The three marksmen take aim and fire. Tetsu extends and swings the meter-wide axe blades at an angle to cancel out all three light dots.
SL pounces before Tetsu completes the arc. The three marksmen move alongside SL in a fixed pattern to avoid catching him in the crosshairs. But Tetsu had launched both of his lich staffs before he completed the swing. It seemed as if they were aimed at SL, even though he thought so and changed his stance to block the staff, but they soared past him and crashed into the pistols, knocking out P1 and P3.
'Just like archers. Weaker at physical damage,' Tetsu noted to himself.
Of course, his plan from the start was to take out the long-range fighter under the cover of their comrade. Okay... okay while using their teammate as a shield. Yet he did not expect to knock them out cold with one full-power throw, a Rune that accelerated their speed, and another which made sure they struck at a vital spot, right at the back of their head.
The room conjured two magic circles around the marksmen, healing them at a rapid pace.
"Movies are true!?" P2 tried to aim, but his leader was on the way. With no other choice, he changes the pistol setting to stun and fires at his unconscious comrades.
SL received a ping to move, but he had a bigger problem looming over him at the moment to take orders from a lower-level troop. SL always kept track of the squad and always positioned himself to stay clear of their line of fire. This clause can only be broken when he is engaged in a close-quarters battle like he is now.
SL had to change stances at a moment's notice to block the mysterious staff. The sudden shift almost tripped him again. He suspected the human had to do something with it, though. There is no way a veteran can slip twice in such a short span.
SL shifts stances to block the staff, but the massive sword also blocks his vision, and in that brief moment, Tetsu paves the axes' trajectory to carry his momentum forward; onto SL. For speed, Tetsu swung using the axe blade. The two-meter-long blade, angle, and gravity sped up the slicing motion further as the blade seemed to cut through any kind of resistance.
A Rune at the tip of the axe blade and with Tetsu's entire power forced into his wrists to twist the axe, the blade pivots at the last moment. If followed through, SL could have been served in two equal parts.
A wall springs up, inches before the side of the blade slammed into SL's face. The white wall cracks on impact but still stands tall, absorbing the complete force. Tetsu already spotted OrbA fiddling with her pearly-white orb, and now he confirmed they were the controllers to control this room.
Tetsu uses the wall as an anchor and twists himself over the elongated axe handle to push himself toward OrbA. The lift-off's recoil sends the axe into a spin. Two Runes control the trajectory and angle of the spin.
OrbA sprints away, yet the wall dissolves back into the floor, still bearing the cracks from the axe's impact. She hadn't had the time to rewrite the command, even though Tetsu recognized she was the one who raised it. Which meant both orbs had similar functions; to control the room.
Without the wall blocking him, SL rushed at Tetsu. OrbB also took the chance and raised a wall between Tetsu and OrbA, while P1 rapidly fired at the same space, hoping one bullet would connect before he reached the wall.
As everyone focused on Tetsu, none of them gave the spinning axe a second glance.
Out of the wielder's hands, a weapon becomes useless. A fairly common point Tetsu exploited.
The axe spun, and the side of the blade slammed into SL's back.
P1, who expected Tetsu to move forward, showered the space ahead with bullets, and with no way ahead, the obvious alternative was to head back.
Tetsu dives forward, lands on his hands, then pushes back, both his feet slamming into SL's face, lifting the hefty Krantz off his feet. At the same time, two pistols followed a predetermined path to reach Tetsu. He expected the guns since he tagged them with the staff, but the two angry Krantz chasing their guns was a pleasant surprise. 'Orbs.' He had to get rid of the healer first.
In quick succession, Tetsu points the guns at every Krantz in the room, even taunting Krovath with a shooting gesture. The act confuses OrbB, and she activates a failsafe out of inspiration.
The room erupts into spikes. Tetsu tags the massive sword and pulls it under him, bracing for impact. The sword absorbed all the spikes meant for him, yet it hurt like hell. He hoped the others were at least down for the count, but that hope was soon lost as OrbB manipulated the spikes to ignore her comrades.
No, that's not it.
P2 and P3 were in a mad chase after their pistols, so they moved and got gravely injured, while OrbA stood still like a stiff statue, scared but not harmed. SL had a wider safe zone, where lesser spikes erupted. She must have noted their positions, and all they had to do was stay put to escape the onslaught.
"Understood," Tetsu adjusts his plans. "Two down." He reclaims P1 and P2's guns, confident of dodging another such attack. Tetsu shot at the sisters who raised walls to block the light bullets.
The room goes back to normal, and P1 aims, but this time the axe spins between them, blocking his shot. Tetsu lands with the sword and flips it with his feet, pointing it at SL. The axe shrunk, and Tetsu launched the sword at SL with his legs while shooting at P1. He had two pistols, so one was aimed to cancel out the incoming light bullets, and the other fired at random. Kile's dad's lesson kicks in at a critical moment.
P1 retaliates with reckless abandonment, the orb girls communicating and rising barriers to protect both their comrades while blocking Tetsu's escape routes. However, Tetsu was already ducking to the floor to escape the bullets. All attacks were canceled with no clear winner, or so they thought when two staffs stabbed into the two Krantz, P1 and P3, everyone forgot about. Everyone except for Tetsu.
The sisters kept the walls active and made more walls around the two marksmen. After forcing them to split their focus, Tetsu zigzagged around the walls and shot SL in both his knees and arms.
P1 jumps over the wall after hearing his comrade scream in pain, only to get caught between two bullets Tetsu fired in advance, rendering him useless to hold a gun.
A brisk spinning axe tore through all the defensive walls the orb sisters raised, and in under five minutes, Tetsu also diced the orbs in two, storing away the diced spheres. The sisters slumped to the floor, their heartbeats audible to Tetsu's ears.
"Finish us quick," they pleaded.
"Crazy bitches," Tetsu chuckled and headed toward the others, placing health potions down, one for each.
"Kill us already," P1 growled.
"Don't expect the same treatment they got," Tetsu warns. "My mom taught me not to hit girls, true, but Razz said boys are fair game. Toughens us up. Which means love for us is only the hard kind."
"What girls?"
"Them," Tetsu points.
"They are not female!" P1 exclaims.
"They are not! Well, they fooled me," Tetsu chuckles, walking around the room collecting his spoils of war. He stole all of their potions except for the ones he left behind, squashing his previous generosity with his current greed.
"Hey! I warned you, and this is payment."
"Our clothes as well?" P1 covered his privates, glaring at Tetsu.
"For experimental purposes," Tetsu grinned, not one bit ashamed of his reasoning.
Tetsu trusted P1, but his inner Razz did not. For all she knew, they were all perverts and wanted him to strip the two Krantz on their behalf. So he left the female Krantz with a single extra layer of clothing that they seemed to care little for. Questioning gazes followed Tetsu's every move, to which he shrugged and explained, "Alien tech. Need 'em for research."
Tetsu bowed and went on to collect more tiles. Like the room above, this one comprised unique tiles. Except for the role reversal where the females harassed the males with inappropriate touching, hurtful comments, and ogling at them, to the point where SL begged for his clothes back, Tetsu found the Krantz similar to humans.
"Be good," Tetsu waved them goodbye with a smile, but the sudden axes emerging from his sleeves turned the casual wave into a threat.
Tetsu kept smiling at them, oblivious to their state of mind as he stabbed the axes into the wall, using them as claws to climb and face their driver.
"Final driver fight!?"
If Tetsu wanted blood, the first axe throw would have split the fortress driver into two equal parts. But he didn't, because all the events so far were a big misunderstanding and nothing else. He might be a glutton and is definitely an honored thief who steals from misinformed fools trying to kill him, but he is not a killer.
"Take the olive branch," Tetsu urged.
"And roll over and die? Never," Krovath growled.
"My bad! I meant let me leave and let us put these misunderstandings behind us. I am not here to kill you. I kept running and happened to enter whatever place or… whatever this is..." Testu gestures around. "That's it. Differences in culture confused our stances."
"I do not trust you."
"Why not?"
"Because... if you really wanted to escape, you would have used the exit below," Krovath pointed, and Tetsu spotted the elite group of Krantz escaping through an inconspicuous door.
"How am I even supposed to know there was one below?"
"Even if not," Krovath took a fighting stance, "there is no way 'stretching an olive branch' can translate to such a huge sentence. What is an olive branch, really?"
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