Beast Brawl (2)

“Oliver, my man!” Jessica called out as she rode the Carrier Titan towards me. “Did you see that?”

“How could I not,” I responded. “This might be a bigger problem than I thought,” and I thought this was a very big problem to begin with.

“Even though that beast can break the Armored Ground Titan’s armor, I think I have a plan that’ll beat it,” Jessica said. “Although I doubt you’ll like it very much…”

It’s not really like I have much choice right now… “What’s your plan, Jessica?”

“I need you to lend me your fire core and buy some time by yourself until I can summon a new titan made from four elements.”

“Huh?”

“I want you to-”

“No, I heard what you said!” I interrupted. “But you want me to fight that thing without backup and without my sheath?

“How long will it even take for you to summon this new titan?” I asked.

“Since this would be an all new titan made out of more elements than I’ve ever used at a time, it might take a while,” Jessica confessed. “It should take a few minutes at least, likely around three to five…”

“R-really?” I asked. “Are you sure we can’t just keep doing what we’re doing right now?”

“This thing hasn’t sustained any real damage yet,” she said. “As it is, I don’t have enough power to damage it, and you can only do surface damage by yourself. If we kept going like this, we’d likely both run out of stamina before we had a chance of exhausting it’s healing factor. But if I combine ground, metal, air, and fire, then I could make a titan powerful enough to do some real damage.”

“You just want to make a super powerful titan for your art,” I said.

“Well… I can’t deny that’s true…” Jessica admitted.

“This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever gone along with,” I sighed as I removed my sheath. “This sounds like something Zero would come up with…”

“Who?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said as I handed Jessica my sheath. “Just hurry up with the new titan, would you?”

“Sure,” she said as she took my sheath. “But just for the record, my titans will both crumble once I start. I don’t have enough mana to keep them both active while attempting to make an entirely new one out of four elements.”

“Now you tell me,” I grumbled as I stood and faced where the kaiju still struggled against the headless Armored Ground Titan.

“Also I’ll be devoting all my focus into making this thing as fast as I can, so don’t try to get my attention unless the kaiju starts coming for me, alright?”

“So I need to keep the kaiju focused on me the entire time? Got it,” I said. “You’re not gonna start glowing or making continuous loud noises while you do this, right?”

“Don’t worry about that, my man,” Jessica said. “The only disturbance will be some rumbling once I’ve finished modeling and start to summon the titan, but that will only take a few seconds.”

“Welp,” I said as I held my sword up, “Looks like I’m gonna need a miracle to pull this off.”

“Huh? Wait, is that supposed to be a reference to your codename?” Jessica asked.

“Uh, y-yeah…”

“…”

“…”

“You might wanna start moving now,” Jessica said. “It’d be better if you got it’s attention before I started making the new titan…”

“Yeah, yeah…” I said before running towards the beast. As I drew nearer I activated Miracle.

I’m not too sure about the rest of the arts, but there’s at least one that I can do perfectly without the sheath.

“Jessica, now!” I yelled.

“Alright! Just remember to keep it busy, my man!” she yelled.

I leaped into the air as high as I could, soaring above the forest as the Armored Ground Titan began to crumble around the kaiju. As I began to fall I pointed my blade downwards, putting the weight of my body into the descent.

“Shisu Blade Sixth Art: Piercing Descent!”

I landed on the kaiju, stabbing my blade into its thick bony plates. Guess I didn’t get enough power to break through… Oh well, it’s not like that was my only option.

I pulled my blade out of the bone covering and focused Miracle into my left leg. I lifted it up and slammed it back down into the spot where I had made the initial cut into the bone.

“Miracle Stomp!”

The impact made a resounding thud and knocked the kaiju down onto its belly. My footing got shaky and I jumped off the kaiju towards a tree. The problem is I’m not exactly experienced at jumping from surface to surface like that…

I crashed into the tree, which hurt, but not as much as whatever the kaiju’s gonna do to me if I sit here any longer.

As if to prove my point I saw the massive tail of the beast coming straight towards me, ripping through several trees all the while. I activated Accelerate and moved out of it’s range, but it’s still a bit too close for me.

The kaiju seems completely focused on me right now… that’s both good and bad. My main weapon for stalling this thing will have to be Miracle since I can’t really use all my arts well enough without the sheath. I mean, it went pretty horribly for me the last time I tried something like that.

Speaking of which, where is Marion? She should’ve been back by now. Unless something happened… Ugh, as if my plate wasn’t full enough already…

…

\\\ Marion ///

A low growl emanated from Tyler as he circled me on all fours. Watching me like a predator stalking prey. How tragic… the poor fool has it backwards.

I rushed towards him and let loose a Demonic Rend, but he ducked under it. Now that makes people dodging above and under it. It’s starting to piss me off…

He flipped up and hit me in the back of the head with his tail, knocking me into the ground. I quickly pushed myself up into a handstand and saw him coming in with a low kick aimed at my head.

I hopped above the kick and grabbed one of his arms before flipping mid air and throwing him at a tree. He landed on the tree gracefully before using Beast Bolt to launch himself towards me. Just before he impacted me I grabbed and flung him into the air.

He used his tail to swing off a high up tree branch and tossed himself higher up before pulling his swords out. He put his blades together, forming what looked like… scissors? He then yelled out his next move.

“Scissor Blade Nightmare Style Art Six: Falling Phobia!”

I jumped back as he pierced the ground with his blade and a small shockwave of nightmare energy emitted from it. After barely dodging the shockwave, I rushed him before he could get up and used my right hand to slam his body into a tree, pinning him in place.

Now that he’s not moving, I just have to use Demonic Rend and finish him off- wait… I shouldn’t be killing people. Ugh… Dull it! My head…

As my mind fought against itself, Tyler wrapped his tail around my arm and crushed it, cracking my bones. He then used his feet to kick me away once my grip had weakened, causing me to fall back on the ground.

I stood up as my arm began to heal and I heard Tyler growling barely legible words.

“Hesitate…? Why hesitate…!? Not serious…? Why not serious!?? Why Hesitate!?!?!”

As he grumbled on, he pulled his scissor blade out of the ground.

“Not… matter…” he growled. “You’ll just lose…”

He then opened the scissor blade and rushed at me, screaming out his move. “Scissor Blade Art One: Guillotine!”

I quickly ducked back under the blades, but I had fallen right into his trap.

“Art Seven: Fakeout Slash!”

As soon as I heard that I felt his blades cut my flesh, severing both arms at the elbow. Before I even had a moment to register my pain he wrapped his tail around my ankle and spun through the air, tossing me headfirst into a tree.

I stumbled from the impact as the ground began to shake. The last thing I remember seeing was Tyler’s tail as he flew through the air…

…

\\\ Oliver ///

“Come on! Why can’t you just stay down!?” I yelled.

No matter what I do, no matter how many times I use Miracle on this kaiju, it just gets up as if nothing had even happened. It heals its wounds almost as fast as I can make them, and I can’t make them that quickly anyway.

Although I am just buying time right now, keeping the thing occupied. But still… just that is proving to be more than I can handl- Oh Shit!

Because of all my complaining I almost didn’t notice the damn kaiju’s tail coming for me. That thing’s too fast for its own good!

I activated Accelerate and dashed out of the way, mere moments from becoming nothing more than a fleshy stain on the ground.

I want to use my shisu arts on this thing… but it just doesn’t feel right without the sheath. I still remember when I tried to improvise them when I was fighting Marion, and that went horribly.

If I survive this I’m going to learn how to fight without having the sword in the sheath. The Shisu style might be the fastest of the blade arts, but having to return the blade to the sheath takes more time then… not doing that. If I could use both…

Well, now’s not the time to think about that. I have bigger problems right now. Speaking of…

I zoomed under the kaiju as it rushed toward me, cutting along its stomach as I did so. I put some distance between me and the beast as I thought about how much time had passed since Jessica started working on her new titan. I then noticed the ground started rumbling and ran over to where Jessica was.

“Are you finally done yet!?” I asked. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this thing occupied before it manages to hit me!”

“Don’t worry, my man,” Jessica responded. “The cavalry has arrived!”

As the ground shook it began to rise, met with a stream of metal and flame coming from both respective cores. The air itself seemed to be concentrating into the area as well and from the overwhelming energy a silhouette emerged. It grew larger and larger as Jessica began to speak.

“Now presenting, the most beautiful of my current creations…” she exclaimed. “The Furnace Titan!”

Standing taller than the kaiju was a massive humanoid figure adorned in similar armor to the Armored Ground Titan, but the eyes of the helmet glowed with a fierce flame.

Each hand had a circular opening that tunneled inside the titan. I don’t know what that’s for, but I’m hoping it does something cool.

The Carrier Titan formed underneath Jessica and flew over to me.

“Catch,” Jessica said as she tossed my sheath back to me.

I caught it and put it back on as she flew to the top of the Furnace Titan. She jumped onto it and whistled, making the Carrier Titan hover nearby.

“We might actually be able to-” As I was saying that, I got interrupted by a sudden thumping sound. I turned my head and saw Marion’s unconscious body as the grey skin of her demon form began to regress back to its normal pale color.

I then heard cackling followed by rustling bushes as someone stepped out from the direction that Marion’s body had been thrown.

Who could’ve beaten her in her demon form, I was barely able to do that with both of my powers. Was it another bounty hunter? An assassin maybe? Was there another kaiju?

As it dawned on me that if another kaiju was that close it’d be almost impossible for me not to be aware, I heard a voice that sounded… familiar…?

“Hahaha! Victory is mine! And so are the marshmallows!”

Could it be…? No, that’s not possible… right? There’s no way…

As the figure stepped out from the shadows, it all became clear. The voice, that wolf head, there’s really no mistaking it at this point…

“Tyler!?”

“Hm? Oliver!?” He shouted back.

And then we both yelled in perfect unison.

“What the hell are you doing here?!”