"Oh, I have a report for you, Esmeralda." Not Jaqueline said with a sneer.
'There's no way my girlfriend could make expressions that ugly, right? Right. There's no way.'
"Deliver your report after this fight has concluded. If you haven't noticed, he has gained quite a bit of power since our last conflict, so you would do best to leave if you wish to live."
Not Jacqueline takes offense, as shown by her expression and indignant body posture. "So you don't want me to tell you that Mackey's daughter has been captured, I take it. Or that she's being transferred here so that she can be taken to the Great Cathedral across the sea."
Esmeralda looked angry. "Why was I not informed of this?"
Pleased that she got such a reaction, Not Jaqueline examined her nails. "Why else? The Hoods."
Esmeralda's expression became so dark that Shiv couldn't help the fear that spread through his system. "I'm afraid I must request your help in this fight, Executioner. We must finish this so that we can retrieve the girl from those monsters." With that, she turned her attention back to Shiv and threw herself at him, swinging her spear in a wide arc.
He responded in kind, throwing himself forward and bringing his arm up to block the weapon at the shaft whilst swinging his opposite fist toward the focused brown eyes of his opponent.
The amount of power her strike hit his arm with surprised him in how lacking it was. But he continued on with his counterattack, only to watch as she released the spear and created a knife that she stabbed at his heart, ignoring his fist.
Unfortunately for her, the knife failed to penetrate his metal skin, and his metal fist came into contact with her cheek. He heard rather than felt the impact and she was sent flying backward.
Without hesitation, he whipped around swinging a fist, only to miss Not Jacqueline, who was just out of reach. His wild punch threw him off balance and she took advantage of this opening by stepping forward and stabbing an electrified knife at his wide eyes.
He barely managed to tilt his head so that the weapon scratched his forehead instead. He went on to use the momentum of his reckless punch to spin around and come at her with his fists balled above his head. She lifted her own hands, wielding knives, to block his intended strike… just as he had hoped.
He spat out the dirt he'd eaten when diving to the ground earlier, but now the dirt was in the form of several spikes that lodged into his opponent's throat and chest. His overhead strike easily broke through her shocked block and crushed her face. He grimaced. 'I know she's not her, but I really did feel like I just killed my girlfriend.' He shook his head violently, trying to banish the thought, and once again turned to face Esmeralda, who had just managed to stand.
"I'll only ask once: who are the Hoods, and what are they going to do to Blaze?" Shiv asked quietly, watching his opponent steady herself and summon a new spear.
"I'm afraid there's no time for discussion. Just know that they are a plague, and the longer you hold me here, the more danger your daughter will find herself in." With that, she threw herself at him again, though this time she was stabbing forward with the spear, and there were javelins and spikes shooting at Shiv from just about every other direction.
Shiv was just as serious, now that it had been confirmed that Blaze was in serious danger. He knew that he was no match for this woman when comparing the raw amount of power and levels at their disposal, so Shiv would have to find a more subtle way of winning, like he did with the dirt in his mouth that spelled the demise of Not Jaqueline.
The problem was that he wasn't being given any time to think.
He launched himself up and back, away from his opponent, twisting to dodge projectiles whilst searching for a place to land. The spot he'd just vacated was buried in shiny green projectiles and eradicated. He noticed that Esmeralda was an earth manipulator, with some strange spin put on it to make everything she manipulated turn into emerald. 'The way to deal with earth mages is…' He was forced to dodge yet again and summon a shield to block an overhead strike and a pair of spikes that jutted up from below him.
He needed a second to enact the plan that had half-formed in his mind, but it was not given to him. Instead, he stepped into a hole that had been cleverly covered with a thin layer of earth, causing him to trip. A massive spike shot out of the earth right below him and hit his metal stomach with enough force to crush a car… and send him flying who knows how far before he slammed into a building within the city, crashing through three floors before finally coming to a stop on the ground. A startled family gathered around a dinner table stared at him while he rolled over and coughed, though his constitution was strong enough that no blood was coughed up. A quick check of himself revealed that he was severely shaken up, but nothing was broken and his internal organs seemed to be fine. He quickly pulled some throwing knives from the ground while his face was in it.
He gained his footing and shook his head, which turned out to be a massive mistake, as that made his head hurt and brought severe nausea into play. When he had recovered a sufficient amount, he nodded at the family. "All of you should get out-" he abruptly stopped speaking when he realized who he was and what he was saying. 'It's not my job to save these people… it's my job to kill them.' There were three kids huddled around their parents, all looking at him with wide eyes. 'I'm the bad guy.'
He scowled. He wouldn't apologize. He was going to get Blaze back from whatever crazy religious fanatics had her, and he was going to go home to earth and forget about this entire experience.
Just as he stepped toward the front door, Esmeralda entered the scene, slamming into the place he'd just left from the same direction he had entered from. "Please, just surrender."
Rather than respond, Shiv threw his knives. Esmeralda had seen the family behind her, so she had no choice. She crossed her arms in front of her face and took the attacks without a sound.
Upon releasing the knives, Shiv had bent down and pulled a massive mallet from the ground and hefted it up. He swung it around once and released it so that it flew at Esmeralda. She didn't have time to remove the knives, and barely managed to cause a barrier to erupt out of the ground in front of her.
The hammer crashed through the barrier and hit her crossed arms. She barely managed to deflect it to the side, but still took enough force from the blow that one of her arms was shattered.
Shiv moved forward to capitalize on his attack. He was shocked when Esmeralda leaped over the barrier and punched him with her good hand.
He went flying.
He crashed through several walls and rolled whilst puking his guts out till he came to a stop, lying in a puddle of vomit and rubble. He groaned. "This… is officially the worst fight I've ever had." He awkwardly stood up yet again, but this time didn't have time to make sure everything was in order. He wasn't the only one who went flying.
Though Esmeralda's flight was intentional, and ended with her holding a spear that disappeared inside him.
They stood still, the only sounds being the crumbling buildings and their heavy breathing. Dust floated everywhere in great billowing clouds, obscuring the sunlight that otherwise would have slipped in through the holes in the roof.
Slowly, almost in a confused manner, Shiv looked down at the spear in Esmeralda's hands. His eyes followed the shaft till it came into contact with the skin of his belly and disappeared. Shiv turned his neck to look behind him, searching for the rest of the green weapon, and found it sticking out of his back, though this part was stained red, and looked almost black in the dim light.
He tore his eyes from the spear, and shaking heavily, looked into Esmeralda's eyes. She looked horrified, as if she was regretting a grave mistake.
She was crying.
All at once, the strength left her and she slumped to her knees, looking at her bloody palms, which rested face up in her lap.
Shiv looked down at her, and managed a shaky smile. "I…haha, I'm the last man standing."
The last word left his mouth, and he stood there for a second longer, then coughed up blood and stumbled backward. He caught himself on a wooden chair, but couldn't hold himself up and slid down into a sitting position on the floor, still clutching to the chair for support.
He closed his eyes, the last thing he saw being Esmeralda, sitting motionless in the only lighted spot in the room.