Chapter 17: Kate vs. Marion

On the runway of the secret Avalon base, the fight raged.

Sia was facing Marinette and Marion, two elite enforcers, and she was in bad shape. Their coordination with their opponents was formidable, the attacks followed one another with implacable fluidity, they were perfectly in phase. It was as if they were reading each other's minds.

Marinette's heavy, brutal attacks lacked finesse and, while powerful, remained predictable and easy to dodge. Marion, on the other hand, was a nightmare to manage. Her whip, moving like a snake guided by a will of its own, always aimed at blind spots with surgical precision. Il anticipated Sia's every move, dodging with ease and responding immediately.

The marks left by the whippings were piling up on Sia's body. Not every impact was fatal, but the pain was excruciating, as if his bones were being crushed under a steamroller.

Grimacing, she raised her gauntlet-protected hands. Steel spheres, about ten millimeters in diameter, appeared in her palms. She hurled them at full speed, a deadly rain that crackled like a Gatling gun.

A veritable living machine gun had just been activated. The balls flew in bursts, hammering the air, whistling like a rain of deadly shrapnel.

"Is that all you've got?" Marinette sneered, leaping back to avoid the volley.

Marion, for his part, dodged with ease, reducing the distance between them, getting dangerously close to Sia.

She raised a hand to the sky and fired another volley. The projectiles shot out, then fell like a rain of steel. Marion was forced back under the avalanche.

But the ammunition ran out. The barrage stopped abruptly. Marinette, sensing the opening, charged forward, her sharp disc in hand.

She was about to strike... but her body was suddenly pulled back. Marion's whip had just wrapped around her waist and brought her back roughly. A moment later, long metal spikes jutted out of the ground at the exact spot where she would have landed.

Marinette's eyes widened.

"Honestly... How many times have I told you to stop charging ahead? You'd be dead on impalement if it weren't for me," Marion sighed.

All around Sia, the ground was riddled with impacts. The steel balls planted in the earth had transformed into upright stakes, forming a defensive zone bristling with blades. Her improvised defense protected her for a moment, giving her time to breathe.

"And I always tell you that a lady must be treated with delicacy. So next time, save me with a little more gentleness!" replied Marinette.

Marion gave the signal with a nod. The two of them charged forward together.

The spikes shot out again, but Marinette barely slowed down. Her disc slashed through the air and with a single blow she sliced through the steel barriers, reducing them to pieces, even shattering those she hadn't touched, simply under the pressure of her attack.

Taking advantage of the opening, Marion leaped forward, leaned on his partner's shoulder, and leapt into the air. From there, he had a perfect view of Sia. His whip cracked violently, striking the young woman several times.

Sia doubled over in pain. No sound came from her throat, her vocal cords paralyzed by the pain. Her body reeled, each blow threatening to make her pass out at any moment.

Marinette and Marion were about to finish him off but...

Suddenly, a shadow fell from the sky. A figure crashed to the ground like a meteorite, triggering a shockwave that pushed back the two attackers.

Kate had just landed.

"Sia, are you okay? I'm here to help!" she called.

"I... I'm fine... arghh!" Sia replied, doubled over in pain.

"And the portal?"

"Joy's taking care of it. What's the situation?"

Sia nodded weakly, struggling to sit up.

"The tall woman, Marinette, relies entirely on her physical strength. Her circular disc is forged from Kirail, not a relic, but a rare metal from Eldrath. Very strong..." Sia explained.

"And the other one, the guy with glasses?" she asked, pointing at Marion.

"He's neither fast nor particularly strong. But he's been reading my every move from the start. I'm convinced he can read minds. And his whip... it's a relic. Each blow inflicts excruciating pain. Be careful." 

"I see. Then I know who I'm going to take." Kate declared.

Without another word, Kate stomped her foot on the floor, causing it to shatter under her force.

His body shot forward like a cannonball, aiming directly at Marion.

He had anticipated her attack, of course. But at such speed, he had no choice but to raise his leg to block. Kate's front kick sent him flying backward. He slowed to a stop, sliding along the ground, but another strike was already coming.

A roundhouse hook narrowly missed his head, followed by a sideways heel strike that nearly broke his ribs.

Kate was descended from the Velhares race, a warrior lineage renowned for the strength of their legs. They were said to be able to run on land, oceans and even the skies. And to top it all off, she wore her metal greaves, a reinforcement-type relic: “Achilles’ Heels,” which increased her strength, speed, and agility tenfold.

Marion could read minds, guess every move before it happened. But faced with such rapid attacks, he didn't have time to react. To compensate, he cracked his whip: "The Thousand Tortures," a special relic.

The whip had a monstrous reach and obeyed his will like an extension of his arm. But his true hell lay in his curse. At the first blow, the victim felt all the pain he had endured in the past. On the second, the suffering was doubled. On the third, it was multiplied again... a hellish crescendo that could break the most hardened spirit.

Kate's series of kicks forced Marion back further and further, until they emerged into the shed buried deep within the cave.

Marion immediately understood the ploy. Kate had deliberately isolated their duel to separate the fights. It was a one-on-one situation.

Marion versus Kate, while Sia faced Marinette.

Kate jumped up and down as if warming up, then got into a starting position, legs straight behind her. She lunged forward, closing the distance.

His movements were lightning fast, his legs pounding the ground with incredible precision. She zigzagged from left to right, so fast that she left behind afterimages, as if several Kate were charging at the same time.

Marion wasn't fooled. Reading thoughts allowed her to distinguish the real body. The whip wrapped around Kate's leg as she attempted a killing blow from behind. It yanked violently, crushing her to the ground.

The next second, the whip cracked again and again. Several blows followed, awakening within her a torrent of old pain. Every impact made his nerves scream, it was an agony without name. It wasn't just physical pain. Everything she'd ever been through was coming back, multiplied infinitely. She felt as if she were being slashed by a thousand invisible blades.

The more a person had experienced the battlefield, brushed shoulders with death and accumulated injuries, The more Marion's whip reawakened that pain in a single instant, multiplying it until it bordered on madness. And for Kate, that was exactly it.

But she gritted her teeth and pulled herself together. Her knees buckled, and with a lightning leap she reached the ceiling. From there, she leaps towards the right wall, then the left, linking rebounds and supports with the velocity of an enraged wild animal.

His legs hit the floor, walls, and ceiling like springboards. She was becoming elusive, a living projectile, forcing Marion to keep up a frenetic pace. Every time she dived towards him to strike, he dodged narrowly, but she was already moving off in another direction, always keeping the movement so as not to get caught by the whip.

Marion was beginning to lose patience. His glasses gleamed coldly as he rattled his relic. The whip began to lengthen, its reach increasing enormously, whipping through the air like a giant snake.

Kate narrowly dodged, bouncing from the wall to the ceiling, then across the room. But the whip pursued her relentlessly, extending ever further, adapting to her trajectories.

Finally, in the middle of a jump, he caught it in mid-air. The snap sounded like thunder. The whip wrapped around her waist and yanked her violently toward the ground. The impact was brutal, and the ground cracked where her body hit.

"It's no use, I know your every move before you even make it. And my whip can extend infinitely. You can't escape me," Marion declared.

Kate lay on the ground, trapped by this relentless torture. The whip cracked again, each blow tearing away shreds of her will. The pain would shut her down, then immediately revive her, keeping her in a vicious cycle where she wasn't even allowed to faint.

Marion spoke in a calm, almost compassionate voice as he tortured her.

"Do you think I'm a sadist who enjoys torturing? But I'm not. When people face pain that is too great, and they can no longer bear it... they choose to die or give up. This is the gentlest way to get them to give up and prevent them from going to their deaths." 

In his mind, it was a form of kindness. He was offering Kate a chance to give up.

But for her, that wasn't an option. Giving up now would mean condemning Sia, Joy, Ryouma... everyone who was counting on her. It would be a betrayal. And she would never allow herself to do that.

Kate slowly straightened. Her legs spread, her body on guard. Her breath was still shaky, but her gaze burned with unwavering determination.

"Do you think pain can make us give up?" she spat. 

"You are wrong. There is a pain far more unbearable than yours, and that is the pain of betraying those you love. I've felt it once before... and I'll never let it happen again. So no, I'm not giving up!"

In her eyes blazed a raw fighting spirit, without the slightest trace of fear. Marion understood that if she were to stop, it would only be by dying.

Kate reached for her amulet. The artifact immediately pulsed, radiating an intense light. In his palm appeared a strange object, a black sphere veined with green, the size of a basketball.

But it wasn't a ball. Its surface was reminiscent of a plastic material, but a living, almost organic one. It felt elastic to the touch, but crushingly heavy, as if it contained an abnormal density. A relic that defied understanding.

Kate held it up in front of her, letting it fall to the ground.

The sphere hit the ground with a dull thud and bounced back immediately. Kate raised her leg and kicked it with all her might. The projectile flew like a shell.

Marion narrowly dodged, her whip cracking in an attempt to deflect the trajectory. But the sphere was far too heavy. She ricocheted off the wall and came back from behind, hitting Marion as he dodged an attack from Kate.

He could read her thoughts, anticipate her moves. But there was nothing to be done about this object. The sphere followed unpredictable trajectories, and with each bounce it gained speed and power. A red glow began to envelop him, intensifying with each impact.

Kate jumped up and delivered a perfect spin kick. The sphere abruptly changed direction, ricocheting in all directions like a possessed cannonball.

Between Kate's relentless assaults and the relentlessly bouncing sphere, Marion found herself cornered, unable to regain the initiative.

He raised his whip in front of him like a shield. The sphere struck the weapon, was deflected, but immediately flew back, faster, more violent. Each ricochet resonated like an explosion, filling the air with deafening vibrations.

Sweat beaded on Marion's forehead. The sphere was spinning out of control. It was bouncing at breakneck speed, glowing red, rumbling with pent-up energy.

Then she fell beside Kate. Without hesitation, she concentrated all her strength into her right leg. Her muscles tensed, her leggings glowing with a burning light.

"Haaaah!"

She kicked the sphere like a soccer ball, but with inhuman power.

The projectile roared through the air and struck Marion square in the chest. The impact was titanic. His torso buckled, his ribs cracking. His whip snapped, whipping the air uselessly.

Thrown backward, Marion felt suspended in mid-air for a moment. He opened his eyes to the ceiling, already searching for a way to respond. But he understood immediately.

The fight was over.

Kate was bearing down on him from above, her entire body launched like a meteorite. Her heel crashed down on him with a monstrous crash. The ground shook, the walls of the hangar cracking under the shockwave.

Marion remained rooted to the ground, gasping for breath, her eyes rolling back. Her whip slipped from her hand, motionless, defeated.

Kate, exhausted, fell heavily onto her bottom. Her legs could no longer support her. Pain radiated through every part of her body… but despite this, she smiled a victorious smile.

She had won.