She could hear it. For the first time she could hear it. The treble of the rising sun. The bass of the long shadows behind. It’s melody was infectious. She couldn’t resist the urge. It was flashy, but her moonsault was necessary as she felt the rays of the first light of dawn bathe her form. As she landed, she could feel her shadow creep up her back before smothering her in their shielding embrace. Without hesitation, her hand reached for her face, her mask growing and engulfing her head in a helmet, a scorpion motif across it. As she stood there, her shadowy cloak flowed around her as Batta stared her down. It was odd. She could feel his battlecraze even from here, but the cloak around her brought her an odd comfort in the face of it.
She reminded herself of Kat’s words even as she saw her crew retreating. Evade first, then respond. She realized that wouldn’t be too difficult. Perhaps that was the point. As she was thinking about this, she realized Batta had been talking. But she hadn’t been listening. Why would she? Does one listen to a hurricane or does one try to pretend it isn’t there? Fortunately, whatever he had said didn’t seem to stop him from making his approach. The blows were poorly aimed but heavy in force. As she delicately stepped between them, she continued her musing.
Shawn set this stage. He must know the players. Since I’m not the only actor, this has to be another beat in the opera for him. So what do I know about Shawn that would have me fighting a hurricane?
As she thought about this she finally paid enough attention to hear a word from her foe, “This is boring! Where’s the challenge?!?” The figure grabbed the ground beneath her and ripped the entire section of earth beneath her feet from the planet and flipped it like he was a toddler losing a board game. She stood still until the perfect moment of the arc, leaping off to finish her flip as the debris fell behind her. She heard it crash into the arena she had just come from and she felt her heart freeze for a moment. She barely turned as he came in to try and capitalize on his dramatic strike. Flipping into a triangle choke on the figure, locking his left arm away as she glanced again at the debris. Seeing that the damage was minor, she realized she needed to start paying more attention. This being had the power to level cities. If she wanted to contain the damage with her plan, she needed to keep his focus on her.
She wasn’t surprised as Batta flexed his arm, feeling how much of his supposed arm was pure muscle. Allowing her hold to break so she could spin around his body and flip onto her feet behind him, she noted that she wasn’t even sure there were bones in this creature. It was no wonder he was considered a walking natural disaster. It was like if every single member of Terry’s family if they were as strong as they liked to believe they were. Still, she needed to keep his focus on her without him devastating such a significant location.
But she also couldn’t deny that she found the situation interesting. A week ago, what would ancient stone mean to her? History is the past and it becomes further away every day. But now that she had been there… felt its history etched into its very walls… She couldn’t let him hurt it. He laughed, at her, “What was THAT?!? I wasn’t lied to! Visto said I would find a fun opponent!” As he came in again with fast but poorly practiced strikes, she focused on weaving between them, her cloak helping by making her outline larger than her actual body. Many of his blows missed by a huge margin, but despite this she could feel the pressure around his fists. “That armored guy was a good punching bag, but he wasn’t as fun as you! Come on! Let’s push each other to our limits!”
Wait… our limits? Is this just some game to him? That’s worse! Shawn, did you want him to test me? That’s stupid! There are…
Her realization caused her to pause for what was an almost lethal second, barely avoiding his strike as she was mid back handspring, tucking her flip to avoid what would have been a lucky blow. She landed and sighed, “So, that’s your gimmick? You just want a fight worthy of you?”
He laughed, “And you! I can feel the power surging through every fiber of my being! Why wouldn’t I use it?! Push it further?! Exploring our limits and beyond! That is what life is all about!” Batta began to laugh like a maniac as he tried a bear hug on her. She ducked it and grabbed his waist before executing a picture perfect overhead belly-to-belly suplex and rolling to the side like she was break dancing as he landed and tried to flip into a sweep kick on her. “Why are you always running? Don’t you feel the power in your every step? The way the world itself quakes at our approach?” He closed the distance again with more clumsy blows.
Does no one know he talks this much? Honestly, I thought a living natural disaster would be more smash and less pass. Still, he isn’t wrong anyone with that much-
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
She suddenly understood.
Shawn, you bastard. You are trying to make me the new hero of the cosmos. Some goddamn saint and fucking martyr for the universe. I bet this was what you expected from the minute you made your stupid deal. Putting your stupid burden on me!
She hated this. Visto was likely trying to get eyes on this. To document how dangerous she was. Making her the focus of what she was sure Shawn had planned next. As she mused on this, Batta seemed to be getting upset again, “Come on! Hit me! It isn’t fun if you just keep dodging me!”
Sensing that if she didn’t indulge him, she spoke calmly from beneath her cloak, “How about this? If I hit you one time as hard as I possibly can, you go away. Sound fair?”
“PERFECT! But don’t think I’m just going to let you do it! A real deathblow has to be in the heart of battle, you know!?!?” He began to laugh as he approached her for more blows she knew she could avoid easily enough and she was counting on it. As he charged, she pulled her cloak away, the air around them darkened as they were encased in darkness, various scattered orange lights appearing above them like stars in the night sky. The stars were too numerous to count, not that Batta took the time to take in the sights. As she expected, he was too single minded, driven to seek conflict and feedback. He wanted to fight and to feel every vibration of the impact. Driven mad by his very nature to endlessly indulge in exercising this overwhelming power. But even in that, she could feel a sense of restraint. He wanted to enjoy himself. He could hit far harder, but where was the fun in that?
She decided to take a chance, dodging when she could but occasionally parrying his blows instead, striking them aside repeatedly with her kicks, the new shin guards on her legs protecting her from the shock of impact. He seemed to be enjoying this more aggressive defense and testing himself against it… and with every exchange some of the stars began to fade. When the sky was all but dark, she flipped away from him and said coldly, “This fight can only end one way.”
He laughed as he tried to close the distance again, “Oh yeah! With you hitting me as hard as you can!” He was right, but for the wrong reasons. She had seen it. And as the final star began to fall through the darkness, she jumped over his charge, following the glorious line of this shooting star as the darkness intensified around them, she felt the energy of this possibility condense around her. For a moment she could feel it, the very edge of oblivion closing around her. And before she knew it, she was in contact with the ground once more. She didn’t need to look. She could feel the heat as Batta’s body surged with energy. Grabbing the darkness itself to reclaim her cloak, she wrapped it around herself and was soothed by its chill as the light of his exploding form filled the air. She didn’t need to ask herself how she knew the Beast was dead. She didn’t have words to explain what she had just done. She simply knew without a doubt that the deed was done, in a way even she hadn’t considered.
---------------------
Shawn dropped from his ship, aiming his gun down at the target. Most people’s aim would be effected by the flames of reentry, but the caliber was so large at this point he knew precision was more of a suggestion for him at this point. Glassing a few city blocks that Douglas had already confirmed were cleared wasn’t that big a deal to eliminate a dangerous being like Batta. Most of the area was probably rubble already anyway. As he landed in the molten crater of his shot, he looked around admiring the damage. He was a bit surprised that he didn’t see Batta after all the hype, but he was genuinely thankful that he hadn’t cracked the crust enough to reach magma. As he tapped his helmet to report the target eliminated, a fist broke through the melted rock and landed squarely into Shawn’s chin. As he sailed through the air at surprising speed and crashed through an as of yet preserved skyscraper, Shawn sat in the rubble glaring out through his helmet. He could taste the copper of his own blood. Man, he hated biting his cheek from a lucky punch. Always gave the wrong impression.
‘Are you okay, Boss?’
“I’m fine, Rook. Caught me off-” He was cut off when he felt the skyscraper starting to tilt and grumbled in annoyance before walking up the growing slope to a window and kicking it out casually, “One second. The target is throwing the building.” Stepping out of the window and walking down the slope of the tilted building as it flew through the air, jumping off the end of it and landing next to Batta, “Alright, buddy! You have had fun turning this city into your playpen, but it ends now. So tell me what it takes to kill you so I don’t-”
Batta laughed confidently, “Wouldn’t know! Haven’t found it!” The Beast came at Shawn who responded with a reflexive kick to the gut, sending Batta flying a few hundred yards, but only eliciting laughter from the living calamity.
Shawn thought about his words and couldn’t help but laugh. Douglas had most likely cleared the planet by now. Shawn approached the Beast as he could already see the creature walking back to him, “Really? Because that’s a relief. See, I don’t get a chance to go all out as often as I would like. Too dangerous and it tends to cause more trouble than I like. But a situation like this? Gives me a good chance to work through some issues.”
Batta had expected him to approach like a normal person, but Shawn? This was about him now. He closed the distance with a quantum snap, punching Batta hard in the gut, sending the being flying again. The difference this time was that he quantum snapped ahead of the trajectory and hit him with a heel drop so heavy it made Batta bounce ten feet into the air. Hitting the man with a bicycle kick to send him through multiple evacuated buildings and into a nearby mountain, Batta found himself bouncing off that as well, Shawn snapping once more into his path. Each strike was fast and precise but each one still felt like a warm up. Each punch sent Batta bouncing off the rocky surface of the mountain and each time was met with another before he could even consider recovering. Shawn was practically using him as a speed bag. Eventually, Batta felt an uppercut stronger than any blow he had ever taken. By the time the calamity had realized what had happened, he was sailing through the empty depths of space once more. No planets or stars in sight… and all Batta could do was laugh, looking forward to the next time the two would cross paths.
