Pinpoint Desires

Chapter 8: An Impossible Strain

Lilian was tense from head to toe, her body bent slightly like a predator or in this case a prey about to sprint away from the incoming attack. But she was not ready to run away; she tensed herself up to fight while the man walked towards her.

He was relatively tall man who wore a thick brown coat that was slightly tattered around the edges after having jumped from a speeding jet. The same jet which had been used to crash through the vector shields of her ship and was now submerged half way into the ship's exterior. His eyes, once black were milky white slits that indicated his own blindness. The man's hair was cut short, slicked back and grey showing his age. Though unnecessary considering his eyesight, he wore a pair of thin spectacles that perched against the bridge of his nose that he casually pushed up with his left hand.

This was Garder F. Morotisan, the commander of the Anti-Diclonius forces and the man who started this war against her kind. Lilian was not a girl would run away but she was undoubtedly afraid. It made her realize something incredible just by seeing him walking towards her with that emotionless cold stare of his. The amount of gunfire and explosions going around was deafening and yet this blind man had flown that jet and dodged projectile from it. He knew the exact time to release himself from the jet before crashing into the vector wall that surrounded her cruiser. He was able to land with breaking several bones or his neck on impact.

Just who were the real humans in this case?

There was a distance of about 10 meter before them now, all around the sounds of explosions rattled about in the sky.

"Bastard!" One horned girl who saw him attacked with about six of her corporeal hands.

"Idiot! Get back!" Lilian cried out alarmingly.

Garder ducked, the first hand needlessly passing over his head. The second hand was side stepped, the third one flew in front of him as he bent his head back, the outstretched finger missing by several centimeters. The rest were avoided so simplistically that they might as well not have been moving at all.

His hand reached around one of a several small orb like objects around his waist, pulled it off and then pulled something away from it and casually tossed it near her feet.

"Huh?"

The girl didn't have time to say much before the grenade blew up right beneath her feet. Even if she had been prepared for it, there was no way she could have guarded against the blast with vector strength. What was left was a form covered in blood and smoke. It was a casual kill, because at no point did Garder even look over in her general direction.

The others finally seeing him were told to stand back by their captain.

"Don't get in the way!" Lilian cried out. "This is between me and him. I'll stop him."

Garder did not respond to that statement because even Lilian knew they were only words of encouragement to her team and not one she could back up. But that didn't mean she couldn't try at least. At a five meter distance between them, Garder made a full sprint towards Captain Cents and threw his fit out to her face.

And missed.

"Hm?" He looked perplexed. Lilian had jumped back just in time while the fist slid passed her head. It was incredibly strong. She felt the very sound being distorted around her when that punch slid passed her. If it had hit, she would've had her very brains smashed out of her skull. The speed he ran at her was nothing any normal human could have achieved without special properties.

But yet she had survived first punch. A punch that hundreds of other Diclonius had never been able to avoid. She remained exactly where she was, not moving, regulating her breathing so that it was as normal as possible. She did not use a single vector and only remained stationed at the spot with sweat pouring from her face. She had survived because she had done the exact opposite of what hundreds of her kind had tried before.

Garder could not be killed by vectors. His ability to hear them and his specialized power called Perfect Synchronization which essentially increased his physical abilities by an insane amount made them useless. Years had taught her this. Years of knowing this man and getting any information about his powers was essential in knowing this. He was like an unstoppable force to the horned girls, so it was imperative that she fight in a way that used her powers beyond just as a horned girl.

Garder stood there looking around with a serious look.

"As I thought…" Lilian said inside of her head, daring not to speak a single word. "He needs to use the sound to know where his opponent is but as long as I'm silent he won't be able to detect me. Calm yourself Lilian, calm your breathing." Garder's body moved a bit, causing Lilian's heart to skip a beat but he was only getting his body prepared for an incoming attack.

They were now a stalemate it seemed. Garder didn't know where Lilian was right now though he did know she was very close by. This might have seemed like a decent way to pull out the victory. But unfortunately though Garder wasn't able to locate Lilian despite being right near him, she could do little else either. The moment she attacked, she would give herself away. She also had the advantage of the fighting going on around them. It was frankly a miracle he could even hear anything with the sounds of gunfire, explosions, vectors and the wind alone. But this was the kind of opponent she was facing, one the top legitimate monsters of the world.

She slowly, so slowly pulled something from the depths of her custom made coat and pointed it at Garder. It was a handgun, a powerful one that held .50 caliber Tungsten bullets. Diclonius weren't really used to using guns like this. But she knew better when facing this inhuman soldier. At the range they were at, even a child could hit the man's heart. She purposely aimed for the thick torso, lessening the chances of him avoiding it or the bullet missing.

She pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Kaede-sama, there's a problem with Lilian. We just received a report that her fleet heading to Europe has been attacked by Morotisan."

"What?" The pink haired woman who wore a thick jacket around turned on the spot as she heard those words from one many technicians on board the S.S. Diclonius. The Queen ground his teeth angrily and a sudden gust began to blow around her feet despite the fact that there was no wind around her.

"What should I do?" She asked mostly talking to herself but hoping for a response anyways. "I can try to out there and attack myself but I'll be leaving this place defenseless if I do."

"Defenseless? Kaede-sama please don't think we're defenseless just because you aren't around. You are strong…but so are we. Besides we can always remain under the surface away from harm and we have plenty of defensive measures for any undersea attacks. What would happen though if we lost Captain Cents and her fleet? If anything that would be a terrible price to pay for us."

Kaede hearing those words smiled and gripped the wrist of her missing arm.

"I got it. I'll head over there and help her now. But if I go there Garder will know that I'm not here anymore."

The technician responded to her with a grin. "Don't worry about that Kaede-sama. Morotisan doesn't even know where we're currently located and once you leave we'll move the ship somewhere else to avoid detection. Besides we have some pretty strong girls here too, such as our very own Witch of Illusions."

Once more Kaede smiled confidently.

"Yeah…Caren is pretty good at that isn't she? Wait here…"

Kaede had a simple matter to do and that was to see her daughters at least once before she left. She called them out of their classroom where Kanae and Carlin both looked at her enquiringly before she bent down on her knees and embrace dthem.

"M-Mama?" Kanae cried out.

"Is something wrong?" Carlin asked.

"No…" Kaede said calmly. "There is nothing wrong I just wanted to hug my children today. I have to go somewhere and…" her next words were going to be. "I might not be coming back." But instead she had a change of heart and re-worded is words.

"I might be away for a while. Kanae-chan, promise to take care or your brother and both of you behave yourself as always."

"Yes mama!" Kanae bowed her cute head.

"How long are you going to be?" Carlin innocently asked her surrogate mother.

"Hopefully not for long. Goodbye."

The kids, too young to understand merely smiled as they waved goodbye to their mother as she walked off and into what would most certainly be a hell of a battle. She rose up the elevator to the very top of the ship that current rose up to slightly peak its head above the surface. There she stepped out into the sunlight where a voice spoke into her head.

"Let's do this Kaede."

"Took the words out of my mouth Lucy." The woman though.

*Whoosh*

The sound of wings, brilliant transparent white wings made of the same material as her vectors emerged from her back.

*Whoosh*

A second pair emerged, the Queen now forming four two meter long wings from her back. Around their edges a bright white glow emanated from them and thin lines like blood veins crossed around them. "Which way are they?" She asked to one of the men at the top.

"That way Kaede-sama good luck as well."

"Thank you." The woman who once murdered countless people sprung into the hair, looking less like a murderous killer and more like a divine pink haired angel. She stopped in mid-air and let the warm rays of the sun coax her body. She increased her altitude with each flap of her vector wings, higher and higher and then she swooped down to give herself momentum and sped across the watery ocean, sending waves into the sky from her velocity.

Kaede sped through the air, sometimes coming close to the ocean so that her hands could touch the cold water. She had something to protect now, a family back home. She had to protect the child of her good friend who had lost her life in this terrible war. She had to stop this insanity that had taken the mind of that poor human girl. Even now she had to fight to atone for the sins she had created.

But there was no doubt the amount of remorse and effort put into her heart now. Even if she didn't make it, she would make sure she went down without giving up a single bit of hope. Even if she didn't make it, the others would still keep fighting.

It would be a long flight before she got there and unbeknownst to her, even the trip there would be exceedingly difficult.

"Hold on, I'm coming!"

*BANG!*

The gun shot ran out at distance of less than five meters away. At that very moment, Garder F. Morotisan reacted with speed beyond human comprehension. The bullet which should've blasted through his chest did not hit that area. Instead his left arm swung out the bullet lodged into his forelimb with enough power to shatter bones. The man was sent back slightly by the force of the attack but because of Perfect Synchronization, his arm was not broken.

!?

Lilian was both shocked and at the same time unperturbed by this turn of events. She was shocked because it was ideal to be shocked at this situation. At the same time, part of her knew that this was to be expected.

Garder tensed his fingers, the bullet dropping to the ground as the veins surrounding his muscles twitched. The bullet may not have pierced him but it was like a baseball being flung at an arm. There was a large bruise the size of a fist against his limb, throbbing red. It felt like it had been sprained instead of broken which didn't lessen the pain running through it.

But unfortunately Garder now has Lilian Cent's location.

"Ah!?"

The girl cried out but was swept off her feet by Garder's kick, instinctively she shot her vectors out, hitting nothing but the hard metal floor of the ship. Garder's leg swung around in an arc and smashed the girl into chest with 5x the force of an expert boxer.

*Crrraaack*

"Aaaaguah!" At least four of her ribs had been broken from that single attack. The young girl's body flew through the air and landed twice against the hard cold steel of the cruiser ship where she slid across it and then tried to reach out to stop her momentum.

"Aguah! Gaaah!" She coughed up her blood and spit, her blurry eyes seeing something race across the 10 meter distance between them.

"Don't…" She choked. "Underestimate me!"

A fist that should've crushed her heart missed. For the second time Garder's attack which had killed countless girls like Lilian was avoided. The way it happened? She had used her vectors to forcibly flip herself into the air, a front flip so that she was now directly above the general.

The sound of her gun click as she aimed for the back of his head.

*BANG!*

Maybe. Maybe if she could reside in complete silence that would've completed the match. To be fair, at the range they were in if Garder was shot by that distance he would not have been able to avoid it. The chances of his powers blocking the attack were extremely low. But sound was everywhere. Once Garder heard the cocking of the gun, he had already moved his figure.

*Slish*

The bullet slid across his cheek, leaving a line of red through the air but doing no more harm. Now it was time for his counter attack.

*BAM!*

He slammed his fist into her gut as she dropped from midair. Vomit splashed against the man's body while Lilian was dropped like a rock and then.

"Oh?" Garder uttered.

Even though the pain must've been unbearable, Lilian still managed to use her vectors. An explosion occurred between the two combatants and the Diclonius used her ability to fling herself several meters away from Garder

"Concentrate!" She thought to herself as her broken body was flying through the air at her own power. If she could land softly. If she could erase all sounds from her body and get back to a position where she had the advantage.

But there was no point in thinking of that. The girl slammed into the ground, giving her location away again and she lay there gasping for air.

"Let me give you some words of praise girl. I possess some of the greatest combat ability of any human in the world. I have spent years on the battlefield, lead armies and fought chaotic foes for almost my entire life. War to me is my blood, battle is my veins, the sounds of war is what I know best. I have killed hundreds of your kind and I have killed even members of my own family.

But…I will give you praise girl. I have fought with your kind so many times and you are one of the very few who has managed to fight me this far. Twice I have nearly felt the taste of death by your hands. This fight may not look like a battle of equality but you are to be praised for your determination in taking me on at this level. "

Lilian couldn't respond back yet.

"I thought I would take you down instantly Lilian Cents. I thought this would be a simple matter of only hitting you once and destroying there. I was wrong there. I was wrong to underestimate you like that. But its time I finished things here."

As Garder was ready to deliver the coup de grace, he received a message.

"Sir! We have reported that Queen Kaede is heading this way!"

"Kaede…" The man said under his breath but still loud enough for Lilian to hear. "Send in a fleet, keep her from arriving her as long as you can. Take everything you have to defeat her."

Lilian thought about it. The fact that somebody strong was now coming to save them. But would she actually get here in time.

"Heh…" She gave her own orders as well. "E-Everyone…" She spoke through the radio against her own ear, contacting those around the ships. "The ones n-near me. The ones on my ship…get off! Just get off! Go onto the other ships right now…and

…AND TAKE THIS SHIP DOWN!" She screamed with all of her might.

The order was there. Garder raised his head as the girl continued to smile as the voice replied without hesitation.

"Yes Captain!"

Lilian had given the orders for her entire fleet to turn fire on her own ship and sink it along with Garder and Lilian on it. Her fleet knew that but they also knew that this wasn't not the time to hesitate. That was why with conviction they answered their Captain.

She pushed herself up through sheer determination and pressed her vectors against her body. As a Diclonius she could partially heal her wounds.

"I will praise you once again." Garder said. "Your conviction to stop me is amiable. But…"

He bent low on his knees while Lilian once again prepared herself.

"…That will not be enough."

Author's Notes: And that ends another chapter. Got this one posted soon. Don't give up Lilian!