Pale moonlight streamed in from the massive dome overhead. Long shadows cast from the four pillars on each vertex of the round room. The sounds of gunfire and mortal combat rang our from all around. This was a battle the likes of which Menagerie would not soon forget, and its grounds were her house.
Kali Belladonna stood in the middle of the room. She brandished a gun, a gold-painted pistol with a long curved blade slung beneath the barrel. A steady finger pulled the trigger, yet only a click met her. With a frustrated sneer she threw the useless thing away.
Such motion drew the attention of assailants outside the door. One drew a bead on her. Kali grabbed a wooden baking tray. She held it in front of her face just in time to block a bullet. The wounded female guard to her right gave her a confused look, one which she returned.
"Do you have a better idea?" She asked. There was no response.
A black shape shattered the dome overhead. It blurred past them. Kali turned just in time to see a winged faunus pounce on the other guard in the room. Both went to ground, with the flyer on top. No matter how the guard struggled, his efforts were in vain against the stronger, heavier man. The man raised a closed fist.
Kali brandished her tray and charged him. Even in soft slippers, her footsteps rang upon the broad round carpet. The man glanced over his shoulder. He half-turned and stood, avoiding the tray as Kali brought it down. She continued her assault, swinging laterally this way and that. The man dodged until on the fourth swing he let out his wings and soared over her head. Mrs. Belladonna followed his motion. He landed a few feet away, drawing the round-bladed sword with a curved hilt. They faced off.
"Yuma, White Fang assassin, no known connections, no family, no last name," Kali said.
"You're awful well informed," snarked Yuma.
"I like to keep track of the people who might try to hurt my family."
"Must be along list."
"It is," Kali nodded. "Why don't you come quietly, so I don't have to scratch out your name? I'd like to avoid further bloodshed."
"My orders are to kill you, Kali Belladonna, so I won't be leaving."
"Shame. Such a waste of good ink."
Yuma sneered. He settled into a fighting stance, right side toward Kali, sword held upward at an angle, feet shoulder-width apart. Kali did something similar. She faced her left side toward Yuma, while her right held the tray at her hip, far handle pointed at his nose.
"Ma'am, wait," called the remaining guard. "He's too dangerous! Let me fight him."
"Stay there," Kali said. "I can handle him."
"How brave. Let's see if you can back it up!"
Yuma transformed his weapon. The blade sections separated, the space filled with yellow Dust, turning a rigid sword into a malleable whip. He struck diagonally in an X pattern. The swings passed over Kali's form, but made no contact with her. She didn't flinch. Momentum weapons needed momentum, obviously. She recognized these as test swings.
When Yuma spun and came down again, his lash rang true. Kali raised her tray and deflected it upward. The ensuing jolt would've been devastating to a metal weapon, but had no effect on her improvised implement made of wood. Yuma seemed stunned by this, if the pause in his attack were any indication.
He recovered a moment later, though. He launched into a blinding flurry of attacks, a nonstop whirling dervish of electricity and death. Kali matched him swing for swing, step for step. Yuma came down, and she blocked. He swung right, then left, and she met him. Kali passed the tray behind her back to conserve momentum, giving it a spin for good measure, then brought it back around in her left hand to block another trio of shots.
Kali twirled, passed the tray back to her dominant hand, and swung hard to bat away an attack. She used the newly created opening to slip forward. Not quite within striking distance, Yuma swung down in an attempt to stop her. Kali blocked with her tray held overhead at an angle. The whip slid off.
Another quick step, and she was on him. She swung high from the right. Yuma slipped back. She brought the tray around her head, then swung from the same direction, this time from the hip. Again, tray met air. Kali redirected the momentum to swing down over her left shoulder. Yuma retracted his whip back into blade form and blocked.
Kali stabbed upward from the left with the tray handle, then brought it around and swung down from the same direction. Yuma blocked, then answered with a stab. Kali redirected it, the cranked her tray down and forward at Yuma's face. He faded back, out of the way. Mrs. Belladonna came forward with three more attacks, so smooth in execution they may as well have been one motion. Yuma blocked all three. He did not, however, avoid the following push kick. It caught him in the stomach. He fumbled back a few steps, holding his middle.
There would be no quarter. Kali surged forward. Her attack feinted high, then went for a low, spinning sweep. Yuma jumped over it and took to the skies. He soared over Kali's head, striking down at her as he passed. She barely put her tray up in time to block.
The moment he was no longer within striking range, Kali ran for the far wall, the opposite direction he was flying. Yuma flipped over in mid air, kicked off the wall behind her, and came again. She heard him coming, timed the whooshes as his wings flapped ever closer. There were only a few seconds to run. Looking behind would only slow her down. Kali needed every inch her feet could carry her.
Only a few steps, and Yuma was upon her. She rooted in place and put her tray up. The lightning whip connected the the wood, this time with enough force to cut a gash in it. Kali compressed at the impact, her entire body a spring to absorb the additional force Yuma gained through flying. She sprinted when he passed, but they were close to the wall. The process repeated, Yuma flew over and Kali stopped to block it.
Kali threw aside the tray as she resumed running. Her designation was now within spitting distance. She heard Yuma impact the opposite wall and come back for another pass. Inconsequential. He rocketed toward her, but she had the lead.
Kali didn't stop running when she reached the wall. Her gait adjusted from horizontal, to vertical. Quick footfalls carried her straight up the sheer plain. After a few steps, she kicked off. At the same time, Yuma passed underneath her. Kali did a back flip. She landed on top of Yuma. Fingers dug into his shoulders. The momentum of her rotation carried them both over backwards. Manipulated by Kali, and cursed by his own speed, the bat faunus couldn't stop himself in time. Yuma slammed face-first into the wall. It cracked beneath his body as dust filtered to the floor. The whip sword ejected from his grasp, clattering somewhere on the other side of the room. Kali pushed off it with her feet. She did another back flip, this time to land on the ground a few feet away.
Yuma peeled away from his point of impact. Too dazed to fly, he instead turned over in the air and landed on his front. He laid there for a second, long enough for but a few heartbeats. A shuddering breath escaped his lips at the effort of the wobbly forearms that pushed him onto hands and knees.
"Stay down, Yuma," warned Kali. "It's not too late to come quietly. I don't want to fight you."
"They said this would be easy," Yuma murmured. He slowly began to push himself up onto his feet.
"Who did?"
"The brothers. They said you would be the easy one. That's why they sent me here, so they could distract Ghira until I took you out." Yuma managed to stand upright. He stumbled, but caught himself with a stomp. "You were supposed to go down quick. You weren't supposed to be a fighter."
"Who do you think taught my daughter everything she knows? Adam?" Kali scoffed. "That poor boy always was so full of himself."
"It doesn't matter. I don't care how good you are, I came here with a job to do, and I'm gonna do it." Yuma settled into a boxing stance, fists up, chin ducked in, one foot in front of the other, knees slightly bent.
Kali shook her head. She began to strip off her black jacket, in favor of the sleeveless white top beneath.
"Everyone in Menagerie fights. We have to, if we want to survive. I always hated it; all the pain and death." Kali tossed her jacket away. "But you crossed a line, tonight. You attacked my home, my family. That's not something I can forgive. I don't want to hurt you, but I will."
"Are you gonna kill me, Mrs. B?"
"No, I won't kill you. I'll send you running back to Adam with your tail between your legs."
"We'll see who's running when I'm through."
Kali sighed, as if her disappointment could somehow make this stop. But nothing could halt someone like Yuma. A person so consumed with hatred turned to passion never saw reason. Conflict was inevitable.
With disconcerting ease, she slipped into an old stance. Left to Yuma, she spaced her feet to shoulder width and gave her knees a good bend. Both hands were left open and vertical. The forward left hand was held higher up than the rearward right. They would have just missed touching had she brought them parallel.
Yuma charged her, a warcry on his breath. Kali dipped into a low horse stance and thrust out her fist. She caught Yuma just below the sternum. The air escaped from his lungs and he took a step back. Kali surged forward. Her opponent lashed out with a backfist. Kali deflected it, then followed with a trio of palm strikes, two to the body and one to the chin. Yuma lost more ground. Kali threw a sidekick to the body, but he dodged. She followed with a hook kick which Yuma faded away from.
He stepped forward. The two unleashed a flurry of hands, a torrent of fists met upon wrists and forearms. After seven exchanges, Kali managed to sneak a fist into his jaw. Yuma answered with a knee to the body. Kali took the hit with a small step back. The knee was followed with a superman punch. Kali turned away, but still ate it on her cheek. Yuma continued into a jab-cross combo. Kali absorbed the jab, but blocked the cross on a forearm. She answered immediately with a lead uppercut. Yuma retreated a step, and she connected with a second try at that hook kick to the dome.
Instead of push the advantage, Kali paused. He was both stronger and faster than she expected, which was bad because she expected him to be strong and fast. It made her wonder why he bothered with a weapon.
In her hesitation, Yuma found an opening. He closed the distance and jumped high into the air, a flash of his wings to aid in hang time. The wings pulled in close, which allowed him to lay his body out laterally and accelerate into a series of spins. Kali stood her ground. When Yuma came out of the rotation with a vicious kick, she crossed her arms overhead to block. The impact of bone-on-bone rang through the round room. Kali felt the hit wash over her aura.
In the split-second Yuma was held aloft, he reversed his rotation and fell toward the ground. On the way, he extended a wing. It caught Kali in the middle. The impact was more a push than anything else, but it still made a little distance enough for Yuma to land on one knee and leap to his feet.
It was Kali's turn to push. She shuffled forward with a quick jab, which Yuma slipped back from. Kali followed with a lunging axe kick. Yuma barely avoided it. He came back at her with a jumping spinning heel kick. Kali ducked. The moment he landed, she placed two jabs in his stomach. She rose to put one in his chest. Finally, a pair of hooks to the face put him on the back foot. Kali answered his spinning kick with one of her own, a big twirling round kick to the head.
Yuma went airborne for a second, but this time not of his own volition. He hit the ground and rolled into a kneel. Kali charged at him and leapt. He sprung to one side, avoiding her drop kick as she came down. He rose with a jab combo. Kali blocked one, turned to him, and blocked the other. Yuma dished out a low kick. Kali's assaulted leg bent at an awkward angle, throwing her off long enough to take a pair of fists on the chin.
Kali ducked beneath the ensuing left hook. She came rose with an uppercut, then spun into a backfist. She gave Yuma a sidekick to the body before spinning around the other way to sweep his feet out from under him. He upturned and went on his way to the ground. Kali popped up into a front kick with a little hop. It caught Yuma midair in the ribs. His aura flashed a red deep as blood. He soared away, rolling along the ground for most of the distance.
He came to rest on his front. Again, the faunus man only stayed there for a second before pushing up onto his hands and knees. Breaths escaped his lungs as if he'd just run a marathon. He stared at the ground while sweat dripped onto the rug, beads glistening in the low light.
"You're aura is down. Give up," Kali ordered.
"You think I need aura to fight?" Yuma stood. "I can beat you with or without it."
He went at her. Kali had just enough time to slip into a stance before they clashed. Yuma rammed his elbow into her sternum. She caught it with both hands. The man bounced back. Kali aimed a round kick at his face. He blocked and she comboed into the tail end of a crescent kick, but it met the same fate.
Yuma threw a trio of jabs. Kali deflected them all, quick motions that tied him up in knots. She planted a palm strike in his sternum, coiled up, and thrust both hands into his ribs. Yuma slid back a few inches. The moment he stopped, his toe came up in a front kick. Kali caught his foot and spun. Yuma uprooted. He found himself thrown across the room. He hit the ground with a roll but got his hands underneath him. He popped to his feet.
His eyes tripled in diameter as he saw Kali sprinting full bore at him. He assumed a stance. Kali hurled herself at him. He tried to catch her, but instead she grabbed his wrist, put a knee in his chest, slung the other around his head, then finally pulled them both down in a tumble. They landed on their backs, Yuma's bicep between Kali's knees, her grip like a vice on his wrist. She wrenched and pulled on the trapped limb.
Without his aura, there was nothing to stop the bone from snapping. A crackle like dried firewood filled the room. Yuma cried out in pure agony. His voice echoed around the chamber and out the open door. Kali released him. He turned away to clutch his destroyed arm and whimper. Kali got to her feet.
Despite how much she hated him for everything he'd done, she couldn't help but feel a sick sort of pity at the writhing, ruined man at her feet. The least she could do was put him out of his misery. She raised a foot and stomped on his temple. Yuma went limp, still breathing but out cold. Kali grabbed him by the collar and began to drag him out.
"Ma'am?" A small voice said from behind her. Kali stopped and looked over her shoulder. The short guard girl, who'd probably just witnessed everything.
"Secure the house. Take prisoners. This one is mine."
With that, Mrs. Belladonna left. The next step was to find Blake and Ghira, and get them all out of this mess.
