Chapter 5: Intervention
Author's note: I haven't updated due to my search for a job, the job market sucks and so does procrastination. Despite this, I'm not willing to give up on this story since so many other people just leave their stories unfinished
The viral sonar of an evolved Blacklight being is an essential tool for tracking down targets and once spotted the prey's innards will be highlighted in the sight of an evolved. Rosa landed on the roof of a building that was adjacent to Karakuma's train station, from her vantage point she spotted Dakini who stood still in a dazed state. The evolved kitsune wondered why her recently made companion was standing motionless on a train platform. Maybe she was in the process of remembering something or had met someone that triggered the memories of her past. Whatever the cause could be Rosa had no time to think about it since the city was basically under siege, those golems could not be allowed inside the city's walls. Landing on the edge of the train platform Rosa approached her stock-still friend and began shaking her back into reality. Dakini blinked as Rosa came into focus in front of her, she looked around slowly and in a confused manner since she had lost sight of why she even came to the train station.
"Dakini the golems have arrived! You and I have a job to do!". Rosa exclaimed. Upon hearing this Dakini snapped to attention and immediately made Rosa the center of her attention, she lived for this moment.
"They're located just outside the north gate, let me point you in the right direction". Rosa scooped Dakini up before she could react and jumped straight through the roof, a gaping hole was left in the boarding platform's roof. Atop the boarding platform's thin roof Rosa pointed towards Karakuma's north gate where a group of shapes could be seen standing in a line outside the city's outskirts. Dakini needed no provocation before rushing in that direction and much like Rosa she hopped from roof top to roof top. Now that the main issue was out of the way Rosa could proceed with her plan which was fairly straight forward. Despite her collective strength and numerous abilities Rosa could not be everywhere at once which reduced her effectiveness in the event of a siege. However, she had long since rectified this weakness by being able to divide herself into multiple copies, these copies were absolutely loyal to the original. In the event that they did go rogue a gene that's inserted into all copies would cause them to become brain dead, one by one their cells would shut down.
Rosa stood still while biomass began leaking from all over her body, the biomass pooled at her feet until it covered most of the roof above the boarding platform. From the pool of biomass rose twenty kitsunes which looked nothing like Rosa, each kitsune had a different face and wore a black cloak with intricate gold patterns. This team of kitsune assassins would be more than enough to handle the oncoming threat that loomed just on their doorstep. The role of the kitsune assassin squad was not limited to combat as they would also serve as rescue workers, they would escort the citizens of Karakuma if needed. Now that Rosa was done creating her copies, she could get on with briefing them on the situation, time was of the essence.
"Your objective is to protect the people of this city and destroy any golem that you come across!". Her voice rang loud and clear across the roof of the boarding platform, the response from each copy was a respectful bow to their master. The copies launched themselves off the roof of the boarding platform with ridiculous speed but truthfully, each of them began making their way towards Karakuma's north gate. Moving onto the next step of her plan Rosa began to make her way towards the north gate, she would assist Dakini instead of fighting her battle. It was crucial that Dakini absorb every bit of experience as a fighter so that she could grow and combat the golem menace. Jumping from building to building she came ever closer to the north gate which was swarming with knights. Each knight carried in their arms a bulky looking gun with three barrels, there were also machine guns mounted above the north gate. Rosa had little to no faith that their weapons would be effective in combating the golems but she would wait to see, her primary goal was to assist Dakini.
Rosa landed on a tower that overlooked the north gate, she remained perched on the roof and eyed her target. The tall bird-like golem stood still while hovering a slight distance off the ground, each of the knights watching it were sweating bullets at the anticipation of its first move. Suddenly and without warning the humanoid golem raised its palm and the faint sound of chanting could be heard. The spherical devices floating around its torso appeared to have transparent hands clasped together in a gesture of prayer between their rope like arms. A second later, a miniature tornado formed in the palm of the golem's claws before each spider golem was propelled forward by seemingly nothing. Shouts of alarm and despair rang out in the ramparts above the north gate as each knight trained their weapon on the insurmountable threat. Dozens of spider golems cartwheeled their way across the distance that separated them from the knights and the city. As the spider golems reached the outer walls of Karakuma the knights began a futile effort to spray the load of their weapons onto the golems. Their weapons spewing a sticky gray substance that did little more than immobilize the golems, unfortunately that was all they could muster. The machine guns mounted on the ramparts had no effect as the armor of the golems simply reduced each bullet to a crushed-up shell.
"Damn it all!". A spider golem that had reached the top of the ramparts raised its leg high and was poised to impale the knight through his face. The knight on the other hand couldn't even perceive what happened next, out of nowhere a black blur rushed towards the golem and bisected it. The knight was shielded from the explosion that followed next by the cloaked kitsune that stood before him, he looked in awe at his saviour. Each knight currently manning their station on the ramparts tore their attention away from golems to observe the newcomer. Amongst the spider golems additional black cloaked kitsunes appeared to thin out their numbers and explosions were heard randomly throughout the golem's ranks.
"W-who are you?". The knight operating the mounted machine gun received no answer as the cloaked figure scooped him up in its arms. The rest of the cloaked kitsunes were doing the same, each knight struggled as they were taken from their position. It was astounding how many knights could be carried by one kitsune alone, each knight squirmed as they were left in an uncomfortable bunched up pile. Out of nowhere the ramparts and the north gate erupted in a huge explosion which effectively destroyed their first line of defense. The humanoid golem had unleashed a barrage of Straight thunders upon the outer wall of Karakuma. This allowed the spider golems to continue their advance deeper into the city, the knights that the cloaked kitsunes had gathered up were set free. The knights resumed their futile attempts to immobilize the spider golems, each kitsune ascended onto the roof of any nearby building and watched from their perch.
Something incomprehensible was uttered by the humanoid golem and the miniature golem heads hanging around its neck suddenly sprouted bodies, they leaped off the larger golem and sprung into action. Rosa and her copies picked up on the movement of the miniature golems and the kitsunes sprung into action as well. Each kitsune assassin immediately took off to hunt down the miniature golems with great prejudice, Rosa had ordered them to destroy the golems at all costs. At the same moment several bird knights flew overhead and were headed towards the spider golems that were spilling in through the north gate. As they flew closer, they launched cylindrical rockets that raced towards the spider golems, each rocket exploded and knocked their targets onto their backs. Rosa could do nothing but look on with sadness, nothing these people did could come close to destroying or harming the golems.
By now the knights had formed a defensive line and were spraying as much glue as they could however a few of them had already run out of ammunition. The knights desperately held onto the hope that somehow, they could survive but it was evident that they were fighting a losing battle, to make things worse the mysterious cloaked kitsunes had disappeared. They were the only ones that appeared to have the power to smite the golems, some of the knights struggled to believe in their existence. As if to answer their prayers a black blur jumped over the line of knights and annihilated several Spider Golems with a long horizontal slash. The resulting series of explosions left the knights and air force knights in awe, a young fox girl had just appeared before them and defeated several golems. Dakini had finally arrived at the scene of this desperate battle which reinvigorated the hope that the knights held within their hearts. Dakini's example mirrored that of a predator, she wasted no time in laying waste to the Spider Golems which by now had dwindled drastically in numbers.
The humanoid golem quickly rushed forward as it realized the tide of battle would not turn in its favor, the arrival of these mysterious kitsune assassins was completely unexpected. To make matters worse it could no longer sense the presence of the miniature golems which meant that they had been successfully eliminated. Dakini immediately noticed the advance of the lead golem and readied her blade, the two were mere seconds away from clashing. The two slammed into each other in a test of strength which caused a large shock wave, a large amount of dust had been kicked up into the air. The knights quickly retreated to a safe distance where they could observe the fierce battle that was about to take place, this battle would surely decide the fate of their city. Two straw dolls accompanied the humanoid golem, they had round heads and a bundle of straw for their lower half. The straw dolls stayed safely out of Dakini's reach and the golem between them made it near impossible to reach them. At this point the entirety of the assassin squad had returned and where quickly cleaning up the remaining spider golems.
The humanoid golem roared in defiance at the diminishing odds of victory, it would not back down despite the unexpected and overwhelming tide that it faced. More miniature golems became active from the heads that dangled over its upper body, the tiny golems began to attack Dakini with equally small tridents. Unfortunately for the nasty little creatures most of them were bisected before they could reach the intrepid flower knight. Occupied by their current struggle Dakini had not taken notice of one particular miniature golem that had climbed onto a nearby bus, the golem lunged for Dakini's eyes intent on ripping them apart. Dakini couldn't defend from the humanoid golem's strikes and stop a strike to her face at the same time, her eye had been cut open. The humanoid golem took this opportunity to impale her wrists with the bottom end of its staff, Dakini hardly felt the pain but was still staggered by it. The humanoid golem thrust its sharp clawed hand forward intending to impale Dakini but was blocked when she raised her knee. The clawed hand bounced harmlessly off of her shin guards but that didn't deter the humanoid golem at all and Dakini was met with a subsequently devastating move.
The humanoid golem utilized its staff in order to control the two straw dolls behind it, each doll fired a barrage of smaller straight thunders. The tall golem back flipped away from the resulting explosion and what a magnificent explosion it was. The smoke cleared away and revealed a set of four diamond shaped shields protecting the golem's adversary. Dakini had enlarged her shin and wrist guards to form a durable shield, this both surprised the humanoid golem and frustrated it. Wasting no time in her next move Dakini rushed the tall golem with her sword at the ready, all her instincts screamed at her to tear the golem limb from limb. Another test of strength came except this time both combatants used all their might, a shockwave even bigger than the last erupted in the streets near the north gate. Several knights were knocked off their feet and others scrambled to take cover behind anything they could find. The straw dolls immediately launched another barrage of straight thunders at the young fox but her agility made it damn near impossible to hit her. Dakini nimbly dodged each individual beam however this created another problem, each beam that she dodged was headed for a building or some bystanders.
The kitsune assassins leapt into action and used their various weapons to deflect the straight thunders into the skies where they disappeared harmlessly. The knights and any person that had failed to evacuate looked on in awe at the elite kitsune, the escaping knights and city folk had their eyes glued to their unfamiliar rescuers. Half of the assassin kitsunes broke off and began guiding people that had failed to evacuate off the battlefield, this included the knights. After all what good could the knights do if the battle itself was completely out of their league? While this exchange happened Dakini and the humanoid golem were busy trading blows with neither of them gaining ground over the other, over the course of this battle Rosa had not moved from her position. She remained perched on her roof watching Dakini fight an opponent who was clearly more skilled and experienced than her. The flow of the battle seemed to change when the humanoid golem parried Dakini's overhead swing, the golem moved to impale Dakini straight through the chest. Unfortunately, the golem would never have the upper hand as a black and red spike erupted out the side of a building which forced it to dodge. The golem turned its gaze towards Rosa who had a withering narrowed glare, she would not forgive anyone that harmed her recently made friend.
At this point in time the battlefield around them had become completely deserted, the kitsune assassins had completed their primary objective without fail. The golem was steadily becoming more and more frustrated as time passed on, it was rapidly failing what it had come here to achieve. The people it had come to destroy were being successfully evacuated and its miniature minions were being thwarted by these mysterious newcomers. Things could not be worse for the bird like golem and yet despite that it fought on without reconsidering its current position. Sadly, it could not retreat since defeat was not an option, much like the child it was facing now it could not stray from its one purpose in life. Once again, the two combatants began trading blows and looking for any move that could give them an advantageous position over the other. Disengaging from their relentless attack on each other for a mere moment Dakini took this time to lengthen her sword into a spear, the cloth at the handle of the blade now wrapped most of the weapon. Dakini charged forward and delivered a strong flying kick straight to the golem's face however it didn't even leave a scratch. Dakini quickly followed up with an overhead swing of her spear but was blocked by the golem's staff which proved to be almost equal in durability to her own weapon.
As her weapon made contact with the staff a small group of miniature golems rushed her and managed to tear a fresh cut open on her right eye. The trident wielding tiny devils were subsequently repelled by a palm thrust but the damage had been done. Her previous ocular injury had regenerated and so this latest injury was only a hindrance to her, nonetheless it served its purpose of creating an opening. Another barrage of straight thunders was fired by the straw dolls that accompanied the tall golem which scored a direct hit. Luckily for Dakini she was more than sturdy enough to withstand the deadly force of the straight thunders, as she was falling, she recovered and once again rushed her adversary. Her palms began to glow faintly with power and she unleashed a weighty palm thrust which had the effect of knocking the golem straight into the city's upper wall. The golem rocketed at break neck speeds and crashed into the wall without receiving much damage. Unwilling to let the golem have a moment of respite Dakini leapt forward with the same power that she wielded in her palms except it was being channeled through her feet.
The powerful kick landed and immediately created a crater with cracks spider webbing across the point of impact along Karakuma's upper wall. The golem began to sink a little within the wall due to the force behind the fox girl's kick however it knew just what to do in order to free itself from this situation. A miniature tornado of wind began to build up within its left palm which went on to erupt in a burst of wind, this burst of wind broke the weakened parts of the wall around it and forced them apart. As the golem regained sight of its adversary it looked on in more frustration as its straw dolls had been brutalized by the fox girl. Dakini had impaled the straw doll on the right while the one on the left had the life choked out of it, its energy being devoured by the fox girl. Dakini gazed with the expression of a flaming demon and threw the now ruined straw dolls at the golem, she had begun to take the upper hand in this battle. Once again, she rushed the golem except now, she was empowered by the flames of energy that she had forcefully taken from the straw dolls. The golem began to prepare another blast of wind but it had underestimated the power that the fox girl held; it was instantly met with a flurry of spear swings. Each swing destroyed the spherical devices that the golem was equipped with and produced shallow cuts.
Rosa had left her perch along with the remaining half of the assassin squad, they had all moved onto the roof of a department store to observe and intervene if necessary. Ignoring the numerous shallow cuts that covered its arms and mid section its halo began to gather energy; the energy began charging up as it arced around the halo. The straight thunder that the golem was charging was finally released and what a brilliant beam it was! In order to avoid this Dakini leaned to the right and narrowly avoided the straight thunder however this presented a familiar problem. The beam travelled past the flower knight and towards a building that still held people within it. The other half of the kitsune assassin squad immediately responded to this threat and used themselves as shields, the ten kitsunes acted as meat shields. An enormous explosion erupted in front of the building that they were protecting causing the windows to shatter and shower glass on anyone unfortunate enough to be near them. Inside the building people stood like a group of deer caught in an industrial headlight, they were completely awed by the sacrifice that the supposed knights had performed.
They were further thrown into shock when the smoke cleared and it was revealed that the kitsunes had survived and were practically unharmed. Their cloaks hadn't even been vaporised however their forms did emit steam which indicated the intense heat produced by the straight thunder. The citizens of Karakuma simply could not believe their eyes, in fact each and every one of them was shocked into a state of inaction. The assassin kitsune began gathering the people inside the building and leading them to safety, their job was far from over as indicated by the many people still trying to flee the city. The golem once again charged a straight thunder, there were several beams charging and Dakini fearlessly met this challenge with more palm thrusts. She thrust her arm forward only to miss her mark as the golem leapt to the side in order to avoid the attack. The assassin kitsunes in charge of rescue work began to work overtime, grabbing and depositing anyone that had yet to evacuate to a safe part of the city. At these drop off points the knights eagerly awaited the rescued citizens, all throughout this process they were questioning the identity of the cloaked kitsunes but received no answer. No matter how much they questioned or threatened the kitsune they could not force an answer from any of them.
Dakini began to accelerate her strategy and promptly sprouted more arms, she now had a total of six arms to use palm thrusts. Both Dakini and the golem were now hovering in the air trading blows once again, with Dakini trying to supress the golem into submission with her Palm thrusts. She was like a sumo wrestler with her palm thrusts except she lacked the robust build of the Japanese wrestlers. Amidst the shower of strikes that each fighter produced Dakini managed to land a solid palm thrust followed by a kick which sent the golem plummeting to the ground. The golem crashed into a street that was full of citizens and knights that had yet to flee, luckily no one had been crushed by the falling golem. Dakini's relentless fervor compelled her to continue her assault and she plunged downward after the golem, as the dust cleared the golem was met with the business end of her spear. The golem roared in pain as the spear tip buried itself into its shoulder where it was lodged deeply, despite the golem's supposedly machine-like nature it could still feel pain. In retaliation the golem fired a quick straight thunder which dislodged the spear and launched Dakini a good distance away from it. Seeing this from afar Rosa rushed to the location of her downed friend and ordered the assassin kitsunes to keep the golem at bay.
"Dakini!". Concern was positively dripping from her voice and she rushed into the building that now sported a hole, the building used to be a restaurant.
Amid the ruined chairs and tables stood the furious flower knight, there simply was no stopping Dakini's lust for golem blood. Dakini made to move out of the ruined building but was stopped by Rosa, the tall kitsune wrapped Dakini in a hug from which the young fox girl began to squirm while wrapped in the kitsune's embrace. Rosa began to dig tendrils of biomass into Dakini's body in the least invasive way possible, she did this in order to manually heal her friend's body. Rosa took a sample of Dakini's cells and did her best to recreate them, she exercised extreme caution as the slightest mistake could result in a viral infection. After a minute Dakini had recovered somewhat but was still in almost no condition to respond and was still very much eager to rejoin the battle. Rosa watched her determined friend walk off towards the sounds of battle and followed after her, she returned to her previous perch on the roof of the department store. The assassin kitsunes had surrounded the golem and were knocking it back to the ground each time it attempted to escape. Mere seconds later Dakini had returned to the golem's immediate vicinity and for the umpteenth time that day rushed the golem.
The golem attempted to bring its staff down to smash the flower knight but was met with a swift change in movement, its staff was cut in half with a diagonal swing. The golem immediately reached for the knife that was strapped to its shoulder so that it could continue fighting but instead suffered the severing of its arm. Another howl of pain escaped the beak of the golem however it wasn't over yet for the struggling menace, with its remaining arm it pulled out a long saw-like weapon from behind its hip. The golem swung at the flower knight but Dakini simply blocked the attack with her wrist guard, this didn't come without a price and the weight of the strike snapped her wrist like a twig. Her hand was now on the verge of falling off but her regeneration wouldn't allow it and the dangling hand clung to its owner. The golem with it's severed arm moved to impale Dakini with its bone like cables and managed to disarm her, her sword dropping from her grasp. Suddenly several hand-like ribbons shot out from behind the golem's hips and began to restrain the flower knight, immediately after restraining Dakini the golem began charging a straight thunder. In its final moments deranged laughter rang out from the wounded golem however Dakini had one more trick up her sleeve. In an unseen force Dakini's sword became gripped by something and swiftly made its way down in an overhead swing.
The bird-like golem was bisected by the flower knight's blade and erupted in a sizable explosion which was promptly devoured by Dakini. The battle had finally come to an end and Rosa was proud of her friend for achieving victory, the feeling in her chest was akin to a mother feeling proud of her child's achievements. Now that the battle had ended Dakini was finally released from her berserk state where she went back to being a relatively normal child. Rosa leapt down from her perch and rushed to Dakini's side, the young flower knight was utterly exhausted and was embraced by the older kitsune before she could fall to her knees.
"You've done well Dakini and you've managed to keep the collateral to a minimum". Rosa could not be happier however she and her kitsune assassins were the ones responsible for helping Dakini avoid the collateral damage.
The exhausted flower knight said nothing and simply snuggled deeper into the evolved's embrace, the two stayed like that for a while before Rosa sensed a presence. Holding Dakini like she would with an infant Rosa stood up and glared at an empty space in front of her, the empty street had seemingly nothing to offer. The kitsune knew better than to accept that there was nothing and quickly sent a thick collection of tendrils through the ground where they erupted in black spikes which quickly found their mark. What appeared to be a golem made entirely of mirrors fell to the ground with a ruined second golem behind it, both had lost their lower halves. In the case of the second golem it immediately exploded and Rosa was unable to even drink in its appearance. The mirror golem however stayed in a half dead state which would change in a moment as Rosa slowly made her way to the downed golem. The golem looked on in a paling expression as the life slowly drained from its glass face, the inky liquid that served to form the shape of its face waning with each passing moment. Rosa looked down with contempt and crushed the mirror golem's head with her foot, the rest of the body was shattered by another ground spike. After defeating two golems in one day the two friends left Karakuma's streets to regroup with their canine friend.