Capítulo 189: Chapter 54: Isolated Fights
Initially, Rydel worried that Jozzor would have gone ahead and left Rydel somewhere deserted, or worse yet, in the middle of the void of space with the closest system light years away and no chance of him being rescued. However, Jozzor didn't do that, and instead opt for the option of leaving Rydel stranded no another moon before returning to face Alrith in a two on one.
'The longer the distance you have to warp through, the longer it takes to channel, right?' Rydel said, 'that's why it's impossible to catch you back on the moon when you dash everywhere, but once you want to jump between moons, I can catch you in your acts. For Rydel, the twist and turns in space felt like a sort of a needle poking gently at the palm of his hand, which represents a bubble of space time that he carves out.
Regardless of what spatial manipulation artifacts are, they are all operating on the fabrics of space time. Rydel can carve out and create bubbles of space within his hand and displace it, while Zel can access a parallel version of it. It appeared that Jozzor can create portals between two points, however, if Rydel cut off the portal half way through, then Jozzor won't be able to use it, as he would have just banged his head against the very fabric of space itself.
'Curses.' Jozzor said, waving his hand and trying to sling shot himself away towards the next few moons, thinking that he should be able to get away if he instead takes smaller jumps, which should take less time to channel. However, the distances between the moons are still magnitudes greater than the jumps he makes in combat, hence Rydel was able to cut those off quite easily too.
For this very purpose, Rydel doesn't even need to fully enclose his hand, as all he needed to do is to hold onto the cone shaped portals Jozzor is able to create and pinch it tightly as he would a garden hose. It feels kinda naughty, to be honest, but you gotta do what you gotta do in a fight.
Jozzor attempted a few more shots before realizing that he is just wasting his energy. Now, he is faced with two options. Either, he will defeat Rydel here and then, or he will have to take Rydel along with him back to the moon, as that would have been the only way that he can return without getting cut off by Rydel.
How troublesome. Jozzor thought, 'are you always this annoying when fighting?'
'No....?' Rydel shook his head right away, then he thought back to the first time he encountered Zel and how obnoxious he was back then, 'well...it's more a spatial manipulation artifacts thing, I guess...'
Shaking his head, Jozzor pulled out yet another blade and charged towards Rydel. He quickly jumped towards him, disappearing and reappearing right in front of him with a swipe at his shoulders. The rocky moved fast and athletically, though Rydel was prepared for the melee attacks. Instead of dodging backwards and giving Jozzor the advantage of continuously using his momentum, Rydel instead marched forward and shoved the head of the mace towards him.
Just as the tiny rocky was about to be sent flying, it disappeared in a puff. Rydel have seen this trick before, and he spun around to prepare for the inevitable backstab. However, nobody was behind him.
Then, the sounds of beeping came from his feet, and a grenade went off right underneath him. Rydel's eyes widened, and as the chemical reaction went off in the body of the grenade, his left glove flashed once, catching the explosion.
All fighters in this stage of the story have become rather introspective, and Jozzor know that Rydel would have reacted preemptively to his attacks of warping from in front to behind him, that's why instead of fully exiting the portals created by Sling Shot, he instead dropped an activated grenade at his feet and slung shot himself back away to a safe distance.
This should have been enough time to allow him to sling shot himself back towards Vindy, and as he prepared to establish the connection between the two points in space, an explosion went off at the side of him, the blast ramming into the side of him and digging deep into his battle suits.
Then, he found himself trapped in a weird transparent bubble of space where all the light from the gas giants, the moons and the sun have been extinguished. All that's left is the light glow from the bands of Sling Shot wrapped around his arms and legs.
Jozzor immediately realized the predicament he is in, and he tried to recall the sensations of all of the connection points in space that he used to create the ends of his Sling Shot, but...but there was nothing.
He felt as if he is a deaf man at a concert, or a blind man at a light show. There should be something out there, and yet he is completely cut off from the outside world. No, he was completely cut off from the universe.
Right now, being trapped in Rydel's artifact, there is nothing Jozzor can do. However, Jozzor also knows that there isn't anything Rydel can do either. He cannot trap him here forever, and just like himself, the human also wanted to return to the main site of the fight.
A light pierced through the pure darkness, and the universe opened up again as the sights of the cratered moon surface returned. Jozzor immediately reestablished his sensations towards his save points and sling shot right out of there, barely avoiding a mace to the torso as his image dissipated.
Rydel was able to react quick enough to the grenade at his feet as he managed to warp the exploding grenade before releasing it towards the side of Jozzor, who appeared to have been distracted by his attempt to get out of here. Then, Rydel caught Jozzor with his Glove of Summoning in the middle of the Rocky's flight.
Of course, he cannot hold him prisoner forever, so eventually he decided to at least knock him up upon exit. Similar to how a dad is teaching the kid how to swing a bat, he released the Rocky in the space right above him before greeting him with a mace to the torso.
However, the slippery Jozzor slung shot himself out of the sticky situation, and the fight returned to being a stalemate once again.
Both sides have utility based spatial manipulation powers, and their major attack power have to come from either the tools they have, or their own combat skills. That means that they don't really have any one-shot potential on the other, which explains the pairings with someone how does have the power in the battle: Vindy with Jozzor and Alrith with Rydel. However, both of them also realized that a carefully timed attack should be enough to knock the other out, or at least injure them enough for them to not be able to continue the fight.
Rydel and Jozzor measured against each other, and prepared for each other's attack. Their blades clashed, rifles fired and grenades threw, but it turned out to be a stalemate time and time again.
With a loud bang, Rydel's mace was cut clean off by a clever strike towards the high handles, but before Jozzor can land his follow up attack with his back up blade, Rydel reached over and summoned the head with his glove before parrying the attack by shoving the ball forward. What remains of the spring mechanisms went off in both Rydel's hands and Jozzor's shoulder, and the two beings are separated in the fight once again.
With heavy breaths, they looked at each other.
'You know what?' Rydel said, 'why don't you just take us both back?'
'Shut up.' Jozzor said, 'I will beat you, and leave you here.'
The two beings clashed again, and this time Jozzor was about to stab clean through Rydel's battle suit towards the side of his torso, but he caught the blade with his glove in the left hand and crushed it. Jozzor dropped the blade immediately and kicked Rydel across the torso, but he grabbed onto the legs of the Rocky and Rydel landed on the ground with Jozzor suspended in the air, supporting by only his leg in Rydel's hand.
Raising the rocky overhead, Rydel slammed him down, but Jozzor slipped out of the hold in the last minute and grabbed onto Rydel's arm before pinning them against his back. Perhaps he would just break his arm and end it all. But before he can do it, Rydel's left glove flashed, and Jozzor found himself trapped in the bubble of space again.
Unlike Jozzor's Sling Shot, Rydel's Glove has a near instantaneous activation time once he decided on the target. Getting back up onto his feet, he tossed Jozzor back onto the ground who landed in a roll before returning to his feet.
By now, Rydel couldn't even count the number of times they have returned to this position now.
'THAT'S ENOUGH!' Jozzor screamed, pulling out the last of the ammo and the folding rifle he hid in his back, putting it together and landing a barrage of fire. Rydel instead reaches his right hand forward to Jozzor's surprise. The Glove of Summoning is on his left, so what is he doing?
With a simple mental command, his right hand splattered and spread out into a thin person tall shield in front of him. His fingers, hand and wrist no longer visible, and all that remained is a literal meat shield. However, this is a bulletproof meat shield, thanks to a combination of the specially designed battle suits from Infinity as well as Anozee's special right arm.
The firing from Jozzor stopped when he realized that the durabilities of either fighter have far exceeded what conventional weapons can put out.
'You thought I can only fight with a mace in my hand?' Rydel taunted, as he deformed the shield and reformed his right hand into the round head of a mace, his wrist joint barely visible to allow for the extra degree of range of motion, 'but you never know that I can fight with a mace as my hand!'
'FUUUUUUCK!' Jozzor cursed, spinning the rifle around to be used as a melee weapon and went in for another barrage of clashes that resulted in nothing at all again.
Finally, as the two individual beings have finally felt the fatigue from the constant fighting and resigned to more conservative combat approaches. It became evident that neither is able to crack through each other's exterior, typical of fights between individual artifact users at this stage of the story, where it appeared that the only way to take someone out would be through the use of artifact itself rather than conventional weapons.
Rydel wondered how Zero's pseudo-artifacts that were all the rage from back then would fair. Would they be activated quick enough to allow for real time use in combat? Or would they be too much of a practical inconvenience to be used in anything but pre-rehearsed situations?
With a moment's relaxation, Rydel lost his grip on the his shape shifting right hand as the tip of the rifle turned the head of the mace back into mush again, but Jozzor also lost his balance rather uncharacteristically. Rydel landed a kick on him, but it barely displaced him.
Reaching out with the Glove, Rydel tried to capture Jozzor, but he slung shot himself away the moment he felt the bending of space around him.
'Nothing is going to happen at this rate...' Rydel said, turning his right hand into a long blade before chopping it down towards Jozzor who rolled out of the way and returned a few shots which Rydel blocked out with a side branch of his right arm.
'I agree.' Jozzor said, 'how about we call a cease fire.....and both head back?'
'Still not forgiving you for what you did at Olympus.' Rydel said, pointing the tip of the blade at Jozzor, and he returned with a cold expression on his face.
'Still not letting you meddle in our business.' Jozzor said, grabbing onto the side of the tip and brought the two back into the portal created by sling shot.
In the meanwhile, the fight between Alrith and Vindy have had a lot more fireworks compared to the fights of the wet noodles occurring between Jozzor and Rydel.
Both individuals are incredibly high in fire power and less in mobility and utility which meant that whoever lands the first critical hit will likely be one shot by the opponent without any chance of counter attacks. With the lightning knife in her hand, Alrith steadied herself and faced off against Vindy, who moved around the surface of the moon with proficiency by crawling close to the ground and maneuvering with the shock waves generated through her touch.
Then, Vindy circled around and slammed her fist deep into the dirt, generating a standing wave that peaked directly underneath Alrith's feet and sending her flying that way. Having seen that attack before, Vindy fell right into Alrith's trap as she reached her hand out and laid down a barrage of lightning all around Vindy who narrowly moves out of the range.
Alrith pursued after her opponent when suddenly she tripped over a bulging chunk of moon surface and nearly fell flat to her face. Her eyes caught the glimpse of Vindy's shadow on the surface, and she rolled slowly out of the way to away getting her head smashed into the ground. Despite her initial attack not working, Vindy still sends out a shock wave with her fingers being the epicenter, sending Alrith flying and rolling away.
Stopping her momentum with her palm, Alrith rolled back onto her feet smoothly and sent out a thick bolt of lightning right in front of her.
'What a one trick...' Vindy thought, creating a wall in front of her that easily negated the majority of the attack. She anticipated a follow up attack, so she waited patiently for Alrith to reappear either by smashing through the wall of material with a follow up attack or moving around it to shot another bolt.
To her surprise, Alrith was nowhere to be found.
Instead, Vindy reached out and shattered the wall in front of her with her natural frequency generation attack, when Alrith charged through the falling rubble and struck her body with a melee attack!
'Not this easy!' Vindy said, parrying the attack with her artifact hand and shattering the surgery knife without a single scratch. Then, she easily parried Alrith's follow up attacks before kicking her right in the forehead with all of her Rocky fury, sending her flying backwards in the low gravity environment.
Looking at her proudly, Vindy prepared for her final attack as she timed her body's velocity. Then, she saw Alrith reaching out a hand before a jolt of electricity struck her in the back! The backside of her battle suit is instantly fried before all of the electrical controls and visual overlays were shorted out. Vindy vomited out whatever's left in her stomach from the unspeakable amount of physiological stimulation from the jolts of electricity.
With her fleeting consciousness, she slammed her fist down and just eyeballed where Alrith is before generating a standing wave directly underneath her.
However, she missed timed the distance, and it only knocked heavily against her feet and sent her spinning away before finally landing back on the ground again.
'Have I done it.....Hong Fu...?' Vindy spoke gently into the fried up mic as she slowly closes her eyes and letting her conscious mind go to sleep, 'was I.....part of the possibilities...'
Then, a bubble of space is twisted and burned before Jozzor and Rydel returned to the battle field and immediately tended to each of the individual combatants.
Jozzor immediately teleported himself to Vindy's side and examined her vitals. She's hurt badly, but nothing is fatal. Knowing that, Jozzor immediately looked up warily at Rydel, preparing for his follow up attacks. Instead, Rydel gestured for him to take care of the Rocky girl.
'...Thank you.' Jozzor said through the general communications channel before popping out of existence alongside Vindy.
'Rydel!!!' Alrith jumped towards Rydel, giving him a huge hug and pressing all of her slender body against his. He gave him a short hug in return before pushing her slightly away to her dismay, though still holding onto her shoulders.
'You have done well, haven't you?' Rydel said, patting her on the head with a big smile on his face, 'I know I can count on you.'
'You can count on me in more ways too!' Alrith said, forcing her body close to Rydel again and snuggling her face against his chest, when Rydel finally gave in, 'you know, since Valerie isn't here and all...'
'Cough Cough...' Sadly, the good times weren't that long for the two of them, as Zel soon appeared way after Jozzor and Vindy's retreat, interrupting Alrith's happy time with the one she liked.
Zel.....the perennial interrupter of all romantic moments...showed his face and updated the two of them on the current status of the fights.
Sadly, Valerie was defeated by the asssassin who proved to be way too powerful, though Zel had already taken her back for treatment. There have been no update regarding the fights occurring between Lady Lily and Sir Deva with the rest of Brakagi's forces though.
So far, both sides have lost a fighter each, but Zel is effectively taken out of combat just because of his inferior mobility when compared to Jozzor. If anyone else is injured, he would have to be the one taking care of them.
'I know Zero is right...but still...' Zel said with gritted teeth, 'I wanted to fight too.'
'We will win.' Rydel said, gripping his shoulders tightly before hugging Alrith tightly too, 'and I will protect you all too.'
Alrith looked up at Rydel, and his worry for Valerie is clear.
'No...' Alrith shook her head, 'we will all work together, to protect each other.'
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