End of Simple School Days, Part I
[
He's near.]
‘
Are you sure, honey?’ queried a fatigued woman, rubbing her chilled arms. '
We’ve been looking all week, and he keeps slipping away,’ she says, with a rather adorable pout, '
We need to be sure.’ A grimace crossed her thoughts, and she frowned in tune. [
I am sure. I can feel him. Odysseus.] snarled her magical tenant. '
Very well, honey. I trust you,’ says the woman, as she raised a card that was of a subdued gold, and bore the image of a charioteer. '
Let’s run wild, honey! Let's show them we are the swiftest of foot!’
Settling the card before her stomach, just above the core of her pelvis, she crushed it. Magic burst free of it, and she was wrapped in the armor of a true Locrian warrior, holding a hoplite spear at her side, and a aspis upon her back, baring the design of a large wave crashing upon a cliffside. Narrowing her crystal-blue eyes from behind her helm, she hefted the shield, and set it before her.
“
I am the swift wind. I am the forceful sea. I am the fated tidal wave, crest upon you,” she chanted, shifting a foot back, “
and crashing you upon my rocks.”
In a second, she became a blur; a streak of color, exceeded by a crash of sonic sound waves. In a moment, she became a force of nature, a wave of water, given human form, and driven by gale force winds. In less than a minute, she made impact...
...against the King, Xerxes, whom, once in full control of the situation, found his grip on it all... LOST.
As violent as storm, the shield made full-body contact with the Persian, and shattered every bone across the impact zone, as it released an explosive burst of liquid, and tossed him across the room. The shield created a small pool of sea-scented water -- remnants of what engulfed the king -- and Xerxes slammed into the bleachers.
However, he didn't crash and crater, but bounded off them, as the impact zone and all that the water touching it suddenly turned into jagged stone. In an instant, King Xerxes, once proud and powerful, was made a pincushion by rocks fashioned into spears by nature.
[
...you missed.]
“
Nnn!!!” whined the sudden attacker, stamping her feet like a child. “
I was going really fast, though!” Crossing her arm, she puffed her cheeks, and pouted. [
There. There. A minor adjustment is all that's needed. He is standing there. Odysseus.] The woman looked where directly, and jabbed an accusatory finger at Hal. “
YOU!” she boomed, “
I'll make you pay for what you did to my honey, Odysseus!” she shifted her stance, and raised her shield. “
I am the swift wind. I am the forceful sea. I am the fated tidal wave, crest upon you,” she took aim, “
and crashing you upon my rocks.”
[
Take this, Odysseus!!!]
As a blur passed him, Virgil barely minded it. Hanzo’s senses were his own, so he could see the blur for what it was: a woman in armor that should have prevented such intense forward motion. Rolling his eyes, he sighed with the dismissal of following her targeted path. ‘
Another Servant. Another Master. Another problematic woman to deal with in the future,’ he thought, idly, as he somersaulted through the air; landing on his hands, and bending his legs at his knees. A large swing on bone and fury swept over the sandal-clad heels of his feet, and he snapped them up. ‘
Right now, I have my own problems to attend to.’
Virgil curled into a ball, rolling right, and by Maggie; the redhead stumbling to recover from the kick against the underside of her jawbone club. He pushed off the ground, as she threw her arm backwards, wildly, but aimed, in a savage sense, and slammed the bone into the ground; taking a crater out of the earth. ‘
How am I going to calm her? A Berserker lives and breaths combat. Surely, if I knew her True Name, I could force her out of her Install, however--’ Virgil was abruptly paused in his thoughts, as Maggie lunged at him; the bone crossing under his nose, as he turned his head sharply to dodge its brutal existence.
His button nose upturned from the sour stench of elephantine blood and flesh, the putrid sense forcing a grimace upon his thin, pouty lips. ‘
If I drag this out, then she just might become a True Beast, like the Gods you speak of, Hanzo-chan...’ Virgil mused, absently calling his Servant by such an informal address, ‘
That might be amusing, on its own merit,however--’ Virgil was sharply cut off his own thoughts, as he mistepped, and mistimed -- too busy thinking, too busy outlasting -- and mistook a feint for reality.
Maggie grinned, as she raised her freshly bloodied club to her lips. “
Not so squirrely, now,” she says, her blind rage mostly subsided by this small victory; sated battlelust restoring lucidity. Virgil raised a trembling hand to his perfect, porcelain cheek, and drew it back; from a deep gash crimson was drawn, and stained gloved fingers. “
You cut me...” he says, almost a perfect recreation of their first encounter. For one moment, his effeminate beauty withered and rotted into a masculine rage, before he straightened his expression into something simple and cold. “
I’m going to kill you.”
Maggie didn’t have a moment to think, but react, as a deep-seated font of mana exploded around them. It’s brilliance was blinding, in its own way; unmatched anger, masked as calmness. Before the lights vanish, she saw Virgil fling his holstered spear into the air. Battle-hunger return her lucidity, allowing her to she look up, and realize that the spear hadn’t been a mere weapon, but a catalyst, as it slipped into the atmosphere, and hundreds of spears blocked out the very sun, itself. “
A shadow swoops low; Shifts silent among the reeds; A crane strikes unseen...” Virgil said, calmly, collected... before, he, too, became a shadow.
Rainfall of spears littered all that Virgil considered his battlefield, as the Bounded Field ate the school, the yard, and the road; spears burying into the earth, concrete, asphalt, bricks, and cars, alike. It was only when a stab against her unbreakable skin aimed against her liver registered in her brain, that Maggie realized, there was no escaping the network built. Virgil stood on his right hand and foot; left foot extended, toes curled around the haft of the spear that struck her... before he disappeared again.
“
I will break you. I will kill you. I will...” Virgil promised, anger swallowing him, as it had her, mere minutes past. Maggie grinned, through the pain, however. This is what she wanted. A death fight. In that gym, Flamma had abandoned her, but, now... now, she could try again. Prove herself stronger than anyone... than everyone. Hefting her jawbone club, she began to crush spears, left and right, creating pockets, paths -- zones of even ground, if only temporary -- and dug in deep.
Too deep.
Nine spears sank in, digging into her flesh, seeking passage to nine vital points... only being rewarded with causing pain unparalleled. Her knees gave out, cave in -- not from the pain, but thee real Virgil kicking them out, and pressing his tanto into her crown, as his shadow clones dug their spears in. “
Uninstall! Uninstall, so I can end you! You beast!” he snarled, nearly screaming in manic rage...a rage that Magge knew well, and lived in. She chuckled, and started to laugh boisterously, before she stopped, and Virgil’s world turned upside-down.
It was at her knees she landed, at her mercy he lie, and at her whim he existed. Tables turned in a moment. “
Heh~! Where’s all that bluster at, now,” she asks, raising her fist.
In an instant, Virgil remembered: Assassin was the weakest Class, Berserker was the strongest Class, and two plus two still equaled four...
“
My turn to hurt you...” Maggie says, her hair falling over her face, “
Maybe even kill you.”
Virgil looked up, and smirked; tanto too far to get, mana to low to vanish, but... he fancied himself a girl, and all girl fights ended up one way. “
Let’s be real,” he says, before pulling her hair.
Maggie gasped, shocked to such an extent, that she forgot that she was infinitely strong, functionally immortal, and could crush Virgil’s skull with her pinkies... and just reached down to yanked his long, feathered hair back.
Now, it was just a superpowered catfight.
