You can only gather so much undervalued information on yourself before the limit of your true strength is finally revealed. A lack of understanding that principle was essential to circulating the flow of life energy, the core of the Capital's supernatural capabilities. After almost half a year of battling out inner demons and honing her talent to the maximum, Katie's hand wielded the Blackened Blade with her aura… calm. Even so, Natalia behind her couldn't help but shiver at the appearance of such power, heightened and widened to extreme limits, just barely sticking out the top of the limit-meter.
Swinging around from side to side, lightning slashes following the cold-dark steel, left, right, Azazel's movements stood as smooth as a ballerina dancing elegantly at the tips of his toes. Ducking over a diagonal, blocking an overhead, swiping away at the tip so his palm would force against her gut. Eventually, his hand would meet her chest, sending her to puff her cheeks out, burping at the feeling as she was sent flying right past her female ally. Running ahead with arms behind her, Azazel squinted, taking subtle notes of her glowing fists engulfed by a red light.
Her punches weren't simple right or left hooks, instead, they were multiple uppercuts designed to break the chin. He had no problem stepping back, not even breaking a sweat as his arms raised, preparing a silent counter. The next thing wasn't of his limbs offending, but of Natalia, for once he'd stepped just further away, her knees released.
An ancient martial arts technique utilized to eliminate the adversary's starting motion, Karlo couldn't help but jump, as if second nature within his programming mind. This worked to perfection for Natalia, for the Manji kick she'd thrown at the side of his head had been it sure with just enough illumination, bright enough to burn like the surface of the sun, she couldn't help but wince as she channeled this power. However, the mere millisecond her toes touched his cheek, he'd vanished, and the next thing she knew, there was a knee jabbing her chest.
The pressure added had accumulated enough damning force to send reverberations through that layer of flesh, resounding cracks as ribs shattered entered the atmosphere and flew for her, too, would soon follow. Her body was pushed to the side as Katie jumped, blackened blade in hand, he slashed downward at his head.
Pupils expanding to differ from the usual shrunken size, Azazel rolled that crack between her legs. Capturing his baldness to stand upright, Katie's feet touched the ground, wiping away at the blade with a simple swipe… to devour any stray sweat that'd attached to the sharpened steel.
"I see. If I put more force into it, I really could've broken through your friend's chest there. Aren't you lucky to still have her; fighting by your side?" These words didn't belong to someone with the face of her father, like blatantly mocking her right to her face… if memory serves her right, then that personality wasn't his.
'Of all the people to imitate, huh? Those words don't work well with the way your monotonous voice sounds… I'll free you though.'
The sword gleamed under the radiation of the sun, throwing it over her head, the lengthiness scraping the roof's curviness, the Crow felt his nails extend. Into something akin to claws like that of a demon, no chuckles of insanity echoed out his lips, for, behind that mask, Kate knew there was one thing about her father she couldn't mistake.
The duo ran ahead at one another, blades clashing, sparks entering the air as the metal forcefully smashed the matter apart. Moon weaved- left to right, dodging the slashes the Crow threw at her.
'He's slower. Either that or I can see his line of movement. Both are working out for me, so…'
Kate watched as claws came from the left to slash at her right, turning her eyes, she ducked under the incoming right slash aimed for her skull's side. Strands whisking past her vision, Moon's fist went right for the leg, kicking right ahead at her ducked posture, right below her sweaty features to shatter her jaw. A fist connected to his knee, inverting the placement rig the bone to point outward with blood splashing out in accordance to such a brutal attack, at once, Katie grabbed her enemy by the neck.
Backhanding him to easily shatter his jaw and unhinge it like a broken limb, the shadows overcasting Katie's eyes were not illuminated by the light of the sun. For that darkness had intruded upon her most beloved of relatives, there would be no mercy to those who dared to rob her of that loving life she was designed to live. Her breaths were shaky, eyes' corners welling with tears, goosebumps littering her white skin, now… she held in a headlock. She'd bested him, without even trying- it had been so much of a blur that she hadn't even realized what she'd done.
"Jesus, you don't care about me, do… ya?"
The sight before her eyes was that of a heresy act, like the blasphemous ones committed by the church against the people they deemed sinners, she charged her fists by slamming her knuckles. For when God is threatened by the claws of a devil, who would be there to save him? Of course, none other than the loyal subjects he manipulated so callously into believing clear ploys.
'Her hands are shaking…'
This thought wasn't exclusive to only one of the females, but the both of them, for their deductions were right. Maybe it had something to do with the helpless body of her father locked behind her muscularity or that the man who saved her when she was but a helpless child was seconds away from having his life snuffed out. Nevertheless, their reasons were unknown, for no one besides themselves could truly understand how other people thought about situations… Everyone comes from different backgrounds, but eventually, everything turns out alright. After all, that's the chimera truth of the world.
But what about the righteous outcome at the end of the dawn that comes after a troubling night? What about the true truth, not fabricated by word of corrupt mouth to ensure youths fall into a toxic system, working off their asses to slip into that poisonous society, tearing apart children at the seams.
"Let 'er go, Katie! Come on… we still have use for him, it'd be useless to kill him now…" Natalia's voice quivered with tears dripping down her cheeks, shaky exhalations reverberating into the air as they slipped out her bloody lips.
"What do you know? You don't know this man! Or maybe you do… maybe you know him so bad that you know his daily fucking schedule! But I don't… he wasn't there for me..! HOW COME… HOW COME SOME USELESS SPECK-LIKE YOU GETS TO HAVE THOSE FOND MEMORIES?! FROM… from someone who isn't even your fucking father…" Katie's bawling had increased its volume to such a degree it started to hurt her ears, but she pushed through it, witnessing the body of the Crow fall out her arms, she ran right on over to Moon just as she was about to collapse.
This girl she didn't even know, one who was tied to her father from the Old World by a string unable to be cut apart, Katie curled up in her skinny arms and burrowed her face into her neck's crevice. Smith hadn't dared to let her go, to speak her mind and mention the crawling uncomfortably sneaking up her back. Instead, she endured, memories flinging into her mind's eye, Natalia recalled a memory not of her own, the man she silently deemed the closest… to a loving father.
'So… this is what it feels like.'
Even after training her body to the highest peak possible of human capability, as powerful as she was, Katie was plagued by a virus-like feeling stabbing at her mind's center. No matter how strong she was, she could never escape the powerlessness of the present. A cousin locked behind bars, another tormented by loneliness, and the other abandoning them for a dream… if she'd have been there, would things be different? That was the only thought coursing through her head, a variable considered that held no weight, the audibility of her words would never reach Natalia's ears. For the next thing she knew, the incoherent saddened babbles that accompanied mad crying had all but faded.
As she cried endless tears into the arms of her newfound comrade, a dumbbell was lifted by veiny arms, however muscular they may be, still resembling a feminine build.
In a gym recommended to her by her brother's ex, June Wilder honed her skill to the extreme. Even now, with photos of her body when she felt secure about the way she looked plastered over her phone, those plaguing experiences of doubt raptured her mind like an incurable virus. But, unbeknownst to her, the fate of her future was just seconds away from altering forever. The sound of glass touching against a sole barely entered her ear as it touched her clothing, looking down to examine the spectacles laid there carefully, the way a magnet was drawn to metal, the tips of her white fingers entangled the glasses' right arm. At the same time, their eyes met, he with curtain-like brown hair, marks over his neck and peeling down from below his eyes.
"Ah, I'm sorry."
At such events just like these, causality- was at its strongest.