The fog had to be a tactic to hide their numbers, Kate wondered if that was why he White Whale had waited for so long to actually deploy it. The creature needed to wait until the rest of its family was there. It was wild to consider, but this whole time there had been more than one of these things. There might have been even more than this out there.
If everyone who encountered it was either too distracted or too dead to tell what they had seen and considering that the creature made an effort to disorient people—yeah it all made sense.
The revelation of the three Whales had rippled out through the surrounding area. The soldiers near the clearing in the fog that they had been in glimpsed up to see the creatures while some had caught hold of the new information.
People were running, screaming with many of them ready to give up this whole ordeal and call it quits.
Lady Crusch, the one who had organized this whole thing and the one who up until this point, and seemed to be very on top of things and in control was still mounted on her Ground Dragon. Her eyes were focused up on the sky so much so that she missed the things going on around her.
Some of the others were a little further out from her and somehow Kate was the only one who noticed the brutish form emerge from the fog.
Earlier, the young girl Meili had a few mabeast under her control—now the Wagpig that she had been riding was advancing on Crusch and with Meili injured and unable to enact her control over the creature it was loose again.
When the creature finally snarled and lowered it's head for the charge, Crusch glanced over but was too slow to even get er weapon at the ready.
Kate loosed a pair of arrows nocked one above the other so that they pounded into the Wagpig's thick skin. Her dark hair flashed against the light as Kate fell into a dash, strafing around the target and trying to attract its attention away from the much closer Crusch.
"Look out!" Kate yelled.
Though Crusch had been looking, this was the thing that caused her to realize what she was witnessing. Kate's arrows peppered the Wagpig, sticking into its head and the shoulder area.
The beast leapt, covering more ground than would have seemed possible for a creature that size. Kate was forced to go down onto her knees and drop back into a slide. She skirted across the ground and narrowly missed being rammed by the Wagpig.
There was a rush of air and from behind Kate and she turned to see a torrent of thick fog barreling at her like it had been fired out of a tube at hyper speed.
Unable to do anything else, Kate braced for it overtaking her fully expecting to be wiped from existence.
Sharp lines of wind cut through the air, passing behind Kate and intercepting the fog. Crusch had drawn her sword and cut through the air and severed the fog in its path.
A second later one to the Whales broke through the fog. Kate was just enough to the side of it that she could see the spot where its eye had once been staring back at her. The empty socket still wet with fresh blood where Wilhelm had plunged his sword in and dug the eye out.
So this is the original.
It didn't really make sense to Kate why this Whale, the one that they had been find wearing down since they got here would put itself in this kind of danger, but perhaps it needed to lead the charge?
The Wagpig glanced to the Whale too, seemingly as confused by the presence of the much larger mabeast as the humans that it would usually be fighting.
While the creature was distracted by its would be comrade, it was Deadpool that finished it off. Kate caught a fleeting glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye as he charged toward the White Whale and Wagpig, drawing the dual katanas that he wore on his back. He jumped up on the side of the White Whale's face, dragging his katana through its thick skin as he ran to steady himself on what was essentially a nearly vertical surface.
Then he yanked the blade free, kicked off of the Whale and buried both of his swords in the base of the Wagpig's neck. The mabeast sunk down with all four of its legs collapsing nearly the moment that Wade made impact.
A few of the soldiers that were left, along with Elsa, Wilhelm and Steve took shots at the Whale as it passed between them. It looked like this particular trade had been in their favor as neither the Whale or the Wagpig had done any damage to their side.
Wade stood up on the back of the Wagpig. "Well things have gone and gotten good and fucked," he said. "Why is there three of these damn things?"
Crusch shook her head as the White Whale that had just passed them let out a mournful roar. "It is possible there has always been a lot of them. It just seems like no one ever saw more than one at the same time," she explained.
"Or they couldn't tell they were seeing more than one," Peter added.
Everyone had grouped back in closer to Crusch now. It was Elsa who spoke next though. "So much for your historic idea to eliminate the White Whale," she said. "We'd have to kill all three of these things and even then we're not sure that this is all of them."
"We can at least finish what we started," Steve said. "We just need to pinpoint the Whale we were fighting originally."
Kate pointed. "That was it," she said.
"How could you tell?" Asked Rem.
"It had one eye missing and it was pretty beat up," Kate explained.
Steve turned to look at the spot in the fog that particular Whale had flown back into. "Too late to tell where it is now," he said.
There were more Whale cries through the fog. Here and there you could hear the shouts of the soldiers and the thunderous whoosh of that torrent of fog attack being fired.
"So we focus on the first Whale and bring it down—then we worry about the other two," Rocket started. "Sounds like a plan."
For some time Wilhelm didn't speak, even the revelation of the Whale's true numbers hadn't shaken him out of the stupor that he had fallen into during his discussion with Peter. It was when they finally seemed like they had some kind of plan to attack going forward that he grabbed Peter by the shoulder.
Peter hadn't known Wilhelm to be a particularly scary man, but really he had only met him a few days ago and only really saw him fight here today. He was a formidable swordsman that displayed a kind of intuitive thinking that was impossible to quantify or teach.
It was present in how Wilhelm moved and attacked. Peter didn't think he had ever seen anything like it before. So when the older man grabbed him by the shoulder there was a slight flash that rippled through his mind, a vague sense of 'what did I do wrong' that was gone before he could even make an effort to shake the feeling.
"You said that there's a swordsman here that goes by the name of Theresia?" Wilhelm asked.
"Yeah, she—"
"Where did she go?" Wilhelm asked.
Peter swallowed the lump in his throat. For some reason he knew that this next part of the story might not go over so well.
"Uh, well, Rocket fired some kind of weapon into her stomach and she was thrown off through the fog," Peter explained.
The others were breaking off to track down the White Whale and go on the offensive, Peter knew that he should follow after them—they would need him and maybe if he could try the web canons again he could hold the whale longer this time and give them a chance to bring it down, but he also knew that there was something going on with Wilhelm.
Before he had only been able to focus on destroying White Whale. All of a sudden this red haired swordswoman had stolen the entirety of his attention.
"That woman, did you know her?" Peter asked.
Wilhelm brought his blade up parallel with his deep blue eyes to stare at his reflection in its surface. He nodded. "I did know her once upon a time," he said. "But I am not sure what she is doing in this place with that dreadful beast as my wife was killed fourteen years ago."
A telltale wave of uneasy discomfort washed over Peter causing him to hook his arms around Wilhelm's shoulders and leap to safety a moment before a pillar of fog descended from the sky and crashed into the ground where the two of them had been standing.
One of the White Whales dropped out of the clouds above them racing toward the ground only to turn at the last moment so that it was flying horizontal to the field.
Then Peter spotted the hole where the Whale's eye had been cut out.
"Here's our chance!" Peter yelled. "It's fast!"
Peter dashed, webbing to the ground to yank himself forward and gain some speed. He moves through the air in a large arc on an intercept for the Whale. Wilhelm leaps, though he is not able to gain the kind height of Peter he still able to keep up. The pair of them land on the Whale's white flesh with Peter attempting to stick himself down to the creature.
It was then that he noticed something a little weird—there was something difficult about sticking to the surface of the Whale. It was almost as if he tried to stick himself down to a wall made of carpet. The skin wasn't as smooth and flat as it had seemed be fore, there was nuanced little hairs al over the surface. Peter wondered if that was having an affect on how some of the attacks were nullified on impact or why his webs hadn't held as well.
"Can I, uh, borrow one of your swords?" Peter asked.
Wilhelm drew one of the blades, turning it around in his hand to hand the hilt to Peter. Peter took it, testing the weight of the object before he started his assault against the White Whale.
Sure, these were just normal sized blades wielded by two men, but in conjunction with the others attacking—
Peter realized something as the White Whale rose into the sky, the others weren't here attacking this Whale, they had chased off after the target and obviously gotten lost in the fog.
"Did the Whale spin the block on us and just come back to attack," Peter muttered.
The White Whale was climbing higher through the fog until the Night Banisher could be seen shinning clearly above. It had dulled considerably and would continue to do so until it faded out.
This attack was taking much longer than expected already. High up in the sky Peter could see the third Whale circling still, he wasn't sure if it had ever left that position as it had been circling with the other two when they first realized three of the creatures were present.
Peter had a horrible thought just then. "Wilhelm!" Peter yelled. "Wilhelm!"
The older man looked up, using his swords to keep himself from sliding off as the Whale picked up speed.
"Do you remember Steve and Rem?"
Wilhelm nodded. "Of course—if we had lost them you wouldn't remember them either…"
Peter shook his head. "You would think that," he muttered.
"That peculiar," Wilhelm said glancing up toward Night Banisher and shielding his eyes.
Peter followed his eye line. "What is it?"
The White Whale that flew above where the one they stood on had rolled over on its side to move lazily across the sky. From this angle it was easy to see that it was covered in deep lacerations—even at a distance. The other more glaring issue was that it didn't have a full horn. There was a stump where the horn had been.
"It's just as injured as this one," Peter said.
"Unless someone else got to it, I only sliced the horn off of one Whale," said Wilhelm.
Crusch could have hit the horn of a second whale from a distance, but the thing was that this whale had never seemed to come down from up high. Peer could see how there had been two of the creatures down low. It made sense now with the frequency that the White Whale was being spotted. But then there was the fact that both times they had seen the creature below it had only one eye. Those instances of it being spotted also showed it was missing a horn.
And the horn being cut off was something that he was sure had happened before the fog began.
Peter ran up next to Wilhelm, using the sword to kind of steady himself. He came to a stop next to the older man and proclaimed. "There's only one White Whale."
Wilhelm looked over at Peter with wild, blue eyes.
"Th-the three of them have all sustained the same damage because they are just copies of the original meant to mimic its appearance!"
Peter had seen something like this, albeit in video games. Some bosses would split themselves into two, three, or four to even the odds or give themselves time to prepare some huge attack. With the way that the third Whale hung back only it could be the original. None of this made sense any other way.
"The Whale above us, that's the original—the one we started out attacking," Peter explained.
Wilhelm's eyes flicked side to side as he seemed to take in the information and make an effort to sort it all out. The whale they were currently standing atop began to descend in a steep dive and they passed the other decoy whale as they moved downward. It was all injured and cut up too.
On back of the other Whale as they moved past it there were figures running and fighting, using the Whale's body as their arena. Peter could make out Deadpool with both of his swords out fighting to stave off the attacks of another figure who moved with blinding speed and accuracy.
Flashes of metal on metal rained out as the katanas were raked across the sharpened blade of a humble looking long sword. Elsa moved past Wade, her daggers glinting in the light of the Night Banisher. Before she could make it in to strike, their opponent kicked her back sending her tumbling across the Whale's back so that she was forced to stop herself by dragging her dagger through the things flesh.
Wilhelm watched in silence, there was a part of Peter who knew he must have figured it out. Even then, Peter wanted to confirm it for himself.
"That's Theresia?"
Wilhelm didn't answer.
Then the swordswoman moved, charging in to knocked Wade back and force him into a defensive position. He brought his blade up to cover himself and let the strike fall against the edge of his weapon. The force still sent him flying and forced him to grab hold of the fin to stay up.
Rem and Steve were there to try and repel further advancement, but the woman that Peter guessed to be the same Theresia Wilhelm had married years ago dodged around Steve and kicked him in the back. She grabbed Rem at the neck in the next motion and flung her clear off the the Whale's back.
"We've got to go, hang on!" Peter grabbed Wilhelm around the waist and leapt out into the air webbing him self to the Whale's fin since that was the spot least likely to have an issue with the web sticking. As he swung for the creature he fired a web straight down to catch Rem and keep her from falling to the ground.
From this high up and even with her resilient body, it would have been trouble. Though it seemed that he had forgotten some of the tricks that the demon maid had going for her.
The chain from Rem's signature weapon, wrapped around the sam fin where Peter had webbed himself to swing over and she jerked herself back into the air to get on the Whale's back.
Peter released his web to give her more freedom of movement as he landed with Wilhelm on the fin. There was very little space for the three of them which meant that Peter was forced to catch Rem in his arms when she dropped onto the fin herself.
He stared down Rem, his face reddening as he held her. It was still weird to be this close to any girl. Especially an older one who didn't seem too flustered or concerned with being held. He though about Emilia and her squirming.
"Thank you, Peter," Rem said.
"Uh, um—there's two decoy Whales and that woman we've been fighting is—" Peter was cut off though he had been rambling to get it all out.
There was a sound like a rush of air and a black blur raced off of the fin next to Peter. It took a millisecond for him to realize that what he felt hadn't been a whiffed attack, but Wilhelm sprinting and leaping to the back of the Whale. Wilhelm landed behind near where Deadpool was fighting the woman back now and dashed in for an attack that she couldn't have seen coming.
Somehow she moved to the side, turning her body to avoid the strikes from Wilhelm and Deadpool and dancing back out of range.
Wilhelm matched her movement to block her sword. Their weapons rang as their blades clashed. An impact wave, like thunder, rippled outward with them at the epicenter. He pressed against her blade and forced the fight away from the rest of the group. He pressed in, more aggressively than he had been, raining down a flurry of wild sword blows.
Even with her speed, Theresia had to go on the defensive, out of shock at first. It took a few moments for her to right herself and start parrying and retake some of the ground that she had lost.
"We have to help him," Rem's voice called Peter back to the moment and he was finally able to place her on the ground.
"That woman he's fighting—that's Wilhelm's dead wife, Theresia," Peter explained.
"How?" Rem asked.
"I—I don't know," Peter said, his shoulders slumped down in defeat.
Theresia and Wilhelm's movements became rapid and more fluid. Now his strikes looked less like they were meant to be killing blows and more like he was striking to meet her blade in some kind of complex dance.
Using the stump of what had been the Whale's horn, Wilhelm was able to block an attack and he shuffled forward in the opening left behind to force her to defend so that he could lock his sword against hers and grab her by the arm.
"I thought that I had seen the last of you—that we would never again dance like this…" Wilhelm said.
Peter shook his head and took Rem by the arm. "We need to go after the White Whale," he said. "The real one. I think…I know Wilhelm is trying to keep buy us time."
Rem could see it too, right?
She opened her mouth. "But…" She turned to look at Peter, her big blue eyes shimmering from tears, but it could have just been the wind.
"When the Whale has climbed high enough," Peter yelled over the sound fog soaked air whipping past him. "We need to make the leap to the Whale circling up there!" He pointed up.
"What's going on?" Steve yelled, he was still righting himself and it looked like he was judging whether or not there was anywhere he could step in and help Wilhelm.
"These other Whales are a distraction—they're—they're fake or copies," Peter yelled as he leaped closer to join them. "The wounds on them are the same as the ones we inflicted on the original," Peter said.
"And the one furthest away from the danger—the ones that's not coming down…" Steve started.
"That has to be the real one—it's buying itself time for something," said Elsa.
"If only we could tell the people on the ground to be ready for when we bring the Whale down," said Peter.
"Mister Wade," Rem said. "Do you think you could get to the ground and alert Miss Crusch?"
Deadpool glanced over the side of the Whale. "It's a pretty long way dow—"
"Here ya go!" Rem whipped her Morningstar into the air, whirling the chain about and wrapping it around Wade to use it sling him down over the side of the Whale. "Peter, if you could please?"
"Oh, right," Peter got a running start and wrapped his arm around Rem's waist to drop from the side of the Whale. He webbed himself to the fin, which was the only place he could depend on the hold of the web being great enough, and swung down beneath the Whale. The he webbed Rem's back and lowered her down which in turn lowered Wade further. By the time Rem unfurled the chain from around Wade he was nearly on the ground.
Still, he let out a scream as he dropped.
"Whoa, he's going to be alright, right?" Peter asked as he pulled Rem back up into his arms.
"Mmhmm," said Rem. "I think he regrows his bones."
"Hang on," Peter told her as they neared the side of the Whale. The White Whale clone that they had been riding on had climbed high enough that they were nearing the original. This was their chance.
Theresia was fast, though she was only a handful of years younger than Wilhelm, her speed was that of a woman the age that she had been when she had passed. In fact, other than the dark robes and this strange sword she looked exactly as Wilhelm had remembered her. A gorgeous trail of red hair leaving an after image behind her when she moved and flaring out like a wild flame. Her blue eyes had no issue following the motion of his hands.
She dropped to the ground, using one of hands to support her weight and twisting to dodge his strike as she struck out for his stomach with the tip of her own blade. This Passata Sotto was perfect, the moment was exactly as she had always performed it, though at her speed there was no room for him to improvise or move out of the way.
He could see the blade coming for his gut, he knew that if it touched him that wound would bleed endlessly or until she willed it to stop.
Yet there was nothing that he could do, but he had to try. Dropping his balance back onto his heels, Wilhelm made to fall backward in the hope that she would stab up past him. Sure, this move would leave him prone and on his back, but it would at the very least avoid her assault.
The next evasive maneuver he would handle when she launched another attack. Her slipped past him, catching the inside of his suit jacket and ripping through the fabric. It had missed his body entirely. Though she gave him no rest before moving to finish her attack now that he was laying flat on his back.
GRONG!
The round disc of a buckler shield carried by Steve Rogers ricocheted off of Theresia's shoulder and knocked her sprawled out onto her chest before she could move to strike.
Wilhelm looked up to see Steve standing a short ways away.
"We won't let you just be a sacrifice," Steve yelled.
Wilhelm sat up and went to climb to his feet. Theresia was already stirring, she had pressed up onto her hands, elbows and knees. The hyper resilient shield hitting her in the side like that hadn't been enough to stop her. Wilhelm couldn't bring himself to hurt her, he certainly couldn't strike her down. Just to see her like this, to feel the warmth of her body as she pressed against his, pressed blade to blade.
A flash of black and purple with a hint of pale skin near its center moved past him in a blur, the sword from one of his hands was snatched away and then he saw Theresia roll over and flip back to her feet, steadying herself as the Whale moved higher and its angle adjusted.
Elsa slammed into Theresia, meeting sword with Wilhelm's that she had borrowed and one of her short blades. It seemed that Theresia had forgotten her opponent or at least expected the same honor that Wilhelm had shown in his careful dance with her, because she didn't even make to dodge when the Bowel Hunter kicked her in the stomach and sent her sliding back.
Wilhelm was barely able to move, he didn't know why until he felt the warmth around his thigh. Theresia had cut him? When? Blood was pooling, soaking into the White Whale's flesh and the thing hairs that lined its body.
Elsa continued her advance battering Theresia back with a whirling dance that used the length of the sword to ward off advances and struck out with the short blade.
Theresia cut with an upward swing, surprising her. But the assassin didn't stop coming.
"Close," Elsa said as she head butted Theresia and the blood splashed between the two of them, raining down onto the white skinned arena that they found over.
The wounds and the bloodlust seemed to take over her, she was fighting and moving completely different from before.
"But on that note don't think taking away my eye will hinder my will to fight. If I lose my eyes, I'll use my nose," Elsa said while throwing and unpredictable flurry of strikes at the former sword saint.
"And even if I can't smell you, even if I lose my nose, I'll tear at the air with my fangs. And if I lose my fangs, I'll turn to my claws," Elsa said as Theresia disarmed her of the kukri and she, in return, raked her nails across Theresia's face.
"And if I lose my claws, I'll rely on my bones—" Elsa dropped low to slide under Theresia's fist. "And if that doesn't work, I'll use my life. That's how a Bowel Hunter—"
Elsa had moved to jab into Theresia's stomach, surely meaning to slice her open. Wilhelm was screaming, pleading in a voice that even he couldn't recognize as himself.
Then, in a flash of red, white, and blue, Steve was between the two women blocking both of them from each others attacks with opposite sides of his shield. The two blades pushing against the Vibranium so hard that it hummed audibly over the sound of the rushing wind.
They were up past the fog now, up to where the Night Banisher's waining light bathed over them. They were near enough to the other White Whale to see it clearly, its large red, blood shot eye staring at its simulacrum.
"Don't kill her—" Wilhelm pleaded. "It's my fault she's in this state, it's my…"
"Not like this," Steve said. "This isn't how we do things, Elsa. And this isn't what I paid you to do."
"Hm, but isn't it a bit boorish to cut in on a dance?" Elsa growled before licking the blood from her lips. The wound on her forehead was still open and the blood ran fresh over her face.
Then she bought her knee up hard against the back of Steve's shield ramming it into Theresia's forehead knocking her flat on her back.
Steve held Elsa back, locking one massive hand around the back of her neck. The two of them stood between Wilhelm and Theresia.
The Inquisitor got to her feet now, her movement slightly wobbly. Then she turned to the sky where the other Whale, the real one was off to their side. A faint smile appeared on her lips.
"It would seem one of you figured it out," Theresia said. By now Peter and Rem had made their way up onto the real White Whale using the fight down here as a distraction. "Maybe there's part of me that, deep down can appreciate the end of the White Whale."
Wilhelm dragged himself, grasping at the Whale's flesh to pull his body forward in an attempt to get closer to her. He grunted, struggling against the bloody wound soaking through his pants.
Elsa went to move, but Steve held her. "We can't very well let her kill the old man."
"Despite whatever sort of blessing holds that body of yours together, you're on your last leg," Theresia said. "Still, I know when I'm beaten and nothing good will come of me meeting my end here today—"
Elsa lunged out of Steve's grasp, kicking off his chest to propel herself out toward Theresia. Before she could fully connect a snaking tendril of water wrapped around her just enough to slow her motion. When she broke free of its control Theresia was off to the side of where Steve and Elsa stood with a direct line of sight at Wilhelm.
"Wilhelm, I'm not your Theresia—not exactly. I've been filled with purpose—real purpose. I do hope you come to understand one day and perhaps we can truly be together again."
Theresia backed toward the edge of the White Whale and before anyone could think to stop her or make a move she jumped from its back and plummeted into the fog below.