Chapter 4: Always be Ready

Fourth Precept of Zote: Always be ready for battle, no matter what. You can't afford to freeze up in a dangerous situation, or you could end up paying for it. Or worse, someone else could end up paying for it! No matter how terrified, no matter how shocked, no matter how impressed, no matter how entrance, you must always be prepared, or at least preparing, for battle!

"What the-?!" I yelped. Something had struck the back of my head mid sentence, knocking me off of the edge of the small cliff. But before I could reach the ground, I felt a sudden burst of pressure around my neck, and jolted to a halt, bouncing lightly off the cliff-face behind me. I realized in an instant that I was dangling from my own cloak.

"What's the big idea?!" I bellowed, wiggling back and forth like a caught fish and struggling to find the clasp of my clape. But Hornet ignored me, instead taking a step towards the knight and once again holding out her nail.

"I'm sorry, but I know what you would do if left unhindered, and I cannot allow you free reign of this kingdom." Her voice carried a refined, royal feel to it in that moment, like a warrior princess in a movie giving a speech(which I suppose was exactly what it was . . . minus the movie part).

She jumped backwards, and for a moment I assumed that she was trying to put some distance between herself and the knight in preparation for a needle throw. But my expectations were blown out of the water when Hornet proceed to kick off the air like Rob flipping Lucci to fly towards their sibling in an attempted impalement.

"SHAW!"

The Knight dodged the thrust with a simple step backwards, letting their sister's nail stop a hands-breath away from their mask. Then as she pulled her arm back for another attack, they took two short, fast steps forward and launched a powerful overhead swing at her head, hitting her with enough force that she flew to the side and had to roll to get her feet back under her.

As soon as she was on her feet again, she jumped backwards to gain distance, covering the entire room with a single bound. Crouching down, she reeled her arm back and, putting her entire body into the motion, hurled her needle towards the Knight with all of the force of a ballista.

The knight jumped over it with a fluid ease, that made the motion seem almost practised, and hit the ground already prepared to charge their . . . older? . . . taller, sister. However, they failed to notice the near invisible line of silk connecting the needle to her hand. The instant that line grew taught, she yanked it back towards herself with such force that it's return velocity matched it's launch speed.

The Knight, not having eye's on the back of it's head, took the needles edge to their mid-torso, causing another one of those crackling black-white explosions. But they didn't stop their advance. In fact, the Knight barely slowed down, and was upon Hornet in an instant.

Hornet flinched backwards in surprise, but failed to dodge the Knights next attack, which slammed into her face with enough force to shatter stone. Despite this, she seemed none the worse for wear, and threw herself the side to avoid the Knight's follow up attack.

Seeing that the knight seemed to have this well in hand, I turned my focus to getting myself down. First, I tried bracing against the wall to pull myself free, but I couldn't get the angle right. Then I began trying to kick off the wall had enough to pull free. But that only resulted in me bouncing back into the wall like a paddle-ball.

Finally, I just grabbed my cloak and pulled myself back up to the ledge. It was awkward getting my feet back under me, but fortunately the bar's that were holding my cape down also made for a decent grip, and after a moment or two of fiddling, I managed to get my feet planted. That done, I slowly worked my cape around my neck, so that it was all gathered in front of me, and Began to yank on it.

Once, twice, three times I pulled, throwing my entire body weight into it each time. Then, on the fourth yank, I finally heard something begin to tear. With a a fifth, mighty yard, the cloak ripped free of the gate, and I fell to the ground with a 'thump'.

"AHA!" I leapt to my feet and turned around to face the duo duelling in the centre of the room. 'Alright, Life-Ender is useless here. Let's see if the nail that vessel had is any . . . ' I began to strategize how I would move to help, already having a half baked idea about targeting Hornets string next time she threw her needle, but the sight that meet my eyes washed away all thoughts of stepping in.

I had seen the Knight fight before. Against the Vengerfly King, and the Moss-Knight. But that was a fight against a violent animal and what amounted to an AI driven automaton. What I found myself facing now? It was nothing short of a dance.

The moment I'd turned around, Hornet had once again been pouncing down at the Knight from above. The knight had countered with a powerful overhead blow, that met Hornets nail and fully cancelled out her forward momentum, and even reversed it to send her flying backwards. She back-flipped twice before reaching wall, landing foot first and bounding to the ground.

Once her feet were both on level terrain again, she exploded into motion, blitzing forward to once again clash blades with the knight, who had already been charging her. Their blades met for only a moment, before Hornet spun to the side and tried to flank the Knight. The Knight ducked under the swing by simply dropping to their knees and bending backwards, allowing her needle to pass harmlessly over their head.

They were back on their feet before Hornet had even recovered from her swing and struck her with a full force blow straight to her torso, sending her skidding backwards several paces. The Knight, not letting up, followed after her, nail ready, only for Hornet to jump upward and out of the way. The knight manoeuvred over to where it looked like she was going to land, only for the taller bug to start floating.

"ADEEDO!"

With a war cry, a howling line of glowing white string began to blur through the air around her, lashing out at everything nearby with a distinct whipping noise. The Knight, unprepared, was struck full in the face by one of these whips, resulting in yet another black/white explosion and knocking them back a step.

But they didn't retreat far, and when Hornet's attack ended and she fell the rest of the way down, they were waiting with another powerful swing, once again catching her in the side. Unlike last time though, she wasn't sent flying, as between the angle of the swing and her stance, she was able to hold her ground.

Only, that wasn't a good thing, as she was thus standing right in front of the Knight, off balance, and the Knight had the fastest recovery I'd ever seen. Two more powerful blows to thundered into her chitin before she managed to gain enough distance to escape their siblings reach.

And even then, they soon found out the hard way that the Knight had some surprises of their own tucked away. With no warning, a screaming ball of white liquid energy surged out of the Knight, knocking Hornet rear over teakettle and eliciting a rather unladylike shriek from the princess of Deepnest.

Hornet recovered from her roll in time to see another of the orb's shrieking towards her, and just barely managed to jump clear of it. She landed on the wall once again, and this time surged off it with such force that she slammed into the opposite wall like a cannonball.

As she fell back to the ground from this, I realized she was about to land on top of me, and only barely managed to roll out of her way. I had only just begun to reach for life ender, thoughts of attack racing through my mind, when she once again dashed at he knight with stunning speed before my hand could even reach the handle.

The Knight moved to meet her, charging forward with all the speed their stubbly little legs were capable of. But just as they were about to collide, Hornet stopped on a dime leapt into the air, back-flipped over them. Doing some sort of weird twisting motion in the air, she slammed into the ground far faster than gravity alone could explain, and took a swipe at their exposed flank as they turned to meet her . . . only to earn another blast to the face for her troubles.

Hornet was knocked of her feet by the Vengeful Spirit, and seemed to be stunned. The knight, taking advantage of her daze, closed in and landed one, two, three, four blows on their sister before she could recover and again bound away from their reach.

Hornet watched the knight wearily from the opposite end of the room, her stance clearly guarded. From the way she was panting, I could tell she was tired.

The Knight, meanwhile, took a few steps backward, and surged with white light for a moment. Once the light receded, I couldn't see any visible difference, but I knew that the Knight had likely healed. And then they were charging Hornet again.

In the time it took the Vessel to focus, it seemed that Hornet had caught her second wind, and with another battle-cry, she hurled her needle at the Knight.

The knight slowed ever so slightly, whole body tense and all their weight shifted to their forward leg. Then, with a powerful upstroke, they deflected the thrown needle upwards and resumed their charge.

Hornet, seemingly unsurprising by this, jumped over the knight as they grew near, letting out a bit more silk and swirling it around in an attempt to entangle their legs. This actually worked, to my surprise, and with a powerful yank, the knight was knocked of their feet.

Hornet kicked of the air, descending straight down needle first like an angry meteor. The knight, seeing her coming, just barely managed to roll out of the way. Hornet hit the ground with enough force to rival a small bomb, and the resulting blast of wind turned the knight's small roll into a decent impression of a car wheel.

On an unrelated note, I also found out what it's like to be run over.

As me and the night got back to out feet, I noted that Hornet had jumped towards us . . . but slowed to a stop mid air. 'Oh no . . . '

"ADEEDO!"

Once again the whirling stream of razor-silk began to swirl around the spiderling, forcing both me and the knight to dive out of the way. I managed to avoid any major damage, but I felt my cloak get glanced by the thread as I flew through the air.

I bounced twice, but managed to roll to a stop on my feet, whole body shivering with nervous energy. The Knight meanwhile, seeing that the attack was over, was already rushing back in. Hornet had barely landed from her prior attack before they were once again upon her, this time going for a thrusting attack.

Hornet managed to get her nail up in time to parry the stab, letting the Knight slide in close then trying to slash them in twain before they could retreat, but once again her nail seemed to just pass right through them, causing some slight knock-back and generating yet another burst of black-white, but leaving Hornet open to attack.

The Knight's notably faster swings slammed down into her shoulders. The first staggered her, the second, all but brought her to her knees, and the third convinced her that a side-roll was her best option for escape.

The Knight tried to fellow after her, but she jumped backwards beyond their reach. Only this time, she immediately charged back in with a stab, trying to catch them off guard with a more rushed than normal counter.

It worked, if only barely, with the knight taking a blow to the stomach, but they powered through and tried to strike Hornet even while off-balance. Hornet, growing even more aggressive, headbutt the Knight with enough force to send them skidding back, though the Knight's blow struck true and glanced of the side of her face as they slid back.

That seemed to leave Hornet dazed, and left the Knight time to heal again.

For a moment, there was little in the way of motion, at least compared to before. Just Hornet's hunched over form panting and the Knight crouching as they were enveloped in the white light of focus.

The Knight finished healing first, though only just barely, and Hornet had recovered enough of her senses to retreat once the Knight began to move towards her. She put only enough distance between them that once she hopped over them they wouldn't be able to react in time to strike her mid air, and once she did leap I found myself practically within arms reach of her.

'Does she not see me as a threat?!' I thought indignantly, reaching for my nail . . . only to realize that Life-Ender, as much as I loved it, wouldn't be able to do more than knock her off balance. 'Darn-it! I should have gone for that vessels nail by now!' I snapped to myself angrily. I'd gotten to caught up watching the fight I forgot to help!

Lacking other options, I dove at the princess in a flying tackle, hoping to knock her off balance at the very least. But Hornet saw me coming.

Before I'd even reached her, she'd flipped unto her back, braced her legs, and kicked me full force in the chest. I discovered first hand just what kind of strength it was allowing for those crazy jumps of hers, as all air was violently driven from my body, and my body was sent flying. It was a short flight, ending in a very sudden, very painful stop.

For a moment, I found myself suffering the worst case of vertigo I'd ever experienced, struggling to get a single gasp of air into my chest(and cursing that I still apparently had lungs. Weren't bugs supposed to have . . . hole . . . things?). Hornet had implanted me into my own personal crater in the wall, and more than that, the abrupt stop had shaken the squishy insides of my shell, leaving my my entire body . . . tingly.

Mustering what strength I could, I leaned forward, pushing myself out of the hole in the wall, only to find myself falling a considerable distance to the ground. I'd fallen comparable distances just earlier that day and suffered nothing but a bruised ego, but now? With my entire body feeling raw? I nearly blacked out, gasping in pain as I shivered on the ground.

'At least I can inhale again,' I thought pessimistically, rolling unto my back and staring at the ceiling. 'I think I'll just lie here until the room stops spinning . . . yeah, that sounds nice . . . why does the wall like like it's moving closer? Oh, the walls crumbling . . . THE WALLS CRUMBLING!' "SHI-!"

Before I could even finish my curse, I found myself buried under a piled of rock.

AN:Ugh. Sorry, I should have had this chapter out a week ago. Seriously, I had everything but the last 300 words written by last Saturday, I've taken this long to write the end a proof-read. Sorry again.

In this chapter, I set out to write the best fight scene I possibly could. I think I did a pretty good job, using what tools the characters have in this part of the game, and ending the chapter before it can get repetitive, but that's just my opinion. What do you think? Anything I could work on?