Chapter 395: Three versus three


    Carl stared at the ‘waiting cell’ monitor with the others, blinking dry eyes as he watched the description of the other team’s affinities.


    “Arcane/Psionic. Martial. And…unknown? OK. That’s ke’s team or I’m too tired to understand reality.”


    They all kind of went silent at the prospect. They’d ‘nned’ for it, in a kind of loose, ‘we should get ke’, three drinks in kind of abstract way. But they all knew it was bad news.


    The lift took them up in what felt like seconds, into what looked like an outdoor, rolling hills kind of almost scenic arena. They saw ke and his team instantly on a hill several hundred feet away.


    "Fuck me.” Carl ran a hand over his smooth scalp. "We should have worked this out. I''ll go talk to him."


    "Uh. You sure?” Reba pped herself awake. “Maybe we should just…you know, jump ''em."


    "What and fake-kill them?” Carl looked at his Shard and shook his head. “I’m just gonna stab little Annie? No. We need some rules or something. ke''s reasonable."


    Becky snorted, but put her hands on her hips and waited. OK, ke wasn’t like his brother in most of the ways that made you trust him. But still, he was a good kid. A scary, unpredictable, nebulously powerful kid. But he was Mason''s brother and he''d done his best for Nassau.


    Still, after a few steps, Carl went invisible. When he was about halfway he yelled.


    "Uh, hey kid. Looks like it''s that time."


    He saw ke smile, but had no idea if it was genuine.


    "Carl, old boy. Well that''s too bad. Want to just give up and save us all the trouble?"


    Carl winced, a little annoyance oveing his exhaustion. "Now that doesn''t sound quite fair," he called. "But I was thinking…ground rules. Like if we''ve got each other square, we go down and y dead. Surrender when everyone''s ‘down’. How''s that sound?"


    "Sounds capital, Carl. Except it''s a bit hard to know <em>when</em> that moment is. If it''s not obvious, I suppose we''ll have to keep at it."


    "Fair enough." Carl sighed, not excited at the prospect of fake death, but not too frightened either. "How about if <em>I</em> go down, it''s over? No way Tommaso and Becky can finish you. And let''s say the same for you. So, you or me bite it, the fight''s done."


    A small dy, then ke shouted back.


    "That''s a deal, Carl. I''ve been stabbed before. But do try and keep it clean. In the tiny chance you get to me."


    "Not that tiny!" Carl shouted, grinning a little now, the excitement of a fight mingling with fear of whatever the hell ke was about to do. "I''m heading back to my team now. And then we''reing."


    "Oh. Take your time."


    Carl winced, expecting the son of a bitch was probably over there channeling and summoning God knew what with every second, even as they talked. Whatever else he was these days he was a kind of ''crafter'' caster and probably time was not on Carl''s side.


    He ran back to the others to exin.


    "Yeah we heard," Becky said, her arms crossed. "I ain''t scared, you know. You bunch of lily livered city boys don''t need to treat me like I''m some kind of..."


    "I know, OK?" Carl cut her off. "It''s not that...it''s just...there''s no way you two can kill ke unless he''spletely tapped, in which case I expect he''ll give up anyway. It''s not good for any of our mental health to hurt each other, win or lose. Right? So now it''s just me and him, and we''ll get over it. OK?"


    Becky shrugged and rolled her eyes, then literally spit on the ground.


    "Much appreciated," said Tommaso, wiping some sweat off his forehead. "Happy not to die, eh? Fake death. Real death. All bad where I''m from."


    "Well we''re wasting time." Carl sighed and turned invisible again, flicking through his powers with a mental scroll. "I''ll try and get ke. But he knows that so who the hell can say what he''ll do. You''ll probably need to get them distracted."


    "I''m chargin'' right at the bastard," Becky said. "Let ''em throw everything at me. I''ll blow ''em all to hell."


    "Your shield may not stop his mind powers, Becky," Carl warned. "He might intend to knock you out of the whole damn fight."


    "Let ''em try." Becky summoned her shield and started walking, and Carl took a deep breath and moved to her nk.


    All he could really do was hope her powers had evolved and given her some kind of mental protection, or that her stats were high enough she could shrug it off. Surely Mind Control wouldn''t work as well on yers as it did on monsters. That was usually yer versus yer 101.


    But even if the answer was yes, ke would have his other magic, his constructs, and his physical shield. Carl expected he could cut that shield apart in about a second, but he doubted Becky could.


    Could ke''s magic help him see Carling? Maybe. Could he levitate himself up high enough Carl couldn''t even warp to him? Also maybe. But he couldn''t fly around forever without running out of mana. And certainly not with his side kick Seul-ki also being floated.


    Carl winced as he realized he might be forced to take out Seul-ki or Annie for tactical reasons. But he hoped it didn''te to that.


    "Tommaso..."


    "Run around. Stay alive. Try to help," said the Italian. "Yes I know."


    Carl pped him on the shoulder, which made the man jump in terror because Carl was almost entirely invisible.


    "Sorry," he said, then hurried out from the trees.


    * * *


    ke used both halves of his mind to set up his defences. Becky and Tommaso would try and distract his team, then Carl would try and kill him. It was a simple, if effective strategy. It might even have worked—if ke didn''t do anything about it.


    "They areing, Master," Navi chirped from above. "No sign of the rogue. But I can detect him within twenty feet. Shall I go search now?"


    "Yes, thank you Navi," ke said. "When you find him, float above his position. Just be ready for his constant warping, it doesn’t go more than about thirty feet. sh red if you lose him, please."


    The orb familiar zipped off towards the trees, and ke kept channeling.


    He was creating a concrete pir, three foot square, thirty feet high, which took a good 20% of his mana. Or rather <em>Seul-ki’s</em> mana. She watched it rise up from the ground and frowned.


    "Can Carl not...destroy the pir? Topple us off? I don''t see it helping us long."


    "He certainly can," ke agreed, smiling as it finished. He took Seul-ki''s arm and floated them both up with Telekinesis, leaving a silent Annie at the base in his other, already finished protection. They settled on the narrow tform at the top, Seul-ki clutching ke''s arm now as she nced around from the height.


    Becky had crossed about half the clearing now. ke mentallymanded his constructs to advance as he started channeling True Making again. This time he made cables attaching his tform to the nearby trees.


    "He might still cut us down," ke said as he cast. "But it will take him considerable time. Time he will not have."


    Seul-ki nodded, fueling his mana with her active regeneration. The ground shook slightly as ke''s temporary Defender advanced on Becky, two legionnaires at its side. He’d designed a kind of ‘Becky attack pattern’ into their behavior already. They’d fight in turns and stay <em>just</em> far enough apart she couldn’t easily st them all to hell at at once.


    Annie stood at the base of the pir in the half-sphere metallic shield ke had made for her, only exposing her from the front, axe at the ready. Her face was a neutral mask, but her void power wasn’t active. She probably wouldn’t need it at all for these three.


    But she was at considerable physical risk from Carl, who could likely end her with a single stab of that terrifying de. Her job was just to stay alive and pose a threat. Once Navi found the dangerous rogue, Annie would likely be able to fend him off and maybe hurt him quite badly if he tried for her first.


    "What kinda cowardly horse shit is this?" Becky yelled, looking up at ke and Seul-ki.


    "Worry about yourself," ke called as his legionnaires readied their spears to throw. They would aplish approximately nothing, of course, but ke only needed a bit of time. Sooner orter Carl would have to help her face the constructs, and reveal himself.


    The robot-like creatures engaged with the cowgirl, who soon transformed her shield to her mace and started cracking bits and pieces as ke''s minions smashed and red her purple shield.


    Navi found Carl, then circled in confusion and blinked red as the man warped away. Tommaso looked totally unsure what to do, and ke had enough ''cables'' now it was time to get a bit more aggressive.


    With a grin, he started on another temporary construct with Duality of Ambition, this one designed specifically to smash as quickly as possible on something <em>just</em> like Becky.


    Annie shouted in rm.


    ke nced down expecting Carl had made a move, except it seemed Tommaso was throwing some kind of…ming Molotov cocktails into her protection. ke grit his teeth, using his partitioned mind to catch the next few hurled potions with Telekinesis.


    But the damage had been done. Annie was forced to jump out from her still burning protection, exposed now entirely from a sudden warp from Carl. After a moment of dy, and obviously a difficult decision, Annie rushed out straight at Tommaso.


    * * *


    Carl wasn''t thrilled with how things were going. First of all, ke''s ''crafting'' powers were apparently about ten times more impressive than Carl anticipated. That pir thing was a real problem.


    "Tommaso!" he shouted. "Forget her! Kill this God damn flying robot!"


    Mostly they needed to fall back and re-assess. Or at least that was the n—until Annie came running out.


    Carl winced, having no interest whatsoever in hurting the girl. But if they wanted to win, he had to exploit her vulnerability. He waited until she''d moved a good fifty feet from the pir and the other yers.


    Becky was still tangling with ke''s constructs, looking mostly annoyed as she hit them without doing much damage. Tommaso was falling back in a panicked hurry, tossing a glue off target before bolting back towards the trees, ignoring the flying construct.


    The thing was a problem. But not enough to stop him. Carl took a deep breath, activated his warp, and instantly crossed thest twenty feet to Annie. He abandoned his Reflection invisibility, grabbed her by the waist, and put his Mirror Shard to her throat.


    "Gotcha, girly. Drop down and y dead, OK?"


    Annie screamed bloody murder.


    It was an unexpected, awful sound that made Carl jump. Then she grabbed his knife hand and pulled, thrashing against him as she tried to move it away.


    "Stop!"


    Carl didn''t know what the hell to do. Annie was strong. Stronger than him pretty easily, which became quickly apparent. He lost control of her, then her forearm smashed into his face as she tried to spin and back kick him into oblivion.


    Only his reflexes saved him. He stepped away and spit blood and maybe a tooth, pain and fear taking over any higher thinking.


    He shed her with a spray of blinding colors, but Annie’s eyes zed and she just came barreling straight through with a nk expression and unaffected, open eyes.


    Carl warped as her awful axe swiped through his Exploding Clone, detonating as he appeared maybe ten feet on the other side. But still he hesitated. Annie shook her head and spun,ing straight for him now.


    "Aegis!" Carl yelled, warping away again and running for the trees. Becky''s magic moved over him like a warm, safe bath, and his heart stopped hammering quite so loud.


    He nced back to see ke had just summoned another construct, which was now moving towards Becky with a pair of deadly looking picks. And Annie was stilling.


    Enough was enough.


    Carl summoned a clone, then vanished. He saw that God damn flying construct was still over his head, but he warped, then again, annoyed to be burning mana so fast but deciding he could always fall back after this.


    Annie fell right into his trap. Carl heard ke shout in warning, but it was toote. The little red-head smashed into Carl''s clone with a growl, shattering it sopletely it made him shiver at the thought of it being him. Then he stepped behind her with his Mirror Shard, and rammed it through her back, straight towards her heart.


    Annie instantly spun with her hand right under the axe head to pull it close. She nearly took his head off with the de, and he realized she hadn’t been tricked. She’d decided to sacrifice herself.


    Again Carl’s speed and Spider-man like intuition kept him alive, his body ducking before he’d really thought about it, the horrible axe gouging a chunk of his scalp instead of his neck.


    Blood ran down Carl’s face, but Annie’s legs gave out. She staggered to the ground in silence save a little puff of air. She gasped but failed to breathe, theny t on the grass, her eyes closing almost peacefully in seconds. A kill trumpet red.


    Carl took a breath and tried not to hate himself. He wiped blood from his face then started moving towards the constructs, deciding he''d just kill this batch then pull Becky back and re-group. He was about halfway when a figure dropped out of the sky.


    ke hovered maybe fifteen feet above the ground, his eyes wide, and crackling with energy.


    "Deal''s off.”


    Carl’s danger sense screamed. He practically smashed the warp button with his mind, feeling a frightening rush of power surround everything as he blinked.


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