Carl VS The Masked Girl

The beginning of three-minute countdown began.

Alexia sat safely on the sidelines, and I took a deep breath, focusing my eyes upward after doing so.

I instantly ran at Cynthia with the gun raised. Having it in front of me was an obvious sign of shooting it, but with ten bullets left, I needed to stop wasting. My next shot will be the only one I needed to beat her.

The mountainside began to slip once more and crumbled. The watch tower Alexia and I were stationed on was beginning to tip toward Zealous. One more sharp movement and it would collapse and fall within the walls.

With the boulders falling down toward Cynthia and me, I jumped between them and put the combat knife I had in my hands onto the end of the gun. It was now used as a bayonet, and I slashed and stabbed with it.

Cynthia wasn't attacking me, saving her stamina for the opportunity to kill me, I assumed. I agreed to her deal, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try to kill me as it went on.

I slid under her grasp once more, using the bayonet to push her arm out of the way, and turned the gun toward her to pull the trigger.

Cynthia dove out of the way, and I luckily caught the bottom of her foot with Essence Strands coating the tip of my combat knife. Coating objects with Essence Strands is one of my talents thanks to Alatus's teachings.

When Cynthia hit the ground with her foot, it locked in place and she tripped. With a nearby boulder falling down toward her, she had an unnerving look on her face, as if she was expecting me to do something.

The boulder passed by us, and before the edge of the large rock even passed her a second time while falling, I felt chills shoot up my spine.

Cynthia was gone...

I turned behind me in the split second the rock was still falling past me, but nothing was there.

I turned back around, looking at the boulder, and felt it.

A presence...

An inkling of a thought.

I dodged backward, pushing against the boulder with my Essence Bayonet, and with wide eyes, I watched three fingers narrowly pass right by my face.

Cynthia, who somehow became one with the boulder passing by us, clicked her tongue in irritation.

The ability to disintegrate things and reattach them to her... that's not all her ability is...

The ability to disintegrate anything and reassemble them, was that it? She disintegrated herself and reassembled the rock she got rid of earlier.

To create and destroy?

No...

Destroy and create... to copy the arrangement of strands? To rebuild what she destroyed?

Strand control... Cole and Zeka...

Strand distribution... Austin, Amy, and Kire...

Strand manipulation... Cynthia, and Fico?

To manipulate strands.

Cynthia hasn't used her Incarnation yet!

We came to a standstill, Cynthia seemingly reading my mind.

"What did you just figure out? You have curious eyes, just like my brother," She muttered with a smile.

"You're not using your Incarnation... are you? You haven't been, since you went into that rock... since you disintegrated those things... you haven't even used it once, have you?" I asked her.

Time was ticking, and I didn't have much time to talk, but with a simple smile, I guessed it perfectly.

"You're very smart. I had no idea my little brother knew people like you; however, I have used it a few times, can you guess what it was?" Cynthia said out loud... but she wasn't looking at me.

It was Alexia she was looking at.

I ran at her again with the bayonet, stabbing up and down, jumping back and forth, slashing back and forth, and kicking up dirt and rocks into her eyes.

What is it that she's hiding from me...? She'll have to use it when I shoot her...

I held the gun up and waited for a moment while she turned back around. I wanted to pull the trigger, but this isn't a guaranteed shot... I have one more idea...

I got up close and personal, putting the gun around my back by flipping the strap around, and went as close as possible to her with the combat knife. She was dodging my strikes, moving as fast as possible, and refusing to even touch me.

She was just dodging at this point, and as the clock was running out of my three minutes, I narrowed my eyes, stomping on the ground right in front of her, and causing her to flinch as I cut upward on her face.

She pushed herself back and held a fist cocked back so far behind her shoulder, I was sure it would shatter my skull.

Went the punch came at me, the strap to the gun flipped around to my front side, and I pulled the trigger, listening to the barrel crack under the power I put behind it.

Cynthia smiled, and I joined her as the shockwave of wind and the bullet interacted.

The bullets are stuffed with Essence Strands... a surefire way of hitting my target is to plant my Essence Strands onto my target and magnetize the two together. As easy as it is to dodge, one place Cynthia would never think I would shoot is at the bottom of her foot.

The bullet hit the shockwave and exploded into Essence Strands, quickly returning the trajectory it used to shoot in one direction, to return directly toward Cynthia.

She ducked under what she thought the bullet was aiming for, and when it connected with her ankle, it hit, and she fell to the ground in defeat.

I won.

"Damn... you are quite impressive... then I'll tell you what Alexia did unless there's something else you want to know?" Cynthia asked me with a devious smile.

"No, tell me what she did," I demanded from her. Cynthia was strangely complacent with giving up and explaining the details.

"Alexia, in distorting her voice, is providing a place for a strange person to reawaken into this world. Through the abilities of the Seven White Stones, the distortion is a gateway into summoning an Entity nobody will be able to stop. It's simply a recipe for destruction... and Alexia was the final gateway needed to open that gateway. I suppose it's time for me to go now," Cynthia sharply said.

I remember what she told me in silence, watching her leave.

"The only reason you're not dead is that you're related to Sky. Next time we fight, I will not be afraid to kill you," I told Cynthia proudly while standing on an inclined slope of the mountain. More rocks crumbled downwards and she looked up at me.

"People are going to die, Carl. I'll subside for now, and I'll leave Quake for good, but our meeting... our fighting... our time together? It's only just beginning. I can see it," Cynthia said, flashing her eyes at me.