To A Thief - Chapter 23: Reprisal

Two sudden outbursts of power; one in the battlefield and the other in the Emptiness.. what kind of chaos will come from all of this?

"Here he comes.." Okina narrowed her glowing eyes as Warlord Jagodek came charging towards her. 

She simply jumped to the side as the massive orc charged past her. The weapons made from the energy of the magicite around her body almost acted under their own accord as they swung at the beast while she had dove away. 

With those few strikes alone, a small portion of Jagodek's invisible shield had broken off. It became less transparent now and more of a solid glow with the broken off section of its shield a gaping hole in all of it. 

But the stubborn orc wouldn't give up. It continued its relentless attacks, not seemingly caring whether it won or lost anymore.. it just wanted to kill something. 

Growling and holding up its hand, it began to gather all of the darkness surrounding its body into one big shadowy ball above its palm. More and more darkness seeped out of its body and into this ball until it was about the width of its large orcish hand. 

"What is that..?" Claire asked aloud in surprise at the size of the shadowy sphere above Jagodek's hand. 

"I dunno.. but that doesn't look like it's got a friendly blast radius." Veronaut muttered. "We should probably back up." 

"Good idea.." Avondale quickly replied, cupping his hand over his mouth and yelling out, "FALL BACK!" 

"Up you go." Bear said as he picked up two Temple Knights with ease in both hands after sheathing his lance. He leapt high into the air like a true Dragoon and landed beside the outpost, setting the two wounded knights down. 

Okina stood there calmly, looking through glowing eyes at the warlord's next move. She set one foot a little bit behind her and dug her toes into the ground, slightly raising her arms to her side and causing all of the energy weapon orbiting around her to stop and move in front of her, creating a sort of "shield". 

"Give me your best shot.." She said to the orc.

Jagodek roared in anger, pulling its arm back as far as it could and then thrusting it forward, sending the ball of darkness spinning towards the opo-opo girl. "YOU.. DIE!" 

Okina took the force of the attack head-on, her energy weapons clashing with it with all their might. The result of the impact from the attack onto her "barrier" was a large wave of dark energy that blew overhead and shuffled nearly every tree in proximity of the battle around like grass. 

"Whoa..!" Flint felt his body pressed up against the outpost from the massive wind. "How is she withstanding that?" 

"I think you're underrrestimating our little monkey girrrl.." Nanaa scoffed as she held an arm over her face, feeling her body shift back just a bit from the sudden wave. 

"That's rrright.. she was.. an experrriment.. after all." The wounded Mel spoke as Annie held her in place from the force of the attack. 

"Looks like that attack was Jagodek's last resort." Annie muttered as she held a hand over her brow and looked at the clash happening before them. 

Okina felt her feet lightly pushed back against the floor, gritting her teeth lightly as she kept her arms to her side and her weapons against the spinning ball of darkness. Even she had to struggle a bit to keep such an attack at bay. 

Nonetheless, the attack grew smaller and weaker as her weapons absorbed it entirely, eventually unable to stay solid and simply disappearing into a small black stream and then into thin air. 

As the shadowy wave of the attack cleared out and the orc stood there in exhaustion, Okina lowered her energy weapons and smiled. "My turn." 

A split second after, she dashed forward and began a brutal chain of attacks that came down with each swing of her arm towards the orc; one section of energy weapons per arm. 

The attacks removed shard over shard of Jagodek's paling until only a few remnants of it remained around the warlord's body. 

It was then that Okina felt the surge of power course through her body in a wave that sent vibrations across her arms. Upon feeling this, she held out her arms and positioned her glowing energy weapons properly, unleashing the final attack that would end Jagodek's rampage once and for all. 

One after another, Weapon Skills rained down on the warlord; all of them of different variety based on each of the energy weapons that Okina controlled. 

Skillchain: Destruction

"That's quite the fireworks show.." Lady Curilla muttered as everyone looked on. "It would seem you Brigadiers made a wise choice in bringing this experiment into your ranks." 

"She has a name." Nanaa purred. 

Flint nodded and gave a light smirk. "Heh, Okina." 

******

The frenzied Stiff jumped onto the large Empty's face and pried open the webbing over its left core with his hands. Laughing to himself upon hearing the pained gurgle, he reached in and took a hold of the large core. Were it not for the surge of power this darkness was giving him, it would probably be impossible for him or anyone else to that matter to force such a webbing open.

The core was very squishy.. like a large eyeball. Only difference was that it pulsated like a heart. Giving a piercing grin, he squeezed it in his grasp and yanked it out with a forceful pull; removing it with a loud snap. It flickered in his hand until he crushed it there and then. 

As the large Empty stomped around in a craze full of pain, it thrusted its head down into the moldy floor and attempted to crush the hume with under its weight. 

Stiff brought his feet up and amazingly stopped the large head with them, gritting his teeth as it continued trying to crush him by moving its bladed limbs forward. Swerving his feet to the side, he brought the large creature to its side and rose back on his own feet without the use of his arms in that freaky way that made him look like he was made of rubber. 

The Empty swung its bladed legs around rapidly like a turned beetle, attempting to slice and dice the approaching hume. 

Stiff simply caught its blades in his hands, feeling them cut into his flesh and bringing them to a stop. He snarled in satisfaction and showed a hint of bloodlust in his dimmed, blacked out eyes as he placed one foot on the Empty's stomach and began to pull as hard as he could. 

The large creature writhed as it felt two of its bladed limbs slowly ripping away from its body. The more Stiff pulled on them, the more the sharp edges would cut into his flesh.. but he didn't care. With a loud rip, he succeeded in tearing off both legs, each with strands of moldy flesh from the Empty's body hanging off the bottom. 

Holding onto the lower fleshy bits of the bladed limbs, Stiff wielded both legs in his hands and grinned wide, jumping back and away from the incoming tongue tendril the Empty attempted to swing at him with. It used the same tendril to push itself back onto its two remaining feet and faced Stiff once more. 

It ran at him like some bull and spun on one leg while holding out the other with the intent of slicing the hume in half. 

Holding up both his new "blades", Stiff felt the sharp edges clash together, causing him to skid across the molded floor a few feet before bringing the creature to a halt. With a quick and heavy swing, he brought down the edge of the leg on his right hand down and sliced the pushing leg clean off. Before the Empty could even fall on its side due its loss of balance on just one leg, Stiff spun his body once and removed that very leg with another swift cleave.

Anyone else would think that would be the end of the ugly beast, but nope. Instead, the damn thing somehow brought the stalagmite-looking appendages on the top of its head down through its body and out of its under side. They would act as its new set of limbs, only this time much tougher and less bladed. The tips were incredibly pointy though; one thrust of them and it could probably pierce any surface. This Empty sure was a persistent little b***h. 

Holding up one bladed limb, Stiff began to course both the darkness in his body and the energy through its shape. This activated a darkness-infused Pulse Attack that he now held over his head. But upon bringing the other bladed limb up and holding it against the other, he was able to somehow split the Pulse Attack in two; one pulsating sphere of energy and darkness in each limb. This one an attack even Stiff himself had never used before.

A wide and twisted grin cut clean across Stiff's face, a bit of black drool streaming down the corner of his mouth. The power of both Pulse Attacks was so massive, they nearly sent the bladed limbs flying right out of his grasp. He began his sprint towards the massive Empty, but stopped short when a sudden flash of light appeared somewhere within him. He couldn't tell if this light had appeared in front of him or somewhere in his mind. 

Either way, it brought him to a sudden stop that disrupted the energy of the Pulse Attacks and caused them to shrink into nothingness. For some reason, the light caused the darkness inside of Stiff to convulse once more, sending him to the ground screaming and growling in pain. The darkness that was flowing from the hole in his chest began to seep out entirely from his body, at first making a small pool of itself onto the floor. Once it completely left Stiff's body and left no more than a slight imprint on his chest that used to belong to the gaping hole, it began to rise up and take form. 

What stood before Stiff now was the distinct shape of an elvaan woman with long, familiar hair. This shape had no visible appearance and was made up of the darkness itself, black in color entirely save for glowing yellow eyes. 

Feeling himself coming back to his senses, Stiff's eyes shot open and darted up to this womanly dark being who looked down at him. "What's going on..!?" He coughed, clutching his chest. 

The shadowy silhouette reached for him and took a hold of his wrist, suddenly throwing him upwards as if he weighed nothing. It created a sword out of its own darkness and threw it upwards alongside Stiff, flying past him and cutting open some kind of tunnel within the emptiness. 

"Whoa!" The young hume thief went flying right through this tunnel, the last image he saw being the strange shape creating another weapon from its own body and turning to face the large Empty. The entrance of the tunnel closed shortly after. 

******

"Ungh.. what are you talking about sir..?" Kyrie; in disguise of Stiff gasped under the weight of Vincent's foot on his neck. 

"Hm? What do you see..?" Moku turned to Vincent, raising a brow. 

"Heh, come on Moku.. you know better than that. It doesn't take me to figure this fake out." Vincent snickered, tightening his grasp on the fake Stiff's wrist. "For one, a dumb kid like Stiff wouldn't come running to us if his comrades were in deep s**t. Another thing, a dumb kid like Stiff wouldn't allow his comrades to die.. it just wouldn't be like him. That kid is as stubborn as a mule. I've known this ever since Draven told me about him." 

"That's.. that's not true!" The fake Stiff squirmed, clutching Vincent's ankle. "It's me, d****t!" 

"Huh.. I see what you mean now." Moku said, narrowing his eyes. "Boy, do I feel dumb." 

"Nice try." Vincent glared down at Kyrie. "But there's more to it than just observation.. at least, for me there is. I can see right through you." 

"What..?" Kyrie grunted. 

"A woman; a ninja, judging by your transformation techniques and infiltration." Vincent said sternly. "Brown hair, blue eyes.. and judging by your armor, you're working with the same posse as Gazo and Daan." 

The fake Stiff glared up at him and gritted his teeth, quickly reaching his hand behind him and pulling out a shuriken which he threw directly up at Vincent. As the leader of the Brigade blocked the incoming shuriken easily with the hilt of his sword, Kyrie took the chance to break free from under his foot's grasp and roll out of the way. 

"How could he..?" She thought to herself, wondering how he could possibly see who she was. No one should have been able to do so. ".. There's no denying it, then. That ability is.." 

"It's over." Vincent interrupted her thoughts, unsheathing his dark great sword. 

"Well, it doesn't matter now.." Kyrie muttered. "As long as I have you in range, all that's left for me is to kill you." 

Pulling out a small pouch of ninja tools and dumping their small contents in her palm, the female ninja brought her other hand to her chest and formed a sign with her fingers. She began to cast one of her many ninjutsu, but was shocked upon meeting Vincent's gaze. 

He stood there, staring calmly at her as a yellow ring suddenly covered the irises of his eyes. 

"I.. I can't move!" She thought in a panic. "What did he just do to me..? H-His eyes.." 

"A word of advice before I send you to the next life.." Vincent muttered. "Learn to know who exactly you are dealing with.' 

And with that, he chucked his sword at her, aiming the tip towards her heart.  

"He used a Stun ability on me.. with his eyes!" She thought in bewilderment. "This is bad.. I can't move. I can't even speak!"  

The sword drove itself right through her chest and into her heart. Kyrie stood there, eyes wide and twitching as the end of the sword came out her back. 

A few moments after, her body began to crumble into many little shards of glass-like matter until there was nothing but pieces of them on the ground, the sword landing on top of them. 

"Tch.. 'Copy Image', huh?" Vincent scrunched his upper cheek up in annoyance as he went to pick up his sword. "She's probably long gone by now.. nonetheless, now we know who Little Miss Spy is." 

"But.." Moku furrowed his brows in thought. "If that was the spy.. where is the real Stiff?" 

******

Kyrie remained atop a tree top somewhere deep within the forest of Ronfaure. She gritted her teeth at this feeling inside of her.. this sense of defeat and failure. 

"I can't believe he saw through my transformation.. he didn't just notice any flaws- he was able to clearly see me as if I were standing before him. That has to be the ability 'True Sight'; the power to see through deception and even complete invisibility. I have never heard of any of Altana's races harboring such an ability; much less a hume. Only the beastmen lords of the Great Crystal War had the passive trait of True Sight. Not only that, but he was able to Stun me instantly with those eyes. A Dark Knight can normally stun another person, but not without the use of magic and energy- generally easy to avoid... and even then, it's a very mild stun unlike his. With abilities like those, this man is practically invincible. It doesn't seem like he's able to see through Copy Images, though.. still, now he knows who I am.." She thought bitterly.

"What the hell happened?" Gazo called up to Kyrie as he arrived at their rendezvous point. "It's not like you to fail.." 

".. It would seem their leader harbors some unexpected abilities." Kyrie replied as she jumped down from the tree. "I must report to master at once." 

Daan arrived as well with an irritated look on his face. ".. You're not the only one.. Who had an unexpected run-in.." He grumbled. ".. I think this catalyst might be defective after all.." 

"S**t.. the boss is gonna be pissed." Gazo frowned, sheathing his great katana. "Can't be helped. Let's get going." 

"Yes.." Kyrie nodded. 

"..Hmph.. Alright.." Daan shook his head. 

All three of them clutched the dark crystal pendants around their necks and disappeared in a vortex of shadow like usual. 

******

Stiff didn't know how long he had been falling through this new tunnel of darkness, but to his surprise, he eventually shot out of it into warm daylight. Unfortunately, he was a little too high up from the ground and had to brace himself for an incredibly painful crash landing. 

It took him less than a second to realize he was falling towards the ground somewhere inside the city of San d'Oria. 

"AHHH!" He screamed as he fell, breaking through many wooden sections of a structure that was probably being worked on by carpenters. Albeit painful as hell, they softened his fall up to the point where he didn't break any bones upon impact.. but it knocked him out cold. He didn't even have time to think before blacking out. 

"What the hell!?" 

"Where in blazes did this kid come from..? The sky?" 

____________________________________________________________________________________

After one hell of a detour from his 'training regimen", Stiff finally arrives back safely in San d'Oria... sort of.

The Brigade has finally stopped the orcish horde's advancement and have succeeded in keeping Ronfaure and the great city safe. 

Tune in next time in Chapter 24: Reprieve

Author's Note

Comment, Review, Subscribe.. you know the deal! Always appreciated :)

Sorry for the slow update! I plan on releasing Chapter 24 and hopefully 25 throughout today since I have the day off from work.. so keep checking in!