Raging Storm 1.2
You raise your weapon to block the new Director's spear in a casual guard. Mimicry's eye closes just before she reaches, something that briefly puzzles you—the E.G.O. weapon has always been as durable as the Abnormality it was extracted from, and if it's trying to do an imitation of you, it's doing a piss-poor job. You don't
flinch.
Impact.
Instinct and instinct alone is the only thing that keeps you from folding like a ragdoll, propelled back half a dozen meters like the poor schmuck behind you. An instant shift in posture, steady positioning. Your other hand braces against Mimicry's back.
The iron maiden clashes against your block with all the force of a wildfire, unstoppable and and it's all you can do to remain in place, heels digging into the ashen earth.
She's almost as strong as you. But not
quite stronger.
Her follow-up comes quick, a full-body tackle, meant to ruin your focus, get within your guard. You don't let her, letting out a level slash on instinct, glancing off her armor but still driving her back, interrupting her.
You've a fair bit of experience as a Fixer. It's a strange situation you've got going on, here. Something's not quite right. The feel of Mimicry against her scale… Your intuition is screaming at you to spot the thread.
A rapid series of slashes and stabs aim at your throat, your chest, your face. Every one takes your entire focus to deflect, to evade. The final slash is too fast, coming at too oblique an angle for you to completely avoid. You take the best option, leaping back, taking the blow on your forearm, turning a lethal attack into a glancing one. The blade cauterizes your wound before you can even bleed a single drop.
It clicks. There's a reason you don't recognize the Workshop. You've felt that same sensation, but in the opposite direction, opponents' weapons being deflected by your own gear. And you've cleaved many a Syndicate member in two with Mimicry. You know what its impossible metal edge feels like, slashing through skin and tissue. The flavor is different, more like the rising sun than a red mist, but the core is unmistakable. This is E.G.O. gear. Either extracted from an Abnormality or somehow manifested from her own mind. Neither seems plausible, but all signs point to that.
You're missing something. None of this should be possible. It goes against everything Carmen told you.
A decapitating slash comes for your head, which you barely evade. A reminder that this isn't the time to reconcile old barely-understood scientific lectures. Focus on the here and now.
"Guhhh…"
The downed Fixer. The Director completely ignores him, focusing on you like a guided missile. For the best. You can take it right now. You feel safe retreating, leaving him alone—you can already see him slowly staggering to his feet. Another few moments and he'll be back in the fight. Two on one makes things a lot easier.
You need to stall until then. Take obvious openings, but only to delay your opponent further. You could get away with it, but you'd still rather not kill a high-ranking Liu Fixer without reason.
Thing is, this woman's giving you a serious run for your money. This is her home ground, a forest in flames, and E.G.O. obviously pertaining to fire and dragons. You're no stranger to smoke, but this is a little more than you bargained for.
Almost as if she's reading your mind, a roaring wave of devastating heat pushes outward from her, worse than any ordinary fire. The fact that it's affecting you at all speaks volumes, and to this degree? You feel as if you can barely exert any force at all, all strength siphoned away. Your hair and clothes, once soaked in sweat, dries out in an instant.
[Firey Dragon Slash (5-9, 3-7) + 0 (Pú Láo) = 5-9, 3-7: Rolls 8, 5]
[Upstanding Slash (6-10, 6-9) + 0 (Pú Láo) = 6-10, 6-9: Rolls 8, 9]
The interesting part. The Director herself, while seemingly immune to the flames, seems just as affected by this unworldly heat. Her movements are slower, more sluggish, and when she swings her guandao at you, it's with none of her previously overwhelming force. Still fast enough to be dangerous, and it
is a sharp, superheated blade. But a quick sidestep takes you out of reach of the attack, allowing you to retaliate with a blunt blow of your own. She staggers back.
A double-edged sword if you ever saw one. A mutual shitfest.
"Director… Xiao… No. You're… the Red Mist? Impossible. You're dead."
Choked-out words, from a parched throat.
The Liu Fixer is fully conscious now, staring at the two of you through shattered lenses, which he wipes from his face. A corner of your mind analyzes him, his posture, his expression. He's a fistfighter, unusual for the Association of all-out war. The fact that he's standing at all, even through this heat, is impressive, though his body isn't working the way he wants it to. Speaks of decent augmentations, but not the best. And to have the confidence to take on this monster of a Fixer (Xiao, perhaps?), even without a weapon?
Grade 2. By your estimate. There was no shame in losing to her.
Familiar with your opponent, knowing her by name. Expecting it to mean something. She didn't seem to have heard him. Your guess of him being her subordinate seems more and more likely. Was she holding back against him? Could explain why he was even still
alive. Any other similarly-graded Fixer would've gotten their shit kicked in so hard their eyeball fluids would've boiled.
Also clearly used to fighting in a duo. Whether that was with his Director, or someone else, you can't tell. And you're a good enough Fixer to fill that slot.
"Not anymore," you say, narrowly evading another of Xiao's thrusts. "You okay, over there?"
The Fixer nods. Stumbling slightly over the ashes of a stump, he leaps into the fight, only to nearly get bisected by his Director's instinctive backswing, survived only with a sudden double-block, augments keeping his arms from being sliced clean-off.
…Either she wasn't unconsciously holding back at all (unlikely, this Fixer would be a charred smear on the ground otherwise) during their earlier fight. Or, in this state of exhausting heat, she literally
couldn't. Didn't have the control, the passive ability to regulate the strength of her swings underneath the effects of her own aura, not while in a blind rage.
Makes sense. As you are now, you've barely any ability to control your attacks, relying on momentum and Mimicry's sheer power as E.G.O.. Going through the motions, in a sense. Still, it's concerning.
"We need… to stagger her." he coughs out, smoke inhalation having done a number on his body. "Calm her down… put the Director down for a rest. She's on her last legs. Can't let her Distort. Become a Distortion, like the Crying Children. The Bloodfiends. Or is that… before your time?"
You don't understand the question. You caught that first bit, though, and it's clear he has full confidence in his battle plan. As someone with very little idea what's going on, next to a man with all his fancy terminology of 'Distortion' and whatnot, you're comfortable following his lead on this. Not to mention you'd prefer not to murder such a high-ranking Assocation member anyway. Not much of a change, anyway. Fight to subdue it is. Given her monstrous strength, though, all it means is that you won't be going for a killing blow once she's knocked unconscious. To not utilize your full force otherwise would be suicide.
The only question now: the Fixer seems competent enough. You'd rely on him, in any other circumstance. But these are not normal circumstances. Xiao is monstrously strong, with abilities you've only seen on Abnormalities, psuedo-gods from the Outskirts.
You don't want another unnecessary death on your conscience. Fuck, you've even got your own to worry about.
Then again… You remember what he said. Her being on her last legs. You can't tell if she is or isn't, in all honesty. You can tell that she's been fighting her subordinate for a while. But you don't know how much damage he did.
He seems completely willing to return to the fray. Xiao seems completely willing to carve the two of you into grilled corpses, but only seems focused on you.
The flame dragon soars through the sky, the ashes of the forest resting beneath it.
You're the Red Mist, and you don't know what to do.
HP: 634
[ ] Write-in.
- [ ] Allow Miris to assist?
[ ] Manifest E.G.O.?
A/N: I'll note that the original plan was to throw Reverse Scale at you repeatedly. But that probably would've resulted in… not fun times. Kali's smart enough to figure out the gimmick after the first time triggering it, but the Strength boost that would've resulted… not fun.
Only two more chapters left of this arc now, I suppose.
