CWD: OE ~ Thirty-Nine

There was one thing that Arriod had not been expecting: Nacho wasn't the kind of person who would let a little bit of pain stop him from fulfilling his goals. While Nacho wasn’t entirely certain what it translated to, the fact that he had significantly higher stats than any other person around meant that the cook could move at incredible speeds with incredible endurance.

It took but a moment for his cleaver to swing down in a strike from upper left to lower right, his intent clear; if the blow landed, Nacho would directly cut the Paladin in half. Arriod was no slouch himself, and the prickling in his neck that warned him of imminent danger saved his life as he turned and blocked the heavy blow with his sword. With grim satisfaction, Nacho watched the CruxTerran’s eyes widen even through his ubiquitous sunglasses; clearly the man had not thought that a simple chef could muster such raw physical force without even using a Skill.

Completely knocked off course, Arriod lost a little ground as Nacho sped forward. The cook knew that he did not have to defeat his opponent in battle; he simply needed to win the race to the Portal. An instant later, it was his turn to dive for safety as a ghostly image of Arriod’s katana flew through the air where he would have been. Nacho turned as his opponent caught up to him, bringing both of his kitchen knives forward in an ‘X’ pattern to catch the overhead blow of the lethal blade.

“I can use that a few more times, easily.” Arriod’s threat was a deadpan, sincere promise. “You may be able to get ahead of me a little bit, but as soon as you turn your back on me again, I will cut you in half.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll just need to make sure that you can't move your arms. You know what? While we're at it, let's just remove you as a threat entirely.” With no further warning, the former Assassin sent his chef's knife slithering through the air, sending sparks flying wherever it nicked the katana. The Paladin was barely able to move to the side before his neck would have been sliced open. “I'm no expert on CrossHuman physiology, but something tells me your blood flows pretty similarly to ours. Let's find out!”

“We’re CruxTerrans!” Arriod growled, then flinched involuntarily as his opponent began to move.

Using his raw physicality, Nacho darted forward, slamming his blades one after another into the Paladin. The speed was so great that he was absolutely certain he would be cutting the man down in no time, but then it was his turn to be surprised by the defensive skills his enemy could bring to bear. A Paladin specialized in dealing damage and healing damage that their bodies took, so even when Arriod could not block a knife blow perfectly, the damage was fixed moments later, if it was enough damage that it required attention.

Three seconds after their first engagement, having exchanged seven attacks, the two leaders of their respective groups disengaged and took a short leap backward to reset their stances. Nacho was positioned with the Portal behind him, and he was able to watch as his allies fought their own battles.

Taye was facing off against the CruxTerran teleporter, sending arrows flying at incredible speed wherever the man popped into existence, only for his target to vanish before the attack could land. It seemed that the teleporter had a minimum distance that he could travel in an instant, because there were times where he moved backwards in order to blink forward and appear close by the Archer. I'm those moments, Taye proved that he wasn’t a one-hit wonder. His backup weapon, a dagger that Nacho had sharpened, swung out in an attempt to fend off the melee range attack, and he used the hardened wood of his bow to block the short sword his opponent was using against him.

After each deterred strike, the CruxTerran would vanish once more, appearing far enough away that Taye would fire an arrow his way moments later. Brie was holding her own against a full three opponents, even though she was unable to bring her Skills to bear against them due to the starvation debuff and how close she was to going negative in their Hunger Points. Nacho realized that the debuff must be an issue that was affecting more than just his own people, as any Skill use was accompanied by a magical effect, not the standard extra damage or faster movement that came with physical-style abilities.

Of course, this meant that Kristie was having a blast. More specifically, she was blasting whoever she was targeting with purple grenade after purple grenade, sending magical shrapnel, wood slivers from the slowly destroyed tabletop, and even some discarded weapons flying with each detonation. No one could seem to get close to her, protected as she was by both Brie and Reuben, but the close-quarters fighting that the rest of her team was engaging in also meant that she could not use her best spell and send out a nova of pinkish-purple bolts.

The cook was fairly certain that if their enemies grouped up even once, she would be able to take all of them out with a single detonation. Before he could do more than run his eyes over the situation, Arriod had shot forward with a massive burst of speed, his katana dragging along the table and leaving a groove in the beautiful wood before swinging into an uppercut that would have bisected Nacho if he hadn't moved, and likewise would have stabbed him in the face if he had merely dodged backwards a little. Instead, Nacho leaped forward and over the blade's arc, barely able to stay ahead of the deadly edge as it came up toward him.

Arriod followed through on the attack, bringing his katana in a full three hundred and sixty degree rotation, but Nacho had sprung directly backwards as soon as his feet were planted on the ground, and the blade passed him harmlessly as he got too close to his enemy's arms for the blade to impact him. Tossing his chef's knife in the air, he reached backwards and grabbed his skillet. Iron handle in hand, he swung the much wider weapon down on Arriod’s hands as the blade of the katana passed him again, smashing it into the hilt and guard of the weapon before swinging it to his back and catching the falling chef's knife.

The unexpected shock sent the longer ranged weapon clattering across the floor, and Nacho followed it up by planting a boot in Arriod’s side. The man toppled over, though he used his momentum to swing back to his feet and scrabble for his weapon. He looked up, expecting a follow-up attack, only to see Nacho once again sprinting at the portal, which was so close, so tantalizing. If he had looked back over his shoulder, Nacho would have seen the rage and fear that crossed the CruxTerran leader's face at that moment. “No! I refuse to lose; not after all of this!”

Repositioning his katana, Arriod swung it and once more sent out a ghostly copy of his blade, this one spinning slightly as it flew through the air. It listed lightly and lazily to the left, the direction that Nacho had dodged previously. The cook spotted the approaching phantom blade over his shoulder and only had a moment to react. He collapsed to the floor entirely, fully arresting all of his momentum but managing to escape what would have been an otherwise sudden and messy death.

The portal was only ten strides away, but there was no way that he was going to be able to make a move toward it without leaving himself completely exposed to the ghostly metal that was whistling through the air toward him even now. Playing defensively, the cook searched desperately for another opportunity to hold off his opponent, but Arriod was wise to his tricks now and knew that Nacho would use any excuse to make a break for it instead of ending things here and now.

Arriod attempted to circle around Nacho, but the cook countered it by simply backing up closer and closer to the Portal. Even so, both of them were in a position to observe what was happening among their teams when a sudden scream of agony shattered the literally delicious air. Taye had finally managed to figure out the movement patterns of the teleporting CruxTerran and put a shaft through his left shoulder. “You shot me! You filthy round-pupil alien!”

Each person was focused on their individual battles, and each of them had been creating their own battle rhythm. When the furious teleporter unexpectedly appeared directly behind Reuben, no one was in a position or mental place to stop him from slamming his short sword into the Healer's back.

Time froze for Nacho as he watched items appear around Reuben, a sure sign that his Storage Slots were collapsing due to his death.

Then he realized that time actually was frozen.

Only Brie was moving, but it wasn’t her body. Strange, iridescent energy was flowing off of her, as what Nacho could only assume was her Patron-given boon was activated. Her voice shook the air as she called out pleadingly, “Rejection of death, one free life, given freely to one whose fate is bound to mine, my husband: Reuben Colby! Please work…!”

Her voice broke in a heartrending sob as the energy flowed from her and into Reuben, dragging his items back into their extra dimensional space in passing. When the last mote of energy had dissipated, time resumed as Reuben spun around and planted his fist in the absolutely shocked CruxTerran’s face.

The enemy dropped to the ground, rolling twice before coming to a boneless stop. Kristie fired a purple grenade at the man to finish him off, but one of his allies appeared next to the fallen teleporter and slammed his shield forward, causing the grenade to rebound and fly back at Kristy ten times faster than it had traveled originally. She screamed and dove out of the way, and the energy grenade flew faster than a Ballista Bolt… directly toward the portal.

Directly at Arriod.

Just before impact, the condensed energy detonated. It had never been meant to exist for so long, so the total output was much lower than expected, but it was still enough for the shockwave to toss both Nacho and Arriod off of the ground and send them cartwheeling through the shifting light of the Portal.