Volume 1, Chapter 15
Escalation, Part 7
Lee
Consciousness, Lee decided, was severely overrated, when waking up to the worst headache he'd ever had... Which was saying something, considering that, in another universe, he had been old enough to legally get drunk, and had on several occasions. But hangovers, he decided, had absolutely nothing on the pain he was currently experiencing with his entire cerebrum, though the worst of it was most certainly concentrated in his frontal lobe; that, Lee knew, was the result of catching so many hard hits there in such a short span of time. But never before had he had the entire circumference of his brain throb in pain simultaneously, and it was overwhelming, to put it lightly. Had it not been for the constant, brutal spars and rigorous exercise sessions he'd been subjected to for the last half-year, he might have immediately blacked out again. As it was, he still found himself wishing for it.
With a groan, and some barely suppressed tears, Lee forced himself to sit upright, before turning to look at whomever it was he could almost sense sitting near him... Mercury, it seemed, judging by the silvery-grey eyes framed by a pale complexion, which was all he could see beneath his balaclava.
"Did... we win?"
Mercury snorted. "Not yet, but the ladies should be finishing up any minute now. Take a look."
Lee allowed his gaze to follow the path Mercury's finger indicated, and was surprised to see that Summer Rose was still fighting, though her three opponents combined had managed to put her on the back foot. Seeing as Lee himself had dealt with Winter Schnee, who, a quick glance confirmed, was unconscious and had her hands bound behind her (which Lee assumed Mercury must be responsible for), and just a short distance away he could see the unconscious form of Spring, he figured it was only a matter of time. Still...
"Shouldn't you be helping them?"
Mercury just gestured to his legs... Or, rather, leg, singular. One of them had been cleanly severed near the knee, explaining why Mercury was tending to Lee rather than getting in on the fight.
"Oh. I take it the big guy still had some fight left in him after I went down."
"Yup. Though, in all fairness, you did manage to breach his Aura."
Lee stared. "And yet you still managed to get your leg lopped off."
"Hey, at least I stayed conscious!"
"Pfft, as if you have a leg to stand on. Oh, wait..."
"You're an asshole, you know that?"
"Sheesh, Merc, no need to get so hopping mad about it."
"Go to hell."
That definitely worked as a loaded statement, instantly reminding Lee of what they had come there to do.
"Sorry... Trying not to think about this chupping headache I've got going on right now. What's our status? Obviously you're short a limb, and I'm pretty sure that I'm concussed and quite possibly suffering a secondary headache from overexerting my semblance, but what about the ladies?"
"Damn, Lee, that could be serious... You mentioned the headache, but you seem to be able to focus and form coherent sentences. Any dizziness, nausea?"
Lee could feel his irritability rising by the second.
"No, and no, though I was dizzy and had trouble focusing before I lost consciousness. But I doubt that the actual trauma was anything too serious considering that I'm already awake and in better shape than I was before I succumbed, at least in regard to my mental faculties; my money is on the concussion being minor and I simply exacerbated the accompanying headache by pushing my Semblance past the red line; I am experiencing pain throughout my entire skull right now, instead of just the front. So if that concludes the impromptu medical examination, which it chupping should, could we please move on to something else? Like maybe actually answering the original question?"
"Annnnd I'll add uncharacteristic irritability to the list... If you were a chick, I'd say it was PMS. You're not actually Emerald and just making me hallucinate, are you?"
"Mercury!"
"Alright, alright, calm your tits already! Cinder seems to be alright; I haven't had the chance to actually check, but I haven't seen or heard any evidence of any injuries, so like I said, she's probably alright. Frustrated, no doubt, but alright. Same thing for Neo, but I actually did get to see for myself before hopping on over here; the only thing that might be a problem for her would be her Aura, seeing as she's already teleported twice that I've seen. As for Emerald... Well, she probably has at least a sprained wrist; she tried to block that axe and would have completely lost her hand if it wasn't for the fact she dropped the gun. Which, as you might have guessed from the state of my leg, is completely mangled."
Lee frowned... Then remembered that his entire face was covered and that nobody could see it, forcing him to iterate. "Damn... And that was all after his Aura was breached? I don't even want to think about what he could have done to us if we'd attacked while they were still fresh..."
"Ditto, man, ditto. But hey, it could have been worse; Neo managed to take him down pretty quickly. He lasted all of about sixty seconds, and that was only because she stopped to taunt him half way through it."
Despite the pain, Lee couldn't help but chuckle. "She would go all David and Goliath... Unnh."
After that, the two just sat there propped up against the tree, having run out of useful conversation. And seeing as a martial artist with only one leg and a mage who can't concentrate overly well are both useless in a fight, all they could really do at that point was watch as their allies continued to fight. Lee tried not to feel too emasculated by the situation; after all, he and Mercury were legitimately injured, and had received said injuries from what pretty much amounted to a behemoth with a frighteningly large axe... But the fact remained that they, the menfolk, were sitting there having a (not quite) grand time watching the womenfolk get it on. As in combat, that is; if it was the other way around, that would just be...
'For chup's sake, man, focus!' Lee dropped that train of thought before it could get him in trouble. 'You may not be actively fighting, but you're still in the middle of a battle!'
And what a battle it was. With his headache making usage of his semblance somewhat undesirable, Lee couldn't quite see every move that was being made, particularly by the quicker of the current combatants, but what he could successfully see and keep up with was nothing short of enthralling. While it was clear that with the addition of a third opponent, Summer Rose had been forced to remain almost purely on the defensive... But, nevertheless, she was successfully making life difficult for her three assailants. Cinder backs off and tries to get a shot off with her bow? Summer closes on Emerald or Neo and keeps them close enough that Cinder risks friendly fire. Cinder gets frustrated and charges back into the fray before Summer can take out one of her minions. And the same sequence of events happens should Emerald try to employ a similar tactic. But at the same time, the fact that there are three of them prevents Summer from launching more than the occasional counter stroke, for fear of the two not under attack managing to land solid hits. Yet, she was mounting such a nearly perfect defense, that, barring any sudden changes in the situation, the fight would end up being decided by who lost the battle of attrition. So of course Lee began searching for ways to change the situation in their favor. If only he didn't have such a damn head... Ache...
'How did I forget about that!'
"Gem!"
All four combatants briefly glanced in his direction, before diving back in to a new flurry of attack and defense. But, sure enough, the one named managed to disengage after a few seconds of that, and quickly made her way over, managing to look both relieved and annoyed.
"Whatever it is, Sky, make it quick!"
"Do you your headache medication with you?"
"Yes, but I haven't even used my semblance y-"
"I have, and I found my limit. Gimme."
Anger. "Seriously?! Can't that wait?!"
Frustration. "Me mage! Mage unable to magic if mage unable to concentrate!"
Offense, mixed with realization. "Oh.
.
..
..
"Here you go."
Gratitude. "Thanks. Now go keep her busy, I should be good to go here pretty soon."
A quick nod, and Emerald was off... Leaving Lee sitting there holding a bottle of pills and Mercury looking at him with something akin to awe... Or as close as he allowed himself to get, from what Lee could see of his face.
"What? She's a nag, not unreasonable. Besides, I'll probably end up paying for that one later. For now, though, I've got odds to tip." With that, Lee opened the bottle, plucked out two of the pills within (per the directions on the label), and proceeded to dry swallow them.
.
..
...
"Holy shtak."
In a matter of seconds, Lee's headache had all but disappeared, leaving only a dull yet manageable throb concentrated under his forehead, which had before felt as if it was going to pop from the pressure. Which, now that he could actually concentrate, Lee realized was not a good thing when dealing with head injuries... But, assuming the pills actually did what they said and actually reduced the swelling along with numbing the pain, he should be good to go now.
"Merc, remind me to ask Emerald where she gets this stuff, because that, my friend, is most definitely the good shit."
Lee didn't need to see it to know that Mercury's incredulous gaze had been replaced by a deadpan stare.
"Here, hold on to these for me while I go finish this."
Mercury accepted the pills Lee dropped into his lap as he stood up, and began to grumble.
"What am I, your secretary?"
"Nah, you don't have the legs to rock a skirt."
Lee didn't stick around to watch Mercury process that one... Though, as he stalked closer to the fight, he did hear Mercury's shouted "Hey!"
Leg jokes were never going to get old.
'Focus, Lee. Gotta stay frosty.'
Desired mental state achieved, Lee activated his semblance and began to think tactically. As he noted earlier, Summer was successfully keeping at least one of her opponents within arms reach at all time, so attempting to pick her off from range was out of the question; the odds of friendly fire were just too high. So that left closing in to melee... Where he would have to contend with her pair of katars, which, if they had been forged correctly, would have a reinforced point and thus be capable of punching right through his gauntlets... But, with three, soon to be four people attacking her, she likely would not find time or space needed to actually wind up the punch needed, so it was an acceptable risk. All he really needed was a window of opportuni-
"Lee, I'm gonna go for her legs in a moment. Get her while she's in the air."
-ty. Well, that would do. While he was a little skeptical of Neo planning a coordinated assault, a quick glance at everyone's positioning confirmed that, as long as Summer didn't decide to just tank the hit to the legs or take a sword through the abdomen, it should work.
"Go!"
Lee rushed forwards, eyes darting around to take in everything that was happening. After a brief clash of weapons, Emerald and Summer pushed away from each other, the latter of those spinning to deflect a stroke from Cinder, who stood her ground and simply twisted out of the way of Summer's follow up punch, the point of the katar missing by the slimmest of margins. However, Summer couldn't carry on the sudden assault because Neo had rushed her from the side, aiming a swipe with the handle of her umbrella at Summer's leg... And on the other side, Emerald had shifted her weapon from its sickle form into kusarigama mode, and was making a swing towards just behind Summer, where she'd dodge if she intended to just let Neo fly past her... Which she didn't. She jumped, tucking her knees into her chest to allow Neo to pass beneath her...
And just barely twisted far enough to parry Lee's leaping punch by catching it with the bottom of her foot and then pushing off, sending her flying off to the one side while Lee hit the ground running, already charging Aura and infusing Dust into his hands; that maneuver had left them all on the same side relative to Summer, so they could afford to use a few ranged attacks now, which he made sure to take advantage of as he charged, sending one, two, three bolts of electricity towards her as he approached, forcing her to concentrate on dodging instead of using the opportunity to load her own weapons... Which, Lee could now see, had pistols integrated into them. When held perpendicular to the ground, the gun barrels would be integrated into the bottom guard... Or the outside, if held parallel. Meaning she fired them 'upside down' like a certain Shinigami.
Lee arrived moments later, preventing him from spending too long examining Summer the Kid. And seeing as he was the only one whose momentum had carried him the same direction as Summer, he was going to have to fight her one on one for at least a few seconds, long enough for his other allies to show up.
'Oh shit. Deflect, deflect, jab jab cross, WAIT WHAT THE CHUP AM I DOING HER HUSBAND IS A BOXER! Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and DOOOOOOOOODGE!'
To translate Lee's frantic thought process, the moment he'd closed in on Summer, she had attempted a quick one-two punch against his torso, which had been deflected to the sides by moving his armored hand like a metronome before using same hand to jab her twice in the face... Only to miss the cross when she leaned her head just barely to her left, leaving Lee over extended and, more importantly, exposed from the shoulder down to a boxer armed with what amounted to over sized push daggers. By all rights, he should have been dead... But, thanks to actually having the relative time to panic thanks to his semblance, he was able to react quickly enough to hop backwards just millimeters ahead of the blade's point, duck under a round house kick that would have shamed Chuck Norris, dip sideways when she turned that into an axe kick, dive in for a tackle... And then hurriedly aborted it by firing an emergency air blast from both of his hands directly into the ground, just narrowly avoiding impaling himself on an uppercut.
'That,' He thought to himself while reaching a hand up to removed his newly broken goggles, 'Was way to close.' While he'd managed to avoid getting impaled, it had been a near thing, from which he hadn't escaped unscathed. The point of one of Summers katars had cut into his face, shattering the right lense of his goggles and leaving him with a rather deep cut that was more than likely going to leave a scar, beginning at the cheekbone just below the center of his right eye and curving very slightly up his face to end in his hairline, directly above the inner corner of the same eye. And with the amount of time he'd just spent processing that, he would have likely ended up with even worse, but the instant after that the cavalry had arrived and once again forced Summer onto the defensive... Though she did seem to be sporting a bloody nose now.
'Well, at least that wasn't completely for nothing.' It was a decent trade, Lee figured; he may have had blood trickling into his eye, but Summer would be finding it hard to breathe through her nose, which should mess up her breath control, which would hopefully lead to her tiring out more quickly now...
Lee wiped the blood away before fixing his stance; the time for planning had come and gone. They'd done their best to manipulate circumstances into their favor, and now it was simply a matter of winning the fight. Even if it meant turning into a battle of endurance and attrition...
'Why do I still have a bad feeling about this?'
Annnnnnnd my muse came back. Conveniently while I was trapped at home due to a blizzard, giving me an unexpected day off from work. Obviously, this wasn't the conclusion of this arc, but I promise that the next chapter will be! Even if it ends up needing to be double length! Also, I know today is Saturday, but from here on out, all releases will be on Sundays. As for whether or not I'll be able t do it every Sunday, that'll remain to be seen, but tentatively, the schedule is one per week. ^_^
Oh! And I added a soundtrack link to Part 5, which... is mistakenly labeled as chapter 8. Huh?
Okay. That's fixed now. While that still retains it's own soundtrack, I also just selected a soundtrack that fits for reading parts 5 through 8 all together; while not necessary, I recommend it.
-CS
