Standing Room Only

“Come! Things are not over yet!” beckoned Rheia, appearing to retreat. She vanished and reappeared numerous times not following a direct line, but a direction. The direction took her to the gigantic walls of the Capital. She stood on the side, as she seemed fond of doing, staring down at Saki, who stood on the remaining ground around the base of the city walls.

Motioning with her arm to the wall, she opened the invitation to Saki. “I’ll provide you with steps.” Suddenly, seams appeared all over the wall, which held perfectly with no damage from the weather or age. It wasn’t cracks, but as if someone made cuts through the wall. Massive blocks easily weighing thousands of kilos slipped out from their centuries of sleeping.

Shadows fell over Saki as she stared up at the sight. Dodging it all would be simple, but it still made her eyes widen a little. Perfect five-meter cubes began to rain down on her position. The size alone made her pause and then the fact that this woman destroyed the city’s wall just to do it. ‘Simonides’ fear…’ Saki had a quick explanation given to her on why Atlanteans joined their group. She had her doubts even if she felt he believed sincerely what he said. It all made sense to her now. ‘He was right…I need to try to end this quickly before it gets out of control…’

Saki narrowed her eyes and hardened her emotions. She needed to be focused. The fight ahead of her was nothing like the past. She knew from just looking at her face. Others seemed bloodthirsty or fight hungry, they all wanted something, but the woman was different. She wasn’t battle starved like the rest. She had a desire, but she couldn’t see it clearly. All of her attention was focused on Saki, she saw her completely. It was as if she had an expectation. She wanted her to meet something. Saki didn’t like the strangeness she felt from her eyes.

Disappearing, Saki appeared on the nearest falling block and leapt off it. The force sent the block hurdling down to the ground blasting out another crater until a strange heavy ring echoed from the bottom. Saki kept jumping, shooting the blocks off into different directions away from the Capital. Explosions of earth appeared all around in the distant horizon.

Landing on the broken wall, Saki stared over at Rheia. “I’m here. Steps were unnecessary.”

“Maybe so, but will you still be here in ten seconds?”

“No, because I won’t need but five seconds to knock you off this wall,” snapped back Saki with a heavy dose of bravado. Internally, she already questioned herself. The entire fight already proved different. ‘I want to end this quickly, but it’s not going to be possible. I can’t break through her defenses.’ Her opponent sat at the top of all other MPs.

The thought of an easy fight seemed equally unlikely. A certain amount of unease about the situation arose for her. All her most recent fights dropped her into a false sense of security. The Omega MPs were powerful. She didn’t doubt it. Her fight with the invisible Twins proved it. Yet, as long as she was fast enough and caught them unprepared, they were just normal humans she could stop. Those tricks didn’t work on Rheia.

Something that should be impossible for a MP. Their bodies were normal, even in their empowered state their powers didn’t work on their bodies. It was what Yuki and Ayumi explained to her. It was the reason she was the one that did all of the work in the last leg of the journey. The things about Rheia were impossible. She didn’t understand how she managed it.

Her hand shook a little. It was slight, barely something that Saki noticed. She stopped it before it spread. Such a reaction confused her. Saki was quite certain it wasn’t fear that caused it, which was why it confused her. She didn’t know why it happened. Rheia was skilled, no doubt about it, but Saki wasn’t afraid of her. It wasn’t like her fight with Kallias, who fought for the sake of being entertained. There was no desperation.

It made no sense.

The shaking calmed.

Saki let out a carefully measured breath. ‘I have to remain completely focused in this fight. I need to find the holes in her defense. It’s going to be the only chance I have!’

Across the wall, stood Rheia with a waiting look painted across her face. Her arms remained crossed as she stood on the wall horizontal with the ground below, completely ignoring that gravity was a real thing that actually influenced everything. It made for a strange standoff for Saki, to be glaring over at someone that seemed to act as if they were another brick of the wall. A reminder of how powerful their reality defying power could be if desired.

Scanning her eyes over the wall, she looked for ways to reach Rheia. The broken up wall wouldn’t give her the range she needed. Only the upper layers of the massive wall fell away. Much of it remained usable for Rheia. Evenly spaced extrusions on the wall that looked to be supports were the only part that broke the perfectly even surface of the wall. Nothing to hold or to grip.

A normal fight was impossible.

Though in fairness, when was the last time she had a normal fight. Ever since Ayumi showed up in their lives, nothing remained normal. Every day was a fight against Yuki’s uncontrollable powers and assassins with weird powers. An actual normal day and what it meant made her want to smile a little, not that she had the time for it.

She couldn’t delay any longer. Yuki stood behind her in the gigantic city laid out below her. He waited for her, well probably not, he probably was off doing his own thing with little regard for patience. ‘I’ll be coming soon Yuki!’

Chapter 254 – Standing Room Only

Saki propelled herself forward with a short burst of speed before her leap off the wall. Gravity weighed on her, her short hair swayed loosely with the change. The only thing keeping her on the wall was the speed, even still she knew she slipped a little. Wall fighting was hardly something she practiced in her martial arts classes.

It put her in arm’s reach of Rheia, which was all she needed. Yet, it didn’t matter. Flank or not, standing on a wall, it all didn’t seem to change a thing for her. It was as if she stood on the ground. Her open palm blocked Saki. Increased speed and strength meant nothing.

Cracks ran along the wall from the force of the collision. Atlantis’ old wall held firm. It had more durability than the earth, which Saki carved up as if she was scooping ice cream out from the bottom of a nearly empty tub.

‘Damn, I’m already losing my footing like this.’ She disappeared again only a half second later as gravity kicked in on her body. It desperately wanted to pull her back to where she should have been, since it could do nothing to Rheia.

Bouncing off the supports, Saki pulled herself back around to hit from the other side. Confident steps pushed her faster with familiarity. Each step pounded into the wall. Dirt and dust built up from centuries of silent vigil tore out from the rough surface behind her footstep. ‘There’s got to be a limit to what she can react to! I just have to move faster than she can handle! She’s only human.’

Speed increase resulted in the same effect. It was hardly a surprise. Saki couldn’t even feign surprise anymore. Anything she saw should have been impossible, but the truth spoke for itself. She only could accept the reality, Rheia’s reality.

Accept, but not understand.

The end of her run left her more than ten meters below Rheia on the wall. She quickly turned it into a loop to force herself back around. Slingshot back at the woman, Saki came out landing on the top of the wall, a part that remained untouched by Rheia.

Looking down through her feet at Rheia, Saki recalculated her strategy. Speed proved not to be the solution. ‘Doesn’t matter how fast I go and on this wall, I’m actually limited. I can’t reach my top speed, which is probably her plan. How can she expect anyone to fight on the side of a wall?’ Frustration hadn’t really surfaced for Saki. She knew that she should be annoyed. The seconds overturned to minutes. The rate she went it would just turn into another Twins battle.

‘If just going straight at her is not going to work…I could try that. It worked well against him.’ It was the only plan. Wasted energy in pointless effort served no purpose.

The shaking in her arm needed to be calmed once more. Acting up a second time annoyed Saki. ‘What’s with my hand? It feels strange. I’m not scared, so why is it shaking?’ Once relaxed, her focus pointed down. ‘No matter. I don’t need to be concerned about it. My attention should be on her and ending this fight.’

Pushing off from the edge of the wall, Saki let her body be taken by gravity. The wind brushing against her face reminded her of the limit she had. It wasn’t enough for it. Just a start. A moment later, feet met with the stone of the wall. Shards of stone exploded suddenly from just the press of her feet. Saki sharply disappeared.

She appeared directly in front of Rheia, arm extended out. Then Saki passed through the wild-haired woman’s body. Barely a reaction came from her face as she turned around to meet Saki coming up from behind. This time the fist connected with her palm, like all previous times. Cracks ripped up through the wall protesting the pressure.

A bigger reaction came from Saki. ‘What?! She even blocked me after my illusion feint?’

‘It’s called an Afterimage!’ poked Yuki’s commentary.

The trick she discovered in her fight with Kallias did nothing. An effortless motion turned her around to allow her to block the real attack. Once more the impossible happened, but Saki thought it actually would work. Surprise returned to her face.

‘What sort of power does she have?! There could not have been more than a tenth of a second between the feint and true strike.’ In the time that Saki stood confused, reality came back to her. She realized she needed to move again. Staying in one place too long would be bad.

Recovered and back at the ruined part of the wall, where it all began, Saki stared the length to the woman. She kept waiting for Saki. Status quo needed to change for Saki. Without any sign of an improvement of her situation all she did was keep running along a wall for the exercise.

Thinking of her Kallias fight again, she knew she still had something left. ‘The only way to deal with someone with a perfect defense is going to be to force them to use their power. I need to drain her dry.’

“All or nothing now…” Despite the sound logic behind her plan, uncertainty still lingered. The biggest question was how long could someone like her last. Kallias wasn’t even on the same level of skill or power. He burned out quickly, but Rheia was different. She showed no signs of even being warmed up.

Bending her knees in preparation, the course committed her. ‘Can’t worry about the what-ifs right now. Just need to go for it. Though on this surface, it’s going to be even harder to keep up.’ Explosive power shot through her legs, tossing Saki into the fray.

Disappearing a split second later, Saki reappeared in eight forms surrounding Rheia. Each form slammed into her with all of her strength. All real, but on a fraction of a second delay to account for the travel distance.

As to be expected, Rheia maintained the same stance as before. Each punch blocked with the same palm. She rotated in place to meet her every time. Due to the speed at which Saki moved, even Rheia became a blur to keep up with the rapid succession of attacks.

‘I expected this much,’ thought Saki, focusing on keeping her footing together.

Seconds of the high-speed barrage continued before one of Saki’s multi-forms shimmered out of phase. It dropped to seven and then to six. ‘Damn the wall and gravity. I’m losing my speed!’ It settled out to only four forms assaulting Rheia, yet still no sign of a change in the Commander of the Titans.

Nearly a minute passed with no change from either. Saki managed to hold her pace despite the slip-ups, but an accident would eventually happen. Inevitability showed up about a minute and twenty seconds into the attack. All of the running weakened the wall’s surface enough that Saki lost her footing when the outer layer crumbled. She slid down the wall tumbling end over end for more than twenty meters before correcting her position.

Finally stopped, she stared back up at Rheia. The woman waited for her. She wanted something from her. The same expectant look from before. It had a familiar look to her. ‘She’s got the same look on her face as that boy I always fought at the dojo.’ It wasn’t one that looked down upon or stood in superiority, even though they always came out on top while she laid flat on her back.

They wanted to see more. They were curious. They wanted to see how skilled she was. ‘What does she want from me? She’s supposed to be trying to capture or kill me, but she looks like she just wants a fair fight, a test of skill to see who is the best. It doesn’t make any sense.’

Something else more important than Rheia’s motives didn’t make any sense and it finally started to hit Saki. ‘Why am I not falling?!’ She had stopped herself from rolling down the wall, but did nothing to start actually moving again, yet gravity did nothing to her.

Turning her head, the ground remained out of reach. She could feel her hair hanging with the pull of the Earth, even her clothes, but not her body. Saki stood up testing out the feeling to be sure. ‘How is this happening?’ Caught up in the sights a little, she saw the wide-open plains of Atlantis. Mountains poked through sporadically in the distance. Close to her, she could see all of her friends fighting in their battles.

“You’ve finally realized,” spoke the light brown haired woman after minutes of silence.

Her voice drew Saki back up the wall. She still didn’t understand it fully. “This is your doing?”

“It’s part of the test.” Everything seemed to have drawn to this moment. She leaned forward a little altering her stance from defense. “Now that you’re at the starting point, let’s begin. If you can last a minute without falling then you’ve passed.” Rheia disappeared and reappeared in front of Saki slamming her elbow deep in her stomach. The force slid Saki back and weakened her leg’s strength to stand. “It’s begun!”