Twin on Twin

"I'm flattered by your compliment, but frankly, also kind of disgusted," I told him. Austin was starting to walk back and forth now, talking about something odd...

"When we regain Sky as our ally, there won't be much that can stand in our way, you know? You change sides now, and everything will work out in the end. I'll give you one last chance... take my hand, and I won't drown you," Austin told me.

"Sky as your ally? He was never your ally. Or, is this more bullshit from the past?" I wanted to clarify, knowing the past was a jumbled mess of rules and actions that no longer belonged to our leader.

"I guess you would call it more bullshit from the past, but me? I wouldn't... this is very important to us. Sure, we want Sky's body, his power, his Incarnations... but what we really want is his companionship. It all works out in the end, you know? Well, I guess you wouldn't. Now, this is how it's going to go. I'm going to walk away now, and you're going to let me. You'll stay there, like good little Arkians, and wept that you lost against me," Austin said. He held his hands up and turned toward the ally way to four buildings arranged in a large, square shape.

I pulled out the small crossbow on my hip and shot a burst arrow at him, packed with Essence Strands. Upon explosion, they would tie the target to the ground and prevent them from leaving.

When I shot it at Austin, the scarf around his neck slapped it out of the air as he continued forward.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rin yelled out to him, running up with her sister onto the opposite sides of him.

"Don't be silly, aren't you just cannon fodder?" Austin asked the two as they closed in on him.

Rin came in with a horizontal strength, and Ren came in with a vertical strike. Austin took both with the length of his scarf and wrapped it around each weapon while pulling toward himself.

I shot another Essence Burst at Austin before he could do anything with his scarf, and it wrapped around his head. The scarf reacted first in his safety, rather than deflecting attacks, and both Rin and Ren landed a solid hit on his body, slashing at his chest and down toward his arm, hip, and leg.

Ren jumped back while repositioning her katana in her hand, and Austin finally had enough.

The scarf turned into a blade inserted into a gauntlet on his right hand. The retractable blade came out and kept pouring out of the gauntlet toward Ren as she countered it.

Rin jumped onto Austin's shoulders, grabbing onto her Katana with both hands and pulling it toward his neck. Ellios joined the fray, grabbed the scarf yet again, and pulled downward to get him closer to the ground.

As the excitement from battle overcame me, sudden fear struck my heart when I realized the setting of their clash.

Buildings... surfaces Austin could touch...

"MOVE!" I screamed out. Austin turned back toward me with that annoying smile, tapped the side of each building, and blades exploded everywhere.

Like looking at a blender, blood splattered everywhere like juice and the buildings started to collapse.

From the dust of collapsed rubble, Austin walked out with a severed arm in his possession... upon further examination, it turned out to be his...

How could that be?

The dust cleared after a large swipe from a katana I saw glistening in the sunlight.

Austin was even surprised to see Rin standing behind him...

With white strands pouring out of her forearms.

"How... how can you use those?!" He screamed out.

He shot the scarf over to her, as unscathed as ever, and the white strands caught it and pulled him toward Rin.

She cocked her fist back and the white strands were now glowing in the sunlight, connecting with Austin's face and blowing up like a bomb.

I felt the shockwave from the connected punch almost knock me over and Austin was sent into a building right behind us. He crashed through the wall and hit the desk near the middle, smacking up against the back wall and spitting up blood.

Rin stepped out of the buildings that were turned into blades with Ellios being dragged by one hand, and Ren over her shoulder with her other.

"Mandi... I feel full... like heavier... can we really take Austin? He can heal with those strands..." Rin said. Her voice was calm and unfiltered, speaking from a perspective of pure curiosity, instead of hopelessness.

"Of course, we can. Set them aside and we'll handle it from here, we still have Essence Strands meant for people like him," I told her, turning toward Austin again.

He slowly trotted out of the building with a limp in his left leg, and he was still smiling.

"That's just the beginning of what I plan to take from you. People like you... they turn into people like me... and people like me... kill people like you..." Austin muttered.

"If you peacefully surrender, I'm sure we can work something out," I told him. I left my hand out as if I would shake his. I knew that if he got close, it would be kill or be killed.

Austin snapped his fingers and regenerated all of his wounds, healing the limp in his leg, and the damaged scarf around his neck.

"There's no such thing as surrendering when you fight Quake. There's death, and death," He told me.

I held up my right hand, and out from a nearby cliffside, one of Amera's bladed rings flew into my hands, stopping on the interaction with the magnet.

The blade slid as it interacted with the magnet, creating sparks while slowing down. I caught Austin's attention with a weapon that even baffled me when I first went against it.

"Allow me to introduce you to the weapon that will kill you," I told him.