Shattered

"It was unlikely you were going to beat me from the get-go! I hope you all understand what a bad decision you've all made..." Austin said he turned back to look at Carl, and blades shot up out of the ground toward him, shooting up into the sky at where I thought his point of origin was.

"CARL!" I shouted out, blades falling out of my mouth.

"Huh?" Austin muttered, watching the glint appear in the sky... getting bigger, and bigger.

"I see you, COLE!" Carl screamed out, pulling the trigger, and launching a noise so loud it broke the sound barrier, hurting my eardrums, and putting a hole in Austin's chest, right over the White Stone glowing in the middle.

When it left his body, a weird ball of strands hit the ground, turning into a person, and that person ran off behind a building before I could see who it was.

"My... my chest... you... how did you survive that...?" Austin muttered, looking at Carl, while his wound slowly regenerated.

Carl flipped the rifle around his back with the strap keeping it close, and after it flipped back to the front, it turned into a large, two-handed axe.

"The bullets aren't just meant to damage people, I have ones specific for that purpose, and I have ones to help me evade unavoidable attacks. Force Bullets, I call them. I can change my position quickly with a pull of my trigger. That's how I dodged it. Now that you can't regenerate fast with Cole anymore, I assume you to be a much easier opponent," Carl said.

"You figured that out? My shirt was covering him for a reason," Austin said, summoning weird blades out of the palms of his hands. It looked like a new weapon for him.

"If anything, we Arkians have learned a lot about Incarnations, how they work, and how to improve them. You see, Sky and Avie bonded a lot, fought a lot, and their individual powers were weakened when they conflicted. I'm not sure how Cole got into you, but I do know that you weren't bonded enough to exercise both abilities effectively. That's why your blades crumpled after a while," Carl mentioned again, adjusting his posture while talking to Austin.

"When you say 'we Arkians', I assume you didn't mean Illya... otherwise, she would've caught on and hit me there," Austin said, smiling back at her.

"Essence Strands counter Normal Strands. She can't wield Essence Strands because she's an Asterio, but I sure as hell can. It's not that she didn't know, it's that I was supposed to figure it out, because I have eyes that can see all, and I can use Essence Strands. She told you already, she wouldn't be the death of you, but Rin and I sure will," Carl boldly said.

Simply amazing... I felt a sense of motivation under him, and I was even more ready to take on Austin with more power than ever before.

"You're still dead set on defending her... it will be the death of you, you know that?" Austin asked, he gripped his blades tightly, blood pouring onto the floor from the cuts.

"Illya is one of us. You won't forget that, I'll make sure of it," I told him.

My left arm regenerated with the help of White Strands, and I held my katana steady as Austin looked back and forth.

"Amy, let's work together," He said. The fight began, with Austin running at me first.

He went in for a wide stab, cocking his right hand back with his left hand already forward, and lunged toward me.

I countered it, spinning my body to deflect the other hand, and then swiping upwards on the original hand that lunged.

I purposefully tripped over his other arm, grabbing on tightly with my legs, and pulling him down so Carl could land a clean hit.

"Perfect!" Amy shouted out, turning Austin's opposite arm I wasn't holding onto at Carl, and pushing blades out of it.

"I'd agree," Carl said.

He flipped his axe around the strap on his shoulder, and just as it came over his shoulder, the trigger was pulled, and sent him toward the ground, while the weapon went even faster around his body, turning back into an axe.

Carl swung upward with a strange manipulation of his body, and cut Amy's right hand in half going vertically.

I dislocated Austin's opposite shoulder out of the socket, kicked my blade up, and slashed out his right eye. Before he could even get upright on his feet again, Carl shot a bullet into his shoulder that I just dislocated, and the whole thing came off.

"When you said one more what were you talking about?" I asked him, bumping his fist as Austin screamed out in pain.

"How many bullets I needed after this fight? That's why I'm spending them so frequently. I don't even know how many I have now, it might be five left. I also needed one more look at his chest to figure out what was going on. How are you holding up?" He asked me, preparing his axe again.

"I'm fine, but Illya isn't. She used a lot of power for the two of us, we have to repay her... are you going to spend your bullets here because of how powerful they are?" I asked him, and he nodded.

"Kire is handled as far as I know, The Masked Girl left, and Cole is handled by Sky as soon as he catches up to him. With Zeka dead and Fico occupied, all that was left was Austin and Amy. I heard about what he did, so not only is it personal, but I also believe the two to be one of the most powerful enemies of Quake. So, can we finish this now? He's not regenerating that arm anymore, and that's not for any reason," Carl told me.

"Yeah, whatever attacks you make, I'll be right behind you. Let's make quick work of him," I told him.