Rubeki Rematch

"I'd love to have that honor, but I'm not using my ability until I see the other Four Horsemen. You weren't there in The First Trial, are you ready Charlie?" Boo first responded to Shike, and then looked back at me.

"Uh, how do you kill walking clouds? Just slash through them?" I asked next, brandishing my weapon.

"Perfectly correct. Your sword will slide through them like butter. Shike and I will take the front, Orion and you just defend those who don't have weapons. That sounds manageable, right?" She asked next.

The Rubeki was getting closer now, and Boo finally turned around, held her weapon wide, and dove into a crowd of them.

They were so odd... they were bunched together, forming a giant cloud that didn't damage her. She jumped in and swung the sword widely, clipping in and out of the darkness.

"That girl is crazy... okay, hey, we got two running up! They really do look like animals..." Orion muttered, preparing for the two animals coming at us.

The one running after Orion was a moose, with huge antlers and even bigger hooves. Its body was disproportionate, and as well-composed as it was of black smoke, it still had a definitive body.

I couldn't find the words to explain it... but it was threatening nonetheless.

Running at me was a large animal that resembled a hippo with a horn on its head.

The horn was composed of something much different. Usually, it would be smoke keeping itself together to form the shape, but the horn looked like a solid object, static in the wind.

I took a wide stance and swung forward at the hippo Rubeki, slashing through its head like nothing.

However, once I got about halfway through, the blade of my sword collided with the solidified horn and chipped the blade.

I wasn't sure what to do then, so I idiotically grabbed onto the horn and held the animal back as long as possible.

Orion cut through its head easily and it dissipated into black smoke. He redirected himself forward and looked at four more animals.

"I'll take those two!" He yelled out.

One was flying in now, a Hawk Rubeki with insane amounts of speed. When it got to around the middle of the wall while bolting down to Orion, it curved, heading over to me instead.

I held my sword tightly and swung upwards, cutting the Hawk in half. It dissipated into smoke before it reached me, and evaporated completely before it hit the ground.

I redirected myself toward two more Rubeki in front of me and took the offensive, running at them with my sword close to my chest.

I swung upward and then curved it, going downward through another Rubeki to my right. A Rubeki that resembled a large snake with arms and another with horns just like the moose from earlier were cut down instantly and disappeared into smoke.

"Two down! How many more Shike?!" I shouted at him.

"Too many to count! How are you holding up?" He yelled back at me. He wasn't even breaking a sweat...

"I'm alright. However many more we need to fight, send them this way," I shouted back at him.

Orion threw my axe through another Rubeki, jumped over his head, and cut down two birds with one swipe.

"Looks like you haven't gone frail yet old man," I said to Orion.

"I've never felt more alive," He cockily replied, moving up with me.

At this point, we closed half of the distance between Boo and us, and we were steadily moving upward. We cut down any unique Rubeki that came our way, fighting without any regard for our surroundings or to the things we were killing.

The more I killed, the more confused I became. How did they form themselves? They were just smoke and turned into nothing after they were cut through. They had no substance, besides the horn that I got caught on... dammit, this Tower really is confusing.

"Hey, Shike, what do you know about these Rubeki things? Why are they just smoke?" I asked Shike.

The horde was thinning out finally, and Boo, who had been lost in the cluster, was revealed to have no injuries once so ever and only slightly panting.

"That's enough of that. I still don't see the others... let's continue forward," Boo called out, sheathing her sword on the belt look of her pants.

"I'm confused. If Pestilence was here, then the other ones should be too... right? That's what happened last time," Shike said, brushing off his shoulders.

"You're right. I hope we don't see Mom again. I could go the rest of my life without seeing her... let's continue forward, I guess," Boo said, kicking down a wooden plank resting beside the wooden tower.

"Okay, we can move forward..." I muttered, following in her footsteps.

"What on Earth were those things? They were from your world?" Asoh asked, moving faster to catch up with Boo. It seemed that she had an admiration for Boo after watching her jump into combat.

"Yeah, we trained our whole lives to fight them. I was kind of irritated seeing Charlie and Orion doing that well... but I could've just watched you two fight if I wanted to see people lose," Boo said, pointing to Chi-Chi along with Asoh.

"That seems rude... but you're right," Asoh said.

Boo had really taken definitive leadership of the group, that was for sure. I found it funny that Asoh was put into such a demeaning position, but it would be an understatement to say that she didn't deserve it...

"Up ahead, there are more carvings... and look, my last name again," Boo pointed out, running ahead to one of the side walls of the Labyrinth.

"Hey! Don't run too far ahead without the group! We'll get split up, you know we will!" Shike yelled out.

Boo stopped in her tracks and nodded, slowly walking back to group up with the rest of us.

"Okay... what do we have here... look Boo, it's that girl that was with Providence when she came down... what was her name again?" Shike muttered, putting his hand on the stone carving of a weird-looking girl.