At Fault

With Dante now in the fight, I felt at peace...

Dante was a relentless attacker, but he wasn't stupid. Part of what made him so strong was his inability to react to the enemy talking. Some may call him stupid, but that's concentration in the heat of battle.

Fico summoned two golden sabers and held them at Dante's one saber. It took a lot to hold him back, and he wasn't even giving up at that point.

Fico's wings and claws were readying for an attack, but luckily, Tavian was able to hold them back.

"We're not done yet, we're just getting started!" Tavian shouted out.

Dante nodded in agreement, and the two bounced off of each other.

Dante cupped his hands together and Tavian was launched into the air.

Of course, that would make him an easy target, but it's what the two were planning for.

Dante plunged his saber into the center of Fico's chest, but some weird armor blocked it completely as she honed in on Tavian to take him out of the battle permanently.

Tavian threw his saber into her shoulder and kicked off Dante's shoulder to dodge Fico's attack. Her guard was let down, and Dante kicked at her knee to lower her.

With my own saber raised, I plunged it down on Fico's head. It was strange, that I couldn't speak without feeling like I couldn't process any thoughts, but I could move just fine.

She grabbed onto the blade with her bare hands and sent bladed feathers into my chest.

Only one punctured through, missing my vital organs, and causing an uneven dispersion of strands to explode out of her head.

The saber hit her on the very top of her head, cutting through her horns, and causing her to sit still for a moment while our sabers all rattled against Fico's.

We were putting up a very good fight... however, this was the leader of Quake. A strand user can heal all damage, but they all have stamina, don't they?

We just need to outmatch her stamina.

Fico pushed us all back, and with a kick into the ground, it started to fly everywhere. Boulders, bigger rocks, and even patches of dirt and grass were raised up, causing an uneven field where we slid toward her, where Fico stood in the middle.

She grabbed onto my collar, just like she did with Ellie, and I stabbed into her elbow so it couldn't bend to throw me.

She clicked her tongue again, jumped over Tavian's saber, and collided with Dante's.

We wouldn't let her catch her breath...

When I dodged backward to refocus on her, my knee buckled, and my thigh tightened its muscles, causing me to fall to the ground.

I wasn't sure why it was happening, but I knew I couldn't just sit down!

I rolled backward, keeping my leg straight, and focusing on Fico again. I couldn't walk... not normally, that meant I couldn't run.

"Noboki! You good? Don't tell me you're out of the fight!" Dante shouted out, swinging back and forth at Fico.

"She'll be dead if you keep using that annoying voice," Fico said. She upturned her body, turning so fast that I could hear her spine crack, and she started to rush over to me.

I held my ground, with my saber up, when I saw Dante flying above her. I was confused at the sight...

"You strand users are so uncreative!" He said.

Dante combined two sabers and pole vaulted over Fico, disconnecting the two sabers to dual-wield in his old, classic style, and blocking Fico from me.

"Dammit!" Fico called out. She backflipped away from Dante and me, but when she landed, Tavian collided with her body, tackling her to the ground.

"A dumb decision!" She screamed out, shoving three of her claws into his stomach.

"I would have to agree," Tavian smiled, wrapping his hands around Fico's body and holding her in place.

"GO AHEAD!" Tavian screamed out.

From a strange place above our location, a loud, crackling noise spanned through the air, and a hole the size of my fist went straight through Fico's jaw, hitting her spinal cord, and almost depleting her entire windpipe from her throat.

"Nice shot, Carl!" Tavian called out, pushing Fico's limp body away from his wound.

"She went down easy. Looks like Quake can't even survive the LN-One Oh One," I heard from Carl. The smoke cleared around him, and he blew the smoke away from the barrel of his gun. I haven't seen one of those in a while...

"Noboki, are you okay?" He shouted out, looking all around. He picked up Alexia in his arms and told me to follow him.

"Hey... we're not done... I've only just found out something very interesting..." Fico muttered while she regenerated herself.

"That's Essence Strands! You can't counter that..." Carl muttered.

"You're under the assumption... that I'm just a normal person... a normal strand user... no, you dumbass," Fico regenerated her entire body. Every part that had just regenerated turned crystal pink and solidified under the same look.

"I am not a Strand User... I am not an Essence Strand User... I am both... so, that's what you're using on my people. Essence Strands?" Fico asked. She pulled out a radio, similar to ours on her hips, and smiled.

"It's Essence Strands. That's what they're using," She said.

"Now I understand... this will be much easier moving forward," I heard one voice.

"Interesting..." I heard another.

Quake was under the impression we were just that powerful... but our secret had leaked out, and now, things were looking gloomy.

"I have to hand it to every single one of you. You had me going for a second... however, it'll end very shortly," Fico told us.

I looked up at Carl. By no means did I blame him for Fico figuring out our tactics, but I knew that he would blame himself. He turned into an annoyed person after that, running away with Alexia in his arms. I didn't know that kid for long, but I knew that he was getting help right now.

Dante, Tavian, and I have to do our best to hold out.

Nobody was at fault.