Caesar forcefully pulled himself away from Alicia, holding onto the wound on his chest as it regenerated. "This is harder than I expected. Hah..."
Behind him, Bart blocked his escape route and so did his other three sides, occupied with Aegis Users. Lily clenched her fist, restraining herself from being caught in her own emotions. Aya readied her blood-colored claws to pounce at Caesar, while Relly was watching the whole situation.
Alexander glanced at me, who was just a few meters away. "Don't you think this is a bit of an overkill for him?"
"Perhaps." It was obvious he could not win that fight. And I thought he should retreat to safety somewhere if he had the desire to survive. He was only allowed to be defensive since the fight began, as there were too many Aegis Users as his enemies. To take down even one was not a chore, and my experience fighting one-on-one with them proved it and was already overwhelming enough.
And yet, Caesar did not seem to heed the danger he was facing.
"What's he waiting for?' I thought. His actions up until then did not make sense. His abrupt intervention could be seen as a poor choice. He was attempting something. Trying to accomplish an objective as subtle as possible, preventing us from seeing his true motive.
There was also an oddity I noticed, where Gheele did not help him as of right then. He could use a bit of a helping hand from Gheele.
'So, Gheele is just waiting for us to come to him?' I thought again.
Knowing him, that would be something he would do.
Bart looked at me from his spot, with the controller in hand. "Ava, I command you to take down Caesar."
Caesar's tone changed. "What did you do to Miss Ava?!"
Alicia laughed at Caesar's sudden inquiry. "What do you think I did to your favorite, Caesar?"
A few moments later, a familiar jolt shot up throughout my body, my eyes completely focused on him.
"Ava, I could interfere with the effect of the second Aegis's control," said Aegis in my mind.
"No... Alicia would notice. Just lower the effect a bit," I said under my breath.
My feet moved closer to Caesar while numerous deep blue crystals started to form around it. Fortunately, the close-fitted black combat suit I wore allowed the crystals to pour out without ripping apart the fabric. A new piece of technology was what it seemed to be.
Caesar took a step back and I lunged at him. "Caesar, run away!"
He parried my deep blue short blade and kicked me in the stomach. "Sorry, Miss Ava."
I stopped the momentum with my legs and lunged at him again, with a giant blue scythe from my back aiming at him. He dodged the tip barely but my blade reached him. The gash at his chest healed immediately. The scythe then quickly slammed at his side with its flat edge and his body crashed about fifty meters away.
He coughed from all the dust, regaining his combat stance. In a blink of an eye, his legs were cut off from his hip and he fell hard to the ground. "ARGH!"
Alicia smiled from her attack that managed to connect.
Caesar's legs stitched itself back but my scythe pierced him from above, pinning him to the ground. "AARRGGHH!" He tried to pull the scythe out unsuccessfully. I wanted to suggest not moving in that state, considering the amount of pain it would induce.
"Sweety..." Alicia said to Aya.
"Okay." Aya's claws clasped together and hung in mid-air, ready to deliver a painful slam at Caesar.
"I'm taking him!" yelled Lily.
"After we make him unconscious, Lily. You're getting impatient. We'll get him back," said Alicia.
Caesar formed a yellow shield to guard against Aya's claws, but it was not enough. Aya smashed the shield with her claws, and the impact destroyed a good thirty meters of the white tiles.
My scythe retreated back into me while Aya's claws dissolved into thin air. A dark, unconscious figure emerged from the cloud of dust, seemingly defeated.
"Well, that didn't take long. I'm hoping for a one-on-one rematch with Caesar," said Bart. "And Relly seems to be relaxing over there."
Relly smirked. "My help is not needed after all. Not until we get our hands on Gheele."
Miranda re-tied her dark braid and scoffed. "Gheele comes first, right? Let's get going. The reinforcements will be coming shortly."
Alexander cast a sideways glance to his side. "Speaking of reinforcements... looks like they've returned. With a much larger force."
I followed the direction of his eyes, and surely, soldiers of Neo Africa in green were there in front of us. They aimed at us with what seemed to be rocket launchers. At least, most of them were. The others have the standard rifles they used earlier. Agatha was nowhere to be seen, which made me thought if the Vlasta's Maidens caught up with her or something.
"Now, those people starting to piss me off..." Bart approached the soldiers in green and shouted a harsh remark of their foolishness. "HEY! You people look like you're sleepwalking out here! Do you know who we--"
A launcher fired at Bart and exploded upon impact. The rest soon followed, firing their launches at all of us.
Relly sighed and summoned his ocean blue-colored crystals from his arms, sending volleys of bright plasma at each one of the oncoming projectiles. They collided with each other, with Relly's plasma thoroughly overwhelmed the adversities.
Miranda formed black crystals at her palm and it sent huge waves of blue water at the remaining soldiers, drowning them and breaking their formation. The soldiers were utterly destroyed in less than a minute. A few of them struggled to stand up only for Lily to grab two of them at their necks.
She grinned at their bitter expressions. "Let me tell you... your presence here does not mean anything. Fodders are what you are." With that, she crushed their throats in one quick motion, throwing their lifeless bodies to the side. "Useless..."
She then proceeded to walk towards Caesar, who had regained his consciousness. "Caesar... my only friend." Her hand grabbed him by the robe and dragged his body along the tiles. "I'll take him back."
Relly nodded. "Sure thing. Our reserved Teria airship should be arriving shortly."
My eyes stared at Caesar.
I felt the urge to help him in that situation. However, it was impossible to do just that. Realistically speaking, confronting the other six Aegis Users, even with Alexander's support was never a good idea. I knew I would be smacked around by Aya or Lily before Bart pinned me immobile. Relly did not even have to help them beat me down.
'Where is Gheele at a time like this?' I thought.
Just when I had concluded he would not come to Caesar's aid, orange crystals towered from below all of us, blocking my view. The crystals diverged further, separating each and everyone into their own single compartments in that maze-like orange behemoth.
"Ava."
I turned my head towards the voice and Bart came into view. It struck me that there were only both of us that section of orange crystals.
Ignoring him, I stretched and straightened my leg in hope to see what happened out there. The wall of crystals was not that high, and with a few jumps, I managed to climb it and poked my head out into view.
What I saw was Gheele, in front of the defeated Caesar. As expected. he was confronting the rest of the Aegis Users by himself. He wore a gold jacket with an orange stripe running down from his left side, paired with black jeans. Aside from that, he had his golden coat with him.
'Who wears a jacket along with a coat?' I thought.
His clothing sense did not make sense to me.
He laughed at the Users who were confronting him. "Now, now. I hope you slaves can entertain me at least a little bit. If not, I might be disappointed. Trying to invade my Neo Africa is a fool's decision, mind you."