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DOG FIGHT

While darkness kept appearing in front of Julius and Ace in the form of thin tendrils that waved a net between them and the outsider and stalled their approaching or their bullets, the Bandersnatch attacked the door from the other side of the portal and its electric blue slitted gaze focused on Ace and Julius, who were shooting at the shadow door or trying to pass through Aria's small shadow barrier and get to her.

The frumius beast wanted to fight them. Aria wasn't sure that she could trust the beast but at least she could put to use the rhyme she had learned in Spades to let the Bandersnatch cross here so it would attack her pursuers. It wouldn't matter if she got killed afterwards, at least she would have done something to fight back and keep her pride.

Taking a deep breath she put her palm over the portal and began reading the augmented reality lettering that appeared in front of her vision thanks to her optic implants.

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And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new

It was matter for general remark,

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As soon as she started pronouncing the rhyme, the sounds coming from the other side were heard here as if the creature was just at outside a normal door. It's embattles, it's roars and howls crossing through space were heard clearly not only by Aria and the holders, but also by the remaining hiding faceless whose shootings stopped when they hid or ran away. They had never heard the real howls of the Bandersnatch but in their nightmares, and the frumius beast that could devour their afterimages caused them instinctual fear. Aria cracked a deranged smile and let her shadow take more parts of her armor to better outline the portal's door.

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Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view

In his zeal to discover the Snark.

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Disbelief was obvious on Julius eyes as he tried to cut through the thin mesh of darkness. - "Aria stop it!" - He had already faced a frumius beast in the dream realm and he had barely managed to run away from it's avatar. This one was just as dangerous and Aria was the one releasing it. She even looked happy about it. Julius tried to run sideways and shoot at the door but the mesh of shadows blocked every single bullet.

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But while he was seeking with thimbles and care,

A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh

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Confident that Aegis would block all the lead coming her way, Aria changed her lenses to get the purple glow of the spectrum analysis. Her mana was covering the obsidian door and as it did so her armored suit was thinning and starting to lose pieces in order to cover the edges of the door. Aria felt her energy drain away and she almost fell to the floor, barely managing to retain her palm on the shadowy surface. She was creating a portal, opening the way to wherever the frumious beast was, and as she did so, her mind started to uncloud. The merc could now see things very clearly as she originally had been able to, without feelings or subjectiveness. She chuckled.

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And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,

For he knew it was useless to fly.

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Ace stopped shooting seeing how useless it was. Instead, he changed his rifle into a sword and began attacking the shadows with it, gaining a few centimeters or steps forward with every hit. This didn't fool him; it was not that he was advancing but it was the shadows that were retreating on purpose.

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He offered large discount—he offered a check

(Drawn "to bearer") for seven-pounds-ten:

But the Bandersnatch merely extended its neck

And grabbed at the Banker again.

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The hits and scratches in the surface on the mirror on the Bandersnatch's side were as audible as his barks, but Aria was not paying attention to that. The true effect of what had happened to her shadow and that part of the deal with the Jabberwocky were clear for her. She understood it and if she could feel anything at the moment she would despise it. When the Jabberwocky forced her to play the game again in a way that she'd be able to enjoy it, the messing with her shadow had frozen the artificial neural bridges in her brain that emulated the synaptic paths for 'feelings' or rather the sense of those. That explained her overly dramatic actions, the churning stomach that comes with anger, the muscular relaxation when around someone regarded as trusted or even the tears of rage and despair...She had been getting the physical sensations of emotional experience without proper emotional inputs. If she could hate she would hate it right now, but all those pseudo feelings had gone away when the darkness had retreated from her to form the portal and counter the two holders, now she was free of those until the darkness her shadow was not being fully used although she couldn't control well the darkness and it was now being practically completely under her A.I.'s control.

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Without rest or pause—while those frumious jaws

Went savagely snapping around—

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The mercenary set her other palm to support herself on the portal. Suddenly all sound was overcome by a 'click' noise from the door. The pseudo emotions hadn't been the only thing that those neural bridges had caused. They had increase the connective paths of her neural network and thus her processing capacity had increased. Now she was able to control far more outputs at once. It had been like adding new lanes to a road, but it had been a trade. This better physical reflexes and faster processing for her came at the price of having to 'feel'.

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He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,

Till fainting he fell to the ground.

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A line appeared along the frame and the door opened just a little. The frumius wolf pawed at it but it couldn't be opened more. He stopped for a second to direct a feral smirk at the holders and prepared to lunge forward.

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Led on by that fear-stricken yell:

And the Bellman remarked "It is just as I feared!"

And solemnly tolled on his bell.

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As soon as she finished the chanting, the Bandersnatch hit the massive door open and crossed through the mirror, its silverine fur looked sharp like needles and its long claws were ready to poison anything they pierced if they didn't ripped to shreds their target first. It's enormous size could easily make a snack of a heavy war horse and he didn't waste time and straight out leaped to attack Ace, whom had been waiting for him with his sword ready and a smile just as feral as the wolven's. The knave's first slash was a forward thrust aimed at impaling the open jaws of the beast but to Ace's surprise, the big puppy easily sidestepped and used one of its enormous paws to hit him aside and against a tree.

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Bullets came from Julius's gun towards the Bandersnatch's way but they were stopped by the darkness raising from the floor and coiling into a small barrier. The creature's long jackal-like ears perked and it looked at the mercenary, who was barely holding up against the door and whose armour now barely covered her with the inner section running up the middle and back of her body and draping over her chest while the rest of her flesh, pale and with purple hits and scratches was plain naked and exposing the metallic circuit lines embed along her body. Aria Hadron Scherzi extended her hand toward the creature and winked at it before grinning madly, and the g´morking wolf grinned back in perfect understanding. She laughed. She felt powerful and didn't care being ripped apart if she destroyed them. She had felt something akin to this… 'The Madness'

Julius was startled for a moment and immediately fired his gun again at the Bandersnatch, but once again the darkness protected the beast as it jumped aside to avoid a slash from Ace's sword while twisting in the air, using its long bushy tail to send the mortician crashing into a tree from the heavy hit.

Aria was breathing hard as her whole body trembled. The show was beautiful. The Bandersnatch was faster than Ace but even so the knave was managing to land some hits but when that happened, the fur of the frumius wolven seemed to turn into steel needles that absorbed most of the blow's strength. She could do little more than enjoy the spectacle and command the shadows to block Julius's bullets and keep up the portal. Now that her brain was back to her uncaring self and allowed her to estimate results more objectively. The best course of action was to kill the holders, the only way to achieve that was by giving support to the frumius beast.

Julius was terrified at the force that had been awakened. This was the result from Aria's 'Madness', and she was aiding the Bandersnatch into killing them. What was worse was that they had caused it and the feeling of her game reflected it. Her game was still going on but it felt as if there was no heart to be won. But... it was not the first time that something like this had happened to her, and if Aria could survive the madness back then, Then… Then… Julius frowned, leaving the Bandersnatch to Ace, he rushed in Aria's direction. His own clock was hoping for a miracle to happen again.

The Bandersnatch was fast and Aria laughed with sadistic satisfaction, if she had the energy she would have started singing to power up the frumius one, but she was spent. She'd have to research later the details of it but it probably had to do with focusing her mana on a way and using the 'key of the way' somehow. When she saw Julius heading her way, the darkness coiled back towards her and left the Bandersnatch, the fastest among the role holders, to its own devices against the knight of hearts, the one renowned as the strongest role holder.

The Bandersnatch tried to get to Aria and aid her against the mortician but the knave kept the fight on and prevented him from doing so. However, the clock master also couldn't reach the crazed female because tendrils of darkness got in the way from anyone reaching her. Upon this, the knave tossed his sword towards Aria while taking out his secondary sword, and when the tossed blade was caught by the shadows, the mortician took a hold of it's grip to use the weapon and attack the remaining tendrils that reformed less and less as her energy drained away.

There were reasons why Ace was considered the strongest among those with duties and also one of the most mentally unstable inhabitants of this dimension. He was enjoying the fight to the fullest as he rarely had the chance to fight someone so strong. The pup was fast, even faster than him and the knave enjoyed the extra challenge of avoiding any swap from those huge claws that seemed covered with some oily poison, while at the same time he tried slashing past that hard fur. This was exhilarating, even more intoxicating than fighting with just Aria in that dream. He felt at ease in this dog fight. The mortician's hound VS Aria's pooch. It was funny and would only make things sweeter in the end. As soon as he got rid of Aria's new pet, he would break every bone in her body to make sure she never left them. It didn't matter anymore if they won her heart, since there was nothing to gain they would just have to get her body.

Suddenly, the earth and air shook when a new terrible roar was heard from the other side of the opened door. The Bandersnatch perked his long ears and turned to look with a growl at the door, receiving a hit on the leg for his distraction.

"The Jabberwock…" - Color drained from his Julius's face. Looking at the other side of the mirror, darkness was gathering just like it had gathered in the road on towards the mausoleum and in similar way to how Aria had formed the door that the Bandersnatch crossed. Julius knew that this time it wasn't an avatar of the Jabberwocky, it was the real deal, and it was gonna cross just like the Bandersnatch had. He couldn't allow that. He couldn't allow him to get to Aria.

The foreigner knew she wasn't going to last much longer but smirked nonetheless. She recognized that roar. She wasn't afraid at all. Trying to stand up she found that her legs hardly reacted. She was too tired so she resorted to crawl from behind the mirror and cross onto the other side. … However, she had overestimated herself, and finally succumbed to the effort. She collapsed into unconsciousness, and without her mind to stabilize the door and focus on directing the mana properly, there was just so much Aegis could do but retreat over her body to reform into its armor form while the door started vanishing from existence.

The Bandersnatch seemed torn between fighting the holders and reaching Aria, when he noticed the door banishing his indecision ended and he jumped back towards the fallen female to try and get a hold of her leg to drag her into the door and onto the other side of his domains. The last bullets of Ace's rifle came his way and the frumius beast crouched in front of Aria to shield her body from the impacts. That surprised both holders. Julius jumped closer and tried slashing at the beast but the Bandersnatch once again stood between Aria and as its fur stood like steel needles, he used his tail to parry the strike.

Both men understood the creature's intent wasn't merely to kill them. All this time it had wanted to get Aria and he wanted her alive. Julius knew that they couldn't let this creature win… if a frumius beast got a foreigner, who knew what could happen?

("Didn't the Jabberwock said he was looking for her?!")- Julius noticed the danger and tried flanking the creature to reach Aria while Ace was attacking with his sword, but the tail of the beast kept the mortician at bay and it's fast moves made it impossible for Ace to land any fatal hit, but at least they were stalling the Bandersnatch from snatching the outsider.

Neither of them, beast or holders, were letting the other party reach the fallen foreigner, but upon a new shake from the other side of the mirror, the Bandersnatch let Ace strike him in order to take the chance of instead of attacking, twisting back and attempted to grab Aria in his jaws while sending the knave away with a hit from his tail. Julius, in a moment of brilliance or desperation, used the sword to strike at the door and accelerated it vanishing just when Ace began attacking again.

One more roar beyond the door made the Bandersnatch look between Aria and the place at the other side. With a final look towards Aria accompanied by a warning growl towards the holders, he jumped back into the mirror and roared in front of the mass of shadows, blocking the s draconic form of the Jabberwock just as the obsidian door finally disappeared from existence and left both holders to look at each other and contemplate the fallen girl. They had won and they could take their unconscious prize back to the tower.

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Not many notices, but I may be turning a bit towards a fic I'm writting called A-THEIST (Kamigami no asobi fandom, an otome with gods from various mithologies. It has an anime which has these guys transform into their 'god mode' in an even more ridiculous way than sailor moon XD , seriously, I laughted so hard ...) oh well, hope you enjoyed this chapter :3

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