Shamnail & Turail

Yomi would recover. Penny was sure of as much. She watched as Azalea comforted her, bound the wound as best they could, and with thanks and reverence took the massive regalia broad sword that. But this was as far as Yomi would go. Azalea whispered something to her, and not for the first time Penny silently wished that she could read angels as well as she did humans. Not that the latter hadn't served her well enough.

Running the numbers in her head, the situation looked fairly simple. Munkar had, including himself, three known combatants on the board. Including Eita, the Fallen could count on five after sending Yomi off to lick her wounds. If every subsequent engagement went as well as the one against Nakir, they'd meet success.

“The theater,” Sammy said, “there are at least a couple ways to get there, aren't there?”

When Sammy asked that, Penny managed to catch a glimpse of something, and decided to provide advice.

“We should split up,” she said, “I'll take Yua and Gadot on the direct path by the upper floor. You, Azalea, and Ikami-kun should head to the spot by the lower floor and take the near stairs there.

“That doesn't make any sense,” Gadot said, “why divide our forces? If one group or the other should run into the enemy-”

“The enemy is waiting for us in the theater,” Penny said, “If there's anyone else in the way, that's at least one foe fewer at the end. Or have you forgotten that time is potentially of the essence?”

Gadot looked towards the escalators that led from the upper landing to the top floor hallway.

“Is this a case where I should just trust you without explanation?” he asked.

“If I say it is, will you?” Penny replied.

Gadot nodded. It wasn't that she couldn't have given the proper explanation, but things went more smoothly if Penny didn't involve others in her decisions.

“I trust that's fine by you as well?” she asked Sammy, who nodded.

To that, the groups that Penny called out began to diverge, with Yua and Eita being the last, whispering nonsense between each other, to part ways. While Penny tried to maintain an impartial look, she wanted to roll her eyes. Children, really, never saying what they actually meant. She had half a mind to spill it all in public just to see what would happen, but at least understood that it would probably be taken badly. And besides, in other ways they were quite reasonable people.

Yua hurried to Penny's side as they began to ascend. Penny hoped she understood; her thoughts were dominated by their friend who waited nailed to a scrap-wood cross in Munkar's theater, but they wouldn't reach her without incident.

About halfway down the hall, close but not too close to the doors of the theater, Shamnail and Turail waited. They'd tried to conceal themselves, but only crudely, and Penny stopped short of any ambush.

“You'd make a better Manzai duo than an ambush,” Penny said with dry indifference. Not that she could see the painfully dull twin Powers managing a comedy act either.

“That's fine,” Turail said, “We don't need surprise to take your heads.”

“Oh no,” Penny said, deliberately not even feigning interest, “I guess I'm really in trouble.”

“Cease mocking us!” Shamnail bellowed. He leveled his spear at Penny, and Gadot stepped between them.

That was good. Penny, ultimately, trusted Gadot to do his part. He was a good fighter, and had been passed the katana that had been imbued the most heavily. Penny put a hand on the hilt of her own blade. It was a lesser effort from Eita, and wouldn't last all that many strikes, which is why it had been something of a bonus to the bow and arrows. But the hallway and the reality of fighting two against two within wouldn't really afford Penny firing lanes.

“Yua,” she said, “why don't you pray for our success?”

A bit back from where Penny and Gadot stood, Yua went to her knees. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands, and any onlooker would easily believe she was simply asking for divine intervention in the battle of angels to come.

Hopefully, Shamnail and Turail would think nothing of her. They were idiots, after all, and it wasn't as though it was obvious that everything would depend, ultimately, on how long Yua could hold out with the power she'd been given.

“Which one would you like to handle?” Penny asked Gadot.

“I can never tell them apart,” Gadot replied. Now and then, he did pretend to have a sense of humor.

“Then I'll take the one on our left while you handle the right, sound fair?”

“Fair nothing!” Shamnail shouted. He charged at Gadot. Turail moved to assist, but Penny stepped between them, moving with what probably seemed like unfathomable precision.

That was because Yua had begun to invoke her miracle – Precognition. Moves yet to came passed through Yua's mind, and as she emptied her thoughts of everything else, those future visions were as clear as day to Penny's telepathy. As Gadot and Shamnail clashed, Penny dodged Turail's strikes time and again. She kept her hand on the hilt of her sword, dancing carefully to sway just to the side of each blow, mocking Turail silently with the lack of effort expended and her refusal to draw steel. As long as Yua could stay focused and in possession of those threads of the future, even if they would have been too much for Yua herself to untangle, Penny was practically invincible one against one.

“How?” Turail demanded. Penny once again sidestepped his lunge. As he tried to sweep his spear against her, she stepped inside his reach and began to put pressure on his footwork. None of the possibilities that flashed before Yua's mind's eye seemed to end with a clean strike against Turail, so Penny wasn't going to waste her weapon's few chances to actually make a difference.

Turail staggered and practically stumbled back. Penny didn't follow. If she pushed too far, she'd be bracketed by their foes, and while Yua hadn't seen that possibility through to the end, Penny couldn't imagine it went well, and chose otherwise.

In a rage, Turail dismissed his shield, returning it not just to a ready form but outright to the aether, gripping his spear with both hands for more strength and control. He came at Penny with renewed fury, fast enough that she could no longer maintain the illusion of casual grace in avoiding his blows. She focused as much as she could on Yua's thoughts, and the patterns of the future etched therein.

After a moment, Penny reached a conclusion: within five moves, she'd almost certainly be forced to draw if she wanted to stay unscathed. The question then became how best to make it count.

For the first, Turail cut at Penny, and she spun around momentarily offering her back. Second, Turail followed her motion with a rising sweep, and Penny ducked it. Third, she claimed the initiative, spreading her wings, manifested nearly in the face of her foe. Fourth, he chose not to regain distance, but to whirl about, and jab at her with the rear of the spear, to which Penny turned aside, falling to one knee as she did. Fifth, he came at her with an overhead stab. Penny grasped her blade firmly and drew as she leaped to her feet. The tip of Turail's spear skidded along the imbued steel, and Penny turned with the force even as she continued her draw, flowing into an upward fut that carved a golden line across Turail's chest from his right hip to left shoulder.

A few inches deeper, and the matter would have been resolved, but there had been no way to gain a cleaner cut.

As Turail backpedaled again to face Penny properly, she took stock of her situation. If Yua gave out, so did most of Penny's apparent skill. If Gadot, who was matched blow for blow with Shamnail, gave out, so to did Penny's ability focus on a single foe. If the sword gave out, so to did most of Penny's chance of victory.

Far from ideal, but Turail didn't need to know that. She tried her best to offer an imperious sneer, and readied herself for the battle in earnest.