Johrei arrows beelined towards Vera, who gracefully dodged the pathways they set, as if water flowing with the currents.
As Aio began to nock, or rather form, another Johrei arrow, he noticed a couple of needles, tipped in a strange liquid, flying towards him.
Rolling out of the way, he cursed under his breath. Too much Johrei, he thought, trying to figure out how to manage his rapid storage depletion. As he thought to the vials he had on him, Vera closed in on him.
Right as she was about to pierce Aio’s temple, a blade blocked her blow. Calli deflected her swing, and swung horizontally. Vera, quick to react, ducked at abnormally quick speeds, only for her eyes to spot the glint of a Johrei arrow being nocked from ground level, aimed at her face.
Aio fired, and Vera, ever the surprising one, jumped back, avoiding the downward swing from Calli, whilst hopping full body over Aio’s area in one smooth motion. The arrow barely missed her hair as it travelled under her, crossing the length of her horizontally aligned body in the air.
Her dodge completed, Vera landed on her hands and backflipped back into a standing position. She didn’t hesitate to go in for another strike.
“Aio, I’ll keep her distracted,” Calli said, pulling out a small riot shield from her pocket space to complement her blade.
As Vera swung, her strange blade caught on Calli’s shield. Calli attempted to stab, extending her blade’s reach with Johrei. Vera moved her head aside, and kicked Calli’s shield, moving in a faint blur as she attempted to follow up on Calli’s recoil from the blow.
Aio fired an arrow, anticipating where Vera would step into, and Vera stopped, well aware of Aio’s thoughts. Guiding the arrow, he tried to adjust the trajectory enough to hit her, only to have her knock the arrow up into the air, shattering it with her impact.
Aio dodged another flurry of needles exiting from the swipe of her left sleeve. He fired another arrow, right as Calli began to barrel towards Vera, cutting off her escape path to the left, leaving her with only the option to dodge right.
Vera armed herself, waiting to knock another arrow out of the air, just as Aio hoped this time.
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The arrow exploded, releasing a hail of chitin spikes, which caught Vera off guard. Swinging, she managed to hit a few of the spikes out of the way, only to reel from the impact of several more. Her Johrei shield shimmered in multiple locations, some cracking to the point of breaking.
An Enthipid’s core ability, Vera thought. As she tried to steady herself from the shot, Calli rammed into her, breaking multiple points of her Johrei armor completely, making her vulnerable to fatal attacks this time.
Aio didn’t stop pressing the attack, firing off another volley of chitin-infused arrows.
“Enough of this,” Vera muttered, fanning out her blade into a flower-shaped design. Johrei blades began to extend from multiple points on the blade, extending the flower’s reach until it created an umbrella of Johrei, each flap spinning in the air like petals of a Lotus. The dozens of blades spun around, deflecting his volley, and clashed against Calli’s shield, the impact breaking the Johrei surrounding her shield. Though the Bastion metal of Calli’s shield could probably withstand a few more blows from the writhing Johrei blades which fanned like windmills around the field of flowers, she didn’t want to risk it, stepping back out of range.
Vera’s eyes, piercing Aio like icicles, spoke death to him as the Lotus blades began removing the heads of every flower within a 4-meter radius half-circle in front of her, kicking up the petals in a beautiful and terrifying display of grandeur.
She bent her knees, and jumped high into the air, and pulled back her blade, and swung her arms towards the ground, where Aio was. Calli, realizing what was about to happen, yelled, “Get down!” she said, stepping in front of Aio with her shield ready.
The Lotus blades extended, raining tendrils of piercing Johrei blades across half the battlefield, slamming against the dirt, kicking smoke and dust into the air.
Aio, eyes closed, creaked his eyes open, his hands in front of him to defend feebly against the terrifying weapon held by the false guide. He looked around him, seeing dozens upon dozens of extended blades protruding from the ground where they had pierced. What was a flower field now looked like a forest of bamboo, translucent in nature, and each, Aio noticed, tipped in that strange clear liquid he noticed earlier.
Then he realized.
“Calli-”, he began, as he noticed her right leg and the bottom right section of her stomach was pierced. She began coughing immensely.
“Aio, you okay?” she said through spats of blood.
Vera, landing gracefully in front of them, looked to the pair.
“Like cockroaches,” she said, in a tone that didn’t feel like it came from the same person, because despite the vitriol in her words, she had the eyes of one who only looked at them with icy indifference.
Is this how I’m going to die? Aio thought, as he tried to stand shakily. Even with the injuries, Calli stood resolute, as if something more than just saving Aio drove her. Shaking the unnecessary thoughts, Aio focused his eyes back on the threat in hand - the woman whose skills could give even Nyx a run for her money.
