Flipside: The Worst Foe Possible - Part 3

Even though they spent a while together (even living together), Karim knew very little about the two inquisitors and the shrine maiden. It was somewhat weird when she stopped to think about it, but it wasn’t as if she was one to speak too much about herself too.

Still, from the little she knew, there was a name that fit with Colette’s reaction and the nickname Ben. And if she was right there, then things were a little more troublesome now.

“I thought all would be over before I had to see you again, but alas...” The grey-haired man walked a few steps away from the shocked brunette, not even bothering to raise his guard as he did so. “Hello, Col. I’ve missed you.”

The swordsman gave a light smile to the toned inquisitor, but the expression on Colette’s face wasn’t a pleasant one. It was also a hard one to define, somewhere between displeasure, disbelief, and surprise, so Karim was unsure of what would happen now.

She didn’t believe that her current ally would change sides. All things considered, the brawler didn’t seem to be this kind of person, but there was always a chance.

Romance was the kind of overcomplicated thing that could bring such a result, even the not-well-versed Karim knew it.

Luckily, or not, the confused brawler cleared her expression and took a fighting stance a moment later.

“Can you please tell me you’re not with the terrorists and go your way, Ben?”

“I can do so, but I would need to take this girl you’re protecting with me. She’s too much of a danger to my plans if she stays close to that girl.” He answered with a tint of sadness on his now strained smile. “There’s no need for her to die, but I can’t let her stay close to Anna.”

Colette turned her head to Karim waiting by her back, looking at the blonde cop only for enough time to see her restarting her prayers. The cop’s eyes were enough to know she wasn’t willing to step back here, so the message should’ve hit her.

“That’s not happening.”

“I see… I won’t apologize then. There’s not enough time if I tried to give all the apologies I owe you…”

His tone sounded as genuine as possible and his expression was straight-up apologetic from what Karim could see. But even if she was unsure of how to react to such an expression, Colette became as angry as she could be.

“Don’t worry…” The now fuming inquisitor started to channel to her gauntlets, making them shine as it was activated for the first time in a while. “I’ll get them after you’re on the ground.”

“You’re as charming as usual, but you know it won’t happen.” Their enemy gave a somewhat pained smile as he spoke, turning it into a perfect deadpan a moment later. “I promise you’ll have your comeuppance when all’s over, even if what you need for such is my head.”

“Save that for when I kick your ass!”

With her shout, Colette charged with a booming clash that left a dent in the Leviathan’s deck as she moved forward faster than Karim could see. The shockwave even hinted that she may have broken the sound barrier there. And still, when she reached the grey swordsman, the punch failed to connect.

Her strike crashed on the ground where Ben stood a moment earlier, turning it into another mashed piece of steel as she, without another moment, pivoted herself to another punch. This time though, the attack was completely blocked by the man’s sword, barely pushing him back even with all the force behind the attack.

He then, like with Karim, made a magical circle of pure energy on his free hand and aimed it at Colette, creating the same kind of explosion from earlier. But differently from Karim, the brunette only got her gauntlet between them two and ate the damage without a problem.

The impact of the small explosion didn’t even seem to reach the brawler’s body. It all dispersed on the small barrier covering her gauntlets. The barrier then became redder for a moment and then was used to counter again, creating an even bigger shockwave as her foe blocked the attack.

It even turned the arming sword on Benjamin’s hand into a handful of metal fragments while also forcing the man himself to retreat.

“I see you received a proper relic now. Good to see those old bastards finally seeing your potential after all that time…”

“Shut up! You know why I have this thing now and knowing you were parading in some terrorist group only makes me angrier about it.”

“That’s fair…” He deflated even with his neutral expression still there. “I guess I should finish this off before I start second-guessing myself then…”

“Stop pretending to be conflicted about this, dammit!”

Colette charged once more, creating another mark on the floor and another sonic boom as she tried another massive strike. But instead of dodging like last time, the one formerly known as The Hero moved his hand to the air in front of him and pulled a blade to block the attack. The shockwave from it was enough to risk breaking Karim’s concentration as she lost footing and fell to her butt.

“Tch! Can’t believe you can still use this thing…” Colette clicked her tongue as she took a step back with her guard still up. “I guess the thing about ‘being pure and worthy’ was always a sham, eh?”

The deadpan hero only glanced at the snarks of his once girlfriend as he held a complex-patterned one-handed sword with a weird format.

It was full of curves and bends, white in color with its patterns in blue, red, and yellow, and full of gems to the point it seemed unusable. In special, the sword’s guard had a hand-sized blood-colored gem embedded in it that seemed too heavy to be balanced.

For all Karim knew about swords, this one was the least practical one she ever saw. And still, as she looked at it, the only thing she could feel was fear.

“Please survive this,” Benjamin uttered as he finally took a proper stance and, right after, cleared the small space between him and Colette. She then dodged the attack as if ready for it and, when the usual magical attack came after, the brunette held both of her gauntlets up.

This overly-defensive stance proved to be necessary as, although the spell seemed to be the same, the explosion caused by it was much bigger.

Karim was unsure since she couldn’t see that well, but the barrier on Colette's weapons was cracking as it changed colors to blue this time. And worse even, the complicated blade was already coming on her way even before the brunette could recover.

But this time, the brunette had a smile on her face.

“I say the same, you sexy motherfucker…” She then hit both of her shining gauntlets on the dock’s deck a moment before she was in the range of the weird blade. “You better survive this!”

Her palm strike on the floor instantly created a small wall of energy that then closed around the grey swordsman, forming a cylinder around him. It didn’t stop the attack, it actually only got slowed his blade down as it got stuck on the barrier a centimeters away from its target.

But slowing it down was enough for the time being. She only needed some seconds to make things work here.

“With me, Shorty!”

If the brawler knew she would be waiting to unleash her attack or if she was only betting on it, Karim was unsure. Still, the call was right on time as her silent prayer was almost ready. She was only waiting for a good chance to use it.

And this perfect chance was right there.

More even, this chance came together with Colette changing her gauntlet’s color again. Going white before she unleashed an explosion on the feet of the man breaking through the energy walls. An explosion that came a moment before the cylinder was filled with a hail of lightning bolts.

A massive double strike from all-around and from above that, from the blondie’s estimates, could even take down a Marid. And still, less than a second after them, the toned female recovering from her own attack forced herself to a defensive position. Something that was needed as her body went flying a moment later due to the hero's counterattack.

Not only their foe was almost unharmed after the dual strike, but he was very much still combat-able.