Chapter 8: The Untouchable Queen
Astraea leapt backwards into the air, floating above the hot spring, as blue gridlines flashed over her, materializing her clothes, along with a sword and shield. Barely a minute had passed since the unexpected assault, the shocked girls had just scrambled out of the spring and were dashing for where they left their clothes. The unknown assailant stepped fully out of the shadows, and was revealed to be a blonde woman in a long red dress holding a vicious, jagged sword in one hand . "Run!" Astraea called to the others, "go back to where you said you landed, I'll hold her off." Astraea moved back towards the red-clad woman, and they started to exchange blows.
"Try to pull her back to the beach, we can't fight effectively here," Cecilia shouted to Astraea, who after parrying a flurry of blows, ended up with the woman's boot in her stomach, sending her flying backwards. A crunching of dried leaves indicated that Shine and the others had already taken off back to the beach, not even bothering to get dressed.
"Go! I said go!" Astraea demanded as she got back to her feet, "you can't fight her here. I'll get her to the beach, but go and get your weapons." She looked over her shoulder and smiled. Cecilia bit off a curse, but grabbed her clothes and dashed into the trees. "So, its just you and me now is it?" turning back to the woman, who was making her way around the hot springs. Astraea took off into the air and struck from above, her sword blow was parried, but she bashed the woman in the head using her shield. But it didn't seem to phase her much.
"Accel Turn" the woman softly whispered and seemed to vanish, appearing behind Astraea, who barely managed to block the blow with her shield, but took a boot to the back of her knee in exchange. Managing to stay on her feet, Astraea did a high feint, and when it was blocked, planted her foot right in the woman's stomach, sending her flying into a nearby tree with devastating force. The tree cracked under the force of the impact, but the woman was unfazed, quickly back on her feet. The moment she was up, she seemed to vanish once again, using her acceleration technique.
"That won't work on my twice. Hyper Acceleration!" Astraea entered her own acceleration mode, and met the woman halfway across the clearing. The impact of their swords caused a shockwave to radiate outwards, propelling water from the hotsprings into the air around them. A faint glimmer of surprise flicked across the previously emotionless face. "They don't call me the fastest Angeloid of all for nothing!" Seemingly matched blow for blow, speed for speed, neither could gain an advantage. Across the clearing they fought, sparks of sword on sword, dull thumps of blocked kicks and shield strikes, Astraea had to admit she'd never fought an opponent so perfectly matched to her. Finally though, Astraea saw her opening, and with a twist of her arm, altered the path of her latest strike, the woman saw what she was doing, but her attempt to block it sent her slightly off balance, and Astraea's follow up back hand strike with her shield struck her square in the temple. Flung backwards, the woman landed in the hot spring, clearly slightly dazed. Astraea rushed forward and grabbed the woman from behind, and leaped into the sky.
Cecilia ran through the woods, heedless of the stray branches and leaves scratching her naked skin. She burst out of the woods onto the beach where they'd made camp. She could see that Shine and the others were already getting dressed. She skidded to a halt in the pool of light being emitted by the Fairlion, and hurriedly started to pull on her IS interface suit. "Where's Astraea?" Elise was finishing pulling on her own pilot suit, calling out the question as soon as she saw Cecilia.
"She's fighting that woman. They seem surprisingly well matched. I told her to pull her out here so we can help." She got her suit on, and was sliding her thighhighs up her legs. "I hope she's ok. Without her we would have been helpless there." Looking around, she saw Perrine finishing pulling on her stockings and running to where they'd placed her Striker Units, while Shine was already in her pilot suit and heading up the ascent wire to the Fairlion's cockpit. Closing her eyes, she concentrated for a moment, and felt the familiar resistance across her body as Blue Tears formed around her. "Shine, are you seeing anything on your sensors? I'm not detecting anything here."
"Hold on, yes…wait, I have two energy readings in the forest. One is at the approximate location of the hot springs, the other is further off. The reading at the hot springs is moving towards us!" Shine finished the Fairlion's activation sequence, and the external displays sprung to life. "There, over the forest, I see Astraea, she's carrying that woman." Shine zoomed the display in, just in time to see the woman apparently realize what was happening and start to struggle. Astraea was clearly trying to keep her restrained while flying, and was having a great deal of difficulty with it. She was almost over the beach now, but as she started to head downwards, the woman's arm got free, and suddenly she had her sword in her hand. The sword stabbed backwards, cutting into Astraea's side. Astraea released the woman, who fell to the ground, landing on her feet. Astraea was clearly wounded, falling onto the sand with a crash. The woman ignored the fallen Angeloid, and vanished from Shine's screen, reappearing in front of Perrine. "Perrine, watch out!"
Shine's voice boomed over the Fairlion's external speakers, but Perrine already had her sword out, her rapier was never intended to take the force from a sword the size of the one this woman wielded, but she managed to turn it aside for just a moment, giving her an opening to get airborne and out of the woman's reach. The woman stared upwards, an unreadable expression on her face, and turned to Elise, who was still strapping herself into Bachstelze. "Oh no you don't!" Cecilia yelled towards the woman, triggering a blast from her rifle, which shot right between the woman and Elise. The woman turned her attention to Cecilia.
"Tempest Turn" the words were barely audible, and suddenly the woman seemed to split into multiple copies. But Cecilia's sensors showed her what was going on. "Blue Tears, go!" the remote tears shot from their sockets on the Blue Tears' wings, and brief green shots of energy shot from them, dispelling the false afterimages. The woman, clearly surprised to see the tactic defeated, tried to stop her assault, but she'd gotten to close. Cecilia used her thusters to spin the Blue Tears, slamming the barrel of the sniper rifle right into the woman's side. The woman flew towards the ocean, landing right where the water began. Before she could stand up, Elise was there, landing Bachstelze on top of her, pinning her down. As she started to struggle, Perrine descended, holding the barrel of her Bren right at the woman's temple.
"Don't touch me." Again, barely audible. "Do. Not. Touch. Me." She was no longer struggling, but started to repeat those words over and over again. Elise looked at Perrine and shrugged.
"Cecilia!" Shine's voice rang out again, "that other signal is approaching fast, its going to emerge right here!" a mark bloomed on the map of the beach Blue Tears displayed in the corner of her vision. Cecilia realized that it was right near where Astraea had landed. Astraea was just then getting back on her feet, when something flew out of the forest and slammed right into her. It was…a girl? A blonde girl, with a bandage on one of her legs, and holding a rifle, she and Astraea flew further down towards the beach, tumbling over each other. Suddenly she realized that something else was coming out of the forest. A sudden roar from the beach caught her attention, and she saw Elise go flying off the woman in the red dress, who was now glowing with a blue light. "Cecilia, behind you!" Shine's voice sounded desperate. Cecilia spun around, but...!