Half a dozen identical faeries had fallen before Mahendra had driven them back from the first level of Asika's treehouse. None of them had put up too much of a fight.
After the first three rounds of Mahendra fighting them only with Stamina abilities, Keldryn and Mikayla had concluded that whatever cheat Mahendra was using to give himself infinite respawns locked him out of his Mana pool. There was no other reason for him to not be using his Cores, and Keldryn was mostly certain that all of the Techniques he had deployed were reliant only on Stamina.
Which was probably the only reason they had a fighting chance against someone double their Level. That, and the easy defensibility of Asika's treehouse.
As they retreated further into the treehouse, looking for a new spot to lay in wait, a thought occured to Mikayla. "I see what he's doing,"
"Yeah?" Keldryn hissed.
"He's learning our tricks. Like a gamer doing a boss fight over and over, not to win but to memorise every attack it has so that he can do a perfect run," Mikayla realised, gritting her teeth. "He's showboating,"
"That's not it," Keldryn denied.
"Then what is?"
"Haven't you been paying attention to your vital energies?"
Mikayla glanced at her Health, Mana and Stamina.
[HEALTH: 1221/1750
MANA: 1389/2000
STAMINA: 1148/1750]
". . Oh. Our resources are finite. His aren't," she fully realised for the first time. Once they'd both run out of Mana and Stamina, they would be defenceless. She didn't even have any potions to top them off - why couldn't there have also been potions in the Core Storage room?
"He's coming. Shush," Keldryn hissed, hunkering down. Mikayla did the same, ducking back beneath the windowsill.
Mahendra looked around as he reached the top of the stairs, searching for his erstwhile foes.
He looked left.
He looked right.
He accidentally gave Keldryn the perfect chance to throw bladed leaves into his eyes.
With a scream, he staggered, clawing at his eyes and flailing around, screaming, "You slovenly scoundrels! Cease this crude -"
He choked, because Mikayla had just plunged her sword into his chest.
Blue blood burst from the wound, running down the blade of the sword and staining her fingers. The faerie collapsed, disintegrating into dust from around the wound, the bloodstain going with him.
Mikayla barely registered it, staring at her sword, at her hand. "That . . I . . I just . ."
Keldryn slapped her on the shoulder, and she stumbled. "No freezing up!"
"R-right! Right," Her breaths came short and ragged, her hands shaking uncontrollably. She'd killed him. In self-defence, and he obviously wasn't dead-dead, but . .
"Lass, I know what you're feeling. I've seen it a thousand times. Take a deep breath and push it all away," Nocturnus commanded, sounding more like a drill sergeant than she'd previously heard from him. "Feeling guilty is a luxury that you can indulge in when you're not fighting,"
"Okay . . but -"
"No buts! He'll be back soon," Keldryn soothingly rubbed her back between the spikes on her armour. "Freak out about having killed him after he's dead, okay?"
"Why is killing people not a big deal to you?! It's different from Kaijus! They . . they're not monsters!"
"Aren't they?" Keldryn's eyes were cold and flinty, she could see them through the single-eyed visage of Skyward Grasscutter. "They're just as murderous and just as ruthless as any Kaiju. Of course they're just as deserving of death,"
Mikayla had no response to that.
And she didn't have time to find one, because Mahendra rocketed up the stairs, arms wreathed in some kind of Stamina-fuelled rocket punch Technique. Mikayla didn't even have time to bring her shield up before he struck her chest and sent her sprawling.
The wind was violently expelled from her lungs as she hit the ground, and any thought of getting up was forestalled by Mahendra pouncing on her. She managed to put her shield between him and her chest, taking the blows on its surface - but the sheer recoil of his strikes running up her arms still shaved away chunks of her Health.
Then Mahendra shrieked in pain as several blows hit his back, carving open his ribcage until he once again collapsed into dust around Keldryn's punch daggers. The foxkin lashed his tail, panting. "I think I really hate him,"
"That was way too close. God damn," Mikayla breathed.
". . which god?" Nocturnus idly checked.
"I dunno, whichever one damns people?"
"So, the Star-Fight Hegemon?"
"Sure," she waved it off. "Him damn,"
Keldryn was already searching for a new hiding place. "I hope Asika gets busy. I don't think we can hold him off for much longer," he warned.
Mikayla checked her Health again, worried by that large blow she'd taken. And rightly so.
[HEALTH: 843/1750]
She'd dropped below half.
Stifling the urge to curse, they looked around for new places from which to ambush Mahendra on his next run. There weren't any good spots nearby that they hadn't already used, so they were forced to retreat even further into the treehouse.
They took up positions outside the central room of Asika's stronghold. A glance inside revealed that the Ataraxia Node, somehow, was inside what seemed to be Asika's living room, squeezed between a coffee table and a couch. "I'm guessing it's game over if Mahendra gets his hands on that," Mikayla determined.
"Whatever Asika's doing, she'd better not take much longer," Keldryn's teeth were bared to express his frustration.
They pressed themselves to either side of the inner doorway, watching for any sign of Mahendra's approach.
The faerie emerged again, only a slight frown marring his features as he surveyed the landing. "You cannot keep this up much longer. Why delay the inevitable?"
As soon as he came within five feet of the doorway, a massive red and silver sword emerged from it. It would have bisected him, if he hadn't caught it with a projected System screen and instead gone stumbling backwards. Keldryn followed up, razor-sharp leaves flying into Mahendra's face and leaving cuts that bled glowing blue blood.
Mahendra retaliated, throwing punches at the air that released ribbons of blunt force from his wrists and sent them flying towards them. Mikayla had deflected this blow on her shield before, but fatigue was taking its toll. Instead of properly deflecting them, they glanced off at an angle that knocked her off-balance.
Mahendra advanced, and Keldryn threw Bluebell out to intercept him. Unfortunately, their opponent had figured out a counter to that; he slapped a palm on Bluebell's outstretched head and used his shockwave Technique again, arresting Bluebell's momentum and letting him jettison her off to the side.
Recovering, Mikayla lashed out with her sword, and it found Mahendra's chest, opening a wound that bled blue.
She flinched.
Mahendra staggered, and Keldryn made to capitalise, but with mechanical precision the faerie's arm snapped up and wrapped its fingers around his throat. "Enough of this," he hissed, and a retching noise escaped Keldryn's throat as Mahendra started to strangle him.
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Then his arm exploded.
Asika burst into the scene, discarding a Shotgun Core that disintegrated as soon as it left her hands. This left her free to pull Mahendra back into a headlock, judo-flipping him onto the ground outside before he could use his greater Strength to free himself.
"Hey guys! It's all sorted. You did great!" she cast the two teenagers a grin, then rounded
"Th-thanks,"
"If you think that was enough to best me," Mahendra hissed, and the wound where his elbow should have been twitched and started to regenerate, strings of light erupting from within his flesh and weaving his hand back together as though it were made of spiderwebs. "You, the petulant pest, may find yourself sorely disappointed,"
"Oh, I wasn't trying to beat you," Asika giggled, stepping back and spreading her arms to keep Mikayla and Keldryn behind her.
"Then what, perchance, was your intention, you simpering little snail?"
"That," Asika gestured at the sky.
Mahendra looked up. So did Mikayla and Keldryn.
There was a twinkle of yellow light in the sky, and all at once seven rods that were crackling with yellow electricity fell from far above with perfect aim. They crashed into the floor around Mahendra, and lines snapped into existence around him, forming a perfect heptagon with the rogue faerie at the centre. Asika rolled out of the marked area, and Mahendra tried to follow her but found himself running into a field of light that only affected him.
"No! I refuse! The almighty administrator Mahendra shall not be -" Mahendra's voice abruptly ceased as a pillar of yellow light engulfed him, reaching up to whatever passed for space in this strange digital place.
When the light cleared, he was gone.
Before Mikayla could say anything, a notification appeared in her vision.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED THE ATARAXIA NODE FROM HOSTILE AGENTS!]
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP! CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 18!]
[WARNING: YOU WILL BE EJECTED FROM THIS SPACE IN THREE SECONDS. TWO SECONDS. ONE SECOND.]
<=====}—o
Mikayla stumbled as she found herself back in the real world, outside the Node. Looking around, she found that Keldryn had already stumbled over to a wall and was leaning against it, while Asika was busying herself with the Node once again. There was no sign of Mahendra.
A glance at her vital energy bars was even more surprising; they had all regenerated to full.
[HEALTH: 1750/1750
MANA: 2000/2000
STAMINA: 1750/1750]
"I'm back at full?" Probably not the first question she should have asked, but it was the first one to come to mind.
"Yup," Asika answered her without even looking in her direction. "You weren't using any of your real energies in there. It was all simulated. You've actually been regenerating this whole time,"
"Okay. I guess that makes sense . . I'm still confused, though. What did you do to Mahendra?" Mikayla asked, leaning over Asika.
The blue girl glanced up at her, innocently batting her sapphire-like eyes. "He was disguising his activities so that the Cosmic Scales' Administrators wouldn't pick up on how badly he was breaking the rules. I disabled his firewall and let them see what he was doing, so they locked him out," Asika grinned. "If he'd tried to beat us the proper way, he'd probably have crushed us. But he's the kind of guy who thinks, even if he has a 99% chance of victory, there's no reason not to cheat and give himself a 100% chance of victory. And as a result he had no chance at all,"
"Oh," Mikayla looked down and winced. "That's . . terrifyingly impressive,"
Asika giggled. "Sometimes you don't need to win. You just need to be the one who's playing fair,"
"If the Admins noticed him, they'll be on their way here now, right?" Keldryn asked.
"They destroyed his body and pulled his mind back to the Cosmic Isles. I've heard it's very unpleasant, they only do it to faerie criminals. Once they're done interrogating him, they'll find out everything he knew and come over here to clean house, but that'll take time. It'll still be faster if we fix the Ataraxia Node and send my report, so let's do that," Asika was already elbow deep in the triangular pillar's base. "Oh, and don't worry about Anza. My Scan says she's alive and Lahlee's dead,"
Mikayla relaxed. She hadn't been able to squash the looming prospect of survivor's guilt, thinking that Anza might have sacrificed herself so they could escape. She was alright. That was a relief.
"You two don't need to be here for this part, though," Asika continued. "You should get going,"
"We're safer together," Keldryn denied.
"No we're not. The Global Map says that all the exits to Cliffwatch have been collapsed except the main doors. That Flyreh guy, he'll know that Mahendra's gone down because whatever bootleg permissions that glitch handed out will have collapsed. We still need to beat him and get my special Cores back from him if we're gonna have any chance of getting you home, and I don't like our odds against that guy without Anza,"
With one hand, Asika flicked several lines of code together and cast it at both of them. "There, I've set a beacon for Anza's current location on your Global Maps. I'm not sure how she ended up outside the main doors, but that's where she is and it looks like she's trying to get back in. You two get outside and regroup with Anza, then find Flyreh and gang up on him. I'll come help after I'm done dealing with the Node," Asika reasoned.
Mikayla considered, but couldn't fault Asika's logic. "What if Flyreh comes here and attacks you? Promise me you'll be okay?"
"Don't worry! He can't kill me, remember? Not without the whole Cosmic Isles coming down on his head. In the worst case where he catches me, he throws me back in a cage and I sit tight until the Senior Moderators show up to clean up Mahendra's mess. But you two can die. So get out of here already!"
"She's right," Keldryn admitted, still looking unhappy.
"Okay, fine. But we'll meet up later, okay?" Mikayla pressed. "With Anza too. Promise?"
"I promise!"
"Okay. Good. Thanks," She glanced at Keldryn and nodded. "Let's go then,"
<=====}—o
Guided by their Global Maps, it didn't take long for Mikayla and Keldryn to return to the entrance hall of Cliffwatch. They dodged around guards through copious abuse of Scan, and it wasn't long before they were looking out into the main hall that they'd entered Cliffwatch through a few days before.
Keldryn stopped Mikayla as she was about to round the corner and make for the doors. "Flyreh's here,"
She felt like slapping herself. She'd gotten careless for a moment with victory so close at hand. "Scan," Mikayla muttered to herself, and, sure enough, there was a single person waiting at the doors. Interestingly, there was also a signal she recognised just beyond them and trying to break the doors open, without success.
"Flyreh's here, and he looks like he's trying to keep Anza out," Mikayla realised.
"Those doors are too strong," Keldryn shook his head. "She can't get through. He knows that. He's waiting for us,"
"Right," Mikayla frowned.
"Don't worry," Keldryn promised with solemn eyes. "I've got a plan,"
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