to the head. It drove him into the ground and she lifted her leg to finish him with another stomp.

A blue rapier glittered and shot off to the side, pulling Esaire after it. He still barely managed to escape the shockwave, though once he gained his distance he seemed to regain some confidence as well. When he flashed toward her, pulled by the rapier, he dodged around her wards and struck from behind. Nauda had already prepared another arc of them there, so he glanced off and redirected himself again.

They clashed twice, three times, four... then the rapier punched through her wards, driving toward her back.

Nauda had been holding back her true speed for just this moment. She dodged to the side, grabbing the rapier with one hand. The cantae burned her skin, but she spun around, tearing the weapon from his grasp and driving her opposite elbow into his back.

Once again Esaire tumbled over the ground, and once again Nauda placed his armament into her soulhome.

When he got to his feet this time, however, she saw cold intelligence instead of fear. Esaire leapt skyward and began flitting around her, unleashing thin silver bolts. They must have been intended to fight Theo, however, because they only stung against her layered defenses.

"You've remodeled so much to fight Theo, you've over-specialized," Nauda told him. "That's why you won't ever win. That's why I'm going to get to keep taking my anger out on your face."

"Not if you keep fighting from the ground." Esaire spat down toward her even as he launched more bolts. "Your childish ground-based techniques have no place in a battle between Authorities."

Nauda rose into the air, beginning to evade his ranged attacks. But once she got far enough into the sky, Esaire revealed that he had one more trick he hadn't shown. His entire body glowed blue like his rapier and he flashed past her with greater speed than before.

A line of blood appeared across her side and Nauda realized that he'd managed to cut through her defenses. She deflected the next attack with her warding gauntlet, but he darted around her with unreal speed and cut another line across her arm.

"You see? I'll take you apart, cut by cut, and then throw your body in front of him!"

Instead of listening, Nauda reached within herself to her new omphalos. It strengthened her, yes, but it also unified all the strength in her lower body that she had been fusing for so long. Esaire rushed toward her again, aiming for a maiming blow this time.

Nauda struck her stomach with one hand and this time the shockwave radiated from the core of her body.

Already rushing toward her at top speed, Esaire struck the shockwave with breakneck force. It carried him downward and smashed him into the ground again, and this time Nauda was on him in an instant, her fists coming down on him in punch after punch.

With each blow, she spent more of her rage for Nlukoko, for Fiyu, and just for Esaire causing them so much trouble for so long. When she finally caught herself, her breaths coming raggedly, Esaire was bloody but still alive.

She hesitated as cantae gathered in her fist. Theo's plan had been to leave Esaire alive - ransom him to end the convocation and emphasize to the Armeau family and all their allies that the defeat had been absolute. Nauda wasn't sure that would be enough: Esaire would only hate them more after this, crawl off to build up resources and try to take revenge again. Maybe killing him would produce new vendettas, but it was better than continuing this one.

Nauda had followed Theo's plan to the letter, but he was wrong here. She brought her fist down.

Before the blow could connect, a force struck her in the chest and this time she was the one to tumble back over the Slescan landscape. When she managed to catch herself, she looked up to see the Demon Court Stronghold descending beside Esaire. The woman was masked, yet the way she cocked her head managed to convey annoyance.

"You're still alive? You're far too much trouble for Authorities."

"You're restricted by the convocation," Nauda said, even as she prepared to flee.

"This is Slest, not Deuxan. There's nothing stopping me from finishing you here." The Stronghold raised a hand and crimson light built up in front of her fingers.

Before she could attack again, another force appeared in the sky. Theo arrived alongside Nourise and Krikree, all of them burning with cantae. Their arrival gave the Demon Court woman pause, then she clenched her fist and returned it to her side.

"Very well, we will end this with 'civilized' violence." The Stronghold picked up Esaire's limp body with her cantae and gestured toward all of them. "We have more support than you know. We call for a final convocation of souls, immediately."

Exactly what Theo had wanted to avoid. Nauda looked up toward him, but his eyes were locked grimly on the Demon Court's armor before it disappeared.

-

Posting chapters around the holidays is always awkward, particularly climactic and lore-heavy chapters. I'll be taking next week to post my annual review instead. Skyvenom will conclude in January regardless, so one week doesn't matter one way or the other much.