Pride x Familiar (56 page)

I fired a few shots into their midst, not really
taking aim, yet scoring a hit each time.

A few more well placed shots around the
underground base ignited a munitions dump, and the explosion
scattered men and machines even further, generating more confusion
and disarray.

Despite not having piloted the Camellia for
nineteen odd months, she still responded the way I remembered
her.

Fast, agile, and incredibly powerful.

My Awareness felt immense, expanding hundreds of
feet in radius around the Black Camellia.

I left the Enforcer base in a confused shambles,
and quickly pivoted while treading air.

Then I aimed the Warlord up and flew into an
elevator shaft that afforded me access to the habitat above.

As I soared upwards, there was no need to blow a
hole in the ceiling because the shaft had no ceiling. Instead, the
elevator platform doubled as a section of the floor for the portion
of the base that was built above ground. With the platform some
distance below me the floor was open, so I was able to fly up into
the base unimpeded. A quick scan of the surroundings revealed the
non-subterranean element was still disguised as a warehouse in an
outlying district of Habitat One. I flew low through its wide open
interior, ignoring the fleeing men and women. The massive doors
stood ahead, and a quick shot from the Camellia’s quantum reaction
cannons burned away an opening large enough for the Warlord to fly
through.

Once in clear air, I flew upwards and away from
the warehouse district below me.

In the distance, some five kilometers away, I
could see
Induran
hovering above Galatea Academy.

I flew toward the starship, while willing the
Camellia to locate the other Warlord.

There—off to my right and at the edge of the
enormous habitat.

Pacing impatiently on the rooftop of an Aztec
style building.

An armored skeleton with a body of young girl
growing out from it, and six wing-vanes extending from its
back.

A Seer-Khan Warlord.

A type that was stronger than the Black
Camellia.

I watched it leap into the air, and fly at near
super-sonic speed toward the starship.

I clenched my jaw against the uncertainty of
success.

Could I beat her? How experienced was she with
that Warlord? How much talent did she possess?

I tried to work up a plan as I flew toward
Induran
, and certain conflict with the Seer-Khan.

(Caprice)

For a long minute, nothing happened.

The giant of a man stood facing us across the
open space of the atrium.

Rina and I stood in stance, watching and waiting
for him to make a move.

Even after a minute, the gun-blade in Rina’s
arms held steady without any additional means of support. I had to
hand it to the girl – she was displaying nerves of steel.

But it was getting neither party anywhere.

Then I realized the most obvious of truths.

The Crimson Crescent giant wasn’t here to fight
us.

He was here to delay us. To hold us back and
stall us. To deter us from making another move.

*
Rina, keep your weapon up.

*
Yes, I know. He won’t move unless we
do.

*
How are your arms holding up?

*
No problem at all.

I sighed inwardly in relief.

But I could hear the students around us
muttering and whispering in fear and confusion.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re just standing there.”

“What is this, a Mohican stand-off?”

“Mexican—a Mexican stand-off.”

“I wish they would do something. I wish they
would leave.”

I risked a glance over my right shoulder.

The southern courtyard lay beyond the cafeteria
wall. What if I made the first move and baited the giant
outside?

But I had to ask myself, did I really want to
face him?

I had no idea what kind of Fragment or Artifact
he used. I had no idea his strengths and weaknesses. And I had
little combat experience.

This was Crimson Crescent we were facing. These
people were accustomed to fighting the Prides as a matter of
survival. But Rina and I were new entrants into the struggle. As
they say, we’d barely gotten our feet wet.

I took a deep breath, and slowly edged toward a
decision.

I promised Ms. Fauntine I would protect this
school. I could do that just by holding still, but deep down that
didn’t sit well with me.

I closed my eyes for a moment, and that’s when I
heard a girl’s voice clear across the cafeteria.

“It’s him—he’s the one who took Reina. He’s the
bastard who took her!”

I opened my eyes and stared at the large man.
“Is that true?” I was surprised to hear my own voice, but the
question couldn’t be retracted.

He cocked his head to a side. “You say
something, little girl?”

“Is that true? Were you the one responsible for
taking a student of this academy?”

“Yes. Nothing personal, just following
orders.”

I ground my teeth. “Nothing…personal….”

He snorted. “What are you, my echo?”

I shook my head slowly. “No, I’m no echo. But
I’m going to ask you one thing. Have you ever heard the tale of
David and Goliath?”

“Nope.”

“It’s a really good tale. It’s all about a giant
of a man who gets taken down by a smaller one. It’s the classic big
versus small encounter.”

“So, you’re drawing a parallel here?”

I clenched my hands, and felt my blades grow a
few inches longer. They already extended two feet past my fists.
“What am I saying, is that if you take one of ours, we’ll take one
of yours.”

He gave me pitying look. “Is that supposed to be
threat?”

“I’m just letting you know, that you won’t be
returning to your ship.” I held up arm with their gauntlet blades
for him to see. “At least, not in one piece.”

“Big words from a little girl—”

I leapt toward him, clearing the guardrail and
the thirty foot span of the atrium in a single bound.

This was my God Speed, the power of the Valkyrie
Legs. It was something I couldn’t handle unless I over-clocked.

My Artifact sensed his barrier field, and I
raised my right arm in order to slash downwards. My intention was
to cleave through the barrier, and my piercer-field did just
that.

I saw surprise on his face, but it lasted only a
heartbeat. He already had his right arm back, ready to deliver a
pile-driving blow. As he punched toward me, I sensed a tremendously
thick barrier-field form around his fist.

Rather than meet his barrier with one of mine, I
willed a piercer-field to envelope my left blade, then thrust it
into his oncoming fist. It felt like stabbing through a wall of
thick jelly, but the blade carried through. Though deflected, it
managed to graze the length of his gauntleted forearm.

I frowned inwardly.

Up close, I could see his Fragment clearly.

There was armor around his fists, feet, forearms
and shins. The joints of his limbs are protected too. The torso
armor reminded me a little of Jaxon’s Kaiser, rippling like snake
skin.

As my blade cut a groove over his gauntlet, I
pushed down, using his arm for support. That allowed me to push off
him and thus avoid his right fist altogether.

It was perfect, and left him wide open – open
for a kick from my Valkyrie Legs.

I swung my left leg up, and even if it left me
unbalanced, I put everything I had into that kick.

It connected.

Its barrier-field slammed into the field
protecting his sternum.

Damn it. I didn’t expect his field to be so
hard.

But it wasn’t over yet – I still had some
momentum left.

I brought up my right leg and kicked straight at
his chest. It lacked force, and would have barely cratered a
permacrete wall. But it sent him back a few steps, and gave me the
time to touch ground safely, though I landed hard and
awkwardly.

Move. Keep moving. Don’t falter.

I was prone to delaying after finishing a
combination move. My fight with the Artemis girls had highlighted
that. I needed to keep moving. Not so much reacting, as acting.

My encounter with Jaxon had gone a little better
because I’d kept up my pace.

I needed to do the same here, or I would be
pummeled by this giant man.

“Ho ho, not bad,” he praised. “Certainly faster
than—”

Bastard talks too much.

I launched myself at him.

A second and third kick, one to his chest and
the next to his flank, robbed him of his words.

But he took the blows, and I barely avoided his
counter, a scything palm strike that would have doubled me over had
it hit my chest. I bent backwards, losing my footing but saving my
body. I heard the air whistle behind his palm as it cleaved the
space where my body had been a millisecond ago.

I landed on my backside, but used the
effect-field my Valkyrie Armor projected to push myself off the
ground. I scrambled clear of his next strike – a fist that punched
down into the ground a heartbeat after I rolled my body out of the
way. I glimpsed his hand disappear into the floor, shattering the
permacrete and thin linoleum into small fragments.

Gods, that power was more than I’d ever faced
before.

But I realized it a quarter second later.

His hand was temporarily stuck.

I was out of balance. My posture on the ground
was awkward, but I took the chance regardless.

It was an opening I wasn’t going to a miss.

Using my left arm to push up and off the ground,
I slashed diagonally with my right blade, aiming not for his
gauntleted arm but for his tricep bulging under his skinsuit.

The piercer field sliced through the barrier
around his arm.

It sliced the skinsuit and the flesh
underneath.

For a moment there was no reaction.

Then his blood splattered against the
barrier-field protecting my face.

He roared in pain.

Amazingly, he tore his right fist out of the
hole in the floor, and then came at me swinging.

So he’s a Power Type after all, just like in
those role-playing games I’d heard my male classmates talk about
before homeroom and during lunch break.

So what did that make me?

A Speed Type? An Agility Type? A Blade Type?

Maybe all three.

Yes, definitely all three.

I realized I was grinning. No, I was
smiling.

I’d drawn first blood, and I had no desire to
stop there.

*
Rina, he’s mine. You take care of the
effect-field gravity generator in the northern courtyard. Make
things lighter for me.

It felt like an eternity before she replied.

*
I’m on it. Don’t get hit.

I grinned, but it was more inward than
outward.

My body was too busy dodging his fists and the
stomping kicks he was sending my way.

*
I won’t get hit. I can finally feel
it.

Yes, I could feel a calm flow through me.

I had the edge, and I knew I could win this.

But by the same token, recognizing the
possibility of winning meant accepting the possibility of
defeat.

He shifted his attack pattern, favoring his
wounded right arm for defense. If he’d ingested Aventis blood like
I had, that wound would heal in minutes because I was certain
that’s how quickly my body would heal.

Come on you bastard, keep coming.

I leapt back, rolling backwards onto the table
behind me. I came up on my feet and leapt again, avoiding his
sweeping left arm.

My left foot touched down on the table, and I
spun clockwise, lashing out with my right.

The barrier field around my right heel struck
his face, knocking his head back as though he’d run into a
permacrete wall.

I saw blood fountain from his broken nose.

Was my field really that strong?

Or was he simply just weak?

Something felt wrong here.

A moment later I felt his right hand clamp onto
my sweeping right leg.

I had no chance of breaking free.

A heartbeat later he swung me through the air
and then down into the cold floor.

The extra gravity aided my descent.

I had enough to time brace my arms before me and
mitigate the impact by using my barrier-fields. But while it slowed
my body down tremendously, I struck the floor with enough force to
knock the wind out of my lungs.

I didn’t get the chance to scramble away.

A kick to my flank, barrier-field against
barrier-field, sent my body flying a foot off the ground and some
distance across the cafeteria floor.

My back struck the pedestal leg of a table. The
impact knocked the table several feet away, and brought me to a
quick stop.

I couldn’t move.

The barrier-field around my body had been too
thin. It had taken the brunt of the impact, but my body hadn’t been
spared the blow.

I gasped, wondering if my ribs were broken,
wondering if my organs had ruptured.

Wondering if my vertebrae had fractured.

Given time, I was confident I would heal
quickly. I had Prissila Ventiss Raynar’s blood in me, and Raynar
blood was close to Lanfear blood, so I was pretty well powered
up.

But I needed to time heal – time to deal with
the punishment I was being handed.

Move. Move.
Move
!

The effect-field around my upper body and arms
hardened. I used it to launch myself to my armored knees, then
kicked off with my feet. I avoided being stomped on, by the merest
of margins.

“Damn it,” he cursed behind me.

I rolled forward, and came up in a crouch,
twisting my body so that I turned a full one eighty degrees.

I paused for a heartbeat, watching him move
quickly toward me though I was fully over-clocked.