Chapter 8

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting"

Sun Tzu

At long last, the awaited final round is finally on the fixture. Much like everyone has predicted, the control room seats are filled with the VIP members of the dome, obviously consisted of nobles and rich guys. Velma and Lord Begucci, seemingly minus their bodyguard, are watching comfortably among the guests. Today's match doesn't have referees or rules. When one of the groups cannot continue the battle, the other wins. As simple as that.

In the arena, The Four Garrison are having one last meet before the final,

A: OK, here it is! Final! We win this match, the money is ours!

M: That's one thing for sure. But let's not forget another thing: we got to ask the Beguccis anything we want to ask whether they want to spit it out or not.

C: Cool. So, you two are going to do the deed for us, right?

M: Huh? What are you talking about?

C: Look over there.

The group looks at their foes to find Francesca and Frank walking to the arena, seemingly ready to combat.

C: See what I'm talking about? That genius looking boy doesn't seem like he's going to battle. Marilyn got beef with Miss Schrodinger while Alvin wants to have a try out with the gloomy one. Ain't it perfect?

S: You mean, we're going to wait in the chairs while Marilyn and Alvin try to win this game?

C: Correctimundo.

M: Cliff, you can be ridiculously lucky sometimes you know that?

C: All too well.

A: Ok, we'll handle them. But in case of something happens, you two go support us okay?

C: Yep.

A: Good. Let's go, Marilyn.

M: Ok.

After the two goes, Cliff looks at Sophia and tells her, "Sophia, I'm going to take a nap. In case something happens to Marilyn and Alvin, you wake me up okay?"

"Okie-dokie" Sophia quickly answers. But after Cliff takes a seat and sleeps, she asks herself, "What was he asking again?"

With all the cards on the deck, the battle is about to ensue. Marilyn straightly goes eye to eye with Francesca while Alvin observes Frank. "You're Frank Glooms, right?" The baskar native starts off the final round by a proper introduction, "I'm Alvin Clarion, from Baskar. Nice to finally have the chance to speak directly with you"

"Likewise" A short yet convincing reply from the dark haired man, "I've seen your….um, moves during the first round, Clarion. You're well trained since you were young. That much I could tell"

"The same could be said for you, Glooms. You got good moves, especially using your arms. I need to watch those if I wish for my head to be intact"

"Coming from such a dangerous fighter, that is um…., flattering" Frank shades a little smile before advancing to a stance, "Shall we begin?"

"Let's do this" Closing their distance with each other, Alvin and Frank are ready to engage in combat. Alvin forms a fist and smacks Frank on the face, getting a reply in the form of a backfist to his jaw. The baskar native grabbed Frank's neck and head-butt him on the face; if it were a normal man he would have cracked. Frank throws another punch using his right hand with ice and cross punches the dusky skinned man, visibly hurting him. Frank thrusts some more jabs to the stomach ended by a hook to the face. Alvin retaliates by giving Frank a live shot after a shovel hook, continued by three more hooks to the face and ended by straight. Regardless the blood which is starting to pour down from their faces, both men are still standing. Frank delivers a hammer fist via his wrist to Alvin's neck and follows it with a direct uppercut to Alvin's jaw. Alvin counters via an overhead chop right to Frank's forehead, wounding his head and nearly knocking him down. Before the gloomy man could give a nice comeback, Alvin performs a quick jab. Fortunately before the jab connects, Frank connects a quick cross-counter punch to Alvin's face, effectively countering and stopping his attack at the same time. Frank gains the upper hand again by using a series of three short straight-punches applied to Alvin's stomach. The garrison breaks the attempt after a straight to Fenrir's face which forced him to step backwards. After staring at each other for several seconds, Alvin initiates another attack by grappling the other fighter's face and slams him to the ground, but Frank applies a gogoplata in a quick second by holding Alvin's upper back using both his legs before locking his hand behind Alvin's head and choking him by pressing his shin. Alvin tries to break free from the lock which would cause him to suffocate but to no avail, Frank locks him tightly and is maintaining the lock. Alvin stops retaliating and starts bagging Frank's head using several punches by his right hand so Frank would eventually feel the pain and grow tired of this lock and release him. After several punches, Alvin could feel the lock lessening but Frank forces himself to apply more power to the maneuver. The baskar native feels like he could hardly breathe, even if Frank lets him go his neck would still hurt so much. Finally gaining an idea, Alvin grabs Frank's arm holding him and rises to his two feet, slamming Frank to the ground and successfully releasing himself of the chokehold. Ignoring his injured neck, Alvin quickly bends forward in front of Frank, grabs hold of his opponent, and stands up, lifting Frank up and over and dropping him behind the back. Frank lands to the floor harshly, escaping a small flinch. Feeling a bit furious, Franks runs towards Alvin with his fists ready. Alvin ducks, hooks his foe left leg with his left arm, stands up and falls backwards, flipping Frank and driving him back first down to the floor, with Alvin landing on top of the gloomy man. Alvin quickly furthers the distance between himself and Frank as the dark haired man stands back. This is just the start of their fight and both men are already slightly battered.

"Impressive, just as I….um, thought" Franks throws an honest praise for his adversary. Other than his wounded head, Frank could also feel his back aching in pain thanks to the last three drops, "So not only you can move your kicks and punches in a quick succession, but you also have wrestling skills"

"That holds of yours are dangerous too, Glooms. My neck still hurts" Alvin admits his injury. But both of them look somewhat satisfied, "This is it! I've been wanting to meet guys like you to fight! Are you still in for the game, Glooms?"

"Oh, please" Frank notes, "Frank"

"Then call me Alvin"

On the other side of the arena, Marilyn and Francesca are locking eyes with each other. They are yet to unsheathe their treasured swords, but the intensity is electrifying. Noticing Marilyn has somewhat calming down from their previous encounter, Francesca starts, "I see you are a lot calmer than yesterday, Westerfield. Did anything good happen?"

"Why would you want to know that?" Well, do you really expect another reply.

"Because, I believe this has something to do with a certain red haired guy" Bingo! "And that certain red haired guy happens to be my new friend, so I feel the need to ask"

"Is it just me or you're good at pissing people off, Schrodinger?"

"I heard that quite a lot, so I guess yeah"

"And you take pride in that? How shameless" Marilyn begins her counter-attack, "No surprise you got no man interested in you"

"What?!" Marilyn just touched a sensitive subject…which seems to be true, "How dare you said that!"

"Oh, did I get it right?" The younger swordswoman seems amused, "Poor you, at your early twenties you haven't been touched by a man? Tsk, tsk. I cannot imagine the pain"

"You…you…" Now Marilyn finally gains the upper hand…

"Say, rather than goofing around in a tomboyish outfit, how about you go out there and find a man?"

"Enough, Westerfield!! I don't want to hear that from a little brat!" Francesca explodes and attacks back, "It's not like you've been touched by a man either!! And I'm not going to be surprised at all if you're indeed haven't!! Your appeal is nearly equal to zero!!"

"Say what?!" This battle has turned into hothead versus hothead.

"Ha!! Look at yourself!! You're a tiny underage girl with manly outfit!! And about your measurements…I don't have to say anything"

"That does it!" With all the talks having been thrown away, the two finally unsheathes their swords and clashes upon the release. The sound of the clash was loud enough to wake Cliff up, initially seeing the two swordswomen crossing swords with each other. Marilyn assesses the situation and quickly withdraws her Iskander Bey to send three slashes in rapid succession from the front. Francesca parries all slashes and counters with an overhead strike which Marilyn welcomes with a strong strike from below. The silver haired girl continues to gain momentum for herself using a powerful diagonal hewing stroke dealt from the opposite side of Francesca's sword. It nearly tears Francesca's face off if she wasn't fast enough to block it via changing her grab to her left hand and puts her right arm behind the opposite of the sharp edge to accommodate her defense, stopping Marilyn's attack mid-air. Still using her left hand to move her sword, Francesca performs a spin before quickly delivers a thrusting attack in one sidesteps toward Marilyn's unprotected right side. The garrison, however, deals with the attack by holding her sword to her unprotected side with the pommel near the back hip, with the point aiming at the Francesca's face. The taller fighter quickly steps backward and creates some distance between her and her rival swordswoman. Francesca takes the initiative to attack before she gets attacked by forwarding with a series of vertical slashes from both the right side and the left side. Marilyn blocks all the slashes and tries to find an opening to counter. Francesca cuts vertically only to be blocked and countered with the same vertical attack, which she dodged. The golden haired swordswoman crouches and strikes with a thrust. Marilyn withdraws before returning with an overhead slash which Francesca blocks. Knowing this battle would be stale and boring if this continues, both ladies steps back to further prepare their trademark moves. Marilyn raises her sword, preparing to unleash Guillotine while Francesca is advancing to unleash Tsubame Gaeshi. They realize whoever unleashes their move first might be the winner, so without further ado they both deliver. Marilyn strikes with an unseen horizontal slash from the right side to the left side and hits it with Francesca's three simultaneous slashes in one draw. Their attack collides and makes quite a sound; sparks are seen coming out when the swords are crossing. Although they are quite surprised their trademark moves could be fought, the two quickly engage back in their bout. The opening Marilyn's been waiting for reveals itself when Francesca withdrew her sword after another vertical slash. Marilyn quickly activates her accelerator and sneaks in to below the right side of her adversary. Francesca realizes the opening but it's too late, Marilyn attacks with a quick slash from below. Francesca could feel a certain pain rising around her ribs and quickly steps back, taking a good look at her wound. The attack scratched her right abdomen and went through her spencer, tearing some parts of it. Her wound is slowly spilling her blood out, and it hurts. "Ukh" Francesca tries to touch it and feels the pain, "That hurts…"

"That does, alright" Marilyn shows Francesca the blade of Iskander bey; its right side is colored red with her blood, "You shifted from your previous stand in the last second. Hadn't you do that, you're dead now"

"That was a sweet attack, Westerfield. I must give you that" Francesca ignores the wound; she is more interested in resuming the fight, "But the real credit goes to your accelerator. It allowed you to best my movement in a quick second. That was really dangerous"

"You noticed it?" Marilyn sounds somewhat disappointed, "I thought I hid it well"

"Yeah, but my brother noticed it and told me" Francesca notes the trivia before slowly sheathing her Shigure back to its scabbard. Marilyn, realizing she is about to take the fight further, advances to her stance, "Now, I'm going to repay your favor. Prepare yourself"

Back to Frank versus Alvin, the fight is continuing on a good scale. Alvin takes the lead by hitting Frank's lower torso after successfully landing a reverse side kick. The baskar fighter steps forward with a long fist punch to Frank's face continued by an arm punch. Frank retaliates by sending a chambered punch to Alvin's neck, reintroducing the pain on his neck. The dark haired man carries on the attack via another chambered punch to the face and a hammered fist again to the neck, this time knocking Alvin down to the floor. Alvin anticipates further attempt to attack him by tackling Frank's leg and bringing him down too. Frank, not wanting to be trapped in one of Alvin's possible hold, quickly rises as Alvin follows. Alvin nails a hook to Frank's face followed by an uppercut. Frank nearly loses his balance yet he quickly regains it and fights back by hitting an upset punch to Alvin's stomach. The gloomy man resumes the assault after grappling the back of Alvin's head and forcing him down to pummel his face with a front knee strike. Blood is visibly coming out from Alvin's nose and lips after Frank releases the grappling, but that doesn't stop Alvin from attacking back. Showing his talent on knee attack, Alvin suddenly unleashes a flying front knee attack from stand-up position using his left leg and hits Frank's jaw, spurting blood from his mouth as well as stunning him for a second. To finalize the payback, Alvin swings his right leg sideways in full circle and, with full power, kicks Frank's face to strike him down. That was one fine roundhouse kick from the baskar native. Frank could feel his mouth spilling out some more blood before slowly looking at Alvin from the floor, "Doggone it! This guy is freaking strong! He could attack with any kind of attack I can think of!"

"Hey, don't give me that face!" Keeping the friendly rivalry manner alive, Alvin encourages Frank, "Come on! It's been a long time since the last time I feel truly having fun while fighting someone! Come on, dude!! I know you could do better than this!"

"Heh…never thought I would…um, hear that from an adversary" Frank pulls out a pair of bronze colored tonfas and firmly grabs them with each of his hand.

"Now, we're talking" Alvin puts another stance. He remembers how easy Frank took down the whole gang in the second round using his tonfas just yesterday. This is going to be great. Alvin tries to measure how Frank is going to play his tonfas as his wild card. The baskar native knows all too well a hit from the tonfa could very well hurt him in the long run. Frank carefully steps forward, both tonfas on his hand. Tonfa doesn't only apply more power for an attacking force, but it also defends at the same time. In defense, if the handle is grasped then the shaft protects the forearm and hand while the knob protects the thumb. If both ends of the shaft are held, the shaft can be used to ward off blows and the handle can be used as a hook to catch the opponent's weapons. In offense, one can swing the shaft to strike the target. Large amounts of momentum can be imparted to the shaft by twirling the tonfa by the handle. The tonfa can also be wielded in such a way as to use the knob as a striking implement, held either by the handle or by the shaft. One can also stab opponents with the shaft of the tonfa. By holding the shaft and the handle of the tonfa together, one can use it for holding or breaking techniques. Alvin slowly moves to launch an attack; when he sees Frank isn't moving or giving any sign of moving. Alvin sends a long fist to break the ice but Frank quickly locks Alvin 's arm between both his tonfas and pulls Alvin closer to him. Frank hits a side knee strike to Alvin 's waist before striking his lower jaw with the tonfa from downward. Alvin gets stunned thanks to the two attacks, resulting on Frank applying three more consecutive strike with the tonfa to the older fighter shoulder and neck, giving more pain to the already injured neck. Alvin quickly retreats to give himself some space to heal but Frank thinks otherwise. To finalize his assault, Frank sends Alvin to meet the floor (again) by delivering a quick kick in the mid-air, preceded by a running start and jump, right to Alvin's face.

Alvin could feel his body in pain, his shoulders, head, and neck are all starting to bleed. Not to mention his face which already bruised. As expected, Frank knew how to lock using his tonfas. Standing back, Alvin prepares a stance and proceeds with care. But contrary to Alvin's prediction, Frank suddenly sprints and leaps to the mid-air, at full extension he bents his right knee and snaps his right foot to the side, impacting Alvin's upper torso with the heel as he hits a perfect Jump Spin Hook Kick. Alvin is forced to step aback several steps, but it wasn't enough to take him down for the second time. Frank hits his target's face twice with his left tonfas in a hook style punch before lifting the right one overhead and slams it hard to Alvin's forehead. Alvin feels his vision is blurred for several seconds, allowing Frank to connect another overhead attack to the injured neck, this time forcing Alvin to be down to one knee. To complete his job, Frank spins his right tonfa and, with another overhead smash, hits Alvin's neck and bring him down for two consecutive time to the floor.

Alvin couldn't believe this. Had he faced upward, Frank would be able to see his widened eyes. The baskar fighter couldn't believe the table turned just because a pair of tonfas. His body, especially his neck, bleeds quite badly and is in dire pain by now. Alvin rushes to Frank with a series of quick jabs. Frank shields all of them with his tonfas and slips an overhand hit with the tonfas to the face. A shovel hook comes up next to jaw before a direct hit again to the neck, all done by applying the tonfas. Alvin then feels his ribs hit by two jab strikes with the tonfas, followed by an uppercut hit to the head. Spinning in circle, Frank spins his right tonfa and connects a direct hit again to the neck of his target, this time sending him down to the floor quicker than the previous two. Frank observes his work; Alvin is not moving.

On the other side of the arena, Francesca is trying to add some counterweight. Marilyn, who's been patiently waiting for her to make her move, finally grows weary of it, "Hey, are you going to start or not? If all you could do is performing a stance like that you might as well walk out from here"

"Don't say that" Francesca seems to have planned something, "The real fun is just about to start"

In a quick step, Francesca appears in front of the unprepared Marilyn. With her right hand holding her weapon, she slice the blade edge horizontally across before drawing the weapon close to Marilyn. The shorter swordswoman, however, manages to block the attack in the last second. But she cannot conceal the shock on her face. Marilyn doesn't have the faintest idea how Francesca could suddenly close the distance between them just like that. But not time for that. Francesca performs a straight chop by swinging her Shigure from left to right upwards. Marilyn is, once again, outmaneuvered despite having the superior speed and forced to block the attack. A reverse chop from Francesca comes up next by swinging her sword from the left side to the right side. Marilyn bows to dodge the attack but Francesca swings her sword downward from her waist height. The swing is wide and downward, scratching Marilyn's left shoulder and wounds it. But Marilyn doesn't have the time to worry about that because another attack is coming; another swing gazes downward along the hacking sword. And at the same time Francesca moves into a bow stance. The silver haired girl manages to avoid the attack by withdrawing for several steps, yet as if she has been anticipating this move all along, Francesca thrusts the sword forward with one hand, sharp blade facing down, fingers of left hand touching the right hand, in a bow stance. The gaze and force of the thrust are directed to the tip of the sword, forming a straight line. The thrust nearly pierce its target's neck hadn't Marilyn leapt few second before the strike. "What's with her?! Suddenly her moves and attacks became nearly unavoidable?! If I never had the accelerator in the first place I'm dead meat by now!" Marilyn cannot help but wonder how Francesca suddenly gained the upper hand and nearly killed her twice. Now with enough distance between them, Marilyn thinks she got a proper time to retaliate. However, Francesca doesn't feel like giving her that chance. "Hey, Westerfield" Francesca calls her, "Would you like to dance with me?"

"…beg your pardon?" Marilyn frowns, obviously not knowing what the hell Francesca is talking about. Making her point clear, Francesca holds the hilt of Shigure with both her hands and starts circling before swinging her sword in a slow fashion. Although Marilyn feels awkward at first, she could feel something is going to happen so she begins to prepare herself. And then, Francesca performs a thrust from a far distance. Much to Marilyn's shock, she is sent to the floor after a certain something hit her Iskander Bey and brought her down. "She…is using the wind and her sheer force to attack from that distance?!" Now, who's the bright penny here? "I never thought something like that could be done by someone other than Lord Green!"

"Hey, now. Your face looks so funny" Francesca expresses her satisfaction before sending another wave of attacks, "Don't get too handful of them yet, Westerfield. More of them are coming"

Successively, Francesca displays the vertical cut, the horizontal cut, before performing the thrust again. Marilyn feels the wind and atmosphere around her change but could do nothing other than blocking all the upcoming attacks one by one. A wind attack comes from her left before another one joining from the front. Two slashes to counter them are enough, but another one shows up from above. The garrison slices the wave before turning her attention back to Francesca, but a horde of waves is coming. Trying to gain the upper hand back, Marilyn delivers a quick Guillotine for one giant slash to shut down all the waves. Unknown to her, that's what Francesca's been aiming for. Before Marilyn could regain her stance after delivering her technique, Francesca uses her better reflexes to move and performs the Tsubame Gaeshi. The unprepared Marilyn could only move her sword as quick as she could when she feels something passing through her. When it's all said and done, Francesca glances at the blade of her Shigure and observes the blood coloring it.

"Uh…" Marilyn slowly falls to one knee when she finds out her neck is bleeding on its right side. She could also feel her accelerator ceases to activate. Moving her hand, she touches the wound and feels its pain, "Damn…"

"Oh, I got you?" Francesca, still with his smile, cleans her sword while at the same time giving herself a break, "You blocked two slashes of Tsubame Gaeshi despite your earlier position, that's pretty impressive. Thankfully the last one connected, although not too deep"

"You…was that Yama Arashi?"

"Oh, you knew?"

"The unending wave of slashes, I 've heard about it from my mentor" Trying to ignore the pain, Marilyn directs the conversation to another road, "The dance like move and the sudden speeding earlier…they were somehow connected to your own physical ability, right? Is it your reflexes?"

"Bingo!! You got quite a brain for yourself, Westerfield! How do you realize that?!"

"Because you were so confident despite knowing I have an accelerator to support me. If you're not that fast from the beginning, which you weren't, the only other possible option is you have something to automatically allow you move in a quicker pace. Since you seem to be human, reflexes are the only thing I can come up with" This one sounds so surgical, "And your movement earlier with your sword wasn't too fast. I don't know how did you invoke your reflexes but it seems to me you used the wound on your left shoulder to 'activate' your reflexes to use it for your own advantage. The pain signals your entire joints and nerves to move even faster and faster. Pretty clever"

"Wow, never thought you could decipher all that" The golden haired girl throws an honest praise. But, of course, that doesn't stop her from continuing, "And how are you going to fight me now? I noticed your accelerator is cooling down"

Marilyn glares at her accelerator. It's not that she hasn't realized it yet. She has, but she tried to cover it as much as she could. Obviously, she failed doing that, "Hm…you're right. You got me in there. The accelerator will need a rest for at least ten minutes. But, so what?"

"So what? Are you sure you know what you are saying?"

"If you think my swordsmanship is depended on my accelerator, you couldn't be more wrong" Marilyn rises back and grabs the hilt of her sword with both her hands before moving it in front of her face, "Come, Schrodinger. I'll make you eat your words"

"We'll see about that" Francesca accepts the challenge as she prepares a stance as well.

On the spectator side, Ted is seen sitting beside Cliff and Sophia, "Hello, I believe we haven't directly met before. I'm Ted, Francesca's younger brother"

"I'm Cliff, this lady here is Sophia. Nice to meet you" Cliff properly replies before going straight on, "I assume you're here not only for introducing yourself?"

"Um, yeah. I'm here to have a chat actually" Same, a straight reply, "Are you enjoying the match?"

"So far? Yeah"

"Although your team seems to be…owned?"

"Owned? Oh, please! There's no need to say that!" Cliff laughs, much to Ted's curiosity, "They are having fun, although it may not look like it. But trust me, they are"

"Hm, you sound so confident"

"Hell yeah! I knew them, so I know they won't go down just like that"

And indeed they won't. Without the support of her accelerator, Marilyn doesn't seem to lose her confidence. She is patiently waiting for Francesca to make her move as she maintains her previous stance. On the other hand, Francesca isn't really sure about what to do, "What is she doing? She lifted her sword and has stayed that way ever since. Is she trying to intimidate me? Or is she just implying what her move could be? Taking it to my account, she doesn't seem like going to move if I don't make my move first"

So, Francesca takes it upon herself to move and attack with the same pattern. Her right hand is holding her weapon when she slices the blade edge horizontally across before drawing the weapon close to Marilyn. Marilyn simply moves Iskander Bey to Shigure's direction to stop its movement, surprising Francesca. Marilyn proceeds to withdraw her sword back and displays the previous stance again, waiting for Francesca to make her move. Following the earlier pattern, Francesca performs a straight chop by swinging her Shigure from left to right upwards. But the silver haired girl, once again, shocks her adversary by swinging her sword to her right and blocks Francesca's slash, before quickly returning to the blocking stance again. Francesca delivers another reverse chop after swinging her sword from the left side to the right side. And again, much to her dismay, Marilyn shields herself easily again. Francesca is starting to feel she's being toyed by Marilyn, but she cannot really tell how or what. The next swing from Francesca gazes downward along the hacking sword which Marilyn simply parries to stop it. Francesca moves into bowing stance and thrusts the sword forward with one hand, sharp blade facing down, fingers of left hand touching the right hand. Much like before, the gaze and force of the thrust are directed to the tip of the sword, forming a straight line. Surprisingly, even without her accelerator Marilyn could dodge this one by shifting a feet away from her previous point, leaving Francesca in blank, "How the hell did she suddenly stop and dodge all my attacks?! Isn't she unable to use her accelerator?! Or is she pulling out a trick I do not know of?! Fine, if that's how you're going to play this game I'm going to do this!"

Much like before, Francesca moves to make a certain space between herself and Marilyn before lifting her sword, preparing to unleash another wave of slashes. The wind surrounding the whole arena suddenly moves violently, even so that everyone could feel the change of its movements.

"Her finishing move?" Cliff asks Ted for some tips.

"Not yet"

Gathering her power in both her hands, Francesca launches at least thirty wind slashes to Marilyn's direction, scratching the floor and making screeching sound as they cut the air itself. The Yama Arashi blasts Marilyn and her surrounding, cutting a large part of the dome behind Marilyn into pieces and causing smokes to occur everywhere. Francesca is sure her attack hits Marilyn perfectly because there is no way she could block all that. And if she's right, Marilyn's dead by now. But she's wrong, so wrong. As Francesca's mouth forming an 'O', she sees Marilyn still standing, unscathed. "Let me repay your kindness by showing you the same slashing wave, Schrodinger. Prugelstrafe!" As if she is whipping, Marilyn performs a vertical slash to Francesca's direction. Francesca is too late to evade; the invisible long ranged slash hits her left arm, spraying her blood outside.

"Aaakh!!" Francesca falls to the ground and quickly grabs her arm to restrain the bleeding. But her eyes still indicate she's wanting to know how Marilyn bested her maneuver more than wanting to stop her wound from bleeding, "How…how could you?! You…you escaped all that?!"

"Relax, I'll explain" Marilyn sounds so high and mighty, "I believe your Yama Arashi could only be done in the same pattern. And redoing it in front of me would be useless since I memorized all your moves. I simply moved my sword to the direction which I knew you would choose. As for how I escaped your wave of slashes, it's a technique called Zornhau. A powerful diagonal hewing stroke repeated again and again by me for each wave. Simple, right?"

"Repeated slashes? I thought you couldn't do that without your accelerator?"

"Ah, wrong again. Don't you know accelerator could only fasten your legs and torso? My arms are already quick even without my accelerator. So blocking your attack relying on my arms only wasn't that hard, really" Wow, that's a total ownage right there!

On to Frank versus Alvin, their match is coming close to end as well. Alvin is displaying an unusual stance because he is moving with his right leg always in front of his left one. "What are you…um, doing?" Frank obviously feels weird seeing Alvin like that, "You're heavily wounded? Aren't you just going to…um, surrender?"

"Nah, don't want to" Alvin waves his hand to wave away that thought, "Fighters from Baskar could lose, but mustn't and don't want to lose"

"Up yours" Just one second after saying that, Frank could feel a vicious attack hitting him on the chin. Alvin just launched a high side thrust kick attack, which sees the baskar fighter use the sole of the foot to strike Frank's chin, preceded by a sidestep. Frank goes to the floor while coughing out some blood, visibly shocked by the sudden attack. "That's one" Frank could hear Alvin mentioning his first fall. If he guesses correctly, Alvin is going to take him down two more time. Now carefully rises and moves to a stance, Frank lifts both his arm to cover his face. His tonfas should at least add some defensive power for him. But before he could think of anything to attack Alvin, Frank sees Alvin jumps up and kicks forward with both feet in a pedaling motion with the foot that gets lifted second being extended fully to catch a himself directly in the face. His nose feels like getting sucked up to inside his face as Frank falls again with his nose bleeding. And if I may add, badly. "That's two" Alvin is heard continuing the count after the bicycle kick. Frank couldn't believe this. Just with two moves Alvin suddenly gained the upper hand again? "One more to go"

Now with Alvin's intention clear, Frank tries not too get caught up with his fast kicks again. Preparing his defensive stance guarding his face, Frank got owned…again. That's what Alvin has been trying to do. If he knocked down Frank twice by attacking his head, Frank would automatically guard his head, thus leaving the lower area wide open. Swinging his leg in semicircular motion after crouching, Alvin sweeps Frank's ankle from around his back and remains straight, leaving Frank in the mid-air. Rising back, Alvin executes the same kick and hits Frank's waist, sending him higher on the air. To finish his triple roundhouse kick, Alvin leaps and smashes Frank's face using the same kick in mid-air, sending him crashing to the ground after spinning uncontrollably. That was a great attack by the dusky skinned man, "And that's three. We're even now"

"Great work, Alvin!" Frank sounds really pissed after being taken down thrice in a row, "Let's finish this…um, now!!"

"All right!" Seeing Frank charges to him with both tonfas spinning, Alvin starts running before leaping to the mid-air and throws a back kick right to Frank's face, sending him down again. The angered gloomy man quickly rises back to find Alvin's shovel hook, done in close range halfway between a hook and an uppercut, hits his face from the right. Alvin smacks Frank with another shovel hook from the left and again from the right, gaining momentum as he maintains his upper hand. From his previous experience, Alvin knew he couldn't let Frank use his tonfas or he's done for. And the best way too prevent it from happening is by a quick close range attack by using either his kick or punch. Another shovel hook from the right to Frank's battered face is followed by a hard one from the left, leaving Frank somewhat limping and a bit dizzy. Alvin takes his chance to attack Frank's stomach using a front knee strike, resulting in Frank placed in a standing bent forward with his head placed between Alvin's thighs. Frank is then lifted up on the Alvin's shoulders before Alvin proceeds to lift Frank even higher by holding on to Frank's waist and extending his arms up, lifting Frank up off Alvin's shoulders just moments before slamming Frank down back first to the floor. His injured back has reached its limit and it hurts like hell; the last attack did a good job punishing it. Frank coughs out some more blood before releasing the grip of his tonfas, defeated.

"So?" Alvin tries to catch some breath seeing his foe down for the count, "Surrender?"

"Yeah…" Frank weakly replies, "I…give…up"

"Yaaaaaaaaay!!!" Interestingly, it was Sophia who celebrates, "Alvin won!!! Alvin won!!"

"See what I was talking about?" Cliff raises an eyebrow talking to Ted, "My team isn't so bad, right?"

"Ok…I got to admit that one. I never thought I would see Frank got beaten" Ted responds still with his calm tone, "But I see my sister isn't done with your friend"

"What? Hey, right. She's standing back" Cliff notices the swordfight is far from over. Francesca is standing back despite having her left arm wounded.

"You still want to fight?" Marilyn glances at Frank and Alvin, "I notice your gloomy companion has been defeated by my companion"

"I was kinda surprised knowing Frank has been defeated, but it's not like he didn't go down without a fight. Your companion is heavily battered himself" Francesca sheathes her sword back to its scabbard as she speaks, "If I can defeat you then my team could still gain victory"

"I don't think so" Marilyn shakes her head, voicing her opinion, "I still got two guys waiting. I don't know what that genius looking boy of yours capable of doing, but my two friends are more than enough to handle him"

"Is that so? What are they capable of doing?"

"The dark haired girl is capable of killing you without even seeing. And the red haired man…" Marilyn chuckles saying this, "For normal humans, taking him down is harder than taking this whole town down. Honest"

"Sounds like Cliff is a pretty scary guy" Francesca smiles looking at the ARMs wielder, "Cannot believe that until seeing it by myself, though"

"Knock yourself out"

"Well, this one is a service" Francesca notes Marilyn, "Take a good look at it, Westerfield"

Just with one glance, Marilyn could tell Francesca is about to launch Battojutsu. Her mentor once mentioned about the art of drawing and cutting in one fluid motion for the purpose of ending a conflict with one decisive cut. Learning these ancient techniques brings skills and abilities which are applicable in our daily lives: the confidence to face difficulties, to remain calm under pressure. Practicing with the sword harmonizes the mind, body and spirit, it also creates resiliency of the body and openness of the mind that allows one to find solutions in life which otherwise might not be found. A rare art from the eastern part of this world. Marilyn prepares her defensive stance in case something great comes up from Shigure. And as Marilyn had expected, Francesca unsheathes her sword and, in one swift motion, slashes the air. Marilyn could feel the area around her shook in an instant, and before she realizes it, a loud crashing sound is heard from above her head. Tilting her head a bit, she witnesses the ceiling of the dome has been cut in the shape of a circular disk of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points. Not only Marilyn, but Cliff, Sophia, and Alvin seem shocked too. Ted and Frank, however, are pretty much used to the scene.

A: That was pretty neat.

F: It's cool every time I…um, saw it.

S: Cool…

C: Yeah…that was cool…

T: Told you she wouldn't go down just like that.

C: Hm…speaking of which? What's that sound?

T: Huh? What sound?

C: The sound of at least six FV433 Abbot SPG tank closing to this dome. And I don't like the way it sounds.

Back to the arena…

"You…" Marilyn suspends her belief respond to the attack, "What did you just do?"

"Amakumo no Tsurugi" Francesca sheathes her sword again and prepares to deliver the move for the second time, "An invisible slash able to cut even the clouds. I told you to pay a good attention to it"

"I did" Marilyn answers back and prepares herself, "Let's do this"

But before they could do anything, an explosion occurs from behind the entrance as a FV433 Abbot SPG tank and at least thirty World Union soldiers make their way through the arena. This is such an interesting turn out. In the control room, the displeased guests voice their complaint,

"What is this, Lord Begucci?!"

"We haven't heard of the union coming here?!"

"Yes! And let alone bringing the horde of their soldiers!"

"Gentlemen, please calm down and let me explain" Lord Begucci tries to ease the atmosphere in the control room, "I know this is all so sudden, but Gunner's Heaven is doing this by the request of cooperation from the World Union. And the issuer of the request was no other than the leader of Division I Peacemaker, Trent Penfield. If you have a complaint, you can always tell him"

Upon learning the specific name issuing the order, all the guests stop complaining. "Good, it seems we finally reach an understanding here" Lord Begucci then sees his daughter, "Velma, would you please help our guests evacuating? This place is going to be a battlefield really soon…than it already is"

"Very well, father" Velma smiles to the guests and moves her hand, "This way, please"

"And Janie" Lord Begucci addresses his assassin, "Prepare yourself"

Return to the arena, a chaos is ensuing. "Hands in the air!!" One of the soldiers shouts to the four people at the arena, the other three at the seats are looking at each other and seemingly planning something.

"What do we do…..um, now?" Frank, still lying on the floor, quietly asks Alvin, "Just between you and me, my back still hurts like hell"

"And I can barely move my neck" Alvin doesn't feel like getting up from the floor either. He prefers the way he sits now because it causes less pain to his neck, "Darn! Where's Cliff when we need him?!"

"What is WU doing here?" Francesca seems surprised as well.

"My best guess? They're trying to catch us" Marilyn looks around her carefully before responding.

"I and my friends don't have bounty in our head"

"What's the difference? They could kill us all and cover it up like nothing ever happen"

"Sucks but true. Any idea what should we be doing by now? I don't want to surrender by they outnumbered us…and outmaneuvered us"

"We don't need to do anything"

"…why?"

"Because he will" Marilyn moves her eyes to Cliff's direction. The referred man already leaps in the mid-air, landing right beside one of the soldiers gathering in the entrance. When the soldiers attention's are attached to Cliff, Marilyn loudly tells the other three, "All of you, get down!!!"

"Good day" Cliff draws his Dreadnaught and quickly puts its hole to the forehead of the soldier in front of him, which covered at least two other me behind him, "And goodbye"

The moment Cliff pulls the Dreadnaught's trigger, an air piercing sound echoes throughout the dome when the bullet blasts the head of the soldier it targeted and strikes the head of the two behind him. The soldiers jaw dropped seeing it, "What?! He's an ARMs user!"

Cliff counted there are at least thirteen soldiers in the arena, not counting six inside the tank. With three down, that leaves ten more. The other ten quickly takes position and fires at will, striking Cliff with rain of bullets. Much to the previous situation, it proves no avail. Feeling amused seeing the disbelieve in the soldiers face, Cliff smirks, "My turn"

As Cliff points his ARMs, he instinctively points at the feature on the object on which his eyes are focused. An impulse from the brain causes the arm and hand to stop when the finger reaches the proper position. When the eyes are shifted to a new object or feature, the finger, hand, and arm also shift to this point. It is this inherent trait that is used by Cliff to rapidly and accurately engage targets. Seven air piercing sound greets the inside dome once again, blowing the torso of seven soldiers successively. Three more and the tank for Cliff; the red eyed man quickly reloads his ARMs and fires three simultaneous times to the remaining soldiers in less than five seconds before they can do anything. Well, not with a big gap in their stomach for sure. With the soldiers done for, Cliff sets his sight at the tank.

"Shoot him!" The men inside the tank make a good use of their artillery before Cliff comes up with something. A completely new ammunition family, comprising shells, fuzes and cartridges, was designed for Abbot, designated 105 mm Field (105 mm Fd), was designed for Abbot's L13 ordnance. It uses electrical instead of percussion primers, and compared to US 105 mm M1 type ammunition has longer shells. The widely used US M1 type round was called "105 mm How" in UK service. 105 mm Fd came in two marks, both separate loading (shell and cartridge loaded separately). 105 mm Fd Mk 1 was used initially, it had a UK-produced 105 mm How shell, mostly US pattern fuzes and reduced charge 105 mm Fd cartridges with their electrical primers (105 mm M1 uses percussion primers). Mark 2 adopted a new projectile design including an improved lethality HE shell (heavier with more HE) and full charge cartridges. Its shell types include HE, Smoke, Coloured Marker (Red and Orange), Illuminating, and HESH for direct fire against enemy armoured vehicles. Direct Action, Controlled Variable Time (CVT) and Mechanical Time (MT) fuzes were available for HE and Coloured Marker shells. Initially there were three cartridges. Sub-zones 1 and 2 were only used to provide short range in high angle fire, and were soon replaced by a plastic spoiler slipped over the shell ogive. Normal cartridge gave charges 1 - 5, each bag being a different colour in accordance with established UK practice, Mk 1 normal cartridge only went to charge 4. Both marks had charge Super, a single charge cartridge, although the charge was reduced in Mk 1. Charges 5 and Super used extended 'bags' that projected beyond the metal cartridge case. 105 mm Fd uses double (often internationally called triple) base propellants designated N in UK service instead of the single based FNH propellants favoured by the US. 105 mm Fd Mk 2 is still used with L118 Light Gun. Maximum range with 105 mm Fd Mk 1 ammunition was 15 km, Mk 2 gave 17.4 km. Maximum rate of fire was 6 - 8 rounds per minute. The gun was able to elevate to 70 degrees and depress to -5 degrees, sufficient to engage enemy AFVs if necessary. Traverse, elevation and shell loading and ramming were all powered by electrical servo mechanisms. Due to the number of charges and its compact turret Abbot did not have calibrating sights. Instead the sight mount had both Tangent Elevation (TE) and Angle of Sight Scales and a separate Gun Rule to convert range into TE, corrected for the muzzle velocity variation from standard. The dial sight had all scales internal, illuminated and viewed through a single eyepiece. Abbot was fitted with both line and radio (Larkspur B48, then Clansman UK/PRC 352) communications to its battery command post, which used the Apparatus Loud Speaking No 23, this enabled the gun No 1 to acknowledge his fire orders merely by clicking his pressel switch. Initially it also used induction loop communications for the turret and external crew. Shortly after the Field Artillery Computer Equipment (FACE) entered service in the early 1970s the Gun Rule was removed and Artillery Weapon Data Transmission System (AWDATS) installed. AWDATS displayed firing data transmitted from FACE in the battery command post via either line or radio. The Abbot was able to swim across water, having a flotation screen fixed around the hull which was raised to provide buoyancy. The action of the tracks was sufficient to drive it forward at about 3 knots. (cf DD Tank). Each Abbot was supported by a fully amphibious Stalwart Mk 2 High Mobility Load Carrier that carried additional ammunition.

But all that is nothing against The Crimson. As he casts his Lock On to the HESH bullet inside the tank's cannon, Cliff intensifies the grip on his Dreadnaught until the tremors set in. He keeps his sights straight in line. When the shot breaks, the bullet will strike the center of the target. Once it has been center-punched, the target will neither know nor care that the launcher was quivering before the projectile took flight. Any marksmanship expert will tell you that consistency of grasp is a key to consistent accuracy. Thankfully, Cliff knows his Dreadnaught inside and out. He has always accustomed himself to always hold a pistol with maximum grip strength, he is much less likely to ever have it knocked or snatched from his hand. Moreover, he now has the ultimate cure for a hand-gunner's malady known as 'milking'. 'Milking' taken from the hand's movement when milking a cow's udder, occurs when the index finger closes on the trigger and the other fingers sympathetically close with it, changing the grasp and pulling the sights off target. Most commonly, this will pull the shot low and to the side of what you were aiming at. It is a function called an inter-limb response. When one finger closes, the other fingers want to close with it. Before the tank could release its HESH from its leash, Cliff fires one shot which pierces through the HESH. Needles to be mentioned, an explosion emerges from inside the tank, killing all men inside it as well as turning the tank into pieces of junk. "It's done" Cliff then turns his attention to his two companions, "Guys, let's get out of here! More of them are coming from the outside!"

"Don't act so high and mighty! You were late! They could have killed us!" But what greets him is a protest from Marilyn.

"You think you're cool after letting us do the hard work, huh?!" And Alvin.

"Hey, I needed to make plan alright?! I couldn't just barge in! I could get myself killed!" A decent self-defense from Cliff, although it may be wrong.

"You?! Getting killed?! Oh, that's soooo funny I forgot to laugh!" Marilyn throws a dead-pan sarcasm to stun the ARMs wielder even more.

But one person doesn't seem to be taking the development quietly. "Hey, wait a minute!" Francesca shouts, obviously it's her first time seeing a bullet-proof drifter so it's normal, "You got crapped by those bullets but you didn't even bled?! Just what are you?! Are you made of diamond?!"

"Not quite, Schrodinger" Marilyn answers on Cliff's behalf, "Didn't I tell you taking down Cliff would be harder than taking down the whole town?"

"Yeah, but I never imagined him like that!"

"Relax, Schrodinger. You'll get used to it" That's a tip of decency out there, "You got any plan on escaping, Cliff?"

"Yeah, do you think you can still fight?"

"I guess, yeah"

"And what about you, Miss Schrodinger? You're okay to fight?"

"…seems so"

"OK, I'll lead our way through the entrance to get out of here. More of them are coming and if we're going to face them might as well face them in a wide space outside" Cliff speaks of his plan, "Marilyn and Miss Schrodinger, can you two help protecting Alvin and Frank?"

"Yeah…we could do that" Francesca answers much to Marilyn's agreeing.

"Sophia? You and Ted will help me in the front, okay?"

"Yup" Sophia answers before helping Alvin rise, "Are you okay? You can move, right?"

"Hardly, but I'll try my best not to hinder your movement. Thanks anyway" Alvin sounds so exhausted. It's normal considering he won in a close margin.

"Never thought I would see you down, Frank" Ted helps Frank rise, "You can walk?"

"My back hurts….um, so much. But I think I can walk" Frank responds in low tone.

"OK, we're all set to go" Cliff prepares his ARMs and heads to the entrance, "Let's go guys!"

That's it for chapter 8, guys. The rest of the battle will follow at the next chapter, c u!