Corpse March

Chapter 55 The Hawk and The Spider

“STELLAR!” Gleam’s the first to engage. It’s only natural that the one with mastery over ‘light’ that she’s able to move the fastest.  In a fraction of a second, a dozen cuts. In a full second, a hundred cuts. Jessica splays her wings and raises them in a kind of shell around herself to block Gleam’s relentless attacks. The shrill sound of metal grinding against metal fills both of their ears.

While Jessica and Gleam are engaged, Tsuki and Tsumugi begin their approach towards each other. Using massive amounts of built up steam to propel herself, Tsuki bounds across the landscape, accelerating with every step she takes. “Gharab” Tsumugi sheds her old wing, summons a new one and begins to match Tsuki’s speed. The two start to circle each other. 

“Hahaha! You’re faster than I remember, Tsumugi!”

“So are you, Tsuki.” 

Gleam’s voice cuts through their battle. “HURRY!” A powerful magic inflicts an equally intense drain on the user. Gleam’s fast, but she’s not fast forever. Tsumugi’s on a clock. 

“Geburah!” The scythe blade sprouts from her staff again. She knows that engaging in a melee is exactly what Tsuki wants but she’s going to catch up sooner or later, so she might as well engage on her own terms.

Tsumugi closes the gap between her and Tsuki in an instant. It’s a delicate line to tread. Tsuki’s weapon of choice are her close-ranged fists while hers is a polearm. She dances at the edge of Tsuki’s range, using the deft footwork that Jessica taught her to her advantage. In spite of the raw power Tsuki wields, Tsumugi manages to keep her at bay, knowing all the while that a single mistake could spell her loss. 

Every time her scythe clashes with Tsuki’s fists, more and more gears are knocked out of her body, the more her pistons desynchronize, the more steam she wastes. But that all means nothing to her living metal. Everything that breaks simply reforms, better, stronger, more suited towards countering her scythe. One second her scythe manages to actually get her to shed inner clockwork. Two seconds later and she’s developed an outer shell to deflect her strikes. That is the nature of Tsuki’s ‘Machinery’. Always moving forwards. Always progressing. Always enduring. Even if it’s only a temporary adaptation, it’s still ruthlessly effective.

There! Tsuki sees it, when Tsumugi swings just a little too widely, her opening. She closes the gap in between them, allows the piston in her forearm to slam forward, and lands a decisive strike to Tsumugi’s stomach. Or so she thinks. Tsumugi springs her trap. An instant before the hit lands, Tsumugi beats her wing just gently enough to push herself back out of Tsuki’s range. She revels in the expression Tsuki has on her face when she realizes she fell for a feint, the oldest trick in the book. Now it’s Tsumugi’s turn to counterattack. She spins her scythe around her back before bringing its blade down, its shadow bears down on Tsuki.

“Enough!” But it’s just too little too late. Gleam, running on fumes, is forced backwards by a violent unfurling of Jessica’s metal wings. She’s swatted to the side. 

“Look out!” Tsumugi just barely manages to turn around in time to greet the grinning end of Jessica’s gun arms. The bullets will reach her before her scythe gets anywhere near Tsuki. She’s forced to break off her attack. 

“Golohab!” She blocks the first volley of bullets before conjuring the same black flame shield in front of her. It serves a double purpose. The first is to defend against Jessica’s attack. The second is that it obscures her as she moves closer to Jessica to engage her in melee combat. 

“New plan! Focus on Jessica at all costs!” 

“Good plan!” 

Tsuki tries to get back into the fight but a solid kick from Gleam to her chest sends her flying in the opposite direction, buying the both of them precious seconds to launch an attack against Jessica. 

“How’s your energy?”

“I can do this all day.” A sliver of a smile then Gleam disappears, already making her approach. 

“STELLAR!” A vertical slash propelled and bolstered by the power of light from Gleam to break through Jessica’s defenses then, a blast of black lightning from Tsumugi. Jessica just barely manages to raise her gun arm in time to block. The extreme heat causes the gun barrels to deform and fuse shut, rendering it useless. 

“Did I get her?!”

“Stay sharp!” Gleam looks over her shoulder. A trail of relentless steam barrels through the landscape towards them. Tsuki’s hungry. “Split up! I’ll take Tsuki, you take Jessica!” 

“Got it!” 

Gleam’s gone again, leaving Tsumugi alone to deal with the avenging angel. She takes a breath as she dives back into combat. Jessica’s finally starting to seem worse for wear, one of her wings has been crippled, and she’s lost a gun arm. Seems like it’s finally an even fight. She smirks as she retracts her other gun arm. From deep within her sleeve, she pulls out her many-gemmed spear. It seems like this will be a melee. 

“STELLAR!” Gleam, still moving near the speed of light, clashes in midair with Tsuki. She manages to cut through her punching arm and cleave her solidly in half. She at least has the mind to protect her face, as Gleam draws no blood with that slash. She crashes onto the ground and rolls a fair distance away. Normally this would be someone solidly down for the count but her body’s already beginning to reform. 

She needs to kick her while she’s down. Swallowing her pride, Gleam raises her leg and, as though she were kicking a soccer ball, launches a blast of pure light energy. It completely eviscerates the area, most of whatever’s left of Tsuki. But she’s sparred against her enough to know that that’s not going to keep her down for more than six seconds at best. Four seconds is her record. 

“HEADS UP!” 

“I KNOW!” 

Gleam forms a ball of concentrated light energy in her left hand and, as though serving a volleyball, propels it into the air where Tsumugi and Jessica are embroiled in a vicious melee. One second. 

One-winged angels dance in midair, locked into a jousting match. Their movements are sporadic and yet, strangely synchronized. It’s a deadlock all the way up until Tsumugi sees the reflection of the approaching bolt of light. Then, the plan changes. She lets herself fall into the path of the ball, catches it in the crook of her scythe, and slings it directly at Jessica. It’s only after the bolt hits her wing that she realizes that it’s not meant to deal damage to her, it’s meant to blind her. Three seconds. 

“GLEAM!”

“STELLAR!”

Four seconds. Tsumugi lets go of her scythe, letting Gleam take it from her on her way up to Jessica. She’s still rubbing her eyes by the time Gleam gets into striking range. With a vicious upward slash, Gleam carves the smallest of cuts into Jessica’s face. A single drop of blood sprouts, finally ending the duel.

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An exhausted Jessica raises an exhausted Tsumugi’s hand up into the air. “As per the rules of this duel. I hereby pronounce Tsumugi Tsubame the winner of the duel.” 

“Nice.” Tsumugi weakly pumps her fist into the air. “Are you satisfied now, Tomoe?”

“Very well. I officially recognize your innocence.” Tomoe holds out her hand and Tsumugi promptly shakes it. Maybe it’s the tailwind of victory blowing from behind her, or maybe it’s because Tomoe has no physical enhancements whatsoever, but she feels so weak in her clutch. If she really wanted to, she could kill her right here. But she doesn’t. 

“But please, Tsumugi. Don’t think this means we’re allies again all of a sudden.”

“Of course not. Don’t think I’ll forgive you so easily.” 

“The feeling is mutual, friend.” Both Tomoe and Tsumugi smile at each other. Tomoe’s face is joyful but Tsumugi’s smile is joyless. They linger there for a moment, waging a silent war against each other. 

“Nice match, y’all.” Tsuki’s voice cuts through their deathmatch. She claps them on their shoulders one by one, completely uninvited. 

Jessica sighs. “You should work on your team play, Tsuki. You left me alone for most of the duel.” 

“Yeah yeah. Spare me–” Tsuki coughs. “Spare–” She keeps trying to talk through her coughing but the hacking and spluttering triumph over her words. She falls to her knees. “Shit. I think I overdid it.” Gathering every ounce of strength she has, she forces herself to stand back up.  

“You definitely overdid it.” Tsumugi places her hand on Tsuki’s shoulder. She wraps Tsuki’s arm around her back and begins the trek back to her room. “Let’s get you back to your room.” 

“I have something important to tell you.” Tsuki’s voice is raspy from all the coughing but she manages to speak in a whisper. 

“Hm?” 

“It’s about the traitor.”