Author's Notes: Heh, just a quick apology for the long wait between posts. Also, I hate writing fight scenes.
: Chapter Three :
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Ulrich deflected the laser blast, a familiar bluish spark reflecting in the metal of his sword. Three more bolts followed, and he moved the metal of his weapon rapidly to compromise. Each laser was sent ricocheting harmlessly away. He darted forward, speed blurring his figure as he surged towards a pair of Kankrelat, driving his sword through one of them as he flew past.
Not bothering to watch the explosion, he continued his momentum, coming to a stop directly beneath a looming Krabe. Swinging outward with his weapon, Ulrich sliced two of the legs out from under the spindly creature, then lifted his blade aloft as it began to tip down on top of him. The metal creature fell, impaling itself as Ulrich's sword bit deep into the metal body. The Krabe exploded into nothing before it had a chance to hit the ground.
Yumi held her fan open, spinning it in her grasp to deflect three rapid laser blasts. "Ulrich!" she shouted over the noise of battle. "I can't get to Odd to help him!"
"It's no use worrying about Odd now," Ulrich called back, wincing as a laser evaded deflection and struck his shoulder. "There's no way we keep this up for much longer! We've got to get to the tower now, before we're forced to de-virtualize. Get Aelita and make a break for it, I'll cover you!"
Yumi sent her fan spinning into the nearest Kankrelat. It sliced cleanly through the eye, leaving the explosion in its wake. Yumi raised her hand to catch the fan as it whirled back like a boomerang. But where one Kankrelat was gone, two more scuttled forward to take its place. "We'll never make it, we're completely cut off!"
Ulrich grit his teeth as a laser struck his arm. "We have try!" He spun the blade, deflecting four more rapid shots.
Yumi turned her head for an instant to glance in his direction, sacrificing life points for the distraction. "But Ulrich, there's—"
"Don't waste time arguing," Ulrich hollered back at her. "Just do it!" Then, casting his shout in a different direction, he called, "Aelita, go with Yumi, now!"
He didn't wait to see if the girls obeyed his instructions. They would need every second he could give them. Facing the impossible horde before him, he chanced closing his eyes for an instant to find the concentration that would activate his other ability. He could almost feel is consciousness spreading as two more presences added to his own.
In the next instant, his eyes were open again, and out of the corner of each he could see a mirror image of himself. As one mind, both copies darted forward into the fray, streaking gold behind them as they drew enemy fire, deflecting and attacking as surely as if they had lives of their own. Almost immediately one of them disappeared, but Ulrich was already taking advantage of the distraction it had created.
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Another Kankrelat fired, successfully sending the laser blast into its target's chest.
"Gaah!" Odd reeled from the hit and fell back into an awkward crouch, frustration in his face. "What's the deal with this 'gang up on Odd' day?"
"Odd! Regroup with Ulrich and Yumi! You're losing life points too fast!" Jeremie's voice boomed over the landscape.
"You think I don't know that?" Odd ducked as another laser blast singed overhead. He rolled to the side and flicked his wrist, sending an arrow firing towards the offending monster, missing. "I can't get to them, I'm cut off!"
"You have to get out of there somehow," Jeremie's voice replied from nowhere. "The other two Megatanks are closing in on your position with a pincer movement!"
"Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Odd moaned, jumping a freeze beam and firing another arrow. "Both tanks! Wait, what the heck is a pincer movement?"
"They're coming in from the left to cut off your escape route!"
Odd glanced to his left, giving up another ten life points for the distraction as a laser struck his shoulder. Sure enough, the shadowed forms of two giant tanks were rolling towards him at an alarming rate. "Not that I don't appreciate the attention, Xana," he muttered to himself, "But this is getting ridiculous…"
Glancing at the monsters that surrounded him, he spotted a gap in the ranks and seized the opportunity. Sacrificing another arrow, Odd dispatched of another Kankrelat as it scuttled in front of his path. Leaping over the small explosion and the twitching metal limbs that remained, he dodged between two Krabes and took off running, away from the tower.
Jeremie's voice boomed over him. "Odd! What are you doing?"
"If Xana's monsters are all going to chase me, I might as well get them to chase me away from the tower," Odd shouted in reply. "Tell the others to get a move on; I'll keep the monsters distracted as long as I can!"
"You won't last ten seconds with all those monsters on your tail! You're already down to twenty life points, and—"
"I know what I'm doing, Jeremie!" Odd panted as he ran. He cast a glance backwards to see how many monsters were following him. The two Megatanks were picking up speed and gaining on him. Behind them he thought he caught sight of a few Kankrelat and at least one Crab. "That's it, guys, follow the leader…"
Turning his gaze ahead again, an idea struck him and he scanned the landscape, searching for something specific. A little ways up, the path split into two narrower walkways that curved away from each other. Directly ahead, at the point of the split, the earth dropped away, leaving a gaping hole that led inevitably down to the void. A laser struck him hard in the left knee, almost causing him to trip. As he struggled to regain his stride, Odd didn't have to look over his shoulder again to know that they were still following him.
Now Odd was drawing nearer to the void. He pelted forward, trying to draw more speed as the edge rushed towards him. He needed to keep going in the same straight direction, and hope that Xana's monsters were foolish enough to follow directly behind him. Faster, faster, until the last possible second and then, giving a giant leap, he catapulted into the air, sailing directly over the open drop to the void below. He stretched out his arms, extending the claws on his hands as he reached towards the opposite side of the gap. With a heavy thud, he fell into the edge, half dangling over the side as he dug his hands into the earth to keep himself from falling.
Behind him, one of the Megatanks had been traveling too quickly. Unable to stop its momentum, it sailed over the edge and downward into destruction.
As he scrambled back up onto solid ground, Odd looked back across the gap. The other Megatank remained, having been able to stop its advance safely on the other side. Behind it the Kankrelat and Krabes were catching up.
"Aww, man!" Odd gave a moan. "I only got one? Gaaaah!" He dodged to the side as laser fire suddenly erupted from across the gap.
The remaining Megatank was now working its way slowly around the gap, staying carefully on the narrow, solid path. It moved, stopped, opened, and swiveled as though looking for its prey.
Not wanting to give it the chance to secure him as a target, Odd began to run around the other side, back towards the crowd of Krabes and Kankrelat that were waiting for him. He ducked and rolled evasively to avoid the shower of laser fire that rained down on him. Breathless, he dashed behind the cover of a large tree, peeking back out to see that the Megatank was moving all the way around the circular path to cut him off. A few Kankrelat had also joined the larger monster in its migration to block Odd's escape route.
Odd grimaced, kicking himself for his stupidity. Now there was a mob of Krabes and Kankrelat in front of him, and a Megatank moving in behind him. In a few moments, he'd be stuck in the crossfire. He winced as laser after laser blasted into the tree he was trying to hide behind. A blackened chunk of wood flew loose from the side of the trunk, whizzing past Odd's ear and clattering to the ground a foot away.
"They're going to bring the whole tree down on top of me at this rate!" Odd muttered to himself, at a loss. Then a blinked, a sudden thought striking him. "Wait a second…" He took a half step away from the tree, still being careful to stay in its shelter. He checked his supply of arrows—five. Aiming straight into the trunk, he fired all of them rapidly into the wood, making a deep gouge. Satisfied with the damage he'd done, Odd leapt up onto the vertical wooden surface above the gouge he'd made, clinging to the trunk with his claws and scrabbling upward like a squirrel.
Several yards up, he stopped for a moment to look down at the assembled monsters. They were still firing at the base of the tree, thinking he was on the ground behind it. "Keep at it, guys…" Odd encouraged softly. He walked out carefully onto one of the larger, sturdier limbs, just a foot away from the trunk. Below, he could see the Megatank and the few Kankrelat that had followed it.
Jumping up and down violently, Odd waved and shouted. "Hey! Up here! Come on, you should know the standard procedure—get the cat out of the tree!"
The Megatank opened, and then rolled slightly backwards, turning its eye at an upward angle to regard the taunting figure above. Focusing on the target, it charged, fired—
—and fell short.
Odd was too high up, and out of range.
Undeterred, the Megatank decided to try a different course of action. It closed into a solid, shielded black orb and rolled forward, slamming into the base of the trunk.
The tree shuddered.
Odd clung firmly to the limb, determined not to fall off. Not yet, anyway. He looked down at the tree base, realizing that the Krabes and Kankrelat on the other side had stopped firing. Probably to avoid hitting their own Megatank.
The tree shuddered again as the Megatank slammed into it for the second time. Odd grit his teeth and hung on. "Come on, already!" he lectured the wood. "I did not waste my last five arrows to have this idea backfire on me!"
As if in response, the tree quaked as the Megatank hurled its bulk once more into the base. But this time, it did not stop shaking and regain stability. Weakened by the damage of laser fire on one side and Odd's arrows on the other, the wood at the base of the trunk began to snap under the Megatank's pressure. And the huge tree started to fall.
"Yes!" Odd whooped as he felt the tree shift beneath him, beginning its fall. He gripped the wood and tried to balance himself, letting out an involuntary yell of exhilaration and terror as it picked up speed.
Tipped in the opposite direction by the Megatank, the tree came crashing down directly on top of the group of Krabes and Kankrelat that had been blocking the way back to the tower.
Just before it hit the ground, Odd jumped away with as powerful a spring as he could manage, tumbling to a hard but safe landing on the solid path.
Behind him the tree slammed violently into the earth, crushing any unfortunate monster that had been beneath it. And under its massive weight, the very ground began to crack and give way.
With a horrendous noise, the earth crumbled and the tree fell completely through. One Krabe that had been lucky enough to avoid being crushed by the fall now scrabbled for purchase as the ground collapsed beneath them. Unable to scramble away from the treacherous edge, it slipped back into space, flailing like an insect desperate to fly.
Tree and monsters alike fell to oblivion, leaving nothing but empty air in their wake.
Across the newly formed gap, the Megatank and two Kankrelat remained motionless, their eyes turned to the scene as if in shock.
Odd brushed himself off and stood, looking back across the void at them. He shrugged and gave an apologetic grin. "Don't worry, guys! I'm sure Aelita can make a land bridge to fix it!"
Without thinking, Odd turned his back on them, looking back the way he'd come—back to the tower. It was only when his form began to break apart a moment later that he realized the Megatank had hit him from behind.
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"Nnnggh!" Odd gave a grunt as he fell out of the scanner, breathing heavily. He shook his head to clear it from the disorientation of being hit so many times in Lyoko and rematerializing. "Aww, dang it!" He swung a fist at the floor. He sighed and got to his feet, heading for the elevator.
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Jeremie turned as the elevator opened and Odd entered the room.
The smaller boy crossed the floor space quickly, coming to stand beside Jeremie's shoulder and peer at the screen. "How are they doing?"
Jeremie shook his head. "Not good."
Even though Odd didn't completely understand all the data he was seeing on the screen, he did recognize the three symbols that represented Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita. And he could also see about thirty other symbols surrounding them. "What do you mean? I took out almost half of those monsters! How come there aren't less of them?"
"I don't know! Those Megatanks you got rid of were replaced, and the same with a bunch of the Kankrelat. There are almost as many monsters now as there were when we started. It's like you never even went into Lyoko in the first place!"
Odd's jaw dropped. "What?"
"I don't understand it!" Frustration was evident in Jeremie's voice. "Even when we materialized Aelita, Xana wasn't trying this hard!"
"They're never going to make it to the tower…" Odd's voice was strangely distant.
"What's the point though?" Jeremie mused to himself, frustrated. "What is so important about that tower that Xana's got so many monsters defending it? And why isn't it affecting anything here in the real world?" For another long moment, he was silent. Then he pulled off the headset and held it out to Odd. "All right, this is what we'll do. You stay here, keep in contact with everyone and download a virtualization card for me. I'm going inside Lyoko to help."
Odd blinked at him. "You're going to go in and fight? But you've never done that before!"
Jeremie looked in no mood for an argument. "There's no way that Ulrich and Yumi can hold off that many monsters by themselves, and I can't waste time sitting here trying to figure out what Xana's true motives are. That tower is obviously important for some reason, and we have to get Aelita there safely." He pointed at the screen. "I've got my own basic card already, from when I went inside Xana's alternate reality before, so all it needs is to have some kind of weapon card downloaded."
Odd still hadn't taken the headset. "But Jeremie—"
"I can't sit here and do nothing, Odd. Even if I can't do much, I can at least help out a little." He looked back at the screen and the endless line of symbols that blemished it. "And with these odds, every little bit counts."
With a small sigh, Odd gave in. "All right, but be careful." He grasped the headset and settled it around his ear as Jeremie gave up his seat and headed for the elevator.
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